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Last night my brother Ivan and I managed to find a Day Z Standalone (SA) server that had a decent ping for both of us. This was important, considering that he's living and working in KSA, and I'm here in the Philippines. For if I chose a server in Singapore or West Coast US, my ping will be low, but his will be high, and if he choses a server closer to him (say, France or Germany), then my ping will be high, but his will be low. We eventually found middle ground in a China-based server. We were using TeamSpeak to communicate.

When we finally both got into the server, we were surprised that his character/avatar was already well-equipped and I was a total "bambi" (a player that practically just started, no gear, just a flashlight and "hungry" status). I realized that, since I had been using his Steam account to play the game (I just recently bought DayZ SA for my own Steam account), I left my most recent avatar with some pretty decent gear, and this presented a great situation, because my brother can now practice some of the game's actions while decked with good gear. I got an M4A1 for that avatar and so he practiced using it, learning how to load ammo into the magazines, and inserting mags into the carbine. Meanwhile, I was busy with my own character, finding food, additional clothing--I spawned near Elektro, and my brother spawned where I last was....wayyyy over at the other end of the map, at the Northwest Airfield. After about 30 minutes of getting decent weapons, clothing, food and water, I then proceeded on the loooong trek north, to rendezvous with my brother at that airfield.

So, while I was running towards his position, we kept talking on TeamSpeak, and I was tutoring him on some tips and tricks I learned in DayZ, so he can use it to his own advantage. I also gave him the link to an online Chernarus map, so he can track my progress as I ran towards him.

The uneventful run took almost 30 minutes (well, not exactly uneventful--had to deal with zombies along the way, but if you're used to killing zombies, that event is really a non-event at this stage of DayZ SA development). By the time I arrived at the airport, my brother was already getting the hang of manipulating objects like clothing and ammo, reloading his weapon etc. He was still unaware of the fact that one's character had to be at the "peak of health" (having the status Energized and Hydrated in his profile) so that issues like blood loss or food poisoning wouldn't be an issue or affect his "vision". Take note that it took an entire hour for us just to meet up with each other on this land known as Chernarus (map here: DayZ Standalone Chernarus+ Map - DayZDB).

While I was still running towards his position, my brother was already scavenging around the airport, and found a decent M4A1. He picked this up, with the intent of giving it to me when I arrived. When I reached the southern fence of the Northwest airfield, I immediately saw my brother's silhouette at the airport's firestation, indicating that yes, if one is not careful about cover, you are sniper-fodder, just standing around in front of buildings, especially at the northwest airfield, a known sniper's haven. I ran towards him, and pretty soon, he spotted me on his ACOG scope.


When we finally rendezvoused inside the fire station, we took inventory of all items we had, and tried to share them equally. He gave me the M4A1 he found, along with some ammo. We discovered a bug with the M4--as soon as he dropped it on the ground, it looked messed up, missing the handguard, buttstock and magazine. But after picking it up, a few seconds later, it was visible again. We then proceeded to continue our scavenging run around the airport area.


After a few minutes of picking up food and ammo, we decided to cross the airfield and head to a cluster of additional airport buildings southeast of the control tower. While enroute, I taught him additional basics, such as crouching low, weapon stances, etc. We were also careful of moving around the area, for that China-based server had, at that moment, about 18 people on, so we were getting cautious of possible ambushes and general PvP encounters.

After getting our bearings using a compass, we then proceeded to a military base about 5 minutes away from the airport. When we arrived at this base, I taught my brother how to refill a used plastic water bottle with water from a nearby fresh water well.

Then, like clockwork, we continued our scavenging run, with priority on finding better backpacks (mine was "damaged"), clothing, and of course, food and drinks. It was at this base when we encountered our first zombies together. We quickly dispatched of them quiety using our fire axes.


Remember again, that, at this point, about two hours have already passed, and yet we haven't yet encountered other HUMAN players, but we've been having fun just fooling around with our equipment and gear, swapping this headgear with that, and repairing some damaged stuff. After another compass sighting, we then decided to proceed to a pair of towns situated halfway between the military base and the South airport near Balota.

It was after we arrived in one of these two towns (Pogorevka) when the fun began. We started to use our M4's against the zombies. This triggered a wave of zombie attacks on us, which was good opportunity for Ivan to practice using his M4, as one zombie arrived after another. While we scavenged, he found a clown mask inside a church!


Like a pair of post-apocalyptic tourists, we started fooling around by taking "souvenir photos" around Pogorevka, beside a stream, in front of the church.





After refilling our water bottles at Pogorevka's water pump, we then proceeded to cross several forests towards our eventual goal--Balota airfield, where more loot (and Chinese human players dying to kill both of us LOL) can be found. One of our main goals was to acquire a sniper rifle (Mosin) and a good long range scope for it.

As we arrived at the edge of a forest, we could already spot a series of tall condominium buildings (at Chapaevsk), which were part of Chernogorsk City. And to the right of that, Balota airfield. We stopped, ate/drank and rested here, and we then contemplated on how to best approach the airfield.



I asked Ivan for his opinion. He offered that we should go to the nearest condo, climb up to the roof, and use that as observation post to monitor the airport. I reluctantly agreed, knowing that that condo complex was a known hiding spot for ambushers and snipers. Buti nalang, may dala kaming FOODS!

We approached the base of the Chapaevsk condo units carefully, scanning our sectors well, watching out for them pesky Chinese players (who SHOT ON SIGHT...shoot first, ask questions later).


Was a very tense situation. It was an uneventful climb to the roof, but I had to teach Ivan how to use ladders in the elevator shaft, because the stairwell was destroyed in several sections. I told him to be careful using the ladders, because lag can cause one to slip and fall. We both arrived at the rooftop safely...

...and at that very moment, Ivan spotted a player on the roof of the other condo, with a weapon out and seemingly aiming at our direction! His reaction ("May tao sa kabilang roof!!! May tao sa kabilang roof!!!") made me quicky drop down prone, and he frantically shouted into the mike, "Ano? Ano? Barilin ko? Ano? Ano?!" (What? Should I shoot now?!" And I said, "Sige! (Okay!)"


And I heard shots (I was hiding behind the elevator shaft recess, so I could not observe Ivan shooting at the player) and Ivan said, "He's down! Pero teka, gumagalaw pa!" We waited for a full minute, before we both decided that the guy was indeed down/unconscious/dead. But I was still scared of standing up. So Ivan decided to come out of the elevator shaft by climbing up the ladder again. And while doing this...

...he slipped and fell, and died.

I was in the process of finding his body (in the hopes of possibly reviving him, I had an epi-pen and morphine), while descending the condo ladder and stairs, when all of a sudden, out of the corner of the stairwell, a crouched figure in camo pointed his M4 at me, and everything went black...ambush!

...and that's how our five-hour adventure ended...but what a blast!