Let's go through a few nice things I always keep on me.
MUST HAVES:

• Emergency Flare - If you're trapped somewhere by either a boss or a mob you think you can't get through, use it. I find myself mainly using these when I'm lazy to walk, but it's always nice to have one in case of emergency.
• Crowbar - Safes, Cabinets, Sword Cases, Lockers sometimes need opening. No need to waste rest/water/food
• Babe Ruth Bat - this is my #1 must have when it comes to survival, nothing saves you more than a 14m projection. If you're saving anything in your storages, stock up on these. If you have extras, you can also use it to break into vending machines when you've got nothing else.
• Emergency Katana - A high or exceptional quality katana that will be whipped out when an emergency comes along, such as an enraged avenger, an evolved special zombie at the wrong time, mowing down a mob quickly, or if you just wanna kill a peruvian slightly quicker. Note that you HAVE TO use the combo(left click attack) in order for it to be useful with boosted crit + attack speed. The main reason this is not a main weapon is due to the fact that crits will drain thirst, and the combo activates a 100% crit chance. #1 thing I recommend spending survivor marks on is the high quality katanas from Sekou Iwame in Lakeview.
• High or Exceptional Quality Machetes - I generally like to carry 2 or more of these when I set out. Machetes are my weapon of choice as they have a balance of damage dealt and speed, along with the combo boosting attack speed, making it easier to mow down tougher zombies. They are also resource friendly compared to other viable weapons, so I recommend maxing out machete crafting. From experience, knives are nice, but aren't as effective as the machete when it comes to the more difficult mobs of zombies. In fact I found myself near death in prison when all of my machetes broke and I was left with only a few normal and good quality weapons.
  

Nice to have:

• Fuel(resource) *not pictured - This is used to craft advanced fire kits(if you need the recipe, hit me up while I'm online). You'll always have a high quality fire ready when needed as long as you recycle for 4 wood on your trips. Sure you sacrifice one resource slot, but in turn you won't have to deal with low quality fires.
• KITT - +50% move speed and +100% shield, nice to either try and pass by a boss or a mob of zombies. I haven't found myself using it much.
• Exceptional Quality Violin/Guitar - Heals on area. Guitar = 190hp over 10s, violin = 1 time heal 153hp. Good to play hero when saving someone, during group battles(usually boss), or when you need an emergency heal while your skills are down.
  Doesn't heal self, so not solo-based item.
• Other Exceptional Weapons - When possible, make use of other exceptional weapons for the easier mobs and content so you do not have to waste/wear down your machete(s). Sawblades with elemental mods are great. I generally have many machetes and just give away other exceptional weapons that I stumble upon.
  
  
  

*No idea why the icons vary in size

• Self Heal - Single +30 heal and +8 hp/s for 5 seconds - Without a doubt a must-have for solo survival. Many times you can be saved just by popping a self heal.
• Smash - Activates an attack with your weapon's attack + 30, Instantly restores 20 stamina - Damage dealer, low cooldown, and the instant stamina regen will be helpful when you need to activate a certain weapon's combo.
• Rallying Call - AOE shield +100 for 10s - If you lag like shit like I do, this is a must have. All of the sudden you're running and your screen decides to freeze while you're running into a mob? Pop a shield. Also helps in near death situations until you can pop a self heal. Shield + self heal will keep you from dying until you can react.

• Execution - Does damage proportional to your foe's missing life, if it kills it, there is no cooldown. - My 4th skill of choice. Decent damage dealer, but high cooldown if you don't kill your target with it. With a high or exceptional quality machete, you can one hit kill many normal zombies using this skill, which gives no cooldown.
• Purity - Crowd Control cleanse(gets rid of slows, stuns, freezes, etc.) then gives a 1s immunity - Useful as an escape skill if you're slowed or stunned in a mob of zombies.

• Chain Attack - +30% Attack Speed, +40% combo damage for 10s - An okay option for a 4th skill, mainly for the attack speed boost, which is not too significant. No direct damage dealt.
• Heavy Hand - +50% physical damage and 20% stun rate for 10s - When it comes down to it, a 50% damage boost isn't much when your weapons are only dealing 100 damage at the viable exceptionals, changing it to 150. 20% stun proc rate is nothing significant for a skill.

• Battle Heal - Heal +9 on attack for 10s - Noticed this was not AOE heal, but anyway my reason for putting it under unnecessary is that a high attack speed is needed and tougher or large mob count is needed for a significant amount of heals.
• Defensive Formation - AOE +30% durability for 10s - Not very useful in most situations.
• Encouragements - AOE +20% damage & attack speed - Support oriented, not needed for solo play.
• Feint - Counterattack for 5s - Short duration, need to take damage to deal damage, overall not very useful.
• First Aid - AOE Heal +30 - Only needed for medic role, 30 is generally low amt to be useful in most situations.
• Focus - Trade -50% movement speed for 60% dodge - Become slow af just to have a chance to dodge? Useless.
• Intimidating Presence - 33% low aura around player consuming 10 stamina/s - Not very useful compared to other actives.
• Provoke/Mass Provoke - Aggro pull - Only useful for tank role, not solo oriented.
• Projection - Throws next foe back - Only targets 1 foe. Useless. Use Babe Ruth Bat instead.
• Stance: Defense - Root yourself and reduce incoming damage by 50% for up to 15s - Mainly used for tank role, non-solo.
• The Punisher - Deals damage proportional to the number of foes with control effects around the caster. - You'll never have a large amount of zombies under CC effects for this to be useful.
• Wall - +20% Resilience for 5s - Useless.
  

• Sneaky - +20% crit rate - Crits are a blessing when it comes to damage. This is one of my current skills of choice.
• Sturdy - +30% Resistance - My must have skill for survivability. Overall resistance assumed. My 2nd current skill of choice.
• Tough - +100% aggro bonus in exchange for +100 health - Mainly for tank roles, but +100 health would be very helpful with increasing survivability as standard health is around mid 200s. That's practically an additional 33% health.

• Fighter - +25% Damage - When it comes down to it, a 25% damage boost isn't much, but is okay to use.(refer to heavy hand comments above)
• Master of Elements - 15% stacking damage bonus for 5s each time elemental damage is inflicted, up to 5 stacks - Vague skill description. At best it gives up to 75% bonus damage - unsure if this is overall or elemental. Either way, you would need elemental damage kits for this to be effective.
• Protector - +100% aggro in exchange for +20% physical resistance. - Nice and tanky. Primarily suited for tank role, but the physical resistance may help with survivability - outranked by Sturdy.
  

• Escape Artist - 20% Dodge - Useless.
• Fast Metabolism - Bonus Received Heal +40% - more received heals. Not very useful compared to other passives.
• Opportunist - +% damage on CC affected foes. - Useless. You'll never have a large amount of CC affected foes and even if you do, the damage boost isn't much.
• Rescuer - Healing skill +30% - Medic role oriented, non-solo.
• Specialist - 20% stamina gain - Boost not significant enough to be viable.
• Surgeon - Healing Skill & Bonus Received Heal +20% - Medic role oriented, non-solo.

Survivor Gear(based on fixed stats and skills)
Bags

• Adventurer's Bag - +15% phys damage and a 5m radius mob pull; fairly useful, but mob pull is primarily a tank-based skill
• Handyman's Bag - +15% phys resistance and fire mine skill; the ideal bag to have, primarily for the fire mine. Primary endgame equip.
• Jerrycan - 20% flammable on attack and 2m radius flammable skill - An okay bag, but you need fire damage kit for it to be effective. Outranked by other bag options.
• Medic's Bag - +30% healing skill and 4m radius heal skill - As it's named, it's primarily for medic use. Not very useful solo.
• Travel Bag - +20% stamina gain and +30% movement speed boost skill - In my opinion, the most useless bags when it comes to combat.

Head/Neck Gear

• Anti-bacterial Mask - +30% toxic resistance. - Only ever take this if you have nothing on. Even exceptional quality ain't worth.
• Black Scarf - +10% physical damage - Fairly useful beginner type gear. No active skills. Outranked by other gear.
• Gas Mask - +50% toxic resistance and toxic mine skill. - The ideal equipment, primarily for the toxic mine. Passives alone outrank Anti-bacterial mask and respirator. Primary endgame gear.
• Respirator - Same as Anti-bacterial Mask.
• Scarf - +15% stamina gain and escape skill(4m projection and electric damage) - Passive is okay, but the main appeal of this gear is the escape skill. Great for beginners, because well, it helps with escaping sticky situations. Usefulness dies off once you become higher leveled.
• War Paintings - +15% crit rate, +30% crit damage in exchange for -15% resistance and a skill that trades -50% resistance for +25% phys damage. - Mixed feelings. The crit rate is nice, but tradeoff is too much. Skill is useless, practically asking to die with a total of -65% resistance. Ken/10 would not recommend.

Gloves
When it comes to gloves, you're primarily looking for the additional stats to make your decision.

• Electric Gloves - +7 electric damage on combo. - Main usefulness would be combined with bathing suit for stuns with wet effect.
• Medic's Gloves - +15% healing skill and AOE heal skill(doesn't heal self) - Mainly for medics. Non-solo so not recommended.
• Tactical Gloves - +20% resilience and counter-attack for -10% phys resistance skill - My general ideal for the passive. As stated in an earlier section, I'm not a fan of counter-attack and along with -10% phys resistance, it makes the skill less appealing.

Belt/Waist
This is another gear that you'll primarily be choosing based on additional stats.

• Flask - Thirst lowers 20% slower. - Generally useful. Appealing to a crit build since critical hits drain thirst.
• Handyman's Belt - +15% durability - My ideal belt so I won't have to keep going back and crafting weapons as often. Some may argue against the usefulness.
• Map - +10% exp and a useless skill - A small exp boost. Also generally useful, especially if you're the grinding type. Skill is 100% useless.

Strategy Table

• Recuperator - Material crates aren't even good enough for this to be significant.
• Economical - No one knows the +durability percentage, so whether or not the +25% damage tradeoff is worth it is questionable.
• Mule - Chance to find better survivor gear for this trade off is reasonable. Hasn't helped me die any faster. Can turn it off if you feel like you've got good enough survivor gear.
• Tireless - Practically asking to die by doubling infected attack speed. Only turn on in a desperate search for good kits or when you don't care about losing your gears.
• Collectioner - Honestly not even sure if this is significantly useful, but I keep it on because it doesn't make dying any easier.
• Independent - Also another plea for death by doubling damage. Again, only turn on when desperate for finding good items.