7 Days to Die

About 7 Days to Die

7 Days to Die is made by The Fun Pimps and published by The Fun Pimps Entertainment LLC. It entered early access on Windows and Mac in December 2013, with Linux following in November 2014. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions came out in 2016 through Telltale Publishing and are no longer developed. The 1.0 release arrived on 25 July 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. On Steam it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

You start with almost nothing in a large open map, either the hand-made Navezgane, set in Arizona, or a randomly generated world. Biomes run from desert and forest to snow, burnt woods and a ruined wasteland. By day you search houses for food, water, books and parts, mine for ore, hunt, farm and learn recipes from more than 500. With them you craft tools, armour, guns and vehicles from a bicycle to a gyrocopter, and you build a base block by block in a world where every wall can be broken and badly built structures can collapse. Traders hand out quests for extra loot.

The horror is the clock. Zombies walk slowly in daylight, but after nightfall they turn feral and run, and on every seventh night the blood moon rises and a horde of zombies and infected animals heads straight for you. Each week becomes a race to make your walls, traps and turrets strong enough. Once a zombie spots you it keeps coming until you die or get away, so clearing a dark building room by room is its own slow tension.

It is more a survival crafting game than a story horror game: you get stronger, and fear gives way to planning. It suits players who like building, tower defence and long sessions with friends, and who want the undead pressing on the walls rather than a scripted fright.

How to play 7 Days to Die

1. Pick a world: the Navezgane map or a randomly generated one, and set the difficulty and horde rules.
2. Search buildings and the land for food, water, tools and crafting parts.
3. Craft weapons, armour and building blocks, and read books to unlock recipes and perks.
4. Build or fortify a base with walls, spikes, doors and later turrets and electric traps.
5. Watch the day counter and be inside your defences before the blood moon horde arrives on the seventh night.

Tips

• Stay indoors or work quietly at night in the early weeks; ferals at night are far more dangerous than daytime walkers.
• Spend the day before a blood moon repairing walls and stocking ammunition, not looting.
• Clear buildings slowly and check corners: once a zombie detects you it follows until you die or leave the area.
• Keep water and food stocked; hunger and thirst wear you down as surely as the dead.

Questions