Basic Survival
As a survivor, you will spawn with minimal equipment and not much information about where you are. You will be hungry and thirsty very shortly after that.
Death in DayZ is permanent, meaning all of your acquired gear will be unavailable to you when you respawn. You will die trying to survive, often at the least expected moment. Get used to it. Don’t worry about death, your first objective should be to acquire basic survival gear.
Check Your Surroundings
Identify the key features of your environment. Are you near a city, village, in the forest, near the coastline, near hills or mountains? Are there infected or other survivors around?
Cities attract other survivors due to the higher amounts of gear they contain and also have more infected. Roads, trails, power lines, and railroads typically go towards a location of significance. Hills provide a great vantage point to try and locate resources.
If you spawn near other survivors or infected, you may hide to prevent drawing attention. You may also attempt to approach survivors hoping that they help you as a fresh spawn. When in doubt, however, it is best to try and remain undetected.
Scavenge Supplies
Your primary scavenging objective should be to obtain food, water, appropriate clothing, and a simple weapon. Lack of preparedness and the environment will kill you just as easily as an attacker will.
Before entering buildings, check the area for infected. Also note if the front door or interior doors are opened. Opened doors may be a sign of recent survivor activity. It is okay if you get spooked and need to evacuate the area prematurely to survive.
To prevent survivor or infected detection, leave buildings from the same door in which you entered. Also close the door behind you when you enter or exit a building to reduce your likelihood of being tracked by other survivors.
You may need to address your hunger and thirst before finding a weapon depending on your spawn location. Locate a water source and a few items to eat right away. If you find a well, drink plenty of water after you spawn.
Eat every food item you come across immediately if you are not already stuffed. Your body stores the food energy in a more efficient manner than your inventory. Even after you reach an energized state, your body will continue to hold food energy.
Infected
Infected are likely to be the first external threat you will encounter. You can determine a humanoid figure to be an infected from a distance because they will exhibit very simple-minded behavior that lacks an intelligent purpose. (Example: pointless wandering vs scavenging with intent)
For the ill-equipped survivor, infected can pose a significant threat. They are no martial artists, however, a simple side-step while attacking the head will bring them down in the most efficient manner. Without a weapon, they will take many blows to the head to be killed. During this time that you are defending against an infected attack, you will experience “tunnel vision” and lose awareness of your surroundings. Try to lure infected into cover before attacking them to prevent drawing the attention of other infected or survivors. Quickly check your surroundings after the engagement and try to regain as much awareness as possible.
Infected are quite dumb and it is easy to trap them inside of buildings. To trap an infected, enter a building and wait for the infected to enter, quickly dodge and run out of the door closing it behind you. If there are several doors on the way out, try and close them all behind you.
If you have no weapon, it is best to avoid infected encounters entirely until a weapon can be procured. Remember you are trying to survive, not win a prize fight boxing match since there is likely no audience to see your victory other than the other infected running towards you while your blood drips off of your body.
Survivors
You will encounter survivors in DayZ, often after you have scavenged a respectable amount of gear. You will die from other survivors, often after you have scavenged a respectable amount of gear. Period.
Now, having said that…many but not all survivors you encounter are out to kill you for your gear or torture you for their cruel pleasure. Also, many but not all survivors want to sit around a campfire and grill up some freshly hunted steaks. It will be up to your own experience and intuition to sense the motives of other survivors. There are no rules or codes that will help you determine the outcome of a survivor encounter, only best practices.
Survivors on the move will be easy to spot. They will be moving with an intelligent purpose, often running from cover to cover. Survivors hiding alone will likely be hiding out of their own fear, whether they are running from something or hiding in the woods with a sniper rifle.
If you come across a group of survivors working together, you will likely be able to determine their motives much faster than you would a lone survivor. Unfortunately, if their motives are to attack you, that will happen much sooner also.
Infected can make very useful “alarms”. Maintain awareness of infected locations and the directions they are facing, and keep out of sight! If you see an infected suddenly run in another direction, you will be able to have the tactical advantage during a possible survivor encounter. As you learn to develop a “Zombie Alarm” technique, you may actually start to find comfort in seeing the infected.
Be very careful not to categorize survivors that you meet. As humans, our brains naturally try to stereotype and classify potential threats quickly to aid survival. Survivors will often choose 2 categories for other survivors they come across: Hero/Bandit, Good/Bad, Threat/Safe. A mentally disciplined and experienced survivor will know that these categories may change at a moment’s notice.
Not all “heros” are always heros. Not all “bandits” are always bandits.
Consider a few potential real scenarios:
- You meet a lone survivor and determine that he or she is “safe”, you survive and scavenge together for a while. In reality, the survivor was waiting for a recently respawned friend to get to there before killing you and looting your gear for the friend.
- You meet a couple of survivors and have a good chat with them. You help them and give them some gear. Later they run off (and hide) then you are killed within minutes by the same person you just helped.
- You come across a survivor and accidentally surprise them. The survivor shoots you on the spot. In reality, the survivor has a hero demeanor, but had just encountered some bandit gun fire, ran and hid in the location until you came around. The survivor was scared and thought you were the bandits.
- You are looting a town when gunfire erupts. It seems distant enough that you try to escape unnoticed and get shot in the back while running. You are unsure which side of the battle killed you.
Fear
When you sense a perceived threat, your body will automatically enter a response mode often called “Fight, Flight, or Freeze”. Your body will release a flood of chemicals including adrenaline. Your pupils will dilate, heart rate and breathing will increase, blood flow will increase to your major muscle groups, and many other effects that are our primal tools for survival. Your overall awareness and sensitivity to stimuli will heighten. Your body is preparing itself to react at 100% of its potential and this can be a good tool for survival in DayZ.
This heightened awareness and intense reaction, without discipline, can lead to a paralyzing fear and “tunnel vision” which may further increase the “Freeze” response of “Fight, Flight, or Freeze”. Soldiers, civilian peacekeeping officers, and DayZ HEROs have training and experience to help them recognize this state and act with discipline.
In DayZ, you will feel a very real “Fight, Flight, or Freeze” response to some situations. Learn to recognize this and you will go a long way towards preventing yourself from having a paralyzing fear that keeps you from enjoying your time in DayZ or interacting with other survivors.
You will have moments when you feel spooked and have the instinct to run or hide. Your survival instincts can be a great help. If you are hiding and you keep having the urge to run away, you should probably run away. If you are running and keep having the urge to hide, you should probably hide.
