i always die of starvation. i need help!

[corn_ho_lio 2]

i am a new player (40 hours) and understanding most of the basics of the game. now i am pretty frustrated by the fact that 9 out of 10 times i die of starvation. mostly when i spawn i try to go south aiming for chernogorsk. on my way i loot houses and other buildings and try to gather asmuch as possible foods and drinks and ofcourse trying to find a decent weapon (mostly just the fire axe). as i am stacking up lots of canned food i cant seem to find a can opener. so the canned food are pretty much a waste of slots in my backpack.. or isnt it? is there any other way to open those damn things and get myself a full tummy again? or are there any specific spots where to find a can opener? or lots of fruit? i am loving the game and i understand it is just early access so far, but this just frustrates me as i dont seem to find any threats of other people who have this same issue. can someone please help me?

maybe its time for me to join a clan.. just an idea ;)

[doomdude1 48]

You can open cans with knives, bayonets, screwdrivers and scythes, although you will suffer a loss in the percentage that gets left (between 40-10% or something). Other than that, try and eat sardines (they don't require a tool to open), fresh produce and cereal.

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

Screwdriver, kitchen knife, axe, machete and bayonets will all open cans but at the loss of some food. Good luck and happy hunting.

[Jex 1104]

Don't the pliers also open them?

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

Don't the pliers also open them?

nein, unless it's something new they added. I haven't personally picked up pliers since realease.

[MaxTheSurvivor 152]

Anything sharp like an axe, machete, knife, bayonet or even a screwdriver(if not mistaken) can open canned food. Eat and drink until you feel stuffed but not beyond or you'll throw up, you must be energized and hydrated, then you can just keep 1 or 2 canned food and you always must have 1 or even better 2 canteens or water bottle with you. It's paramount that you try to keep the energized and hydrated in bright green all the time. It will make a difference between an injury that is lethal and an injury that you can recover from.

 

About the can opener, I gave up a while ago, I looted I don't know how many houses, I have pretty much everything I need but a can opener. If you find one, keep it, otherwise keep a pristine machete in your backpack as it can also be used as a backup melee weapon if your primary melee weapon gets ruined.

 

If you're cold, try to find a down jacket unless you find a Gorka Autumn Jacket, down jackets are ugly and don't have much room for items but it will keep you warm (unless ruined) until you find something better like the Gorka Jacket and Pants.

 

Once you fulfilled the basic needs of temperature, hunger and thirst, you will be ready to look for something else. Depending where you spawn, if you look for guns, ammo or other things like that before the 3 basic needs are satisfied, you'll be dead in no time.

 

Good luck.

[Jex 1104]

Anything sharp like an axe, machete, knife, bayonet or even a screwdriver(if not mistaken) can open canned food. Eat and drink until you feel stuffed but not beyond or you'll throw up, you must be energized and hydrated, then you can just keep 1 or 2 canned food and you always must have 1 or even better 2 canteens or water bottle with you. It's paramount that you try to keep the energized and hydrated in bright green all the time. It will make a difference between an injury that is lethal and an injury that you can recover from.

 

About the can opener, I gave up a while ago, I looted I don't know how many houses, I have pretty much everything I need but a can opener. If you find one, keep it, otherwise keep a pristine machete in your backpack as it can also be used as a backup melee weapon if your primary melee weapon gets ruined.

 

If you're cold, try to find a down jacket unless you find a Gorka Autumn Jacket, down jackets are ugly and don't have much room for items but it will keep you warm (unless ruined) until you find something better like the Gorka Jacket and Pants.

 

Once you fulfilled the basic needs of temperature, hunger and thirst, you will be ready to look for something else. Depending where you spawn, if you look for guns, ammo or other things like that before the 3 basic needs are satisfied, you'll be dead in no time.

 

Good luck.

 

I wouldn't bother with a canteen at all. There's so many ponds and water pumps you can find a drink anywhere. Just top up whenever you come across one.

[TwinSpire 49]

I wouldn't bother with a canteen at all. There's so many ponds and water pumps you can find a drink anywhere. Just top up whenever you come across one.

 

+100

 

I used to have a canteen or 2... in case of "emergencies".  Never used them ever, dark green hydrated comes quick but there is water everywhere and as far as I know none of it can make you sick (yet).

 

Other important tip... Your body can store much much more food in your body (aka eaten), then you can every carry on your person.  Light green energized is triggered or shown at some low amount like 25% of the energy you can store.  So keep eating even when light green energized.  Eat til you stuffed always, even then I think you only throw up in 3rd stage of stuffed so first stage is fine to keep eating you are just pushing it a bit.

 

Water or hydrated status is sort of the opposite.  There is very little extra room from when you hit light green hydrated to when you hit the "hydrated ceiling" where water is just wasting stomach space.  I tend to just spam water till stuffed when I hit dark green hydrated.

 

Priorities canned food first... they also give you some water.  So if you are constantly eating canned food you find, generally you won't need to actually drink that often.  Cans of soda are plentiful and they give you energy and water.  I will generally eat all canned food first, then start on the cans of soda til stuffed.  

[Rowdy (DayZ) 28]

I wouldn't bother with a canteen at all. There's so many ponds and water pumps you can find a drink anywhere. Just top up whenever you come across one.

 

That works fine for the moment, but as they add sickness into the game, ground water will not always be safe for drinking without purification tabs, so bottles and canteens will be a must!

[MaxTheSurvivor 152]

Drinking directly from the well takes too much time, making you an easy target. "Drink all" from 2 canteens brings you from neutral thirst to bright green hydrated, that's why I always keep 2x 100% filled canteens with me. When I find a well, I take cover, drink both canteens and then fill them to the well, all this takes less time than drinking directly at the well in order to reach the bright green hydrated status.

[Deathlove 2280]

i am a new player (40 hours) and understanding most of the basics of the game. now i am pretty frustrated by the fact that 9 out of 10 times i die of starvation. mostly when i spawn i try to go south aiming for chernogorsk. on my way i loot houses and other buildings and try to gather asmuch as possible foods and drinks and ofcourse trying to find a decent weapon (mostly just the fire axe). as i am stacking up lots of canned food i cant seem to find a can opener. so the canned food are pretty much a waste of slots in my backpack.. or isnt it? is there any other way to open those damn things and get myself a full tummy again? or are there any specific spots where to find a can opener? or lots of fruit? i am loving the game and i understand it is just early access so far, but this just frustrates me as i dont seem to find any threats of other people who have this same issue. can someone please help me?

maybe its time for me to join a clan.. just an idea ;)

Apple trees can be your best friend until you can find a decent source of food. They are everywhere you go in towns and cities.

[Deathlove 2280]

Drinking directly from the well takes too much time, making you an easy target. "Drink all" from 2 canteens brings you from neutral thirst to bright green hydrated, that's why I always keep 2x 100% filled canteens with me. When I find a well, I take cover, drink both canteens and then fill them to the well, all this takes less time than drinking directly at the well in order to reach the bright green hydrated status.

Until disease gets put into the water system. Than those water purifier tablets are going to become gold.

[corn_ho_lio 2]

thanks for the replies guys, it sounds pretty obvious opening a can with ANY sharp tool or weapon should work fine.. last night i tried opening one with a wrench and a screwdriver.. both didnt work. ill experiment with some tonight when in game again. i almost gave up the hope on the food part. thanks again

[klesh 2423]

Don't neglect a stop at an apple tree to search for apples.  5-6 of them will get you set for a long run. 

When you get to a water fountain, drink 10+ times from it, until you show a bright green hydrated icon.

Any and all fruit that isn't rotten, eat it as soon as you find it.  Save cans until you have something to open them with as noted above.

 

Go from town to town eating and drinking everything you see until you are hydrated, healthy & stuffed.  At that point it is safe for you to venture off the beaten path and journey to your eventual target through the woods or whatever.

[BadAsh (DayZ) 1513]

Screwdrivers does open cans (and relatively effectively even). Most likely you had a ruined screwdriver, or didn't use the correct controls.

[DocWolf 146]

thanks for the replies guys, it sounds pretty obvious opening a can with ANY sharp tool or weapon should work fine.. last night i tried opening one with a wrench and a screwdriver.. both didnt work. ill experiment with some tonight when in game again. i almost gave up the hope on the food part. thanks again

 

Take a can of food over the tool you're using to open it: the square behind the can should turn orange and the game should pop up a message like "open can of X with screwdriver". Click on it and the can is now open...it will not be filled with food, as any tool except the can opener "spills" food when opening cans. The amount of food lost in this way is directly related to the condition of the tool used to open the can: a pristine tool will spill far less food than a worn one. 

 

The tools you can use to open food cans are:

 

* can opener (I've never, ever found one)

* firefighter axe

* splitting axe

* machete

* any kind of knife

* screwdriver

* bayonets

 

All those tools are also weapons and in your travels you'll find some of those items quite easily. A suggestion: if you can, stick to the axes for melee and carry a simple screwdriver as an improvised can opener: in this way you'll avoid ruining quickly your melee weapon using it on enemies and cans alike, and you'll have a very compact tool dedicated to food management. The screwdriver use two squares of space, one on top of the other - it fits basically everywhere. Oh, remember: you can open soda cans and canned tuna without any tool.

 

 

Hope this helps

DocWolf

Edited September 30, 2014 by DocWolf

[escobert 112]

Until disease gets put into the water system. Than those water purifier tablets are going to become gold.

Why would every single source of water need to be purified? I'd have to think it'd be like the mod and you can just boil the water rather than spend all day running around cities looking for tablets.

[UltimateGentleman 355]

Drinking directly from the well takes too much time, making you an easy target. "Drink all" from 2 canteens brings you from neutral thirst to bright green hydrated, that's why I always keep 2x 100% filled canteens with me. When I find a well, I take cover, drink both canteens and then fill them to the well, all this takes less time than drinking directly at the well in order to reach the bright green hydrated status.

 

Yeah but having 2 canteens also fills up 4 slots. I've never found myself needing more than one, even a water bottle is fine there are so many wells around you need only fill up every so often.

 

In my experience hydration lasts a hell of a lot longer than energized, plus you get a lot of water out of cans of food.

 

I'm not sure how ground water is going to have a random chance to make you ill, it should be obvious if the water is stagnant or not I don't think it should be ALL ponds have a chance to make you ill, unless there's a dead person in them that would be a cool feature.

[Deathlove 2280]

Why would every single source of water need to be purified? I'd have to think it'd be like the mod and you can just boil the water rather than spend all day running around cities looking for tablets.

That is true hopefully we will have the option to do all of that but think about it.

 

Not sure but i know allot of ponds might get stagnant or infected with disease especially if a dead animal dies in a waterhole. It can ruin the whole thing. And this is Dayz so it might just be you will get a higher chance of contamination that way.

[tobias winfro 305]

Why would every single source of water need to be purified? I'd have to think it'd be like the mod and you can just boil the water rather than spend all day running around cities looking for tablets.

This could give the cooking pot another another use on a portable stove or fire. Put your water into the pot and boil then pour back into bottle or canteen

[corn_ho_lio 2]

Take a can of food over the tool you're using to open it: the square behind the can should turn orange and the game should pop up a message like "open can of X with screwdriver". Click on it and the can is now open...it will not be filled with food, as any tool except the can opener "spills" food when opening cans. The amount of food lost in this way is directly related to the condition of the tool used to open the can: a pristine tool will spill far less food than a worn one.

The tools you can use to open food cans are:

* can opener (I've never, ever found one)

* firefighter axe

* splitting axe

* machete

* any kind of knife

* screwdriver

* bayonets

All those tools are also weapons and in your travels you'll find some of those items quite easily. A suggestion: if you can, stick to the axes for melee and carry a simple screwdriver as an improvised can opener: in this way you'll avoid ruining quickly your melee weapon using it on enemies and cans alike, and you'll have a very compact tool dedicated to food management. The screwdriver use two squares of space, one on top of the other - it fits basically everywhere. Oh, remember: you can open soda cans and canned tuna without any tool.

Hope this helps

DocWolf

alright, i did the opposite. i took the screwdriver and drove it over a can.. it didnt do nothing. no wonder.. thanks for helping me out here. im pretty sure this will keep me going ;)

[ColonelBurton 145]

I wouldn't bother with a canteen at all. There's so many ponds and water pumps you can find a drink anywhere. Just top up whenever you come across one.

 

When I take up long-term sniping positions at the top of hills, I like to have a full canteen or two on me. Like overlooking Svetlo to save fresh-spawn from zombies.

 

Because at some point, you might take a hit and then it's good to have your "hydrated" buff in the light green. If both buffs are up in the light green, you'll recover from unconscious quicker.

 

Another advantage is that you are not as vulnerable as drinking from a well when filling it up. Afaik you can even cancel filling a canteen (not sure though) but not drinking. So I prefer not to hang around the wells, snipers like to keep their scope trained on them...

[Jex 1104]

alright, i did the opposite. i took the screwdriver and drove it over a can.. it didnt do nothing. no wonder.. thanks for helping me out here. im pretty sure this will keep me going ;)

 

I drag the screwdriver over the can and it opens for me. Canned tuna you can open without the need of a tool btw.

[Karmaterror 982]

alright, i did the opposite. i took the screwdriver and drove it over a can.. it didnt do nothing. no wonder.. thanks for helping me out here. im pretty sure this will keep me going ;)

 

You can drag them either way, as long as the box turns orange when you release the mouse there will be an option to open the can with the whatever you are using :)

[escobert 112]

That is true hopefully we will have the option to do all of that but think about it.

 

Not sure but i know allot of ponds might get stagnant or infected with disease especially if a dead animal dies in a waterhole. It can ruin the whole thing. And this is Dayz so it might just be you will get a higher chance of contamination that way.

In the mod they just put dead bodies around the infected water holes so you know to stay away.