How to Find Your Friends in DayZ

Welcome to the old-school boy scout navigation guide.

Image via Bohemia Interactive

DayZ, like many other popular open-world survival games, shares the same issue of grouping up with your friends on the Chernarus map. Being spawned at absolutely random parts of the map, and having absolutely no idea where you are and which direction you should move in order to meet up with your friends can be a really bad feeling when you are starting the game as a new player.

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However, Prima Games is here to help you make this process less tedious and frustrating. Here’s how to find your friends in DayZ.

How to Meet Up With Your Friends on Chernarus Map in DayZ

There’s this very cool thing called iZurvive, which you can open in your browser tab, on your Android phone, or your Apple mobile device. It serves as an interactive map that you can use as assistance. You and your friends can all install this, make free accounts for the session, and then share your whereabouts, pins, etc.

Related: How to Play DayZ Single-Player

We know that there is a low chance that you know the Cyrillic script, so we have prepared a cool table for you that has all the cities and towns sorted alphabetically. This will be of great use since we will use them as landmarks:

Name of the City in LatinName of the City in Cyrilic
BalotaБалота
Belaya PolanaБелая Поляна
BerezinoБерезино
BerezhkiБережки
BogatyrkaБогатырка
BorБор
Chernaya PolanaЧерная Поляна
ChernogorskЧерногорск
DobroeДоброе
DolinaДолина
DrozhinoДрожино
DubkyДубки
DubrovkaДубровка
ElektrozavodskЭлектрозаводск
GorkaГорка
GrishinoГришино
GuglovoГуглово
GvozdnoГвоздно
KabaninoКабанино
KamenkaКаменка
KamenskКаменск
KamyshovoКамышово
KarmanovkaКармановка
KhelmХелм
KomarovoКомарово
KozlovkaКозловка
KrasnoeКрасное
KrasnostavКрасностав
LopatinoЛопатино
MaminoМамино
MogilevkaМогилевка
MstaМста
MyshkinoМышкино
NadezhdinoНадеждино
NagornoeНагорное
NizhnoyeНижное
Novaya PetrovkaНовая Петровка
NovodmitrovskНоводмитровск
NovoselkyНовоселки
Novy SoborНовый Собор
OlshaОльша
OrlovetsОрловец
PavlovoПавлово
PogorevkaПогоревка
PolanaПоляна
PolesovoПолесово
PrigorodkiПригородки
PulkovoПулково
PustaПуста
PustoshkaПустошка
RatnoeРатное
RogovoРогово
SamorodokСамородок
SeverogradСевероград
ShakhovkaШаховка
SinistokСинисток
SmirnovoСмирново
SolnichniyСолнечный
SosnovkaСосновка
StaroyeСтарое
Stary SoborСтарый Собор
Stary YarСтарый Яр
SverginoСвергино
SvetlojarskСветлоярск
TisyТисы
TopolnikiТоплоники
TroitskoeТроицкое
TulgaТулга
TurovoТурово
VavilovoВавилово
VyborВыбор
Vyshnaya DubrovkaВышная Дубровка
VyshnoyeВышное
VysotovoВысотово
ZabolotyeЗаболотье
ZaprudnoeЗапрудное
ZelenogorskЗеленогорск
ZvirЗвир
Bookmark this table, it’s gonna be useful.

When you spawn in, you will need to locate the closest city or town. It might not be the smartest idea to directly follow the roads as you do this, but even if you take cover among the trees or anything of the sort, eventually you’ll need to come out on the road when you see a road sign for the city entrance.

Related: DayZ – 15 Tips that Will Save Your Life

It is a bright panel that has the name of the city written in black Cyrillic script and indicates that you have entered the town’s premises. In case the panel has the city name crossed out with a single red diagonal line, it means that you are leaving the town (which is also a useful piece of info).

If you are far away from a town, at some point you will see a blue-background sign that shows the distance (in kilometers) to the cities named on the sign. Now it’s just a memory game until you find the Cyrillic name in the table above, convert it to Latin script, and then use the “romanized” name in the search engine of the iZurvive service. Voila! Now you know where you are.

Now all of your friends need to do the same, and after you establish a meeting point for all of you, you need to make your way to it. You, of course, can follow the roads and be in the open, or go through some woods or fields, it’s up to you.

But what are you going to do if you don’t have a compass? Well, the situation is not hopeless. You can use the good ol’ sun. Of course, it’s known that it rises in the East and that it sets in the West. In DayZ, it’s also rumored that clouds are always traveling from East to West.

If you are caught in the middle of the night and the skies are clear, you can search for the Polaris (North Star) that directly points you to the north. First, look for the Great Bear Constellation (which kind of looks like a frying pan with a handle, or perhaps like some sort of a baseball cap).

Then find the two stars that are the furthest from the tip of the “handle.” Imagine that you have connected those two “dots” into a line, and extend the line up from the “frying pan” until you meet the line meets up with a very bright start.

A community member has made a short video which explains the process further if you’re stuck:

Short video guide for Star Navigation.

About the Author

Nikola L

Nikola has been a Staff Writer at Prima Games since May 2022. He has been gaming since being able to hold an Amiga 500 joystick on his own, back in the early 90s (when gaming was really good!). Nikola has helped organize dozens of gaming events and tournaments and has been professionally attached to gaming since 2009.