What's this about difficulty finding weapons?

[sudZ! 115]

I began playing today and have had no such difficulty.

Within 5 minutes I had a hatchet, but saw 3 more in the same farm.

Within 15 minutes I had a shotgun with 4 rounds of slug.

within 30 minutes I had a makarov with 2 full clips.

I'm feeling prepared for a zombie encounter but am still scared of my first human encounter...

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

I'd say that you had a really nice, lucky start.

You'll find yourself spawn in the middle of nowhere, or just places that have already been looted.

And Makarov is a pretty crappy gun, it used to be the starter weapon for every player not too long ago.

Hatchets are very common in farms, too.

[The_Monk 320]

A maka will still wipe out a bandit in one hit if you smack them in the head. Hatchet is a solid weapon too for z killing.

[skunky1340 0]

Last night on a fresh spawn I hit several buildings, 2 farms and 4 deer stands and got no weapons...not even a hatchet, just ammo and empty cans/bottles :(

Game is hard.

[void.false@gmail.com 300]

Within 5 minutes I had a hatchet, but saw 3 more in the same farm.

In Chernarus you are not considered as a Man if you have less than 5 hatchets in your barn.

[-MadTommy 367]

Sometimes after 30mins i'm armed to the teeth.. others i'm still searching for a bloody hatchet!

Hatchets seems like cops.. never around when you need one.. hundreds of the feckers when you don't want one...:P

[NefRA 0]

Could be just coincidence but I've noticed a huge increase in the spawn rate of the various AK weapons since the last update, 9 times outta 10 say have picked one up from the nearest firestation after spawning.

[morunas 0]

I think the loot spawn rate is good :) I find it more interesting that some loot is rarer then others so you always have to account for that... if you party play and what not having 1-2 epipens and some morphine can safe your life... so far after something like 10 hours of game play after first spawning I have not found any epipen or morphine. lots of maka mags though... and LOT of enfield mags... I am like running around with 10|10 on enfield mags :P just in case I need to kill 100 zombies in a row lol

"not common" weapons though you must find military alike places but also remember that their ammo is more rare... so... are you ready for that? I would advise using 1 rare weapon since you find it but NEVER 2 rare weapons... cause you can suddenly run out of ammo or just have to little for an unfortunate zombie encounter.

Further more... DON'T feel ready for a zombie encounter. Avoiding them is the best you can do. It spares you bullets. It spares you telling all nearby players of your position. It might spare you blood specially if your encounter is in open space.

And I leave the obvious tip: every time you approach a scavenging area make a good spot for enterable buildings and never engage zombies in open space. RUN for the buildings... bottle neck the zombies at the entrance and then PRAY you have ammo for all of them. I remember once being spotted by 1 single damn zombie... I even used the maka instead of the enfield to make less noise... just there... I killed around 50 zombies... that is a lot of bullets and a lot of noise. Luckily no blood was lost and I was meters away from a large barn... otherwise I could easily have been dead.

One tip I can give you is the following: when you loot a place... even if you are "filled with loot"... you must abuse it, in the sense that you dont leave food there for the "friendly" guy that comes after. An "empty" loot area always increases the possibility that there are players nearby, so by doing so you get some players to run from you and your position just by fear... you make others decide to go to another area if they DO need loot.

Just be careful to not spend too much time in the same place. But eat and drink all you can ^^ and take stuff you dont need just as long as you have space.

And finally... either with or without a gun... never change your gameplay away from being just a shadow. However prepared you are... one shot and you're dead. One bite and you bleed and scream. One sound in the wrong place at the wrong time and you're bandit feast.

[sudZ! 115]

Funny you posted that. I appreciate the tips.

I logged into my game about 20 mins ago. I had left it prone in a field about 100 meters from a small villiage. I was beside a big rock. So I spawned with a bandit looking right at me... 2 shots and that was that. lol.

Here we go again!

[Gogster (DayZ) 626]

I don't think the spawn rate is the problem, it's getting to the loot with all the zombies around.

I've spent my first 4 sessions running like a lunatic picking up a zombie train.