Everyone who has played DayZ knows just how punishing the experience truly is – you have to worry about food, water, other players, and zeds on top of it all. At first, it can seem impossible to get over that brutal first hurdle. Unless, of course, you’ve added mods to soften the difficulty.
Since so much of this game falls on good luck with scavenging, a beginner player might forget about the number of crafting recipes that can expedite the process of becoming a wasteland warrior. If you’re not interested in easing your way in with mods, it’s in your best interest to learn a few core craftable items that will make the difference in the post-apocalypse.
10 Rags
It may seem simple, but simple does not mean unnecessary; rags are one of the most essential items in the game, and crafting them is key to your survival. All you need is a knife of any kind and a piece of clothing you aren’t wearing. Drag the knife onto the clothing in your inventory, click “tear into rags” when the option is given, and presto! You’ve got rags.
Rags are used for patching up wounds like bandages (though they won’t help with fall damage like a splint), making torches, ropes, campfires, and so many other things. If you want to survive for a long time, make rags.
9 Nailed Baseball Bat
If you want a solid weapon (and to feel like The Walking Dead’s Neegan), then the Nailed Baseball Bat is a great choice. You’ll want to find around 12 nails and a baseball bat, then craft them together to make this great PVP weapon.
What makes this weapon so great is its ability to cause the bleed effect on enemy players, making it an all-around solid choice for both zed bashing and protecting yourself (or hunting down other players, if that’s your goal). With such a simple recipe, it’s a great weapon to hold you until you find a stronger bleed weapon.
8 Plate Carrier Variations
Carrying capacity is one of the limiting factors that makes your time in Dayz (your Dayz in Dayz, if you will) more difficult; everyone’s been in that situation where they have to leave valuable items behind while scavenging due to lack of space. So wouldn’t it be nice to have extra storage that can also keep you protected from damage? Well, once you max out a Plate Carrier with a Holster and Pouches, that’s exactly what you’ll get.
While the risk to get all the required items is quite high (since some players like to camp out in military zones to rob looters), the benefits are undeniable. Twenty-four slots of extra space on top of superior firearm protection and a holster slot for weapons is worth it. It will certainly keep you alive longer.
7 Ropes
Ropes are a versatile item, being useful not only for crafting building materials, storage solutions, and fishing rods but also being a way of restraining players instead of killing them. This way, you can save on bullets and still take them for everything they’ve got! This is especially useful since DayZ isn’t running out of people who want you dead any time soon.
Ropes can be made with two stacks of 6 rags, making them relatively cheap for their value. This cheapness comes through in how easily they can be cut when used for restraints, but you’re liable to be long gone by the time your victim is liberated.
6 Burlap Courier Bags and Backpacks
If you’re looking for a cheap storage solution, burlap bags are exactly what you need. While there are definitely better backpacks, these are lightweight and stealthy options that are perfect when first starting out or traveling light.
The burlap courier bag is made with ropes and a burlap sack, and a burlap backpack is made with three sticks and a burlap courier bag, giving 30 and 42 inventory slots, respectively. For the price, this is a must-have on your quest to survive.
5 Fireplaces
If you’re trying to survive, being able to see and eat are integral; that’s why the fireplace is a great asset to have at any level of development. When the sun goes down, a campfire wards off the dark. When you need fresh food, the campfire can cook meat and the like to make them safe to eat.
There are a number of ways to craft a campfire, but the easiest is made with a rag and a short stick. You can also use paper, light bark, oak bark, and bandages in place of the rag. Remember to use a long sharp stick for cooking with an un-upgraded fireplace!
4 Stone Knife
The stone knife is as basic as basic gets, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t useful. It can be used in place of any common knife in crafting recipes and will cut bark and rope when needed. This is the epitome of an emergency tool since other items in the knife class are more versatile.
It only takes two small stones to craft, which in more recent updates, have become even easier to find naturally without tools. It’s a recipe worth remembering in a pinch and could be the tool that saves you and your allies’ lives if used properly.
3 Snare Trap
It isn’t likely that you’ll be able to hunt larger game without a ranged weapon; if you’re looking for a way to catch food, the snare trap is a great pick. If you’ve got some metal wire and a stick, you’ve got yourself a reliable source of food (given you have bait to back it up with).
You’ll primarily be catching rabbits with this trap, so don’t expect big game any time soon. Regardless, this is a good thing to craft if you’re low on ammunition or too close to zeds to use a gun.
2 Hand Drill
The hand drill is one of the most crucial elements for maintaining fires in DayZ, and thus it’s one of the most important items to have in the game. Since fires are needed for cooking and low-level light, the hand drill should be one of the first recipes you get familiar with. It can also light torches, which are useful for traveling under the cover of night.
To craft the hand drill, you only need a stick and a piece of bark. Unlike Minecraft's torches and campfires, lighting a fire in Dayz is quite realistic; the hand drill breaks if it fails to light a fire, so be sure to have plenty of resources on hand to quickly craft a backup. After all, who wants an unlit fireplace?
1 Simple Fishing Rod
Fishing is one of the cheaper methods of obtaining food, making it a great early-game survival method when you get tired of scavenging. All you need to make a simple fishing rod is a rope and a long wooden stick. It’s less space efficient, though, so it’s recommended that you find a better fishing rod as soon as possible.
Remember that to actually catch fish with this tool, you need bait, which requires earthworms and hooks to craft. Once you find a superior rod, you can also take this one apart with a knife, making it useful and resource efficient!