DayZ's Badlands expansion adds the survival game's biggest, most brutal map yet

Are you the kind of person who, playing DayZ, thought that maybe it was a little too easy? Maybe you just want a change of scenery. That's where this zombie MMO's new expansion, Badlands, comes in. Dropping next year, it'll transport you to an all-desert region, where heat stroke and dehydration are just as likely to kill you as the undead.

Beginning life as an Arma 2 expansion, MMO zombie survival game DayZ challenges you to survive in a world where the dead walk. But, as in the best zombie movies, it's not just walking corpse you have to watch out for. There's injury, starvation and, your second most likely cause of death, other players.

Now, developer Bohemia Interactive has announced a new desert-based expansion, Badlands, set in Nasdara Province. That might sound like somewhere you'd like to take a holiday, but it's actually "A war-scarred desert region where thirst is lethal, and survival depends on many challenging factors."

Boasting a 267 km² map size, Badlands is the polar opposite of DayZ's Frostline Expansion. Arid desert heat aside, the expansion will add in droughts, a host of new scenery, new weapons and more.

There'll be new infected variants, too. You'd think the dead would seize up or, in the case of Frostlines, freeze, but no. They've adapted to be every bit as much of a menace. And if you do get nibbled, finding the resources to deal with that injury could be that much tougher.

Who knows, maybe these challenging lands will foster a new spirit of co-operation? After all, as Dawn of the Dead's priest put it, "When the dead walk, señores, we must stop the killing or lose the war." We're kidding of course. You're going to get murdered for a potato.

DayZ's Badlands expansion will arrive some time during 2026. In the meantime, if you've yet to play DayZ, it's 50% off Steam, making it $24.99 / £24.49.

Want more shambler-dodging shenanigans? We have rounded up the best zombie games and the best horror games.

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