1. People suck. Avoid them at all costs.

2. Crawling is more effective that you think. I have been VERY close to Zs that have not taken an interest in me.

3. Night time? Don't bother. *EDIT* It seems that newer builds allow for better night vision and the game is much more playable at night.

4. Bolata airfield and the tent city to the south are great places get a good weapon.

5. sSnakeyes taught me that the only houses you can enter will have see through windows. Fighting my way to a house I can't get into pisses me off

6. I have not been able to run off agro. They will chase you until one of you dies.

3. Night time? Don't bother. Find a daytime server.

Most times I specifically look for nighttime servers. 80% of the people playing are CoD wanks who dont know how to adjust the in game gamma/brightness and up their HDR lighting. I can see almost as well at night as I can at day (except in dark forests on overcast nights). This makes it extremely easy to sneak past zombies and kill unsuspecting players.

7. Team up with a friend(s) and use voice commms. Firepower is doubled with just one buddy and you can scan in all directions. When you are picking up loot you are vulnerable. It really helps to have a buddy on watch when you are in the inventory screen.

8. Keep an eye on the global chat. It gives you some indication of where the current threats are.

9. When Zed are close enough to pounce, you are better off to shoot than risk getting injured or death. I have been taken down with one swipe from an attacking Zed.

[quote=sSnakeyes]8. Keep an eye on the global chat. It gives you some indication of where the current threats are.

Not any more. I have been playing on the 1.7 patch with the latest arma2 beta and there is no more global channel. You get local (100m) group (useless since you are in your own group) and vehicle (not all that useful) and that is it.

On the plus at night you only see the server motd scrolling since all the player join/disconnects/kill messages are actually over global/side.

So look for that to filter down to all servers pretty soon.

That is good to know Master. I am running version 1.7, but the local chat was so active last time I played, I didn't notice. I guess a lot of players were within the active chat radius.

Unless you know the map from playing a lot of ArmA2, use a map(s). Know approximately where you are at and how to get to a different destination (rally point). Here are two online maps that I'm using:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3586710.html#Post3586710

Weird. I was on a server that was using 93398 and I have client 93415 and I was with 2 guys on SimHQ comms that were near the NW AF and they saw msgs about me dying on the coast...

Here's a few I've learned while playing; some obvious, some not :

* Go North, young man. There's no reason to make a big city run after spawning. The gear to getting killed ratio isn't worth it. Wait till you've ventured north and find smaller towns.

* Every weapon is better than a Makarov, but the Enfield and AKs are zombie dinner bells. Use those only when absolutely necessary.

* Deer stands are your friend. Usually only 3 zombies around them, and that's usually where I find my Gucci gear (M4s/MP5SD6s, etc.). These are much better locations to visit than barracks/airfields/cities.

* Silenced weapons are king. The MP5SD6 and M4s with silencers are my favorites, but even a 9mm silenced pistol will do. It doesn't matter if ammo is scarce, since you only need to waste 1 zombie and you're not alerting the rest of the town. 1 tap to the head will usually do. Again, planning your route to deer stand will usually keep you stocked on the silenced ammo, since it spawns there regularly.

* Making an airfield or big city run? Plan on killing everything/everyone. There are no 'friendlies' there. Chances are they just got the Gucci gear and don't want to part with it, they're checking out your new gear, or they're heading to the same place you are and there's not going to be enough Gucci for the both of you.

* Have matches, a knife, and canteen? No need for city visits ever again. Kill a cow, find a pond and you're set for life. Get a hatchet and you won't even need to visit barns except out of curiosity.

* Messed up and alerted a zombie or 2? Don't immediately fight them if possible. Drag them to a barn or house, or even better, outside the city away from other zombies, then take care of them. Opening fire immediately just alerts all the others and instead of 1-2, you're dealing with 10 or more.

• Print a map with Russian and English names. When you don't have one in game, it really helps
• Use the makarov to kill zombies. Ammo is abundant. Its quiet.
• Related to above, never fight zeds in the open. Always run to a building so you can headshot them easily.
• The best gun is the one you have ammo for.
• Get the latest Beta patch. It fixes tons of things, like direct chat, gear/loot bugs, lag/poor fps issues. Play on Beta only servers too.
• Night time is fine w/ gamma turned up, especially when the moon is bright. Its more of a pain when there's no moon.
• Zeds sight is directional. About 30deg to each side, or 60deg FOV. Night time reduces zed's sight.
• Grass is quieter than road. Prone across roads if there's zed near you.

Finding the essential survival gear can be the biggest challenge early on, when you first spawn. Once you're geared up, survival is no longer a challenge, and you have give yourself something interesting to do.

Spot on DarKcyde , i keep the mak just for the zeds, always tons of ammo so it is never an issue. 1 shot headshot kill so it is as good as any other gun in the game. Drag and bag em in doorways. I ran out of ammo for the 1911 once and it sucked, i always keep the mak now.

Have two canteens. Every time i find a coke i drink it even if i am only slightly thirsty, i leave the pepsi, can't stand the stuff ! I wont put a can of drink in my inventory and keep it unless i only have one water bottle.

Always keep at least three to four cans of food, it can get scarce sometimes

Matches, knife, hatchet..once you have them you can kill and eat the wildlife and then ditch the canned stuff.Except the sardines, i like sardines.

Torch, virtually useless.