Pointless game nolonger - or how I learned to love Zombies and KOS players

[CardinalSins 11]

First post here was whining about the game being pointless after the patch.  A mod closed the thread commenting to wait until later before playing the game...bah! I say.

I did take a few days off, but I had some free time (I love my job) so what the hell.

 

First thing: new strategy -DayZ is a running simulator.  There is another thread about what to do about zombies that I posted on.  Find it for info on what I'm doing now.  It seems to work.

 

However, zombies are only 1 issue when you spawn in.  The other issue is food and water.  I watched a video on youtube that discussed the health system in DayZ.  Prior to watching it I thought that if you started bleeding in DayZ you were screwed and would have to get a blood bag.  Wrong - eat everything you come across!  eat it immediately!  You can open cans with axes, knives, screw drivers, hacksaws and even can opens (if you can find one!).  Eat until your status think says you are energized and healthy.  Drink until it says you are hydrated and then continue eating until it says you feel full. Once you're full stop eating until that goes away.  Do not allow the energized and healthy status things go away.  If you get hurt, once you have bandaged yourself you will start healing.  Just keep eating.  Don't even bother storing stuff in you backpack or pockets, just eat it as soon as you can.

 

medical stuff: the only thing I keep with me is bandages.  Once I find a first aid kit I'll replace everything in it with bandages or rags.  I know there are other conditions where other things are needed, but my experience so far is grab bandages ahead of everything else.

 

axes rule for whacking out zombies or new spawns who are dumb enough to try and run up and punch you.  The baseball bat is also pretty good but swap it for an axe ASAP.  The rest of the stuff is a waste of time.  Until you have an axe or bat just run away and use the glitches to escape the zombies.

 

I'm not sure how the clothes and hats work for protection but I've noticed that wearing a motorcycle helmet gives you a lot of protection from zombies.  Keep swapping clothes until you are wearing pristine cloths...sort of.  When you spawn in you should immediately tear your t-shirt in to rags so you have some bandages.  So whatever shirt you come across next you're going to put on.  after than you have to make a choice: if this shirt stores more stuff (A hoodie) or is it in better shape.  If I'm wearing a pristine work shirt and come across a damaged hoodie: I'm swapping for the hoodie. 

No idea what the point of the shoes are.  I don't know if the boots provide some protection or if sneakers are stealthier.

I've already mentioned that I grab the motorcycle helmet as soon as I find it.  I don't know if the military helmets are better or if a cowboy hat would be just as good. 

 

As for guns: I grab all ammo until I have a gun and then I start only grabbing ammo for the gun I have and dump the useless stuff.  A few times I've gotten lucky where I had both pistols and an M4.  Only problem with guns is that they are loud.  If you shoot 1 zombie with your ghetto blaster you're going to have 10 more drop by for tea and brains.  Run away, use your axe, avoid shooting at all cost.  I know there are silencers to be found, but when I had one it didn't seem to make a big difference. YMMV

 

Other players: I've only encountered 1 coop players in the game so far.  Everybody else has been some type of KOS player (kill on sight).  This use to bother me, but now it's just part of the game.  I avoid other players as much as possible.  Earlier on I'd exit if I saw another player.  Now I prefer seeing if I can hang out and avoid being detected.  They're just like the zombies only a little smarter.

 

So in brief the game has gone from pissing me off to no end to actually being a ton of fun.  I think if it was easier I'd lose interest pretty quickly.  I like COD & BF but once I've done the campaign and played a few death matches online I'm good and the disk ends up in the box with all the others.  If they can maintain or improve what they have now I can see screwing around with this for a long time.

[CardinalSins 11]

another sorta final note before I'm done:

cargo pants rock!  Need more space in your mountain backpack? put a pair of cargo pants in it and then drop stuff on the cargo pants.  The pants take up 4 slots but hold 6.

 

I do cheat a little by using an online map so I have an idea about where I'm going.  As you play you eventually notice where good stuff spawns and you start ignoring places that never have it.  You should occasionally check those places too.  In one case I found a hoody and 3 food items in a house that usually (and since then) has nothing in it.

 

Once you have your stuff sorted out explore the map.  North of the NE air strip is a field that has the outline of a man drawn on it.  East of the NW airfield is a ruined castle.  In one spot I found a really cool house that I've never seen before anywhere else (it's like the tavern but different).  The map I use just shows a gray square with nothing there but I still found something (it had some food in it).

 

I kick off a project this week so I won't get to play again until Friday.  Once you get over the killer Zombies and figure things out this game is really addictive.  Have fun.

[barnabus 1708]

If you go a little further north-north west of the cool house (I am guessing it's the one north of NEAF) you'll find a town that has two more of those. It's on the map but has no name. The town is also deserted, no Zed's, no nothing. It has several of the good looting houses for food, a grocery store, several of the larger buildings and a fire station.

[barnabus 1708]

Second note, I saw the health vid on YouTube too. However, I was on sever where I nearly starved to death so now I always keep one can of peaches in my pack for emergencies. Peaches are good for hydration and food. I always stop to eat once things have settled down after bleeding too.

Next, if you lead zombies right on the coast you can get them to fall off docks and piers. But don't hang around as they may zoom to find you occasionally.

Small cargo cases have six slots too and take four in the pack. Ammo cans also take four slots but have 8 slots, but you can only store loose ammo in them, no magazines. Advantage of the cases is that you can view contents in inventory, which you can't currently do with clothes unless you drop them out of inventory.

[barnabus 1708]

Oh yeah, and those cool buildings you spoke of usually have Cherno maps in either the public room or the shed on the side.

[Tathagata 0]

axes rule for whacking out zombies or new spawns who are dumb enough to try and run up and punch you.  The baseball bat is also pretty good but swap it for an axe ASAP.  The rest of the stuff is a waste of time.  Until you have an axe or bat just run away and use the glitches to escape the zombies.

 

Good info in here and thanks.

I have to disagree with this though. I regularly run with a hoe or pitchfork. The reason being is that they do not look at threatening as axes to other players, but can still take down zombies very quickly (2 hits in most cases). Shovels aren't bad either.

 

Under the shovel are baseball bat, crowbar, wrench, etc. I find these things pretty much useless and will prefer to melee zombies rather than use these (its easier to knock a zombie out and keep him knocked out with fists than it is with baseball bat or these other melee items).

[Irish. 4886]

The hoe and the pitchfork are actually excellent melee weapons as well, fyi ;) Nothing beats the fireaxe though. Not even the wood splitting axe can compare.

 

Also, great post. Welcome to Dayz! You're now playing it right :)

Edited April 1, 2014 by lrish

[ld-airgrafix 403]

Agree with everything except having guns. As soon as u get one, you are a target for heroes and bandits. Couple of cans of food bottle of water, few bandages and an axe is all you need.

You wont feel so bad when u get killed, but you will have tons of fun interacting with players

[GpB311 236]

Agree with everything except having guns. As soon as u get one, you are a target for heroes and bandits. Couple of cans of food bottle of water, few bandages and an axe is all you need.

You wont feel so bad when u get killed, but you will have tons of fun interacting with players

Stick with a handgun and people won't know you have a gun unless you bring it out.  

[barnabus 1708]

Agree with everything except having guns. As soon as u get one, you are a target for heroes and bandits. Couple of cans of food bottle of water, few bandages and an axe is all you need.

You wont feel so bad when u get killed, but you will have tons of fun interacting with players

 

Sometimes just brandishing an axe is all you need to do.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Barnabus