Suicide is a game mechanic in DayZ. The game offers several options to kill your own character. Generally when suicide is brought up in discussion, most people would be referring to the option of killing yourself with an object.
Your survivor will get on their knees, depending on what you have in your hands will determine the animation. Once on your knees you have to use the action button in order to kill yourself. You are able to cancel the action at anytime after this point.
The Suicide Gesture
The accepted official way to kill your character is by pressing the corresponding gesture key (default: F11) on your keyboard with an appropriate object in your hand or choosing the option in the emote wheel on console and using the action button (a list can be found below). Regardless of your motivation, this method is useful if you're stuck somewhere and don't have any other method of killing your character. There are a variety of objects that can be used, including things as obscure as a pen.
If the suicide gesture is activated when no viable item is held, the player will hold finger guns to their head. Triggering the suicide action is non-lethal, as the player will instead imitate the gunshot with their hand.
The following is a list of items compatible with the suicide gesture. This list should be considered a work in progress at all times during development. Feel free to add to the list, but only if you can confirm that the item or weapon works.
- Firearms
- All loaded/chambered firearms work.
- Melee Weapons & Blades
- SKS Bayonet
- Combat Knife
- Cleaver
- Hunting Knife
- Kitchen Knife
- Steak Knife
- Machete
- Hay Hook (Not implemented in 1.08)
- Stone Knife
- Sword
- Pitchfork
- Improvised Spear
- Tools & Equipment
- Pen (Not implemented in 1.08)
- Screwdriver
- Splitting Axe
- Firefighter Axe
- Hatchet
- Pickaxe
- Shovel
- Crowbar
Other Methods of Suicide
The official, gesture-based method of suicide isn't the only way of killing your character in the game. Some are quicker than others, depending on the situation your find yourself in.
Other methods include:
- Jumping from a great height.
- Allowing yourself to be killed by another player.
- Drowning yourself slowly by submerging your head in water. If you fall from a pier you will float and can not submerge, but if you swim a little you will lose consciousness and die because of drowning (or hypothermia).
- Starving or dehydrating yourself.
- Making yourself sick by consuming chemicals or inedible food.
- Standing over a fire.
- Getting mauled by a zombie or hostile animal.
- Hypo/hyperthermia.
- Using empty blood bags to remove all of your blood.
- Injecting yourself with the wrong blood type.
- Damaging a fuel station until it explodes.
- Crashing a car into a wall at high speed, or exiting a car when it's traveling at high speed.
- Dropping a live grenade at your feet.
Animations
- Having no weapon will cause the player to hold a finger gun to their head, but will not kill them.
- Handguns will cause the player to shoot themselves in the side of the head.
- Longer firearms such as shotguns and rifles will cause the player to put the barrel under their chin and shoot themselves that way.
- Bladed/pointed weapons such as the knives, screwdriver, and machete will cause the player to stab themselves in the neck.
- The crowbar, axes, hatchet, and pickaxe will cause the player to slit open their left arm from the elbow down to the wrist.
- The shovel and pitchfork will cause the player to impale themselves through the stomach by leaning onto the metal end.
- Swords will cause the player to stab themselves in the abdomen.
- The spear will cause the player to impale themselves through their chin and into their brain.