Want to know how to live longer than 10 minutes in DayZ? You've come to the right place. DayZ can be pretty tough for beginners. There's no tutorial, everyone else in-game is likely to blow your head off from a rooftop than give you a hand, and your character is hungry within the first 30 seconds. I'm gonna teach you how to be that guy on top of the roof with the rifle instead of the guy he's aiming at. Let's start with the basics. When you first spawn, find the nearest road sign or landmark. Next, Alt+Tab and open your browser. Find the Chernarus + map (just google it) and figure out where you are. Knowledge is key to long-term survival. Once you've got your location, you need to figure out where you want to go. Simply find the direction you'd need to travel in order to get there relative to your location and get a move on. North in DayZ is pretty simple: If the clouds are moving to your right, you're facing north. Wind can swirl, though, so you'll need to know a couple other ways. At night, since the star map in-game is identical to the stars in real life. Remember, the north star is part of the "Little Dipper". Find that, as well as the big dipper, and you'll be able to find north. Draw an imaginary line from the "spoon" of the Big Dipper to the edge of the Little Dipper's handle, and bam, you've found north. Once you've got that down, you're going to want to gear up. In whatever town you`re in, nearly every building contains loot. Grab some cans of food and get eating. Keep in mind, however, that you`ll need something to open those cans with, be it a screwdriver or a fire axe. Screwdrivers work far better than an axe (obviously) as if you open a can with anything other than a can opener you`ll cause a potentially large portion of the food in said can to spill. In my experience opening a can with a fire axe spills up to 40 percent of it, whereas a screwdriver will spill 25 percent at most. Can openers? None. Soda is also a necessity as your character will be pretty damn thirsty in a short while. Soda spawns in damn near every building. (bro tip: canned tuna doesn't need a can opener!) Fresh fruit is a rarity, if you find it eat it immediately as it will decay in your inventory and as one would expect is very good for your character. Food and drink needs dealt with? Good, now on to clothes. Certain clothes will have more storage space than others. when you spawn you'll only have 4 slots in your inventory. You're going to want to find a backpack of some sort (taloons are the most common, look for them in the red cafe buildings) and a shirt with some storage space. I personally keep my eyes peeled for green check shirts as they've got 2 slots of space and can help you hide in foliage (I'll cover that next) and cargo/hunting pants. Also, clothing has damage levels ranging from Pristine through Ruined. The condition is visible on the clothing itself through tears and discoloration, so keep that in mind. I've also noticed that clothing can help prevent taking too much damage from zombie hits and possibly lower the chance of bleeding. Once you've found a new shirt, take your old one and tear it into rags. This may sound stupid, but rags double as bandages and can be a true lifesaver in the field. A sweater/hoodie is pretty good on storage (4 slots in square formation) but don't provide much resistance to rain or damage. Head protection is also important. Hard hats are slightly better than motorcycle helmets (although they're a bit harder to find) and spawn where one would expect them to. Hard hats are designed to take repeated abuse, whereas motorcycle helmets provide one-shot protection, but are far better than the hard hat for that one shot. Now onto camouflage. Camouflage is a necessity. It can be a lifesaver in the sense that the guy with the fire axe and payday mask just might not see you as he's chasing down that other poor bastard who's wearing pink in the middle of the forest. The colours of Chernarus' environment can vary, with some places being dark green and others being a more autumn-y hue of yellow and orange. My typical early-game camo is a green hoodie, camo boonie hat, summer or spring hunting pants and a green Taloon/mountain backpack. Footwear should be either green workboots or brown/green hiking boots. Remember to keep your clothing not only green or tan but to make sure it has decent enough storage space so you can carry that extra life-saving epi-pen or morphine injector. TTsKO camo is undoubtedly the best camo, but can be substituted by aforementioned camo setup. When moving try to stick to foliage that matches your colour scheme (remember, there aren't any blue bushes in Chernarus!). Now on to movement. This much is pretty obvious: Keep your head down, stick to shadows and bushes, and avoid roads, be they dirt path or major highway. When moving town to town, stay off to the side of the road in the forest. If you come to a clearing, work your way around the edge of the forest until you get back on the side of the road. Only run across open space if it's absolutely necessary. You never know when you're in a sniper's killzone. Typically, there are several different types of survivor in DayZ. I will describe them to you in as much detail as I can. Hero: Heroes are people who put their lives on the line so others don't have to. They often carry extra supplies to give to people in need, such as canned food and bandages. They can be equipped with everything from military grade equipment to a pipe wrench and a hardhat. They'll never attack anyone unless provoked in some way (see you kill another friendly player or you attack them). If they see you they'll likely identify themselves and tell you the name of their group if they're in one and state their intentions (at least in my experience). Bandit: Bandits are the ever-infamous players who either shoot everyone on sight or stick you up for your can of beans. Either way, they're dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. Typical bandit gear consists Payday masks or gas masks, and often high-grade loot with them such as firefighter axes, M4A1s and Mosin Nagants. You'll know them when you see them, you can trust me on that one. If you see someone carrying around rotten fruit, handcuffs or disinfectant spray, keep your distance as chances are they're looking for someone to handcuff and force-feed those items to. They tend to be skilled sharpshooters and melee fighters, though many are neither. Keep your distance. The paranoid: These are the guys that run away from anything that moves. No matter who they see, they're threats to them and unlike a bandit they won't shoot but will turn and run like a jackrabbit on steroids. They're typically harmless unless you corner them, when they can be vicious opponents depending on their gear, though I've had my face pounded into the same consistency as mashed potatoes because someone thought I was trying to kill them. This is my playstyle, since I both hate making enemies and taking risks. Looting tips: For starters, enter every building with caution. Lean into each room before entering and KEEP YOUR EARS OPEN! Chances are if someone else is in that building you'll hear them moving around and going about their activities. Peek through windows before entering a building and always check the doors. If they're closed, that means that the building probably isn't looted, but some players close doors behind them. If the doors to the outside are closed but the inside ones are open, someone's probably inside. If by any chance you encounter someone inside, don't stay and fight. Run outside and wait for them to follow if they will, since room-to-room fights are bigger pains in the ass than Catholic priests. Look for buildings like police stations (marked by the round gazebo looking thing on the roof) and fire stations as they tend to spawn some military level loot. Schools do as well, though only on the top floors. Keep in mind these buildings are hotspots for other players thanks to their high-value loot, so scout them out before entering. Peach-coloured houses (the ones with the medical sign next to the door) almost always spawn first aid kits and weapons such as crowbars or machetes in the storage rooms. Ignore the log cabins and deer stands as they don't spawn anything at the moment. NEVER, under any circumstances, enter any military establishment without scouting it out first. They're some of the most dangerous places to loot thanks to a combination of high zombie density and the fact that players are attracted to them like flies to shit. Once inside check every single tent. Leave no stone unturned, since you never know where that precious M4A1 will be hiding. Weaponry: Here I'll document what is (in my opinion) the best weaponry to use depending on available resources. Axes: Fire axes and splitting axes are the two best weapons, with the fire axe ranking slightly higher than its competitor. Always take these over other melee weapons. Pistols: Magnums are best for new spawns, as they don't require magazines (which you can only find in military establishments) and ammo is fairly common. Speedloaders drastically increase reload time. If you can find, say, an FNX-45 and a couple magazines, obviously you'll want to swap out that big clunky magnum of yours. Keep in mind all magazines can be reloaded. Rifles: For better equipped players, rifles are their lifelines. There are 5 in the game at the moment: the Mosin Nagant, M4A1, SKS, that over-under one I can't remember the name of, and the Sporter 22. The Mosin takes 7.62x51mm rounds, the SKS takes 7.62x53mm, the M4A1 takes 5.56 (in magazines), and the Sporter 22 takes 22 rounds (again in magazine format). Ammo for the Mosin and SKS can spawn in residential areas, however rarely, .22 rounds spawn nearly everywhere (magazines only in military bases), and 5.56 magazines/rounds are only found in military bases. That's all, thanks for taking the time to read this. Good luck!
