[GUIDE] Newbie Survivor version 1.2.0.

blackbeard06 · April 23, 2012

Day Z Survivor Guide

-If you are a new player It is highly recommended to check out this guide for tips and help on how to get a good start in the Post Apocalyptic world of Day Z.

-I believe in a fair fight amongst all players. That is where is guide comes in. This guide will educate all players from all backgrounds how to stand up and have a fair fight in the DayZ Mod against zombies and all players.

-This guide with go over each feature of the server. Please be patient as the servers are undergoing weekly updates so this guide may not be updated as fast.

-This guide is a work-in-progress (WIP) and I will do the best that I can to update it on a bi-montly basis.

-Want to help? Reply with some tactics or tips of your own!

-A video guide will also be done very soon!

-=How to Navigate this guide=-

Press Ctrl-F and type in the roman numerals (including the 'x' 'x' before and after) at the end of each section to quickly find each section. This helps for faster searches! EXAMPLE: press and hold Ctrl+F. Afterwards you will see and search bar appear (in bottom of your screen.) Then all you need to do is type "xVx" or what ever section you are searching for.

Index

Quick Start & How to See At night Guide xIx
Community Tips on DayZ xIIx
A How to on properly joining servers xIIIx
Oktyabr's 11 Zombie Survival Tips xIVx
BlackAlpha's Survivor Code of Conduct xVx
Thatguy's guide for PvP xVIx
Video Tutorials (for visual Learners) xVIIx
Surgeon General's Infections and You GuidexVIIIx
Disclaimer xAAAx
ChangeLog xAABx

1: Quick Start xIx

HOW TO SEE AT NIGHT

*If you start at night and can hardly see anything then do the following: Press ESC. Goto your video options. Turn your "Brightness" to MAX and Gamma, to Max. (Feel free to adjust each setting to your likeness). Once complete goto ADVANCED and turn your HDR QUALITY to the MAX setting!!! This will virtually eliminate the need for flares or chemlights. You should now see at night without the aid of any light source.

Other Quick Start Tips

Once you start a new life you will be given plenty of items to make it to the closest loot point (aka towns, cities, buildings)

-If you start at night press "F" to cycle your objects and select flares (make sure the flares are not in a back pack). All you will need to do is "LEFT-CLICK" on your mouse to throw a flare to illuminate your surroundings. You may also pick up or extinguish a flare by looking at it and using your mouse wheel. This also works for chem lights Beware! as anyone or any zombie can see your flare at night especially at long ranges.

Your spawn point will be on the coast in the South or North part of the map. This will be your reference point. To go North keep the ocean on your character's right shoulder. To go south keep the ocean on your character's left shoulder. Keeping running until you hit a town or city.

Once you make it to a town "loot" the area by walking around and finding indoor places to go into, this is where you will find most items, in doors. Items will be on the ground, you cant miss them.

You can easily find out what town/city/village you are in by finding road sings which stand in the ends of settlement or railway stations which have big boards with town name on them.

(curiosity of "nuttex")

If you find yourself lost in the middle of the night with no compass. You can easily find north by using this method:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df6-M4iAv_o

I realized last night that I needed to turn my gamma down so I could see the big dipper properly. Once I had found it the North Star was pretty clear to me which helped me get back to the coast where it's easier to see at night.

(curiosity of "Mr.Nicklebe")

Section Last updated 5/2/2012 1019est

Community Tips on DayZ xIIx

Due to a large interest in a very helpful community this section is dedicated on community Tips to surviving in Day Z

While looting inside a town or city Stay crouched and walk!
this will significantly reduce the amount of noise and visibility to anybody any zombie near you! My philosophy: Never run in towns!
At night Never run with a flare or light source in your hands! I myself have preyed upon those who visualize themselves. To better hide yourself at night just suck it up and run in the dark! Please make sure you are doing this in a safe area such as the beach or a well known location!
If you have to light a flare in a town look up and hold the mouse button to throw the flare farther! Once you throw you will light up and entire path to where the flare falls. This method will also hide your position from any other hostile players in the area!
Getting chased by a horde? Run in doors to force them to walk, this will significantly help your chances of survival!
Zombies Dislike Docks!! Use them as temporary safe zones
Throw smoke grenades you picked up into zombie hordes that are chasing you just like you would throw a flare, zombies love the hissing noise the grenades make when they go off and will get distracted by it.(curiosity of "Mr. Weed")
Think before you pull the trigger. That should be your main consideration. Gunshots draw in hostile players and zombie hordes. For some of your more gucci guns [i favour the AKM] - the loot you get for the kill may be worth less then the bullet.(curiosity of "Darkwingstalker")
During night if you see another light coming your way with your flare/flashlight on, turn it off. When the person approaches you try not to be uncovered by his light and ask him if he's friendly of foe, hold him at gunpoint until you evaluate his intentions.
If by any chance you were spotted walking at night with a light source and at the same time were shot at, drop on the ground, turn off your light source and roll. Be on a lookout for the shooters muzzle flash.
If you've come up to a city sign, and can't read Cyrillic, try to describe the letters to other players, who knows there might be someone on the server who actually knows it (like me (I'm not Russian)).
In case you find yourself staring at the road sign with text like This, it might be a good idea to google the aforementioned Charnarus Map and compare the Cyrillic/Latin spellings of geographical names. It helps in case you are totally incapable of reading Cyrillic letters.
Perhaps the best place to start looking for some serious weaponry is the town hall in Chernogorsk. On the entrance you can almost always find some AR (such as AKM). If you go around the building, on the corners opposite to the front side, you'll find one of rain pipes which you can climb on. On the rooftop, you can find all sorts from firearms and supplies, ranging from a simple, yet stylish M1911 to M4A3 CCO with flashtorch. So far, AKM, AK-74, AKS-74U, M16A2, M4A1, M4A3, CZ 550, MP5, M4A1 CCO, M1014, and the Winchester have been known to spawn there. You can also find M107/M240 ammunition up there.
In addition to lakes, ponds and water pumps, you can also use sea as a water supply. Drinking sea water has no negative effects and apparently is handled as simply "water". CAUTION! A recent update will prevent you from drinking sea water! Since sea water is mostly Salt, I agree, Therefor you can rule out the use of sea water as a potential fill up point for your water canteen aka water bottle.
(curiosity of "Nuttex") Updated by Demondred6 6.10.2012-2247est
If you happen to kill another player and start to loot his equipment keep one thing in mind: SPEED! Get in and evac the area ASAP! Players spawn all over the coast, chances are that player is pissed and is already double timing it to his last known location. Or also a very likely scenario nearby players have heard the shot(s) and are investigating. Keep in mind once a player is killed, that status is globally announced so a smart player will be looking. You may also need to think over Is his equipment worth the Risk? I alone just died in this situation. I've had 3 players attracted to that area and did not move out in time end result equals DEATH.
(curiosity of "Anthony" for corrections to accuracy)

Section Last updated 4/28/2012 1507est

A How to on properly joining servers xIIIx

Hi everybody I'm RP and I've been watching the live stream with PCGamer and stalking all of you, read some stuff and talked to the dev's a little. Its really late/early morning so there might be errors but generally expect it to hold water and if you have questions I'll see if I can get a dev to answer.

Anyway: here are some easy steps and tips on properly joining servers and minimize chances of fail for everybody Tongue

1. Know this is an Alpha which is basically software speak for something little better than a prototype and fail is gonna happen from time to time even if you do everything correct. Currently even when you get in you can get disconnected. In that regard pro tip: Red chain icon means you are possibly out of sync with the server so if it stays on for more than a few seconds it will start count and then you as good as lost but very often its just normal internet that is stealing your packages for a while and something everyone will experience from time to time. Yellow BTW is actually much worse contrary to common belief and means its confused about the packages of information its receiving from the server so that is often a unrecoverable situation. So you might want to not go into combat if ether icon is lit for more than a few seconds.

Currently at lot of the servers restart a few times a day and the dev team is swamped helping server admins and helping new server admins in so we can haz moar!

2. Know if your real life time zone is day or night - look out side or at our watch - night time is roughly 5-10 times harder depending on realism of server etc. so if you are new to DayZ it might not be a good idea to join a server after 8-10 PM local SERVER TIME. This means if you are in the EU like me you can join a US server with reasonable ping like NY and get a few more hours of sunlight! Just be aware that Asian & Aussie servers usually kick EU and NA players as we have too high a delay (ping/roundtime delay) and it will badly affect everyone so they rightfully have auto kicking so we don't spoil their fun.

3. Plan your joining with friends and generally always, always try to join a server that's less than ~60% full. If you know your going to have others join or you want to play with them its recommend you all go back to the server selection and select one with between 0-20 players for the 40 or more slot servers. The servers tend to fill quickly and the worst thing people can do to the back-end is everyone trying to join a the same few nearly full servers. Which brings us to:

4. Don't disconnect before at least 10 minutes have gone by if you are joining a server that's more than half full or you are playing in peek hours. People disconnecting and connecting leaving a really heavy burden on the back-end and its a big no-no! This will not help you join faster it will actually make it worse for everyone and you somewhat simplified go into the back of a queue. If you make it to "Requesting data from server" chances are you are probably going to make it into game.

5. If you join a server with few people it will fill quickly and everyone will get in within very short time if you are not 10 people connecting at the same time. BTW generally the back-end isn't overloaded - when we experience long loads its the servers that are too full so join a server with less people on it.

6. Please don't suicide to get a better starting location - its really bad okay?

7. When a server crashed expect it to take time to start up. Then BTW you might consider starting on another server as just rebooted servers take a long time to get into if all 50 people are trying to connect. It simply spams and spikes on the back-end so it takes way, way longer than necessary even thought the next server with 5 people on it may get you instantly back into the fight. Also if your group go else where the other server will fail less so everybody will get in faster.

8. Remember: Since we all play with the same persistent world your actions not just in-game are affecting everybody!

Additional tips:

- If you make it to "Requesting data from server" chances are you are probably going to make it into game.

- When you are a bird something went wrong and you need to disconnect and try again completely.

- If you are unable to move and in the forest after 10 minutes have past 9 out of 10 times you are not going to make it.

- Peek hours are late night EU, early evening NA as with most online games. On top some EU players move to NA servers after dark as the dark is really, really scary and I want my mother please where is my mother?

**edited for tips**

(special thanks to "RPlasticPirate (RP)" for this little section)

Oktyabr's 11 Zombie Survival Tips xIVx

This section is Oktvabr's Very own Survival Tips. You may see some repeat tips, so please keep in mind that this section was added by a volunteer that dedicated time into typing this.

Oktyabr's Zombie Survival Guide: How to survive your first five minutes:

You will die. You will die often. Get used to the idea, it happens to everyone. The average life expectancy is just over 3 hours at the time of this post! That said here are some tips to at least help you survive your first five minutes...

1) You will start this game alone, somewhere along the coast of a very large chunk of land. As soon as you spawn the bottom right corner will flash some text that will only be on the screen for a few seconds. The second line is the most important as it will give you a rough idea of where you are starting. Pay attention to what it says there, write it down if you must! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU WILL BE GIVEN BY THE GAME! It is very difficult to navigate or meet up with friends if you have no idea where you are starting.

2) The server is synced to "real time" so if it's dark where the server is, it's dark where you are going to spawn too. The first thing you want to do, if you think you are in the water, is swim/walk to shore. Look for the silhouette of the land against the stars if it's night. When you hit dry land or you start on dry land, immediately go prone and get your bearings. This is a good time to look at a map (google "Chernarus map") and look up what the game told you when you spawned. It's not pin point accurate but at least you will have some idea of where you might be! (TIP: there are real maps, and compasses, that can be found in the game and once you have one you can access it with whatever your map key is bound to.)

3) Adjusting your settings: In game communication: Immediately switch your communication channel to "Direct communication" (refer to the binds if you don't remember what yours is). This channel is positional and will only be read when texting or heard, when you are using your mic, by people in very close range to you. You can use the other channels for text but since most broadcast on a map-wide scale you will irritate the other players if you spam them or especially if you use your mic on them! Some people have a hard time understanding that when they key up their microphone on the "global" or "side" channels (the default channel you start on) that they are irritating 40+ other players, map wide, with their chatter. Don't be one of them!

Video and sound: If it's night time you may be able to tweak your brightness and gamma settings in the "Video options" at least enough to see the difference between water and dry land. Water will have a subtle reflection of the starlight on top of the wavelets if you are successful. This is very video card dependent, your mileage may vary. The big thing in the "Audio" menu is the music! It's only there for atmospherics... it doesn't tell you a single thing about if zombies are going to attack... it's creepy as hell and I enjoy it but your sense of hearing, especially at night, is extremely important in this mod. Don't feel bad at all about turning down the music volume or muting it all together. When you, another player, or even a zombie moves in this game it will produce sound cues such as brush being broken, footsteps on pavement, splashing through water, bumping into a chainlink fence, etc. Zombies themselves can be quite vocal, usually producing a lot of low moans, etc. When they have "detected" you and are charging their sound is MUCH more aggressive... you will know when you hear that cue! Pay attention to these cues, your life may depend on it!

4) Basic Gear: You start with some basic gear including a pistol, ammo, a canteen full of water (single use), some food, some road flares and some basic medical supplies. Also a "coyote" pack which can be used to carry extra stuff you find along the way. Become familiar with how to access your "gear" (inventory) in the game and how to switch things in and out of it. There are larger packs in the game too, the largest being the coyote backpack (Bulkier appearance) but everyone starts with the Coyote pack and you'll have to find/steal a larger one if you want it. Canteens can be refilled at a well, pond or even the ocean! Simply walk towards the source of water and your mouse "action" menu, which changes as the context changes, will offer you the option of "refill water bottle". Be patient, it takes a few seconds to do this. If you interrupt the process by shooting or leaving the water too soon it may not get filled even though it said that's what you were doing! An empty water bottle has a red line through it in your inventory. A full one does not. Food must be found or killed but you won't need that for quite awhile yet.

5) The HUD: On your screen you will be given a crosshair like icon showing where you are looking. This icon will change depending on what weapon or object you are holding. Weapons generally look like a crosshair. Flares, grenades and other things that you can throw will have a circle instead. You can switch between weapons, flares, etc. with your "toggle weapon" bind. It will also indicate which you are choosing in the upper right hand corner. TIP: Be sure if you are going to throw a flare, etc. that you immediately switch back to your pistol or other weapon! It's easy to forget to do so when you are being rushed by hungry zombies, or "zed", but let me tell you... throwing additional flares at the whatever is coming to kill you won't hurt them at all...

The crosshair will also sometimes offer a contextual hint, such as when you point it at a pile of ammo you will see a rifle icon appear suggesting you can rearm there. Doors and gates that can be opened and closed will also indicate that with an additional icon, etc. When you have that additional context icon on the screen you can act upon it using your mouse wheel menu, which will appear on the left side of the screen when you move the wheel. If you want to get rid of this menu just right click. Note: you must have that context icon on your screen for the options to show up in the menu! "Looking" at a pack laying on the ground will usually furnish you with several options including "take pack" (which replaces your own! Careful!) and "open pack" (safer). This context/mouse menu thing seems to be one of the trickiest things to learn about the Arma game series, including this particular mod, but it's actually pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it. If you are injured your mouse menu will provide you with the relevant options such as "Bandage yourself" ("Bandage other" is also possible), "Take painkillers", etc. You will bleed like a stuck pig in this game and will quickly die if it's not tended to! At the same time it's difficult to apply bandages while the zed are dismembering your body so choose your medical time wisely. Your mouse menu should always have at least the option to "Drink water" and "Eat food", provided you still have provisions left, and that brings us to...

The status indicators: You will notice on the right hand side of the screen a few different icons. There is sometimes a mod "debug" screen in the upper right but this can disappear or reappear depending on the current update. The icons you should be seeing is an "eye" and an "ear" which will indicate how easy it is for the zombies around you to detect your presence and become "activated". A series of bars indicates the strength of that probability so you really want to see no bars or very few, if you can help it. Stealth is a key factor in survival here. You are almost invisible to zombies when crawling but once they are on to you going prone is just setting the dinner table! Below these are your health indicators; a water bottle, a blood droplet and a fork and knife, representing how hungry you are. Green is good, red is bad, but most of the time these icons will be a subtle shade between the two. If you are bleeding the droplet icon will have a flashing "+" in the middle of it! You will bleed out soon in this mod if you are not bandaged. Once the blood loss is stopped the "+" sign should disappear. When the droplet is very red you are close to being dead. You can replenish lost blood by killing, gutting, cooking and eating wild game you come across, you can also get someone to give you a blood transfusion IF you can find the hospital and someone to help. Hopefully they will soon have it integrated that you will slowly regain blood as long as your food and water icons are green but at the time of this post that's not here yet. Do not waste your food and water! You don't really need to eat or drink until either one of these is quite red. Exerting yourself by running, etc. will deplete your water and food icons more rapidly than sitting still or a slow walk. Remember, you can refill your canteen at any pond, well, or even the ocean. No bad effects (at least not yet!) from drinking sea water either. There are also cans of soda scattered around towns that can be used in lieu of water. Cans of beans, sardines, pasta, etc. are also to be found but food is generally harder to find than a water source is. Don't worry about carrying more than one or two drinks and *always* keep your canteen, even if it's empty, but try to fill up empty slots in your inventory (don't forget your Coyote pack!) with food any chance you get.

6) Movement: Unless you have never played an FPS the movement should be for the most part self explanatory. Note that the faster you move the more noise you will make... pay attention to the bars by your "eye" and "ear" indicators. Arma has binds set up for several different movement actions including "stand", "crouch", and "prone". You can move in any of these stances. There is also a run/sprint bind that may take a bit to get used to using. You can also "double time" by double tapping your movement key before holding it down. Standing, double time run, with the run key held down is the fast way of travel... It's also the noisiest and will tire you the fastest as well. There is no real stamina in this mod. You won't pass out from running but you will hear yourself breathing quite hard and when you raise a weapon to fire it you will notice that it is very difficult to hold the crosshairs (or iron sites) steady until you catch your breath. A "crouch-run" is the best compromise, producing the least of amount of sound for the fastest movement. Crawling, especially around zed, is the safest. Arma also supports "lean" which is quite useful if you aren't used to having it available in other games! Use it. To climb a ladder is a bit different. When you approach a ladder a triangular context icon will appear on the screen pointing up or down depending on the ladder. Use your mouse wheel to select the appropriate "climb ladder..." option and once you have the ladder in your hands press your forward button to climb UP and your backwards movement button to climb DOWN. Note that some watch towers and deer stands you will encounter will seem to drop you back to the ground when you reach the top of the ladder. This is a glitch in this mod that will hopefully be fixed soon. In the meantime simply switch your handheld weapon to a flare (or chemlight, etc.) with your "toggle weapon" bind and you should be able to climb all the way to the top. Arma does NOT have a "jump" action. You can fall off of high objects though, so be careful! In place of a "jump" Arma supports a "step over" bind that is useful for crossing low walls and other obstacles.

7) The Zed: Zombies, or "zed", are not your friends or lost family members. You cannot cure them and it's very difficult to outrun them too. Best thing to do is avoid them when at all possible. In their natural state the zed are most often found shuffling slowly around the area they died or were infected. This usually means buildings, farms, towns and villages. Currently zed do NOT spawn in the wilderness areas but they are working on adding that as well and it is still possible that one might be found there, eating someone that it chased into the wilderness. As a rule of thumb the wilderness is generally safer than the civilized areas. The zed, being once human, have similar senses to ours but not as good. They don't hear as good, they don't see as well (although it's said they have better peripheral vision) and the only thing they care about smelling is fresh flowing blood. As long as they are not "activated" to your presence they are no threat. Do not shoot at zombies just because one is there to shoot at! Gunfire attracts other zombies like a dinner bell attracts a bunch of hungry kids and what seemed like a good idea, just shooting one, can turn quickly into a battle for your life against a dozen or more. Once "activated" a zed will will stop moaning and start screaming, which can in turn activate other close by zombies. They will also run MUCH faster and usually make a beeline for your throat! You will have to develop a feel for how close you can get to a "calm" zed before activating it, usually it's about as far as you could accurately hit it with a tossed stone or so. Pay close attention to your "eye" and "ear" indicators! Too many bars on either of these and you will activate a zed that you otherwise might have slipped by! Crawling, crouched-walk, using obstacles to hide your movement, being careful to avoid making too much noise, etc. are all stealthy techniques that can help you penetrate a zombie infested neighborhood without getting killed. That said sooner or later you WILL have to fire your weapon against a pissed off zombie! ALWAYS aim for the head! In most cases a single headshot will bring them down. Pistols can take several shots elsewhere on the body to do any damage. Bigger weapons are better. They can be very difficult to hit when rushing you too. Expect to die during your first, second, and possibly several zombie encounters, everyone does.

The Zed aren't great swimmers but they aren't afraid of water either! Zed do have a slight problem climbing stairs and ladders but this is only to buy you a little time... they WILL come up (or down) after you, eventually. The best bet is to run up or down a hill. Zed can usually be outran doing either of these for a long enough distance. As a last ditch maneuver run like hell towards another survivor(s) and hopefully they will either help you shoot them or will be appetizing enough that the zombies chasing you will go after them instead! Remember the old joke about the two hunters and the grizzly bear... I don't have to run faster than the grizzly, I just have to run faster than Fred!

Be advised that some zed will actually be encountered laying down on the ground, as if they were dead! Be careful! If you get too close they can hit or bite you without even standing up!

8) Flares and other light sources: Ok, so you just spawned a few minutes ago, you know where you are, you have an idea of where you want to go, but it's dark as hell out. If you are lucky you may be able to follow the coastline quite a ways without any personal light source but sooner or later you are going to have to use some. Switch to your flares using your "toggle weapon" bind. Click the left mouse button to light one and by default toss it to the ground. You can then pick it up by putting your crosshairs over it and selecting "pick up flare" with the mouse wheel menu. If you hold down the left mouse button you will throw the flare further based on how long you hold the button down. Aim high, hold the mouse button, throw it a long ways. At the moment you cannot pick up a flare and throw it again, only drop it. This also works for chemlights and is the method of using grenades, both smoke (zombies will often chase after a smoke grenade, leaving you alone) and HE. If you drop a lit flare you can also choose "extinguish flare" from the mouse menu. This is useful if you think a party of potential bandits is headed your way. Avoid carrying a light when you can, be very careful how and where you move if you cannot avoid it.

You may find a flashlight in the game. These are great, light up a long distance, can be turned on and off and the batteries seem to last forever. Bad news is that you cannot (currently) hold a flashlight in one hand and your pistol in the other. If you have a rifle or other larger weapon you CAN hold the flashlight... just put your revolver and ammo in your pack for safe keeping. There are also some rare weapons that have tactical flashlights built into them. There are also rumors of night vision goggles but I have yet to see them for myself.

9) Foraging for supplies: There are a lot of things to be found in this game and almost everything you can pickup has a purpose, even if it's not immediately useful. You will find most items inside buildings, even in doorways. You can also take gear off of dead survivors (or living ones, if they let you!). You will very rarely find anything in the wilderness except other players and the occasional wild animal. Bigger cities tend to have better stuff than smaller ones but will also tend to attract more people to them looking for the same sort of stuff. Items respawn on a regular basis so if a building doesn't have anything in it once be sure to look again if you pass it a second time an hour later, etc.

10) Avoid the basic n00b mistakes: Many of these will be avoided just by following the tips I've given up above:

-Don't travel down the middle of the highway, EVER! Nothing says "n00b" more than a lone survivor carrying a lit flare and making a bunch of noise running as fast as he can down the middle of a highway.

- Try to use cover when ever possible. Know you might be fired upon at any time and get used to playing as if there was a sniper crosshair looking for you constantly.

- Try NOT to make more noise than you need to. Sound is very important in this game.

- Try NOT to use light, except when you really need it. Chemlights are better for carrying than flares. They last much longer and don't light up half the country side alerting everyone to your presence.

- If you are in a group try to stay spread out so you aren't all clumped together in one big target of opportunity. Cover each others backs, watch your six if you are at the end of the line.

- Close doors and gates behind you!

- Remember, friendly fire is ON. Watch your fire! You can shoot a teammate just as easily as you can the zombie that's trying to maul him.

- Remember you can apply first aid (if you have any left) to fallen teammates as well as yourself. A good mouse menu context option is to look at a fallen survivor and then select "check pulse". It will tell you if they are dead or can possibly be saved.

- Gunfire WILL attract zombies... and other players, for better or worse. The crossbow has a strong advantage here, besides being able to reuse it's ammo (if you can find it again!)

- The sound of many flies buzzing around is a good way to locate a fresh corpse to loot. Flies aren't attracted to zombies for some reason, only dead players.

- Don't trust *anyone* by default! PvP is a huge component of this mod and there are players who seem to have made it their personal goal just to murder and pillage. It's realistic so that will probably never go away. The devs are working on some sort of "reputation" or "morality" system to help tame down rampant deathmatch but that component will always be there. That said, the ONE goal you have as a new player is to survive! If killing someone for their food, meds or ammo is the only way to help you do that you simply have to ask yourself... is it worth it? Not everyone is out to get you and I haven't played a session yet where I didn't team up with at least one total stranger. Just be warned that encounters with other players have the potential to end badly too.

- A common way of declaring your peacefulness is to yell over VOIP (remember, "Direct communication" channel ONLY!) "Friendly! I'm friendly!". Some without mics have adopted the "salute" action to represent the same (it's a key bind also). Fortunately you don't have to kill anyone to get what you need, once you have a little experience and some common sense!

11) Leaving the server: DayZ is being developed as a "persistent" mod. It's not quite there yet but for the most part it works. Basically it works like this... if you die you are dead and have to respawn just like the first time. If you leave the server while you are alive you will then be able to rejoin the server at a later time (in theory ANY server, since they all use a common map and common data base) and you will appear in the same place you were when you left and all your gear should be intact. Your automatic "save" location is updated every sixty seconds and when the mod presents you with a "mod debug" screen you can see how long it is until the database stores your position (and your gear) again. The data base is occasionally flushed as new patches are added to the game code. One day it should be stable enough to give you persistence for days or months even but right now it's anybodies guess how long your information will remain intact.

Be sure to check daily for new code updates! And enjoy.

(curiosity of "(AEF)Goldilocks7" for corrections)

(special thanks to "Oktyabr" for this little section)

Section Last updated 6/10/2012 1912est

BlackAlpha's Survivor Code of Conduct xVx

Let's agree on some common, yet simple guidelines, so that we, the civilized survivors, do not end up shooting each other needlessly. Some of these rules come from our old everyday lives because they make sense even in this new apocalyptic world.

The point of these guidelines is to make it better known to other survivors what your INITIAL intention is: i.e. shoot or not to shoot, for that is the question we all have when meeting other survivors. These rules will help us to make that decision with little effort. The rules are minimized and grouped in a cohesive manner, so that we can memorize and look them up easily.

Note that these rules only help with the initial contact, they do NOT protect you from getting stabbed in the back later on. To avoid betrayal, rules won't help, you must trust your instincts and your gut.

If you have any suggestions, please post them below! But note that we must keep things simple because not all of us are lawyers who can memorize whole text books!

If you agree with these rules, say so below!

The survivor code of conduct

1. Do not aim your weapon at another survivor, unless you intend to kill him. If another survivor sees you aiming your weapon at him, he may shoot you in self defense.

2. In response to rule number 1: Always lower your weapon. In the case of pistols (which cannot be lowered), aim away from the other persons, don't look at them directly or you will be aiming at them.

3. Do not run towards somebody you do not know while you are wielding a weapon. If the other person sees you running towards him, and if you can see him, and if you are wielding a weapon, he may shoot you in self defense.

4. In response to rule number 3: Approach people with caution (stick with solid cover). Keep your distance until they can see you. Then perform a greeting which will let them know that you do not intend hostilities, e.g. lower your weapon, salute them when they lower their weapon (you may apply any other forms of greetings).

After the greeting, you may leave your cover and approach each other, but keep in mind the previous rules, mainly the "do not aim your weapon at someone" rule.

5. In response to rule number 4: Distrust anyone you do not know, for they may stab you in the back, even after having greeted you.

6. Always apply the above guidelines, so that to decrease the possibility of accidental murder when two civilized survivors meet each other, and also to increase the chances of finding murderers amongst our midst.

Subsection 2:

In such a survival game, where everyone can do whatever he likes to do, the very best method is to be careful and don't let you be seen if you know there are players around. If they've seen you, you're a prey.

Best thing is to send a message if anyone is around the location if you don't want to travel alone. If nobody answers, you should be very careful and ready your weapon. It doesn't mean that you should shoot everyone you see in that case, it means to be ready for conflict.

If somebody answers to your message, it doesn't mean he's your friend. Quite the opposite, he can take you into a trap. Mostly, if people are in danger like a dozen of zombies are following them, they're likely to answer in chat or to accept your help.

Don't even try to make such movements like salute or lower your weapon. Think about someone low on food or water or whatever for a reason he needs to kill you. He simply profits for that occasion.

Another point of view : A survivor is now alive for about 15 game hours. He has the very best equipment you can get. He has 2 options :

1.- He will continue to have fun at surviving but is EXTREMELY careful about enemy contact. He'll be likely to shoot you since he's scared to loose all his hard earned equipment.

2.- He's getting bored. That's the most dangerous moment ...

Something personal (My point of view) :

I'm not a bandit nor i'm a griefer nor racist ... But, if it happens that you encounter someone that isn't willing to cooperate with you and you're not sure about his actions, it is recommanded to either shoot him or ignore him by avoiding sight contact. Same goes for people who are not talking your language which guides to impossibility to communicate with each other. He isn't useful for you nor are you for him. If you're in a bad situation like being short on supplies, being not sure about his next actions, you should better kill him in some situations.

But again that's my opinion Big Grin

(curiosity of "Interceptor")

Section Last updated 5/2/2012 0958est

5: Thatguy's guide for PvP xVIx

Here's an intro guide for PvP, useful for both survivors and bandits alike, most of this should be common sense:

1.) Get over the fear and frustration of dying. Everyone who has played this mod has gone through a time where they spent god knows how long gathering supplies, collecting the perfect zombie apacalypse equipment, meticulously crawling for hours to avoid zombie encounters only to be shot by someone over a can of beans. It sucks, it can make you want to punch a kitten, but it's all part of this mod. Romero and others who've helped birth the contemporary zombie lore did so with a lot of thought into the social condition such outbreaks could bring, and that's what this mod thrives on. The sooner you can accept that PvP is part of this expirience, the sooner you can function as a survivor/bandit, and maybe even enjoy it.

2.) "I'm about to be shot." This phrase should ALWAYS be going through your head. As such you should be aware of your surroundings. Where are you going? Where is the nearest cover? Is this a known PvP "hotzone?" Stick to the trees, survey the land and make note od potential ambush spots, and sniper positions.

Additional tips:

-Airfields, military camps as well as the larger coastal cities (Elektro/Cherno) are PvP "hotzones" and should be avoided. If you have to go to this places do it with a group, and don't dick around. Go in, grab what you need and get out.

-Most survivors don't have Nightvision equipment and cannot see clearly at night, take advantage of this but be weary as it's easy to slip into the mentality that the shroud of darkness is enough to keep enemies away. It can be very easy to stumble into a zombie or the crosshairs of a well outfitted bandit.

-Sometimes crossing a clearing can't be helped. It can be tempting to just mash the "W" key and sprint to minimize your exposure in the open, unfortunately the rapid movement and your large profile are easy to pick out especially in peripheral vision. Crawling is good, however it can be impractical to cover some distances, and they're still no guarantee you won't be spotted as amusing prey to someone with sinister intentions. A good comprimise for most situations is the low crouch "combat" run. This will allow you to cover ground in a sufficient amount of time whilst maintaining a low profile.

3.) Have a plan. Let's say you and your buddies are making a run for some beans in [insert town/city/BFE here]. The plan is get in, get out, gigle whilst braiding eachother's hair, and fall asleep out under the stars whilst farting up a storm. What happens if you get fired upon? Where will you go? Will you attempt to leave the situation, or fight back? Where's the rally point for you rgroup after the engagment is over? These are all things you need to consider.

What to do in when you are inevitably caught up in an active engagment:

1.) Are you near cover?

-If yes then hit the deck and roll behind the nearest cover.

-If no then immidiately sprint to the nearest cover whilst zigzagging. You know those annoying jukes and erradic moves the zombies make, yeah do that.

2.) Keep your cool, where did the shot(s) come from? Keep hard cover between you and your attacker at all times.

-If you're on a server with 3rd person enabled this can be a great help in locating your attacker.

3.) Fight or Flight. I'm not going to tell people how they should play, whether they should fight or run for the hills, but you can't just sit there waiting for the enemy to flank or otherwise get the upperhand on you.

-If you're going to fight, be smart and give your character a few seconds to breathe and stop shaking, if you're hit immediately give yourself painkillers. Shoot from covered positions. Advance and flank your enemy. When you're in a bind; grenades, flares, etc. can help distract, or temporarily reduce visibility, don't count on them though.

-If you're in a building it goes without saying, stay away form the windows/doors. Pick a choke point and let the enemy come to you.

-Patience is a virtue, if you wait it out long enough your attacker may leave because they need medical treatment, are low on ammo, or just don't feel like continuing the engagment. Your best bet in these cases is to make sure you're clear and then get the hell out of there. Don't chase them down, especially when in unfamiliar territory.

4.) Are you hit?

-If so you will need to asses how bad. Can you move? Are you bleeding fast? Be aware of the different medical conditions it's possible to be in and how to cure them: Painkillers for shaking, bandages for bleeding(transfusion or eating cooked meat for severe blood loss), morphine for broken bones etc.

5.) Communicate. If you're with a group everyone needs to split up the visible area and watch their "sectors." Immediately hit the chat up with everything you know. This means Where, Who,and What whether you're in a group or not.

Special note: If one of your buddies goes down be prepared to make a quick decision about rendering medical assistance.

That should be a decent enough start for newbies.

Special Thanks to "Thatguy")

6: Video Tutorials xVIIx(for visual Learners)

1: How to find the North Star (Getting the North compass direction)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df6-M4iAv_o

(curiosity of "Mr.Nicklebe")

Section Last updated 5/2/2012 1023est

Surgeon General's Infections and You Guide xVIIIx

Infections and You

With the recent weather of Chernarus taking a turn for the worst there have been increasing reports of people suffering from acute infections.

Little is known about the actual disease but popular opinion suggests it is an airborne bacteria that has originated from the increasing Zombie population. The bacteria is currently classified as an opportunistic pathogen as it only causes infection while the body is compromised.

Signs and Symptoms

The most common sign of having an infection is coughing. You may also experience a slow lowering of your maximum blood to a level of 10,000 until you can cure it.

Causes

Environment Factors - The primary cause of the infection is associated with environmental factors, should a person suffer from a temperature value of less than 31.2°C then they are at risk of becoming infected.

For every point under 31.2°C, the probability of infection is increased. (http://i49.tinypic.com/2wc4evd.png)

To minimise risk please ensure you keep yourself adequately warm by lighting a fire, keeping indoors and limiting your exposure to rain and water.

Human Transmission - New studies suggest that this infection is also transmitted through human contact. Having a temperature value of less than 34.2°C puts you at risk. The lower your temperature the higher your chance of infection. (Figure 2 picture REMOVED) It should be noted that this method has the highest probability of infection and is multiplied with more people in a close vicinity.

To ensure the infection is not passed on to fellow humans please ensure you keep a minimum safe distance of 8 metres from someone who is or may be infected.

Infection through injury - Should you succum to an injury which results in bleeding there is currently a 0.1% chance you may also obtain a bacterial infection.

Treatment

The only viable cure at this moment is currently "Azithromycin" an antibiotic which gives instantaneous relief. This medication can be found at your nearest hospital (current supplies are extremely limited 1.98%) or from a medical emergency service (Dr Wasteland MD http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4581&highlight=medical+assistance)

If you believe you or a friend are suffering from a bacterial infection please seek medical attention. While the infection is not life threatening please keep in mind loud uncontrollable coughing around Zombies and potential enemies can be hazardous to your health.

Edit: Temperature values corrected for 1.6.0

Edit: Adjusted values for antibiotic loot %

(special thanks to "Surgeon General" for this little section)

Section Last updated 6/13/2012 0318est

Disclaimer xAAAx

This beginners guide was built by the community for the community. This guide will hold no copyright BUT if you are going to post this anywhere else be sure to give proper credit to those who have helped put it together.

Comments / Suggestions/ Questions / Anything? Please feel free to ask the below forum members and we will get back to you as soon as our schedules will allow.

Forum Name / Server Name

Demondred6 / Bones

Please stay tuned for more updates! Until then, good luck and godspeed!

Want to be on the list above so other players know who to go to for help? Pm or reply here and let me know!

Entire Guide backup 6/12/2012 1916

Section Last updated 6/10/2012 2313est

XI: ChangeLog xXIx

This section is dedicated on updating you with whats been changed during each update.

This section has been added on June 10th 2012 at 2204est, therefor will be the start date of any future updates. Any future updates will recall this day as being the start of the changelog.

Update 1.2.0. - 6.12.2012 1916est

-Fixed a few grammar errors.

-Added a new section. "Surgeon General's Infections and You Guide"

-Added a new section. "How to connect to a server"

-Added "HOW TO SEE AT NIGHT" guide in QUICK START SECTION.

mxphilipp@gmx.de · April 24, 2012

6. Throw smoke grenades you picked up into zombie hordes that are chasing you just like you would throw a flare, zombies love the hissing noise the grenades make when they go off and wil get distracted by it.

Darkwingstalker (DayZ) · April 24, 2012

Think before you pull the trigger. That should be your main consideration. Gunshots draw in hostile players and zombie hordes. For some of your more gucci guns [i favour the AKM] - the loot you get for the kill may be worth less then the bullet.

TL;DR: Decide if you have to take the shot. Discretion is often your best solution.

anthonyat33@gmail.com · April 23, 2012

1. During night if you see another light coming your way with your flare/flashlight on, turn it off. When the person approaches you try not to be uncovered by his light and ask him if he's friendly of foe, hold him at gunpoint until you evaluate his intentions.

2. If by any chance you were spotted walking at night with a light source and at the same time were shot at, drop on the ground, turn off your light source and roll. Be on a lookout for the shooters muzzle flash.

3. If you've come up to a city sign, and can't read Cyrillic, try to describe the letters to other players, who knows there might be someone on the server who actually knows it (like me (I'm not Russian)).

Cheers!

oktyabr · April 24, 2012

I wrote my own guide for n00bs targeted more with those that just bought Arma to play this mod and have really no idea what they are doing.

Licensing: Public Domain. Feel free to read, repost, copy, modify, print it, sell it, have it tattoo'd on your rear, or completely disregard, as you see fit. Credit would be nice but NOT required.

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Oktyabr's Zombie Survival Guide: How to survive your first five minutes:

You will die. You will die often. Get used to the idea, it happens to everyone. The average life expectancy is just over 3 hours at the time of this post! That said here are some tips to at least help you survive your first five minutes...

1) You will start this game alone, somewhere along the coast of a very large chunk of land. As soon as you spawn the bottom right corner will flash some text that will only be on the screen for a few seconds. The second line is the most important as it will give you a rough idea of where you are starting. Pay attention to what it says there, write it down if you must! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU WILL BE GIVEN BY THE GAME! It is very difficult to navigate or meet up with friends if you have no idea where you are starting.

2) The server is synced to "real time" so if it's dark where the server is, it's dark where you are going to spawn too. The first thing you want to do, if you think you are in the water, is swim/walk to shore. Look for the silhouette of the land against the stars if it's night. When you hit dry land or you start on dry land, immediately go prone and get your bearings. This is a good time to look at a map (google "Chernarus map") and look up what the game told you when you spawned. It's not pin point accurate but at least you will have some idea of where you might be! (TIP: there are real maps, and compasses, that can be found in the game and once you have one you can access it with whatever your map key is bound to.)

3) Adjusting your settings: In game communication: Immediately switch your communication channel to "Direct communication" (refer to the binds if you don't remember what yours is). This channel is positional and will only be read when texting or heard, when you are using your mic, by people in very close range to you. You can use the other channels for text but since most broadcast on a map-wide scale you will irritate the other players if you spam them or especially if you use your mic on them! Some people have a hard time understanding that when they key up their microphone on the "global" or "side" channels (the default channel you start on) that they are irritating 40+ other players, map wide, with their chatter. Don't be one of them!

Video and sound: If it's night time you may be able to tweak your brightness and gamma settings in the "Video options" at least enough to see the difference between water and dry land. Water will have a subtle reflection of the starlight on top of the wavelets if you are successful. This is very video card dependent, your mileage may vary. The big thing in the "Audio" menu is the music! It's only there for atmospherics... it doesn't tell you a single thing about if zombies are going to attack... it's creepy as hell and I enjoy it but your sense of hearing, especially at night, is extremely important in this mod. Don't feel bad at all about turning down the music volume or muting it all together. When you, another player, or even a zombie moves in this game it will produce sound cues such as brush being broken, footsteps on pavement, splashing through water, bumping into a chainlink fence, etc. Zombies themselves can be quite vocal, usually producing a lot of low moans, etc. When they have "detected" you and are charging their sound is MUCH more aggressive... you will know when you hear that cue! Pay attention to these cues, your life may depend on it!

4) Basic Gear: You start with some basic gear including a pistol, ammo, a canteen full of water (single use), some food, some road flares and some basic medical supplies. Also a "coyote" pack which can be used to carry extra stuff you find along the way. Become familiar with how to access your "gear" (inventory) in the game and how to switch things in and out of it. There are larger packs in the game too, the largest being the A.L.I.C.E. but everyone starts with the Coyote pack and you'll have to find/steal a larger one if you want it. Canteens can be refilled at a well, pond or even the ocean! Simply walk towards the source of water and your mouse "action" menu, which changes as the context changes, will offer you the option of "refill water bottle". Be patient, it takes a few seconds to do this. If you interrupt the process by shooting or leaving the water too soon it may not get filled even though it said that's what you were doing! An empty water bottle has a red line through it in your inventory. A full one does not. Food must be found or killed but you won't need that for quite awhile yet.

5) The HUD: On your screen you will be given a crosshair like icon showing where you are looking. This icon will change depending on what weapon or object you are holding. Weapons generally look like a crosshair. Flares, grenades and other things that you can throw will have a circle instead. You can switch between weapons, flares, etc. with your "toggle weapon" bind. It will also indicate which you are choosing in the upper right hand corner. TIP: Be sure if you are going to throw a flare, etc. that you immediately switch back to your pistol or other weapon! It's easy to forget to do so when you are being rushed by hungry zombies, or "zed", but let me tell you... throwing additional flares at the whatever is coming to kill you won't hurt them at all...

The crosshair will also sometimes offer a contextual hint, such as when you point it at a pile of ammo you will see a rifle icon appear suggesting you can rearm there. Doors and gates that can be opened and closed will also indicate that with an additional icon, etc. When you have that additional context icon on the screen you can act upon it using your mouse wheel menu, which will appear on the left side of the screen when you move the wheel. If you want to get rid of this menu just right click. Note: you must have that context icon on your screen for the options to show up in the menu! "Looking" at a pack laying on the ground will usually furnish you with several options including "take pack" (which replaces your own! Careful!) and "open pack" (safer). This context/mouse menu thing seems to be one of the trickiest things to learn about the Arma game series, including this particular mod, but it's actually pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it. If you are injured your mouse menu will provide you with the relevant options such as "Bandage yourself" ("Bandage other" is also possible), "Take painkillers", etc. You will bleed like a stuck pig in this game and will quickly die if it's not tended to! At the same time it's difficult to apply bandages while the zed are dismembering your body so choose your medical time wisely. Your mouse menu should always have at least the option to "Drink water" and "Eat food", provided you still have provisions left, and that brings us to...

The status indicators: You will notice on the right hand side of the screen a few different icons. There is sometimes a mod "debug" screen in the upper right but this can disappear or reappear depending on the current update. The icons you should be seeing is an "eye" and an "ear" which will indicate how easy it is for the zombies around you to detect your presence and become "activated". A series of bars indicates the strength of that probability so you really want to see no bars or very few, if you can help it. Stealth is a key factor in survival here. You are almost invisible to zombies when crawling but once they are on to you going prone is just setting the dinner table! Below these are your health indicators; a water bottle, a blood droplet and a fork and knife, representing how hungry you are. Green is good, red is bad, but most of the time these icons will be a subtle shade between the two. If you are bleeding the droplet icon will have a flashing "+" in the middle of it! You will bleed out soon in this mod if you are not bandaged. Once the blood loss is stopped the "+" sign should disappear. When the droplet is very red you are close to being dead. You can replenish lost blood by killing, gutting, cooking and eating wild game you come across, you can also get someone to give you a blood transfusion IF you can find the hospital and someone to help. Hopefully they will soon have it integrated that you will slowly regain blood as long as your food and water icons are green but at the time of this post that's not here yet. Do not waste your food and water! You don't really need to eat or drink until either one of these is quite red. Exerting yourself by running, etc. will deplete your water and food icons more rapidly than sitting still or a slow walk. Remember, you can refill your canteen at any pond, well, or even the ocean. No bad effects (at least not yet!) from drinking sea water either. There are also cans of soda scattered around towns that can be used in lieu of water. Cans of beans, sardines, pasta, etc. are also to be found but food is generally harder to find than a water source is. Don't worry about carrying more than one or two drinks and *always* keep your canteen, even if it's empty, but try to fill up empty slots in your inventory (don't forget your Coyote pack!) with food any chance you get.

6) Movement: Unless you have never played an FPS the movement should be for the most part self explanatory. Note that the faster you move the more noise you will make... pay attention to the bars by your "eye" and "ear" indicators. Arma has binds set up for several different movement actions including "stand", "crouch", and "prone". You can move in any of these stances. There is also a run/sprint bind that may take a bit to get used to using. You can also "double time" by double tapping your movement key before holding it down. Standing, double time run, with the run key held down is the fast way of travel... It's also the noisiest and will tire you the fastest as well. There is no real stamina in this mod. You won't pass out from running but you will hear yourself breathing quite hard and when you raise a weapon to fire it you will notice that it is very difficult to hold the crosshairs (or iron sites) steady until you catch your breath. A "crouch-run" is the best compromise, producing the least of amount of sound for the fastest movement. Crawling, especially around zed, is the safest. Arma also supports "lean" which is quite useful if you aren't used to having it available in other games! Use it. To climb a ladder is a bit different. When you approach a ladder a triangular context icon will appear on the screen pointing up or down depending on the ladder. Use your mouse wheel to select the appropriate "climb ladder..." option and once you have the ladder in your hands press your forward button to climb UP and your backwards movement button to climb DOWN. Note that some watch towers and deer stands you will encounter will seem to drop you back to the ground when you reach the top of the ladder. This is a glitch in this mod that will hopefully be fixed soon. In the meantime simply switch your handheld weapon to a flare (or chemlight, etc.) with your "toggle weapon" bind and you should be able to climb all the way to the top. Arma does NOT have a "jump" action. You can fall off of high objects though, so be careful! In place of a "jump" Arma supports a "step over" bind that is useful for crossing low walls and other obstacles.

7) The Zed: Zombies, or "zed", are not your friends or lost family members. You cannot cure them and it's very difficult to outrun them too. Best thing to do is avoid them when at all possible. In their natural state the zed are most often found shuffling slowly around the area they died or were infected. This usually means buildings, farms, towns and villages. Currently zed do NOT spawn in the wilderness areas but they are working on adding that as well and it is still possible that one might be found there, eating someone that it chased into the wilderness. As a rule of thumb the wilderness is generally safer than the civilized areas. The zed, being once human, have similar senses to ours but not as good. They don't hear as good, they don't see as well (although it's said they have better peripheral vision) and the only thing they care about smelling is fresh flowing blood. As long as they are not "activated" to your presence they are no threat. Do not shoot at zombies just because one is there to shoot at! Gunfire attracts other zombies like a dinner bell attracts a bunch of hungry kids and what seemed like a good idea, just shooting one, can turn quickly into a battle for your life against a dozen or more. Once "activated" a zed will will stop moaning and start screaming, which can in turn activate other close by zombies. They will also run MUCH faster and usually make a beeline for your throat! You will have to develop a feel for how close you can get to a "calm" zed before activating it, usually it's about as far as you could accurately hit it with a tossed stone or so. Pay close attention to your "eye" and "ear" indicators! Too many bars on either of these and you will activate a zed that you otherwise might have slipped by! Crawling, crouched-walk, using obstacles to hide your movement, being careful to avoid making too much noise, etc. are all stealthy techniques that can help you penetrate a zombie infested neighborhood without getting killed. That said sooner or later you WILL have to fire your weapon against a pissed off zombie! ALWAYS aim for the head! In most cases a single headshot will bring them down. Pistols can take several shots elsewhere on the body to do any damage. Bigger weapons are better. They can be very difficult to hit when rushing you too. Expect to die during your first, second, and possibly several zombie encounters, everyone does.

The Zed aren't great swimmers but they aren't afraid of water either! Zed do have a slight problem climbing stairs and ladders but this is only to buy you a little time... they WILL come up (or down) after you, eventually. The best bet is to run up or down a hill. Zed can usually be outran doing either of these for a long enough distance. As a last ditch maneuver run like hell towards another survivor(s) and hopefully they will either help you shoot them or will be appetizing enough that the zombies chasing you will go after them instead! Remember the old joke about the two hunters and the grizzly bear... I don't have to run faster than the grizzly, I just have to run faster than Fred!

Be advised that some zed will actually be encountered laying down on the ground, as if they were dead! Be careful! If you get too close they can hit or bite you without even standing up!

Flares and other light sources: Ok, so you just spawned a few minutes ago, you know where you are, you have an idea of where you want to go, but it's dark as hell out. If you are lucky you may be able to follow the coastline quite a ways without any personal light source but sooner or later you are going to have to use some. Switch to your flares using your "toggle weapon" bind. Click the left mouse button to light one and by default toss it to the ground. You can then pick it up by putting your crosshairs over it and selecting "pick up flare" with the mouse wheel menu. If you hold down the left mouse button you will throw the flare further based on how long you hold the button down. Aim high, hold the mouse button, throw it a long ways. At the moment you cannot pick up a flare and throw it again, only drop it. This also works for chemlights and is the method of using grenades, both smoke (zombies will often chase after a smoke grenade, leaving you alone) and HE. If you drop a lit flare you can also choose "extinguish flare" from the mouse menu. This is useful if you think a party of potential bandits is headed your way. Avoid carrying a light when you can, be very careful how and where you move if you cannot avoid it.

You may find a flashlight in the game. These are great, light up a long distance, can be turned on and off and the batteries seem to last forever. Bad news is that you cannot (currently) hold a flashlight in one hand and your pistol in the other. If you have a rifle or other larger weapon you CAN hold the flashlight... just put your revolver and ammo in your pack for safe keeping. There are also some rare weapons that have tactical flashlights built into them. There are also rumors of night vision goggles but I have yet to see them for myself.

9) Foraging for supplies: There are a lot of things to be found in this game and almost everything you can pickup has a purpose, even if it's not immediately useful. You will find most items inside buildings, even in doorways. You can also take gear off of dead survivors (or living ones, if they let you!). You will very rarely find anything in the wilderness except other players and the occasional wild animal. Bigger cities tend to have better stuff than smaller ones but will also tend to attract more people to them looking for the same sort of stuff. Items respawn on a regular basis so if a building doesn't have anything in it once be sure to look again if you pass it a second time an hour later, etc.

10) Avoid the basic n00b mistakes: Many of these will be avoided just by following the tips I've given up above:

-Don't travel down the middle of the highway, EVER! Nothing says "n00b" more than a lone survivor carrying a lit flare and making a bunch of noise running as fast as he can down the middle of a highway.

- Try to use cover when ever possible. Know you might be fired upon at any time and get used to playing as if there was a sniper crosshair looking for you constantly.

- Try NOT to make more noise than you need to. Sound is very important in this game.

- Try NOT to use light, except when you really need it. Chemlights are better for carrying than flares. They last much longer and don't light up half the country side alerting everyone to your presence.

- If you are in a group try to stay spread out so you aren't all clumped together in one big target of opportunity. Cover each others backs, watch your six if you are at the end of the line.

- Close doors and gates behind you!

- Remember, friendly fire is ON. Watch your fire! You can shoot a teammate just as easily as you can the zombie that's trying to maul him.

- Remember you can apply first aid (if you have any left) to fallen teammates as well as yourself. A good mouse menu context option is to look at a fallen survivor and then select "check pulse". It will tell you if they are dead or can possibly be saved.

- Gunfire WILL attract zombies... and other players, for better or worse. The crossbow has a strong advantage here, besides being able to reuse it's ammo (if you can find it again!)

- The sound of many flies buzzing around is a good way to locate a fresh corpse to loot. Flies aren't attracted to zombies for some reason, only dead players.

- Don't trust *anyone* by default! PvP is a huge component of this mod and there are players who seem to have made it their personal goal just to murder and pillage. It's realistic so that will probably never go away. The devs are working on some sort of "reputation" or "morality" system to help tame down rampant deathmatch but that component will always be there. That said, the ONE goal you have as a new player is to survive! If killing someone for their food, meds or ammo is the only way to help you do that you simply have to ask yourself... is it worth it? Not everyone is out to get you and I haven't played a session yet where I didn't team up with at least one total stranger. Just be warned that encounters with other players have the potential to end badly too.

- A common way of declaring your peacefulness is to yell over VOIP (remember, "Direct communication" channel ONLY!) "Friendly! I'm friendly!". Some without mics have adopted the "salute" action to represent the same (it's a key bind also). Fortunately you don't have to kill anyone to get what you need, once you have a little experience and some common sense!

11) Leaving the server: DayZ is being developed as a "persistent" mod. It's not quite there yet but for the most part it works. Basically it works like this... if you die you are dead and have to respawn just like the first time. If you leave the server while you are alive you will then be able to rejoin the server at a later time (in theory ANY server, since they all use a common map and common data base) and you will appear in the same place you were when you left and all your gear should be intact. Your automatic "save" location is updated every sixty seconds and when the mod presents you with a "mod debug" screen you can see how long it is until the database stores your position (and your gear) again. The data base is occasionally flushed as new patches are added to the game code. One day it should be stable enough to give you persistence for days or months even but right now it's anybodies guess how long your information will remain intact.

Be sure to check daily for new code updates! And enjoy.

2024-11-07T14:29:43Z

Holy wall of text batman.

Very nice though, May I use a few bits from this?

oktyabr · April 24, 2012

Holy wall of text batman.
Very nice though' date=' May I use a few bits from this?
[/quote']
Mine? Help yourself! Credit would be nice but not required. I edited it to put more emphasis on the "licensing".

(AEF)Goldilocks7 · April 23, 2012

i might also suggest that anyone asking someone if they are friendly or not needs to really think it over. no matter what your intentions everyone will reply yes.

2024-11-07T14:29:43Z

Credit would be given, of course it would!

Just types up a few things that I dont have to type, hehe. :D

@Goldilocks - Exactly, they will do it to get the scoop on you, I have been sitting with eyes on a player before and asked friendly? To which they reply "Yes", because I know where they are but they cannot see me... Asking these questions should only be done if needed or just to scare people, Like I like doing :D Im not mean honest!

I won't kill people but seeing someone looking around all over the place in panic is something that has its funny moments.

blackbeard06 · April 23, 2012

thank you all for your helpful input! I have added your tips in the guide and for Oktyabr, you now have your own section!

oktyabr · April 24, 2012

thank you all for your helpful input! I have added your tips in the guide and for Oktyabr' date=' you now have your own section!
[/quote']
Thanks! It's an honor!

(AEF)Goldilocks7 · April 23, 2012

i noticed an error in oktybar's survival guide, the largest pack to the coyote backpack and you start with the coyote patrol pack. the coyote backpack has i think either 4 or 5 more slots than the A.L.I.C.E pack.

also with the friendly thing, everyone will say they are friendly even if they are going on a homicidal rampage. so you have to always think twice bout trusting people but don't be afraid to do it.

nuttex · April 24, 2012

11. In case you find yourself staring at the road sign with text like this, it might be a good idea to google the aforementioned Charnarus map and compare the Cyrillic/Latin spellings of geographical names. It helps in case you are totally incapable of reading Cyrillic letters.

12. Perhaps the best place to start looking for some serious weaponry is the town hall in Chernogorsk. On the entrance you can almost always find some AR (such as AKM). If you go around the building, on the corners opposite to the front side, you'll find one of rain pipes which you can climb on. On the rooftop, you can find all sorts from firearms and supplies, ranging from a simple, yet stylish M1911 to M4A3 CCO with flashtorch. So far, AKM, AK-74, AKS-74U, M16A2, M4A1, M4A3, CZ 550, MP5, Winchester have been known to spawn there. You can also find M107/M240 ammunition up there.

13. In addition to lakes, ponds and water pumps, you can also use sea as a water supply. Drinking sea water has no negative effects and apparently is handled as simply "water".

anthonyat33@gmail.com · April 23, 2012

12. Perhaps the best place to start looking for some serious weaponry is the town hall in Chernogorsk. On the entrance you can almost always find some AR (such as AKM). If you go around the building' date=' on the corners opposite to the front side, you'll find one of rain pipes which you can climb on. On the rooftop, you can find all sorts from firearms and supplies, ranging from a simple, yet stylish M1911 to M4A3 CCO with flashtorch. So far, AKM, AK-74, AKS-74U, M16A2, M4A1, M4A3, CZ 550, MP5, Winchester have been known to spawn there. You can also find M107/M240 ammunition up there.
[/quote']
All those weapons do spawn there plus the M4A1 CCO and the M1014

Freyar · April 26, 2012

It's a good start up, but I have got to emphatically suggest that newer players start during the day. Spend the day getting your bearings, learning the areas. There's only so much you can do with limited equipment and flares.

I spent my time in a fairly confined area.

scramb13r · April 25, 2012

At night Never run with a flare or light source in your hands! I myself have preyed upon those who visualize themselves. To better hide yourself at night just suck it up and run in the dark! Please make sure you are doing this in a safe area such as the beach or a well known location!

^^ Please, Please, Please ignore this...I promise no harm will come to you *shifty eyes*

nuttex · April 24, 2012

15. You can easily find out what town/city/village you are in by finding road sings which stand in the ends of settlement or railway stations which have big boards with town name on them.

mrnicklebe · April 25, 2012

If you find yourself lost in the middle of the night with no compass. You can easily find north by using this method:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df6-M4iAv_o

I realised last night that I needed to turn my gamma down so I could see the big dipper properly. Once I had found it the North Star was pretty clear to me which helped me get back to the coast where it's easier to see at night.

ThatGuy (DayZ) · April 27, 2012