Base building

A base gives you a place to keep loot between sessions and a wall between it and everyone else. Vanilla DayZ has three things to build — fences with gates, watchtowers and the flag pole — and the flag pole is what keeps all of it from quietly despawning.

Kits: where every build starts

Every structure starts as a kit you craft from a Rope and sticks (Short Stick or Sharpened Stick):

Place the kit where the structure should stand. Once you build the first part (the base), you get the kit back and can use it again. Taking the rope off a kit that has not been placed turns it back into rope and sticks.

Placement rules

In vanilla, a kit can only be placed:

• on solid, fairly flat ground, not tilted too far, not in water and not sunk into the terrain
• without touching other objects or players
• within about 1.5 metres of the height you stand at
• with open space above it: about 2.5 metres for a fence, about 3 metres for a watchtower and about 11 metres for a flag pole — so not under roofs or low branches
• not in underground areas such as bunkers (fence, watchtower and flag pole kits are banned there)

When you build a watchtower's upper levels or its top roof, the space above has to be free too. Servers can switch every one of these checks off. The server overview shows which ones your server uses.

Materials

Wooden LogWoodenLogPlankWoodenPlankNailsNailBoxed NailsNailBoxSheet MetalMetalPlateMetal WireMetalWireLarge StoneStone

• Wooden logs: fell larger trees with a Splitting Axe, Hatchet or Firefighter Axe. Logs are heavy — carry one at a time, or bring a car (see vehicles).
• Planks: saw a log with a Hand Saw or Hacksaw and you get 4 planks. On Chernarus, Lumber Pile at industrial spots give planks as well.
• Nails: a box of nails holds 70. Boxes are industrial and farm loot.
• Sheet metal and metal wire: industrial loot.
• Large stones (only for the flag pole): mine rocks with a Pickaxe, Sledgehammer or Hammer.

For extras, Barbed Wire can be mounted on fences and watchtowers with Pliers, and a Camo Net covers fences, watchtowers and tents. All materials are in the item list, and base building items are here.

Tools

Each part needs a matching tool, and building and dismantling often need different ones:

ShovelShovelHammerHammerHatchetHatchetPliersPliersSledgehammerSledgeHammer

The minimum kit for a fence with a gate is a shovel, a hammer and pliers; a hatchet covers both hammering and dismantling. Building wears your tools down a little each time. All tools are in the item list.

Fence and gate

Put the materials on the fence, then build the parts in order. Each fence side has a lower and an upper half:

A full wooden fence takes 2 logs, 18 planks and 36 nails; with metal walls it is 2 logs, 8 planks, 6 sheet metal and 40 nails. Each half is either wood or metal, not both.

The gate turns a fence into a door: with both frames built, put metal wire on the fence and build the hinges with pliers. A gate cannot have a platform. Nothing can be built on a fence while its gate is open.

Every fence has an inside and an outside. Every part, the base included, can only be built standing on the inside, within about 2 metres of the fence. The same goes for dismantling — except the base, which can be taken down from either side once nothing else stands on it.

Watchtower

A watchtower has up to three levels, each with three wall sides that work like a fence (lower and upper frame, wooden or metal wall):

Watchtowers have no gate. If a floor, platform or stairs are taken away, whatever lies on them falls down.

Flag pole: how your base stays

Everything in DayZ has a lifetime. If nobody refreshes it, a fence or tent disappears when its time runs out. A raised flag on a flag pole refreshes everything around it.

Building the pole:

1. Base: 1 log, with a sledgehammer.
2. Support: 32 large stones and 6 logs, with a shovel, field shovel, farming hoe or pickaxe.
3. Mast: 3 logs and 60 nails, with a hammer, hatchet or meat tenderizer.
4. Put a Flag on the mast and raise it. Flags are found in offices and schools.

How the refresh works in vanilla:

• The moment the flag starts flying, the lifetime of everything within 60 metres is reset to full. While it flies, this happens again every 5 days.
• Each time you raise the flag a step (a fifth of the mast), it gets 8 more days of flying time, up to 40 days at the top. As the time runs out, the flag sinks down the mast on its own.
• When the time is up there is one last reset. After that everything counts down normally — the pole itself has only 7 days, the fences 45.
• Anyone can raise or lower a flag. Lowering it takes the time away again. The flag can only be taken off once it is all the way down, and the pole cannot be dismantled while a flag hangs on it.
• The refresh only comes every 5 days, but loose items on the ground last a few hours. Keep what matters in a tent, barrel or crate, not on the floor.

So: raise the flag fully at least every few weeks and the base stays. The refresh interval and the maximum flying time are server settings (5 and 40 days in vanilla); the server overview shows your server's values.

Locks

Combination locks

3-Dial Combination LockCombinationLock4-Dial Combination LockCombinationLock4

Combination locks (3 dials, or 4 dials for 10,000 instead of 1,000 combinations) fit only a finished fence gate, and only while it is closed. They are industrial and farm loot.

• Set the dials to your code before you attach the lock — it locks on whatever is dialed, then scrambles the dials.
• To open, dial the code (there are dials on both sides) and take the lock off. A locked gate cannot be opened or dismantled.
• In 1.30 no tool can cut a combination lock. It only comes off with the right code, or when the gate's frame is destroyed and the lock falls off.

Digital code lock

The digital code lock is new in 1.30. It spawns as industrial and farm loot on Chernarus, Livonia and Nasdara (not on vanilla Sakhal). It needs a 9V Battery and fits a finished fence gate in place of a combination lock.

• With a battery in, set a code of 4 to 6 digits from the outside. Setting it locks the gate.
• From the outside you open it with the code. From the inside you open it without a code. It can be locked from either side.
• After 3 wrong codes the keypad locks for 30 seconds. After that every further wrong code locks it for another 30 seconds, until an hour passes without a lockout. These numbers are server settings; the vanilla files do not change them.
• The battery sits on the back and can only be swapped from the inside while the lock is open.
• When the battery runs flat, the lock opens and forgets its code. Check it now and then and keep a spare.
• While it is open, the code can be reset from the front.

On Nasdara, some damaged buildings can be rebuilt with bricks and a brick trowel (in vanilla both only spawn there), and their rebuilt doors also take a code lock.

Damage, repair and taking things apart

Dismantling gives you materials back. Logs and metal wire come back whole. Planks, nails and sheet metal come back at 80% when the part is pristine, and less the more damaged it is (down to 20%, but always at least one). You can only take a fence apart from the top down — walls before frames, frames before the base — and a gate with a lock on it not at all.

Walls have a lot of health. Melee hits, gunfire and explosives all wear them down, explosives by far the fastest. Metal walls are the toughest: more health than wood, and they take less damage from explosives. When a part is destroyed, everything built on it goes with it, and logs and wire in it are lost. A destroyed gate frame drops its lock.

To repair a damaged part, use a hammer, hatchet or one of the axes. It needs about 15% of the part's materials (at least one of each) on the structure.

In vanilla, bases and containers can be damaged. Servers can make them indestructible; the server overview shows whether yours does.

How long things last

Vanilla lifetimes, the same on all four maps:

Medium TentMediumTentLarge TentLargeTentCar TentCarTentBarrelBarrel_BlueWooden CrateWoodenCrateSea ChestSeaChest

A raised flag resets all of these within its 60 metres. A wooden crate is crafted from 8 planks and 16 nails — see crafting. For where tents and tools spawn, see loot tiers; all containers are in the item list.