In DayZ, not only other players and zombies can pose a threat, but your environment can also quickly throw a wrench in the works. Your character is susceptible to many different diseases that you can contract during your time with DayZ. While some of these are less problematic, others mean certain death. Therefore, it is especially important at the beginning to be aware of all possible medical emergencies and to act at the right moment. This way, you can save your life or that of your teammates and be well-prepared for a trip to Chernarus!
Understanding Common Diseases and Injuries in DayZ
You can contract all sorts of interesting diseases in DayZ. All of them exist in real life, which can give you some hints about their effects and subsequent treatments. We’ll take a detailed look at all the diseases and possible injuries, as your in-game display won’t indicate precisely what you’re suffering from. Therefore, you should pay attention to your symptoms.
Temperature-induced Illnesses:
- Cold: You sneeze and cough. Occurs when you spend too much time outside in cold and wet weather.
- Hypothermia: Wearing too thin or too little clothing. You lose health and require significantly more energy than before.
- Overheating: Wearing too warm clothing, being too close to a campfire, or another heat source. You dehydrate and lose health.
- Burns: Too close to an open flame, which causes damage to you.
- Influenza / Flu: A more severe version of the common cold with severe symptoms. You experience chills, frequent coughing, and sneezing.
Wounds and Physical Injuries:
- Bleeding: You bleed, either from an attack or glass shards. Depending on the location, you bleed more or less, which affects 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 tend to an open wound or if it becomes infected by dirty bandages. It brings extreme symptoms like blurred vision, fever, pain, or even dehydration. It can be fatal if not addressed promptly.
- Foot Pain: If you walk barefoot or with poor shoes, your feet begin to bleed. Your character will make uncomfortable noises.
- Bone Fracture: Can occur from falls, attacks, or traps. You receive shock damage if not tended to and may limp. Can lead to unconsciousness.
Viruses and Other Diseases:
- Prion Disease / Kuru: Occurs when eating human flesh. Causes uncontrollable laughter and trembling and is incurable.
- Food Poisoning: Can occur when consuming bad food. Your character vomits and may lose more stamina.
- Gas Poisoning: You can get poisoned by gas when entering a contaminated zone. Much worse than regular poisoning and can lead to death.
- Cholera: Arises from bad water, which you can drink from open water sources or containers. Leads to stomach issues, dehydration, and impaired vision.
- Salmonella: Occurs when eating raw meat or with bloody hands. Causes vomiting, pain, and dehydration.
- Hemolytic Reaction: This physical reaction happens if you receive the wrong blood type during a transfusion. Leads to immediate unconsciousness, but you can recover afterward.
Effective Healing Methods in DayZ
Some of these diseases sound anything but good and can lead to your character’s death if untreated. Therefore, it’s always important to be prepared for emergencies. Nothing is more annoying than constantly being plagued by a cold or dying from a bone fracture.
Thankfully, some illnesses heal on their own if you give your character enough rest. This includes food poisoning, unconsciousness, and a wrong blood transfusion. However, you need to take care of most other diseases and injuries to prevent them from worsening.
Temperature: Health issues caused by improper body temperature are easy to avoid and manage. Always wear appropriate clothing, don’t let your character get wet, and quickly dry wet clothes. You can wring them out or run around a bit to dry them. Conversely, stay away from open fires.
Physical Injuries: If injured in a fight or by a foolish move, attend to it quickly. Open wounds can be extremely dangerous if they become infected, which is more or less a death sentence. Always carry sterilized bandages, which you can prepare with alcohol, iodine tincture, or disinfectant spray. Otherwise, stitch open wounds with a sewing kit. Bone fractures heal faster with a splint but will also heal without assistance.
Medication: Most other diseases can be treated with various medications. You should carry tetracycline pills (for almost all diseases), multivitamin tablets (for almost all diseases), and charcoal tablets (for salmonella) to combat potential health issues. Use chlorine tablets beforehand to counter bad water. Pain can be alleviated with codeine pills or morphine syringes.
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 from thoughtless actions and sheer stupidity, especially in emergencies. Always keep a cool head and avoid rash actions.
In general, you can improve your immune system through good nutrition to prevent some diseases. Multivitamin tablets also increase effectiveness and can even make you immune! Additionally, all your other stats improve, including energy, hydration, blood quality, and overall health.
Diseases from food can also be easily avoided. Only eat self-found food that is well-cooked. Always mix water with chlorine tablets to prevent issues. And definitely don’t eat human flesh!
Physical injuries are harder to avoid, but you can try moving more consciously to minimize the risk of injury. You can also avoid fights, of course.
Conclusion: Survive Smart and Healthy in DayZ
As a beginner in DayZ, you should be aware of the many dangers in the game. Diseases and injuries are often even worse than attacks from zombies or players. Therefore, always be vigilant, carry enough medication, and take good care of your character. Rent your own DayZ server with us and learn together to take care of 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.
