10 Rules For Survival

[hatesauce 99]

I have been thinking about this for a long time and how often I witness people complaining about bandits or people killing on sight but, I also consider real situations where the few survivors who have guns and how they would potentially react in a survival situation.

Some people would say "I wouldn't kill for food." while others would shoot you just because you have a bigger pack or items they could utilize. In this sense I do consider DayZ to be a survival simulator as opposed to just senseless survival/pvp. So here are my top 10 survival rules for DayZ and real-life in a respective situation:

Rule #1) In a survival situation consider EVERYONE a threat unless you personally know them. This means shoot first ask questions later - killing someone on sight doesn't make you bad because 9 times out of 10 they will do the same to you.

Rule #2) Not to state the obvious but, find a gun above anything else. A gun will save your life, food and water should be secondary to protection. If you can't protect yourself you're dead anyway.

Rule #3) Stay out of main cities unless absolutely necessary. You will find more people are there to take what you have - scavenging previously high population areas is risky.

Rule #4) Power is always in numbers. Being alone is an eventual death sentence and in most cases results in a rather quick death. Other people are not the only threat. Anything from

falling off stairs to trapping yourself in a corner are easy ways to die when alone. So invite some friends to play DayZ. Convince them, beg them and beat them to join you.

Rule #5) Always use the trees as cover. I can not stress enough how excellent trees/bushes/forests are for concealing your activity. This goes hand in hand with making campfires.

Rule #6) Carry additional and alternative weapons and ammo. Varied weapons allow for back up in case you run out of primary and secondary ammos.

Rule #7) Find an ax, a knife and matches. Why? Because making camp fires and hunting live animals is safer than running to town for food plus, meat heals for more than double what beans do and you get much more from wild animals than you would from a canned food spawn.

Rule #8)The best areas to find items are actually outside the cities, in tents, placed by other players. With patience and perseverance you can find all sorts of stashed loot and vehicles in the outskirts of the main map bordering the forest and the "debug forest".

Rule #9) Crawling can save your life. Silence can often be a savior when dealing with Zeds and even actual players. That being said, don't shoot your gun unless you have to.

Rule #10) Whenever you notice a dead body hide, get to a safe vantage point and check your surroundings, snipers and bandits alike will often use fresh kills to bait curious and greedy players.

Edited August 15, 2012 by hatesauce