How Food, Water & Temperature Work on Your DayZ Server

1. Log In to Your Panel

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2. Stop Your Server

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3. Select the ‘Files’ Tab

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4. Open the serverDZ.cfg File

You can find the serverDZ.cfg file in the root directory.

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5. Enable Gameplay Configuration Support

Important!

DayZ does not load the cfggameplay.json file by default. You must explicitly enable it in serverDZ.cfg.

If the file cfggameplay.json does not already exist, the server will automatically generate it after the first startup.

Add the following line anywhere in your serverDZ.cfg file:

enableCfgGameplayFile = 1;

Select the ‘Save Content’ button.

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6. Start Your Server

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7. Locate the cfggameplay.json file

Note:

The path to cfggameplay.json depends on your server’s map.

– Chernarus: /mpmissions/dayzOffline.chernarusplus
– Livonia: /mpmissions/dayzOffline.enoch
– Custom maps: the folder name will match the mission file (e.g., /mpmissions/dayzOffline.banov).

If you’re not sure which map your server is running, check your startup settings or the list of mission folders inside /mpmissions/.

You can find it here:

/mpmissions/DayZOffline.[map]/cfggameplay.json

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8. Understanding Food, Water & Temperature in DayZ

DayZ vanilla does not provide settings for:

• Hunger drain speed
• Thirst drain speed
• Food or drink effectiveness

Instead, survival difficulty is influenced indirectly by:

• Environmental temperature
• Player wetness
• Stamina usage and carried weight
• Player activity and movement
• Clothing insulation

Because of this, difficulty is adjusted through temperature and environment values, not food settings.

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8.1 Temperature Configuration (Indirect Survival Control)

In cfggameplay.json, temperature is controlled in the WorldsData section:

"environmentMinTemps": [-3, -2, 0, 4, 9, 14, 18, 17, 13, 11, 9, 0],
"environmentMaxTemps": [3, 5, 7, 14, 19, 24, 26, 25, 18, 14, 10, 5]

How this works:

• Each value represents one month (January → December).
• Temperatures are in °C.
• The game dynamically selects a value between min and max for the current month.

Practical limits:

• Negative temperatures are fully supported.
• Extremely high or low values can break balance.
• Most servers stay within -30°C to +50°C

Lower temperatures increase calorie drain and cold exposure, making survival harder.

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Wetness Impact on Survival

Note:

Wetness effects stack with low temperatures.
Cold + rain + high wetness multipliers dramatically increase survival difficulty.
This is one of the main vanilla ways to make survival harsher without using mods

Wetness does not directly change food or water values.
Instead, it increases stamina drain and movement penalties, which indirectly raises hunger and thirst.

"wetnessWeightModifiers": [1.0, 1.0, 1.33, 1.66, 2.0]

What this means:

• Values are multipliers applied as players become wetter.
• Recommended range: 1.0 → 3.0
• Higher values cause:
  • Faster stamina loss.
  • Slower movement.
  • Increased survival pressure.

Wetness effects stack with cold temperatures, making this one of the main vanilla difficulty controls.

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Important Limitation (Vanilla Servers)

These mechanics are hardcoded in DayZ vanilla.

You cannot directly modify:

• Hunger drain speed
• Thirst drain speed
• Food or drink effectiveness

Direct control requires a gameplay mod.

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9. Save the File

Select ‘Save Content’ button once your changes are complete.

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10. Restart Your Server

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Tips & Best Practices

• Always back up cfggameplay.json before editing

• Change one group of values at a time and test in-game

• Extreme values can break balance or progression

• These settings apply server-wide and affect all players

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