7 Days to Die is The Fun Pimps' zombie survival game that mixes first-person combat, crafting, tower defense and a world where almost every block can be built or broken. It spent more than ten years in early access from 2013 before version 1.0 arrived in 2024 and brought it to current consoles. Development has kept going since, with version 2.0 in 2025 and version 3.0 in 2026, which added a large layer of sandbox options for reshaping the survival rules.

The name explains the structure. Every seventh night is a Blood Moon, when a horde comes for you wherever you are hiding, and everything you do during the week is preparation for it. Community servers change that rhythm, the difficulty and the content, so the server you pick shapes the whole game.

Build by Day, Hold Out on the Seventh Night

Days are for looting buildings, running quests for the traders and gathering materials. You level up, spend points on perks, and find magazines that unlock better crafting. Nights are more dangerous, since the infected move faster in the dark, and most players spend them indoors working on their base.

Base building is where the game gets its depth. Zombies attack the weakest point of whatever you build, digging through walls and floors, so a good horde base is a puzzle of blocks, traps, choke points and repairs. Surviving a late-game Blood Moon with friends, ammunition running low and a wall about to give way, is what keeps people coming back.

What to Look For in a 7 Days to Die Server

Vanilla or Overhaul Mods

Vanilla servers play the game as The Fun Pimps intended, often with small changes to loot or day length. Overhaul mods rebuild progression completely, with classes, new weapons, new enemies and new crafting trees, and they can feel like a different game. They are a PC affair, often need a large download, and can lag behind official updates, so check which game version a modded server runs.

Who Can Hurt Whom

Server owners choose who can hurt whom: nobody, only allies, only strangers or everyone. PvE servers keep the zombies as the only enemy and let players cooperate freely. PvP servers add raiding and ambushes, which makes base defense matter against players as much as against the horde. Read the raiding rules carefully if you plan to build.

Blood Moon and Zombie Settings

The horde frequency, horde size, zombie speeds by day and night, loot abundance and day length all sit in the server settings. A Blood Moon every three days with sprinting zombies is a very different game from one every week with walkers. Good servers list these settings up front.

Land Claims and Base Rules

A land claim block protects the area around your base from other players. Check how large and how durable claims are, whether you can build near traders and inside towns, and whether the server bans exploit designs that trick the zombie pathing. Those rules decide where and how you can build.

Wipes, Admins and Blood Moon Performance

Major game versions often mean a fresh map, so ask what the server does when a new version arrives. Blood Moons are the hardest test for server hardware, with every player's horde spawning at once, so look for a server that stays smooth on the seventh night. Then check the admins: active staff on Discord, clear rules and fair handling of griefers.

Getting Started

Decide between vanilla and an overhaul, then between PvE and PvP, then look at the horde settings. Join near a fresh wipe if you can, team up early, and put your first land claim somewhere defensible before the first Blood Moon. The ranking below lists the 7 Days to Die servers players vote for here. Vote for the server you hold out on - rankings reset every month, so the list follows where players are facing their Blood Moons now.