Scavenging for supplies and equipment comes naturally in a survival-crafting zombie game, and 7 Days To Die approaches this paradigm a little differently. The game has what's called Loot Stages, and this greatly affects the kind of items and resources players can expect to find as they explore their post-apocalyptic worlds.
Many players will get along just fine without knowing how Loot Stages work. However, if you want to optimize your playtime and get the best loot in 7 Days To Die as early as possible, then understanding this mechanic will help you achieve exactly that.
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What Are Loot Stages In 7 Days To Die?
In simple terms, your Loot Stage determines the kinds and quality of items you find while scavenging. This mainly affects equipment like weapons, armor, and mods, though it also affects mod schematics, food recipes, tools, and vehicle parts.
In lower Loot Stages, you can expect to find only primitive stone tools of various quality levels as well as individual pieces of low-tier armor like the Primitive set. As you progress, you'll start seeing iron tools, makeshift pipe weapons, advanced mod schematics, and so on. You'll eventually reach a point where you can get some of the best weapons in 7 Days To Die just by looting gun safes.
How To Increase Loot Stage In 7 Days To Die
Loot Stage increases naturally as you play. Leveling up is the most straightforward way of increasing your Loot Stage, but there are other methods that can help you progress more quickly. Consider these when you're trying to bump up your Loot Stage:
- Use the Treasure Hunter mod
- Invest in the Lucky Looter perk
- Raid high-difficulty POIs
- Go to different biomes
- Eat Eye Candy
You can stack all of these to significantly increase your Loot Stage, possibly netting you gear that's much better than the ones you can craft. However, raiding difficult POIs in Snow, Desert, or Wasteland biomes might be too hard for the under-equipped and under-leveled scavenger. The best early-game POIs in 7 Days To Die don't carry such risks, and you'll often leave with very valuable loot every time you raid them, regardless of your Loot Stage.
Things To Know About Loot Stage
As of the 1.0 patch, Loot Stage does not increase if you equip high-tier equipment. Even if you're rocking the best guns and armor in the game, your Loot Stage will remain low relative to your active buffs, current location, and character level.
Additionally, Loot Stage is not to be confused with Game Stage. The latter also affects loot spawns, but it mainly modifies the types and overall numbers of zombies in the world. As your Game Stage gets higher, the more frequent special zombies and ambient hordes will appear. Game Stage increases based on your characters level and how many days your character has survived.
7 Days to Die
- Released
- June 28, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- The Fun Pimps
- Publisher(s)
- Telltale Games
- Engine
- Unity
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer, Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Number of Players
- 8 (PC), 4 (Consoles)
- Platform(s)
- Linux, macOS, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One
- How Long To Beat
- N/A
- File Size Xbox Series
- 3 GB (November 2023)
