Summary

  • Experimenting with new trader features in 7 Days to Die could enhance gameplay, such as a nighttime trader and traveling trader.
  • Introducing a traveling trader could incentivize players to explore new Remnant POIs for rare resources and items in the game.
  • A nighttime trader opening after hours could provide opportunities for new quests like escort missions or hunting tasks in the game.

Players have plenty of options when it comes to customizing the difficulty of a new server or playthrough in 7 Days to Die, including a creative mode, and a zombie-free survival mode. However, there are little to no options for altering the services provided by the different NPC traders in 7 Days to Die, and future updates for the game should consider changing this.

Considering the impact that traders have in 7 Days to Die, the game could arguably benefit from experimenting with new features related to traders, which is the perfect opportunity to add new traders who are distinct from the traders currently in the game. More specifically, 7 Days to Die should consider adding a nighttime trader, as well as a traveling trader.

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The Unwritten Rules of 7 Days to Die Explained

7 Days to Die can be a brutal survival game, but knowing the community’s unwritten rules can help players survive against the endless zombie threat.

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The Case for Nighttime and Traveling Traders in 7 Days to Die

Even after the recent rework that made traders in 7 Days to Die’s 1.0 update less rewarding, these NPCs still play an important part in overall progression. Consequently, since strictly sticking to the available trader quests is one of the most reliable ways to progress in the game, it’s natural for players to prioritize completing the trader’s quests instead of freely exploring the map or any nearby POIs.

With this in mind, a traveling trader could encourage players to explore the new Remnant POIs in 7 Days to Die. Since these Remnant POIs aren’t questable locations, many players might unknowingly miss out on the loot from these locations by strictly following wherever the next trader quests take them. So, one way to incentivize players to explore Remnant POIs is to introduce a wandering trader who can show up in these locations with some worthwhile deals on rare resources and items.

Remnant POIs can be identified by their missing difficulty indicator once players enter the location. The orange skulls on the player’s screen indicate a biome’s overall difficulty, while red skulls indicate a POI’s difficulty. Remnant POIs won’t have a red skull difficulty indicator.

As helpful as the traders are though, they are all closed at night. Therefore, a nighttime trader could fill in the gaps for the existing traders by opening for business after the other traders close for the night. Players can still do any quests that they already initiated before nighttime, but players will be unable to retrieve their completion rewards or access a trader’s inventory until morning. Considering that, by default, zombies in 7 Days to Die will move faster at night and Feral variants of zombies will naturally spawn, sometimes it's best to put off doing quests and tend to other survival and base-building needs for the time being.

By default, the traders in 7 Days to Die will close between 22:00 and 4:00, give or take a few minutes.

Finding ways to stay productive after the traders close is crucial in the early game so that players can be prepared for their first Blood Moon horde. Hence, why a nighttime trader could be a useful feature in 7 Days to Die. Not to mention, nighttime traders and/or wandering traders could also be the key to adding new types of quests, like escort missions, hunting a certain number of animals, or defending a particular POI.

Nighttime traders and new quests are all things that community mods for 7 Days to Die have explored before, though these are only available for PC players for now. The studio behind 7 Days to Die, The Fun Pimps, has discussed the possibility of bringing mod support to console players, but this remains uncertain for the time being. So, in hindsight, 7 Days to Die should consider adding new trader NPCs, considering that they already have the perfect blueprint for two new types of traders – a nighttime trader and a wandering trader.

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7 Days to Die Tag Page Cover Art

7 Days to Die
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Survival
Horror
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Systems
PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
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Top Critic Avg: 39 /100 Critics Rec: 9%
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Released
June 28, 2016
ESRB
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
Developer(s)
The Fun Pimps
Publisher(s)
Telltale Games
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5 Images
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7-Days-to-Die-Screenshots (5)
Vehicle Adventures magazine in 7 Days To Die
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
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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
Genre(s)
Survival, Horror
How Long To Beat
N/A
File Size Xbox Series
3 GB (November 2023)