7 Days To Die Alpha 21 Start Time Countdown: Release Date News & More (2024)

With 7 Days To Die currently in its Alpha 20 build, many fans are speculating as to when the developers will release the next significant content update, which is the highly anticipated Alpha 21 build of the zombie survival sandbox video game.

If you're in the same boat, then you're not alone, and luckily we have some answers for your below. We'll be going through everything you need to know about the Alpha 21 build of 7 Days To Die, including its release date, what to expect in terms of the newly added features, and much more. So let's dive right in.

12 June Update - We've checked for the latest news and leaks regarding 7 Days To Die Alpha 21.

Latest News

We'll keep you updated on all the latest news and leaks just below:

7 Days To Die Alpha 21 Release Date Speculation

UPDATE - During the Alpha 21 dev stream, RickHuenink, Co-Founder ofThe Fun Pimps confirmed a May 2023 release for Alpha 21. 
Speaking on the stream, Huenick said: "Wishful thinking is early may, I think you know mid-may is probably more realistic".

As it currently stands, we don't have an official release date for the Alpha 21 build of 7 Days To Die, and according to the official Alpha 21 Developer Diary, the game has been labeled with a release date that reads "Done When It's Done".

But even with an unclear release date for the next build, we can speculate on when it will drop.

The game will typically receive one significant update per year from the developer. Although there will undoubtedly be several smaller experimental updates throughout the year, the game generally releases a new build once a year. Since the most recent Alpha 20 was released in December 2021, Alpha 21 will likely arrive in early to mid-2023.

What To Expect From 7 Days To Die Alpha 21

According to the official Alpha 21 Developer Diary, the new build will come with a host of new content updates, fixes, and much more. Below you can find a full list of everything expected to release in the Alpha 21 build.

• New Places of Interest
• New Decorations
  • Cars, trucks, tractors
  • Furniture and many many new items
• Additional Advanced World Generation Options
  • Biome Percent Sliders (included in Alpha 20.6)
• Learn By Reading System
  • 23 new skills to govern the crafting system
  • 23 new magazines added to loot
  • Perks no longer unlock recipes or govern crafting at all
  • The only schematics that still unlock recipes are mod attachments.
  • Crafting skill is increased by finding and reading magazines
  • Skill increases unlock recipes at certain points as well as increase the quality of crafting for items with quality
  • Each tech level has a separate range in the skill spectrum so that you have to work up through primitive tech and then iron tech and then steel tech and being able to craft a blue stone axe no long means you automatically can also craft a blue iron axe.
  • Some skills have 100 levels but others have fewer depending on how many unlocks there are for recipes and quality tiers.
  • A new skill page showing your progress has been added to the player interface
  • Skill magazines can be found, bought, and/or received as quest rewards. The topic of the magazine matches the location you would expect to find it in the world.
  • Perks slightly affect the probability of finding like-themed magazines and parts for those recipes. Perk into shotguns and you will notice more shotgun magazines and shotgun parts appearing in the world. It isn't a significant bonus but it does prevent the player from being screwed over.
  • When you max out a skill, that slight probability bonus granted by perks for finding the corresponding magazine for that skill drops off. The magazine will still show up randomly in loot but no longer have a boost. The probability boost for finding matching parts will remain.
• Interactive Environmental Hazards
  • Flaming broken gas pipes blocking the way. A valve to turn off the gas flow is located elsewhere.
  • Alpha 21 Interactive Fire Hazard Demo
• Doors
  • Double Doors
  • Partially damaged doors with large holes can be shot/meleed through to damage enemies on the other side
• Water Simulation
  • All new water coding--water is no longer a block but a water voxel
  • Water voxels flow into neighboring voxels that are marked to allow it.
  • Water can be in the same space as a block
  • Water does not flow or fall continuously like a river or a waterfall
  • Player movement in water has been enhanced

• Armor
  • New Iron Armor
  • New Commando Military Armor
  • More details to come.
• Drinking Water Rebalance
  • Murky water is only water found in loot
  • Empty Glass bottles were removed from the game to match all the rest of the containers in the game
  • A dew collector work station added
  • Players can drink directly from water sources with an empty hand by pressing "e"
  • Pot is now required to boil murky water
  • Glue crafting has been taken into consideration
• Spears
  • Spear damage increased
  • A spear power attack is a thrust instead of a throw
  • Throw attack for spears removed
• Chunk Reset Option
  • Default is disabled
  • Options for days up to 70 days
  • The chunk resets to its pre-generated state if no player has entered the chunk after the number of days selected.
  • An active LCB or bedroll will prevent a chunk from resetting.

7 Days To Die Alpha 21 Rumors

According to a recent interview with the developers of 7 Days To Die, we received a bit of insight into what we can expect from the Alpha 21 build of the game. During the interview, it was stated that the dev team has been working on "redoing old systems that were placeholders or very old and refining existing systems as well as working on new systems, but we're moving more towards polishing and refining".

They also go on to mention that there are three new key features that they want to add in the new build, such as a change they want to implement with the way the Bandits spawn in the game and their A.I, but as of right now the details are being kept under wraps. For right now, the developers have stated that they want to keep the big reveal of everything as exactly that, a big reveal, and don't want to spoil anything before the release of Alpha 21.

Interestingly though, it was mentioned that some features that are being developed are underway, but might not be ready for Alpha 21, so they will be considered for the release of Alpha 22 instead. Giving us a lot of hope for the release of more content to come even after the release of the Alpha 21 build.

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Featured image courtesy of The Fun Pimps