It's a cruel, cruel world for a noob

[El_Seed 4]

Spawn on the beach near-ish to settlements numerous times, discover that most houses can't be entered, that zombies are almost telepathic, and I can't seem to figure out how to equip an axe.

Get away from the beach, run through the hills like a madman and come to what appears to be the edge of the world. Menader inland and happen to spot a cluster of tents. I decide to play the nice guy and leave them alone (silly me, thinking there's predictable courtesy in this game). Eventually come to a settlement (find a field, follow the fences), but the un-enterable houses and telepathic zombies keep me from finding that water I'm lacking. Eventually die of thirst.

Finally play at night, find out that with some care, one can indeed sneak past zombies. One can also lose them with some trickery (diving into shrubs is pretty reliable when the mythbusters zombie is behind you).

Grab an axe again, figure out how to equip it. Pow - zombies go down with one hit and quietly at that. Hit up the hospital and find oodles of medical supplies. Good thing too because I inevitably start bleeding next zombie encounter. Dying of thirst and finally come across some soda and canned goods. Come across a revolver at some point - can now pop zeds at range ... so long as I clear the area. Snagging makarov mags like mad, but no guns. Find a commissary and jackpot - map, food, plenty of soda, water bottle, 1860, binoculars, bigger pack, and a nice reserve of ammo for the boomstick and the revolver ... and even more makarov mags (sure would be nice to find one since I hear they're quiet-ish).

Starting to log out when the silhouette of a player comes into view. Server helpfully logs me back in so I can watch myself get shot in the face. M4 with ACOG if I recall.

Thus it goes...

Can't complain too badly about the game, although the "run" key gets confused at times.

["Lost" Alice 205]

Aw, I feel your pain.

It's a hard world out there for a newbie,

but stick with it! :) This is a very rewarding mod,

despite the steep learning curve.

[Jay Shack 28]

sounds like you're learning alot faster than me when i started this game.

P.S zombies go off sound so crouch walk past them (left shift) and avoid running on bitumen :)

[El_Seed 4]

Yes, the learning curve will be steep. But I know better than to punch holes in my monitor.

Probably got bushwhacked largely because I was too greedy - made two passes through the store and tried to optimize my haul. Should have prioritized then GTFO. Also shouldn't have tried to log there.

Seems like respawning is going to be a matter of getting killed repeatedly until you can grab some useful tools and fight effectively. Sucks finding utterly useless main rotors, tires, auto glass, and the omnipresent empty cans, but gotta roll with the punches.

Getting some weird graphics issues in industrial areas where there are catwalks - suppose there's another forum to read up on those.

[Furry_PawstarZ 31]

Sure would be nice if you found a makarov over a revolver, your kidding me right?? revolver 1 shot kill.. makarov 3 shots, i'd stick with the 45.

[CoolCain10 55]

This might sound stupid to the op but if you find a town and come across a hatchet, matches, hunting knife and finally a couple of water bottles you can fill them up and you are ready to head north you do not need a gun but it's handy having and you can take medical supplies if you are sticking to the roads (I suggest don't) as it is likely you will find a couple of deer stands with guns in them and also a few barns with some winchesters/lee enfields if you want to cheat and find out where all the deer stands are use this link dayzdb.com.

Sure would be nice if you found a makarov over a revolver, your kidding me right?? revolver 1 shot kill.. makarov 3 shots, i'd stick with the 45.

Don't listen to this guy all gun due to the latest Arma2 patch have less damage and all equal amounts of damage

[dilorenzovictor@gmail.com 36]

Spawn on the beach near-ish to settlements numerous times, discover that most houses can't be entered, that zombies are almost telepathic, and I can't seem to figure out how to equip an axe.

Get away from the beach, run through the hills like a madman and come to what appears to be the edge of the world. Menader inland and happen to spot a cluster of tents.

That was my night to a t lol

[Furry_PawstarZ 31]

This might sound stupid to the op but if you find a town and come across a hatchet, matches, hunting knife and finally a couple of water bottles you can fill them up and you are ready to head north you do not need a gun but it's handy having and you can take medical supplies if you are sticking to the roads (I suggest don't) as it is likely you will find a couple of deer stands with guns in them and also a few barns with some winchesters/lee enfields if you want to cheat and find out where all the deer stands are use this link dayzdb.com.

Don't listen to this guy all gun due to the latest Arma2 patch have less damage and all equal amounts of damage

sorry but in the 95660 patch my revolver kills zombies in one hit so get the facts before you comment.

[renegadeknight 1]

I'm a noob as well and had a similar experience, the main difference being I never saw who killed me.

[FrankFisher 46]

Keep trying and don't give up!

[Ekskimon 0]

Spawn on the beach near-ish to settlements numerous times, discover that most houses can't be entered, that zombies are almost telepathic, and I can't seem to figure out how to equip an axe.

Have some spare room in your inventory -> left click on axe in tool belt -> Go kill murder some Zed's :)

[Lord Daem 15]

Its is very hard for a n00b!

I started yesterday and was running at a military airport from what seemed like a horde of zombies! The server I was in had side chat so I asked for help and a guy said he was in the next hangar and had dropped an AKM and some mags in the one I'm stuck in.

I was hiding in a container, so I crawled out and found the AKM! Suddenly I hear screams and even more zombies are running at me!

I don't have time to react, so I run towards the other hangar where said player is with some friends, both also have automatic weapons.

So what do they do? Run around, avoiding the zombies and both unload their magazines into me shouting "that's for bringing zombies"!

That was my longest life so far....and it only lasted about 10 minutes :(

[Majkman 0]

sorry but in the 95660 patch my revolver kills zombies in one hit so get the facts before you comment.

Have you thought about the noise the revolver gives away?

Anyways El_Seed! You are indeed a quick learner but don't lose hope in players yet! Some can actually be friendly!

[skotish 13]

Yes as above dont turn too the dark side right away even thought it's cool to be a baddie try keepin your humanity for a bit as in this game there's so many douches

[taylor422 1]

I was able to make a run through Electro and get some basic supplies. Where to next?

[El_Seed 4]

Sure would be nice if you found a makarov over a revolver, your kidding me right?? revolver 1 shot kill.. makarov 3 shots, i'd stick with the 45.

I came across 2 revolver magazines and almost a dozen makarov magazines, which I suspect would put down more zeds in addition to being a little quieter.

This might sound stupid to the op but if you find a town and come across a hatchet, matches, hunting knife and finally a couple of water bottles you can fill them up and you are ready to head north you do not need a gun but it's handy having and you can take medical supplies if you are sticking to the roads (I suggest don't) as it is likely you will find a couple of deer stands with guns in them and also a few barns with some winchesters/lee enfields if you want to cheat and find out where all the deer stands are use this link dayzdb.com.

I hear the Lee-Enfield referred to as "the dinner bell" often enough to be leery of it. Winchesters, on the other hand, seem decent.

Anyways El_Seed! You are indeed a quick learner but don't lose hope in players yet! Some can actually be friendly!

Having read about and watched a good deal of gameplay, I expect to get bushwhacked with some regularity. Just seems to be the nature of the beast.

[Predictable Platypus 3]

Yeah there isn't much more then keep trying and learn what tactics work for you most. Whatever happens to you in-game you will always have experience, so get as much as you can.

[DR@GON (DayZ) 20]

The advice I give to my gaming buddies who are just starting out... don't expect to live until you're more experienced. Use you fresh spawn exploring the mechanics of how the zombies behave, how to loose them, how the sight & sound indicators work in execution, how the inventory and "tactical menu" work. search the web / forums for tips & knows bugs.

As for the hatchet, right click on it in your tool belt to put it in your hands... you can put it back the same way (it has to be reloaded to use it as a weapon). The flashlight has to be equipped in a similar way.

I would say 95-99% of encounters between players end with one of them dead. Trust people at your own risk. (Caps-lock key is default "push to talk" button for in game chat... 15m radius)

Once you get the basics figured out, I advise making a "reckless" dash into a city to get a few basic items (a lot actually) on a lowly populated server, then get into the wilderness. When I'm in this phase, I have no mercy, if you're in the city, it's kill or be killed imo... it's like a deathmatch arena in my experience. I'll generally be less cold hearted once I get outside the cities (but not by a lot)

In no particular order, here is what you need (or what I look for anyway)

- weapons and ammo (a primary AND a side arm) 3-4 mags for each

- backpack (Alice pack ideally)

- water bottles

- can food / drink in small amounts

- medical supplies

- toolbelt items, as many as you can find... priority items = map, compass, hatchet, hunting knife, matches

Dead bodies of survivors often have a lot of these items in 1 place, so listen for flies buzzing... be cautious, the murderer might be around still.

[alan.dougherty@ntlworld.com 24]

1911 and revolver have interchangeable ammo.. if you have a clip of .45, right click it, and you can convert it to 1911 ammo, and vice versa..

The 1911 and the revolver are still the best handguns in the game, so either one is good, and you can convert the ammo from one to the other.

[decoman 45]

I think it's a good ide to not take the gameplay too serious the first time around, in order to perhaps try ending up making some mistakes and learn from that.

[DR@GON (DayZ) 20]

I agree with treehugger... hell I consider myself pretty well experienced now and I'm still learning things (usually on death lol).

I've had some pretty drastic ups & downs, been killed with lots of cool loot, lost rare weapons due to glitches, but I just don't let it bother me for too long. The game is great and starting fresh gets easier every time you do it.

[Rikarue 2011]

sounds like you're learning alot faster than me when i started this game.

Yup, same here, took me a while to even realise that a general store had guns in it.

[El_Seed 4]

I'm still not confident with sneaking past zeds, although I've found that moving deliberately helps, as does knowing when to GTFO and try to evade them. They're going to spot you - It's just going to happen.

Found some weird behavior with the axe the other day - a hopper had locked on to me and I decided to crouch before engaging ... 3 point-blank swings later it's still hitting me and I'm collapsing as it chows down on me.

Had an encounter with someone who must have spawned not far and not long from me on the beach the other day ... they ran up on the road, used the local voice chat, then attracted and proceeded to remove a horde of zeds from the town I was sneaking up on. Thanks for drawing them away for me, and sorry that you ended up in their gut shortly thereafter.

Also, while the Winchester may well be quiet for a long gun, its thunder seems to roll downhill across open fields invitingly - must have squandered 35+ rounds of ammo finishing off nearly every zed in the village that came racing some ~200+ meters and got little more than a bandage or two for my trouble and ~6000 blood loss. And the deer stand I was heading towards was all but empty.

Note to self: headshots are not important with the winchester.

Still can't find sidearms to save my life, but my corpse typically has 6+ makarov mags onhand every time.

Edited August 9, 2012 by El_Seed

[cody56 0]

I gotta feeling im gonna die like 20 times before i get the hang of this.

[mio.rogvall@gmail.com 107]

1911 and revolver have interchangeable ammo.. if you have a clip of .45, right click it, and you can convert it to 1911 ammo, and vice versa..

The 1911 and the revolver are still the best handguns in the game, so either one is good, and you can convert the ammo from one to the other.

G17 is better. Same damage and more bullets.