Basic survival tips: what to do in the early hours, where to look for the best equipment, what morphine is for, how to avoid death, cure diseases and much more
Despite the overwhelming amount of mixed reviews on the official Steam page, DayZ is one of the most popular survival games, actively supported by both the community and developers. You start your adventure at a random location on the map, usually located near the beach, on the southern edge of the island.
The main character has meager equipment – one signal saber, a bandage and old clothes, so literally from the very start you will have to collect various trash and escape from countless enemies from Chernorus. Mostly people will be your opponents. In the other player’s DayZ world, you should be more afraid of all other nightmares. Since survival often reveals the worst side of humanity, here you will meet many bandits, raiders and ordinary thugs.
If at the beginning of your journey you manage to find some food, water, and even a working firearm, then, consider, the start was set. The game has a lot of different weapons, and the hunting rifle found is only a small chance of survival. She is not suitable for attacks! Powerful assault weapons can be found on the territory of the military base, where many gamers rush.
If you want to survive in the DayZ world, then you shouldn’t rush. Ideally, you need to find yourself a companion or a group of survivors. Below we will look at a few non-obvious points that will help you extend your adventure for days.
The first steps
Having appeared in Chernarus, you can get confused. Before you is a huge open game world, the character is equipped with several standard items, which at this stage are completely useless. Your first task is to find any food. And it doesn’t matter if it is a can of beans or a chicken wandering along the road.
Regardless of the type of food, you will need a sharp object to open a tin can or to cut into pieces the closest “relative of the dinosaurs”. Don’t be surprised if you can’t find an ax or knife nearby, so the best way is to create a homemade knife out of stone. The ideal place to look for small stones is the beach. Examine the ground and you will soon find the desired item. Equip the rock and then choose the DIY knife craft option. As a last resort, the stone can be used as a weapon, but it is best suited for anything related to food.
Avoid roads and open areas
The road is the most dangerous place
Despite the fact that all roads in the game lead to various villages or cities filled with loot, try to avoid movement along them at all costs. The bandits don’t need to hide behind the trunk of a nearby tree and rob or kill an unsuspecting traveler. At best, you will find yourself in a nearby ditch, arms folded behind your head, and humbly waiting until the marauder is done inspecting the property. Thus, road robbery is one of the most common situations in DayZ.
Finally, the game has a vehicle with which you can navigate the roads of Chernarus. The presence of a car usually indicates that the player is well armed or that there is a group of bandits inside who have been surviving for a long time in a dangerous post-apocalyptic world.
Places to find the best loot
The correct approach to survival in DayZ is to spend most of your time searching and collecting loot in the game world. Only a small fraction of the time will be spent fighting someone else. Thus, PvP is not such an important element of the game. However, you need to be prepared for a sudden confrontation, so you will need better equipment.
First, explore the nearest mining locations. First of all, take a look at the house with three doors and a piano on the ground floor. Usually ammunition, weapons, food and clothing are scattered here. All items appear randomly. Then take a look at the police stations, where you can find weapons, ammunition and clothing. Finally, explore the military tents for quality weapon mods, military uniforms, food, backpacks, and random firearms, which are usually more powerful here.
Be prepared for the fact that not every facility is lucky, and you are unlikely to be able to quickly find suitable equipment or anything useful. Inside such buildings, you can ambush other gamers.
Items you need
In any game based on survival, you need to take care of good equipment. As mentioned above, a homemade stone knife will be very useful. However, already in the first minutes of the game we managed to find a kitchen knife on the table in the fourth or fifth building. To save lives, bandages and rags will help, into which you can cut any clothes. Finally, if you are lucky enough to find the famous sawed-off Izh-43, then you will not have a price!
The sawn-off shotgun is ideal for killing zombies, other melee players and getting out of difficult situations if you are ambushed. Most marauders will require you to drop your weapons and equipment immediately, however, they may not check a backpack that just fits the item. You can quickly get him out of there and destroy opponents. First you need to find a shotgun, and then use a hacksaw that allows you to cut the barrel. Finding both items is problematic. We’ll have to rely on luck.
How to start a fire
Hypothermia is one of the deadliest dangers in DayZ, but you can rule out problems by wearing warm clothing. Better yet, you can always start a fire in some secluded place and get completely warm. In one of its many updates, Bohemia has added a fire kit that allows you to cook meat and keep warm.
Bonfire
Unfortunately, starting a fire is not an easy task. First you need one stick, then rags, bandages or paper. Combine both items to create a fire kit. If it rains, you will have to make a fire indoors with a roof. A factory or warehouse is the perfect place.
Morphine
New gamers will easily miss the morphine injections that can be found in a hospital or other medical facility. After spending several long hours exploring Chernarus, sooner or later your character will break his leg. The presence of such an injury means that you cannot walk, run or even squat: the hero is “stuck” in the prone position. You can use a wooden splint to repair a broken limb, but morphine injection is much easier. The item takes up one slot in the inventory, which makes its use even more rational.
Morphine can be used to repair a broken arm, however, we recommend saving it for the leg. With a broken arm, there is no problem escaping from combat. A broken leg is almost a death sentence.
Intelligence Above All
Before getting close to a town, village or other place where you can settle down with prey, break the territory into parts and conduct a little exploration. If you are lucky enough to find binoculars earlier, then this task will be slightly simplified. If there is no such object, then hide in a good bush or behind a tree and wait one or two minutes, observing the territory. Pay attention to windows, other trees, bushes, upper floors of buildings, and remember the location of any walking dead.
Most players will not be able to sit in the same place for a long time, so if there is anyone here, you will definitely notice him. However, there is always the possibility that a lone sniper sat down in the house, who simply enjoys sitting on the fifth point for hours on end. If you have a weapon and you can attack another character, then do it by moving from the rear or flank. Never go head-on!
Headphones help you better understand your surroundings
We’re not opening America by claiming that investing in a high-quality headset (preferably 7. in 1) will make a significant difference. With such presence, the game world of DayZ literally comes to life. You will hear footsteps, shots in the distance, zombies moving along the roads. In addition, if you manage to get close enough, sometimes you can hear two players talking to each other using microphones. In games like this, hearing your opponent before facing them face to face increases your chances of survival.
Killing zombies
Zombie
In early DayZ builds, zombies posed no threat at all. They could be hit on the head, move away, and then go about their business. However, now everything has changed. You can destroy the walking dead, but do not show unnecessary courage and try to fight each of them one on one. Melee damage has been significantly increased and they are more agile. If you have a pistol, then use a silencer to reduce the noise level and shoot the enemy. However, try to do this from a safe distance. If possible, attack from high points or from low cover, including stone walls or palisades.
Search for a pistol
Melee weapons are a great tool for killing zombies. However, against real gamers, you will need a functioning firearm with ammo. Finding one in Chernarus is not an easy task. You can go to the northwest airfield to find an automatic weapon, but in an attempt to do this you will most likely be shot.
The game has several locations where random weapons constantly appear. Armory houses are small wooden huts that usually contain rifles, shotguns, and various pistols. On the other hand, you can find SKS, AK-47 or even the famous MP5-K in police stations. Finally, on the rooftops of factories there are sometimes MP-133, SKS shotguns, a Mosin rifle (9130) and a repeater.
Where to find the M4A1
Currently, the M4A1 remains one of the most coveted items in the game. And getting weapons is not so easy! Previously, several copies were literally scattered throughout the game map in the most ordinary places. It’s different now. There are two known ways to get a weapon: kill the player who owns it, or search the helicopter crash site. Obviously, the latter is better.
Most of the helicopter crash sites are located on the western edge of the island. Unfortunately, these are very dangerous territories: the risk of dying is much higher than the probability of finding useful prey. You will either find something useful like the M4A1 or be left with nothing. And it’s good if you don’t die!
However, if you are determined, then find a truck or other transport, mark the location of each helicopter crashed using an interactive map and visit them.
Interactive map – your everything
Exploring the map of the game world is the most difficult process in DayZ. Chernorus is so massive, teeming with dirt roads and city streets, that navigating this space will be a real challenge for a new player.
Screenshot of an interactive map
If you have a second monitor, the task can be simplified. However, it is always possible to use the AltLT and TabAB keyboard shortcut to switch between Windows windows. Choose one of the resources on the Internet with a good map and use it for navigation. To determine exactly where your character is, you will have to take a good look around, study road signs, streets, a village and compare what is on the interactive map. Unfortunately, the popular DayZ DB resource that previously worked is no longer functional.
How to treat diseases
The developers from Bohemia, somewhere halfway to the full release, decided that the world of DayZ was not complex enough, so they added diseases to the game. The mechanics of the disease are fairly simple, with various stages (itchy wounds, infected wounds, severe infection and recovery). Each stage lasts from 10 to 40 minutes, depending on the severity of the injury and the specific stage the character is in. At each stage, plenty of drink and food is important, since the hero becomes more susceptible to starvation and dehydration than he would in a healthy state.
On the other hand, the process of treating diseases is simple and straightforward. You can use antibiotics or alcohol tinctures to clean your wounds. After using the homemade medicine, you immediately go to the fourth stage – the recovery phase.
(Don’t) make friends
DayZ is focused on survival, so you should always keep an eye on those behind you. The first and only advice that is important to apply at the moment when it comes to new friends – do not perceive them as reliable companions. It is very difficult to form a coalition now, since every second player will strive to kill you as soon as he sees the silhouette of another character on the horizon. There are sly ones who seem to be ready to form alliances, but a few minutes later they shoot you in the back. And this can happen because of a can of already rotten peaches!
Don’t ignore fishing
Since the release of patch 0.57, fishing in DayZ has become useful and important for the life of the character. If you manage to spend some time near a lake, river or ocean, then in the later stages of the game you will forget about hunger. First of all, you will need a fishing rod, a fish trap, and cooking utensils.
Fishing
To create a fishing rod, you need the following materials: a knife, a rope, a long wooden stick, and a fish hook. Combine each of the listed items in your inventory to get a homemade fishing rod. A fish trap can be made from a plastic bottle and a knife. This is the easiest way to fish, passively. To prepare the catch, you need a fireplace and a knife. The latter is used for slicing fish. Also, don’t forget to stock up on a frying pan or casserole.
