In Dead Island: Riptide on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, there are a few ways to duplicate your weapons and items.
This is an easy way not to just get more items and weapons that you like, but also to get easy money since you can sell these duplicated items and weapons for profit.
These may be (and will likely be) patched in the future, so be warned that this may not work forever if you update your game.
If you time it just right, you can unequip a weapon as you’re throwing it to duplicate it.
Equip a weapon and pull it out. Hold the swing button then press the button to throw the weapon (Xbox 360 = hold RT and press LT, PS3 = Hols R2 and press L2, PC I’m not sure).
The key here is to open up your inventory as the weapon is in mid-air, and unequip the weapon. While the weapon is in mid-air it is still considered in your inventory, so you’ll unequip the item to your inventory, and it will land on the ground as well. Pick up the item from the ground, and you have your duplicated weapon.
The world and your character are saved separately, so once you reach a checkpoint if you throw an item on the ground and then die, you will come back with that item or weapon, and it will still be on the ground as well. This makes for really easy duplication.
Once you reach a checkpoint, simply throw down whatever you want to duplicate, die and come back to that spot. You’ll still the items you dropped, and they’ll be on the ground as well.