Is there a reliable way to loot purples and oranges or is random?

[Ben Drinkin]

I can only get blues from QZ, and everything lower in normal loot spawns. Never seen a purple or orange anywhere other than the shops or quest rewards though.

[Blade Master]

There's one guaranteed place to find Orange weapon in The Following, first hunting tower you see.

As well as from vendors, you can easily grab oranges from there.

For guaranteed gold tier weapons, more info here https://www.reddit.com/r/dyinglight/comments/5th9wt/gold_tier_weapon_question/

[Baron01]

I'm new to Dying Light but judging from my experience playing through vanilla story mode on Normal difficulty, you will spend most of your time with blue weapons. I got few purples here and there but more often than not they were lower damage then my best blue ones. I only got orange weapons from quests or story progression, such as machete from guy I killed or Rais' pistol from one side-quest.
Quality of weapons, and how much damage they do, depend on your Survivor rank. Higher difficulty also increase chances to get purple or orange weapons. You can not get yellow weapons on normal difficulty and there is just tiny chance to get them on hard.

[Ben Drinkin]

So the single best way to get orange weapons is from vendors then.

[Ben Drinkin]

Never seen a single gold tier weapon in the game. I'm half convinced they don't exist at this point.

[Blade Master]

Originally posted by Ben Zene:

Never seen a single gold tier weapon in the game. I'm half convinced they don't exist at this point.

Check the Reddit link I've posted above, all info about gold tier weapons are there.

[Gattos]

Nothing is 100% reliable although I'd say there's a fair chance to get purple or better from GRE chests found in Quarantine Zones.

[Just Chill]

I hadn't luck with the GRE chests yet (at least for legendary), but I found already a few legendaries in police vans.

[Ben Drinkin]

Just found an orange weapon in a GRE crate on normal.

[Baron01]

Originally posted by Ben Zene:

Just found an orange weapon in a GRE crate on normal.

I hope it was highest possible level based on your Survivor rank. I found few orange weapons in my playthrough but most of them were lower level, which means their damage was sub-par to blue counterparts. In such case, the only benefit of orange weapon is more repair slots and extra upgrade slot.

[Awesomesauce]

i've found plenty of purple items in random loot, and so far i've found 5 orange gear, although i am playing on hard difficulty.