DayZ is Bohemia Interactive's 60-player open-world zombie survival game — the post-apocalyptic RPG that defined the survival genre and still anchors it. You spawn on the coast with nothing, and every loot run, vehicle repair, or base raid plays out across a multi-kilometer persistent map where other players are the real threat. The vanilla maps are Chernarus+ (free) and Livonia (paid DLC); community maps like Namalsk, Deer Isle, Banov, Sakhal, and Esseker are playable via Steam Workshop.
Dedicated DayZ servers are the norm for any serious community. The game's progression, PvP, and base persistence all assume an always-on world that survives restarts. Mods make it what it is — Expansion for traders and quests, SimpleBase for easier base-building, CodeLock for lock persistence, Trader for PvE economies. Our DayZ template ships with Steam Workshop integration wired up: paste a mod URL, the panel resolves the ID, installs on next restart.
DayZ is CPU-heavy — AI zombies, projectile physics, vehicle simulation, and player-built structures all tick server-side. Our Ryzen 9 7950X / 9950X nodes stay stable during large firefights where budget hosts hitch. RAM scales with player count and mods: 8 GB for 20-player vanilla, 12 GB for 40-player modded, 16+ GB for full 60-slot community servers running large mod stacks. No crossplay — PC, Xbox, and PlayStation versions each have separate server ecosystems.