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. 

4 Tips for Finding Helicopter Crash Sites

Helicopter crashes. They're the holy grail of DayZ. They spawn the highest quality military equipment - LMGs, sniper rifles, GPSs, NVGs, etc - and they're also very hard to find. With a few of these tips you can increase your odds of finding these rare crashes, and in turn, the best equipment in the game. 

• Search open fields 

    Most of the known spawns for helicopter crashes are in the middle of large, open fields. They will spawn in smaller areas and on hillsides, but you will increase your chances if you focus on the open plains like those found on the mid-western side of the map.

• Find a vehicle to speed up your search

    Vehicles are rare (especially on more populated servers), but are incredibly useful. Even bicycles can be useful in the search for helicopter crashes as they allow you to travel faster than on foot.

• Keep your eyes open even if you aren't looking for them

    This one should be obvious. DayZ is a game which rewards those who are alert and aware of their surroundings. By default, holding down the left ALT key will allow you to move your view without changing directions. Look all around you when you are traveling and you might not only find crash sites, but other players and tents as well. 

• Connect to a less populated server

    By playing on a server with fewer players, you increase your chances of finding a crash site that has not already been picked over. Also, less populated servers are obviously much safer as their are fewer humans involved.

Happy crash site hunting!