Lone Wolf Survival Guide

[Kriegman 22]

Hi fellow survivors.

I have been playing DayZ as a lone wolf hunter/stalker since early May and have developed somewhat successful technique stalking and raiding large clan groups which I want to share with you. This is a very rewarding activity in DayZ as you get to loot the best equipment, ammo, rifles, food, drinks with minimal risk and get gratification of outsmarting entire clans. First of all this is not for new players, rather you will need to be able to navigate the terrain using compass and map and know exactly where you are at all times. Secondly this is by far not a complete guide, rather a set of techniques and ideas I have developed. Finally patience is the key, I have stalked some groups for well over a week straight until zeroed in on their stashes and their MO.

I. Stuff you need

Assuming you just spawned on the beach and have nothing, head inland to a nearest town with a store. You will need large backpack, hunting knife, hatchet, matches, some food and drinks to get you going. While there you will likely pick up a sidearm and maybe a basic iron sight rifle or shotgun.

Essentially you need gear to be able to live in the woods for a long time, the list can vary and you will upgrade with the better equipment as time goes on. The main goal is to minimize number of trips to towns for supplies where you become vulnerable.

II. Identifying groups

Once you have the basics, you need to find a good DayZ sever that has persistent clan population. Servers populated with guys sporting the same clan tags are perfect for this. Now let’s take a look at the map http://dayzmap.info/ . Most clans have several camp sites within 5km NW airfield and Stary Sobor resource chokepoint for obvious reasons. You need to carefully make your way to a good observation point on one of these locations with a commanding view of the entire area. Stay put for some time simply watching the traffic. In my experience you will see one or two guys run in to the loot spawn area and commence shooting Zs and loot. Don’t shoot them or let them know someone is watching, chances are there are other guys in a sniper position with gilly suit and DMR covering them from a distance. You are here to watch and observe the movement. Assuming they clear the spawn watch the direction they head to, in many cases these guys will have a vehicle parked in the woods nearby which they use to dump off the loot and comeback. Other groups have a designated driver that comes in and picks up the looters. What you want to watch for is the direction of travel. 9 out of 10 times they will travel away from the loot spawn and then turn in to general direction of their camp to drop off vehicles and loot. Having long range draw distance at 3Km or further will help visually follow targets as long as they remain in line of sight.

III. Stalking

Since we are stalking groups of players you need to understand that they are all likely in the same TeamSpeak channel and are using scout to move. That means if you see one guy headed to town, there likely others on the ridge or in the treeline 500m behind him. Sit back get a drink and watch, sooner or later the scout will sound “all clear” and the group will trickle in to another cover position. You want to be positioned behind or to the side of main group as far back as possible. Only move when the main group is moving as well. Simply fast crawling in 3^rd person to keep an eye on them in many cases sufficient as they tend to stop frequently and scan for targets or hostiles. Try to stay in shrubs, tree lines and away from any structures that would profile you against the background. At this point you have an upper hand since your targets are not aware of anyone following them and are ripe for picking. My weapon of choice in the Wildlands is M4A1 CCO SD, many times I crept up unnoticed to less than 150m from groups and killed 2 or 3 guys within 10 seconds. Some instinctively run back towards you assuming fire is coming from where they were headed. Of course silenced rifle is optimal, but AKS-74 or regular M4A1 will do which means you give off your position and allow some to escape behind cover.

IV. Finding Camps

In my experience some of the juicy camps with veihcles and tents filled with all the military equipment you will ever want all were found North and West of the NW airfield. The reason is simple, the wild lands area is desolate with large expases of wooded areas and deep vales. Take time to scour North of Devils castle, Pertovka, Skala, West of Lopatino, and Pustoshka. Don’t forget to check hills behind the maps edge, I have often found fully stocked ATVs and pickup trucks a kilometer off the map. The amount of loot some of these groups collect is insane. You will never have to loot by yourself if you know location of other peoples stashes on different servers.

When running through wooded areas pay close attention to clusters of pine trees, they provide good concealment for tents which often jammed packed with goodies. You have to think in terms of “where on the map I feel the safests to place a camp”. This usually includes off the path areas, deep valleys, and woods.

I hope this helps other lone wolf survivors out there, be safe!

Edited September 11, 2012 by Kriegman

[steve t 32]

Interesting read....thank you for sharing.

[Kriegman 22]

Today I tried something new. I camped Stary Sobor medical tent area at medium range with M107. Before long two guys showed up and proceeded to shoot Zs and loot all the tents. I watched them for about 10-15 minutes, they ran around shot up all the Zs. One guy had M1014 the other G17 with DMR on the back. I could not get a clear shot on both of them so decided to hold back and watch. After some time my luck has changed, they stopped near the large tents apparently to trade loot, I zeroed my M107 at 200m and aligned cross-hairs center mass on "Frontier Justice". Two quick shots pierced the silence, and both targets died cleanly. Looted their corpses of all valuables and ran off to the wilderness.

The lesson of the day: Let others loot for you, it is much safer to collect the goodies of their bodies.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Kriegman

[RogueOne 112]

This is pretty much my exact style of play. Good read.

[kryvian 123]

I just know where people generally put up tents on the edge of the map. The things you find NW and NE. X3

[KRiNK 0]

Interesting read, I am pretty new to the game, and have been learning "routes" and layouts of villages and cities. (found a tent with a few goodies outside of Pusta today..! ) This will surely come in handy for me, I usually play in a group of 3 (me and 2 of my buddies we are all pretty new) going to show them this in hopes that they can learn some new tricks to! We enjoy playing a "sneak and silent stalker" type of gameplay :) thanks!

[Loke (DayZ) 4]

thanks for the tips. good reading