Decaying Winter has been officially brought back by a group of devs.

Decaying Winter was a Wave-based action FPS survival Roblox game made by Archeximus. It was released on October 24th 2021. The map design and most of the asset in the game were taken from Archeximus's other Roblox game titled Survival Of the Fittest. In August 2022, Decaying Winter's main game was reviewed by Roblox on grounds of violating Roblox policies. As a result, the original Decaying Winter game is indefinitely closed and the game was merged with Last Strandeds, however it was taken down again and reuploaded by Zym, who now works on Decaying Winter, as Archeximus quit. This game was more meant to be restricted to people around 18+ mainly due to use of drugs (Stims, Tablets and Cigarettes), gore content (Mainly decapitations, dismemberments and internal organ explosions), suicides and alcohol use. Despite these precautions, the Last Strandeds gamemode was also later reviewed by roblox for "illicit content". It has been confirmed by administrators of the official AA/DW discord server and Archeximus herself that this version will never return.

Decaying Winter featured elements from wave-based, team-based, FPS and survival games. Gameplay could be split into two distinctive periods, the scavenging phase and storm/night phase. A typical game lasted 10 rounds or nights. Players could modify their character's stats in three ways in the menu:

• Players could choose a Perk, which was one of 20 distinctive character classes. Each perk had its own special ability/abilities, strengths, weaknesses and role in the team.
  • Perks were unlocked through level progressions or challenges.
• Players could choose up to 3 traits, which modified existing characteristics.
  • Examples included increasing movement speed, decreasing damage taken or improving gun handling.
• Players could choose a piece of auxiliary equipment, which replenished with each new wave.

Players were assisted by a wrist-mounted AGENT Device which tracked their stored ammunition, provided a map and a timer for when waves began, detailed their held weapon's statistics and allowed them to drop salvage. Upon joining the game, the player spawned in the Safezone, which also served as the respawn location. Dead players dropped all their supplies, which could be retrieved by teammates. Players were constantly afflicted with Infection, which applied debuffs but was fatal once fully developed. Players who died inflicted Morale on surviving teammates, which was a stackable, nonlethal debuff. Players had to also manage hunger and thirst; running out of either was detrimental but not lethal.

The player could customize their character using Odens, a currency gained from killing Scavengers. Players who reached level 100 could "Pledge", sacrificing their levels and a certain amount of Odens for a premium currency called Bonds. Bonds could be spent at the Quartermaster for additional outfits or weapon reskins.

During the scavenging phase, players explored the Crossroads-themed map, fighting Enemies and searching for supplies. Players could find melee weapons, explosives, firearms, ammunition, medical items, blueprints and more. Players could also destroy items at scrappers for scraps, which could be used in conjunction with a blueprint and a workbench to craft items. During this time, the Safezone was guarded by two turrets with finite ammunition which killed in-range enemies. Players killed during this phase would respawn shortly before the storm phase began.

During the night/storm phase, a damaging storm forced players to the Safezone. The turrets shut down and Scavengers would invade the Safezone; once all were killed the storm ends and a new scavenging phase began. Players who died during this phase respawned once the storm ended.

With each successive wave, the number and variety of invading Scavengers increased, culminating in a boss during Night/Wave 10. Between nights 6-9, a guaranteed "Scavenger War" would occur once, bringing with it a significantly higher number of enemies or a single miniboss-type opponent. An optional ending was possible, which was achieved through a certain sequence of actions.

Decaying Winter had a spinoff gamemode known as Decaying Winter: The Last Strandeds. The objective of this gamemode was to protect an evacuation pilot at a helipad.

Unlike the classic gamemode, The Last Strandeds had unlimited waves. Core gameplay mechanics remained similar.