We’ve already covered the bare necessities of surviving in H1Z1 for the first few hours of play but an important part of the game is your long term survival outside of locating water or learning initial crafting recipies. I’ve already had more deaths than I can count and in the process, have learnt a great deal about what you should and shouldn’t do to stay alive. Food and water is only a very small part of H1Z1, with player interaction (or inaction) key to long term survival.

Avoid Players As Much As Possible

I’m going to contradict myself across the first two points on this guide, but bear with me. H1Z1 if you’ve chosen to play on a PvP server is a vicious game. Players are ruthless, they’ll kill you on sight and even “friends” you make will quickly stab you in the back. Only yesterday having once again established some good gear did I decide to risk making a friend. That friend chose to kill me twenty minutes into our meeting after I discovered a set of binoculars and a motorbike helmet he took a liking too. It might sound paranoid and it’s a lonely experience, but until you’re armed to the teeth with weapons and clothing, there’s absolutely no value in interacting with others. If you see another person, you should run immediately. You never know if that person has good intentions, is bait or has weapons much stronger than you. With the net code the way it is at the moment regardless of your first person shooter experience, there’s a high chance you’ll miss or fumble when attacking someone else. Preserve your life, turn the other way and high tail it into the nearest woodland.

make A Friend

You’ll now be thinking to yourself “If I’m to never interact with others, how can I make friends?”. The answer is to try to rope real life friends into playing, or to make friends with players on the H1Z1 forums or Reddit. To make a friend in H1Z1 simply from bumping into them out in the wild is incredibly risky to the point where it makes little sense. Even if you do make a short term friend randomly, you’ll spend the entire time wondering if they’ll eventually kill you and steal your stuff. If they don’t kill you, they’ll slow you down and often prove a magnet for larger groups. Coordinating with someone on Teamspeak or a friend you already know is infinitely better than dealing with a stranger as you can trust what they’ll be doing while you play.

Learn Your Locations and Avoid Popular Locations

From what I’ve seen so far, people instantly head towards the main towns (Pleasant Valley and Tamatama). The problem with this however is the fact that these locations are ridiculously busy and have almost no loot left in them. Going into a town will almost guarantee your death, even under the cover of darkness, because they’re a mecca for players and are crawling in zombies. Every time I’ve visited a town it has always resulted in my death. There’s so many access routes in and out it’s impossible to fully cover all angles, hoping to keep an eye on everyone approaching. Several times I’ve died because I covered two doors but was simply unable to cover the third and was quickly flanked by a group holding the town. Towns have no unique items and for that very reason, it’s far easier to stay alive by avoiding them altogether.

Where “learn your locations” is concerned, there’s key locations in H1Z1 that are instantly recognisable and if you have no compass, these give you a good idea of where you are. For example, the Radio Station is almost in the centre of the map and Pleasent Valley just North West from there. If you remember these key locations you can ensure that you avoid them, or if only absolutely necessary pass through them. Most importantly of all, remembering key water sources and ensuring they aren’t ever too far away from you is key to long term survival. There’s a total of 6 water sources in total and all them have stagnant water so be sure to utilise campfires that you can often find nearby to sterilize it.

Search For Key Items

There are a fair few items in H1Z1 but a lot of them aren’t of huge value. I would argue the most important are:

• Compass
• Binoculars
• Lighter
• Scrap of Cloth
• First Aid Kit
• Logging Axe
• Plastic Bottle
• Blackberries

Aside from these, weaponry such as Pistols or Shotguns are valuable but I honestly would never go out of my way to secure one. The primary reason for that is they take up a lot of inventory space and bullets to find or make are incredibly hard work. In contrast, a Bow and Arrow will do the job perfectly for sniping players if you have to or from killing zombies easily. Arrows are also incredibly quick and easy to make as wood is in abundance.

As for locating these key items, the Lighter and Cloth can often be found on zombies. The Binoculars are known to come from Air Drop’s and the First Aid Kit can be made using Saline and Bandage. Saline can be made using Purified Water and a Salt Packet. Lastly, Logging Axe’s tend to be found in rural areas, primarily on farms and Plastic Bottle’s are scattered almost everywhere.

The reason why all these items are so valuable is because they’re fundamental to lifting you above other players. They provide an enormous advantage to navigation, securing a location and healing.

Secure Your Crafting Recipies

Upon death you don’t lose your discovered crafting recipies. As a result, you should strive to discover recipes after receiving every new item. There’s no value in thinking, “Oh, I’ll craft later” because 30 seconds after saying this, you could be killed and all your items will be lost. Securing crafting recipies is incredibly important for future proofing your character regardless of death as it provides you with a blueprint on what you have and haven’t unlocked.

Avoid The Roads

There aren’t loads of Roads in H1Z1 and the roads that there are, all lead to busy locations. Roads are an excellent source to find other players because they naturally gravitate towards them. If you have to use roads to work your way around the map I’d insist that you run parallel to them, preferably a significant way away from them. Many players that I have seen have been roaming the roads in search of easy kills on unsuspecting players. By avoiding them as much as possible you significantly reduce the risk of encountering others. Obviously at times you’ll have to cross a road, just ensure you don’t walk down the middle of it.