How to install DayZ (with ArmA 2 Free, Operation Arrowhead or Combined Ops)

Updated for 1.8.0.3 Article last updated 30th April 2014

30th April: Changes to ArmA 2 Free information and DayZ standalone
21st February: DayZ now available on Steam
16th February: Updated everything for 1.7.5.1
27th December: General article tidy-up
30th November: Steam sale over
23rd November: Updated article for 1.7.4.4
15th September: Updated article for 1.7.2.6 and added note about beta patch mirrors
7th September: Added holiday notice

If the comments go above 200, then things get a little messy, so I regularly remove older comments. I won't delete any with outstanding questions and I try to preserve any that I think are helpful to other players. I'm sorry if I remove your comment, but I only do so to make this more manageable.

Okay so you want to play DayZ. Good for you. But it's not easy to get set up.

Once you've read this article, there's also:

How to get on a server

How to play

How to stay alive for more than five minutes

DayZ offline single player / practice / training / (not really) cheating

DayZ is now available on Steam

The DayZ mod is available on Steam. This makes installation much easier. You must have ArmA 2 and Operation Arrowhead (or Combined Ops which consists of both) already installed and you must have run both of them at least once. I have not had time to properly test this, so cannot answer questions about it at this time. This is the Steam page for DayZ:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/224580/

DayZ standalone is now available on Steam

The standalone version of DayZ is now available. This does not require you to buy or install any ArmA games - it's complete in itself. The standalone is an alpha release which means that it is far from complete. It has less features than the mod version, but it is in active development.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/221100/

The first thing you need is a copy of the base game. Here are your options:

1. ArmA 2 Combined Operations
2. ArmA 2 + ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead (full version)
3. ArmA 2 Free + ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead (full version)

DayZ uses the game map (Chernarus) from ArmA 2 and the game engine from Operation Arrowhead, so you need both. Combined Operations comprises ArmA 2 and Operation Arrowhead in one package.

It doesn't matter if you're using a retail boxed copy, a Steam version, or a version downloaded from Gamestop or anywhere else. You can even combine different versions form different sources.

Buying Operation Arrowhead and using ArmA 2 Free is the cheapest way of running the game, but it is not possible to play DayZ for free. Although DayZ costs nothing and you can get ArmA 2 Free, for uh... free, you will at least have to pay for Operation Arrowhead. A lot of people have asked if you can get it running with the demo or lite versions of Operation Arrowhead. I'm afraid this is not possible and you will get errors about corrupted files if you try.

It was previously possible to play using ArmA 2 Free, but this is no longer available. If you already have ArmA 2 Free, you're fine, but you can no longer obtain it. Bohemia use Gamespy for the server browser in multiplayer and Gamespy is shutting down. Most Bohemia games are going to be converted to use Steam's multiplayer stuff instead, but ArmA 2 Free is not, so it has been discontinued.

Bohemia are selling all their ArmA 2 games for 75% off at the moment (April 2014). These are the Steam versions (ie you buy from Bohemia and get a Steam code). Buying directly through Steam is more expensive.
http://store.bistudio.com/

Quite a few people ask about the difference between ArmA 2 Free and the full version of ArmA 2. The simple truth is that the graphics textures and the audio are slightly better in the full version and there's a single player campaign. The difference in graphics is not a big deal and, unless you have a £3,000 PC, you probably won't be able to tell the difference. Add to that the fact that DayZ gets most of its stuff from Operation Arrowhead anyway. Here's a video:

Well apparently that video isn't enough to satisfy people (I keep getting "I wantz the HD gruphicz" comments), so I've written an article showing you the visual differences between using ArmA 2 Free and ArmA 2 (full). It was a pain in the arse to do, so you'd better appreciate it.

http://kodabar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/dayz-graphics-comparison-arma-2-free.html

You cannot run DayZ with the Operation Arrowhead demo!

(Nice big letters for the people who keep trying to use the demo version of OA and then complaining about corrupted files when they try to install the beta patch.)

You cannot run DayZ with a pirate version of  Operation Arrowhead or Combined Ops!

(Nice big colourful letters for the people who keep trying to use the pirate version and then asking for my help when they get a "Wrong CD Key" error. You will never, I repeat, never be able to play on the official servers with a pirated version.)

According to the chaps at Bohemia the next version of ArmA will contain DayZ so you might prefer to wait for that. At the moment you'll have to go through a slightly tortuous process although I have detailed the easiest most painless methods here. If you've got any problems, leave a comment and I'll try to answer your questions. If you do leave a comment, you do so anonymously, but please leave a name so that I can tell to whom I'm replying. Oh and please include as much information as possible - just saying "it doesn't work" doesn't really give me much to go on. List your OS, versions of the games, where you got them, what you've done already and the exact error message that comes up.

Step 1: Install ArmA 2 and Operation Arrowhead or Combined Operations

This is the easy bit. Install whatever you've got. 

If you're using Steam it'll update to the latest version automatically. If you've got a boxed version, you'll need to update to the latest version yourself. Note: The game updates do not include the beta patch. More on this later.

You can use ArmA 2 Free instead of ArmA 2 and it will work just as well. It'll save you a few bucks and about 8GB of your hard drive too.

If you can't get ArmA 2 Free from Steam, try this alternative:

ArmA 2 Free can be downloaded from Bohemia Interactive here:
http://www.arma2.com/free/

Step 2: If you're not using Steam, fully update everything

Boxed retail copies and versions downloaded from anywhere other than Steam (Gamestop included) may not be fully updated. I really do recommend you use Steam as it does all this for you.

ArmA 2
http://www.arma2.com/index.php?option=com_rokdownloads&view=file&Itemid=20&id=777%3Aarma2-patch-1&lang=en

ArmA 2 Free
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=15833

It was previously possible to play using ArmA 2 Free, but this is no longer available. If you already have ArmA 2 Free, you're fine, but you can no longer obtain it. Bohemia use Gamespy for the server browser in multiplayer and Gamespy is shutting down. Most Bohemia games are going to be converted to use Steam's multiplayer stuff instead, but ArmA 2 Free is not, so it has been discontinued.


Operation Arrowhead
http://www.arma2.com/index.php?option=com_rokdownloads&view=file&Itemid=20&id=756%3Aarma-2-combined-operations--operation-arrowhead--reinforcements-patch-1&lang=en

BattlEye
http://www.battleye.com/download.html

BattlEye is an especial pain to install as it only supplies you with a DLL file. You then have to manually paste it into your ArmA 2 (including ArmA 2 Free) and Operation Arrowhead folders. This is what it says on the official site:

ArmA 2: Put these files into a folder called "BattlEye" in your ArmA 2 install directory
OA: Put these files into a folder called "BattlEye" in the "Expansion" folder of your OA install directory

Step 3: Run both games once

I can't emphasise this enough and a lot of people get messed up by this step. You need to run both ArmA 2 and Operation Arrowhead before going any further. Even if you bought Combined Operations, you need to run each game separately (just running the Combined Operations option will not do the job).

All you need to do is load each game and get to the main menu. Then you can quit. At run-time, each game will create a few extra files that won't be created otherwise, so that's why you need to do this.

Step 4: If you're using ArmA 2 Free...

It was previously possible to play using ArmA 2 Free, but this is no longer available. If you already have ArmA 2 Free, you're fine, but you can no longer obtain it. Bohemia use Gamespy for the server browser in multiplayer and Gamespy is shutting down. Most Bohemia games are going to be converted to use Steam's multiplayer stuff instead, but ArmA 2 Free is not, so it has been discontinued.

If you're not using ArmA 2 Free, skip to step 5.

Go and find your ArmA 2 Free folder inside your Steam folder. Select the folder marked Addons and copy it.

Go to your ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead folder. There shouldn't be an Addons folder here. Paste the one you've copied from ArmA 2 Free, so it looks like this:

Note: Although the image above shows an @Dayz folder, you won't have one until you run the updater.

Step 5: Install the beta patch

This point is worth repeating: the beta patch and the game updates are different things. Even if you've installed every update for the game, you'll still need to install the beta patch too. If in doubt, install the beta.

You are now required to install the beta patch in order for you to play. Go to the link below and download the latest beta patch - updates come out regularly so you'll probably have to repeat this process from time to time. In step 6, I detail how to create a shortcut with which you can run the game. The one in the Operation Arrowhead folder will get over-written every time you update the beta.

http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php

Take note of the version number of your beta patch. There's no easy way to check this later, so you'll want to know which version you've downloaded when you come to check if there's a newer one. I very much recommend in general to install the second-most recent beta patch as servers rarely have the latest one as a requirement and it can take a while for them to catch up.

You'll download a zip file which contains a few text files and an exe called something like

ARMA2_OA_Build_XXXXX.exe

Run the exe. It takes a little time for it to unpack but it will then run an installer. It will automatically detect the  folder in which you have Operation Arrowhead installed even if you're using the Steam version.

Step 6: Install the mod

We're getting there. It's been a bit of a slog, but we're onto the home straight. You'll soon be getting murdered by strangers just for the delicious tins of beans in your bag.

There are several ways of downloading the mod and you'll need to repeat this step often as various updates to the mod are released.

Option A: Use DayZ Commander

DayZ Commander is an excellent utility that really simplifies the process of installing the mod and keeping it up to date. I can't recommend it enough. 

http://www.dayzcommander.com/

Option B: Six Updater / Play with Six

I don't personally like the Six Updater, but it's got a good many. It was originally written to support pretty much every ArmA mod (and it does a jolly good job of it) but it also supports DayZ. Note that Six stores the DayZ files in a different location to everyone else. Bohemia recommends that mods are installed in a folder called @whatever, inside your Operation Arrowhead folder, Six stores everything in a folder called ArmA 2 inside your My Documents folder. The download link and an explanation of how to use it is here:

http://dayzmod.com/su.php

Option C: Do it yourself

Although it seems pretty daunting to download the files and install them yourself, it's actually not so bad. Just download each file and uncompress them to a folder. Put all the files in this folder and call it "addons" - without the quotation marks and with a lower case 'a'. Now put that folder inside another folder called "@DayZ" - again without the quotation marks.

Now paste the @DayZ folder into your Operation Arrowhead folder. Done. The mod is installed. Now you just need a shortcut.

Step 7: Make a shortcut

If you installed the mod manually, then you'll need to make your own shortcut. If you use DayZ Commander or Six Launcher, then you don't need a shortcut, you can just launch through either of those.

Inside your Operation Arrowhead folder is a new icon marked Launch Arma2 OA Beta Patch

Right click on this icon and select Properties.

There are two lines that matter. The Target line should read something like:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -nosplash

This is presuming that you're using Steam and that Steam is installed in the default location on your C drive and you're using Windows 7 64 bit. It will have a different path if you have it installed elsewhere. You need to modify the target line to say something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -nosplash -skipIntro -mod=@DayZ

If you're not using Steam or you have Steam installed in a different location just change the end of the line to include:

-beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -nosplash -skipIntro -mod=@DayZ

This sounds like way more hassle than it actually is. All you're doing is modifying a shortcut by copying and pasting the line above.

For the "Start in" line, make sure it says:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\

Or again, wherever your Steam folder or game folder actually is. Make sure that it points to the main Operation Arrowhead folder and not to the beta folder. Yeah, it's running the exe from the beta folder, but it's running it in the main folder as that's where all the rest of the files are.

You don't need to care about this bit, but here's an explanation of what all that means (skip this bit if you're not interested in a technical explanation).

-beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion tells the game to run the beta executable and points to where all the beta bits are

-nosplash tells it not to display the crappy splash screen, making the game load faster

-skipIntro tells it not to display the animated main menu screen or any of the Bohemia loading screens making the game load much faster and show just an odd bit of animated water on the main menu

-mod=@DayZ tells the game to specifically load the DayZ mod

Phew.

Step 8: Make a Steam shortcut (optional)

You can't run DayZ from Steam by default which is a bit annoying. Skip this step if you don't care about Steam. If you've installed the Steam version, you'll already have a shortcut or two in there, but they're not good to you any more. You need to manually make a new Steam shortcut. This will work even if you're using a boxed copy of the game. You'll then be able to access Steam chat and even open the Steam web browser in game (handy if you want to display a game map). It'll even show you on your Friends list as playing DayZ.

Open up Steam and go to the game library. At the top of the screen, select Games and then Add a Non-Steam game to My Library...

In the window that appears, click the Browse button, then navigate to the Operation Arrowhead folder and click on the Launch Arma2 OA Beta Patch shortcut. Then choose the Add selected programs button at the bottom.

Steam will create a new shortcut in your games library marked arma2oa

Go to this new icon and right click it and select Properties. We're now going to modify it in exactly the same  way as we did the shortcut above.

Make sure the Target line reads like so (your folder path may be different):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe" -beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion -nosplash -skipIntro -mod=@DayZ

And also change the Start in line to read like this (again, your folder path may be different):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\"

Finally, you can change the line under the icon that reads arma2oa to be DayZ instead. Or change it to Hello Kitty Magic Piano if you like.

Step 9: Run the game

This is the main menu. Note that in the top right corner that it should say:

@DayZ

Expansion

beta

This shows that the shortcut is correctly formatted and that everything loaded in. If you don't see this, then something has gone wrong somewhere and you'll need to go back over and check everything.

It's also worth clicking on the Expansions entry on the menu to make sure that there's a green box next to each entry. Otherwise, click them to tick them.

Step 10: Improving the graphics

A common complaint when people launch the game is that the graphics are a bit blurry. This is down to the settings used.

Default graphics settings

Graphics you can actually see

For some reason only know to the chaps at Bohemia, they decided to include two separate resolutions at the same time. On the main menu, click Options and then Video Options  (you can do this from within the game too, so you can see instant results).

You'll get a panel like this. Click the Advanced button to see more options. You'll notice that the Interface resolution and the 3D Resolution are set to different values by default. Set them to be the same - ideally at your monitor's native resolution. That's a massive improvement. I also recommend setting Postprocess effects to disabled as this removes motion blur, light bloom and all kinds of effects that look lovely but rather interfere with your ability to actually see what you're doing.

Muck around with the other settings if you'd like to adjust your framerate. I can't suggest what settings will work best for you, but just experiment until you find some that you're happy with. One of the nice things about this game is that any changes you make are immediate and don't require you to restart the game, so you can see immediately the effect that any setting has.

Step 11: Making the server list readable

Once you click through into the server list, you'll see hundreds of servers and many of them are running Operation Arrowhead, not DayZ. Just click the Filter button at the bottom and a window will pop up. Enter "DayZ" into the mission box and now you'll only see DayZ servers.

There are many ore things you can do with the Filter box, such as hiding full servers or specifying the maximum amount of people on a server. Have a play around with them sometime.

For more details on joining servers successfully, have a look at my article on that:
http://kodabar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/dayz-how-to-get-on-server.html

Step 12: Updating DayZ

You've got the game running and all is well. Good stuff. But that won't last forever. As DayZ is still in the alpha testing stage, it gets regular updates. As well as that, the beta patch also gets regular updates. So once you've got the game installed, how do you keep it up-to-date?

The beta patch is updated quite often. Although servers don't tend to start using the newest versions as soon as they come out, you will have to update from time to time. You'll find that some servers specify the beta patch version in their name. All you do is download the rar file, open it and run the exe inside. It will only take a minute or so. The only problem is if you launch the game using the Launch Arma2 OA Beta Patch icon inside the Operation Arrowhead folder as it over-write this every time. I recommend copying that shortcut to the desktop so that it will keep working otherwise, you'll have to edit it every time (as in Step 7)

 

Get the latest beta patch from here:

http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php

When the beta patch server is unavailable (as it has been recently), I will attempt to upload a copy elsewhere. As of 9th July 2012 the most recent version is 94444 and is available from here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?5yqwz1dcvt7b4tm

And now on to updating the mod files themselves. This seems pretty daunting, but

Option A: DayZ Commander

DayZ Commander is the single easiest way of keeping DayZ up to date. From inside it, you can update both the beta patch and the DayZ mod files. It's also makes it really easy to download and run other level files.
http://www.dayzcommander.com/

Option B: Six Updater/Launcher

I don't like the Six Updater, but it does a good job of keeping you up to date and it's now got simple, dedicated DayZ options. When there's an update, it will take care of it for you.

http://dayzmod.com/su.php

Option C: Do it yourself

This means having to read the DayZ forums in order to keep informed about new releases. You don't have to have an account in order to be able to read the forums.
http://dayzmod.com/forum/

Go here and download the files - either manually or through BitTorrent (better as you don't then have to unzip the files and it takes the load off the DayZ file hosts):
http://dayzmod.com/downloads.php

Unzip the new files into the folder that already contains your DayZ files, over-writing the old ones. And that's all you need to do. It isn't so bad, is it?

Step 13: Don't kill kodabar

Some of you have figured out that my DayZ name is also kodabar and so's my Steam name. It's flattering (and just a little weird) that so many of you have requested to be my friend on Steam, so don't be too upset if I ignore that - I have over 800 outstanding friend requests at the moment. Blimey. I suppose I could accept them all, form an army and go around taking over dozens of servers. Hmm, that's a thought.

Hard as nails... but just as easily hammered

If you do see me in-game, try not to kill me, huh? I will have a nice gun or two and a lot of bullets. And I don't play alone...

This blog is supported by advertising. I don't stick them all over the place, just right down at the bottom of the page - I don't like intrusive advertising either. When people say "If I had a penny for every time I've..." then it's almost literally true in my case, except it's more like a hundredth of a penny for each of the 1,500,000 people who've read this article. I don't mind if you use ad-blockers (heck, I do), but maybe there might be an ad or two that catches your eye.

If you have any problems with installing the game, just leave me a comment and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. I respond to everyone and I won't leave you without getting your copy working.

Also, if you have any comments on this article, let me know. I do try to keep it as clear as possible, but it is getting a bit long and I've re-written it so many times that it's hard for me to see which bits need more explanation.

Note: If you really must play with a pirate version

It is possible to play DayZ with a pirate version, it's just really complicated, you're reliant on cracked servers and you can never . Before you start, you'll need to do a calculation:

1. How much RAM (in gigabytes) does you computer contain?
2. Take that number and multiply it by 2. So it I have 8Gb, it's 8 x 2 = 16
3. Now multiply that by your original number. 16 x 8 = 128
4. Divide it by two. 128 / 2 = 64
5. Work out the square root of that number (8 in my case)
6. Subtract your starting number from that.

Now keep that number in mind. That's how many fucks I give about your ability to run a pirate version. So stop asking!

Troubleshooting

So you've followed all these steps and things just aren't working still? Okay, have a look below and try some of these.

If you get the error about You Cannot Play/Edit this mission; it is Dependent on Downloadable Content it has been deleted.chernarus then that's because it's not picking up on the ArmA 2 content. The game depends on the map (Chernarus) from ArmA 2 and the game engine from Operation Arrowhead. If you're running Combined Operations or have the full (not Free) version of ArmA 2, it should work out where everything is itself, but it sometimes doesn't. Go and copy over the Addons folder like in Step 4 above.

If you get an error about how certain files are not signed by a key accepted by this server then it's because you haven't updated all the game files. If you obtain the files from a download service like Gamestop or Saturn, you'd expect them to distribute fully-updated files, but they don't. Go to Step 2 and work your way through.

If you get the Wrong CD Key error and you're not using a pirate version:
If you're using Steam, close it and and restart it as an administrator (right click and select "Run as administrator"). Then run both ArmA 2 and Operation Arrowhead again (just up to the main menu and out again) and continue from Step 4 above.
If you're not using Steam, run each game as an administrator by right clicking them and selecting "Run as administrator" and then continue from Step 4 above.

If everything was working fine and you installed the latest version of the beta patch and you can no longer connect to servers, then try installing the second-newest version. It takes a few days for the servers to move to the newest version of the beta patch and sometimes a newer version introduces subtle incompatibilities. You don't need to uninstall the version you have (and you can't anyway), but just install the other version over the top.

If you cannot get to the list of servers, it's probably because GameSpy is down. Twice in the last few days, Gamespy's systems have failed leaving players unable to get to the server browser. In both cases it's been fixed within a few hours.

If you need my help...

I'm only too happy to help you out if you need assistance getting the thing installed. I've left anonymous comments enabled (I hate having to sign up for stuff too), but try to include a name or a word with your post that identifies you if you do leave an anonymous comment. When there's ten people at once all called Anonymous, it gets a little confusing.

Also tell me where you got your version of the game, which versions they are, all the steps you've taken so far and what your computer consists of (if you know). And most importantly, tell me what error messages you get (if any). The more detail you leave for me, the easier it is for me to answer you're question and they quicker you'll get an answer. If I have to write back to ask an obvious question, you've just doubled the amount of time it'll take me to help you out.

I won't leave you without an answer. Every single person who has asked for my help has now got a working version of DayZ. Heck, I have been known to use Teamviewer to install it for you if you're just having too many problems with it.

Now you've read this article, there's also:

How to get on a server

How to play

How to stay alive for more than five minutes

DayZ offline single player / practice / training / (not really) cheating