5. Navigation DayZ Guide

Lack of vehicles and big area of action force players to spend a lot of time for walking behind cities. It's easy to get lost in this game, there is no minimap. That's why navigation is so important. In this chapter, you'll learn some ways to make it a bit easier.

"if only I knew the cyrillic alphabet..."

Map

DayZ is a survival game, so there is no minimap. But you can outfox the producers by opening it in the browser when you press SHIFT + TAB. If the tab doesn't show up, configure it: Steam>Settings>In-game If you still can't open the tab, you can open the map in browser but you'll need to minimize the game each time. Map address is: dayzdb.com/map. If you can, open the map on the other screen or mobile device. On mobile device you can use izurvive map.

Ways of navigation

From Chapter 3 you learn about cities' tables. Full list of cities:

As time passes, you'll learn to live without it. Map seems to be big, but you'll learn the crucial locations quickly. But you need several advices for starters.

Characteristic points

The best way to find way is to look for characteristic points. Notice them while looking at the map. Travel from city to city. Running through fields may seem tempting, but it's much easier to get lost. Keep up with road. Notice shape of each turn and check it on the map. Do the same when you see any houses. When you see one, stop and check if you have to pass them according to your route. High voltage lines are great reference points. And when you want to travel along the coast, keep up with railway. Even when you're in the forest and can't see anything, look around and get to know the border of the forest.

Orientation

If you don't want to depend on your intuition, you can help yourself with the directions. One way to find them is to define the cloud movement. In DayZ clouds always move from west to east. If you can't see clouds, set the clouds setting at least onto very low.

The other natural factor helpful in defining direction is the sun. Notice the current time of the server when you enter it. If it's seven am, the sun will be rising. If it's seven pm, the sun will be setting. If there is a noon, wait a while to see in which way sun will go. Of course, it always travel from east to west.

Orientation at night

But most of those ways of navigating are useless during the night. For night there are others. One of them is to find the Pole Star. In DayZ the most recognizable stars are represented as at the real sky. To find the Pole Star, you need to find the Big Dipper and then elongate one of its sides. About five lengths further Ursa Minor ends. And that's where you find Pole Star. Look at this screenshot.

part of sky from DayZ

Big Dipper is marked with blue.

Ursa Minor is marked with green.

Pole Star marked with red points at the north.

With orange marked an elongation of the Big Dipper.

Is it simple? Look at this part of the sky without any markings and try to point the proper constellations.

Part of the sky without markings

If you succeeded, try this in the game. The whole sky is much bigger than on this picture.