- Compatible Game Versions
- 2.0
28 Alphas Later - now for v2
Will you survive?
The idea behind this mod is to slow progression, make traders less powerful, and generally extend the time for a playthrough, while keeping the vanilla look and feel.
31/08/25 mod version 2.3.0.0, Updated for v2.3 of 7 Days to Die
FEATURES
GENERAL GAMEPLAY
Player starts with a new debuff, Despair.
As your despair increases, so will your abilities be negatively affected. If despair reaches 100%, you'll be seconds from death.
Conversely, if you can manage your despair well, you'll receive buffs for remaining positive.
The despair indicator on the HUD will fill as your despair grows, and will change colour to indicate the level of your despair.
If you're able to manage your despair and adopt a more positive outlook, the icon on the HUD will change, along with the fill colour to indicate your levels of positivity.
Despair can also be checked from the player information screen.
Despair is dynamically affected by various factors, including:
1. Darkness. Too dark, and your Despair will increase dramatically. Torches, helmet lights and flashlights will mitigate this. Use these in conjunction with a campfire for the best effect.
2. Temperature. If you’re freezing or sweltering, your Despair will also increase dramatically. Find shelter!
3. Environment: Varying degrees of “wetness” will change how Despair affects you, as will your shelter. If you’re warm, dry, sheltered, well-lit or resting on a bed or bedroll, AND near an operating campfire, forge or chem station, you can effectively “treat” Despair.
4. Hunger and thirst affect how quickly your despair increases. Starvation/dehydration will drastically increase the rate at which you become affected by despair.
5. Injuries will affect how quickly your despair increases.
6. There is medication in trader stock and rare medical loot to treat your despair.
7. There is also lavender growing wild, which can be collected to make your own lavender seeds, and is also used to make Lavender Oil in a cooking pot at a campfire. Treats 3% Despair.
8. All food has a positive effect. The better the food, the more effective the treatment.
9. Killing zombies and animals will reduce your overall despair. Conversely, getting hit by enemies will increase it.
10. Being in close proximity to zombies increases your Despair. The tougher the zombie, the worse the effect. The effect is compounded, so the more zombies there are, the worse it'll be.
11. Player “wellness”. Your maximum health will also slow down the effects of despair. Every 10 additional health slows down the rate at which Despair affects you.
12. The morale booster from the drone will decrease the rate at which despair affects you.
13. The trader has an effect. Being close to a trader will slow down and/or reduce your Despair.
14. The perk "From the Shadows" also affects the way Despair affects you at NIGHT. The more points in the perk, the less Despair affects you at night.
Headshots! Zombies take maximum damage from headshots; however, they do take small damage if you miss the head.
Zombies DON'T bleed. Nothing undead takes bleed damage.
There are more zombies in the world. Biomes are game-staged, which means zombies get tougher and their number increases as you level up.
Nights are dangerous and a lot darker; downtown is much more dangerous.
BLOCKS/WORKSTATIONS
The workbench now has slots for a wrench, hammer, ratchet, impact driver, nail gun, and ammo press. These tools are needed to craft a lot of items, and some items have been moved from inventory crafting to workbench crafting.
The workbench ammo press tool is required for crafting ammunition.
The workbench now has its 'combine' function restored. Combine identical items in your workbench to repair them, and if they're durable enough, improve their quality. Remove mods from items before combining so as not to lose them.
The cement mixer now requires gasoline to work.
The sawmill. Unlocked at the same level as the forge, use this workbench to craft wood logs into wood planks. Wrench a tablesaw for a sawblade, or purchase a sawblade from a trader.
If you have the required book, existing ammo can be crafted into stacks.
Glue and mineral water require a beaker to craft in the campfire.
BUFFS/DEBUFFS
Snakes and Spider zombies will envenom you when they attack. Kill snakes to extract their venom, which can be used to make antivenom. Antivenom crafting is unlocked by default, and it can appear in loot and trader stock.
The Wasteland biome is very, VERY dangerous. Filled with all manner of new enemies, and a lot of them.
Despair medication (Lavender, St. John’s Wort and Lithium) can be found in medical loot, and in trader stock. Lavender oil can be crafted from lavender flowers and used to treat despair.
Hot, cold and wetness are back, as are insulated liner and cooling mesh mods for armour. Armour has very little weather protection now, so for permanent resistance to hot and cold, these armour mods will be essential.
You can also use the Well Insulated perk, or temporarily use coffee and Blackstrap coffee to keep you warm, and yucca juice and yucca smoothies to keep you cool.
NOTE: If you have biome progression enabled, you won't see any 'legacy' weather effects. Disable biome progression in your main menu settings to play with legacy weather.
ZOMBIES/ENEMIES
Bears and wolves are back in the forest.
Hazmat zombies are now immune to burning.
New Bunker Buster zombie. Only appears during bloodmoon(s), and can appear from the very first Bloodmoon. You’ll want to take it out quickly … think of it as a 'light' demolition zombie.
Demolition zombies appear at a much earlier game stage.
New Frozen zombie variant. Slightly tougher, slightly slower, slightly more XP, and take slightly more damage than their "normal" counterparts. If they touch you, you'll be freezing! You can negate this by maxing out the Well Insulated perk. Found in the snow biome.
New Rotting zombie variant. They have lower HP, lower XP reward, and they take more damage. Found in the forest biome.
New Cowboy zombie variant. Similar to "normal" zombies, these enemies are exclusive to the desert biome, identifiable by their cowboy hats. They are hot to the touch, and getting hit by them will overheat you briefly.
All "fatties" (Big Mama, tourist etc.) explode, and are filled with a substance that’s irresistible to all zombies. If you are within range when they explode, they’ll cover you in this stuff and attract other zombies. Cop and vulture vomit also has this effect.
All zombies now have lootable corpses, with certain zombies having loot specific to that zombie. Cops, for example, have a chance to be looted for basic quality firearms.
FOOD/FARMING
All canned food found in loot, vending machines, and trader stock is uncooked. Cook it to make it safe to eat, or eat it and run the risk of food poisoning ...
Uncooked cans don't replenish health, just food and water.
Farming rework. You need a hoe to till the ground to plant seeds. Use the hoe with at least 10 fertiliser IN YOUR INVENTORY to upgrade the tilled ground. Fertilized terrain yields the same amount of crops as a farmplot.
Farm Plots require fertiliser and nails to craft, are crafted in the workbench with a hammer, and are the same fertile level as fertilised ground.
Fertiliser is craftable in the cement mixer and chem station, and is in some trader stock. It can also be obtained by shovelling pallets of fertiliser bags.
Wild plants can be picked uppress ‘E’ by default to pick them up. Picking up crops now respects Living off the Land bonuses, as well as equipped Farmer gear.
New plant, lavender. Purple flower found growing in the wild and in some POIs. Seeds crafted from lavender flowers, no unlock required. Lavender flowers can be found in loot and trader stock, and Lavender seeds in trader stock.
All plants and crops in POIs are dead, except the Wasteland, where some corn has mutated into Super Corn. For a plentiful supply of crops, you'll need to grow your own.
Wellness. Your player's max health and stamina are directly affected by the food and drink you consume. The better the food or drink, the more your max health increases. Conversely, receiving critical injuries or debuffs will lower your wellness.
Empty jars are back!! Fill them from a water source, or use them in certain recipes. They are non-craftable, but do appear in loot.
Hobo Stew requires canned cat food or dog food.
Red tea, Goldenrod tea and mineral water require a higher ingredient count.
All candy has been removed.
Smell from food. Check the information window on the respective food item, which will tell you how many of that food you can safely carry without the smell attracting nearby zombies.
PROGRESSION
All tool and weapon skills are now governed by action skills. It's a hybrid system, so 50% of your weapon or tool skill comes from the action skill, the other 50% from the relevant perk.
All attribute masteries have been removed, and some skills from books, like Bar Brawling, have been re-worked.
RESOURCES
Trees no longer give wood; they give wood logs, scraps, and branches. Logs can be placed and then chopped with an axe for wood, or use the sawmill to do it quicker and better.
Primitive weapons and ammo are now made from wood scraps, branches, plant fibres, and/or stone.
GEAR
All portable light sources have a fuel requirement. Electrical devices like helmet lights and flashlights require batteries, while torches and burning shafts require gasoline. You need a battery or fuel in your inventory to activate these items, and when the battery or fuel expires, it will need to be replaced.
The helmet purifier mod has changed. It is now a housing unit for a craftable water filter, which has limited uses. As with the portable light sources, you'll need a water filter in your inventory to activate it, and once it expires, it will need replacing.
VEHICLES
All vehicles CANNOT be picked up once placed, so choose your placement carefully.
Two new vehicles, the Ruin Runner and the Hornet.
The Ruin Runner is a dirt bike with a similar speed to the motorcycle, but the inventory capacity of the minibike. The Hornet is an off-road dune buggy. As fast as a 4x4, but with the inventory capacity of a motorcycle.
TRADERS
Traders are now unprotected and can be fully destroyed. You can also build in trader compounds, including placing bedrolls and land claims.
Traders are open 24/7
There are NO trader quests. Traders still exist in the world, but they can only be bought from or sold to.
Contributors:
Particle systems/Unity edits - Author: redbeardt
60 slot backpack - Author: Khaine
Khelldon Custom Menu - Author: Khelldon
Custom Menu Music - Author: Khaine
Logical Loot (XML code) - Author: izPreBuilt
Hybrid Action skills - Author: JoeSloMo
Also, a huge thank you to Frantic_Dan and redbeardt for the custom HUD base code and main menu localisation changes, to Tormented Emu for retexturing of weapons, Frantic_Dan for XML contributions, and to YubiNashi and Frantic_Dan for ideas/balancing and playtesting, and to you, for giving my mod a try
Will you survive?
The idea behind this mod is to slow progression, make traders less powerful, and generally extend the time for a playthrough, while keeping the vanilla look and feel.
31/08/25 mod version 2.3.0.0, Updated for v2.3 of 7 Days to Die
FEATURES
GENERAL GAMEPLAY
Player starts with a new debuff, Despair.
As your despair increases, so will your abilities be negatively affected. If despair reaches 100%, you'll be seconds from death.
Conversely, if you can manage your despair well, you'll receive buffs for remaining positive.
The despair indicator on the HUD will fill as your despair grows, and will change colour to indicate the level of your despair.
If you're able to manage your despair and adopt a more positive outlook, the icon on the HUD will change, along with the fill colour to indicate your levels of positivity.
Despair can also be checked from the player information screen.
Despair is dynamically affected by various factors, including:
1. Darkness. Too dark, and your Despair will increase dramatically. Torches, helmet lights and flashlights will mitigate this. Use these in conjunction with a campfire for the best effect.
2. Temperature. If you’re freezing or sweltering, your Despair will also increase dramatically. Find shelter!
3. Environment: Varying degrees of “wetness” will change how Despair affects you, as will your shelter. If you’re warm, dry, sheltered, well-lit or resting on a bed or bedroll, AND near an operating campfire, forge or chem station, you can effectively “treat” Despair.
4. Hunger and thirst affect how quickly your despair increases. Starvation/dehydration will drastically increase the rate at which you become affected by despair.
5. Injuries will affect how quickly your despair increases.
6. There is medication in trader stock and rare medical loot to treat your despair.
7. There is also lavender growing wild, which can be collected to make your own lavender seeds, and is also used to make Lavender Oil in a cooking pot at a campfire. Treats 3% Despair.
8. All food has a positive effect. The better the food, the more effective the treatment.
9. Killing zombies and animals will reduce your overall despair. Conversely, getting hit by enemies will increase it.
10. Being in close proximity to zombies increases your Despair. The tougher the zombie, the worse the effect. The effect is compounded, so the more zombies there are, the worse it'll be.
11. Player “wellness”. Your maximum health will also slow down the effects of despair. Every 10 additional health slows down the rate at which Despair affects you.
12. The morale booster from the drone will decrease the rate at which despair affects you.
13. The trader has an effect. Being close to a trader will slow down and/or reduce your Despair.
14. The perk "From the Shadows" also affects the way Despair affects you at NIGHT. The more points in the perk, the less Despair affects you at night.
Headshots! Zombies take maximum damage from headshots; however, they do take small damage if you miss the head.
Zombies DON'T bleed. Nothing undead takes bleed damage.
There are more zombies in the world. Biomes are game-staged, which means zombies get tougher and their number increases as you level up.
Nights are dangerous and a lot darker; downtown is much more dangerous.
BLOCKS/WORKSTATIONS
The workbench now has slots for a wrench, hammer, ratchet, impact driver, nail gun, and ammo press. These tools are needed to craft a lot of items, and some items have been moved from inventory crafting to workbench crafting.
The workbench ammo press tool is required for crafting ammunition.
The workbench now has its 'combine' function restored. Combine identical items in your workbench to repair them, and if they're durable enough, improve their quality. Remove mods from items before combining so as not to lose them.
The cement mixer now requires gasoline to work.
The sawmill. Unlocked at the same level as the forge, use this workbench to craft wood logs into wood planks. Wrench a tablesaw for a sawblade, or purchase a sawblade from a trader.
If you have the required book, existing ammo can be crafted into stacks.
Glue and mineral water require a beaker to craft in the campfire.
BUFFS/DEBUFFS
Snakes and Spider zombies will envenom you when they attack. Kill snakes to extract their venom, which can be used to make antivenom. Antivenom crafting is unlocked by default, and it can appear in loot and trader stock.
The Wasteland biome is very, VERY dangerous. Filled with all manner of new enemies, and a lot of them.
Despair medication (Lavender, St. John’s Wort and Lithium) can be found in medical loot, and in trader stock. Lavender oil can be crafted from lavender flowers and used to treat despair.
Hot, cold and wetness are back, as are insulated liner and cooling mesh mods for armour. Armour has very little weather protection now, so for permanent resistance to hot and cold, these armour mods will be essential.
You can also use the Well Insulated perk, or temporarily use coffee and Blackstrap coffee to keep you warm, and yucca juice and yucca smoothies to keep you cool.
NOTE: If you have biome progression enabled, you won't see any 'legacy' weather effects. Disable biome progression in your main menu settings to play with legacy weather.
ZOMBIES/ENEMIES
Bears and wolves are back in the forest.
Hazmat zombies are now immune to burning.
New Bunker Buster zombie. Only appears during bloodmoon(s), and can appear from the very first Bloodmoon. You’ll want to take it out quickly … think of it as a 'light' demolition zombie.
Demolition zombies appear at a much earlier game stage.
New Frozen zombie variant. Slightly tougher, slightly slower, slightly more XP, and take slightly more damage than their "normal" counterparts. If they touch you, you'll be freezing! You can negate this by maxing out the Well Insulated perk. Found in the snow biome.
New Rotting zombie variant. They have lower HP, lower XP reward, and they take more damage. Found in the forest biome.
New Cowboy zombie variant. Similar to "normal" zombies, these enemies are exclusive to the desert biome, identifiable by their cowboy hats. They are hot to the touch, and getting hit by them will overheat you briefly.
All "fatties" (Big Mama, tourist etc.) explode, and are filled with a substance that’s irresistible to all zombies. If you are within range when they explode, they’ll cover you in this stuff and attract other zombies. Cop and vulture vomit also has this effect.
All zombies now have lootable corpses, with certain zombies having loot specific to that zombie. Cops, for example, have a chance to be looted for basic quality firearms.
FOOD/FARMING
All canned food found in loot, vending machines, and trader stock is uncooked. Cook it to make it safe to eat, or eat it and run the risk of food poisoning ...
Uncooked cans don't replenish health, just food and water.
Farming rework. You need a hoe to till the ground to plant seeds. Use the hoe with at least 10 fertiliser IN YOUR INVENTORY to upgrade the tilled ground. Fertilized terrain yields the same amount of crops as a farmplot.
Farm Plots require fertiliser and nails to craft, are crafted in the workbench with a hammer, and are the same fertile level as fertilised ground.
Fertiliser is craftable in the cement mixer and chem station, and is in some trader stock. It can also be obtained by shovelling pallets of fertiliser bags.
Wild plants can be picked uppress ‘E’ by default to pick them up. Picking up crops now respects Living off the Land bonuses, as well as equipped Farmer gear.
New plant, lavender. Purple flower found growing in the wild and in some POIs. Seeds crafted from lavender flowers, no unlock required. Lavender flowers can be found in loot and trader stock, and Lavender seeds in trader stock.
All plants and crops in POIs are dead, except the Wasteland, where some corn has mutated into Super Corn. For a plentiful supply of crops, you'll need to grow your own.
Wellness. Your player's max health and stamina are directly affected by the food and drink you consume. The better the food or drink, the more your max health increases. Conversely, receiving critical injuries or debuffs will lower your wellness.
Empty jars are back!! Fill them from a water source, or use them in certain recipes. They are non-craftable, but do appear in loot.
Hobo Stew requires canned cat food or dog food.
Red tea, Goldenrod tea and mineral water require a higher ingredient count.
All candy has been removed.
Smell from food. Check the information window on the respective food item, which will tell you how many of that food you can safely carry without the smell attracting nearby zombies.
PROGRESSION
All tool and weapon skills are now governed by action skills. It's a hybrid system, so 50% of your weapon or tool skill comes from the action skill, the other 50% from the relevant perk.
All attribute masteries have been removed, and some skills from books, like Bar Brawling, have been re-worked.
RESOURCES
Trees no longer give wood; they give wood logs, scraps, and branches. Logs can be placed and then chopped with an axe for wood, or use the sawmill to do it quicker and better.
Primitive weapons and ammo are now made from wood scraps, branches, plant fibres, and/or stone.
GEAR
All portable light sources have a fuel requirement. Electrical devices like helmet lights and flashlights require batteries, while torches and burning shafts require gasoline. You need a battery or fuel in your inventory to activate these items, and when the battery or fuel expires, it will need to be replaced.
The helmet purifier mod has changed. It is now a housing unit for a craftable water filter, which has limited uses. As with the portable light sources, you'll need a water filter in your inventory to activate it, and once it expires, it will need replacing.
VEHICLES
All vehicles CANNOT be picked up once placed, so choose your placement carefully.
Two new vehicles, the Ruin Runner and the Hornet.
The Ruin Runner is a dirt bike with a similar speed to the motorcycle, but the inventory capacity of the minibike. The Hornet is an off-road dune buggy. As fast as a 4x4, but with the inventory capacity of a motorcycle.
TRADERS
Traders are now unprotected and can be fully destroyed. You can also build in trader compounds, including placing bedrolls and land claims.
Traders are open 24/7
There are NO trader quests. Traders still exist in the world, but they can only be bought from or sold to.
Contributors:
Particle systems/Unity edits - Author: redbeardt
60 slot backpack - Author: Khaine
Khelldon Custom Menu - Author: Khelldon
Custom Menu Music - Author: Khaine
Logical Loot (XML code) - Author: izPreBuilt
Hybrid Action skills - Author: JoeSloMo
Also, a huge thank you to Frantic_Dan and redbeardt for the custom HUD base code and main menu localisation changes, to Tormented Emu for retexturing of weapons, Frantic_Dan for XML contributions, and to YubiNashi and Frantic_Dan for ideas/balancing and playtesting, and to you, for giving my mod a try
- Install / Usage Instructions
- Extract the downloaded Mods folder to your base game's Mods folder
