[Guide] A Survivor's Tactics (Without SOS)

[Ravenspear 22]

Well, due to the rollback on the forums, my previous thread was erased from existence. I understand that the moderators are doing their best to penalize the individual concerned, and I wish them great luck on that endeavor. In the words of our dear creator, rocket...

Did anyone else see someones post on his steam forum profile:

Quote:a bunch of raging autists are about to go after you

distract them with legos

Damn. That made me lol extremely hard.

Anyway, moving on from that, it would seem that my previous thread was well received among some of the more rational individuals that browse the forums, so in an attempt to repeat that success, I've translated what little of it I can remember into this guide. For those of you that are interested, my IGN is Raven. Hit me up or send me a teamspeak channel if you want to chat, but I'm generally only around in the evening EST.

There are ten points...

1. You don't have to play as a bandit/PKer

2. Now, that doesn't mean you have to trust everyone...

3. Being a Good Samaritan doesn't always hurt.

4. Standing is overrated.

5. Risk is sometimes its own reward.

6. The wilderness

7. A gunshot is not usually a good sound...

8. The nighttime

9. Interacting with other players

10. Zombie Killing Basics

11. The simplest of the points.

Let's begin with number one.

1. You don't have to play as a bandit/PKer

Over and over again, I have seen a multitude of posts on the forums stating that they have given up hope on the community of the game as a hole. Shoot on sight, or SOS, they say, is the only way that they can ensure their personal survival. Humbly, I disagree. I have never played as a bandit, I have never shot another survivor, and I never intend to. My bullets are for the walking/running/zig-zag/spaz dead, and them alone. If you shoot me, I won't shoot back, I'll simply look at you with a sad, haunted look in my eyes as I lie dying on the ground, my life's blood running out of my soon-to-be desecrated corpse. My message to you, the players out there who are questioning themselves on whether or not to take up arms against other humans, is that you shouldn't feel obligated to do so. There is not much you gain from hunting other players that you cannot obtain from the various buildings in game. In a good one to two hour play session, I can usually find maybe two, maybe four cans of food, and often even more than that. As for drink, just carry at least two water bottles around, and you can refill them at the various lakes/ponds/dams/etc which litter the landscape. Soda is also a viable option, as it is just as prevalent, if not more so, than cans of food. If you're looking for heat, heat packs give you a quick boost, and they certainly seem plentiful in the game world. That being said, killing other players won't warm you up anyway.

2. Now, that doesn't mean you have to trust everyone...

So, you've now decided to break from the curve and become a survivor in your own right, braving the threats of zombies and other players out there. That doesn't mean you should be the type of survivor that just walks up to other people and salutes. More often than not, if you just stride casually up to another player, they will shoot you, either out of nerves/fright, or because they were going to do so anyway. If you can see them, but they can't see you, watch them carefully. What type of weapon do they have? Do you know where they entered from? Do they seem to be traveling North? South? East or West? Odds are, if they've picked up a decent weapon and are heading South, then they're looking to hunt along the coast, and I'm not talking about deer. If they're holding a makarov and heading north, then they're one of the more experienced players (possibly), heading away from the hunting wars near the southern coast. While they have less to lose from being killed by you, they also have more to gain from traveling with you, if only for a while. If you decide to try and contact them, be VERY careful not to give away your position. Before you approach, make sure to ask them not to point their weapon at you. If they only have a pistol, they obviously can't lower it, but they can point it away and use the free look to watch you. In response, offer them the same courtesy. Keep your weapon pointed away from them, but watch them very carefully.

3. Being a Good Samaritan doesn't always hurt.

This isn't going to be quite so prevalent in the latest patch, or at least once 1.7.1 comes out, which will require the ARMA II Beta. One of the new features of the DayZ Mission files removes the global and side chats from the chat options. Since the next patch of DayZ will require the Beta, we can assume that global and side chats will no longer be available to players. Still, if someone does manage to somehow ask you for help in direct communication, caution should be exercised to make certain that they're not trying to pull one over on you. It is possible that a bandit would run low on blood, and in the interest of healing himself, he would have to get a transfusion from another player. Naturally, we don't want to heal a bandit, lest they shoot us in the face for our troubles. The same steps as in my second point should still be entertained here, such as inspecting his loadout, weapon, backpack, etc. As before, ask them to not point their weapon at you as you enter wherever it is that he/she is hiding. If they agree, it is best for you that they turn their back, and watch you over their shoulder. While providing you with enough time to recognize a hostile movement (i.e, turning to shoot you), it also requires them to place as much trust in you as you do in them.

4. Standing is overrated.

The only time I ever stand straight while playing is in the woods, far away from any 'civilized' area, even small groups of buildings. A standing target is a large target, both to zombies and other players, and while it provides you with the most mobility after you're seen, it also makes you the most visible in the first place. On the far side of the spectrum, crawling is mostly utilized in two different means. One, when scouting out a town, lying prone a small distance back in the trees and using binoculars or a CZ50 is your best option. It places you extremely low to the ground, and trees are one of the landscape elements that render at the full draw distance, unlike grass. When in a town, and zombies are nearby, crawling is, again, the more viable option. You may move slower, but you also are significantly less visible. Night or day, crawling past zombies is the easiest way to avoid detection. Our third option, for anyone that knows the ArmA II system, is obviously crouching. This is my main travel mode, as the crouching run (roadie run, I like to call it) is decently fast, but it also keeps you lower to the ground and reduces the size of the target painted on your back. If you find yourself having to cross a large open field, the crouching run is probably your best option. It transitions easily to standing without a pause, so if you do happen to be fired at, you can stand quickly for more maneuverability.

5. Risk is sometimes its own reward.

If you do choose to play as a pure survivor, without the interest in killing other players, you should realize that other players are still going to try to kill you. You will die. This is DayZ, after all. There are, however, ways to avoid a lot of death-dealing Makarov warmongers. The first is obvious. Head North. Get away from Chernogorsk and Elektrozavodsk, where a lot of the player hunting takes place. In one play session, I ran into perhaps five different players in Chernogorsk. Further north, in towns such as Zelenogorsk, the player population is significantly lower, and a little less likely to be actively hunting for your gear. In towns like this, supermarkets can be both your best friend and your worst enemy. They have a significant amount of decent loot, usually, hatchets, Czech backpacks, knives, etc. At the same time, they have a large amount of entrances/exits, so it's hard to watch for players entering while you're inside. At the supermarket in Zelenogorsk, I didn't see a player until he entered the back room where me and my brother were arguing over a can of pasta. Fortunately, he wasn't interested in a fight. It is possible to survive in the wild regions north of the airfield if you have a hunting knife, matches, and a hatchet, as well as a water bottle or two. Is it the funnest experience in the world? Probably not, which is why you'll probably want to venture south again to just search through towns. Even when you have all the loot you'll ever need, caution is one of the primary concerns. Try to make sure that you're the one who gets a line of sight first. Patience can be a survivor's greatest tool.

6. The wilderness

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that living up north was a viable option, and I did mean it. With a water bottle, hatchet, matches, and a hunting knife, you have pretty much all you need to live off the fat of the land, as long as you spare a few bullets for the poor creatures that run across your path. If you've been playing DayZ for a while, odds are that you've come across animals in the environment, sheep and the like. Shooting these would normally net you nothing but a dead animal at your feet, but with a hunting knife, it becomes a veritable cache of food (provided you kill one of the larger animals, see here for reference). Not only does cooked meat refill your hunger, but it also provides you with a good 800 blood every time you eat some. It is also good to note that most animals spawn in the open fields outside of towns, so you may have to venture out to find some of the larger animals. Rabbits, however, seem quite plentiful, but they're real bastards to hit. Now, just because you decide to head up north doesn't mean that there aren't others who have had the same idea. Every so often, you might even find an encampment, a bunch of tents that another player, or group of player, has placed there to store their items. It is of note that you should be extremely careful if you want to raid tents. Odds are that the owner of the tent will not be happy at all, and he/she might just be standing behind you while you're happily looting away. When in doubt, avoid signs of player life. If you decide to make your own encampment, placement is an important part of your decision making process. You want to store your gear somewhere out of the way, where people aren't likely to stumble across it. You also want somewhere sheltered, hidden from plain sight. I would strongly recommend against dumping your tents in an open field. Also note that at the moment, tents carry a good number of bugs and glitches along with them, so it might be safest to simply do without until a fix is eventually rolled out.

In the wilderness, away from buildings, and at night, your temperature is likely to fall. As the temperature system isn't exactly stable as of the last patch (there have been numerous posts complaining about various issues), your temp might fall or not. If it does fall, and you find yourself without heat packs, you should start a fire, but be careful in doing so. A fire is not as visible as a flare at night, but it is still quite visible from a distance, so take precautions to keep it away from well-traveled areas.

7. A gunshot is not usually a good sound...

Great! You've heard a gunshot in the distance and you're not bleeding! This either means that you've just been missed by a sniper, or that someone nearby is fighting zombies. Sound is a very important part of DayZ. Keep your ears open, because you never know when someone might decide to take a potshot at you from the safety of a treeline 200 meters away. If you hear multiple shots in the distance and no bullets hit you, odds are that they're shooting at something else. Zombies? Well, then, they'll probably survive, but they might lose a little blood. On the other hand, if you hear multiple shots from different weapons, you've stumbled onto a firefight, and that is something you do not want to head towards. On a general principle, I tend to head away from the sound of gunshots. A gun is my last course of action, and caution and patience are my first.

8. The nighttime

Having already touched on fires, I should bring up the topic of the nighttime. Without touching on the sheer darkness of it (as countless other posters have done), there are pros to the night, despite it's cons. Firstly, zombies are practically blind at night. Odds are you can crawl right past them and they won't suspect a thing. Other players are mostly as blind as you, but there are those that will increase their gamma and brightness in an attempt to get a leg up on others (Some things I've read lead me to believe that this no longer works, but I've never tried it, really.). Without this option, there are a limited number of options for seeing your way through the blackness Chenarus at night. Firstly, we have our crowd favorite, the road flare. An extremely bright red light that is visible from the edge of the view distance, a flare will light up a very large area, but on the flipside, it also makes anyone holding it extremely visible as well. Zombies are heavily attracted to flares, but bandits and pkers are just as attracted, if not more so. Best bet with a flare is to throw it a fair distance, then skirt around the edges of its visibility. Running around carrying one is not really recommended.

Our next option for light are chemlights. Also known as glowsticks, these are not as bright as flares, and do not carry as far of a distance, much less visible to other players. These common items only carry about 50m, and light up a circle about 5m around you. Much less visible to other players, these are recommended over flares if you can get your hands on them.

Third, we have our flashlights. The downside to a flashlight is that it takes up your secondary weapon slot, leaving you without a pistol. There are three variants of this. First, the regular flashlight, which shines plain yellowish light in a cone, is more visible than its counterpart, the military flashlight, which has a red light, and is less visible. The third variant of flashlights are those attached to weapons, therefore removing the requirement of a secondary weapon slot.

Last, the cream of the crop of night vision implements, we come to the NVGs, the night vision goggles. These rare implements are a military drop only, and if you happen to find them, then you are among a fortunate few. A favored location to search for these is the barracks at the NW Airfield. The best time to search the barracks, however, is at night, when players will have a harder time seeing you. Don't go to the airfield, however, without expecting trouble. As the primary military base in Chernarus, it's a favored spot for both loot campers and pkers.

9. Interacting with other players

As an expansion of what I've already touched on, since the removal of the bandit skin, many players seem to have taken up the 'shoot on sight' persona of their attackers. It is important to realize, therefore, that it is difficult to know whether players are going to shoot you or not. An intrepid query of 'friendly?' only works with so many people, as others are utterly unconscious of the fact you might be talking to them. With the next patch requiring beta, it might become easier to talk to others if you have a microphone, but until then, they might as well be deaf to you. On a general principle, if someone doesn't respond to you, you should probably leave the area as quickly and quietly as possible, trying not to let them know where you are. That being said, there are also players who will lie to you, telling you that they are friendly, only to shoot you in the head the moment you poke it around the corner. Sadly, there isn't much to determine whether or not another player is lying when he's typing, as it's hard to read emotions through text. Even the 'salute' animation can be used as a cover to hide sinister intentions. Trust no one unless they're willing to prove that they trust you first. Even then, be cautious around them. There is a lot to gain from traveling with someone, but a lot of people don't seem to recognize this. Even if they use you as a scapegoat at the first sign of trouble, a friend is a valuable commodity indeed.

10. Zombie Killing Basics

If you've ever had zombies chasing you, odds are that you know they're a terrible pain to hit when they're running, zig-zagging all over the place and slipping to the side just as you fire. Rocket's patch notes for 1.7.1 seem to indicate that a fix for this is coming, but until then, there are still some things you can do to survive. First and foremost, your best friend in the event of a zombie horde is a building, preferably one not too close to a major town or city. A barn is one of the better options for this. Once a zombie enters a building, they will invariably slow to a walk to come after you. In a nice, open building, such as a barn, you can find a healthy corner and pick them off easily with a shot to the head. If you're far away from any open buildings, there are other options. Zombies are notoriously weak against heights, so any steep hill will likely make them fall to their death, or simply glitch and stop following you, if you're running down it. The best guard against zombies is not alerting them in the first place, but it will happen eventually.

11. The simplest of the points.

Know how the game works. Know the controls. One good way to do this is to play through the 'boot-camp' training mission. It won't give you any zombies to mess around with, but it does teach you the basics of movement, gear interaction, and firing your weapon. DayZ has a couple of key changes from the ArmA II model, however, that are very important to note. First, gear that is used on yourself is no longer accessed from the scroll menu. Instead, it is utilized by right clicking on the item in your inventory, and selecting the action you want to take. You can bandage yourself, eat, drink, refill water, set tents, make fires, chop trees, etc with the right click option, but interacting with most items in the world, i.e doors, equipment, other players, is still done with the scroll menu, so you should still be familiar with it. An important note is that the keybindings can be changed, so if you aren't comfortable with where something is on your keyboard, change it. Personally, my third person button is 'tab', my default interaction button is 'Mouse Button 5', and my Voice chat button is 'Mouse Button 4'.

[-Tier1- Gilion 0]

Great guide! Thanks for the write-up!

[Ridley (DayZ) 19]

I hate to be the one to say this, because I hate trolls. But....................

Obvious thread is obvious. ;)

[walrus2517 27]

Nice guide. Another tip for folks looking to avoid the PvP scene is to pick a 25 player max server. With the influx of servers these days, you can often find a good one with only 15 or so players on it. It really gives survivors a chance to explore without worrying about dozens of bandits. I also avoid any servers with 3 or more clan members in the player list. I know some clans are supportive, but I'm not comfortable running around knowing there is a pack of players who probably have a bunch of military loot.

[Ravenspear 22]

I hate to be the one to say this' date=' because I hate trolls. But....................

Obvious thread is obvious.

[/quote']

What is obvious to some may not be as readily visible to others. Is that not the case? The forums do have plenty of posts asking questions that many deem to be obvious, while the posters have no idea of this fact. That being said, do you feel that there is anything I could change/add to make the obvious less obvious?

[Ridley (DayZ) 19]

Add some tips on good signs of people who are lying to you. Are you falling into a trap? Can you trust that they are who they say you are?

Tips to survive off the wilderness. (Good places to start fires, good animal spawns are usually in the fields right outside of towns)

Realizing that cities are usually the worst option and that a gunshot in the distance isn't always worth going after. Turn around and get away from there as quickly as possible.

Tricks to killing zombies (Run down a steep hill and watch them fall to their death, run into buildings where they walk slower)

Hit up the army barracks at night for a better chance at survival. Never run through an open field unless you have an escape plan should a sniper shoot at you.

Enemy tents are usually set up in the north part of the map. Might be a good idea to check those areas.

Spawn in ocean? You should swim to shore and then turn right. Follow the shoreline until you get back to the map. (My current character went through that a week ago and is still alive and kicking.)

[Ravenspear 22]

Thanks for the feedback. The guide now includes the following.

6. The wilderness...

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that living up north was a viable option, and I did mean it. With a water bottle, hatchet, matches, and a hunting knife, you have pretty much all you need to live off the fat of the land, as long as you spare a few bullets for the poor creatures that run across your path. If you've been playing DayZ for a while, odds are that you've come across animals in the environment, sheep and the like. Shooting these would normally net you nothing but a dead animal at your feet, but with a hunting knife, it becomes a veritable cache of food (provided you kill one of the larger animals, see here for reference). Not only does cooked meat refill your hunger, but it also provides you with a good 800 blood every time you eat some. It is also good to note that most animals spawn in the open fields outside of towns, so you may have to venture out to find some of the larger animals. Rabbits, however, seem quite plentiful, but they're real bastards to hit. Now, just because you decide to head up north doesn't mean that there aren't others who have had the same idea. Every so often, you might even find an encampment, a bunch of tents that another player, or group of player, has placed there to store their items. It is of note that you should be extremely careful if you want to raid tents. Odds are that the owner of the tent will not be happy at all, and he/she might just be standing behind you while you're happily looting away. When in doubt, avoid signs of player life. If you decide to make your own encampment, placement is an important part of your decision making process. You want to store your gear somewhere out of the way, where people aren't likely to stumble across it. You also want somewhere sheltered, hidden from plain sight. I would strongly recommend against dumping your tents in an open field. Also note that at the moment, tents carry a good number of bugs and glitches along with them, so it might be safest to simply do without until a fix is eventually rolled out. In the wilderness, away from buildings, and at night, your temperature is likely to fall. As the temperature system isn't exactly stable as of the last patch (there have been numerous posts complaining about various issues), your temp might fall or not. If it does fall, and you find yourself without heat packs, you should start a fire, but be careful in doing so. A fire is not as visible as a flare at night, but it is still quite visible from a distance, so take precautions to keep it away from well-traveled areas.

7. A gunshot is not usually a good sound...

Great! You've heard a gunshot in the distance and you're not bleeding! This either means that you've just been missed by a sniper, or that someone nearby is fighting zombies. Sound is a very important part of DayZ. Keep your ears open, because you never know when someone might decide to take a potshot at you from the safety of a treeline 200 meters away. If you hear multiple shots in the distance and no bullets hit you, odds are that they're shooting at something else. Zombies? Well, then, they'll probably survive, but they might lose a little blood. On the other hand, if you hear multiple shots from different weapons, you've stumbled onto a firefight, and that is something you do not want to head towards. On a general principle, I tend to head away from the sound of gunshots. A gun is my last course of action, and caution and patience are my first.

8. The nighttime...

Having already touched on fires, I should bring up the topic of the nighttime. Without touching on the sheer darkness of it (as countless other posters have done), there are pros to the night, despite it's cons. Firstly, zombies are practically blind at night. Odds are you can crawl right past them and they won't suspect a thing. Other players are mostly as blind as you, but there are those that will increase their gamma and brightness in an attempt to get a leg up on others (Some things I've read lead me to believe that this no longer works, but I've never tried it, really.). Without this option, there are a limited number of options for seeing your way through the blackness Chenarus at night. Firstly, we have our crowd favorite, the road flare. An extremely bright red light that is visible from the edge of the view distance, a flare will light up a very large area, but on the flipside, it also makes anyone holding it extremely visible as well. Zombies are heavily attracted to flares, but bandits and pkers are just as attracted, if not more so. Best bet with a flare is to throw it a fair distance, then skirt around the edges of its visibility. Running around carrying one is not really recommended. Our next option for light are chemlights. Also known as glowsticks, these are not as bright as flares, and do not carry as far of a distance, much less visible to other players. These common items only carry about 50m, and light up a circle about 5m around you. Much less visible to other players, these are recommended over flares if you can get your hands on them. Third, we have our flashlights. The downside to a flashlight is that it takes up your secondary weapon slot, leaving you without a pistol. There are three variants of this. First, the regular flashlight, which shines plain yellowish light in a cone, is more visible than its counterpart, the military flashlight, which has a red light, and is less visible. The third variant of flashlights are those attached to weapons, therefore removing the requirement of a secondary weapon slot. Last, the cream of the crop of night vision implements, we come to the NVGs, the night vision goggles. These rare implements are a military drop only, and if you happen to find them, then you are among a fortunate few. A favored location to search for these is the barracks at the NW Airfield. The best time to search the barracks, however, is at night, when players will have a harder time seeing you. Don't go to the airfield, however, without expecting trouble. As the primary military base in Chernarus, it's a favored spot for both loot campers and pkers.

9. Interacting with other players...

As an expansion of what I've already touched on, since the removal of the bandit skin, many players seem to have taken up the 'shoot on sight' persona of their attackers. It is important to realize, therefore, that it is difficult to know whether players are going to shoot you or not. An intrepid query of 'friendly?' only works with so many people, as others are utterly unconscious of the fact you might be talking to them. With the next patch requiring beta, it might become easier to talk to others if you have a microphone, but until then, they might as well be deaf to you. On a general principle, if someone doesn't respond to you, you should probably leave the area as quickly and quietly as possible, trying not to let them know where you are. That being said, there are also players who will lie to you, telling you that they are friendly, only to shoot you in the head the moment you poke it around the corner. Sadly, there isn't much to determine whether or not another player is lying when he's typing, as it's hard to read emotions through text. Even the 'salute' animation can be used as a cover to hide sinister intentions. Trust no one unless they're willing to prove that they trust you first. Even then, be cautious around them. There is a lot to gain from traveling with someone, but a lot of people don't seem to recognize this. Even if they use you as a scapegoat at the first sign of trouble, a friend is a valuable commodity indeed.

10. Zombie Killing Basics

If you've ever had zombies chasing you, odds are that you know they're a terrible pain to hit when they're running, zig-zagging all over the place and slipping to the side just as you fire. Rocket's patch notes for 1.7.1 seem to indicate that a fix for this is coming, but until then, there are still some things you can do to survive. First and foremost, your best friend in the event of a zombie horde is a building, preferably one not too close to a major town or city. A barn is one of the better options for this. Once a zombie enters a building, they will invariably slow to a walk to come after you. In a nice, open building, such as a barn, you can find a healthy corner and pick them off easily with a shot to the head. If you're far away from any open buildings, there are other options. Zombies are notoriously weak against heights, so any steep hill will likely make them fall to their death, or simply glitch and stop following you, if you're running down it. The best guard against zombies is not alerting them in the first place, but it will happen eventually.

11. The simplest of the points.

Know how the game works. Know the controls. One good way to do this is to play through the 'boot-camp' training mission. It won't give you any zombies to mess around with, but it does teach you the basics of movement, gear interaction, and firing your weapon. DayZ has a couple of key changes from the ArmA II model, however, that are very important to note. First, gear that is used on yourself is no longer accessed from the scroll menu. Instead, it is utilized by right clicking on the item in your inventory, and selecting the action you want to take. You can bandage yourself, eat, drink, refill water, set tents, make fires, chop trees, etc with the right click option, but interacting with most items in the world, i.e doors, equipment, other players, is still done with the scroll menu, so you should still be familiar with it. An important note is that the keybindings can be changed, so if you aren't comfortable with where something is on your keyboard, change it. Personally, my third person button is 'tab', my default interaction button is 'Mouse Button 5', and my Voice chat button is 'Mouse Button 4'.

[Ravenspear 22]

Added an eleventh point. See previous post.

[ferrard 0]

+1 from me - Good introduction to the basics. It gets a little "wall-o'-text"y at points, so you may consider splitting sections into paragraphs for readability, but the information is all quite useful.

Good work!

~ Ferrard

[Ravenspear 22]

Thanks for the feedback. I've spit up the sections a bit, and added a list at the beginning to make it a little easier to browse through. Each section's title is now highlighted in red, as well.