DayZ Map Guide: Chernarus, Livonia, Sakhal and Nasdara

DayZ has four official maps. Chernarus (230 km²) and Livonia (168 km²) come with the base game. Sakhal (83 km²) comes with the Frostline expansion, and Nasdara (267 km²), the biggest DayZ map so far, with Badlands, released on 15 October 2026. This DayZ map guide covers each map, its season and the mission name you need. On your own server you pick the map with one line in serverDZ.cfg. Checked on 27 October 2026, with game update 1.30.

Which official DayZ maps are there?

Bohemia Interactive gives each map its own season. In its words, Nasdara’s arid spring completes the cycle after autumn in Chernarus, summer in Livonia and winter in Sakhal. The official missions hold the in-game date to match. On Chernarus it stays between 20 September and 20 October, on Nasdara between 30 April and 30 May.

Seasonal events don’t run everywhere. The Halloween event of 2026 runs from 26 October to 6 November on Chernarus, Livonia and Sakhal. Nasdara doesn’t get it.

Chernarus: the classic

Chernarus is the map most players picture when they think of DayZ. Bohemia calls it a sprawling 230 km² post-Soviet landscape and the quintessential DayZ experience. It is hand-crafted and inspired by real places in North Bohemia, in the Czech Republic.

Bohemia’s own example server configuration loads Chernarus. Its mission is called dayzOffline.chernarusplus. Bohemia’s mission repository also has event versions of it, such as halloweenOffline.chernarusplus.

Livonia

Livonia is the second map in the base game, at 168 km². Bohemia describes lush, dense forests that make it look more habitable than it is, and a deep secret beneath its surface. It is set in summer.

The mission folder doesn’t carry the name Livonia. Bohemia added the Livonia files to its repository in December 2019 under the name dayzOffline.enoch, and that is the name you use on a server.

Sakhal

Sakhal came with the paid Frostline expansion on 15 October 2024. It is a snow-covered volcanic archipelago in the Far East, 83 km² without the ice sheets. According to Bohemia it is by far the harshest environment in DayZ. You manage warmth, hunt in the snow, deal with volcanic hazards and face new diseases and an updated fishing mechanic.

The mission is dayzOffline.sakhal. In serverDZ.cfg, the setting lightingConfig also has a value of 2 for Sakhal-specific lighting, next to 0 for brighter and 1 for darker nights.

Nasdara (Badlands)

Nasdara is the map of the paid Badlands expansion, released with update 1.30 on 15 October 2026. At 267 km² it is the largest terrain Bohemia has made for DayZ. It lies west of Chernarus, borders Takistan’s western frontier and is fully inland: desert plains, jagged mountains, oil fields and crumbling military bases.

• Heat and sand: sandstorms, and two new medical threats, heatstroke and silicosis. Water is scarce.
• Rebuilding: nearly 5,000 structures you can rebuild, including wells and irrigation tunnels.
• Radio: Morse code messages on your personal radio give coordinates and access codes for bunkers in the towns.
• Wildlife: mouflons, desert monitors and territorial dogs.
• Start: in the official mission you spawn in a kameez shirt, shalwar trousers and sandals.

Update 1.30 also brought motorbikes to the base game, and it came with a full wipe of the official servers on all platforms. Bohemia published the official Nasdara mission, dayzOffline.nasdara, on GitHub on 16 October 2026.

How do you pick the map on your own server?

Your server loads one mission, and the mission decides the map. You set it with template in serverDZ.cfg, in the format mission name, a dot, terrain name.

1. Make a backup of your server, mission folder included. See Create and restore a backup.
2. Check the mpmissions folder in the file manager. Is the mission there? Go to step 4.
3. If not, download it from Bohemia’s DayZ-Central-Economy repository on GitHub (Code, then Download ZIP) and take only the folder you need. One file of the Nasdara mission, areaflags.map, is about 84 MB on its own, so upload it with SFTP. Keep the folder name exactly as it is.
4. Set the template in the class Missions block: template = "dayzOffline.nasdara"; for Nasdara, or another name from the table.
5. Restart and check the console. Then find your server in the DayZ Launcher.

Does your server keep going back to the old map after a restart? Open a ticket and we’ll look at how the mission is set on your server.

A few things to keep in mind:

• A new map is a fresh start. Everyone begins in an empty world. Keep your old mission folder and your backup if you might want to go back.
• Your own tweaks belong to one mission. Changes to files such as db/types.xml or cfggameplay.json don’t move with you. Don’t copy them blindly to another map, because they hold the items and places of the old one.
• Same version for everyone. With forceSameBuild = 1, as in Bohemia’s example configuration, only players on the same build as the server can join. On our servers, Automatic Updates in the Startup tab updates the server when it restarts.
• Mods are often made for one map. Traders and custom spawn points in particular. Check the Workshop page before you switch.
• Expansions: Sakhal and Nasdara are paid expansions. Bohemia’s store pages don’t spell out what players without them can do on such a server, so ask your group who owns them before you switch.

On a CakeHosting server you install the DayZ server files with your own Steam login in the Startup tab and then choose Reinstall Server. If that account owns DayZ, automatic mission updates and Workshop mod downloads work too. Our DayZ servers run the PC version on Steam, so players on PlayStation or Xbox can’t join. Not sure whether to run the server yourself? Read Rent or self-host a game server.