DayZ Badlands and Update 1.30: Server Owner Checklist

DayZ Badlands and Update 1.30 launch on October 15. Bohemia repeated the date on October 1 in its Autumn Sale post, and 1.30 has been on the Experimental branch since September 16. Badlands is the paid expansion with the new map, Nasdara. Update 1.30 is the base game update that comes with it, and every DayZ server gets it, whatever map it runs.

So even if Nasdara is not in your plans, your server changes on the 15th. This post is for PC community servers: what 1.30 changes for all of them, what Badlands adds, what to do before and after, and what Bohemia has not said yet.

The dates

The Experimental details come from Bohemia's 1.30 Experimental announcement and the Experimental change log. Everything in the next section is based on those and on the Badlands dev blogs, which Bohemia marks as work in progress. The stable notes on the 15th can still change details.

What 1.30 changes on every server

Motorbikes are not limited to Nasdara. In Dev Blog 7 Bohemia says you will find them on all terrains, in lower numbers. There are two, the Jana 50 moped and the Bitrak 682 dirt bike. Each carries one rider and no cargo. Crash one at speed and the rider falls unconscious, while everyone else sees a ragdoll.

The change log also adds two server options for vehicles: a vehicle-specific third-person view setting, and a cfgGameplay setting that stops car and motorbike wheels from detaching or taking damage. On Windows servers, the -limitFPS launch parameter now tries to match the limit you set. Take the exact option names from the stable notes and the new vanilla files, not from forum posts written during Experimental.

The code lock is coming to every map. Bohemia's own lock is similar to the community code lock mod, needs a charged 9V battery, opens by itself when the battery runs flat and has brute force protection against PIN guessing (Dev Blog 5). It fits the new rebuildable doors and existing fences, and Bohemia has confirmed it will be available on the other maps as well (Dev Blog Recap 1). If your server runs a code lock mod, decide before the 15th which lock your rules and raid policy refer to.

Mods take the biggest hit. When 1.30 went to Experimental, Bohemia warned modders about animation-related mods, and the change log backs that up. Animation graph files move to the Enfusion config format, the Buffer Save and Buffer Use graph nodes are gone, mods get their own named file system, and the OnCEUpdate script hook is obsolete in favour of OnCEIterate. The navmesh file format changed too, with no backwards compatibility, and Bohemia tells terrain makers to regenerate it. Every community map, Namalsk and Deer Isle included, therefore needs a 1.30 update from its author.

The fixes are a reason not to sit on the old version. 1.30 closes an exploit that could freeze nearby clients, stops players spawning right next to each other when they respawn at the same moment, and fixes stutter on players, vehicles, infected and animals.

What Badlands adds on Nasdara

Nasdara is 267 km², west of Chernarus on Takistan's western border, and the largest official DayZ map (Steam store page). In its second dev blog recap Bohemia listed the core features on track for October 15: sandstorms, rebuildable houses, motorbikes, radio gameplay with Morse code signals that lead to underground shelters, regional weapons, clothing and loot, regional wildlife, and underground facilities built on a new terrain hole system that other maps and modders can use too.

The rebuilding system is the part admins should think about. Nasdara has over 5,000 rebuildable houses that players can restore or barricade with logs, planks, sheet metal or the new brick and mortar. Bohemia's stated goal is that no two servers look the same after a few days of play, and wells work the same way. All of that is world state on your server, so a persistence wipe on Nasdara would reset the restored towns along with the bases.

Can players without Badlands join?

Bohemia had not spelled this out in the posts we could read by October 1. The closest guide is Frostline. When Sakhal launched, Bohemia wrote that "access to servers running Sakhal requires a purchased copy of DayZ Frostline", and it made the assets Sakhal was built with free for anyone in the community to use on their own servers and maps, for personal use (Frostline release post). Badlands is sold the same way, as paid DLC on Steam.

Plan for the same rule until Bohemia confirms it. If you move your only server to Nasdara, every regular who does not buy Badlands is locked out. Keeping your main server on Chernarus, Livonia or Sakhal and adding a second server for Nasdara avoids that, and gives you time to learn the map before your community commits to it. Our Badlands preview has more background on the map.

Before October 15

1. Go through your mod list on the Workshop. Start with animation mods, large script frameworks and your map. Look for a 1.30 update or a note from the author, and write down the ones that stay silent. Our DayZ server mods guide has tips for keeping a mod list manageable.
2. Test if you can. Bohemia publishes a separate DayZ Experimental Server on Steam, and it has run 1.30 since September 16. Running your mission and mod list on it, on a spare machine, shows problems before your players find them.
3. Write down your -mod= line and its order.
4. Decide what happens with Nasdara: stay put, add a second server, or move. Then tell your players the date and roughly how long the server will be down.
5. On the 14th, make a backup in the panel. Download the whole mission folder over FTP as well (persistence lives in its storage folder, storage_1 by default), together with serverDZ.cfg and your profile folder, where most admin tools keep their settings. If your server updates itself when it restarts, the first restart after the release may already run 1.30, and this is the copy you can go back to.

On October 15

1. If the server has not updated yet, stop it and make a fresh backup, so the last hours of play are in it too. If it already runs 1.30, your copy from the 14th is the one to fall back on.
2. Update the server to 1.30. Your players get the new version through Steam, and their game has to match the server's version to join.
3. Merge the new vanilla mission files into your own. Bohemia publishes them in its DayZ Central Economy repository on GitHub, which it also updated on the day 1.29 Road to Badlands went stable in July. Motorbikes and new items spawn through db/types.xml, db/events.xml, cfgeventspawns.xml and cfgspawnabletypes.xml, so a server that keeps an old copy of those files will not get them. Our types.xml guide explains the values you will be merging.
4. Set the new options in cfggameplay.json and your server config if you want them.
5. Leave out the mods that have no 1.30 update yet, and add each one back once its author ships one. If the server will not start, the script log in your profile folder usually names the mod that broke.
6. Check the notes for a wipe recommendation. For Frostline and 1.26, Bohemia wiped the official servers and recommended that community server owners do the same, because of the loot economy and cargo changes. We have not seen a recommendation for 1.30 yet. Your backup lets you go either way.

On Experimental, Bohemia lists a known issue where the launcher wrongly shows servers as having a mismatched version. If you see that after the 15th, check whether the issue is still listed before you start reinstalling things. Our launcher troubleshooting post covers the usual causes when a server does not show up.

What Bohemia has not said yet

• Whether players need to own Badlands to join a Nasdara server. Frostline says yes for Sakhal, but for Badlands it is not confirmed in anything we could read.
• What the Nasdara mission folder will be called and whether it ships with the server files on day one. Sakhal arrived as dayzOffline.sakhal.
• What Nasdara needs on the server side. Bohemia has published no server requirements for it.
• Whether 1.30 comes with a wipe recommendation for community servers.
• What time of day the update goes live on October 15.

Hosting it with us

Our DayZ server hosting runs in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Australia, on 6, 8 and 12 GB plans with full types.xml access, FTP and backup slots: two on Survivor and Bandit, three on Hero. We are not going to guess a RAM figure for Nasdara before anyone has run it with a full server. If you add a Nasdara server next to your main one, start on the plan size that already works for your mods and player count, watch memory use in the panel during the first busy evenings, and upgrade if it gets tight. Our support team is online from 08:00 to 20:00 UTC, seven days a week.

FAQ

When does DayZ Badlands come out? On October 15, 2026, together with Update 1.30. Bohemia repeated the date on October 1. Update 1.30 has been on the Experimental branch since September 16.

Do players need to own Badlands to join a Nasdara server? Bohemia had not confirmed it in the posts we could read by October 1. For Frostline, servers running Sakhal required the expansion, and Badlands is sold the same way, so plan for the same rule.

Will my DayZ mods break with 1.30? Some will. Bohemia warned about animation-related mods, and the change log also changes the animation graph format, the navmesh format for community terrains and a central economy script hook. Check each mod for a 1.30 update before you update a live server.

Do motorbikes spawn on Chernarus and Livonia too? Yes. Bohemia says the bikes appear on every terrain, in lower numbers than on Nasdara. On a server with its own mission files they only show up after you merge the new vanilla entries.

Related: DayZ Badlands preview, DayZ types.xml guide, DayZ server mods guide