Quick tip: Self-sufficiency

So you want to become self-sufficient in DayZ and avoid contact with other players? You can survive by yourself as long as you want, and it only takes four items:

1. Water Bottle

    This is an essential item in the game. Once you drink from it, you'll have an empty water bottle in your inventory that you can fill up at any non-ocean water source in the game. You don't want to die of thirst, do you?

2. Hatchet

    You're going to need this not only for self-defense against zombies (or ambushing other players), but for chopping down wood for campfires. If you don't have any ammo, it also doubles (triples?) as a weapon for killing animals.

3. Hunting knife

 
    So you killed an animal? Great. Now you're going a knife to gut it so you can take the raw meat off its corpse. Unfortunately, it doesn't double as a melee weapon.

4. Matches

    Another item in the game with a singular purpose. You'll need this to light the campfires you lay down with the wood you gathered with the hatchet.

Congratulations! You can now survive forever in DayZ without ever visiting another town.