DayZ Badlands Server: How to Switch Your Map to Nasdara

To switch a DayZ server to Badlands, change the template line under class Missions in serverDZ.cfg from dayzOffline.chernarusplus to Nasdara's mission folder, then restart on Update 1.30. It's the same edit that moves a server to Livonia or Sakhal.

Badlands and Update 1.30 come out on 15 October 2026. This page was written before that, so a few answers are still missing.

What we won't know until 15 October

• The name of the Nasdara mission folder. Bohemia haven't published it, and it isn't in their Central Economy repository yet.
• Whether that folder arrives with the 1.30 server update or has to be downloaded from the repository.
• Whether players need to own the Badlands DLC to join a Nasdara server.
• Whether Update 1.30 resets existing worlds. Bohemia haven't said.

We're updating one of our own servers on launch day and will fill these in here. Everything else on this page is how DayZ already switches maps, so you can prepare now.

How to switch your DayZ server to the Badlands map

1. Update the server to 1.30. A server on 1.29 doesn't have Nasdara, and DayZ servers normally run with forceSameBuild = 1, so players on 1.30 couldn't join it anyway.

2. Take a backup. Switching maps doesn't touch your old world, but you're about to edit the file that decides which world loads.

3. Find the Nasdara folder in mpmissions/, next to dayzOffline.chernarusplus. Use the name of the folder that's there, not one from a forum post.

4. Stop the server.

5. Open serverDZ.cfg in the root of the server's files and find class Missions near the bottom.

6. Change the template value to the folder name, spelled exactly as the folder is, and save:

   class Missions
   {
       class DayZ
       {
           template = "dayzOffline.chernarusplus";   // change this to the Nasdara folder name
       };
   };
   

7. Start the server and watch the console or the log for the mission loading. Give it a minute or two.

8. Join and check you're on Nasdara: mud houses and desert, not the Chernarus coast.

If you'd rather not touch the config, open a ticket and tell us which map you want. We'll switch it for you and check it boots.

Where DayZ picks its map

DayZ has no map setting. Each official map is a mission folder under mpmissions/, and the template line names the one to load.

• The name in step 6 has to match the folder exactly. One wrong letter and the server looks for a mission that isn't there.
• Folders like halloweenOffline.chernarusplus in Bohemia's repository are event missions on the same terrain. They aren't other maps, so don't pick one by accident.

Do players need the Badlands DLC to join?

Not confirmed. What we do know:

• Badlands is paid DLC on Steam (app 3816030), out on 15 October 2026.
• Livonia started as paid DLC too. Bohemia folded it into the base game with Update 1.25 in May 2024, so anyone who owns DayZ can play it now. That doesn't tell you how Nasdara will work.
• On launch day we'll join our test server from an account without Badlands and post the result here, with the kick message if there is one.

Until then I'd tell your community it isn't confirmed. A wrong guess tends to stay pinned in a Discord channel for months.

Does switching to Nasdara wipe my Chernarus world?

No.

• Each mission keeps its persistence in a storage_1 folder inside its own mission folder. Your Chernarus bases, stashes and vehicles stay in dayzOffline.chernarusplus.
• Nasdara starts empty. Characters, bases and loot don't carry over, so tell your players before they log in.
• Set template back to dayzOffline.chernarusplus and the old world loads as you left it, provided Update 1.30 itself hasn't reset it. Our Badlands blog post tracks that question.
• Running both maps at once takes two servers.

If you've got an established Chernarus community with months of bases on it, I'd put Nasdara up next to it rather than switching over the top, and let people move across when they're ready.

Your economy edits won't come with you

• types.xml, events.xml, globals.xml, cfgplayerspawnpoints.xml and cfggameplay.json live in the old mission folder. The Nasdara folder starts on Bohemia's defaults. Our server configuration guide has the full file map.
• Don't copy whole files across. Each map has its own item list and spawn positions, so a Chernarus types.xml pasted over Nasdara's can stop items spawning or throw errors at start. Copy the entries you changed, one at a time.
• Mods with coordinates in them (trader positions, custom spawn points, buildings placed through init.c or an object spawner) point at places on Chernarus. On Nasdara they'll sit in the wrong place or fail. Check each mod's Workshop page for a Nasdara version first.
• Mods that don't depend on the map, which covers most quality-of-life and admin tools, carry over once they've been updated for 1.30.

Troubleshooting the switch

The server still loads Chernarus. The edit didn't save, or you edited a copy of serverDZ.cfg the server doesn't read. Re-open the file after a restart and check the template line. If it has gone back to the Chernarus value on a LOW.MS server, open a ticket.

The server stops at start with a mission error. It can't find the folder you named. Check the spelling and capitalisation against the folder in mpmissions/, and that the quotes and the closing ; are still there.

Players get kicked straight after joining. The kick message usually names the cause. A version mismatch means the server or the client isn't on 1.30. A mod mismatch means a mod hasn't been updated for 1.30, and Bohemia have warned about animation-related mods in particular.

Loot is missing or wrong. Usually a types.xml copied whole from another map. Restore Bohemia's default for that file and re-apply your changes entry by entry. Our DayZ troubleshooting guide covers other startup and economy problems.

You want the old world back. Set template back to dayzOffline.chernarusplus and restart. Nothing was deleted. Our save location guide covers which folders matter if you want a copy before you experiment.

Still stuck? Open a ticket with the last 50 lines of the server log and the class Missions block from your config. New to DayZ? Our DayZ server hosting page covers what you get.