SpawnPass · DayZ
Your first hour on the coast
Spawn, clothe, drink, eat, arm yourself — in that order, and without waking the town.
Last checked 2026-09-21
Overview
DayZ kills new players with arithmetic, not with bullets. You spawn with roughly 600 energy and 600 water out of a possible 5,000 each, and everything you do burns both. The first hour is about getting those numbers up before anything else.
The numbers that matter
Learn these four and most early deaths stop happening.
- Energy and Water both run 0 to 5,000. You start around 600.
- Below roughly 300 on either, you take health damage and blood regeneration stops entirely.
- Blood runs 0 to 5,000. Below about 2,500 you die; below about 4,500 your vision greys out.
- With both energy and water healthy, blood regenerates at roughly 0.3 per second. That is your recovery clock.
Order of operations
Clothes with cargo space, then something with an edge, then water, then food. A knife turns every animal and every crate into supplies; without one you are limited to what you find intact.
Water without cholera
Pumps and wells are safe. Ponds and standing water are not — unknown water sources carry a cholera risk. If you must drink from one, boil it first.
Do not fight the town
Infected agro chains are what wipe fresh spawns. Walk near them, sprint only when you are clear, and take them from behind with melee rather than trading hits in a doorway.