[HOW TO] Survive Starting Without A Gun

[dzuari 25]

K, I've only been playing this game for 3 days so far but since then I've only died 5-8 times and right now i have the second best backpack, all the basic equipment to survive without going into town, an AKM, I've raided a military base and i'm just outside of the Internationale Airport so i figured I would share my tips on how to stay alive. Ill also share my routes into Electro and Berenzino.

Here is a brief overview of what ill talk about in this article.

1 - BUTTONS

2 - HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE BEGINNING

3 - PRIORITIES

4 - MOVING THROUGH THE COUNTRY

YOUR FIRST PRIORITIES

Before we get started here is a brief overview of what you need to do first. here is a list the things you need to get, starting in a chronological order from 1. Ill make the list then explain each one in more detail.

1. Empty Cans & bottles

2. Flares

3. Smoke Grenades

4. Closest Deer Stand &/or Barn (weapons Gear)

5. Fire Station (weapons, ammo, gear)

6. Hospital (Morphine, Epi pen, Blood bags)

7. Grocery Store (food, drinks, gear)

8. Other Buildings (gear)

9. Stary Sobor (Military Weapons & Gear)

Here is a list of what you need to survive on your own without going into a city.

1. Morphine ( i'd say that 33% of your deaths will be from not having this)

2. Matches (used to start fires and cook food, life saver if playing solo)

3. Hatchet (used to cut wood for a fire)

4. Knife (used to gut animals for raw meat)

5. canteen (Refillable source of water)

Other than to obtain those items or to be a bandit, their should be no reason to entire a city again.

Before i explain all these in more detail, i'd like to make a segment for completely new players on some buttons you should learn first. If you know them all just skip to how to survive section.

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*******BUTTONS*********

Now before getting into some actual tactics, there are a few buttons you should get use to using.

"Num Pad Enter" - this is your toggle from First to Third person View, I prefer Third a lot but inside buildings i like first.

"Left Alt" - This is your free look without moving your actual body, Use it A LOT. In third person this will allow you to check around walls and buildings to see whats around to corner and out in the country/woods it will be the determining factor between life and death. Hold down to look around and it will re-position to normal when you let off or double tap it to toggle it.

"." & "," - these two will cycle your VOIP channel, make sure each time you join into a game you are in the Direct Channel, not Vehicle or group.

"Cap Locks" - This is your VOIP talk button.

"Left Shift" - Your Toggle between run and walk, a life or death button.

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*******HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE BEGINNING********

YOUR FIRST STEPS

HAVE A MIC - its a lot fast than typing and to my experience will save your ass a lot, ill get into more detail as to why later.

USE THIS MAP - its awesome. Click on any location and it will give you a picture of what the building looks like and its loot chance http://dayzdb.com/map#5.109.111

KNOW WHERE YOU ARE - The VERY FIRST thing i do when i spawn is start looking for land markers and buildings to locate where I'm At in the game. Use the map i linked earlier http://dayzdb.com/map#5.109.111 and look for any Towns, buildings, gas stations, bridges that are around you. Look for any Mountains or hills around you and use the topography in the map to determine their height and shape. Look at the sun, if you know the time of day on the server you can figure out which way is north, the sun always rises on the east and sets in the west :). Pay attention to the trees, the map has a basic outline of fields and trees. Also look at the road and railroad tracks, some parts of the map will have the railroad closer to the coast than the road(this is usually the first thing i look at because it narrows down the possibilities.)

CROUCH RUN - the second thing i do is crouch, this lowers your profile so zombies wont see you as easily and you are also quieter than sprinting around. Zombies will agro at about 15-20m.

PRONE RUN, DON'T CROUCH WALK - while in a city or town, crouch walk may give you better mobility with your weapon and view, but 9/10 you will argo a Zed and have to sprint your ass off, so always Prone Run, its quieter and faster than crouch walk.

TREES, BUSHES & BUILDINGS - Zombies work of line of sight, if you run through bushes, trees and around building you can usually break their LoS and they will deagro.

Tip: Never sprint through a city or town, unless you are already being chased.

WHEN YOU RUN INTO A PLAYER - immediately Hit "Caps Lock" and say friendly, preferable in a paniced voice and repeated 3-10 times :). this give the other guy the sense that your just as scared of him as he is of you, a voice is a much better first impression than some text. Also pay attention to what he's doing and how he sounds. If hes running around looking for stuff he's probably just scavenging, if he is held up in a building overlooking an area, he's probably waiting to kill someone. Now if you both startle each other and he doesn't immediately shoot you, he probably doesn't want to. Pay attention to how he sounds, if he is afraid he will immediately say friendly or don't shoot and start backing away, if he doesn't sound afraid of you, he probably isn't. If he takes more than 5 seconds to respond and/or doesn't have a clear shot, it not because he's AFK, its because he is concentrating on shooting you the first chance he gets.

He may or may not shoot you, but whats it matter if you just spawned? Now most every thread on here will say trust no one, but i think they took the guns out from spawning to push people to work together more because I've ran across 5-6 players and started playing with them and only 1 guy has shot me so far, it was on site and he was with a buddy in elctro.

Now if they don't shoot you then you should determine if this is a guy you should follow or go on your own. I usually start some small talk to ease the situation, How long you been playing? tell them you just started, ask for some tips, care if i come with you? Stuff like that. now don't ask things like, you playing with anyone else, where you headed, can i have something because this guy doesn't know if your playing with people to and you're just scouting to get him and his friends killed.

PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT THEY HAVE - If you do run into a player, you should immediately look at what they are wearing. A guy decked out in military camo, with a big backpack and a M4 with a scope will probably shoot you on site while the civilian with no weapon wont pose much threat to you.

MORE THAN ONE PLAYER WITH GUNS - If you run into 2 more people, Hide if you can or double tap "W" to sprint the hell out of there. Two or more people means they know each other and probably spent the last 2 hours trying to get to each other and they wont risk being killed. (or they're bandits doing banditry)

ZOMBIE CHASING YOU - If you do not have a weapon you should double tap "w" to begin to sprint, just keep running till you find either a large building preferably with multiple exits &/or stairs/ladders or Barns and gas station are usually the best because they are found outside of cities/towns. run inside and wait till the zombies get inside, they will begin to walk slow, lure them in as far as you can then run outside, they will have to continue to walk slow till they get outside and hopefully by then you are long gone.

KNOW YOUR WEAPON - you need to learn your weapon, there is a ton of videos and info on the guns in this game. You should learn your weapons effected range for 1 shot and 2 shot kills. You should also learn what Zeroing is and how to do it.

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************PRIORITIES***********

Now for the list that i made earlier

1. EMPTY CANS AND BOTTLES - Sounds dumb to get trash right? Well they are in the game for a reason. This should be your first priority, one because they are every where and two because these items can gain you access to the more valuable buildings. Hit "F" to cycle through your weapons and throw equipment.

Note: that you will throw cans/bottles differently than flares, you will also throw them differently depending on if you are standing, crouched, or prone. You need to get use to the different ways.

Zombies are attracted to sound, and when you throw these items they will investigate. now I've noticed that the roaming zombies outside sometimes aren't effected by the sound and continue with their zombtivities. But, if their are any zombies inside a barn, you can throw them outside on the sides of the building and they will almost always come out to see whats going on. This is you chance to enter.

Tip - when you enter a barn, prone run, its the quietest and lowest visibility.

2. FLARES - Flares are the second thing you should be looking for. They are relatively easy to find and work better than cans and bottles because they stay little and emit a fizzing sound for 5 mins, Zed also like the light. Now i don't know if they work better at night or not because im to chicken shit to play at night yet but i would assume they do. they also hold 10 flares to one inventory slot where as one can or bottle will take one inventory slot.

The one down side is that any players coming into the area will be alerted to your presence. Keep in might at night flares can be seen up to 1km away.

3. SMOKE GRENADES - Even better than flares are smoke grenades, they don't spawn as often though. Zombies love to chase these things. Now I've read that these might be glitched and register as a gun shot when you through them, i don't know if this has been fixed or not and im to far along now to test it but i have seen some videos of these working very well. The one down side is that everyone with line-of-sight to the grenade will know someone is around. Personally i would save these till you get to Stary Sobor.

Note - do not move at all after throwing a smoke grenade, wait till it lands and begins to smoke.

4. DEER STAND & BARNS - These are your best bet for finding your first weapon without going into a city or town. Factories are also a good place to look for weapons. One this map, http://dayzdb.com/map#5.109.111 , deers stands will be show out in the country as a little red tower emblem and barns will be a green circle called Barn (High Yield).

It might take a few tries but eventual a weapon will spawn. If there isn't one, leave and walk away about 200-300m and come back and usually the loot will re spawn.

Here is what deer stands & barns look like.

5. FIRE STATIONS - These are a great place to get weapons and gear.

I prefer to go to the one at Electro because it is easy to get into and there is almost never any zombies around. A fence also surrounds the place so you can easily see all the Zed in the area. Looking at this map, http://dayzmap.info/ , it is best to approach from the North West and prone run to the fence, there will be a hole in the back that you can entire from. From there its easy access to the grocery, pub and school house.

tip- Zombies don't like docks, if your ever running for your life, run for the docks.

6. HOSPITALS - Hospitals are the key to living in DayZ, they contain:

morphine - used to fix broken legs(you can't stand or crouch with a broken leg and can only find morphine in hospitals)

Blood Bags - used for blood transfusion to restore blood to 12,000(requires two people to administer though)

Epi Pens - will wake up someone unconscious (only useful play with friends or if you're brave enough to try and make a new ones)

Bandages - used to stop bleeding, you will bleed, you will need these

unfortunately, though, the only way to get into a hospital is to break the glass so use cans, bottles or a hatchet, they won't register a sound.

GROCERY STORE - This is a place you must visit in order to live out in the country. You will need food and water to survive more than a few km in the game. The supplies you find here will hopefully sustain you till you find a hatchet, matches, knife and canteen.

OTHER BUILDINGS - there are a lot of different buildings throughout the game, the question you need to ask yourself before entering any of them is, is the risk worth the reward? The only reason you should stick around a city is for the items i listed earlier.

1. Morphine ( i'd say that 33% of your deaths will be from not having this)

2. Matches (used to start fires and cook food, life saver if playing solo)

3. Hatchet (used to cut wood for a fire, also right click on it and equip it as a weapon)

4. Knife (used to gut animals for raw meat)

5. canteen (Refillable source of water)

If you have these then you should be off in the country, which takes us to our next priority.

STARY SOBOR - This should be your destination after you have acquiring all the thing previously mentioned. Stary Sobor has a military base on the north east side of the town and is perfect for acquiring some basic military weapons and gear. You can almost always find an M16 or AKM here and is a great place to stop at if your planning to go to the International Airport.

Unfortunately it is mostly in the middle of a field, which you do not want to run across. It can take a long time to get to if you want to take the safest way in. Preferably you should enter from the North East, following the tree lines the run across the fields giving you cover as you cross. you can enter from the south but there are many hills from which snipers can easily see you.

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********* MOVING THROUGH THE COUNTRY**********

Now assuming that you have some food and drinks, but not canteen/knife/hatchet/matches, you should start by barn hopping through the countryside to acquire any gear you may have missed.

STICK TO THE FOREST - don't run through fields unless you're ok with dying. It takes 2 seconds for someone to scan a field and spot you.

USE LEFT ALT - you should constantly be looking around you for any players that might be around.

DO NOT SILHOUETTE YOURSELF - Kind of hard to explain if you don't already know what this is, you can google it, but pretty much don't run across the crease of a mountain/hill, stay on the side of one. If you wish to keep the high ground though, run along the side of the crease, anywhere from 10-20m away(that way any player wont hear you if they are on the other side of the crease. Also, this way you only have to cover one side of the mountain.

OWN THE HIGH GROUND - If you run across someone and you have the high ground you automatically have an advantage over him, on step hills you have to walk up them so for him to get a better shot would require him to move from his cover. This also gives you the option to retreat if needed if you are close to the crease of the mountain/hill. The enemy will have to move uphill to pursue you. once you crease the mountain/hill you can find a hiding spot, continue to run or if your up for the fight, follow the crease one way or the other to flank your enemy then reemerge on the other side to engage your pursuers or wait till the crease the hill and begin their decent.

STOP AT CLEARINGS - when you come up on a clearing, always stop, look around and check the tree line you are running for and check your own tree line. If you have to cross a clearing or field, do so as fast as you can and look behind you to your left and right because most of the time people can hide in the tree line you just left and it is very hard to spot them till you are out in the field.

If you do find yourself being shot at, DO NOT GO PRONE OR RUN IN A STRAIGHT LINE, run for cover. immediately start sprinting and preform a bunch of 90

Edited January 24, 2013 by Dzuari

[billywink 0]

Nice guide, thank you! I didn't even think of using the cans to throw and distract zombies!

[NightRipper 284]

Just thought I would add that yes, you CAN break hospital glass with empty cans. In fact, I recommend it. It's quiet, and you only need one can.

[Zexis 127]

Great guide, thanks! I'm starting today and this should help a bit.

By the way, hatchets can also be used for weapons, too, right?

[trylan 25]

wow, awsome guide man. gave me a few tips i didnt know. I'm sure anyone knew joining will really appreciate it

[ZKxFille 0]

Great guide. I'm new and this helped me A LOT.

[Drazn 0]

Awsome guide. Thanks for that!

[dtkreten 1]

Can you pain Electro and Cherno red pls?

[Dillydawg 3]

Awesome guide although I knew most of this stuff, some of it helped, which is great so thanks.

[wish (DayZ) 9]

this Guide would have helped me so much when I was new, probs on writing it

P.S.: if you have an hatchet, use it to break the glass of the hospitals, its quiet and your inventory stays clear of trash :D

[billywink 0]

Great guide' date=' thanks! I'm starting today and this should help a bit.

By the way, hatchets can also be used for weapons, too, right?

[/quote']

Yea they can!

[dzuari 25]

Can you pain Electro and Cherno red pls?

all three cities are pretty much guaranteed contact.

[moofactory 62]

This should be a sticky!

I've been playing a while now and I even learnt afew things I didn't know.

I'll never look at junk the same way again lol

[dzuari 25]

Just thought I would add that yes, you CAN break hospital glass with empty cans. In fact, I recommend it. It's quiet, and you only need one can.

U saved me today with this :)

[guidez 180]

The hospital thing is in the GuideZ channel visually, ;)

[kirai 18]

I've been looking for a good guide all over and just found this one and I must say you made a terrific job with this one! Thanks alot :)

[bezki 31]

Zelenogorsk on the left side on the map above kamenka is underrated.

i often spawned near the airfield in balota. grabing some guns and heading north.

many deer stands a supermarket, barns, two wooden hosues and a red brick house gives you nearly everything you need in 20-30 min.

if possible at spawn. directly speeding to first get morphine and an axe^^

Edited July 11, 2012 by Bezki

[dtkreten 1]

all three cities are pretty much guaranteed contact.

Exactly! Which is why i suggested to paint them red

[DoshDosh 62]

I think it would be a good thing to note that as of 1.7.2, zombies might hear less through objects, but their sight range has drastically increased- they can spot you at about 100m away I believe? So as of now, I would only crouch run or move quickly through woods and prone run in open fields until I'm sure that it's clear of any zombies whatsoever.

[hoak 27]

Does anyone know of the Axe and Crowbar do the same damage?

[dtkreten 1]

Does anyone know of the Axe and Crowbar do the same damage?

AFAIK axe is stronger

[Untalented 0]

Thanks, this was helpful along with the hours of videos I've been watching. I was completely lost initially, but I'm getting a little better. One thing I notice in a lot of videos if that I typically see them running around crouched through cities and around cities without being spotted. I find anytime I do this I get spotted very easily and have to prone everywhere. This obviously takes forever to get around. Any tips in regards to this?

Did something change? I just started and most of the videos I'm watching are from April/May and they seem to have a much easier time navigating around cities without getting tons of Zombies on them.

[StylishCashew31 0]

Wow this helped alot... TY much. IDK if its okai to do this but if anyone wants to team up add me on here or on skype "StylishCashew31" is my Skype name

[dzuari 25]

I think it would be a good thing to note that as of 1.7.2, zombies might hear less through objects, but their sight range has drastically increased- they can spot you at about 100m away I believe? So as of now, I would only crouch run or move quickly through woods and prone run in open fields until I'm sure that it's clear of any zombies whatsoever.

ya i noticed that yesterday, i aggroed a bunch from running around elektro docks

[hoak 27]

AFAIK axe is stronger

Thanks, it seemed that way to me as well...

:)