Okay, so this guy basically tricked a noob in to dying, nothing amazing right? Some bandits – and also my favourite type of bandit – will go to more extreme lengths to make their kills worthy of admiration. The video below was taken from the perspective of a player who met up with a group of players who had a working bus. They offered to take him to their new refugee camp which was being set up as an open trade point for players. Let’s take a look at just how preparations are going so far for this new trade hub…

Not all bandits get up close and personal, some like to take part in DayZ’s realistic sniping mechanics. Some players might tell you that sniping is for cowards who don’t want to put themselves in danger, but sniping can be a difficult task when exceeding certain distances. A lot of bandits will cleverly position snipers up on hills, sometimes 1 to 2 kilometer’s away from their target. Other players will form an assault team, venturing down into the heat of the action to loot and pick off any targets which the snipers can’t spot. It can be an exciting role to play, even for the lone bandit, but provides a tactical advantage which can lead to many, many kills.

Trickery, robbery, deception. We’ve covered several styles of bandit play today, but one of the more light-hearted ways to have fun with your victims is to straight up scare the living hell out of them. The in-built voice chat for DayZ makes this a very easy task to accomplish, all you need is a gun, a microphone, and an unaware survivor to prey on. Note: Maybe turn your sound down a little bit for the following video.

These are just a few simple ways in which players can become bandits. While some are more elegant than others, there is really no ‘right’ way to play as a bandit, so find your own style and stick with that. If you decide to just adopt a shoot on sight policy however, don’t expect any respect from other players for your kills. You are only limited by your creativity, come up with new ways to approach playing as a bandit, and put as much effort in as possible. Also, don’t ALT+F4 out of the game the moment it looks like a survivor is going to kill you, rather than the other way around.

Playing as a bandit can be a very rewarding experience, just keep in mind that while you are playing for ‘evil’, still attempt to have some sort of code or rules of engagement you follow for your encounters with other players. I personally enjoy playing as a bandit rather than a strict survivor, however I do make exceptions for some players if they behave correctly. As an example, just the other day I was in Elektrozavodsk looting the city when a player runs by me. He is unarmed and doesn’t have anything that could immediately provide a threat. As the player begins to follow me I decide that it isn’t worth killing him, I even go as far as taking him around town and gearing him up with all the supplies he could possibly need. At this point I am stocked with an AKM, an M1911, an Alice Pack and all the supplies I can fit inside, so he’s no threat and I don’t need anything from him.

Things are going great so far, he heads to the roof of one of the buildings while I cross the street to check out another building for loot that may be of use to him. For a bandit, I am being super helpful, but it’s obvious this guy has no idea what he is doing. Moving on, he finds a winchester rifle on the roof, which for some reason is a shotgun in DayZ. He thinks it might be funny to start taking shots in my general area, even though I have already killed all of the infected in the nearby area. Now, this is probably the first gun he’s ever held in his hands, so he probably just wants to shoot a few shots off. I look at him and tell him to stop shooting, but I am not sure if he hears me.

He takes another shot then aims straight towards me. There’s a vital lesson here, if a player gives you their trust, don’t push the boundaries even a little. Taking unnecessary shots in a players general direction is a quick way to lose someone’s trust and attract more infected, so the guy received two single shots from my AKM straight in to his head. He went down instantly, and his loot left for the next helpless survivor. At this point, I was in no real danger at any moment, but I let this situation play out just to see what happened. Sure, I could have killed him instantly upon seeing him, but what can you learn from that? Also what can your victim learn?

Tell us your bandit stories in the comments below!