Basically do the opposite of this guide when you're first starting out. Although I definitely support option number six. I made the same mistake most new players are probably making when I started this game, and that is assuming that the zombies are the real threat. They're not. Other people are. You can get away from zombies easily, but it's a bit harder to get away from an asshole with a sniper rifle when you're crawling around at snail speed. It's a lot more difficult to hit a sprinting target, especially one that ducks in and out of buildings constantly. When you spawn your first goal should be to find the nearest big city and head straight there. Yeah, you may die. But if you die you get to respawn again in a matter of seconds and try again. If you crawl around being all stealthy you may waste an hour of your own time finding a bunch of shitty items that will be of no use to you a few minutes later when you're sniped from half a mile away by a guy who has no intentions of looting your corpse (not that you have anything worth stealing anyway). Remember that, while they are pretty quick outside, zombies are slow as all hell indoors. Just be sure you don't enter a house with only one narrow entrance/exit and you should be able to slow them down and lose them easily. It may take you a bit to learn the best techniques, but just knowing this basic strategy will save you a lot of time. Because zombies move so slowly inside, you can put about ten feet of distance between yourself and them and still have time to pick up what you need from loot areas around the ground. Try to avoid firing your pistol in the big cities if at all possible. Sure, zombies are really easy to gun down indoors, but the noise you make may key a more seasoned player with a better weapon to your location. A lot of players hunt the new kids in the big cities, so be wary of giving away your position just to gun down a few mildly annoying walkers. Once you have all the basics (food, medicine, drinks or a canteen, a weapon or two), it's time to head into the wilderness and northward to the less populated areas. Or you can stick around and deathmatch. It's really up to you at that point.

Best way is to note the second word on the bottom right when you spawn into the game. That is your location. You can then go prone (to avoid getting sniped), alt-tab, and check the map the guy above linked. Find that second word on the map and that should give you an idea of where you are. If you end up getting lost during the course of the game, the best thing to do is to look for some sort of landmark. You can usually pinpoint your location that way. Here's a helpful YouTube vid on that particular topic:

That's what the long-ass animation is for.

Whole-heartedly agree about there being a melee slot. I don't care if it makes sense or not. This is a zombie game, and I feel like I should always have an axe at hand without having to sacrifice heavier firepower for use against the ever-growing population of human assholes that need dealing with. I'm fine with not starting with a weapon, though. It really, really sucks for first-timers, but once you figure out what to do to get geared up it's little more than an annoying hassle. I do, however, think that every player should start with some randomized equipment. I think each player that spawns should receive one random tool (be it matches, map, compass, etc.) in addition to the flashlight. I also feel that, in addition to the current starting equipment (which I believe is a bandage and painkillers), players should begin a new spawn with two or three random pieces of gear. This could be anything from early-game ammo (for say the Makarov or a shotgun) to canteens to food. I do think rarer items like blood packs, morphine, and grenades should be excluded for the obvious reason that a normal person wouldn't be carrying them around when the zombie apocalypse hit. You could probably make the same argument for the ammo, but ammo for the lower-tier weapons is so prevalent that it's not a huge issue, whereas blood packs and morphine are more rare and prized. The reason I feel that players should start with a bit more gear is that unarmed players are already a target for all the bandits out there. Pretty much everyone that plays this game shoots first and asks questions later. Might as well add some purpose to it by giving fresh spawns some decent items to be picked off of their corpses.

This is one thing I hate about internet communities like this one. You get these assholes who think they're hot shit because they play a game that's "harder" than other games. The problem with DayZ and ARMA in general is that a lot of the things that make it so difficult come back to poor design decisions. Inventory management is godawful. How are there no hotkeys? Is this 1990? I can't even remember the last time I played a game that had an inventory that didn't allow you to hotkey important items. I play on a goddamn keyboard. I shouldn't have to take three to four different steps to apply a bandage. I should be able to hit one convenient key. The same goes for grenades which, by the way, are about as obtuse as possible to use effectively in the game. Then there's the fact that there are three buttons for going prone, crouching, and standing. I mentioned this in another topic, but that is just atrocious design. You could do all of that with one button (most games do, by the way). Even two would be a vast improvement. Did no one at any point in the game's design think, "Hey, maybe if you hit the prone button again you could stand up?" And for the record, I'm not a Call of Duty fan. I find the multi-player in those games beyond boring. I've also played pretty much every significant PC shooter from the past two decades. You name it and there's a good chance I've spent at least a chunk of time playing it. Tribes, Quake, Unreal, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Enemy Territory...and those are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head. I've played a couple of them competitively. I'm no stranger to PC shooters. I also like DayZ quite a bit. But that doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of problems that, from a design standpoint, really hurt the game. Obviously a lot of those problems could also be assigned to ARMA, but that's not really an excuse. Mods can exist to fix the flaws with the game they are modifying (see: every Elder Scrolls game). Thus far, DayZ doesn't. It's fun, especially once you get past the awful controls, but if those controls were to be fixed, the game would be much better for it.

About sums it up. The real question is how to address that issue. I'm down with the idea of evolving bandit skins provided that people who abstain from killing others for long periods of time or frequently help other players get skins of their own that mark them as helpful players. And obviously it wouldn't be a situation where you murder one dude and suddenly your skin portrays you as a demon cannibal. There would have to be tiers for both sides. I don't see skins as an actual form of punishment either way. If you're a murderous bandit who snipes unarmed people from the top of a tower, you're probably also going to dress differently from the guy who goes from town to town offering blood transfusions to strangers in need. The game reflecting those kinds of things is only a positive in my mind, and it also helps to address this game's biggest issue (that you highlighted in the quote above). You see a bandit, you know to shoot on sight. You see a good person, maybe you think twice about pulling the trigger. You can still do whatever you want, and you're not directly punished for any actions. Your image just becomes a reflection of your personality over time.

Pretty much sums up my philosophy. The only difference is I don't see a need to shoot at unarmed players if I am armed. If we're near a loot hot spot I might out of sheer self-preservation, but I would never go sniping unarmed players just for the hell of it. No point and a waste of good ammo. For the most part I just try to avoid other players, though. I work with people I already know because I trust them. I avoid strangers because you just can't trust them, especially when you have a decent amount of gear.

See my post above. Lead them on a wild goose chase to buy yourself time to get back to the corpse and loot it.

I agree with everything except the "Don't Sprint" rule. Based on my personal experience, you're a much, much easier target if you're being stealthy. I've been sniped numerous times in cities trying to sneak by all the zombies. I've been sniped zero times sprinting from building to building like a madman grabbing everything I need as quickly as possible. Sneaking to avoid zombies is pointless anyway, as they're very easy to lose once you know what you're doing. Players, on the other hand, will take you out without mercy if they see you being stealthy.

Generally speaking, it's best just to team up with your friends. Random people are pretty much always going to try to murder you. Even if they say they're friendly, they'll probably just kill you the first time you turn your back and loot your corpse.

Mine's gonna be pretty tame compared to a lot of people here because I just started and, as such, I'm still kind of a straight shooter (more by necessity than anything). However, today I committed my first murder. I was moving through Cherno looting various buildings at the start of a life. As usual, I had a zombie hoard chasing me, but no big deal, right? Anyway, I ran into the school (at least I think it's a school) to slow down the zombies and catch a breather. I went in one of the side doors with the long hallway. I rounded the corner near the back door and, standing a few feet away, I ran into another player. Fortunately for me, he had his back to me. He was looking out the window and was well armed (I believe he had a Winchester). With zombies on my tail and a desire to finish looting and head north, I promptly put a shotgun blast into the guy's back. I did feel bad about it, as he never even knew what was coming, but I didn't feel like risking half a pack on the 50/50 chance that he wouldn't shoot me if I spared him. Also, with zombies incoming, holding him up wasn't an option.

I assume you're asking more how to get away from zombies as opposed to killing them. It sucked when I was first starting out because I didn't really realize how to deal with zombies. I thought stealth was the right method, but that just opens you up to getting murdered (easily) by other players, and all bets are off the second one of the zombies glitches and somehow sees you from forty feet away for no apparent reason while you're prone. There are really two solid methods for escaping a zombie, or hoard of zombies, outside: 1. Find a house or any indoor building. Before you do this, make sure the building has at least two different doorways or is very large (such as a church). If you've got a hoard on you and you run into a small building with only once entrance, you've pretty much just screwed yourself. Even if you survive, you'll likely get hurt or lose a lot of blood. Anyway, once you're inside, either wait near the back or dodge around until there are as many zombies as possible inside with you. Once you're satisfied that most of them followed you in, attempt your escape. With any luck, they'll all get stuck in the building (where they move very slow), giving you enough time to hightail it around a corner and go prone in some grass. Just be wary. Sometimes a zombie or two will still magically know where you are despite not seeing you run there, so just be ready to bolt and repeat the process over again. This is also an ideal method to loot various buildings that are near each other in a city. 2. Find a steep hill. Zombies walk incredibly slowly up steep hills. Even slower than you do. You can almost always lose them by the time you make it to the top, and often they'll lose interest after you're far enough out of sight. Either way, go prone shortly after getting to the top of the hill and get as far away as possible. Just wait a bit and you should be good to go back to whatever it is you were doing before the zombies got on you. Both of the above methods are ideal because they deal with zombies without wasting a ton of ammo. Usually you can ditch zombies without too much trouble, leaving you to worry about other humans instead. Just stay near buildings if you're being chased. If you get out into the wilderness with a zombie on your tail it can be really hard to ditch them, and if you're hurt or bleeding you won't have any chance to bandage yourself up.

I think the main issue is that the controls are terrible for anyone who has ever played pretty much any other shooter ever. They are also needlessly complex. Tap a button that is otherwise unused twice to do something? If the button is unused, why not just tap it once? I'm no rocket scientist, but a course I took in college tells me that this game has absolutely atrocious usability engineering. I get that the problem is with the base ARMA II game and not specifically with DayZ, but that's not really an excuse so much as it is an indictment of ARMA's shitty controls. As much fun as I'm having with DayZ, it is a very clunky game. Picking up things is needlessly difficult. Getting through doorways is needlessly difficult (god help you if you're prone regardless of door size). Managing your inventory is needlessly difficult. Doing tons of basic actions quite simply just requires a ton of extra effort when the entire thing could very easily be simplified. Take crouching and going prone. There are three buttons taken up for that alone when the entire damn thing could be done with one button, or two at the very most. And this is coming from someone who has pretty much learned the controls by now. Just because they're more complex than they need to be doesn't mean they are "deep" or "not for noobs." They just kind of suck. Optimizing the controls would go a long, long way toward making this game better for new players.

I think it's more because it's extremely annoying to be killed when you don't have anything worth stealing. At least if I have a gun I have something valuable. Killing just for the hell of it is stupid and, in the context of the game, somewhat unrealistic. Even in all the zombie movies and comics, the bad guys really only kill people when it benefits them, be it looting, cannibalism, or eliminating a legit threat. Killing someone with no guns and limited useful items is just a waste, and not terribly realistic. It's just people with high-powered weapons being dicks. In my mind, you kill people who threaten you, or who have something you need to survive. If I see someone with a gun and I don't know them, I fire at them. Thus far I've only killed one guy (I'm still quite new to the game), but he had a gun and I didn't want to risk seeing if he was friendly. Killing a player who has absolutely no means to fight back is pointless. It requires less skill than killing a zombie, and that's not saying much. I play this game because it's challenging and strategic. Killing unarmed coast-runners is neither. I agree with the OP on the hatchet scenario, though. I've been attacked by a crazy dude with a hatchet. They're obviously deadly, especially in a close-quarters situation like a grocery store. Telling the guy to get to stepping is another method in that scenario, though. You don't necessarily have to kill someone to get rid of them. I know if someone with a rifle told me to get out or get shot I'd run my ass out of there and not look back. Also, I for one would be much more inclined to not seek revenge on someone if they let me live like that.

Posted this in the Horror Stories thread before I saw this thread. It probably applies more here: I was stealthily sneaking through some small, shitty town the game felt the need to spawn me next to. I hadn't found much, but I did notice a shed with an open door, so I made my way toward it. I was prone and crawling, so I figured I was safe. Well, as I neared the shed to my right, past a house and a fence on the street, I saw two zombies sprint by. Naturally, I thought the jig was up but, rather than just get up and sprint away, I rolled over next to the house and waited. I had no weapons (I hadn't made it into the shed to get the hatchet yet, and in retrospect that's where I should have gone), so I just stayed still. Moments later, another survivor went sprinting into the shed, immediately followed by three to four zombies. I backed off a bit further, hoping that he'd be murdered and I'd get to loot his corpse. I had nothing to fight the zombies with, so saving him was never an option. After about thirty second, much to my chagrin, he came bounding out the side door of the shed right at me, hatchet in hand and obvious evil intentions at heart. I couldn't stand up fast enough and took one brutal hatchet blow before I could sprint away, blood pouring out of the wound. Rather than simply try to get away, I ran toward every zombie nearby that I could find. While they were chasing me, they also started chasing him. Sometimes, when you can't win, you can at least make your enemy lose too. With a small zombie entourage in our wake, I made my way out into the wilderness next to the town. My pursuer caught up to me and got in one more good hatchet blow before the zombies took enough out of him to drop him to the ground. He was still alive, screaming with agony as three zombies ate him. With little blood left in me and nothing in my pack worth trying to save, I instead stood over him and said, "I'm laughing while they eat you, cocksucker." He died seconds later. I died too shortly after, but I felt vindicated.

Don't know if this really qualifies as a horror story, but here goes: I was stealthily sneaking through some small, shitty town the game felt the need to spawn me next to. I hadn't found much, but I did notice a shed with an open door, so I made my way toward it. I was prone and crawling, so I figured I was safe. Well, as I neared the shed to my right, past a house and a fence on the street, I saw two zombies sprint by. Naturally, I thought the jig was up but, rather than just get up and sprint away, I rolled over next to the house and waited. I had no weapons (I hadn't made it into the shed to get the hatchet yet, and in retrospect that's where I should have gone), so I just stayed still. Moments later, another survivor went sprinting into the shed, immediately followed by three to four zombies. I backed off a bit further, hoping that he'd be murdered and I'd get to loot his corpse. I had nothing to fight the zombies with, so saving him was never an option. After about thirty second, much to my chagrin, he came bounding out the side door of the shed right at me, hatchet in hand and obvious evil intentions at heart. I couldn't stand up fast enough and took one brutal hatchet blow before I could sprint away, blood pouring out of the wound. Rather than simply try to get away, I ran toward every zombie nearby that I could find. While they were chasing me, they also started chasing him. Sometimes, when you can't win, you can at least make your enemy lose too. With a small zombie entourage in our wake, I made my way out into the wilderness next to the town. My pursuer caught up to me and got in one more good hatchet blow before the zombies took enough out of him to drop him to the ground. He was still alive, screaming with agony as three zombies ate him. With little blood left in me and nothing in my pack worth trying to save, I instead stood over him and said, "I'm laughing while they eat you, cocksucker." He died seconds later. I died too shortly after, but I felt vindicated.

First weapon I found was the hatchet. Of course, being new to the game and not knowing how to equip it, I thought it was completely useless. I then found a crowbar that was apparently glitched and could not be swung (and yes, I tried reloading it and doing the double-ALT to ready it several times...neither worked). Naturally, both of those lives ended in horribly swift deaths. The first gun I found was a Makarov I believe. Being new to actually aiming in DayZ, I quickly fired off all eight of my rounds and killed something like three or four zombies when there were at least six on my tail. Fortunately, the game didn't see fit to punish me with death by zombie in this scenario, as I was almost immediately gunned down by a high-powered sniper rifle upon leaving the building I was in. I'm sure the person holding said sniper rifle profited immensely from the one bandage and empty pistol I was carrying. The first primary gun I found was a double-barreled shotgun. The game, finally seeing fit to reward me for my previous failed attempts at stealth (gunned down by a sniper rifle), smash and grab (gunned down by a dude with a machine gun), and zombie genocide (see above sniper rifle story), allowed me to sneak up on a totally unsuspecting player peeking out the window at a school. Based on my previous experiences with random players (death, death, death, and a bit more death just to mix it up), I immediately took the opportunity to gently place my shotgun on the base of his spine and pull the trigger. Sadly, that death rated as a murder (my first) rather than a killed bandit, but I can only assume he had evil intentions while peering out that window and my killing him saved dozens of lives.