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7DTD | ALPHA 21 GUIDE
SERVERS LIVE NOW.
Hey Survivors,
It has been a while since our last major release, December 2021 to be exact. For a year and a half, our growing team has been working hard to bring you Alpha 21. This Alpha delivers more polish, optimizations, updates, quality-of-life improvements, new content, new features, and new gameplay systems than ever before. We say it every Alpha, and we will say it again, this is the biggest and baddest version of the game to date.
If you have never played 7 Days to Die or you have not played it for a while, you’re going to want to check out Alpha 21. Pushing hard towards the Gold Version, this impressive mountain of work could only be achieved by the lengthy, iterative, development style we have gone through. The Fun Pimps dream big and know that nothing of this magnitude comes overnight. Building on an already solid foundation, this update sets the bar even higher for the sandbox, survival, simulation, RPG game genre.
We are very proud of the work, passion, and dedication our team has poured into 7 Days to Die and we hope you enjoy Alpha 21 as much as we have.
The Fun Pimps Team
- Zombies refers to all humanoid NPC enemies.
- Specials can refer to all special enemies and hostile animals. These include the Spider Zombie, Bear, Zombie Bear, Zombie Dog, Feral Zombie, Screamer, Infected Police Officer, and Burn Victim.
- Early Game is a loose term often used to refer to the time around when a player has just started in a world, it is also referred to as the 'Primitive Stage'.
- Mid Game is a loose term to refer to the time around when a player has established a safe place to stay overnight, in addition to a good supply of resources and sufficient weaponry.
- Late Game is a loose term to refer to the time around when a player is nearly fully self-sustained and can pretty much deal with any threat without much trouble.
- End Game refers to when a player has a well defended fortress and is completely self-sustained.
The controls used to play 7 Days to Die are a combination of keyboard keys, the mouse and mouse buttons. All keys can be re-assigned using the Controls tab found in the Options tab on the main menu of the game. From there you can change the key bindings, adjust the mouse sensitivity and invert the mouse control if desired.
- Mouse
Used to control the character's point of view. This allows the player to look around in all directions in addition to being used to turn left or right while moving either forward or backwards with the W and S keys.
- W, A, S, D Keys
Used to control the player's character's forward, backward and sideways movement. W is used to move forward, S is used to move backwards, A is used to move sideways to the left and D is used to move sideways to the right.
- Space Bar
Used to jump. The player's character can jump a minimum of 1 block high. It is possible to jump higher by investing skill points into Parkour.
- Left-Shift Key
Used to sprint. This increases your speed, but will decrease your Stamina.
- Ctrl Key
Used to crouch. This is a toggle key whereby pressing it once will make the character crouch and pressing it again will cause them to stand up. In addition to activating the Stealth System, the player will also be able to move their character around silently and make less sound when searching containers. However, searching containers while using stealth will take more time. Whilst undetected, the player has chance at activating a sneak attack if they hit a Zombie. This will increase the amount of damage given by the attack.
- C Key
Used to crouch. this works exactly the same way as the Ctrl Key, however it does not toggle and the player will need to hold it down to keep their character crouched.
- Left Mouse Button
Used to activate an item's primary effect.
- For melee weapons and tools, left clicking causes a swing which is either used to damage zombies or break blocks.
- For placeable blocks, left clicking will rotate them.
- For Pipe Bombs and Small Stones, holding the Left Mouse Button down will power up the strength the projectile will be thrown at, and releasing the button will launch the projectile.
- For consumables like food and medicine, this action will consume one unit.
- For firearms, the Left Mouse Button will discharge the firearm, consuming one unit of ammunition from inside the chamber and causing recoil. There are several different types of ammunition for the different firearms.
- Right Mouse Button
Used to activate an item's secondary effect.
- For repair/building tools such as the Stone Axe, Claw Hammer, or Nailgun, right clicking will attempt to repair the block if damaged, or upgrade frame shapes into a stronger material such as Concrete or Steel.
- For blocks or traps, this action places them at the cross-hair on the selected area.
- For Pipe Bombs, Dynamite, and other similar items, it will ignite the fuse, but don't forget to use the Left Mouse Button to throw them!
- For firearms and the Crossbow, right clicking will allow the player to aim down sight for greater accuracy. However, while the Weapon is aimed down on the sight, the player's character movements will become very slow.
- For most tools and melee weapons, the Right Mouse Button will initiate a Power Attack, which deals more damage but takes longer to execute.
- Utilizing a Tool or Weapon power attack, whether hitting something or not, will drain your Stamina considerably.
- For Glass Jars and Buckets, right clicking on a water source such as a lake will convert it into Bottled Murky Water and Bucket of Water respectively.
- E Key
Used to open a Door or search a container. Holding down the E Key over player crafted Doors or Chests will activate the option icons used to lock or unlock it and to input, create or change the Doors password. However these options are only available to the creator of the Door or chest.
- R Key
Used to reload a Weapon. Holding down with some Weapons will show a wheel menu to load alternate ammunition types. When searching a Loot container the R key allows you to take everything at once. This, however, causes more noise than removing the contents piece by piece.
- Tab Key
Used to open the inventory giving access to the crafting menu.
- M Key
Used to open and close the Map Menu. On the bottom right of the Map Menu there are several icons in the bottom left which say exactly what they depict, as well as a bed icon. This is the point where the player has placed a Sleeping Bag as a spawn point, provided one has been placed.
- G Key
Used to drop the currently selected object from the Toolbelt, or if a stack is selected it will drop one out of the stack. This key can be dangerous if accidentally pressed.
- F Key
Used to switch on/off the Flashlight.
- Mouse scroll
Used to control Weapon and Map Menu zoom or to cycle the Toolbelt. Also, while aiming down the sight of a hunting rifle or snipers rifle, using the Mouse scroll allows you zoom the scope in and out, the same goes for the Map Menu. Using the Mouse scroll while not aiming down the sight of a Weapon or using the map will allow you to cycle through the Toolbelt to select a desired slot.
- I Key
Used to show other players and their statistics. Essentially a scoreboard that will give you information regarding the players currently on the server, character level, Gamestage, Zombie kills, player kills, deaths, and ping.
The environment team has been heavily focused on the design, production, and implementation of hundreds of new high definition and physically based assets to help the world feel more believable and immersive. Additionally, new and updated shaders add a finishing touch to the environments. Graphic Design Art The graphic design team has been crafting a large amount of high quality graphical elements that breathe life and storytelling into the world. Keep and eye out for these graphic elements listed below.
Kits
Trader Location props
Military props
and many many more! See full patch notes, link below.
The graphic design team has been crafting a large amount of high quality graphical elements that breathe life and storytelling into the world. Keep and eye out for these graphic elements listed below.
Food Labels and Posters
Calendars
Wall Art
Schematics
Tractor Logo
Trader Flag
White River Flag
Liquor Packaging
Magazines
Workstation Elements
Introducing an exciting range of new doors, including the much-anticipated double doors! These numerous additions bring a level of detail to in-game locations that were previously unimaginable. Moreover, players can now enjoy updated craftable door options, expanding their repertoire of door types to choose from. As an innovative feature, doors gradually deteriorate as they sustain damage, resulting in visible holes that can be utilized for shooting or melee attacks. Be cautious, though, as certain doors may develop holes large enough to pass through without being completely destroyed. Exercise caution and strategize accordingly!
When emptied, smaller containers such as trash bags, backpacks, and bird nests will now be destroyed. On the other hand, larger containers like clothing racks, desks, filing cabinets, and gun safes will transition to an open state once they have been emptied. This update brings a more realistic and immersive experience, as players can observe the visual representation of empty containers while navigating the game world.
We’ve made visual improvements to prevent water from clipping through semi-solid block shapes, such as thin or rounded wall segments. Under the hood we’ve overhauled water simulation to improve performance, reduce networking traffic, and provide more consistent and natural flow behavior, particularly with respect to large bodies of water such as lakes and rivers.
The game has received an exciting update with the addition of a hazard system. This latest release introduces flame hazards that must be deactivated within specific locations in order to advance on your path. While active, these hazards will unleash intense fire damage upon anyone or anything that dares to approach too closely.
More zombies now utilize the new gore system.
Every Point of Interest (POI) in the game has been improved with the massive amount of new art props and 692 new shapes added to Alpha 21. It is a complete overhaul of the art and gameplay experienced in each location. More than 200 POIs have been added or completely overhauled. And every POI in the game has been updated with new Art and Shapes. All Trader locations have been entirely reworked with custom art.
When you enter a POI, a HUD pop up will display its name and difficulty tier which is represented by the number of red skulls. These POI names will also appear on the quest text at the trader. When you enter a Biome, you will see the biome difficulty represented by the number of orange skulls. The overall difficulty of the POI and Biome is represented by the number of Red and Orange skulls combined. With this in mind, the same POI in the wasteland will be more difficult and have higher game staged enemies and loot than the same POI in the forest.
We also have fixed a bug with party game staging. Parties now work as designed and have balanced game staging to provide a better scaled challenge.
We have added a new quest type we call Infestation which starts at Tier 2. The system takes a supported POI and adds a +1 to its Tier. In an Infestation Quest, the zombie counts are multiplied to create a greater challenge. At the end, it will reward you with a special loot box, almost always found in the loot room.
Random World Generation (RWG) has gone through the biggest iterative updates to date. We have learned something from every previous version we have done so far. It’s not easy to create something nobody has done before, but we are committed to creating Random Generated Worlds better than anyone on the planet and we think you will agree when you play the latest Alpha 21 Random Gen.
We’ve added a new advanced game option called “Chunk Reset Timeâ€. Enabling this setting will cause chunks to be reset to their original states when left unvisited for a specified in-game duration. Land claims, bedrolls, and other important player-owned objects such as backpacks and vehicles will prevent nearby chunks from being reset; so you don’t have to worry about your home base disappearing, or logging in to find your 4×4 exchanged for a tree which regrew in its place. However, loot containers and workstations which are not within a protected area can be reset, so players who use this feature must be mindful of where they store their valuables.
To enhance the survival experience, water collection has been rebalanced by removing empty jars and cans. Boiled water now requires a cooking pot to craft in the campfire. Most “clean†water and drinks have been extremely lowered in loot. A new Dew Collector workstation has been added to provide clean drinking water.
Crafting unlocks have been moved out of the Perks System and into a new Crafting Skills System. Players will need to read various quantities of Crafting Skill Magazines in order to progress through the crafting tiers. These magazines are found in loot containers, zombie loot bags, air drops, given as quest rewards, or sold by the traders.
Having trouble remembering that recipe? Well, in Alpha 21, players can track recipes while out collecting resources. Items are tracked in a list shown in the upper right hand side of the screen. When the correct quantities are collected, the items will be highlighted in green. When all items are collected, a tool belt message will appear letting you know the item can be crafted.
It’s likely that you’ve encountered a common problem: after gathering the necessary materials and components to craft your tool or weapon, you’ve invested additional points into the relevant skill, only to discover that the newly unlocked quality requires more materials than you currently possess. However, this predicament is no longer a concern, as you now have the ability to choose the desired quality of the crafted item, granting you control over the amount of materials invested.
Considerable attention has been devoted to achieving balance in various aspects of the game. This includes fine-tuning the availability of food and water, ensuring quest rewards are appropriately balanced, refining trader inventories to offer a fair selection of items, and the distribution of crafting skill magazines.
The introductory quest has undergone simplification to provide a step-by-step breakdown of the initial stages of the game. Through user-friendly instructions and onscreen assistance, both novice players and seasoned veterans will be effortlessly guided to swiftly accomplish the initial milestones of their gaming experience.
For those looking for a more immersive gameplay, players can now hide the HUD by pressing F7 one time. This mode will now allow players to remove the HUD, but still be able to interact with doors, loot containers, vehicles, and more. Pressing F7 again will change to “picture†mode that hides ALL HUD elements. Pressing F7 a third time will go back to default.
In this latest update, an exciting new feature has been introduced for respawning after death. With an active bedroll, players now have the choice to respawn in close proximity to the location where their backpack is found. This convenient option enables players to swiftly retrieve their lost loot without the need to place a new bedroll, as the primary purpose of bedrolls was not originally intended for this particular function.
To promote engagement and encourage players to confront wandering hordes, we have implemented an increase in the chances of loot bags dropping from these encounters. This adjustment aims to incentivize players to actively engage with wandering hordes instead of allowing them to pass by without engagement. Furthermore, an additional improvement ensures that wandering hordes will no longer occur just before the commencement of your blood moon event, providing a more balanced and predictable gameplay experience.
The old Web control panel for the server has been removed in favor of a new Web Dashboard. This is the first step of bringing over what has previously been known as Allocs Server Fixes, providing Web based APIs for interacting with the server as well as a browser interface to those features. Compared to the old mod this interface currently lacks all of the APIs that provide information on players. If you were previously using the control panel to automate server tasks you will need to switch over to the new API system.
Alpha 20 is not compatible with previous Alpha worlds or save game data. New Pre-gen-Maps have been created and can be used. We also advise that you delete the 7 Days save Game data folder before playing.
