History VideoGame / DayZ

* EasterEgg: Down that chimney is... [[spoiler:''[[http://i.imgur.com/BW1C6.jpg ZOMBIE SANTA!]]'']]

'''Note:''' [[InternetBackdraft For your own sake]], do not confuse ''[=DayZ=]'' with its {{Mockbuster}}, ''The War Z'' (Now known as ''Infestation: Survivor Stories'').

* NobodyPoops: But they do eat, drink, and try to stay warm.
** Mind you, someone actually suggested this on their forums...

* MeleeATrois: Can potentially happen if you get in a tight with zombies and other players at the same time, or if more than two players are involved in a fight and aren't all on the same side.

* CommonPlaceRare: Antibiotics, justified in that during a zombie outbreak demand will be high. So, if you get an infection then you better get used to the symptoms.

* CrazyPrepared: [[PlayerCharacter You]] if you happen to be even a halfway decent survivor. Ammo counted to the bullet for your weapons, morphine for broken bones, painkillers for trauma and, well [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment pain]], bandages for bleeding, all balanced out with food and water along with munitions and other misc. supplies in a very limited inventory space (12 slots primary, 8 secondary weapon bandolier, and 24 tops in a backpack. Oh, and it's a damn [[GridInventory grid style inventory. A small bottle of painkillers taking up the same space as a STANAG magazine for an AR platform rifle.]])

->''[=DayZ=] is, at best, [[NintendoHard unreasonably cruel]].''

''[[http://www.dayzmod.com/ DayZ]]'' is originally a [[GameMod mod]] for the video game ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}} II'', converting the realistic military sim into a post-apocalyptic zombie-survival simulation.

* SticksToTheBack: Each character in the stand-alone has a slot for one long-arm, and one melee weapon. In the case of long guns, we can at least pretend that they have a strap. The melee weapons have no such justification.

* CoOpMultiplayer / CompetitiveMultiplayer: The game walks a balance between the two. On the one hand, pretty much everyone is liable to kill you, if only because they're afraid you'll kill them. On the other hand, teaming up with others makes things much easier, especially in terms of having someone to watch your back. Fixing vehicles also basically requires teammates, in that the vehicles tend to spawn in high traffic areas, often because of the vehicle, and the items needed to repair and fuel them take up large amounts of space.

* UndeathlyPallor: All the zombies look as though they have white paint caked to their faces, with dirt and grim elsewhere, and blood on their hands.

* TrialAndErrorGameplay: As you start off, your chances of even surviving for an hour can be slim. You have to scavenge for food and drinkables, aswell as equipment and surving for long enough without getting murdered by another player, are just as low as when you started.

* SimpleYetAwesome: A humble backpack may not seem very impressive on the face of it, but it drastically improves a survivors odds of surviving further by allowing them to carry much more than they could with only the pockets on their cloths. Useful items that got passed over before can now be horded and saved for when the situation calls for them if you have one of these.

* {{Nerf}}: [[DiscOneNuke Early-availability handguns.]] Players used to spawn on the beach with pistols that could kill other players in 5 or 6 hits and zombies in two. Then ''[=DayZ=]'' took their pistols away. Still, if they found a handgun while looting it would take only 1 (if you have a revolver) to 2 (if you have a makarov) shots to kill a zombie. So, after further nerfs, it now takes an entire mag of Makarov bullets to kill a zombie (short of a headshot) and two full magazine to kill another player.

* DaylightHorror: The game during the daytime, which is when most players are likely to be playing. Especially so with high dynamic range lighting. Going out of a building or treeline into direct sunlight will briefly light-blind the player, particularly if they face a sun low in the sky. Likewise, going from outside indoors will briefly plunge the player into darkness. Trying to stick one's face out of cover to see if the coast is clear when one hear's zombies about can be a tense experience.

* AwesomeYetPractical: Crossbows are somewhat slow and have moderate power, but are completely silent, have reusable ammunition, and can kill a zombie in a single shot anywhere on the body.
** [[ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon Albeit they also have horrible range,]] [[PixelHunt bolts aren't that easy to retrieve]] [[GridInventory and single bolt takes whole inventory slot.]] Also, with introduction of melee weapons they don't even monopolize the totally silent effect anymore.
** Hatchets, however, really shine in any situation where other players aren't a problem. They're ultra-quiet, instantly fatal to zombies, never run out of ammo, and don't aggro more zombies when they're used.
*** They have their own problems, however, where there's a hard to hit sweet-spot distance to killing them in one hit, and the melee range means you're likely to get swarmed if there's more than one zombie after you. Makes them something of an example of DifficultButAwesome Yet Practical. Otherwise, most hachets/axes kill in two hits. So does shovels.
** Road flares. While they make you zombie bait while you hold them and a walking target for bandits, they can light up half the town when thrown (even through walls), are catnip to zombies, and zombies have a habit of dying when they get too close. Did I mention they are the most commonly found non-weapon item in the game and you can fit 10 in a slot?

* GoodOldFisticuffs: The only melee attack all characters always have access to is to punch stuff. That said, it does very little damage at all, to the point that it is only ever used in desperation or as a means of CherryTapping.

* {{Nerf}}: [[DiscOneNuke Early-availability handguns.]] Players used to spawn on the beach with pistols that could kill other players in 5 or 6 hits and zombies in two. Then ''[=DayZ=]'' took their pistols away. Still, if they found a handgun while looting it would take only 1 (if you have a revolver) to 2 (if you have a makarov) shots to kill a zombie. So, after further nerfs, it now takes an entire clip of Makarov bullets to kill a zombie (short of a headshot) and two full clips to kill another player.

** DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Tents are persistent across server resets and an infinite number can be placed on an infinite number of servers. At this point in the game they are so common that a new player can fully arm themselves in a matter of minutes on a high-population server and veteran players are more worried about their tents being found than they are about being killed -- [[NotTheWayItIsMeantToBePlayed in a game where permadeath is the cost for failure]]. While some of this is [[ObviousBeta the result of a recent bug]], there has been a steady sea-change away from risk and consequences for some time.