Arma 3 Dayz Mods
About Exile Arma 3 Mod. It is the year 2039. After the resource depleting conflict in Greece, Europe suffers from a new deflation crisis, leading the crime rate to a new peak in history. Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Security Council are forced to react. Being a desperate alternative to overcrowded and prohibitive prisons.
While hyper-realistic and extremely difficult shooters are all the rage now with games like Squad and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, the critically acclaimed Arma has the main tent pole of that sub-genre for a long time.
Offering more than just a gritty and difficult military experience, Arma is a franchise that's also always been known for its stellar mods, with titans like DayZ arriving in earlier series entries.
The game's third installment is no exception -- and there's a reason why four years after its release, Arma 3is still going strong on the mod front. Currently, players have access to more than 40,000 various map, item, scenario, and overhaul mods across the Steam Workshop and various modding sites.
It's impossible to go through all of these independently, so we've done some of the leg work and curated 10 of the top-notch mods for Arma 3 that show off what's possible with a little bit of modding know-how and a lot of ingenuity.
Baphomet
What the heck... Hellgate London meets the realism of Arma? This is a mod you wouldn't expect to see, but it definitely exists. Baphoment changes the game into an alternate future timeline where the earth is under assault via portals to hell.
Custom ambient music and the dark red color tone make this one pretty legitimately chilling to play as you tackle missions to roll back the zombie and demon hordes!
Unsung: Vietnam War Mod
Before Rising Storm 2 finally arrived, this was the place to go for a crazy Vietnam war experience. The amount of work that went into this mod is sort of ridiculous -- new terrains and maps, a crop of ground and air vehicles, authentically-equipped units from the time period, and 80 new period-specific weapons all arrive to throw you straight into the action.
Wasteland
At this point, you don't really need to download anything for Wasteland, since there are so many servers running it without the need to personally install any mod resources.
This is the big sandbox mod for Arma 3, frequently referred to as 'DayZ minus the undead'. And that assessment is not far off base. Camp somewhere, find loot where you can, and get ready to die a lot.
Battle Royale
An oldie but goodie, Battle Royale is all about free-for-all survival on a massive scale. You will always be on the hunt for equipment and ammo as the player count drops and you end up stalking the remaining survivors until there's only one winner standing. If this sounds a lot like PUBG, that's because it's designed by the same guy.
RHS: Armed Forces Of The Russian Federation
This one actually took home a pretty hefty monetary prize for winning Bohemia's 'Make Arma Not War' modding contest. There are several different mods in this line, all adding in realistic infantry and vehicles from the Russian Federation, United States, and more.
Accurate uniforms, headgear, backpacks, are all included, in addition to a whole new fire control system for vehicles. Its basically a whole new Arma 3.
Extended Fortifications
While a few of the additions are a bit wonky, overall this is a killer mod that drastically extends your fortification possibilities. A whopping 94 different modular base elements are featured -- from steel barriers and wood panels to staircases, support beams, concrete pylons, and a whole lot more.
CUP Weapons
With more than 40k mods available, obviously there's been a lot of collaboration between community members -- and that's where the CUP (Community Upgrade Project) mods come in.
The Weapons version of these mod packs strives to bring in extra content (specifically from the previous Arma titles) into the third main entry, extending out the number of weapons available and tweaking those new arms to match the game's functionality.
Machine guns, shotguns, rifles, grenade launchers, pistols, sniper rifles, and a host of attachments are all added here.
VSM Uniforms
There are more uniform and decal mods for Arma 3 than a single person could probably count -- so if you just want one with tons of options, go for this VSM addition that has it all in one place.
If what you are looking for isn't in this particular pack, just hit the Steam Workshop and search for 'VSM' to find about a hundred other high quality mods that add in new camo, vests, helmets, accessories, and just about any other type of gear.
Jurassic Props
Unlike a lot of other mods, this one doesn't radically change the whole game, except perhaps in tone. Yes, that's the gateway to Jurassic Park you see there. While rather limited at the moment (the gate doesn't actually open and there are no dinos), the mod does add in a bunch of JP themed objects that will definitely alter the feel of any given Arma 3 match.
I can't wait to see where this one goes, and hopefully someone will pick up the torch and carry us to the finish line with a dinosaur total overhaul in the same vein as all those zombie mods.
Arma 3 Dayz Launcher
Apex Species Sharks
This mod really shows the dedication (and sometimes oddity) of the Arma modding community. Does this military shooter really need hyper-realistic sharks based on extensive research by the Australian Institute of Marine Science? I can't say that it particularly does, but we got it anyway.
The mod adds in male and female sharks that swim around, hunt, bleed, behave differently in night and day, and only become aggressive if there aren't any other large fish food sources around. If you want to take time off from war to study marine biology, then have it my friend!
Zombies And Demons
If modding has taught us anything, its that people want zombies added to everything. Another entry in a long line of mods that throw hordes of the walking dead into a shooter, Zombies And Demons shines by being customizable -- letting you decide just how strong those zombies are (from barely standing shambling dead to super powered hellish monstrosities).
Sure, we've left realism behind at this point, but who doesn't want to skip the typical warfare to gun down some walkers every now and again?
There you have it -- from new uniforms to entirely different game modes, these are some of the very best mods available at the moment. But remember -- a mere 10 out of 40,000+ mods doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what's available if you want a whole new Arma 3 experience.
What did you think of our picks, and what top tier mods would you recommend for players who want to shake up their Armamatches with new dynamics? Let us know down in the comments!
I'm inside of a wall, inside of a fire station. I see a fellow survivor—only not really, because I'm inside of a wall. Mashing V repeatedly, I slowly slide down to the ground floor of the four-story tower. As my feet touch the floor, I sprint back into the traversable interior of the fire station and begin the hunt. I step outside and immediately spot N3m3sis. Zeroing in on his head, I pull the trigger and he drops to the ground.
DayZ players everywhere anxiously await the impending launch of the DayZ Standalone's alpha. People aren't content with the dated graphics, the endless list of bugs, and the general state of the DayZ mod. DayZ Arma 3 is here to change that. The Zoombies team has ported the DayZ mod straight into Arma 3. You'll be seeing the exact same models, zombies, and weapons rendered in the full glory of the Arma 3 engine. Let me be the first to say that it looks absolutely amazing.
On my rig, DayZ Arma 3 runs much better than the standard DayZ mod—a credit to Bohemia's Arma 3 optimization. Even if many of the textures are just upscaled, the difference in lighting and detail is terrific. Even the guns look amazing. In the DayZ mod, the Lee Enfield is abhorred by experienced players everywhere for being an aural flare gun. Shooting it alerts every zombie within an almost ridiculously large radius. In DayZ Arma 3, that same gun transforms into a beautiful amalgamation of wood and metal. It's not functionally different, but it looks amazing. Throw in Arma 3's improved physics and all the weapons feel as powerful as they look.
The ragdoll physics of Arma 3 are hilariously applied to the zombies. One minute they're alive and well, zigzagging across Chernarus for a chance to take a swipe at you. The next, they're somersaulting backwards into the pavement. Seeing a zombie faceplant is inherently satisfying and makes killing zombies so much more fun.
Although the zombie animations are still awkward because of their tendency to random stop, player animations have seen some subtle improvements. There's a distinct sense of weight that accompanies each stance—running, walking, or sprinting. I noticed each and every step that I took which is important in a game where being seen or heard is tantamount to being dead. Although many of the animations look nearly identical to their Arma 2 versions, additions like prone sprinting and a better walk animation go a long way towards making the game look tighter.
There's one thing that makes DayZ Arma 3 infinitely better than the original DayZ mod—inventory. Arma 2's inventory system was never to meant to support a loot-driven game like DayZ. Zoombies has fully integrated Arma 3's glorious, low-input inventory system with multiple inventory spaces (backpack and vest) as well as near instant interaction. Picking up an item isn't nearly as hard as it used to be.
If you have ever had any interest at all in DayZ, go try this right now. DayZ TV has a great guide on how to get DayZ Arma 3 installed. Braver readers can visit the official site and figure it all out themselves. The bugs may not be fixed, but the games looks, feels, and plays so much better.