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Installing the mod

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Submitting again because it hasn't showed up in new after 3 hours :-/

I'm going to write a basic newbie guide here just because here is a good place to put it.

Follow this to install the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjWFv1CUa6Y

Always keep checking the Dayz Download page before you play because there has probably been an update.

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Playing the mod

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On the server list click Filter and write "Dayz" in the mission to filter all the other stuff out. If everywhere is full just hammer Spacebar until you get in.

When you load up a level, just click OK in the bottom right hand corner and whenever you can click that click it and you'll eventually end up in the game. This might take 5 seconds, it might take 10 minutes.

Upon first loading of the game, immediately press Z to go prone so you can hide whilst you get familiar with the controls.

Now press Enter on the numpad side (not sure if the main enter works) and you should go in to 3rd person view which is what I use most of the time. If it doesn't you're on a hardcore server. Pressing it again will put you back in to 1st person mode.

Now scroll the mousewheel, you'll notice that you get some options. To cancel these options you'll want to right click. If you left or middle click you will use whatever option is highlighted. You only want to eat and drink your supplies when the icons on the bottom left are red and flashing.

The Icons on the bottom left show Humanity status (don't worry about this one), Drink, Blood and Food. Drink when the drink is red and flashing, same for food. I don't see any reason to drink or eat before this happens unless you find tons of supplies. If your blood has a + sign flashing in it you need to bandage. You can do this by using the mousewheel and it will give you the option when you need to do it. It won't come up if you're not bleeding or in front of someone who is. Eating food will replenish blood count as does a blood transfusion if you find a pack when scavenging. You start with 12000 and when you get low you'll die.

Now press F, this cycles between your weapons and lights. You'll see it changing in the top right. If you pick up another gun like a shotgun and want to use that, use the mouse wheel to select the right gun. F seems to cycle between your selected gun and say flares.

R reloads. You can try this now, it'll reload even when you have a full clip and won't lose any bullets. Don't start shooting, you hardly have any ammo and the sound will attract zombies and other players. Now press G. This is your backpack. Your backpack is super confusing. There are slots in there that will only fill up when you find that item, like binoculars and a compass so don't worry about those. Look to where the beans and flares are, that's your supplies bit. All large weapon stuff, flares, lights, pain relief and food goes in here. You only have a few slots! Now look to the bandages and pistol ammo, this is your er bandage and pistol ammo bit... If it gets full I'd recommend 2 bandages and the rest pistol ammo -OR- all ammo and put your bandages in your backpack, which you get to by clicking on the backpack then clicking the open backpack icon. This will now bring you to another inventory that has your backpack contents. It's best to think of the main G inventory as your person, and the backpack as your backpack. You can move items to and from this and your person, or bypass your person and put it straight in to the backpack. I think that if say a bandage is in your backpack you can't use it until it's on your person but that's just a hunch, I haven't tested it.

If you find some loot or a body, look on it and you'll see a green icon appear in your sights looking like a gun with some ammo. Middle click (the mouse wheel) on it and it'll bring up your inventory. What's this? They have all my stuff! No, the inventory system is retarded and it mixes all your stuff with the stuff you want to pick up. How do you know what's your's and what's on the floor? The floor stuff will have a number on the left of it. No number, its all your stuff. You'll get used to this don't worry if it's confusing for now. You can also go straight to your backpack and put all the stuff in there. You can find new backpacks around occasionally with much more space in them. Often you'll want to scroll down the inventory list to find more stuff, I've missed loads of stuff before because I haven't scrolled down!

Now you can get up.

Z goes prone, X sneaks around, C makes you sprint. Zombies have poor vision but good hearing, if you run around with C everywhere you will die. Most people use X nearly everywhere, C is good for the beach and forests I think. X still isn't a good enough sneak for towns, you'll want to double-tap Shift to make you walk. Double-tapping shift again reverts it back to sneak run.

Chat: The / key lets you chat. But you should cycle the channels with "," until it goes light blue, that's the channel everyone uses. There is also Direct Communication which is white which I'm pretty sure is vocal range but I haven't used it because I suck.

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Some advice

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The best advice I can give is be very careful and conservative, trust absolutely no one and walk everywhere in town. If a zombie starts running at you then try to go indoors as they always walk indoors and it will buy you enough time to react. If it's night time and you can't see anything then use a flare but don't stand in the light as you'll probably get shot! If you find a rifle then be prepared that the sound of that shot will attract every zombie in a ten thousand mile radius.

You'll pick up most stuff as you go, have fun!

Feel free to correct any mistakes I've made or kill me and loot my corpse.