A noob unfriendly game.

[-Atlas- 5]

I am no more than a noob myself in this game, but I have managed to stay alive so far. What I think may pay off is whenever you see a house, or a place that could have loot in it, to just observe it for a while. Lets say, 5 to 10 minutes, from a decently close distance. This will:

A. Make sure there are/aren't any zombies around.

B. Familiarize you with their locations and paths.

Zombies lumber around, but the way I've experienced it, they have loooong, seemingly random paths. So it pays off to wait for a zombie to pass by before sneaking into a building.

[kander 80]

Best way to get past zeds - crawl prone until you find a hatchet. Then you can isolate individual ones (which aren't in line of sight of others) by quickly standing up behind them and hitting them on the head with the hatchet. They go down in one hit before they know what's hit em. Then, you can loot their corpse corpses and they may even have useful stuff on them, even if it's just a can of beans.

Another piece of advice. This is my personal opinion btw: Until you get a bigger pack don't bother with a primary weapon other than the hatchet. If you use a Lee Enfield in town for example, chances are you're as good as dead, and it take too long to drop a rifle/shotgun and equip the hatchet if you surprise a zed. You're also going to have to drop your primary every single time you want to use the hatchet, Concentrate on tooling up and finding a pack which will accept a primary weapon before you sling a primary ranged weapon. You'll probably lose a fight with a bandit in any case, Do grab a pistol for emergencies though as it's not going to get in the way.

[sudZ! 115]

Best way to get past zeds - crawl prone until you find a hatchet. Then you can isolate individual ones (which aren't in line of sight of others) by quickly standing up behind them and hitting them on the head with the hatchet. They go down in one hit before they know what's hit em. Then, you can loot their corpse corpses and they may even have useful stuff on them, even if it's just a can of beans.

Another piece of advice. This is my personal opinion btw: Until you get a bigger pack don't bother with a primary weapon other than the hatchet. If you use a Lee Enfield in town for example, chances are you're as good as dead, and it take too long to drop a rifle/shotgun and equip the hatchet if you surprise a zed. You're also going to have to drop your primary every single time you want to use the hatchet, Concentrate on tooling up and finding a pack which will accept a primary weapon before you sling a primary ranged weapon. You'll probably lose a fight with a bandit in any case, Do grab a pistol for emergencies though as it's not going to get in the way.

I agree for the most part, but if you find a springfield early... cherish it. It has saved me early on from bandits and zeds. It's quiet, relatively strong (especially against zeds) and there's lots of ammo for it (check barns).

[Hellvern 1]

Thanks very much guys for the information! Its all come a lot in handy, and on my latest go i've managed to survive for two days (and counting) I have a Hatchet, map, watch etc, and a M1911 as back up with six mags in case I run across any players (yet to come across face to face with any at the moment as I often circle a place and wait before hitting it, saw some guys carrying a lot of guns once and hid in a bush until they left).

Best way to get past zeds - crawl prone until you find a hatchet. Then you can isolate individual ones (which aren't in line of sight of others) by quickly standing up behind them and hitting them on the head with the hatchet. They go down in one hit before they know what's hit em. Then, you can loot their corpse corpses and they may even have useful stuff on them, even if it's just a can of beans.

Another piece of advice. This is my personal opinion btw: Until you get a bigger pack don't bother with a primary weapon other than the hatchet. If you use a Lee Enfield in town for example, chances are you're as good as dead, and it take too long to drop a rifle/shotgun and equip the hatchet if you surprise a zed. You're also going to have to drop your primary every single time you want to use the hatchet, Concentrate on tooling up and finding a pack which will accept a primary weapon before you sling a primary ranged weapon. You'll probably lose a fight with a bandit in any case, Do grab a pistol for emergencies though as it's not going to get in the way.

I think, although a lot of the other info is good, I'd agree 100% with this, a hatchet is the first thing I found, I experimented with a crossbow and a shotgun and they were not worth wasting my time over. The Hatchet is brilliant for what I have, its allowed me to take out zombies nice and quiet (i've cleared a small village by just creeping about with an axe now) there are loads lying around, and I prefer it over pretty much everything else. What you've said I think is absolutely spot on advice and i'll be sure to say the same to others should they ever ask me.

I've also overcome the zombie chasing me obstacle, although now I can simply walk past them unnoticed, I figured what I was doing wrong before was I was previously in woods or areas that weren't as dense as say a Pine forest, or I wasn't running through bushes or up a hill (which works very well also) so the zombies maintained visual pretty much throughout.

So many thanks to all those who said a few words of wisdom and some good links, its been very helpful and its allowed me to slip into the game pretty quickly and survive for a prolonged period.

[sausagekingofchicago 4711]

All well and good, but thats real hard to do if there are no buildings to run into (at least not without attracting more of them) or if your spawned in a large open plain. My first attempt I thought that running through the trees, and trying to restealth would help me out, but one of the infected was just all out relentless and was still after me, thats when i got hit and started to lose blood. That was a bit of a shock. But the next few times I was hugely unlucky with where I spawned and being attacked almost instantly didn't help either.

The best way to lose zombies is to find a series of pine trees with branches all the way to the ground or a series of large bushes. ZIg zag through them while staying as close to the center of the tree as possible without hitting it. By the third or fourth tree the zombies will lose interest in you. You need to be standing and running for this to work.

Every once in a while a single zombie will be more determined than others. If you can't kill it then you need to do the tree thing again but this time make a big change in direction when the zombie can't see you. You can even try making a u-turn at the last tree. Make sure you're not running on concrete or hard ground at this point as they can hear that too. It helps if you use the number pad to look behind you while running. This way you can time things better.

Once you master this you can run through towns like a champ and not worry a bit about zombies.

You can also throw tin cans and bottles to lure zombies away from your path.

Everything else you listed sounds more like lag or maybe players kiting zombies towards the spawns. Look for the lowest latency possible when choosing a server. Since you're new I'd avoid highly populated servers.

Get a hatchet, go to your inventory, right click on it, select 'remove from toolbelt', reload :) and now you're ready to at least defend yourself indoors.

Don't crawl unless you're worried about players or want to roleplay or something. When you come up to a place like a barn, wait in cover. The zombies will spawn, if they haven't already, and slowly move away from the structure. That's when you can crouch walk (or even stand walk if you're brave) to the barn. Running makes noise so only do that on soft grass or when you're safe from zombies.

[rocky46 16]

im playing alone as usual :)

Edited August 3, 2012 by Rocky46

[bobalonius 11]

My experience in this game so far is that it's not a noob unfriendly game, it's pretty much an everybody unfriendly game. ;)

I've only met one person so far who didn't try to kill me on sight. <_<

That being said, I've come to love my hatchet, especially at night. The Z's are pretty much blind at night. It makes for some nice scavenging in towns. Just gotta avoid those other survivors.

[Wyx 0]

Sure, but you learn real quick and in 3-5 hrs later, you'll facepalm at at this thread.

My advice for nubs would be to separte your first hours into learing how to lose zombies. Don't bother with anything else until you know this. Intentionally aggro zombies and practice evasion by zig-zagging through fences, buildings, bushes, etc.

[Heiduk 265]

This is my personal opinion btw: Until you get a bigger pack don't bother with a primary weapon other than the hatchet.

This 1000 times. I've just started a new character and its the first time I've used the hatchet much. It is absolutely brilliant. Of course it helps, that I just spent the last 2 hours raiding every deer stand, barn and farm house in my path and the only other weapon I found was a double barrel.

[SPIGOT THE BEAR 0]

I've yet to die in DayZ, all I had to do at the start was be sure to crawl through towns making sure to remain as invisible to zombies as possible until I found a hatchet to defend myself with. I did watch a few video guides and browse through DayZ wiki to get the basics of inventory and healing down and I've been more or less set.

[rocky46 16]

I've yet to die in DayZ, all I had to do at the start was be sure to crawl through towns making sure to remain as invisible to zombies as possible until I found a hatchet to defend myself with. I did watch a few video guides and browse through DayZ wiki to get the basics of inventory and healing down and I've been more or less set.

not died yet? how long have you been playing?

[SPIGOT THE BEAR 0]

not died yet? how long have you been playing?

Off and on for the past week or two, I've only encountered a small amount of players and only a couple of them were capable of pointing a gun at me.

[Mos1ey 6301]

Zombie aggro is definitely bugged right now. Since .4 released every time I'm crouch walking, the zombies near me all stay chill then one 100m away, looking the other direction will freak out, lol. Just gotta keep your ears open and get away before you're hit. Trying to run away while bleeding or bandage yourself with aggro zombies around won't work, lol.

Run into a big building if possible, drop your primary, whip out and reload the hatchet and drop the zombies that follow you. Remember the hatchet functions like a firearm with tiny range so aim for the rib cage when they get close and you'll drop them in one swing every time.

[rocky46 16]

My experience in this game so far is that it's not a noob unfriendly game, it's pretty much an everybody unfriendly game. ;)

I've only met one person so far who didn't try to kill me on sight. <_<

That being said, I've come to love my hatchet, especially at night. The Z's are pretty much blind at night. It makes for some nice scavenging in towns. Just gotta avoid those other survivors.

lol yeah its tough for everyone no matter how good you think you are, expect to die at any moment since the image in my last post i rejoined the same server my bus was gone so i trekked across the north section of the map for about an half an hour to the camp where i first found the bus since i knew there was more vehicles there, area was clear lloted some jerry cans and a ghille suit got on a motor cycle and headed out again on my way back encountered a guy driving some shitty car, he got out as i tried to wizz past him but he managed to shoot me to bleeding i have no clue how he managed to keep up and shoot at the same time but he did and headshotted me while i was bandaging some 3 miles away from first encounter within 5 seconds im abit sceptical about my death this time it was as tho he was chasing me and drive by shooting which isnt possible in dayz he would have had to have some sick long range weapon and be an epic marks man with the distance i got and how quick he got me, but yeah thats dayz for ya and i guess he desperatly wanted that motorcycle back