Guides & Cheats
7 Days To Die
The truth is, we all like to imagine ourselves as experts in the event of the impending zombie apocalypse, but more often than not we’d all most likely succumb to the harsh and brutal conditions of this horrific flesh eating epidemic. Fortunately enough, the guys over at ‘The Fun Pimps LLC’ give us the freedom to test our zombie survival skills in their promising early access title, 7 Days To Die which in the most unsympathetic of ways, chucks you right into the deep end to fight for your right to survival in this zombie infested world.
In this article I will be giving you some quick tips on surviving your first night with little help from my embarrassing first few hours with this game.
First things first, you’ll need to collect plenty of sticks, grass and stone which you can find scattered along the wilderness in most of the world’s various biomes (e.g. Forests and Deserts). I’d recommend staying within a woodland based location to start with as the cities are heavily populated with hordes of the undead and at this moment in time you are in no position to tackle them head on Rambo style unless you have a buddy who can help you out through your journey or you just want to get yourself killed… These are the primary essential ingredients you will need when beginning your game and they will allow you to craft new tools, weapons and building materials.
A ‘Stone Axe’ (materials required: x1 Sharp stone, x1 Plant Fiber, x1 Stick) is one of the more useful universal purpose tools which only needs one of each of these ingredients in order to be crafted. Once creating this you can scavenge for more of these materials, especially wood, with greater ease. The ‘Crossbow’ (materials required: x2 Plant Fiber, x8 Stick) is another weapon that is easy enough to craft and helps when hunting or just silently taking out some undead scumbags from afar although you’ll need to find some feathers, mostly located in trash bags or birds’ nests, to craft crossbow bolts. Trying to build your dream home in the first night is do-able but extremely ambitious. It’s safer to gather the essentials first and hold out in a fortified location or a rooftop with minimal zombie presence. It’ll be a tense and restless night, but you’ll just have to strap on a pair and get used to it like a whimpering puppy’s first night home.
Food and water, as you can guess, keep you alive. It’s easy enough looting for these requirements but eventually you’re luck is going to strike out. There are a selection of deer, pigs and rabbits frolicking through the world that can be hunted for meat and cooked on a ‘campfire’ (materials required: x8 stone) with a stick as well as finding canned goods in various cupboards and fridges. Do be careful when carrying meat however, as the zombies can pick up the scent of your recently bagged game. To avoid this happening, storing the meat in a nearby container/air vent is an easy solution for the night period.
Water on the other hand is a little more tricky… Sure you can find this through your desperate moments of scavenging abandoned apartment complexes, but soon you’ll have to fend for yourself. Keeping the empty glass jars will allow you to fill these up at rivers or lakes, hell, even toilet water if times get tough. But it’s not enough to be able to collect it, you have to boil it, that’s right, otherwise you will die of dysentery. To do this you’ll either need to find a ‘cooking pot’, which can sometimes be frustratingly few and far between, or you’ll need to craft one using forged iron but during your first few days this can be difficult to achieve without finding the necessary book to learn how to forge and this is the hurdle I fell at during my time on 7 Days.
I was fortunate enough to have enough food, loot and materials to keep me going from place to place but for the life of me I was unable to find a cooking pot to boil my harvested murky water thus leading me to die of thirst, deserted, cold and alone atop an abandoned gas station on my third night. Luck just wasn’t on my side but hey, at least I survived one night, two even! But the tips I’ve shared will likely give you an insight into this game’s vast gameplay styles and options. The more familiar you are with the mechanics, items and crafting system, the closer you’ll be to becoming the next ‘Daryl Dixon’ wannabe of the zombie apocalypse.
To find out about more features and crafting requirements for ‘7 Days To Die’, check out the official website here.
