In DayZ, not only other players and zombies can pose a threat, but your environment can quickly throw a spanner in the works. Your character is susceptible to various illnesses that you can contract during your time with DayZ. While some are less problematic, others can mean certain death. It’s crucial to be aware of all possible medical emergencies, especially at the beginning, and to act at the right moment. By doing so, you can save your life or that of your teammates and be well-prepared for an excursion to Chernarus!
Understanding Common Illnesses and Injuries in DayZ
In DayZ, you can contract a variety of interesting diseases. All of these exist in real life, which might give you a hint about their effects and subsequent treatment. We will examine all illnesses and potential injuries in detail, as your in-game display won’t indicate exactly what you’re suffering from. Therefore, you should pay attention to your symptoms.
Temperature-Induced Illnesses:
- Cold: You sneeze and cough. Occurs when you stay outside in cold and wet weather for too long.
- Hypothermia: Too thin and too little clothing. You lose health and require significantly more energy than before.
- Overheating: Too warm clothing, too close to a campfire or another heat source. You dehydrate and lose health.
- Burns: Too close to an open flame, causing damage.
- Influenza / Flu: A worse version of the common cold, with severe symptoms. You have chills, cough, and sneeze frequently.
Wounds and Physical Injuries:
- Bleeding: You bleed, either from an attack or glass shards. Depending on the location, you bleed more or less, affecting your health.
- Unconsciousness: Extreme overload from too many injuries at once. The shock value is below 25% and needs time to recover.
- Wound Infection: Occurs if you don’t immediately treat an open wound or if it’s infected by dirty bandages. It causes extreme symptoms like blurred vision, fever, pain, or dehydration. It can be fatal if not addressed in time.
- Foot Pain: If you walk barefoot or in poor shoes, your feet will start bleeding. Your character will make unpleasant noises.
- Broken Bone: Can result from falls, attacks, or traps. You receive shock damage if not treated and will limp. It can lead to unconsciousness.
Viruses and Other Diseases:
- Prion Disease / Kuru: Occurs when you eat human flesh. Causes uncontrollable laughter and trembling and is incurable.
- Food Poisoning: Can occur if you consume bad food. Your character vomits and may lose more stamina.
- Gas Poisoning: You can poison yourself with gas if you enter the poisoned zone. Much worse than normal poisoning and can lead to death.
- Cholera: Cholera occurs from bad water, which you can drink from both open water sources and containers. It leads to stomach issues, dehydration, and poor vision.
- Salmonella: Occurs if you eat raw meat or with bloody hands. Leads to vomiting, pain, and dehydration.
- Hemolytic Reaction: This physical reaction happens if you are given the wrong blood type during a transfusion. Leads to immediate unconsciousness, but you recover afterward.
Effective Healing Methods in DayZ
Some illnesses sound anything but good and can lead to your character’s death if untreated. Therefore, it’s always important to be prepared for all emergencies. Nothing is more annoying than constantly being plagued by a cold or dying from a broken bone.
Thankfully, some illnesses heal naturally if you give your character enough rest. These include food poisoning, unconsciousness, and an incorrect blood transfusion. However, you must take care of most other illnesses and injuries to prevent them from worsening.
Temperature: Health problems caused by incorrect body temperature can be easily avoided and managed. Always wear appropriate clothing, don’t let your character get wet, and dry wet clothes quickly. You can wring them out or run around a bit to dry them. On the other hand, stay away from open fires.
Physical Injuries: If you’re injured in a fight or by a clumsy move, you should address it quickly. Especially open wounds can be extremely dangerous if they become infected. That’s more or less certain death for you. Always carry sterilised bandages, which you can make with alcohol, iodine tincture, or disinfectant spray. Otherwise, stitch up open wounds with a sewing kit. Broken bones can heal faster with a splint, but they will heal without assistance as well.
Medications: Most other illnesses can be cured with various medications. You should have tetracycline tablets (for nearly all diseases), multivitamin tablets (for nearly all diseases), and charcoal tablets (for salmonella) on hand to combat potential health issues. Use chlorine tablets to treat bad water beforehand. Pain can be relieved with codeine pills or morphine injections.
Preventive Measures for Healthy Survival in DayZ
If you play long enough and are aware of many dangers, you can avoid most of these diseases and injuries. Many arise purely from reckless actions and simple mistakes, especially in emergencies. Always keep a cool head and avoid rash actions.
Overall, you can improve your immune system through good nutrition, preventing some diseases. Multivitamin tablets also increase effectiveness and can even make you immune! Additionally, all your other stats, such as energy, water balance, blood quality, and overall health, improve.
Foodborne illnesses can also be easily avoided. Only eat self-found food that has been thoroughly cooked. Always mix water with chlorine tablets to avoid issues. And definitely do not eat human flesh!
Physical injuries are harder to avoid, but you can try to move more consciously and minimise the risk of injury. And, of course, you can avoid fights altogether.
Conclusion: Survive Smart and Healthy in DayZ
Anyone starting with DayZ should be aware of the many dangers in the game. Diseases and injuries are often even worse than attacks from zombies or players. Therefore, you should always be vigilant, carry enough medication, and take good care of your character. Rent your own DayZ server from us and learn to care for each other and revive your friends in emergencies. This is by far one of the greatest advantages of multiplayer, as you always have people around who can save you.
