Long term survival advice

[bfisher 561]

I'm not expert or anything. But for me, a DayZ game tends to follow the following stages:

Opening - Basically from the point where you start on the beach with nothing. My goal here is to run around as fast as I can, gathering the basic common supplies I will need - ax, map, compass, some common weapons, food and drink enough to travel. At this point, I don't care about anything because I don't have much and haven't traveled far.

Middle Game - Once I have an AKM/M4/M!6, a sidearm, and the do-it-yourself meat kit (ax, knife, matches) and a canteen plus the map and compass, I'm basically self sufficient and no longer have to worry about immediate survival. I can move about at will, resupply at will and explore or try to find more high-end stuff. And I have enough medical supplies to fix anything that might happen. I'm a bit more cautious because I have more to lose and I'm probably further north by now.

End Game - Killed by sniper, hacker, someone who got the drop on me or my own stupidity. Typically because I'm now geared up like a boss and start looking for trouble.

So my question for people who have been alive for months at a time is what is your "end game" for long term survival? Do you try to stay in more isolated parts of the map and live off the land? Build a base and actively defend it? Don a ghillie suit and hunt anyone who might be a threat? Fix a car and try and stay mobile?

Edited October 8, 2012 by bfisher

[Hetstaine 10852]

Eat goats and frolic by the ponds with the rabbits. Sometimes i stand really still near trees and pretend to be a part of the enviroment, if a person wanders by i make owl noises and then fly off into the forest.

[otherd 5]

I have a tent. It's location locked since I died, but I still keep My stash there because I found a great spot. I dont item dupe, though I'll admit I've done it in the past on other servers. That took away the challenge, so now if I die I get some basics, maybe do a go for broke run through the nearest city, then head up to my tent.

I try and find guns I haven't used yet. I don't take high end guns off corpses if I think they probably were hacked in. Heli Crashes and the Military spots are My choice. Then I go down to the cities and look for fun!

[Osaka (DayZ) 32]

Tents are a bit of a problem for me. I like to keep my important stuff with me at all times. I don't loot things I don't need.

I once found a tent somewhere that had 6 or so maps in it, along with a truckload of matches and things like that.

It's probably handy to have instant full gear once your killed. But come on, seriously?

The best way to hide a tent is probably in the middle of absolute nowhere in a forest under a pine tree.

But will you be able to find your own tent?

For survival I do the hermit act. Just stock up and drift along the map. This is also handy if you want to switch servers once in a while. My favourite server sometimes tends to be completely empty.

How I made it alive so far?

Stay out of trouble. And to be safe, get medical supplies from Berezino. Nobody ever goes there.

[sostronk 334]

Keep looking for trouble. With that experience you will eventually bring the trouble to anyone who wants to fight.

[RapturJesus 90]

Most pics you see with people having 64 days survived are faked. If you simply log in. Then wait for X amount of days. Your ingame survivor days will go up.

[sostronk 334]

Most pics you see with people having 64 days survived are faked. If you simply log in. Then wait for X amount of days. Your ingame survivor days will go up.

On fully populated private hives its possible, as long as the admins are doing a good job of keeping the hackers out. I have a few private hives I play about 20-30 hours a week in and Im getting up close to these figures and Im also playing as a bandit and looking for fights.

[_headripper_ 8]

I had a server i managed to get 41 kills on.

Yes im looking for trouble, had my close encounters where raging squads tried to hunt me down, saved by server restart a couple of times.

Fun ended this weekend, when i meet loots of ppl that seemed to know my position all the time and they finally got me.

End of story.

My best advice, must be for you to have/get a really good irl friend to team up with.

[tyronk2@hotmail.com 36]

The problem is, survival isnt really an aspect to worry about in the game, its incredibly easy, and boring, to gather basic supplies and then live in the forest. Theres really only so much you can do in the forest before it becomes boring. I found the most fun thing to do (on a fresh spawn) is just to run into elektro / cherno without a care in the world, not worrying about dying, and just cause chaos. I dont mean killing everyone, but just like find a weapon and agro a whole bunch of zombies an let them chase you around while you run past other players, throwing flares (at night) / smoke bombs all over the place, if you get attacked by other players then fight back etc,

[Ivanuvo (DayZ) 117]

I have actually survived 50 days playing solo, and actively. Get basic supplies and weapons, if you want to raid places like the airfields be very careful about it. But like most others said, spend a lot of time in the woods. Oh and don't think having another player will help you. Those 50 days ended on the first day I started playing with a friend.

[tim0o 7]

me and the guys i play with have started playing private hive servers over the last week and as such have been fresh spawns most of the time. it is without doubt some of the best fun i have had on the game in a long long time... its more fun than the 'standard' loot nwaf, looking for bases, trying to hunt down clans etc. get a group of you with lee enfields and run around cherno causing havoc and you are guaranteed a funny time