Bandits and their favourite hunting spots | PVP, interacting with other players DayZ - ArmA 2 mod Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Many DayZ players, out of boredom or just pure malice like lying on the outskirts of towns for whole days and hunting players who don't know where they're attacked from and usually don't have the equipment needed to protect themselves. These types of bandits are considered to be the lowest type of players, but that doesn't change the fact that there's more and more of them each day. The best evidence for that are the official statistics on the DayZ main website. When I write this guide, the murder gauge exceeds 4 million, while the number of killed bandits is just a couple hundreds of thousands. Of course another cause of such state of things are players who log out during fights and jump between servers, but this problem should be fixed soon enough.
Bandits who aren't interested in fighting but just the kill counter prefer hills and other elevated areas nearby cities such as Chernogorsk or Elektrozavodsk. If you get killed by a single in the middle of the city, without even knowing where the bullet came from, you can be sure it was the doing of one of these "ambitious" snipers.
In Chernogorsk, their favourite spots are the woods north of town. Additionally on the eastern hill there's a radio tower which gives a view of almost the whole town. More ambitious players tend to climb onto the roof of the factory in the north.
The hills rising to the north of Elektrozavodsk is another place where bandits camp days and nights on populated servers. The most popular is the north-east hill, found behind the power plant. From there they get a view of the most important and popular buildings in town.
More ambitious players head further north, where only more experienced and capable of defending themselves players reach. A popular hunting spot are the shrubberies north of Stary Sobor, as they provide a view of nearly the whole town and most importantly - the military tents, which tempt travellers with precious loot.
The best of best head further north, to the infamous Airfield. There, the game is completely fair. Each player who decides to go there needs to be well-equipped and has to know that this place is a generally accepted PVP capital. There are no bandits and heroes here and whoever isn't you is your enemy. The airfield is a vast and flat area, making it perfect for snipers. Enemies can be found almost everywhere in the surrounding woods. The sight of proclaimed bandits is most commonly focused on the buildings richest in loot, which I have described in " Obtaining your first equipment".
When visiting the airfield, you should especially look out for guard towers placed along the wall surrounding the airfield. Only the most experienced and crazy bandits decide to camp in them, but they are also the most dangerous.