7 Days To Die Perks & Skills
Table Of Contents
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Overview
Perks are very important to game mechanics that help you survive in the 7 Days To Die world. Through Perks, you improve your overall statistics such as stamina and also gain the ability to craft new or improved items. As the game progresses and the enemies get tougher, you need to utilize the skill points earned to make use of the various perks and upgrade your character.
Getting a perk such as Mother Lode can help increase the amount of resources you harvest. Other perks such as Advanced Engineering will enable you to craft new and higher quality items. Or you can choose to improve your character by choosing a perk that increases strength, stamina etc. Each time your character levels up, you gain experience points and one skill point which you can use to level up one of the Perks or Attributes.
You can use Perkalator | The 7 Days to Die Skills and Perks Calculator to use Perk & Skill builds for all versions of the game, including Modded and Vanilla games.
Attributes Vs Perks
Attributes and Perks are quite closely related. You can level up both of these using skill points. Primarily your character has 5 Attributes: Perception, Strength, Fortitude, Agility and Intellect. Each of the Attributes has 10 levels, and you gain a bonus every time you level up one of the attributes.
When you first start the game, your character gets level one for all 5 attributes. As you keep playing and collecting skill points, you can continue to increase the Attribute levels. Note that you need to spend 1 skill point up to level 5, 2 kill points for levels 6-8 and finally 3 skill points for levels 9-10.
So what is the main difference between Attributes and Perks? Well mainly, the perks are related to the attribute they belong to. Each perk requires the respective Attribute to be of a certain level. Additionally, the Attribute levels are also dependent on the Character Level.
So you need to increase Character level, which helps increase the Attribute level which again helps you to gain new perks. Note that there are certain Drugs that can help momentarily increase your attribute level.
When the effect of the drugs wears off, your attribute level will also return to normal. There are also certain clothes that increase certain attribute levels for as long as you keep wearing them.
Perk Requirements
Well, now you know how Attributes and Perks are related. In order to purchase a Perk, the attribute it is related to needs to be at a certain minimum level. As we said above, you can take certain drugs to temporarily boost up your attributes. Using this you can get the desired Perk. However, when the effect of the drug wears off, so will the benefits related to the perk that you got with the higher attribute.
Here’s an example: Say you have Level 3 Fortitude and are wearing a Level 2 Heavy Armor. If you wish to get the Level 3 Heavy Armor, then you need to have Level 5 Fortitude. One way to do this is to increase your Fortitude level by consuming the drug – Frost Bites. However, after a while, when the effect of the drug wears off, your Character, heavy armour also reverts back to Level 2.
Not that, the Level 3 Heavy Armor will still show as being unlocked with a Red Sign – “Disabled by status effect”. What this means is that, when your character does actually level up their Fortitude attribute to level 5, then the Level 3 Heavy Armor automatically becomes available. You don’t need to spend any more skill points to get this perk
List Of Attributes And Their Perks
1. Perception Attribute
This attribute relates to your sensory awareness. With level 1 perspective, your rifles, spears and other explosive weapons increase their headshot damage rate by 200%. With levels 2-8 the headshot damage rate increases by another 10% along with a 5% chance of dismembering the enemy. Levels 9 & 10 further increase the headshot damage by 15% and dismembering by 5%.
The perception attribute Perks are divided into 3 subcategories: Combat, General Perspective & Scavenging. The table below gives details of each of these perks
2. Strength Attribute
The strength attribute represents your muscle power or how much punch you can pack into an attack! Level 1 of the strength attribute adds an additional 200% headshots damage when using Clubs, sledgehammers and shotguns. With levels 2-8 the headshot damage increases by another 10% while also giving a 5% chance of dismembering the enemy. Levels 9 & 10 further increases the headshot damage by 15% with another 5% chance of dismembering the opponent.
The different perks belonging to the Strength attribute are divided into 3 subcategories: Combat / Weapons, General Strength and Construction as shown in the table below:
3. Fortitude Attribute
The Fortitude attribute covers the physical resilience of your character. With level 1 Fortitude, your fists and Machine Guns deal an additional 200% headshot damage. With levels 2-8 you get a further 10% headshot damage and an extra 5% probability of dismembering the opponent. Levels 9-10 further increase these numbers by another 15% for headshots and 5% for dismembering.
The Fortitude perks are divided into 3 sub-categories, namely, Combat / Weapons, Survival and Recovery as shown in the table below.
4. Agility Attribute
Good Agility is a very important trait for your character especially when dealing with and escaping from multiple enemies. As your agility increases your character will become faster and be able to traverse tough terrain more easily. The Perks related to the Agility are divided into Weapons / Combat, Athletic and Stealth sub-categories as shown in the table below.
5. Intellect Attribute
The Intellect attribute represents your intelligence level and mental abilities. As your Intellect level increases you will be able to craft advanced tools, weapons and traps. These come in very handy in later stages of the game. Intellect even helps you get better rewards from quests and better deals from traders.
The Intellect attribute is divided into 3 sub-categories for Weapons / Combat, Influence & Craftsmanship as shown below
Finally, The Perk Books!
Another way of getting special perks in the 7 Days To Die World is by reading Perk Books. You can get these books either through looting or buying them off a Trader. Each book gives you a perk that relates to the series it belongs to. For example, reading volumes from the Lucky Looter series helps you find great loot!
There are a total of 19 series with each series consisting of 7 volumes. You tell which series the book belongs to by the name and the artwork on the cover. Additionally, if you read all the volumes from a series, you get an extra bonus perk that relates to the series that you finished.
Although these Perk books are scattered all over the 7D2D world, there are some places that have a better chance of containing them. For example, bookcases are a good place to find Perk Books. Obviously then, Book Stores, which have lots of bookcases will be a great location to find Perk Books.
Use Perks Strategically To Survive
Attributes and Perks are very important to game mechanisms to survive in the 7D2D world. So now that you have a better understanding of how these work, make sure to use those skill points wisely!