DayZ: how our servers play

Heroes vs Bandits, like the original DayZ mod: every kill and every rescue moves your humanity.

Nightmare: harder than the normal game, on purpose. Here is how they play.

The basics

PvP, first person only, no crosshair. 50 players per map.
Nothing extra to download on Chernarus and Livonia. Our changes run on the server.
Sakhal needs the Frostline DLC.
Nasdara needs the Badlands DLC.
Deer Isle and Namalsk are modded maps. Join them from the DayZ launcher: it downloads their mods for you.

One character on four maps

Chernarus, Livonia, Sakhal and Nasdara share one character. Log out on one map, log in on another, and you keep your gear.
Deer Isle and Namalsk each have their own character. What you carry there stays there.
Namalsk runs its own hardcore survival mission.

Idle time and restarts

Idle time does not count. After 30 minutes without moving, your time stops counting toward hours and medals until you move again.
Nobody is kicked for being idle unless the map is full: then players idle for 60 minutes or more may be kicked to make room.
Each map restarts three times a day, every 8 hours, with warnings in chat at 30, 15, 5, 3 and 1 minute, and 30 seconds before. No scheduled restarts between 4 pm and 10 pm. The times are on the Servers page.

The infected

Only headshots kill. Body hits stagger them, leg hits make them crawl.
A gunshot wakes them up to 250 m away. Stay unseen.
Blades work. Fists are useless and blunt tools are weak.
If you are knocked out, they may keep hitting you.

Staying alive

Your body stores more food and water: eat and drink big when you can.
Stamina is a quarter bigger, and you can hold your breath much longer.
Scratches can infect the wound or poison you. Disinfect early and carry antibiotics.
Fewer guns, shotguns especially, and more crossbows and bolts.
An EpiPen gives 3.5 minutes without stamina loss. Logging out does not refill it, and it ends if you travel to another map.
A ruined backpack, hip pack or pouch drops what it holds on the ground.

Small touches

More thunderstorms than the normal game (not on Namalsk).
Pots, pans and cauldrons wear half as fast on the fire.
Twice the melee weapons and fishing hooks on the map, and more fishing rods.
Twice the seed packs on Chernarus, Livonia and Deer Isle.
A quarter more apple, pear and plum trees on Chernarus and Deer Isle.
Suppressors last four times longer.
A dead player's body stays about 30 minutes (15 on Namalsk).

Building

Building ignores clipping: parts go where the game normally refuses.
Military bases, permanent gas zones and 50 m around any military building are no-build.
Raise a flag and type /area claim to make it your base area: 50 m around your first flag, and up to 4 more flags of 30 m inside it. 5 flags per group on each map.
Only you and your group can build fences, towers and flag poles in your area. Tents, barrels, stashes, fires and raiding work as everywhere.
Keep the flag raised: lowered all the way, the area sleeps until you raise it again.
/area check tells you whether a new flag can go where you stand, and how far you are from your nearest flag.
/area shows the rules. /area drop at your main flag gives up your whole base on that map; at an extra flag, only that one.

Your account stash

Four slots that survive your death. Put an item in a slot; after you die, take it back within 5 minutes of your fresh spawn.
Slots open as you survive: after 2, 5, 10 and 24 hours played in one life.
No stashing for 30 minutes after a fight with another player.
Slots 1 to 3 take no container; slot 4 takes one, emptied first. A gun keeps its magazine, rounds and sights.
Taking an item back empties its slot. Putting something into a full slot asks you first: the old item is deleted.
One stash for Chernarus, Livonia, Sakhal and Nasdara; Deer Isle and Namalsk each have their own.
In game: /stash, /stash put N, /stash take N, /stash help.

Groups

Invite a friend: stand within 5 m, face them and type /group invite. They type /group accept within 60 seconds.
Members who die within 30 minutes of each other respawn in the same region. A group holds up to 6 players.
Lives under 5 minutes never count, and 3 quick deaths in a row with no killer remove you from your group.
Groups work on Chernarus, Livonia, Sakhal and Nasdara. /group leave to leave.
/group kick NAME: the owner removes a member. /group owner NAME: the owner hands the group to another member.

Bandits, Survivors and Heroes

Everyone starts as a Survivor. Type /humanity in game to see your level and score.
Killing Survivors or Heroes lowers your humanity; killing Bandits raises it. Killing a fresh spawn or a tied-up or knocked-out player costs extra.
Helping strangers raises it: bandages, stitches, saline, blood, CPR and more.
Go low enough and you're a Bandit; high enough and you're a Hero. Each has three levels.
Heroes and Bandits always wear an armband of their side, locked on while they live. You start with your level's standard armband and can swap it for another design of your side by holding the new one. Level 2 and level 3 each have their own armbands, reserved for that level and up: you can't wear a higher level's armband.
/armband reset puts your level's standard armband back on, once a day.
The kill feed in game shows each player's level.

Chat commands

Type them in the game's chat. The answer is only for you.
/help the commands, right in game.
/popups off hides the pop-up boxes. /popups quiet also hides the chat lines you did not ask for: the welcome, group news, reminders and the hourly lines. /popups on brings everything back. Warnings, bans, restart countdowns and the answers to your own commands always show.
/stash, /stash put N, /stash take N, /stash help: your account stash (above).
/group, /group invite, /group accept, /group leave, /group kick NAME, /group owner NAME: groups (above).
/humanity your level (Bandit, Survivor or Hero) and your score.
/armband reset puts your level's standard armband back on, once a day.
/area, /area claim, /area check, /area drop: your base area (above).
/merge pools your part-used kits of one kind (cleaning, sewing and repair kits, duct tape, bandages).
/discord our Discord invite. /link gives you a code to link your Steam account on our Discord; /link CODE takes a code you got on Discord. The Link Steam page has the easy way.
/mute day, week, month or year: no medal reminders for that long. /unmute turns them back on.
There is no global chat, only direct chat: players next to you see what you type, so type /link CODE when nobody is close.

Your name and the chat

Use a real name, set in the DayZ Launcher (Parameters tab, Player name): the character menu in the game does not change it. 3 to 20 characters: English letters, digits, space, _ - and .
A name another player holds, or a reserved one, is refused when you join: add a number or pick another.
A name that breaks the rules gets 2 warnings, then a 30-minute ban, then 24 hours.
Bad words in chat get 3 warnings, then a 24-hour ban. The warnings count on every map.

Map and GPS

You need a paper map to see the map. Pressing M alone opens nothing.
Carry a GPS (battery in, switched on, anywhere in your gear) and your map shows a circle where you are, plus an arrow for the way you face if you also carry a compass.
Nobody else is ever shown.

Kill feed, leaderboards and medals

Player kills are posted on our Discord 10 minutes later, with the weapon, the distance and whether it was a headshot, never a position.
Leaderboards on our Discord, and /top there.
Medals and a stats card for what you do on our servers: /medals and /stats on our Discord, once your Steam account is linked.
Map achievements on five maps: places on Chernarus, Livonia and Sakhal to reach and get out of alive, from the Northwest Airfield to Sakhal's volcano, and Deer Isle's and Namalsk's own, from Alcatraz Breakout to Storm Chaser. Every one by name on the Medals page. More may be added.

The rules are on the Rules page. One ban covers every one of our servers.

See the DayZ servers How to join