New to ARMA or DayZ? Having trouble getting started? Here are a few helpful tips!

[Ahniolator 18]

Current version of DayZ as of the last time this post was updated:

1.7.2.4

*Disclaimer: This guide assumes you already have some experience with the ARMA engine and understand how to play the game and use it's controls.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction [intro]

2. Status Icons [stcon]

3. Getting Started [gstar]

4. Avoiding the Zombies [avzom]

5. Dealing with Players [dewpl]

6. Nighttime! [night]

6.a Personal Opinions [perop]

6.b Surviving at Night [surni]

7. To be continued...

1. Introduction [intro]

So, you've woken up on the beach of Chernarus with only a Flashlight, Patrol Pack, some Painkillers, and a Bandage to your name. Surviving while almost defenseless in this zombie-strewn, bandit-ridden Russian landscape can be very difficult, especially if you are new to ARMA or even the DayZ. Here I will attempt to give all players, new and old, some tips to perhaps help you survive in this brutal world.

First and foremost, I would like to remind everyone reading this that the mod for ARMA 2 called: DayZ, is in alpha. This is the stage of development where features will be added and removed, and the core gameplay of the mod will be developed. The general goal of this stage in it's development is to flesh out all of the features of the mod, and get the features into a 'playable' state. That being said, there WILL be bugs, and features WILL change, as this is a very volatile state of development for any piece of software, not just for games/mods. Thus, the accuracy of these tips/hints can become deprecated, but I will attempt to keep these tips/hints as accurate as possible.

2. Status Icons [stcon]

These are the icons on the right side of your screen when you are in-game. These will be among the most important things that you will need to pay attention to in order to survive in DayZ. There are currently 6 status icons in the DayZ HUD (Heads-up Display). From top to bottom, these icons represent: Audibility (How loud you are), Visibility (How visible you are), Temperature (Your internal body temperature), Thirst (How dehydrated you are), Blood (How much remaining health you have, also tells you if you are bleeding out), and Starvation (Tells you how hungry you are).

The Visibility and Audibility icons will have 0-5 '('s to their left indicating how loud/visible you are. These icons ONLY apply to zombies, and are used in dictating whether or not a zombie sees/hears you. I'm currently not sure of what the exact values mean, but I'm assuming that each '(' represents 10 meters of visibility/audibility, and when there are 0, your visibility/audibility range to less than 5 meters. Based on this, at the maximum values you can be seen/heard by zombies out to 50 meters, while at the minimum, you will only be seen/heard if you are within 5 meters. These are controlled by your stance, as well as how fast you are moving, and what surface you are on.

The Temperature icon seems to be bugged a little right now, as far as I've seen it only seems to be white. The normal temperature for a player in this game is 42 degrees centigrade, while if you start getting below 35 degrees, you are beginning to freeze and can possibly catch an infection (cold) and will need to be treated by antibiotics. Your temperature will go down: at night, while it is raining, and possibly while you are swimming (untested by me as of yet, too afraid to lose my gear). Your temperature will go up: during the day, while running, while indoors, while inside a vehicle, while near a camp fire, or when a heatpack is used. *UPDATE* The icon changes shade very slightly from a very light-green to a very light-blue/red (can't tell). When it's flashing, your temperature is low and you should be looking for a way to warm yourself up.

The Thirst/Blood/Starvation icons show a range of colo(u)rs ranging from Green to Flashing Red, Good to Bad respectively. When any of these icons gets to the point where they are flashing red, it should be your first priority to take care of it and get it back in the 'green zone'. The blood icon also has another flashing cross/plus-sign that will show up periodically when you take damage. This means you are bleeding out, and need to use a bandage to stop the bleeding. If you fail to stop the bleeding, you will eventually bleed out, and die.

There are also 2 additional icons that do not show up unless you are being affected by them, and they appear below the Visibility icon and above the Temperature icon. These icons represent from top to bottom: Shock (If you have taken a large amount of damage recently. Looks kind of like two white wires with sparks flying from them), and Broken Bones (If you have a broken bone, you are unable to walk/run while standing or crouching. Broken Bones are remedied by using Morphine Auto-Injectors). On its own, Shock doesn't do much and isn't much to worry about while you are playing. However, if you decide to log out/disconnect while you are in shock, you will receive a long (up to 5 minute) timer upon logging back in where you will be unconscious and unable to control your character. This cannot currently be cured.

3. Getting Started [gstar]

Due to a recent patch, you will no longer spawn with any food or drink, as well as not spawning with a gun to protect yourself with either, rendering you virtually defenseless. This means that gathering food and water, as well as finding a means to protect yourself should be your top priority in your first hour or so of play. Please note that it might take longer than an hour to get your starting supplies together if you are starting at night, in which case you should be moving more carefully as your vision will be severely limited, even though you have a flashlight.

Areas that I recommend looting if you spawn on the eastern coast are Kamyshovo and then moving to Solnichniy (or vice-versa), and following that, moving north to Berezino, and then inland. If you spawn on the southern coast, I recommend looting Komarovo and Kamenka, and afterwards moving north to Zelenogorsk. There are plenty of deer stands and other loot spawns on both of these routes to get you decent gear for your trek inland, and eventually to the North-West Airfield, where the coveted Night-Vision Goggles and other useful items and weaponry spawn.

As tempting as it may be, I thoroughly advise against going to either Chernogorsk (Cherno) and Elektrozavodsk (Electro), and even the Balota Airfield. Although supplies will be plentiful in these areas, there is likely to be an overwhelmingly large amount of zombies as well as a plentiful amount of players in these areas that will likely not hesitate to end your short, not-so-sweet life. Should you choose to enter these areas regardless, if you die, do not get upset at rocket or the other players. It was your choice to enter the area knowing how dangerous they can be and you paid the price. You can easily find the same things that you can find at either Cherno or Elektro elsewhere, although it might take you a little longer to gather a similar amount of supplies.

4. Avoiding the Zombies [avzom]

Perhaps one of the most important parts of the game, aside from knowing how and where to get the supplies you need to survive is how to deal with the endless amount of zombies that will always be harassing you if you're anywhere but the middle of the forest. This is especially important in the most recent patches, due to the fact that you no longer spawn with a weapon to defend yourself with.

Most early deaths, in my opinion, are caused by Zombies are due to either ignorance or impatience. These boiling down to basically: a). The player is unfamiliar with how far away Zombies will aggro, and thus they move too quickly, aggro a Zombie or two, sprint to get away because they have no weapon, and then they aggro the whole town, eventually leading to their death, unless they find a way to lose them or get lucky and find a weapon in the first building they duck their head into. B). The player is getting impatient because he/she still hasn't found a weapon or some food, etc. They decide to pick up the pace a little, but move a little too quickly on the wrong surface and aggro a few zombies, resulting in the same situation as scenario a.

Zombies will aggro due to one of two factors: The zombie has either heard you, or seen you. This is where the two status icons representing Audibility and Visibility come into play. Depending on what surface you are moving on, what stance you are in, and how quickly you are moving, you will be more or less visible and audible. This means, if you are sprinting on a hard surface, (a concrete road, for example) in the middle of the day, although zombies may not be able to see you directly, they will be able to hear you out to almost 50 meters. This is especially dangerous if you are in a city because there can easily be 20+ zombies within 50 meters of you at any given time.

Once you find a weapon, it may be tempting to use it to get rid of the zombies in the town, but I would advise against using it in the immediate vicinity of a town or city. Unless you are being chased by a horde of zombies, you should avoid using your weapon because all that will do is attract more to your position, because guns make a lot of noise! Also, don't use them to take out zombies in your path unless the weapon you have found is silenced. Conserving ammo is a key skill in this game, so don't use it unless you really need to, or have it in excess.

The basic rule of avoiding zombies is this: Move slowly. The slower you move, the quieter and less visible you become. Crawling is a great way to avoid the zombies, as it brings your audibility and visibility close to 0. If there are no zombies in the general vicinity, then you can try to crouch-walk through the area, or even crouch-run. I do not recommend standing or sprinting while in towns or cities, because it makes it very easy for zombies to see/hear you. Also try to avoid moving on hard surfaces. Staying in the grass will always make it harder to see/hear you than if you are on another, harder surface like concrete. And always, the best way to learn is to experience. You WILL aggro zombies when out looking for loot. And whenever you aggro a zombie, you'll learn a little bit more exactly how far away a zombie will have to be before they see you and start their feeding frenzy.

5. Dealing with Players [dewpl]

The current and most dangerous threat to your survival at this time is other players. As of now, there is not much motivation to work together with other players in this game, and the mentality is that there is more to gain from killing other players than working together with them. This leaves us with three options when it comes to encountering other players: a) Running away, which is generally the safest option if they are not aware of your presence yet. If they are aware of your presence but do not know where you are, this is still a viable option as well. B) Shooting at them, in hopes of killing them. You should only consider this an option if they are either unaware of your presence, or do not know where you are. c) Observe them. This is only available when you can visually see them, and they don't know you are there. I've had many a friendly encounter from people just by observing them before taking any action and seeing how they behave.

Ultimately, if you decide to trust another player, you are putting your life in their hands and trusting them not to shoot you in the back. It is completely out of your control and up to them once you turn your back. Remember, there ARE friendlies in the world of DayZ, but they will be just as wary as you. If you go sprinting in their direction, they won't take too kindly to it, so think before you act and you just might make some friends!

6. Nighttime! [night]

Whether it's because you had to work late, missed the bus, or just have been playing online all day, you will eventually have to deal with ARMA 2's unearthly dark night cycle. Now before I get into the survival part of this section I would like to address a few points about the night cycle in the ARMA engine.

6.a Personal Opinions [perop]

A lot of people are saying that nighttime in ARMA 2 right now is too dark. While I believe this is true for the ARMA engine, I do not believe this is entirely true for DayZ and it's back-story. If you think about it, how dark it is now is roughly what it should be if it wasn't a clear night with the stars in the sky in a place like Chernarus. Due to the infection that turned almost every living human in the game into a 'zombie', there wouldn't be enough people to properly run and maintain a power source, at least enough to power the entirety of the map that is Chernarus. Because of that, there are almost no artificial sources of light in towns, cities, and other areas that you would expect light to be seen from. Thus, the lack of light pollution from artificial light sources bring the lighting level down to almost pitch-black. When it's clear outside, and the moon is shining bright in the sky I agree with everyone else that it is too dark in this situation in the ARMA engine, but I doubt there is anything that rocket can do about it directly.

6.b Surviving at Night [surni]

Now on to the good part: Surviving at night! I find playing at night more fun due to the nature of the situation. With or without NVG you should feel just as compelled to play at night as you are during the day, otherwise you are trying to play DayZ too fast and need to slow down and enjoy the experience. Since most people don't have NVG this guide will assume that whomever is reading this does not have them because if you do, you can treat it almost the same as you can during the day. Surviving at night is no easy feat and anyone who attempts to do so without NVG should be commended for not hopping to a daylight server.

You will have four basic tools at your disposal to increase visibility at nighttime and make your life easier, but only one will be provided to you when you spawn; the Flashlight. The flashlight is your lifeblood, and it is also your grim reaper. While it provides to you a source of light allowing you to see, it also makes you a shining beacon for other players who have less-than-honorable intentions should they find you. Zombies, however, will not be attracted to your flashlight as far as I can tell, and thus you should not worry about shining your flashlight in their eyes at this time.

The other tools that you have available to you are: Road Flares, Chemlights, and M203 Flares. While flares and chemlights are fairly common, I personally haven't had the chance to test out the different M203 Flares as of yet, and will hold off on them until I have used them in DayZ.

Road flares. Personally, I've got problems with them. But in all honesty, if you have no other choice and cannot see, I can't say why you shouldn't use them. They provide roughly 50 meters of light, which is extremely helpful. However, they make a hissing noise and zombies will shamble in the general direction of any active flare. Also, they are even more of a shining beacon to other players than flashlights, and should be treated as a last resort rather than a primary source of light. They also only last 5 minutes.

Chemlights are fairly useful for those who don't have NVG in my opinion. They light up a 5 meter area around you, don't attract zombies, players can't see them from very far away, and they last for 1 hour. Use them if you don't have NVG and can't see your hand in front of your face. At least you'll be able to see your hand, and maybe your foot as well.

M203 Flares are awesome. Relatively useless, but awesome. You shoot it into the air using a M203 launcher-compatible weapon, and for the next 30ish seconds you can see clear as day for about 500 meters. Also doesn't pinpoint your location to other players if you fire it at an angle. Weapons that have the M203 launcher are relatively rare, and it is an impractical light source to use for any long-term situations.

To be continued... Up next: I'll be adding more as I feel like, but there's not much that I can think of (at least for a newbie guide). Feel free to post suggestions! Hope this helps anyone who has been having trouble, or are just starting off!

Edited August 7, 2012 by Ahniolator

[ZogVarnoka 26]

Good advice and tips. Keep up the work. Really liked that you told new players alternate routes to find gear.

[UndeadPlushDollz 0]

Wow, this is what someone like me needed exactly, locations and guidance!

I hope this guide gets stickied once it is completed or reaches near completion, I was immediately drawn into reading the guide.

[Ahniolator 18]

Updated, added 'Avoiding the Zombies'

[midnight900 1]

Thanks for the guide man. I appreciate it a lot. I am just starting today right now and let me tell you I am having a tough time.

[Ahniolator 18]

Updated again. Finished adding the light sources information under the Surviving during nighttime, as well as a little bit regarding player temperature more will come later as I can think of it.

[br00mmmm 50]

I suggest adding more pictures. The likelyness of a new player (that isn't desperate) spending the required amount of time to read this guidie is small to say the least. Pictures will serve to retain interest and primarily further their understanding of the concepts you're trying to convey; large blocks of text don't suit everyone.

Other than that, this is a thorough guide.

Edited August 7, 2012 by br00mmmm

[Ahniolator 18]

I suggest adding more pictures. The likelyness of a new player (that isn't desperate) spending the required amount of time to read this guidie is small to say the least. Pictures will serve to retain interest and primarily further their understanding of the concepts you're trying to convey; large blocks of text don't suit everyone.

Other than that, this is a thorough guide.

Got it. I'll add some pictures of some of the things that I'm talking about throughout the guide.