Here are a few DayZ tips gathered together in a handy survival guide to help you out. 

1. You are going to die

Okay, it’s a bleak one to start on but DayZ is one of those games where survival is the basic goal and, by definition, death is inevitable. Don’t stress it too much if things go wrong because they will. They’ll likely start wrong most of the time, and leave you struggling just to get the footing you need for a decent start. Embrace it and know that with time you’ll get better at understanding the lay of the land and as a result tip the odds in your favor. 

2. DayZ persistence just means things… persist

If you’re not sure what the difference between a persistent or non-persistent server is, it means things you change will remain on a DayZ persistent server if you leave and come back. They won’t on a non-persistent server. It’s only really an issue if you’re planning to craft or place anything in the world like a tent for example. In non-persistent servers anything you put into the world will only stay as long as you do. 

3. Where to find DayZ food

Food, as well as water, is vital to staying alive. If you’re right on the coast check around boats before heading inland to check houses. If it’s really hard to find it’s likely because someone else got to it first – you always start with an item of food but if you haven’t found any more before that runs out you should think about restarting. As we’ll mention a few more of times in upcoming tips, it’s easy to spawn not long after someone else who clears out areas  ahead of you and not finding any food should be a warning. 

4. Head in land and maybe skip the first building you see

Generally you’ll start on the coast which has a couple of problems. There’s not a great deal around in terms of loot to help you, and it’s likely been picked clean by anyone else who appeared before you. As a rule the further inland you get the more/better stuff you can find, so head away from the sea and consider powering on straight past the first buildings you see – chances are anyone who spawned before you will have grabbed all the good stuff. 

5. Find water and a weapon first

Everyone starts off with some sort of fruit which gives you some space as far as eating goes. That leaves water and weaponry as your main worry. Check sheds, garages and warehouses – anywhere that looks like it might have a tool to find a hatchet, pipe or something like that, while bats can be found in houses. In a pinch, anything you can hold can be used as a weapon (and cans are surprisingly effective). But range is you friend when it comes to smacking the undead. 

6. Watch your stats and conserve your energy

Your core stats will tell you how you’re doing in terms of food, water, temperature and health, as well as indicate if you’re suffering from a disease. Everything (apart from disease) will have an arrow indicating whether you’re increasing or decreasing a certain resource. Generally doing anything will decrease food and water and if anything hits red it’ll start depleting your health, so keep an eye not just on the levels but the rate of depletion. Sprinting is one of the worst things for draining your food levels so, as much as you want to, try to avoid that too much. 

7. Where to find DayZ backpacks

Short answer: houses and garages in the early stages of the game. If you don’t find one in the first 10-15 minutes then it’s likely someone else beat you to it. Tents are another good option if you head into the woods. Later you can find military options and craft your own but to start with you’re likely to end up with a hiking, mountain or drybag backpack. If you find a second one and it has a ‘+’ then it carries more so swap over. Sometimes zombies can be wearing a backpack too so keep an eye out. 

8. Change direction or change servers if there are doors open and nothing to pick up

If you keep finding open doors and empty houses you’re likely following in the footsteps of another player. Given how hard it is to stay alive when you can find stuff you might want to consider passing through the area and changing direction if you can’t. You can lose more energy searching an empty town than you might moving on to another, better stocked, area.  

9. Try to keep going in the same direction

It’s easy to get turned around in DayZ and, much like tales of real life people lost in the wilderness, it’s easy to go around in circles. Heading in and out of different doors or making a panicked get away can easily confuse your sense of direction, and wasting time and energy realising you’re retreading old ground can be annoying at best, fatal at worst. You can use a range of methods to navigate. Simply picking a distant landmark to head towards can keep you on a constant path, as can keeping an eye on the direction of the clouds or sun. 

10. Avoid zombies…

This one goes without saying but try to avoid zombies at the start. As long as you’re armed they’re not that hard to kill but you don’t want to risk taking any damage or drawing any attention. One zombie can make a lot of noise and draw in more undead, as well as other players, and things can quickly spiral out of control if you’re not careful. 

11. …but check the bodies if you do fight

Don’t forget zombies might actually have loot on them, so if you do end up in a scuffle and survive don’t forget to check the bodies. The easiest way to do that is to open up your player inventory and check ‘vicinity’ which will show anything nearby, including obviousness stuff stowed await in zombie pockets.  

The post DayZ tips: your survival guide to the zombie apocalypse appeared first on Game News.

Being incredibly excited to buy a game before discovering that you already own (and installed) it

Remembering that you did the same thing, with the same game, during the last Steam sale

Realizing you now own more games than any normal human being can play in a single lifetime

When you get faked out because the price reduction isn’t actually displaying (and yes, this pretty much only happens because we’re zealously refreshing the page)

Thinking about how much money Gabe Newell just made in the past 30 seconds

Waiting on this screen…

…only to land here

When you can’t download your new purchase because Valve’s servers are getting absolutely hammered

Thinking, if only for a moment, about how much money these developers would’ve been making if everyone was actually paying full price for their game

When you see the same game on sale for the 50th freaking time

(Really though, every person on Steam either owns Terraria or they don’t intend to; stop slashing the price)

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Just like the zombie viruses that its gameplay is based on, DayZ has gone viral, attracting a whopping500,000 users (opens in new tab)since its debut earlier this year.

The game has received widespread praise from fans and critics alike, with GamesRadar’s sister site PC Gamer calling it (opens in new tab) one of the most important things to happen in PC gaming in 2012. And that was a couple months and a couple hundred thousand users ago.

For those uninitiated, DayZ is a hands-off open world survival game in which players awaken on the beach of a fictional ex-Soviet republic called Chernarus. The mission is simply to survive, but that’s complicated by A) the presence of flesh eating zombies and B) a permanent death mechanic that causes you to lose everything and start from scratch if killed.

It’s that permanent death which has cause some to call it one of the scariest games ever made. Not just because of the zombies, but also because of other unscrupulous players trying to make their way in the world who will shoot you in the face for a can of beans.

It’s a mod based off Arma 2, which makes its runaway success even more surprising. This isn’t the type of game you download off Steam and start playing in seconds. It’s a process with many steps that has proven difficult for some players. Though this process has gotten much easier since launch.

We’ve got a feeling DayZ is just getting started. Zombies have proven to still be insanely popular, and the word continues to spread about this game through word-of-mouth accounts of the zany things that happen to players in that game (most gamers have probably already heard breathless accounts from friends.) If its rapid rise in popularity is any indication, we could be looking at 2012’s Minecraft right now.

Watch the trailer below:

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