Thunderpants_AU 80 Posted December 12, 2019 I had just logged on and in the distance I saw smoke, black smoke. It was about 2 minutes away from 8pm. I started making my way over, all excited. The clock struck 8 and the smoke ceased. I crested the hill and where the crash should have been was vacant. Needless to say, I was disappointed, but I was also intrigued; I had never seen black smoke before, only gray. This has led me to theorise that, maybe the smoke color indicates how long you have to loot. I'm sure I've read somewhere that heli crashes spawn and despawn every 30 minutes, so, maybe when the crash first appears, the smoke is white or light gray, after 15 mins dark gray and then as it approaches 30 minutes, gets increasingly darker until it is black and then stops entirely, indicating despawn. I'll try to confirm or bust this theory and if anyone would like to contribute, that'd be cool, too. ✌🏻 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Homeschooliazon 87 Posted December 13, 2019 Maybe it was a smoke grenade Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thunderpants_AU 80 Posted December 13, 2019 2 hours ago, Homeschooliazon said: Maybe it was a smoke grenade Maybe. But what's the odds of a smoke grenade dissapating exactly on the hour? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FearFokkol 131 Posted December 13, 2019 14 hours ago, Thunderpants_AU said: I had just logged on and in the distance I saw smoke, black smoke. It was about 2 minutes away from 8pm. I started making my way over, all excited. The clock struck 8 and the smoke ceased. I crested the hill and where the crash should have been was vacant. Needless to say, I was disappointed, but I was also intrigued; I had never seen black smoke before, only gray. This has led me to theorise that, maybe the smoke color indicates how long you have to loot. I'm sure I've read somewhere that heli crashes spawn and despawn every 30 minutes, so, maybe when the crash first appears, the smoke is white or light gray, after 15 mins dark gray and then as it approaches 30 minutes, gets increasingly darker until it is black and then stops entirely, indicating despawn. I'll try to confirm or bust this theory and if anyone would like to contribute, that'd be cool, too. ✌🏻 I have found a few heli sites on the and the US site displays "black smoke" in the air and can be spotted from quite a distance, but the RU site doesn't have smoke, not sure if this was a bug but all the RU heli sites I came across had no smoke, had to really look for them in the field otherwise players would run right past them. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aux7 233 Posted December 13, 2019 9 minutes ago, FearFokkol said: I have found a few heli sites on the and the US site displays "black smoke" in the air and can be spotted from quite a distance, but the RU site doesn't have smoke, not sure if this was a bug but all the RU heli sites I came across had no smoke, had to really look for them in the field otherwise players would run right past them. thats the way it is. US heli sites smoke, Russian sites do not. the timing of the spawn and despawn is not precisely on the hour or half hour .. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RyanS1994 110 Posted December 14, 2019 heli I looted had grey smoke got less than 100 metres away and it despawned so I don't think black smoke means anything 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neophyter 39 Posted December 16, 2019 On 12/13/2019 at 10:56 AM, aux7 said: thats the way it is. US heli sites smoke, Russian sites do not. the timing of the spawn and despawn is not precisely on the hour or half hour .. Can confirm ur Theorie so far. Came to day across my first Russian heli crash. No smoke. Found over the last 2 weeks 3 us. Helis an all got dark smoke Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SillyJoe 112 Posted December 16, 2019 Yesterday I spotted a Heli crash and it disappeared while I was running at it... I think they are buggy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aux7 233 Posted December 16, 2019 16 minutes ago, SillyJoe said: Yesterday I spotted a Heli crash and it disappeared while I was running at it... I think they are buggy. from my experience on pc, they work fine. they dont stay for ever, maybe five or ten minutes. If you are outside their radius, they can despawn before you reach them. Once inside their radius, they should not despawn. The trick is to keep looking at them it seems . . . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
William Sternritter 441 Posted December 16, 2019 As discussed elsewhere, they are dynamic events and change location regularly. Read more on the DayZ wiki 🙂 https://dayz.gamepedia.com/Helicopter_Crash_Sites Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SillyJoe 112 Posted December 16, 2019 6 hours ago, aux7 said: from my experience on pc, they work fine. they dont stay for ever, maybe five or ten minutes. If you are outside their radius, they can despawn before you reach them. Once inside their radius, they should not despawn. The trick is to keep looking at them it seems . . . Well one Heli Crash disappeared right in front of my eyes when I was like 30-40m away from it but the Items and infected were still there... Happened on Chernarus with 1.05. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FearFokkol 131 Posted December 17, 2019 On 12/14/2019 at 6:24 AM, RyanS1994 said: heli I looted had grey smoke got less than 100 metres away and it despawned so I don't think black smoke means anything Yeah I dont know dude, I came across another heli yesterday and it was half/half "Black, Grey" smoke, but from what I understand is that if the heli spawn is about to despawn and the player gets within the "radius" then it shouldn't despawn, but I would like to know what is the exact spawn and despawn ratios set for these and how often do they spawn in the same location in a DayZ Day/Night cycle Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
