DayZ is a uniquely immersive mod, and sometimes players come away with some really compelling stories to pass along. Chance encounters, blood-pumping firefights, comical breaks in the tension, and even stories of humanity (if you can believe it). All of this comes together to make for an enthralling reading experience, even if you don't play the mod.
Journals are our way of providing an outlet for you to record your experiences for posterity and let someone else re-live your adventure. Think of this as a library.
Player Journals (36)
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"They See Me Rolling"
Haters gonna hate.
This is a story of triumph and determination but it begins with loss and sadness. I died, gunned down in my prime by a hidden sniper near Electro while I attempted to raid a tent, which in hindsight was so obviously bait for naive idiots such as myself my stupidy actually hurts. Mistake number 1. I felt the life gush from my body as blood pooled around me and my vision faded to black while more bullets kicked up dust around me.
But fear not, for the story does not end here! I awoke again through some strange magic on …
4 -
"Accidents Happen"
Two weeks. Two weeks, I survived this harsh, desolate country. I had killed over twelve hundred zombies and defended Cherno against a sqaud of bandits. I had found countless vehicles, repaired two choppers and saved my friends countless times.
And you know what killed me? Wasn't bandits. Wasn't even a hungry new player. Hell, I even managed to survive all the zombies.
I died because I fell down the god damned mountain in between Electro and Cherno. I should have known better than to climb that mountain, we even nicknamed it Death Mountain…
1 -
"From Elektro to Starry"
As I had just started at cap golova, I decided to make my way to the top of the mountain across the road.
As I had reached the top, I was expecting to find some tents, but instead found an ATV. Wondering what to do, I remembered there isva factory not to far into elektro.
Approaching the factory I hear several gunshots, loud ones too. I decide to quickly duck into the building beside in hopes of finding a weapon, but only found a axe. I step backlit and slowly approach the factory, as I get closer the shots become more frequent. I round …
2 -
"We Are The Bandits"
I steadied my breathing as I looked through the thermal scope of my L85, lining up a ghillie suited survivor.
"Target, 200 metres, in the hotel" I whispered to Matt.
"Copy that, 200 metres in the hotel." Matt adjusted his scope and gently squeezed the trigger. A deafening boom rang out from his AS50 sniper rifle, and the shot was rewarded with a massive burst of blood splashing the windows of the hotel. "Target down" he replied.
We waited for hours on the rooftop in Cherno, waiting for unsuspecting Survivors to enter our sights. Deep …
0 -
"Brighter Day"
Diary of Saul
Day 0- I've waved farewell to my boat. After a heavy storm, rough seas, losing all of my equipment I have landed on some beach in the former eastern block. I managed to keep low from the zeds and moved what I believe is west to some city named Chernogorsk. Soon after I arrived I found an abandoned relief camp set up by the local army. It was inside that I was both stunned and relieved. A dead soldier, or former soldier all kitted out with weapons, medical supplies, and even some spare food and water. He was shot in the back of …
1 -
"The Betrayal"
So me and my buddy are on a server out of the Hive, so side chat is enabled. We we're humbly exploring Cherno, when we see a ton of zombies running. Running away from us though. We're sitting in a pub, prone, watching a guy run around the statue with 20-30 zombies chasing him. We call out to him on the side chat to help him out.
He sees us, and runs towards us, saying that he is friendly once we take out the zombies for him. We ask if he wants to join us, and agrees. So we go along, don't find anything special until we hit the Chernarus …
4 -
"Firefight"
The roar of gunfire echoed across the empty airfield as I fired off round after round from my M249. There were zombies everywhere, sprinting across the tarmac to where my lonely group of Survivors were stranded. Every time a zombie dropped another two would take its place. They just kept coming!
"God dammit Darrow," I yelled, "Fix that fucking tyre!" "I'm going as fast as I can! Maybe if some dickhead hadn't shot at the bus, we'd already be out of here!" he retorted. Matt, another Survivor squeezed off several rounds from his M4A3 before …
2 -
"Shipwrecked... pt.1"
Waves crashed wildly all around us... tossing our small boat all over out in this open water. We though we'd be safe from the outbreak on the water but our timing couldn't have been worse.
We were sailing for a small island off the coast of Chernarus when the storm hit just after the sun set. We lost one of the guys we were with almost as soon as the first wave swept over us... his name was Pat, I think. With such a small boat we really didn't stand much of a chance out in such open waters. Captain Franklin held us together as long as he …
0 -
"A Fortunate Evil"
A story of fortune was cast upon us late last night as me and my two survivor friends journeyed through the northern countryside.
Leaving the airfield after a quick raid, we journeyed eastward towards a nearby castle that we had heard rumors of. We were anxious to explore the ruins in hope for some stellar equipment. However, our anxiousness was our downfall. We let our guard down and carelessly trotted to the castle. The zombies nearby quickly detected us and charged. Before I knew it, I was being ravaged. I escaped to the tree line, but …
1 -
"Mission Impossible..."
Day 1. They tossed me of the boat. Touching the captains dog in an inappropriate way whas not the best thing to do..... but I was so lonely :(
I woke up on the beach, they had taken all my things, I just had a flashlight, a bandage and some painkillers. Maby I should leave out where the flashlight was found, but it hurted like hell. I think Ive got the bandage and the painkillers from the captains whife.........she never liked that dog.
In the distance I saw some cranes so I started to walk towards them. I did know the risk of zombies but…
3 -
"Paranoid Barracks"
I had been playing DayZ since the beginning. But one thing i have always avoided is the Airfields and the North . It mostly stemmed from the incident in Berezino were i almost died from a sniper.
So one day when i was with 2 of my friends i decided to loot the northern Airfield. Not the entire thing god no only the one barracks covered in trees on the southern tip of the airfield.
On our way and one K.I.A due to a sniper and one M.I.A due to idiotic behalves i made it to the barracks. Slowly going through the rooms not one but two bandits…
2 -
"The Sniper and The Spontaneous Friend"
So I had just spawned far right of electro and decided I would try to find some loot there. After a very long walk I had finally gotten just outside of electro where I saw some buildings I had never been in before (A fire station and a factory next to each other). After checking my suroundings I started crouch running towards the fire station but then my heart sank into my stomach as I heard bullets wizzing past my head. Defying all odds I made it into the fire staion unharmed and started looking for loot. I found a makorov with extra mags and …
2 -
"Dehydration & The Sniper of Cherno"
I spawned on the beach near Komarovo and decided to look for loot there however as I passed through Komarovo I heard multiple gunshots that sounded like they were close, so I decided to make a run for it and head inland but as I started running a hoard of zombies started following me. I had to get rid of them somehow, I just kept running and eventually I lost them one by one. I had been running for a long time and had no idea where I was and on top of that my hydration indicator had turned red and started blinking, I started running again while…
1 -
"Only the Lucky Survive"
I spawned in the middle of nowhere, I tried finding signs of a town or even zeds. I walked and found a small house by the side of a road there were around six zeds that started chasing me, I ran into the forest and up a steep hill to lose them. I came up on two guys near a vehicle. Since I was without a weapon I checked the gear in truck. An AK with about three mags along with a czech backpack and revolver were there. I took everything and snuck around behind the two guys. I saw them refuling and fixing the truck when the first guy finished …
1 -
"Welcome to Chernarus"
If you are reading this, then I am probably already dead, but at least you're human. I am writing this to catalogue what might just be the last moments of humanity on this god forsaken planet.
My life before the Outbreak is just a blur, it seems so long ago. I remember fleeing my home with my family, escaping to the refugee boats which were dangerously overloaded. Every now and then, I get flashes of memories of gunfire and gore, of floating in blackness.
And then I was here, in this god forsaken shithole of a country, but at least I am …
2 -
"DayZ Diary Chapter 1 - Away From Home"
"Is he breathing?" Joe's staring nervously at the wounded Adam. He got hit by a shell while we were scouting a ranch near Gorka. We swiftly counterattacked and got the bastard, but Adam was already on the ground.
"Barely." I answer. I realize how weak my voice sounds. It's been three weeks, we're out of food, we're out of blood packs and we're almost out of ammo...
Now we're sitting outside an abandoned barn in the middle of the night trying to save Adam. I've lost hope in surviving a long time ago, but I had to stay strong for the team. …
3 -
"Suspense in Stary Sobor"
It was my first time with Day Z. I was nervous, unsure of how to proceed in such a dog-eat-dog world, where threat comes from the living and the dead. I was, in hindsight, at least relatively forearmed with knowledge. Therefore it was my first move to proceed inward to civilisation, or at least the remnants of it, in search of a means of survival. After much fruitless foraging and endless sprinting, I happened upon a town I had never been to before: Stary Sobor, or Old Sable. I proceeded to seek out my target, a small supermarket on the fringes…
1 -
"No regrets"
They just didn't stop. These fucking zombies. I killed so many of them, I killed hundreds of them and they just didn't stop coming. I ran out of supplies. I wasted all of my bullets to keep these fuckers at bay. I used all my bandages to stop the bleeding, but I didn't have enough. I was out of food and out of drinks. My leg was broken and due to my lack of morphine I was unable to stand.
So there I was, bleeding, laying on the floor of this barn in the middle of fucking nowhere. All I could see out the windows was silhouettes of hills. It was…
4 -
"Long days"
I don't know when or how I ended up here. This first thing I remember his waking up on a beach. Wet, cold, and hungry. There was no one around which I thought was very strange for I was next to a harbor. Harbors are always busy with activity. No noise save for the chirping of birds and the surf of the salty ocean rushing by at my feet.
So I started to explore the harbor. With my backpack, one flashlight, and some painkillers I went searching trying to figure out were I was. So silent the area was, not even the humm of a running engine or any…
2 -
"The Story of Jorg: Day 0"
I woke up on the shore today... no memories of the past... just foggy remnants of a dream long, long ago... I remember nothing of yesterday... Of how I got here. However, I do remember the event. The event that changed the world forever... There are Zeds everywhere. They idle in the towns and walk and stare stupidly in the distance, their minds fogged the by this rabid disease.
I have almost no supplies. The only way to get more is to salvage from the towns and the dead. I spot a barn to the east, and head toward it, hoping for maybe a …
0 -
"4 Bandits Down & A Friend Crapped Himself (Literally)"
I was in Cherno, minding my own business on top of the largest building, looking out for people (I AM NOT A BANDIT) for some friends when a server hopper pops in and kills me. So I'm like "wtf?" .... I then ask my 2 friends I'm playing with to go get my stuff, they climb the LONG ladder up....
Friend 1 pops up, bam.... dead. Putting 3 makarov shots into 1 player. He then relays a message saying there is 2 people up there.
As friend 2 gets to the top he pops into 3rd person view and sees that there is now 4 server hoppers up there. As he …
3 -
"Maybe I was born with it, Maybe it was Fate"
A friend and I decided to try DayZ, just like the rest of you have. After a couple lives on each of our parts we finally managed meet up in Komarovo, one of the towns a short distance west of Cherno. We decided our first actions as a team would be to sneak into Cherno on a relatively low population server to get some basic necessities and then make our way north to live in the woods. Well, it could have gone better. Didn't see any players, but we would die to zombies. Or fall damage. Or god forbid, a bit of friendly fire. Seems like I looked …
8 -
"Close victory"
Myself and my brother, known as Phantom, were on our first run playing DayZ together, even though we had individual experience. It was twilight; we had just stocked up at the hospital and were headed to the fire station in search of loot. I only had a hatchet and a .45 with one mag, while my companion had an M16 and side-arm we rounded a corner to see an armed survivor fleeing from a single zombie. We were pursuing him and debating whether to kill or save him when I heard the loud boom of a rifle and saw a bullet splash behind the zombie. …
4 -
"Revenge"
Cold. Bitter. Lonely. These are all words to describe how he felt. John was a kind man, was, as we all were, once. He knew he had to survive, and how, better than any man I'd met before. Perhaps it was his kindness though, that short sympathetic pause, which led him to his demise.
I was told it was Chernogorsk; others have reconciled numerous locations, but we'll say Chernogorsk for the sake of argument. John was walking along the coast, small drops of blood leaked from his backpack, or so I'm told.
John didn't like company, or more that …
0 -
"Alone"
I was washed up on the shore, alone and no clue where I was or how I got here. There was a backpack 5 meters from me. I crawled to it - there was a flashlight, some bandages, and some painkillers. Also this journal... The pages were blank so I had still no clue what I was doing here or what had happened.
I saw some houses in the distance. It was very flat on the coast some I could see several kilometers. The houses were around 1 kilometer away from me... I felt weak, but started walking anyway. Where else would I go?
It took around a half…
4 -
"Nationality misunderstanding"
I was sniped right outside of the supermarket in Chernogorsk, unarmed and without a pack, I passed out for what seemed like forever.
When I was able to bandage myself I had 500 blood left and was just looking for a reason to die. I ran into someone in the market who initially trusted me as much as anyone can trust another guy in this game, but after explaining how little blood I had, he must have decided to spare my life and bandage me instead. Now this is where things get happy, and goddamn awesome.
Me and my new friend travel to the …
1 -
"Punitor"
Here we are, waiting silently, while the noise of a man being torn to pieces only 50 meters away rattles through our skulls. He was a companion, a member of our brotherhood.
Below, in the shredded tents of a one-time military encampment lay a single can of food. He was one to never let anything go to waste. After seeing just hours before a group of savage men kill a man gangland style, he still showed courage.
Hours passed before we could move. There were six of us in this group. Our pasts didn't mean anything now, we were all just …
3 -
"Z Blood Tires Are Real Tasty!"
I'm spending the day at my cousin's house watching him play Day-Z on his computer, and about an hour or so after I got there he gets pinged by a sniper up on a hill a few miles away.
Anyways, after his death he asks me if I'd like to play while he cools off and so I hop on.
I spawn in somewhere along the southern coast, looking at the map, maybe around Chyornaya Bay and I take a look around and head to the nearby town avoiding zombies.
A few minutes in town after picking up some loot piles I see the surrounding zeds running off, and up…
3 -
"He was jus-..."
I was awoken by the smell of oil and gasoline. My colleagues were trying to get the truck working. "Damn it man! I can't get this piece of crap to budge!" Rariges said. "Yeah. I wonder what could be wrong with it." answered Jav3lin. My head still hurt from last night. The sound of a broken engine and Rariges' yelling was not helping. I got up and looked at the car. There was a missing tire. "Uhm.. Guys." I said. "Shh!" Jav3lin quickly replied. Rariges was too busy trying to figure out what was wrong with the car to notice me. "Don't tell him!" …
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"Why I am not a bandit"
The first thing I saw was the darkness of the loading screen. What's this? I then spawned on the beach after 10 minutes of purgatory. Ok, now that I finally spawned, let's play!
I looked over to my right and saw a large dock and warehouse. I thought it would be a good idea to go over there. I crawled over to a little house, and thought I saw the stock of a gun sticking around the corner. Jackpot! Then I heard gunshots to my left. Then zombies to my right.
Crap.
The zombies decided I was a better target than the shooter. I took off …
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