The developers of the survival horror game 7 Days to Die have officially announced a release window, updates, and new features for its upcoming Alpha 21 update. The game challenges players to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where everything players see can be recycled into building or crafting materials. But there's a twist: once a week, zombies appear in massive numbers, descending on players' outposts and tearing down walls in a frantic attempt to get at them. Players will have to build traps and chokepoints in order to defend themselves in 7 Days to Die.
7 Days to Die was first released for Windows PC and Mac OSX via Steam's Early Access feature on December 13, 2013. The game remains in early access almost ten years later but is still under development and receives occasional updates. The last significant update, Alpha 20, came in late 2021 and added new points of interest, enemies, and weapons, while upgrading existing systems like random world generation. The Alpha 21 update, which is now in the works, is set to bring even bigger and better changes to 7 Days to Die.
7 Days To Die's Alpha 21 Update Now Has A Release Date
According to a Dev Diary thread posted on the official 7 Days to Die forum, the Alpha 21 update is scheduled for release in May 2023. This may be a month-long window and only a tentative target, but the fact that mid-May is only a month away from the time of the announcement shows that the development team is confident in the update's progress. While delays are certainly possible, the Alpha 21 update appears to be well on its way, and there's a clear list of what changes it'll bring to 7 Days to Die.
7 Days To Die's Alpha 21 Update Will Have Major Gameplay Updates
Perhaps the most extensive updates coming in 7 Days to Die's Alpha 21 update will focus on the skill, perk, and crafting systems. Starting with the update, skills, not perks, will dictate what crafting recipes players can use, and the quality of the items they'll make. Skills will be increased by reading magazines that can be found, bought from traders, or rewarded for quest completion. Players can only craft items of higher tech levels if they have the appropriate skill level, effectively requiring players to progress in order to craft higher-quality items. Although perks will no longer grant knowledge of crafting recipes, taking on perks for a particular weapon type will increase the probability of finding relevant magazines and parts.
The Grease Monkey perk will receive special attention in the Alpha 21 update, while the Sexual T-Rex perk will be removed. In previous versions of 7 Days to Die, Grease Monkey governed what vehicles players could craft, but with crafting reliant on skills rather than perks in the upgrade, that'll change. Grease Monkey now increases the effectiveness of repair kits; the higher the player's skill, the more vehicle health the kit will restore. To match this, repair kits will no longer simply return vehicles to full health, but the vehicles themselves will also do more damage and have improved collision physics.
There are also a number of changes coming to the Alpha 21 update for 7 Days to Die that seem geared toward improving the game's performance. Certain features will be throttled at a distance from the player in order to decrease PC workloads both client-side and server-side. However, the developers still ensure that all players on a server can have some fully-simulated zombies on screen at the same time. Shadows on grass, which were previously removed from the game in order to improve performance, will return in the update for players with higher-end PCs.
Points of interest, which refers to most buildings and landmarks in 7 Days to Die, will also see some changes. Some existing POIs will simply get proper names, while others will receive more substantial upgrades. The Dev Diary claims this will bring hundreds of existing POIs up to "current standards," but exactly what that means is unclear. Most likely, it means that points of interest will have certain new features and balance tweaks in line with the more sweeping changes to the game.
Water will also function differently after the Alpha 21 update to 7 Days to Die. For one, water will be rendered as voxels instead of blocks, and its physics will be upgraded, so it can flow more accurately and players can move through it more easily. However, when there's no open space for the water to occupy, it will cease moving, which will likely improve performance. Drinking water will be rebalanced; the only kind of water that players can find in the update will be murky, so all found water will have to be boiled lest players risk HP damage and dysentery. Players can also now sip water directly from the source; bottles will be a thing of the past.
The Alpha 21 update will also change how traders and melee weapons work. Namely, they'll be more specialized - certain traders might have better wares for upgrading weapons, while others might have materials that can help with base building in 7 Days to Die. Traders will also no longer have secret stashes with rarer items and melee weapons will be buffed in the Alpha 21 update. Spears will do more damage but will lose their throw attack, with the charge attack becoming a wound-up thrust instead. All melee weapons will gain a perk similar to "Flurry of Blows", increasing their attack speed. Finally, many blocks, including crafting blocks like the forge and workbench, will have their art overhauled.
7 Days To Die Alpha 21 Update Has Added New Features
In addition to the extensive upgrades coming to existing 7 Days to Die features, Alpha 21 will incorporate many new ideas as well. In keeping with the updates to the skill and perk system, 23 new skill-upgrading magazines will appear. Multiple new tier 4 and 5 points of interest will be introduced for players to scour in search of high-end loot. The magazines bought from traders will have new and improved compounds and can be received as rewards for quests, of which the update will add two new types.
The first new quest type in 7 Days to Die, Infested Clear, presumably relates to clearing zombies from a specified area. These quests will have elevated tiers, promising better rewards, but will also greatly increase the number of zombies in the target area. There are no details as to what the second quest type will be; the developers seem to be keeping it secret.
Many new HUD features will simplify gameplay in 7 Days to Die. One meter added in Alpha 21 will display the danger level of different biomes and POIs so that lower-level players can steer clear of high-difficulty areas. Players can also track the materials they need for certain crafting recipes in the HUD, taking the guesswork out of resource gathering. Another HUD feature will warn players when their armor condition is low. Wires, however, will no longer appear constantly; they'll only show up if the player has the wire-cutting tool out. If the HUD gets too crowded with all these new features, players can simply toggle it off in the settings menu for a more immersive experience.
For those who enjoy building custom maps, Alpha 21 will also include updates to the terrain tool in 7 Days to Die. Terrain can now be painted with a spherical brush of adjustable size and can be expanded in all directions. There will also be an undo button to quickly do away with mistakes.
A number of new items and visual effects will also appear in the Alpha 21 update to 7 Days to Die. This will include new cars, trucks, and tractors lining the deserted streets, as well as new furniture and wall art for points of interest. Some points of interest will also have environmental hazards, like leaky gas valves that have to be shut off before players can proceed. Vehicle crashes will display new visual effects as well.
As the first major update in nearly two years, the changes coming to Alpha 21 are thorough and all-encompassing. With a wealth of new content arriving soon, it's never been a better time to get started with 7 Days to Die. The developers seem to have many additional features planned for the future, including updates to the armor system and the addition of bandits, factions, and an overarching story. As long as it continues to add new content, 7 Days to Die could have a long life ahead of it yet.
