7 Days to Die, the game that feels like it’s been in alpha since the dawn of time, has once again received its latest update, bringing with it some exciting new features that are sure to bring players back for more zombie mayhem.
One of the more exciting aspects of the 7DTD Alpha 21 update is the environmental changes, with upgraded animations and new HD designs that breathe a new level of immersion into the game and even some new features, such as the ability to shoot and mele through holes in damaged doors, which should hopefully help players stay alive a little longer.
7 Days to Die Alpha 21
While we’re on a whole new alpha version, you can still expect to see minor updates bringing in new content, bug fixes and other exciting changes to 7 Days to Die.
New Environmental Art
As touched on above, one of the biggest focuses for the 7 Days to Die Alpha 21 update has been environmental art, and making the game feel more immersive.
Not only does this include new high-quality assets, but also new updated shaders too. Alongside all the major graphical and environmental updates, there are also some cool additions such as visible additions to workstations, such as the campfire that will now physically show items such as the grill, beaker, and cooking pot when added.
Considering 7 Days to Die’s age now, it’s always nice to see updates that include new graphical updates, bringing the game up to modern standards and making it feel that little bit more immersive.
It’s not just building items that have had some TLC either, weapons and tools in 7 Days to Die have also had a bit of graphical tweaking, with new upgraded models and an update to how dying your weapons look.
New Windows and Doors and Building Items
Over the past couple of years, double doors have been one of the most requested features in 7 Days to Die. After a long wait, 7DTD finally brings in a range of new double doors, alongside other new working doors, such as Porta Potty’s.
There’s also a massive new range of windows that can be built using frame shape blocks. Not only do these new windows in 7 Days to Die offer more ways to fight off the hordes of zombies, especially during blood moons, but they also add new ways to make your base look more impressive.
If this wasn’t enough, there’s also a huge amount of new frame shapes and craftables that have been added to the game, making it possible to take your defensive structures to the next level, or if you prefer, just make them look cool.
New and Overhauled POIs
Over the past few updates, FunPimps has been working on adding new points of interest and reworking existing ones with each alpha update.
7DTD A21 brings with it not only exciting new points of interest to explore, but completely revamped old ones, adding some of the new Alpha 21 props to them, alongside new graphical updates.
Navezgane has also undergone some changes as well, with a new terrain update, and new points of interest, and many of the existing points of interest on 7 Days to Die’s main map have also been tweaked.
Random World Generator
7 Days to Die’s random world generator has always been one of the game’s most impressive features. While 7 Days to Die Alpha 20 already added some impressive new features, Alpha 21 takes it to the next level with further improvements, including world generation speeds which are reportedly up to 5 times faster than before.
Perks and Crafting Skills
Previously players would have to level up quickly in 7 Days to Die to be able to unlock crafting items. Instead, crafting items are available to all players from the start now, without the need to level up, and players can no longer unlock or increase the level of these items via perks.
Instead of using perks, players will now be able to find books that will increase their crafting skills. However, increasing perks, such as Miner 69’er will now give you a higher chance of finding the relevant books, so in this case, you would be more likely to find Tools Digest, which would increase your skill levels at crafting tools.
Wandering Hordes
Wandering hordes haven’t served much of a purpose, there was no reward for killing them, and in most cases, you could simply bypass them and let them wander on by.
Not only has Alpha 21 stopped wandering hordes from spawning just before a blood moon, something that has caused me many issues in the past, but they have also increased the chances of loot dropping from them, giving players a reason to actually take on these hordes.
Empty Loot Containers
If you’re playing 7 Days to Die on multiplayer, the chances are you’ve looted the same building as your friends, and you’ve spent a lot of that time accidentally going through empty loot containers, or at least wasted time running towards them, just to realize they are empty.
The new loot containers system will now destroy any smaller loot containers, such as bird nests, and change the animation state of larger loot containers to an open state, so it’s immediately obvious they have been looted and emptied.
Difficulty Bar
Going into a biome or town, players now have a visual aide that will show them the difficulty of the area they are heading into. Both POIs and biomes have their own difficulty levels, so finding the same POI in two different biomes, might not mean they will be the same difficulty level.
Here are the difficulty levels for each biome:
- Forest – 0
- Burnt (Navezgane Only) – 0.5
- Desert – 1
- Snow – 1.5
- Wasteland – 2
Alpha 21 Summary
While these are some of the most impressive updates to have come out with Alpha 21, there are still some other impressive changes we haven’t listed. If you want to see the full list of changes, you can head on over to the official Alpha 21 release notes.
7 Days to Die Alpha 21.1 B16
7 Days to Die Alpha 21.1 B16 was a smaller update that included a few new features, a new tier-five hotel, and a large list of fixes and changes.
What’s the Next Alpha Coming Out?
The next 7 Days to Die alpha is A21.2, which is currently in experimental. while this update will bring out a large range of fixes, it will also be bringing with it the exciting new perma death setting, making an already tough game even tougher.
