[OUTDATED] Survival Guide - DayZ Standalone

OUTDATED

Introduction

An introduction to DayZ

What is DayZ?

The world of DayZ, hit by a new and presently unknown infection which has wiped out most of the world's population. You are one of the few that have survived and now you must search this new wasteland in order to fight for your life against what is left of the indigenous population now infected with the disease. Go solo, team up with friends or take on the world, as you choose your path in this brutal and chilling landscape using whatever means you stumble upon to survive.

DayZ is a gritty, authentic, open-world survival horror hybrid-MMO game, in which players follow a single goal: to survive in the harsh post-apocalyptic landscape as long as they can. Players can experience powerful events and emotions arising from the ever-evolving emergent gameplay. Every decision matters, there are no save games, no extra lives, every mistake can be lethal. If you fail, you lose everything and you need to play again from the beginning with nothing but your wits, and your two hands. Fight the hostile environment, where every other player can be friend or foe and nothing can be taken for granted.



This, is DayZ.
This, is your story.

Basic to Advanced Survival

Basic survival in DayZ

There are many factors in DayZ that you have to take into account whilst playing the game, for example, your hunger and thirst level, if these are not directly attended, your character will become dehydrated or will begin to starve, these factors are essential to becoming a skilled survivor in the world of DayZ.

Here are a few tips on what to do when your character becomes...

Hungry and Thirsty:
Whenever you press your inventory or gear key, you may see a coloured box with text inside it, they can say such things as "Hungry", "Thirsty" or even "Healthy". These boxes indicate what you need, for example if you open your inventory, and you see one of these boxes, and inside the box it says "Hungry", you need to go find a can of food, a box of cereal or whatever source of food you can find, and of course eat! Another thing about these boxes that you need to take in to account is what colour they are, there are 3 different colours they can go, Yellow, Orange and Red, if your on yellow, this means that your character is hungry, thirsty or whatever the box says, and that its not too serious, but you should try to attend to it as soon as possible, however if the box turns orange or red, you should start to worry because this means that your character is starting to starve, become dehydrated or worse, if this is left unattended for too long, then your character will become unconscious and may never wake up.

Here is an example where the player is feeling hungry, the one on the left is the player feeling mildly hungry, where as the one on the right, the player is beginning to starve:

Food is mainly found in residential areas e.g. houses and apartment complexes, here is an example of some diffrent types of food you may find in residential areas...


There are other sources of food over Chernarus, hunting is (in my opinion) a huge element in DayZ, if your luck is running dry in the residential areas, it is always handy to have the skills to hunt animals in DayZ. (A section on hunting is planned for a future update)


Hunger and Thirst are not the only factors of DayZ that you need to be aware of, here are some more things you should be aware of whilst playing the game...

Energy:
Energy is a new thing in DayZ standalone, you have a max cap of 1000 energy, most drinks and such as soda cans and other canned drinks will give you 100 energy. Energy also gives you blood, if your very low on blood your vision will become blurry and your screen will be lightly coloured. This also happens when you are running for too long or too much, double pressing W to sprint will drain energy like crazy and your screen will go blurry in minutes. Blurry vision means you are limited on your energy. Also the more Energy you have the less chance of a zombie can knock you over and knock you out cold.

For info on Blood, Bleeding and medical aspects, go to the Medical Section.

Weapons of DayZ

Weapons

In DayZ, there are lots of things you can use as a weapon, all the way from a pair of pliers, to a Fully Automatic M4A1 Assault Rifle, scary huh? Well I will go over a few different types of weapons, but I will not cover every single one, some weapons you will have to find for yourself!

Melee Weapons:

An good example of a melee weapon on DayZ would be a baseball bat, a crowbar, an axe, a hammer, a rock, even a electric cattle prod... A melee weapon is basically something you hold in your hands, and whack another player, or zombie of course with. Preferable in the head, because that tends to work best, that's first hand experience right there, trust me!

Here are a few in-game examples of a melee weapon...



But remember, it's not all about getting your hands all dirty nice and close up, some people may prefer a weapon that instead of being swung at someone to inflict a serious amount of damage, it is simply, well, shot at someone! And here are a few in-game examples of the weapons you can get that do exactly that...



The most common weapons on DayZ tend to be the M4A1 Carbine, the Mosin 9130 and the SKS, however there are many more weapons in DayZ, for a full list check Here![dayz.gamepedia.com] Here are a few short descriptions of the more common weapons on DayZ...

The M4A1 is the flag-ship Carbine for DayZ Standalone. It was a standard weapon in the DayZ Mod with a few variations and proved popular with Bandits. Dean Hall (Lead Developer of DayZ) confirmed that this M4A1 Carbine is going to be compatible with 12 attachments in the near future.

The Mosin 9130 is currently the most common rifle in DayZ Standalone. It fires 7.62mm ammunition and doesn't need a magazine. It is fairly accurate up to 400 yards and with a decent scope can be pretty deadly at long ranges. It’s commonly found in residential areas as military areas are more likely to spawn the M4A1 or the FNX 45. Just as a side-note, the Mosin is currently the loudest gun on DayZ, it can be heard from long distances, so always be weary when taking shots with it.

The SKS is a Soviet semi-automatic carbine chambered for the 7.62x39mm round, designed in 1943 by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. Its completely designation, SKS-45, is an initialism for Samozaradnyj Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945 or SKS 45. In the early 1950s, the Soviet took the SKS carbine out of front-line service and replaced it with the AK-47; however, the SKS remained in second-line service for decades. It is still used as a ceremonial arm today.

Where To Find Guns

Guns are normally found in military zones, e.g. Airfields, F.O.B's and Military camps, here is an example of NEAF (North East Airfield), a military airfield located along the Eastern Coast of Chernarus.

Player Interaction

What To Be

There are three roles a player can take in DayZ, lets go over all three...

● Survivor

A survivor is simply a player who only cares about surviving, he will take the necessary precautions and actions to ensure his safety and survival. This is the most common form a player in DayZ will take, survivors may however change into one of the other roles as he gets more skilled, more equipment and more confident as a player in general.

An example of what a survivor may look like:




● Hero

A hero is a player who will stop at nothing to ensure the safety of other players, or survivors. If a survivor is hurt, the hero will try to save him, if the hero meets a bandit, he/her will try to finish him/her off. A hero is an all around good player, hence the status of "Hero".

An example of what a hero may look like:



● Bandit

A bandit is what makes DayZ, well, DayZ. Bandits will do the exact opposite of a hero, they will kill other players, hold them up and rob them, or just be a complete ♥♥♥♥ to other players, most survivors will make the transition to a bandit when they find a weapon, some people will just start being bandit as soon as they spawn, you can't really tell who is a bandit, so you always must be careful who you come into contact with.

An example of what a bandit may look like:




What to do when you meet another player

Well, it all depends on where you meet them, what they're doing, what your doing. Most of the time players will want to stay away from one another, so trying to avoid other players is a good way to stay alive for a longer period of time, but in the case that you have no other choice, but to interact with the other player, here are a few tips that may help you survive for longer around other players!

When the player is looking at you:

If the player is looking at you, you can do three things:

- Put up your hands (surrendering)
- Talk to him/her
- Run

All three of these options are risky, but you don't really have a choice, In the case that you run, look for cover e.g. Run behind a wall and try to hide, or carry on running. talking to another player can be risky, but can sometimes prove to them that you are friendly. Like Frankie says: "90% of the time, if a player does not respond to you, he's a bandit"

However, if a player is not looking at you then it may be a good chance to get the hell out of there before he turns around and notices you, or its a chance for you to get into a better position and take him out and collect his gear!


All in all, player interaction is what makes DayZ, DayZ, its one of its core features and its also a major game of trust. Trusting another player with your life can be risky, but also exciting!

Medical

Medical Supply's and Medicine

Medical supply's are an essential tool to surviving in DayZ, and are one of the most-used pieces of kit in DayZ, the bandage is one of the most essential items a player will need to survive, and they come in three different states, or looks.

Here are what all three bandages look like in game...



The first one are rags, these can be made by getting a t-shirt or piece of clothing, and right clicking it whilst it's in you vicinity, or in your inventory, you will then get an option to "Tear into rags", these rags can then be applied when you are bleeding, and they will stop the bleeding.

The second bandage is a military bandage, these can be found in the same state as the picture shows in military buildings, and occasionally residential areas, like apartment buildings.

The third bandage is from a hospital, they are the most common bandage that can be found in DayZ, spawning in Military, and residential areas, and most commonly found in hospitals of course.


There are many other medical supply's in DayZ, here is a list of all medical supply's that can be found in Chernarus:

Medical Tools:

First Aid Kit - A red container used to assist in carrying medical supplies.
Blood bag kit - For blood transfusions, requires a donor.
IV Start kit - Contains tools required for IV delivery.
Syringe - Used to extract blood for blood testing and inject antibiotics.
Defibrillator - Revives an unconscious player
Injection Vial - Contains medicine to be used in a syringe.
Vitamin Bottle - Helps reduce the chance of various diseases.
Saline Bag - Used to instantly restore a players blood to maximum
Blood Testing Kit - Used to test your blood type for blood bags
Disinfectant Spray - Used to disinfect rags

Bleeding:
There is currently different types of bleeding such as dribbling blood which is a small cut or open wound for a short time. Second one is a deeper wound if the player mentions it feels warm or something along those lines which means you have lost A LOT of blood or have a deep wound opened up you can see how much blood your losing if your in third person played by an animation use a bandage or rags to stop bleeding.

Physical Injury:

Bandage - Applied to stop bleeding.
Rags - Crafted from unequipped shirts, can be applied to stop bleeding, dirty rags carry risk of infection.

Drugs and Health:

Anti-biotics - To help cure disease.
Charcoal tablets - To help with food poisoning.
Painkillers - To ease shaking as a result of pain.
Vitamin pills - Contains various vitamins to ensure good health.
Epi-Pen - To awaken an unconscious player.
Water purification tablets - Used to clean water.
Alcohol tincture - Can be used to clean wounds, disinfect items, ingestion is NOT reccomended.

Health:
Health is indicated by how much blood you have, you will know if you are full on health because you will have full colour in your screen, however if you get hit by a zombie, shot or anything that makes you loose blood, e.g bleeding, your screen will begin to drain all the colour from your vision until your screen is almost grey. To regenerate health, use a blood bag, or a saline bag, eat lots of food and drink lots of water or soda and stay healthy, slowly over time you will begin to regenerate health.

An example of the players screen after loosing a large amount of blood:



As you can see, the players screen is almost colourless, this is the effects of losing lots of blood.

Here is an example of when a player is feeling healthy:




Blood:
If you start to loose blood, you may see a slight colour drain in your screen and your screen may wobble and eventually you will pass out if you leave it for too long, also your screen may or may not go darker and darker. Another factor about blood you may need to know in the apocalyptic world of Chernarus, is that you can actually give another survivor a blood transfusion, which involves a certain amount of skill in the DayZ Standalone, luckily I'm going to tell you step by step how to do it!

Blood Transfusions:

If you are unsure what the following items look like, a quick Google image search should help you!

To Create a usable blood bag requires the following:

A Donor (e.g. another Survivor, maybe a friend or a hostage, basically you need somebody to give you blood)

A Blood Bag Kit (To avoid incident, ensure that the kit is in decent, if not pristine condition)

An IV Start kit

Blood Testing Kit (I will go into more detail below!)

Method: First, Test the donors blood type with a blood test kit, either you, or the donor can do this. make a note of the blood type, this is extremely important when giving players a blood transfusion. You will need to test the person who needs the blood transfusions blood, aswell as the donors blood, using the chart below, you will need to see if you can give blood to somebody.



Place the Blood bag kit in your hand, stand near the donor, scroll-wheel, and an option will pop up to "Collect Blood". Both players must stay still while the action completes, else it will be cancelled.

Once you've collected the blood, you will now have a blood bag (without an IV) to transfuse that blood into someone, you must combine the blood bag with an IV start kit, Simply drag the Blood bag onto the IV starter kit (or vice-versa) and choose "craft", this will give you a Blood Bag Kit, then simply walk to the person who needs the blood, scroll the mouse wheel until an option "Give Blood" comes up, then you player will slide an IV line into the other player, and after a few seconds, the blood will be in them and there colour (if any was lost) will return.

Note: If you have forgotten or lost track of the blood type that the bag contains you can use a blood test kit to find what type of blood it contains.

Note: If you give somebody a blood type that is none compatible with there blood, they will die almost instantly.

Navigation

How to navigate

Navigation in DayZ is a key factor, you need to be able to roughly navigate to work your way around the map, one way you can do this is by finding and picking up a map. Another way is via compass, you can use it to find North, East, South and West, by roughly knowing the coast line of Chernarus, you can easily navigate to different locations around the map

Here's what a compass looks like in-game:



Another way you can navigate in-game is by using the DayZ Database Map, it's a fanstatic little map that you can open in-browser, and use like you have the map in game, its extremely accurate, you can't really go wrong with it unless your not very good when it comes to map reading, but then again not many of us are anyway!

DayZ DB - Cherno +[dayzdb.com]

Clothing

Clothing of DayZ

Clothing can be found nearly everywhere in DayZ, in almost every single building (excluding a few), clothing is a way of making your DayZ character unique.

Clothing can be found in all shapes and sizes, from hats and shoes, to bullet proof vests and ballistic helmets! A few examples of where clothing is mainly found can be seen here...



Here we have your average block of residential houses, and a solitary house, the most common loot to spawn inside these houses is clothing items, along with food and other survival utilities e.g. maps and compass, but the clothing can vary from shoes, hats, tops, trousers and small backpacks. With the rare chance of spawning a large backpack!

Here are some examples of what kind of clothes you can expect to find from these residential areas...


As you can see, it's pretty avarage clothing you will be finding in these residential areas, but if you go to the military buildings, e.g. ACT (Aircraft Control Tower), Barracks etc etc... You will be able to find more millitary styled clothing. Here is an example...



The advantage of different types of clothing is how much loot it can carry, common pieces of clothing e.g. The Raincoat, hold only 4 pieces of loot, where as the TTsKO Jacket holds up to six pieces of loot.

An example of how many pieces of loot each piece of clothing can hold...



Another thing you should be aware of when dealing with clothing is what condition it is in, you can tell this by looking in your inventory and looking at the clothing, hover your mouse over the clothing and it will tell you what condition it is in, another way is by looking at your actual player, and seeing if the clothing is dirty, ripped or just not looking new. Why is this so important? Well depending on what condition your cloths are in, means if you get shot in the back, and your wearing a raincoat, in pristine (good) condition, then it's more likely to do less damage, because the raincoat will absorb some of the impact of the bullet(s), however if the raincoat is in damaged condition then the bullet will be more likely to just punch right through and kill / injure you.

Zombies

The Zombies

Zombies are the main course in the meal of DayZ, they're deadly and dangerous, and they are something every single player in DayZ will be aware of, they lurk around in the city's, looking to feed on anything living e.g. You or Me!

How to avoid zombies

Avoiding zombies is quite hard, depending on where they are, what they are doing etc etc...

If a zombie is looking in the complete opposite direction to you, then you can sneak behind it, it's advised that you stay crouched at all times when moving by zombie.

If a zombie is looking at you, sticking to cover is probably your best shot at not getting detected.

However, in the scenario that you have been detected, and a zombie is sprinting at you, your best options are to stand your ground and fight it, or just to run like hell, you can loose zombies by weaving in and out of buildings, or just by out running it. A zombie will eventually give up if you get to far away from it.

Thanks for Reading

Firstly I want to say thankyou to Zenith and Vex for helping me with the screenshots, and to all my steam pals for there support, you guys are awesome people!

And of course, thank YOU, for taking the time to read my guide, hopefully it will help you as you make your way through Cherno, meeting new people and doing new things, hopefully I will meet you someday, and we can have are own adventures! Credit for artwork goes to DesTro!

[jmoss]

cheese and beans

[[Andrew]]

beans

[adamschristopher62]

can someone do a what buttons do what

[TomaTO]

^^

[CreepzFPS]

Nice guide

[Mancjohn]

brill game

[-=o\BUTCHER/o=-]

I once had a zombie chase me from spawn all the way to the airfield. And that's with jumping fences and trying to hide in buildings. Eventually I got enough distance at the airfield to where I could pick up a shovel. With low energy and starving to death, the zombie knocked me out cold.

You can never outrun a zombie. And they never get tired of chasing you. Possibly a bug in the game, or a server admin making changes.

[[ASOC] Gavin]

this is AWESOMELY helpful i know that isnt even a word:D

[Duncanois]

Fantasitic. Just fantastic

[CAPTAINZACK]

Love it !