When it comes to indie games from the days of old, they typically donât receive updates forever. The developers almost always take the success of their title and use those profits to move on to new projects. But every once in a while, the developers show their grit by honing their craft on their original title, making it better and better seemingly forever. This is the case with 7 Days To Die. 7 Days To Die came out in 2013, but because the fans keep playing and the devs keep caring, it gets consistent updates, and recently, it has received one of the largest updates in its history. Today, weâre going to go over the latest update, 7 Days to Die Alpha 21, and what it includes. Letâs begin.
New Art
This update will make its name known as the update that brought 7DTD into the modern era with brand-new polished visuals. Many new decor pieces have been added in pretty much every area. Cars, barbed wire, posters, fences, plants, and so much more. Additionally, nearly all existing objects have been updated. New workbenches, forge, cooking area, chemistry station, actual spinning cement mixers, customization changes with dying, new door options, new windows, literally EVERYTHING has been updated when it comes to visuals!
Overall lighting and reflections have also been improved for better realism. It is a really noticeable upgrade when youâre just walking around, watching the light from your torch bounce off of different surfaces with different reflectivity. So cool!
Thick44 Flag
Thick44 was a member of the notorious gaming crew âNeebsGamingâ on Youtube. Thick unfortunately passed away this year, and so this flag was added in to remember him. I remember watching each and every episode of their most popular series âBattlefield Friendsâ which was absolutely hilarious. Rest in peace, Thick.
New POIs
The 7 Days to Die Alpha 21 update will see the addition of at least 75 additional points of interest. Holy crap! Seventy-five different structures all with overhauled graphics and improvements. Thatâs over a whole new gameâs worth of content by itself. All other locations have also received some form of upgrade with the new buildables and visuals added. Absolutely insane. Among these new POIs are four brand new Tier 5 POIs including a nursing home, an apartment complex, and two prisons. Two Tier 4 POIs have also been upgraded to Tier 5, that being the Red Mesa facility and House Modern 23. The remaining eight Tier 5s have also been upgraded like the other POIs.
Trader Changes
Each trader has their own new compound along with a custom sign. The compounds have multiple entrances for ease of access and they can be located anywhere in a city or town, not just on the outskirts. Their secret stash inventory has been removed, and so better barter perk no longer offers better items. Itâs only good for better trade values. Thereâs also a new type of interaction called âTraderstageâ.
Essentially, as you level up youâll start to unlock higher-tech items. For example, on day one youâll most likely be seeing stone tools, arrows, scrap, and armor. But as the days and weeks go on youâll see higher quality and tech items. This should result in trader stock having slightly better loot than you can find and you wonât be able to purchase endgame items early on.
Traders are also now more specialized, with their specialties being as follows: clothing and armor, tools and vehicles, medicine and books, guns and ammo, seeds, and food. This should make it easier to find what youâre looking for depending on each trader.
New Quest Type: Infestation
Infested POIs were one of the previous tiers but it will now have double the zombies so if you accept a tier 2 infestation youâll be headed to a tier 1 POI. This means that now there are tier 6 quests that basically take place in tier 5 POIs. Currently, there are no other tier 6 quest types.
Skill Reworks & Removals
Everyoneâs favorite perk âSexual Tyrannosaurusâ has unfortunately been removed. Instead, you can now receive a stamina benefit from each individual tool and melee weapon skill. For example, a point into Salvage Operations reduces Wrench stamina cost, and points into Knives reduces Knife stamina cost, etc.
Flurry of Blows has also been reworked. Every class now has its own version of that, and it will only affect the melee weapon of that class. So if you take points into Big and Fast you can acquire better swing speed with Sledgehammers and Clubs, for example.
Daring Adventurer has also changed. It will now afford you an increase to your trader stage, affording you better items at the trader. You will also receive more dukes for your quest rewards and if you max it out youâll receive the bonus quest reward choice.
Learn By Reading
This is an entirely new progression system that has received some critical feedback by the community, but regardless, itâs here to stay for the time being. This new system is intuitive, logical, and fun! The way it works is that you no longer find most schematics out in the world, only for a few things like mods. Books also no longer unlock items either. Instead, you unlock crafting recipes by reading magazines. You can find dozens of magazines per day, as youâll find them pretty much anywhere. Speccing into certain skills will also cause you to find more magazines related to your skills that youâve invested points into.
World Generation
Random world generation has received a nice improvement with new tiles being added along with road generation being greatly improved. The roads especially seem a lot more logical and sensical and more like roads typically do.
Drinking Water Rebalance
Empty Jars have been removed with their being an apparent rebalancing to water drinking. Fortunately, it seems this is a very minor rebalance. You can still get water from the traders, vending machines, and basic loot fairly easily. You can also create a new item called the âDew Collectorâ which is basically a small rain catch. This allows you to passively collect water from rain. For obvious reasons, dew collectors donât work indoors, haha.
Vehicle Fragility
All vehicles now take damage when you run into things. The harder the thing is, the more damage your vehicle takes. Debris and trees especially take a ton of durability from your vehicle. You can now also run over zombies but at the cost of your vehicleâs durability. Each repair kit now restores 1,000 hitpoints to the vehicle. If you max out the âGrease Monkeyâ skill you can get that up to 2,000. Efficiency!
Miscellaneous Changes
Ok, so for changes that donât have any particular category, weâre just gonna shotgun âem for you.
Spears buffed
Pipe Baton buffed
Lumberjack zombie makes a new sound
Wires will now be invisible unless holding the wire tool
Hatches canât be upgraded anymore, but theyâre slightly stronger
You can now select what level item you want to craft
Added toggle to pin crafting recipes
New âMinimal Hudâ Option added (Tap F7)
New Menu option for chunk reset time (OFF by default)
Mutated Zombie now causes radiation damage with its spit
The crawler and zombie dog now have some jiggle physics
Zombie hordes have a slightly increased chance to drop lootbags
Multipliers and flat bonus to each biome for gamestage
Conclusion â 7 Days to Die Alpha 21
What a massive update! 7 Days To Die is truly an amazing survival game that has stood the test of time by its own merit. By releasing consistent updates and improving the game to keep up with modern audiences, theyâve created a product that people like me just canât refuse! Improved graphics, tons of rebalancing, numerous new items, and buildables. Itâs just a treasure trove of content! In any case, I canât wait to get my hands on the 7 Days to Die Alpha 21 update. With that being said, have a great day!
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