DayZ Wiki › Guides & tools › HUD & status icons
Reference · HUD
The DayZ HUD, icon by icon
DayZ never writes a number on screen. It gives you a row of small icons, a colour and an arrow, and expects you to know what they mean. This page is the key: every icon, what the colours mean, what the arrows mean, and the one action that fixes each.
The row
What is at the bottom of the screen
The default HUD is a row of icons at the bottom left (bottom centre on some layouts): a heart for health, a drop for blood, a fork and knife for food (energy), a drop in a glass for water (hydration), a thermometer for temperature and a running figure for stamina, which is drawn as a bar rather than an icon. Status effects such as bleeding, sickness and broken bones appear as extra icons on the same row when they are active and vanish when they are not. Hold the inventory key to show the row if your server hides it.
Colours and arrows
Reading the colour and the arrow
Each icon has five states.
| Colour | Meaning | Urgency |
|---|---|---|
| White | Fine | None |
| Yellow | Getting low or getting high | Deal with it soon |
| Orange | Low; the stat is now hurting you | Deal with it now |
| Red | Critical; health is draining | Minutes |
| Flashing red | About to kill you | Seconds |
A small arrow next to an icon shows the trend: up means the stat is rising, down means falling, and more arrows mean faster. A food icon with two down arrows is a character burning energy fast, usually from running or cold; a water icon with an up arrow is one still absorbing a drink. The arrows are the most useful thing on the screen, because they tell you what will happen, not what has happened.
The four core stats
Health, blood, food, water, temperature, stamina
| Icon | What it tracks | Goes down from | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heart (health) | Your life. Zero is death. | Hits, bleeding, starvation, dehydration, disease, cold | Keep food and water white and it regenerates; a saline bag or blood bag helps a crash |
| Drop (blood) | Blood volume; low blood greys the screen and weakens you | Bleeding wounds, hits | Stop the bleed with bandages or rags; eat and drink to regenerate; transfusion of the right blood type to restore fast |
| Fork and knife (food) | Energy; the tank that health and blood regenerate from | Time, running, cold, healing | Eat. Cooked meat and vegetables are the best value; see the cooking guide |
| Drop in glass (water) | Hydration | Time, running, heat, illness | Drink from wells and pumps, boiled or treated water, or drinks and fruit |
| Thermometer | Body temperature, up or down | Rain, wet clothes, snow, wind; or heat and heavy clothing in the sun | Fire, dry clothes, shelter; or shade, water and fewer layers. See staying warm |
| Stamina bar | How long you can sprint, jump and hold your breath | Sprinting, carried weight, injuries | Walk, drop weight. The loadout planner shows weight against stamina |
Shock is not shown. It builds from hits and falls and knocks you out when it passes your health, which is why a single hit can drop you with a white heart. The combat guide explains it.
Status effects
The icons that come and go
| Icon | Meaning | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Blood drops falling | Bleeding. The number of wounds shows as the icon count; each one drains blood | Bandage, rags, or a sewing kit on the wound; disinfect rags first or risk infection |
| Broken bone | A fractured leg or arm; you limp or cannot aim | Splint from sticks and rags, or morphine |
| Sick face | An illness: cholera, influenza, salmonella, food poisoning or wound infection | Depends on the illness; see every illness and cure |
| Water droplets on body | Wet. Clothes are soaked and you lose heat fast | Get out of the rain, stand by a fire, change clothes |
| Snowflake | Cold; hypothermia is starting | Fire, dry layers, move |
| Sun | Overheating; hyperthermia | Shade, water, remove layers |
| Skull in a cloud | Poisoned or in a toxic zone; chemical poisoning | Leave the zone, NBC gear before entering, charcoal tablets for mild poisoning, chelating tablets for heavy metal |
| Crossed-out stomach | Stuffed; you ate or drank past the limit and will vomit | Stop eating, wait |
| Hand with pulse | Low blood pressure or shock symptoms; the screen may pulse | Rest, eat, drink; epinephrine for a knock-out |
| Lightning or buzzing | Stunned, after a flashbang or shock prod | Wait it out |
Icons can stack: a wet, cold, bleeding character shows three. Clear bleeding first, then cold, then everything else, because blood loss is the fastest killer.
Sakhal extras
Frostbite and frozen food
Sakhal adds frostbite as a stage past cold: the snowflake icon turns to a frostbitten limb and you take health damage until you are warm. Food in your inventory also shows a frozen state in its name, and frozen food cannot be eaten until thawed by a fire or body heat. The Sakhal guide covers the warmth rules; the HUD treats the whole map as a cold-zone timer.
Hiding the HUD
Showing and hiding it
On PC the default toggle for the whole HUD is the tilde key; the inventory key shows the status row while held, and server owners can force the HUD off. On consoles the HUD toggle is in the options menu and the status row shows while the inventory is open. Playing with the HUD hidden is a common hardcore choice; the arrows still exist, you just have to open the inventory to see them. Keys are on the controls page.
Quick answers
Questions people ask
What do the icons at the bottom of the screen mean in DayZ?
Health (heart), blood (drop), food (fork and knife), water (drop in a glass), temperature (thermometer) and stamina (a bar). Extra icons appear for bleeding, broken bones, sickness, wet, cold, hot and poisoning.
What do the arrows next to the icons mean in DayZ?
The trend. An up arrow means the stat is rising, down means falling, and more arrows mean faster. They tell you what is about to happen.
What does the red flashing icon mean in DayZ?
That stat is critical and about to kill you. Red food means starving, red water means dying of thirst, red temperature means hypothermia or hyperthermia; fix it within minutes.
Why did I pass out in DayZ with full health?
Shock. It is not shown on the HUD. Every hit and fall adds shock, and when it exceeds your health you fall unconscious.
How do I hide the HUD in DayZ?
On PC press the tilde key to toggle it; hold the inventory key to see the status row. On consoles the toggle is in the options menu.
Keep going
More guides and tools
Checked 1 November 2026 against DayZ 1.30 (PC 1.30.164200, console 1.87). Icon names are descriptive; the game does not label them.