So yeah, it's kind of like Bohemia Interactive sort of decided to nuke the pesky zombies once and for all, but like any good zombie media trope, it'll be the return of the living dead in an all new-look DayZ designed to "complement the update... for a fresh start in 2021".

Too bad for you and your hours and hours and days and days and weeks and weeks and months and months and... well, you get the idea. The clean out and update, however, addresses a number of key tenets of the game, while also bringing in some new toys and goodies for old, new and returning players alike. Here's the Dear John from Bohemia to players left with no choice but to say goodbye to their old server avatar(s):

"Dear John,

📢Dear Survivors,
The much anticipated 1.11 update and the associated wipe (both characters and servers) are projected to deploy on 16th of February.
The wipe is to optimize the update's stability and to get clean foundations to monitor changes made with previous economy updates. pic.twitter.com/j4jFZDedft

— DayZ 🖥 🎮 ❤️ (@DayZ) January 29, 2021

With Update 1.11, a complete wipe of both characters and official servers will take place. The wipe is meant to compliment the update 1.11 for a fresh start into 2021. It also secures us a clean foundation to monitor the changes made with previous economy updates. It’s not just all about fixes! Players will be glad to learn there’s a new weapon to discover; a “badass” rifle spawning at helicopter crash sites around Chernarus and Livonia, the SVAL, which is the Czech word for muscle. In addition, there are new 20 round magazines for 9x39 ammo, which can be used with both the SVAL and VSS.

DayZ update 1.11 brings important optimizations fixing bugs and improving stability. For a full list of the additions check the update’s changelog. These are some of the changes you will encounter:

• Fixed various zombie behaviors such as the infected colliding and going through the player's character.
  
• Interaction with cars is more realistic, fixing random character bugs when entering and leaving cars.
  
• No more strange interruptions when sea fishing
  
• Huge improvements to horticulture
  
• Polished damage dealing and triggers
  
• Massive improvement on the engine script, allowing servers to load more mods than ever before.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, but be sure to check out the forums for all the changelog notes - PC and Console.

All of this also comes with a teaser video you can watch embedded below.

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I didn't know this was still being developed. Got tired of it going nowhere in early access and never looked back. What a cluster f*** from start to finish.