CharlehPock1

Does this apply to official servers (Xbox?) - I've been playing since a few weeks before 1.09 update and I have previously found M4s, AK-74s, AKMs, SKS and an SVD in a couple of weeks of gaming. I saw two chopper crashes on 1.08 and the first one I ever found had an SVD on it that my mate Rich took (I was ok with my M4/SKS combo). More recently, in 1.09, I've hit a good 15-20 chopper crash sites (since I now know where they are), and the most I've found is a UMP45. We found a chopper crash last night north of Tisy and it had nowt on it apart from some clothing. My theory was that people had been hoarding a million items, and had switched server - we found a base near NWAF that had about 60-70 crates inside (all empty of course) and a base in Solnichniy that was similar. That week I found M4s/AKs and various other guns. I jumped onto a random empty server last night and spawned on the very most north-east coast, ran across to Kamensk and then did Tisy then a few more military areas. There were ammo and mags everywhere, but nothing more than a couple of AK74Us which all spawned next to each other in Kamensk (three crates all spawned the same gun within a few feet of each other). I actually loot everything (including the green guard towers with the ladders as they also spawn guns sometimes), not just the tents etc. In the few weeks I've been playing 1.09 I've found diddly squat in terms of guns. Just AK74Us. Even server hopping just as an experiment to various empty servers, hitting every single military installation on the map, jumping on every hour just to check etc. I know the guy on the server who has buried several guns on a hill including at least 1 SLR and a VSS so the guns did spawn at some point, but he said he found them all at chopper crashes. I thought chopper crashes were supposed to spawn guns no matter what the server loot looks like? I'm not saying I need more guns - just would be fun to use something other than an AK74U. I've not found a single sniper rifle (not even a CR527) - where am I supposed to be looking? For stashes?

It sounds like you just need a bit more XP with the game. I've been playing about a month or so and I've got the hang of surviving the early game, even with the changes in 1.09 that make it harder to survive. I've not died as a freshie to any exposure/starvation - not unless it was absolutely throwing buckets down from the heavens and I didn't spawn near a town (that's a tricky one). My recent deaths (about 4 in the last few days) have been down to gunfights that I need more experience with (I died in a 2 v 1 twice, first guys had LAR/AK etc so they definitely weren't newbies) Your priorities should be (in this order): 1. Clothing - being cold absolutely ruins your calories, get warm (hat/coat - any clothing that isn't ripped helps but the best things are obviously biker helmets/gloves/coats etc) 2. Tools - you need a killing implement (splitting/fire axe is best) to kill zombies with, and a knife of some sort to skin if you want to eat animals (the best source of early game food). Even with the long-ass persistence timers, these should be abundant in bigger towns like Elektro etc. Worst case, look for a dirt trail and bang 2 stones together to get a flint knife - stones spawn all over the place on the coloured trails which connect all the towns. 3. Water - get to a pump. Do not drink from anything you found - drink only from the water pump or from bottles you've emptied and filled yourself at the pump. Any type of standing water can give you cholera, and that's an absolute death sentence if you aren't a little bit established. Don't get me wrong, you can survive, but you might as well die and start again at this point. Get full - absolutely full of water until your stomach is full. Water goes through you quick so you can still eat a couple of minutes later. 4. A bag - not essential at this point but useful. 5. Zombies/chickens - kill these with your tools, skin/get cans of the zombies and eat everything. Don't save stuff - eat it all now. If your food isn't fully white, you are hungry. Any less than full white you need to find more food at an early stage. 6. Bigger animals - kill big animals, take the fat. You can survive a good few hours, a few in-game days on a piece of fat. Calorific values are pretty decent in this game - trust me, eating one chicken breast in real life when you are almost starving to death is not going to keep you going for long. Most people IRL are well fed/full of nutrients (even though it's mostly big-macs), so will survive several days without food - in DayZ, you are already starving at the start of the game. I take every death as fun - it's the only way you can. Don't get frustrated - just make up a story for that character in your head and how they met their untimely end! I find it more interesting to have random characters instead of a pre-made one because it means all the people I play as are unique 🙂