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The Central Economy Editor - usually just called the CE Editor - is the tool that controls where zombies and loot spawn on a DayZ map. It ships inside DayZ Tools, the free modding suite on Steam, so you do not need a separate program. This walkthrough takes you from mounting the P-drive all the way to copying the finished files onto your server, the same workflow you would use for any custom terrain.
Get it on Steam — DayZ Tools (CE Editor)Work through the steps in order. The first three get the editor open on your map; the middle steps place zombie territories and loot tiers; the last step extracts everything and moves it onto the server.
The CE Editor lives inside DayZ Tools, which is free on Steam under App ID 830640. In your Steam Library switch the filter from Games to Tools, find DayZ Tools and install it. Launching it opens a small launcher window with a button for the Economy Editor among the other tools.
Before you do anything else, open the Tools menu in the DayZ Tools launcher and choose Mount P-drive. The P-drive is the virtual work drive that DayZ modding expects. You do not strictly have to keep every file on it, but mounting it keeps paths predictable and stops the editor complaining about missing sources later.
Get it on Steam — DayZ Tools (CE Editor)
Extract your map files somewhere you can find them - in the video the example map is simply called "lakeside", but the name does not matter, it is only there so you can tell projects apart. Open your source files and copy the satellite (map) image.
Paste that image into the map’s chernarusplus folder, for example …\lakeside\chernarusplus. The editor expects a file called map.png. You can either rename your image to map.png, or keep your own filename and point the editor at it by editing the image name in the AreaMapFlags. Once the names line up, the map background will display correctly in-game and in the editor.
Back in the DayZ Tools launcher, open the Economy Editor and click Load. Browse to your map config and make sure you select the correct one - it can live anywhere on your computer, the P-drive path is just convenient, and the project name (lakeside in the example) is only a label.
Loading can take a moment depending on the map size. When it finishes you will see the satellite image you set up earlier as the editing canvas, ready for territories and loot.
If you are extending an existing map rather than starting from scratch, download the base (vanilla) economy files for that map first: Chernarus+, Livonia and Sakhal come from the official Bohemia DayZ-Central-Economy GitHub, while Namalsk and Deer Isle are on the GitHub repos of their map authors. The direct links are in the Sources list at the bottom of this page.
Hold Ctrl and use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Move the cursor across the canvas to pan around the map. The view is bounded by your image size, so a small map with a small image will only zoom out to that extent - this is normal and just reflects how large your terrain actually is.
Spend a minute getting comfortable moving around before you start placing anything. Everything you do next - dropping zones, painting loot - depends on being able to find the right part of the map quickly.
Start with zombies. From the territory list pick one of the ready-made, scripted types - for example "industrial zombies" - rather than building your own. The pre-made territories are already wired into the server files, so they will actually spawn zombies without extra configuration.
When you click a territory, all of its zones appear on the map. To move a zone, enable the move tool, then double-click and drag the zone to where you want zombies to appear. You can scatter these wherever you like, which is exactly how some servers end up with huge zombie clusters in one area - the dev simply left a lot of zones stacked there.
A crucial rule: do not let zones overlap. Overlapping zones cancel each other out and stop spawning entirely, so keep them spaced apart even when you want a dense area.
On the right-hand panel you have Opacity, which only changes how visible the zone looks in the editor - handy for seeing what is underneath - and Radius, which is the real size control. Higher values like 400 make a big zone; lower values like 100 make a small one. To delete a zone you no longer want, right-click it and choose Remove.
Each zone can be Static or Dynamic. Static means the zone must always hold exactly that count - if you set a static maximum of 10, the economy will keep it at 10. Dynamic, which is the default, treats that number as a ceiling rather than a target, so the zone holds up to that many but can sit lower.
If you really must, you can add a brand-new territory type with Add, click it, press F2 and rename it. The catch is that a custom type will not spawn anything until you also configure it in the server files, which is why sticking to the pre-made types is the safer choice for a first map.
Loot is organised into tiers that map onto how dangerous and rewarding an area is. Tier 1 is the low-value outskirts, Tier 2 covers villages, Tier 3 sits in better towns and the occasional spot, and Tier 4 is the top end - think the airfield. On Chernarus, Tier 1 typically ringed the edges of the map.
As with zombies, you can create your own tier but it is far simpler to edit the existing ones. Select the tier you want to work on - say Tier 1 - so the painting controls apply to it before you start drawing loot areas.
Click Paint mode and you can draw loot coverage directly onto the map. Increase the brush size using the control at the bottom of the screen so you can fill large areas quickly instead of scribbling tiny strokes. Wherever you paint, that tier’s loot will spawn.
You can also tweak the colour and opacity of the paint from the side panel, but those are cosmetic - they only affect how the overlay looks while you work. Take your time covering the regions you want; getting clean, non-overlapping coverage is mostly a matter of patience.
Click Save at the top. When it asks to replace the existing file, confirm yes - you do not need the old one. The editor then extracts the data, which can take a while depending on map size and how many objects you placed.
To put it on a server, open your mission folder (named dayzOffline.<map>). Copy the AreaMapFlags from your P-drive map folder into the mission, then copy the contents of territory_types (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) across as well. Leave already-extracted folders such as the domestic animal territories alone.
One last thing that trips people up: delete the storage folder if one exists in the mission. The server will not pick up your new economy until that old storage is gone. With that removed, your custom zombie and loot spawns are live.
It is part of DayZ Tools, which is free on Steam under App ID 830640. In your Library switch the filter to Tools, install DayZ Tools, and open the Economy Editor from its launcher.
For a first map, no. The pre-made, scripted territories and tiers already work out of the box. A custom type will not spawn anything until you also configure it in the server files.
The most common cause is overlapping zones, which cancel each other out. Keep zones spaced apart. Also remember to delete the storage folder on the server so it refreshes.
Static forces the zone to hold exactly the number you set. Dynamic, the default, treats that number as a maximum, so the zone can hold up to that amount but often less.
Copy the AreaMapFlags and the territory_types contents into your dayzOffline.<map> mission folder, leave already-extracted folders such as domestic animal territories alone, and delete any storage folder so the economy refreshes.