The 5 PERKS EVERYBODY Should Get - 7 Days To Die 1.0 - 2024

What perks can benefit any character in 7 Days to Die? Whichever build you're going for, your character will work better with these 5 perks.

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[kathrynck]

I really disagree with a fair amount of this. For reference, I have over 2k hours in 7d across 6 alphas...which isn't an appeal to authority, I'm 100% certain I'm wrong about some things some of the time. But just pointing out I'm not taking a wild guess here.
None of which is meant to imply anything more personal than just "I disagree". I'll only list the ones I disagree with... the ones I don't list? I agree.

- Perception
Penetrator is also a good 1-point pick, which will become useful by week 2 when you start encountering more zombies with armor. It affects all archery & guns, and spears.
But mostly, perception isn't that great in general. The spear and sniper rifle can be very strong, but the utility perks in perception are not very good. If you're going deeper than 1 point into perception, keeping Penetrator maxed out is always a good call. But I dunno if it's worth filling out the tree just to get more of it. Certainly not in early game.

I agree that Lucky Looter really only helps with loot-times. Abd that time is more useful than many realize :)

- Strength
Mother Lode is _weaker_ than Miner 69er. Period. Always. ML would only be interesting if you were trying to gather a "scarce" resource. There are no scarce resources in 7d2d.
If you drop 2 players into a forest and say "go get wood for 2 in-game hours"... the person with 69er will chop down 30% more trees, and walk out with 10% more wood. That's just basic math.
On top of that, 69er gives a genuinely helpful bonus to stamina cost with tools. And on top of all that, 69er is far more helpful when trying to modify any in-game structure, or break into a safe, etc. And on top of all those on top of's, it increases your loot rate for diamonds & such while mining when compared to ML, because that roll happens when a block breaks. And you break more blocks faster with 69er.
Mother lode really is _also_ pretty good, but it's inferior in every way to 69er. If you want to gather a lot, do _both_, but max out 69 to the extent of your strength tree progression first. Then look at ML. Note: there's some complicated min-maxing math which could make ML "1" a better pick than 69er "4" because the two skills _also_ have a synergy with each other... but in general, 69er is the primary. There's some similar exotic math in Hidden Strike vs. Archery points.

Master Chef... is _extremely_ valuable in A21 and V1 (not that valuable in the more distant past). Cook times are VERY long now. Master Chef is worth taking purely to turn murky water into clean water, in order to make glue and duct tape. The fact that it shaves _hours_ off of your in-game cooking times for food is just icing on the cake (pun intended). Yes you can limit the time sink of cooking by being proactive & planning ahead with your cooking, making extra campfires, etc. But MC is quite strong as a quality of life perk. 40% better cook times is very desirable. In the past MC1 was desirable to access bacon & eggs early. Now, it's for the 40%, but still valuable.

Pack Mule is not a 'n00b trap' ...anymore. Once upon a time, years ago, it definitely was. Now? It's perfectly legitimate to pick it. You won't fill out your entire intentory with pocket mods until around day 30-40. And respec consumables (forgetin' elixir) now only costs 6k. By day 30 or 40 6k is nothing. It is most valuable early game before you get a vehicle, but it remains useful until your pockts erase it's value ...and you can easily afford a forgetin' elixir to spec out of it. 1 point in it is actually fairly tempting, 2 points is still reasonable. Each point sees diminishing value though, as your pockets collection will obsolete it sooner. In V1, you can get pretty deep into the game before you have good enough pocket mods to not face hard choices between pocket mods and other desirable armor mods.

Heavy armor (and Medium armor) are both somewhat valuable in V1 (there is no Light armor perk in v1). They help you progress your armor crafting much faster by tilting the magazine drop-rates. Armor crafting is _much_ more important in V1 than in any of the past alphas. The armor in V1 is a whole rabbit hole to go into though, and in most cases a 'mixed' armor set will work best. So depending on exactly what you want to do with armor, it's all very open-ended. But grabbing a point in both heavy and medium, early in the game, will get you to good crafted armor much sooner in V1.

- Fortitude
Cardio is good, agreed. Even after you have a vehicle, it's often the difference between getting out of a tight spot, and not having the stamina to make it. It's also the key perk for the "baseless horde night' approach.

Iron Gut has a hidden benefit. It extends the bonus time on the effects you get from consumables. This may be very useless, or very useful, depending on play style. But that feature is really the main draw for Iron Gut.

Living off the Land is... complicated. If you're planning to use a Fortitude-focused build, it's well worth maxing, and embracing the farming. And V1's farming armor helps farming be more viable than in the last 2 alphas. If that's not you though... then I think 1 point in it (and only 1) is a good pick. Farming is pretty all-or-nothing. But 1 point in this perk has pretty strong benefits even for someone who never intends to craft any seeds (and I don't recommend crafting seeds unless you're all-in on a farming build). 1 point will double all of your gather from plants, and double all of your harvest from 'found' seeds. That's substantially useful. There are ways to avoid fussing with plants entirely, but it's all a question of which time-sink you want to make sacrifices to.

I used to find 1 point in Well Insulated to be _extremely_ helpful. Especially if you're intending to use the college jacket for speed, and never, ever, take it off (College jacket was the goat coat in previous alphas, and the trenchcoat was the n00b trap). Especially helpful in the desert and snow biomes. But in V1, clothing is gone, and the armor system just isn't built around temperature survival anymore. This perk no longer has much of a function.

Pain Tolerance is really not bad. Getting stunned is something which happens in 99% of 'game-ending events' (if you play hardcore). Basically when you get stunned, that's when things go from "going all wrong" to "going very very all wrong". But you need 5 points in it, and a full fortitude tree to reach 100% stun resist, so I skip it. Also, there are armors now in V1 which can achieve this as well. But ...nobody stays "at range" all the time.

- Agility (and here's where we really disagree)
Parkour 2 (2nd point in it) is the strongest single perk point you will ever spend in 7D2D. And this has been true since I started playing in A16, and is still 100% true. And it has absolutely nothing to do with how far you can drop to the ground from a height. Being able to jump 2 blocks high is absolutely game-changing. Get cornered by zombies? Jump over their heads and out of the corner. Running from a zombie dog, or bear, or horde, or anything... just hop over a fence which zombies can't hop over. Or onto a perch which zombies can't reach. Parkour 2 more than doubles your survivability in 7d2d, by itself. I keep expecting TFP to nerf it, but they don't. Most goated skill in the game.

Hidden Strike is useful to 'everyone'. There are no playstyles which don't frequently encounter sleeping zombies in POI's. When you do, Hidden Strike allows you to make a combat significantly easier by taking out some threats before things get 'exciting'. If you're using a stealth playstyle, it's an absolute must-have. But if not, it's merely 'extremely useful'. Everyone takes a shot to start a combat, and very very often. take 0.1s to crouch when you do, and hidden strike will make that first shot count for a lot more. And in V1... Hidden Strike synergizes with the assassin armor set in a way which is... uh... 'incredibly useful'. I won't say more, cuz I'm still enjoying it in it's un-nerfed form for now.

- Intellect
Better Barter is mostly useful when combined with other trading perks. It's like how damage resistance works in many games: if you have 9% resistance, the amount of damage you can take is 9% greater. But if you go from 90% resistance to 99% resistance (still a 9% change), the amount of damage you can take is 1, 000% greater. So the value of damage resistance follows an exponential curve, not a linear progression. Same principal applies here, except its for bartering prices, instead of damage resistance. If you have your sugar candy and magnum and enforcer sunglasses and pumkin cheesecake, and better barter... the more of these buffs you stack, the stronger each of the buffs gets. In previous versions, BB was god-mode, because it allowed the intellect glasses trick with trader inventory selections. In V1, that trick has moved to another perk...

Daring Adventurer is not really about how many dukes you earn for doing missions. It's primary benefit is that it improves the loot-stage of items available in the trader. I know you recommended it as a perk, but it's a much stronger perk than I think you realize, due to this mechanic.

Engineering, Grease Monkey, Lockpicking: these are all worth getting 1 point in. In past alphas it was more optional (especially lockpicking, which used to be in another tree). But in A21 and V1 you really want to find Forge Ahead and Vehicle Adventures books. And these 3 skills help tilt the magazine drop rates for progressing in those faster. The benefits listed for those perks? Sure, they're unimpressive. I agree. But the magazines are not unimpressive in value.

Physicial 1 should get an honorable mention. It allows you to 'cure' a sprain with a splint or cast. Not strictly speaking necessary, it is handy. Possibly more handy for a sprained arm in a horde night, than a sprained leg from a drop. Overall i'd say it's 'ok'. But only that 1 point.

[moredread]

I Always suggest having at least 2 levels in Parkour. Great for jumping out of danger of zombies. this perk has saved my life so many time's.

[MrMagyar]

Lvl as follows:
1). Complete the tutorial and level Agility to lvl 4 so that your next 2 points can be in Parkour
2). All your next points will go into Str. You MUST get at least 2 points into Minter 69'er so you can get to Iron tools. If you plan on building your own base instead of using a POI for your base, get 2 points into Mother Lode
3). Nothing in Fortitude. It's not important early game.
4). After you sort out Str, go to the Intellect Tree. You need to get AT LEAST 2 points into Advanced Eng, and 1 or 2 points into Grease Monkey. I advise 1 point in Lockpicking as you get more loot when you don't break into safes and locked boxes.
5). After all that, you will be close to lvl 20 or so. and can then focus on whichever fighting style suits you best.

Why this path??? First and foremost you MUST get books. And I mean a lot of them. If you plan on doing any building you need to get to Iron Tools asap as the stone axe is just crap for everything when it comes to harvesting. You need to get a forge and workbench or you can't craft any of those higher tier weapons and tools. You need to get a bicycle or, better yet, a minibike asap to make sure half your day isn't spent running from POI to trader to base to deposit, back to trader, to POI. Once you are comfortably into a forge, workstation, and iron tools, you can start picking a path for whatever play style suits you. I don't particularly like the agility tree, as I find it kinda pointless as stealth is kinda weak and it takes a long time to run around crouched. Grab a sledge hammer, toss a grenade into a POI, and funnel them into a beatdown. Faster than anything else. Str is a good tree. INt is a good tree. Perception is a good tree. Those are the 3 best trees in the game with all the really relevant options. Lucky Looter and Salvage Operations in Perception, Miner 60'er and Motherlode in Str, and fully half the stuff in the intellect tree are good. Agility and Fortitude are the weakest without argument.

[Wseldgzer]

You should get parkour up to level 2 or even 3 as fast as you can so you can jump up two blocks. That means you can escape up on to fences and other objects to escape from zombies - it's one of the most useful perks in the game.
Also if you put points into intellect things you can get vehicles much faster.
Not any points into mining early as that's more of a mid-game thing. It also will hog up the loot tables - you want to target specific things so you don't water down that loot table or it'll take you a lot longer to advance where you want to at the right times.

[brianheyn]

The biggest consideration to spending skill points early to my mind is skill magazines. The bonuses to Advanced Engineering sound underwhelming, but more Forged Ahead magazines is really important to anyone doing any amount of crafting. Outside of skill book considerations, Parkour is huge at level 2. For my first 4 points after the tutorial, I go with those 2, and a melee and ranged weapon(from the same skill tree ideally).

[Dunamis-hh]

If you arent sure about intellect, just fyi it is insanely useful. Especially if you make use of the junkies and shotgun turrets and the electric baton…. The electric baton is sooo good. And thr advanced engineering and lockpicking skills are very useful as well.

[cynic]

Kind of a casuals guide don’t you think? I would avoid your advice unless you are playing on easier difficulties, avoiding tier 5/6 quest and mostly sticking to the pine forest.😂

You need one point in pack mule to min/max your armor.

This one point can break the game. For example with medium armor with 4x banded armor and 4x improved fit mods not only are you as tanky as heavy armor but with 4x medium armor perks your mobility is 103%! You can now outrun anything until you’re out of combat. This includes horde night hordes and imo is a requirement for insane difficulty horde night on foot.

You need one point in pack mule because it’s the only way to fit all the combat perks into tier 6 armor and still get all your inventory unlocked. 4x banded armor, 4x improved fit mod, headlight/nvgs, xp mod, bandolier, impact/stealth mod (for heavy armor), 3x quad pocket, 1x triple pocket. Admittedly this is obviously end game min/maxing.

2 points into parkour is a must. You can jump two blocks high, zombies can’t. This is the only way to jump over zombies too. Since people generally get killed when they are corned and level 2 parkour can prevent that it’s one of the most important to get.

3 points into iron gut makes 2 consumables last the length of horde night instead of 3. So as the horde starts pop 2 recogs (and/or skull crushers) and 2 learning elixirs and it will last you the hordes duration. Just cheaper. Plus your eye candy, rock breakers, etc last longer so you get more ore and better loot.

Miner 69 should take priority over motherlode by one point until you can one shot ore. The math ends up with more ore and significantly more xp. There are plenty of videos that outline the math on this.

From the shadows maxed out makes you invisible at night in assassins gear. This is so OP many players think it needs a nerf. In a dark room you can sneak on a zombies head. Admittedly it’s a play style (stealth) that’s not for everyone.

Advanced engineering is probably the most important perk bar none. It’s how you get a magazine bias for forged ahead. Medium to high level guns, vehicles, gear and bases will need steel, and a lot of it. Every build be focused on getting a crucible running in a forge asap.

[munkandbear]

Pain tolerance is necessary for the prevention percentage of getting stunned when hit ! There is no true long-distance playstyle in 7d2d, as soon as you step into a building ranged is over and face-to-face becomes the norm. If you get stunned with more than 2 zombies on you, you are dead

[timmyly]

Motherload and Miner 69er are life savers. Especially when you’re the one tasked with fortifying the base. That’s me. I’m a wall builder and trench digger

[One_Call_System]

Oh wow, Stealth playing 7D2Die!!! One of the best games ever made imo

[j.j.maverick]

my first 4 are usually cardio, pain tolerance, daring adventurer and stealth damage. Over 2k hours played but thats not a big deal since 1.0 shook things up quite a lot.
cardio: get there quickly
tolerance: be bolder when you arrive (finish quicker)
daring: trader rewards are garbage now, at the start you need a lift and this really helps
stealth hits: the room mechanics are still lousy, take advantage and one shot half the room before you enter

[l_tobii]

I can’t wait to play the console version

[BenCarnage]

I'd pick salvage operations over lucky looting every day. The 5 % loot stage does incredibly little in the forest at low levels. The 10 % speed is something, but too little in the grand scheme. You'll save minutes at most as looting is still a fairly small percentage of your total time when considering travel and combat. Salvaging is fantastic as it increases the drop of salvage tools and books as well as improving your ability to salvage. While mining is often better when you have the ability to smelt steel with a crucible, it takes a lot of build investment and won't really function until the midgame. Salvaging will let you deliberately collect steel from streetlights, giving on average about 2 steel per lamp without any points into the skill. Salvaged items sell really well at traders and make crafting multiple dew collectors and other useful things super easy. A really underrated skill for anyone in the early-mid game as it gives you a helpful amount of everything you need for crafting and progressing. The only downside to salvage operations is that it impacts your book loot table. But I think you'll likely want the wrench, ratchet and impact driver upgrades once you've tried using this instead of mixing intellect and strength for steel.

Mother Lode also pales on its own next to salvage operations. 20 % materials when you have bad tools and no miner 69er won't help your progression by many minutes.

Rule 1: Cardio is a bit weak. The problem is that you will pick a bicycle every time and it will become pretty redundant after just a few days. For a speedrun or a run without using the trader it might be worth it. The problem is that on high difficulties a 1 point wonder kind of has to be wonderful to delay high value skills by an entire level. Salvage definitely will give you much more utility and time saved.

Run and Gun is amazing once you have reasonably good guns. Just having the pipe machine gun and very small ammo stores won't give you much use from it. Early game is mostly using melee weapons, because the guns and ammo are comparably weak. You may mow down a zombie dog, but you won't try to reload during that kind of fight. In the early game this skill will not help you. Mid and late game this is a one point wonder though.

Better Barter or Daring Adventurer are both ok in the mid game depending on what you are after and if you are playing an intellect or intellect hybrid. A single point in either will not be impactful, especially not until mid-late game.

Salvage ops rank 3 costs 5 points and is pretty awesome unless you are playing an int/strength build that will get plenty of steel early anyway. Getting 1 or 2 points is also good. It takes much fewer skill points and books to get a steady steel supply than forge ahead + mining tools this way.
Parkour rank 2 costs 5 points and is amazing for mobility both in combat and just to save time getting around. It only helps if you invest all 5 points though.

Other one point wonders that actually help are mostly about shifting what books drop. Ideally you want most of the books you find to progress your character. Attribute points increase the armor book series so those are always great if you have other goals in a skill tree anyway. I highly recommend crafting the level 6 nerdy armor early and then bulk reading other books to get the 50% chance to gain more skills. Only read non-armor books if they will impact your gameplay right away or if you need to free up inventory to not be encumbered. Grease Monkey is a good 1 point wonder because you'll want a minibike or motorcycle early in most games.

Lockpicking is ok, maybe even pretty good, if you need the forge ahead books faster or if you are getting intellect anyway as rank 2 and 3 will make lockpicks pretty disposable. Bashing open containers is possible, but aside from having miner 69er with good tools it wastes far too much time. You can transition out of it later when you have excess lockpicks or when you have gotten better tools. The forge ahead book droprate only works up to level 15. I generally read up to level 10 so I can craft the workbench. Then just hoard the books and the book chance stays active. Read them all once you can reach the cap.

[anthonyamand]

Salvage Operations is a must for quick cash in the beginning. Brass sells for a lot.

[fragalot]

the point of "living off the land" is to gain more out of gardens. With no perks you have to use 5 potatoes to make 1 potato seed which is really counter intuitive, since IRL one potato can grow dozens of potato pants. So if you can harvest several items from one plant will help offset that.

[EnragedTofu]

As a stealth build, I will die on the Parkour hill. I fully perk this out with archery, hidden strike & from the shadows and take down POIs from the top down without a zombie breathing on me.

[shaunt]

I played the old xbox version when it was realeased and now this one so I dont know much but I can for certain say you really, REALLY slept on parkour my guy. Its o.p as hell.

[jimdob]

I now always rush packmule. Lack of decent pickets till end game is so stupid so I now NEED that stupid perk till I can spec out of it. Start with packmule, then cardio, and last parkour. Be a mobile little bug with light armour.

[seanedwards]

Combat skills are the most important to level so it makes sense to focus your early skills in one chosen tree - with a few exceptions. Very useful skills to have for anyone are parkour to be able to jump higher than the zombies can jump and infiltrator to avoid floor traps. This game loves to collapse the floor and drop you into an enclosed space with a bunch of tough zombies. Being able to avoid those situations is very useful. I also like being able to pick up mines at the highest level of infiltrator.

[daftvadered]

Once you get or can make a Stun baton that is well worth specing into the electrocutioner skill