badjedidude

A lot of people ITT are talking about how "easy" it is to bandit, how safe and simple it is. I can assure you, it is anything but easy or simple. Even if someone uses a low-pop server or other means to gear up somehow, they're putting in a fairly large amount of effort to gather items, find those tents, gear up, etc. Even on a "safe" server, do you have any idea how long it takes to farm NWAF or Stary Sobor for decent loot?* Not to mention time spent positioning themselves for sniping or hunting down unwary survivors -- which isn't always easy, depending on what server you're on or what city you're in. While wearing a bandit skin, even the lowliest new spawns will attempt to kill you if they can. And what does a bandit get for his time if he kills some coastal cuties? A bandage and some flares? That's hardly the "easy" road in acquiring gear. The only way to get really good gear is to hunt other bandits or competent survivors... and bandits rarely trust other bandits, so it can be quite a challenge to get that "easy" gear. And if we manage to find some decent gear on a survivor, then it's because that person has done well but has made a fatal, stupid mistake that revealed them to us. I'd say that bandits are just as good at the game and put as much effort into it as someone who takes a more "glorious" route in becoming a hero or teaming up with fellow survivors. I'm not the greatest bandit around, but I can tell you that I definitely put a good amount of effort into it. And it's certainly not easy being the most hunted people in the game. The short answer here is that DayZ fucks us all. It makes no distinctions between hero, bandit, survivor, etc. The minute we spawn on that coast, we have a giant clock ticking over our heads, and every step we take brings us closer to death. That's sort of the point of the game -- after all... it wouldn't be fun if we didn't die, right? Part of the challenge is learning how to become a better survivor and learning how to overcome the obstacles that the end of the world throws at you. Bandits simply choose to embrace that lesson and share it with others. *Just for the record, I'm not a fan of server-hopping just to gear up. I like the threat of death and I like subjecting myself to the terror that every move I make might be watched. And adjusted for windage.

This.

My favorite is definitely the CZ 550. Easy to find, can zero, is deadly accurate, and knocks 'em out with one shot (most of the time). Ammo is plentiful as well. If I can't get to one of those for some reason, I'll use the Lee Enfield. Entry-level weapons is where it's at, guys.

I just started playing DayZ last week. I guess I'm late to the game, but I've been watching videos on youtube for a couple of months, but for various reasons I'd never gotten around to getting ArmA 2 or the mod. My first actual player kill was an accident -- I killed a guy with a crowbar because I freaked out when he popped up in front of me inside of a building. I didn't mean to kill him. I was reacting instinctively, so I don't count that as my first act as a bandit. So I knew what to expect as far as banditry and backstabbing in general. I was no bright-eyed newb expecting sunshine and kisses from other players. Right from the start, my mission was to avoid others at all costs -- simply survive until I could gather up some entry-level gear, then make my way up the left side of the map on a low-pop server and perhaps see if I could get something good from NWAF. Needless to say, things didn't go according to plan. My first life ended quite swiftly. I'm not sure I even made it off the coast before zombies got me. Alright, no biggie. I knew that there'd be a learning curve for this mod. My second life ended the same. By my third life, I was able to make it to Cherno where I picked up some good medical gear from the hospital north of the city. I crossed over to the apartments nearby and began to loot them, when suddenly -- BAM! I was dead. I hadn't heard or seen the shot, but I knew I'd been hit by a sniper. So fast-forward about three lives and I actually began to make my way up the west coast. I was feeling tough, capable, ready for anything. I had my trusty zombie-killin' hatchet in my hands and a half-empty survival ACU to fill with goodies as I worked my way north. Eventually I made it to NWAF and found a DMR + some mags for it. I raided the place, took what I could, and decided to head down toward Stary Sobor on my way back to Cherno. I had already decided to try my hand at some counter-sniping in the hills around Cherno. I wasn't quite ready to be a bandit. No, I wanted to be the blessed hero who bravely took down bandits preying on the weak. I finally made it to Stary Sobor (with a companion) and we entered the grocery store there. We found some decent food/drink items and took them. As we were getting ready to head out of the store, another player came in. He was a survivor, just like us. I could see that he was completely unarmed and wouldn't pose a threat to us, so we passed each other peacefully. He was telling us to just move on and let him find what loot he could. As he passed by me in the store, he said, "Nice DMR." Immediately some insane urge welled up inside of me. I pointed the DMR at him and fired twice -- and he was dead. I took what I could from his body (there wasn't much) and we left the grocery store. As we headed out, I saw him in sidechat, saying: "Oh, the irony." Honestly, it was a rush to kill him. I felt a bit bad about it since he was unarmed, so since then I've mostly been focusing on other players only if they're armed or I think they're dangerous. Killing coastal kiddies isn't really a challenge. Today I sniped down two lightly-armed survivors in Cherno, just for fun. What am I becoming?