General Hints & Tips

[BluWolve 49]

Reposting this here now the forums have sub-categories and this is a more appropriate spot for it. I will no longer be updating the previous thread.

Going to add some general info here, for those that need it. If anyone has any questions about how to do something in game, ask here :)

First up, here is an excellent interactive map.

Generally, to use items in DayZ you will need to put them in your hands. If the item is usable you should notice a prompt to hold or press the RT when an item is in your hands. There is also a lot of context sensitive actions, where you have to have the correct item in your hands to perform a specific action.

Some items will need to be combined with others to use them effectively. You combine items by having one item in your hands, and then pressing B on the relevant item in your inventory.

I will run through some basic tips below to help new players.

How to load a gun
You will need 3 separate items. A gun, a magazine, and ammunition.
Ammunition can rarely be found loose, but mostly you will find a box of rounds.

1. Take ammo box in hands
2. RT to unbox.
3. Take Magazine in hands
4. Hover over rounds in inventory
5. Press B to combine
6. RT to load mag
7. Take Gun in hands
8. Hover over mag in inventory
9. Press B to combine

How to place items in a smaller container ie. First Aid Kit

1. Take container in hands
2. Hover over item you want to place in container in inventory
3. Press B to combine

How to open canned food

1. Take canned food in hands
2. Hover over knife, can opener it other sharp object in inventory
3. B to combine
4. RT to open

How to cut clothing into rags
Not all clothing can be cut up, but a lot can. Rags are useful for bandaging wounds and stopping blood loss.

1. Clothing on ground
2. Take knife or axe or other sharp object in hands
3. Hold RT to tear into rags

How to skin an animal

1. Kill animal
2. Take knife or other sharp object into hands
3. RT to skin animal

There is also a large amount of crafting options to create new items out of basic materials. There are too many to list here, but I suggest looking into these recipes on the DayZ wiki.

Hopefully these tips can help with the basics, feel free to ask about how to do anything else here and I will do my best to answer :) See you in Chernarus!

Edited September 1, 2018 by BluWolve

[BluWolve 49]

I think I have finally figured out the inventory system on DayZ, with help from PureMarksman on the DayZ forums. It is kind of complicated, but only because it isn't properly explained in the game. I am glad what I originally thought was a bug was actually just me not understanding the system though!

A thorough explanation follows;

A backpack has a carry capacity, indicated by a number in the top right of it's line in the inventory screen. For example, an empty "Mountain Backpack" shows 0/100. Every container has a similar capacity indicator, whether it is a backpack, a jacket, a pair of pants or whatever.

Every item has a size, indicated by the number in the top right of the items icon. For example, a "Matchbox" shows 1.

Simple so far. The next part is where it gets confusing.

Each backpack has a predetermined number of slots, and each slot holds one item. For example a "Mountain Backpack" has 8(? I am not exactly sure, can't remember) slots. There is no visual indicator for this currently in the game. Hopefully they add something like a square outline on each available slot to indicate slots in the future. But I digress.

So, a Mountain Backpack could hold 8 separate items, but the total size of all these items can not exceed 100.

Now 8 items seems like a low amount, and that's because it is. You would be hard pressed to reach your capacity with only 8 items, unless they all have a large size, which generally they do not.

How do we carry all the smaller bits and pieces we need for survival then? Im glad you asked Jimmy!

We do this by using smaller containers, such as a "First Aid Kit" or an "Ammo Box" or a "Waterproof Bag". Each one of these smaller containers will take up one slot, so you can have 8 containers in the Mountain Backpack. They have their own number of slots to store items in, and a capacity, so you can only store so many items in each container. But even if each container only has 2 slots, that's twice as many individual items you can carry.

They also have a size like every other item, so you need to make sure the total size of all your containers, plus the total size of the items in them, does not exceed the total capacity of the backpack. This isn't as complicated as it sounds, because of the aforementioned capacity number on your backpack.

So, in short; I need to organise my loot into containers, and stop being such a messy slob if I want to carry as much as possible in DayZ :)

[BluWolve 49]

Another handy tip, Posted by Tylerall5;

Quote

In order to cook your food you must:
A) build a fire. This can be done by chopping a tree and using the sticks with rags to make a fireplace. You then use matches or a fire starter kit to light it. 
B) make a pointy stick by sharpening another stick with a sharp object. 
C) Lastly you must attach the meat to the stick and hold it over the fire. 

 

Edited August 31, 2018 by BluWolve

[BluWolve 49]

Here is a great reference for which guns need which ammo;

[BluWolve 49]

Food & Drink
We all need it to survive, and there are a bunch of ways to obtain it. You can find canned food in various places, but if you are struggling to find enough along the coast you will need to head inland.

We survivors have an iron gut, and can eat things that would make a normal person deathly ill. Sickness and food poisoning isn't really part of the game yet as far as I can tell. It will hopefully be added in the future, but for now staying well fed and hydrated is almost a non issue once you get the hang of finding stuff. I have eaten raw chicken, poisonous mushrooms, drank what was probably sewage water, and am still here to tell the tale.

I could be completely wrong about the sickness stuff, and maybe I am just one sip of sewage water away from death haha. It could be smarter to be safe rather than sorry. But if you are dying of thirst you need to weigh up your options and should probably take the risk.

The forests are a great source of mushrooms, and you can even find apple trees that have apples on the ground around them.

Chicken is another option, and if you hear one clucking see if you can find it for a quick feed. Cattle are much better though, you will get so much steak out of a cow you probably won't even be able to carry it all!

As for water, you want to try and find a well or any water source. You can sip it for quick hydration, but your best bet is to find a water bottle, canteen or cooking pot so you can fill it and take it with you, to drink when you need.

I like to travel fairly light, and try to take as little food with me as possible, just one or two items at a time plus a canteen for water, and then just eat and drink what I find as I go to stay fueled.

[BluWolve 49]

Posted by Baroni88;

Finding loot when spawning
Spawn on coast: Head inland. Buildings tend to be more looted near the coastal areas. Move inland and you should start finding more loot.

Spawn Inland: Head uphill. General Geography suggests this is the best way to move away from coastal areas and find more loot-ful areas.

PS: Found a castle last night (pretty sick) fell off the wall, knocked myself out, broke a leg and died of dehydration. Was pretty depressing looking but a blast to be apart of. 

Posted by jedimfp;

if you found stone,find another and combine. stone+stone-imrpovised knife (2slots)

fire place - sticks + bark/rags/paper

improvised backpack - wooden sticks 3x + impovised courier bag (must be empty)

imrovised supressor - pet bottle + duck tape

blood bag now can use self,no need another player.take blood from your body if you are healty and combine with starter kit.you can refill some blood without another player.saline bag + starter kit also refill some blood

[zPaniK 13]

Weather:

- Rain has a direct impact on you. If you are out in the rain too long you will become cold. Prolonged exposure can kill you.

- You can fill your canteen or PET bottle in the rain (haven’t been able to test on Xbox)

Survival:

- If you are taking consistent bleeding damage (from another player) you will lose a lot of blood and eventually die. You can use a bandage or a rag to stop the bleeding.

- If you are shot in the leg you will become crippled. To fix this you need to use a splint. (Combine branches with either a rag, duct tape, or bandage)

[jakeyo11111 1]

Great info guy's. has helped me alot. 

one question. How do I aim down a scope? 

I've got a A-KM and attached a pso-1 scope but cant aim through it. I can aim down the iron sights stillm 

thanks 

 

[zPaniK 13]

9 hours ago, jakeyo11111 said:

Great info guy's. has helped me alot. 

one question. How do I aim down a scope? 

I've got a A-KM and attached a pso-1 scope but cant aim through it. I can aim down the iron sights stillm 

thanks 

 

Yeah I was having the same problem, I really hope it’s not like that for all the other guns...

[Dajenpool 8]

RB then LB to aim down a scope 

[BluWolve 49]

I have seen a lot of people having issues with their screen borders, so here is a tip for that.

If your screen bounds are incorrect, you may need to change your aspect ratio, or your display mode on your TV.

Try adjusting the aspect ratio to 16:9, or turning your TV display mode to PC mode, if applicable. This can be found in the settings menu of most TVs.

This is not the only game on Xbox that requires this, and if you want it set to always have your screen bounds correct, go into Xbox display settings and check in "Calibrate HDTV". You should be able to see both a green and blue border on the first screen of this calibration walkthrough. If you can't see both boxes you will need to adjust your TV settings.

Edited September 2, 2018 by BluWolve

[BluWolve 49]

Posted by Marco Aurelio123;

Hello everyone.
So, i want to make a tiny guide, showing how the micromanagment function works, i feel here in the ''new player'' section i a good place to post this, since new players to the game will come here first wanting to know how the game works and such.
Let's not waste time and get started.

- Go to your inventory and highlight the iten you want to manage.
- Hold A in the iten.
- Now use LT or RT to manage your inventory colunms (vest, backpack, etc)
- After you choosed the colunm just release A, if it has space left the iten will transfer to that column
- Done

A lot of people think this feature doesn't work, it does, but the developers forgot to add a tutorial of how to use it, and yesterday's (depending on the time you reading) they fixed this feature.

[wh1skey_ 111]

On 8/31/2018 at 10:23 PM, jakeyo11111 said:

one question. How do I aim down a scope? 

I've got a A-KM and attached a pso-1 scope but cant aim through it. I can aim down the iron sights stillm

To use the PSO scope (or other long range optics)

OTS (Over The Shoulder) aim with LT

RB to ADS (iron sights)

LB to switch to Scope view.

Now every time you go into ADS you will look thru the scope.

To return to iron sights, you must HOLD the LB while looking thru the scope.

Its kind of a pain because to go from Irons to scope you Tap, but going from scopes to irons you Hold.

Hopefully in the future they just make it a toggle where tapping will switch between scope and irons back and forth.

[BluWolve 49]

Blood type compatibility chart;

[Tyler Tee H C 102]

Hey it's really great that you are willing to help out bambi's like myself. I had initial teething problems with theVERY quickly diminishing Hunger and thirst. And a lot of my replies were well. Stop sprinting everywhere!!!! I wasn't sprinting, because the jog is quite fast enough as is. But their answers were pretty much. "Well, I'm brilliant at this game and I don't have that trouble blah blah blah".

But those same people have not opened a thread to give or offer help with all their expertise on how well they play!!!

I think they find it more amusing just belittlin new players.

And so thank you very much.

[BluWolve 49]

5 hours ago, Tyler Tee H C said:

Hey it's really great that you are willing to help out bambi's like myself. I had initial teething problems with theVERY quickly diminishing Hunger and thirst. And a lot of my replies were well. Stop sprinting everywhere!!!! I wasn't sprinting, because the jog is quite fast enough as is. But their answers were pretty much. "Well, I'm brilliant at this game and I don't have that trouble blah blah blah".

But those same people have not opened a thread to give or offer help with all their expertise on how well they play!!!

I think they find it more amusing just belittlin new players.

And so thank you very much.

No worries at all, glad to help! I am only fairly new to the game myself, buy when I have those "aha!" moments and learn something new I like to post here so others can benefit from it as well. I think it is good for the community to help each other out as best we can and share our knowledge, so we can all have the best experience in game as possible :)

[DayzDayzFanboy 1280]

Great thread, especially how the inventory works. Best explanation I've come across. I always throw storage containers away, but ill be searching them out now

[Marvel_Ham 61]

Ditch your shoes, at least for right now.

Why? Quiet steps, plus there isn't any damage applied as of right this moment.

[CarnaeaSavage 78]

Dors anyone else come across the problem of when having a gun in your hand the 3rd person aim becomes completely off compared to ads? Like in 3rd person ill shoot the floor or the sky or way off the center. If you switch from even ads to regular aim in 1st person your gun is aiming way off too like its visible the gun is not aiming where it says it is. Also one thing I noticed with the AKM if you swap the range to 200 from 100 youll hit everytime hit a deer from a whole field length first shot I felt like a true hunter :p

 

 

[Nayte 503]

3 hours ago, Chris Burton said:

Dors anyone else come across the problem of when having a gun in your hand the 3rd person aim becomes completely off compared to ads? Like in 3rd person ill shoot the floor or the sky or way off the center. If you switch from even ads to regular aim in 1st person your gun is aiming way off too like its visible the gun is not aiming where it says it is. Also one thing I noticed with the AKM if you swap the range to 200 from 100 youll hit everytime hit a deer from a whole field length first shot I felt like a true hunter :p

 

 

Yes, try aiming all the way up and down in third person. This should fix that issue.