7 Days to Die Crafting & Resources Guide

This guide to the Crafting & Resources page covers the most important 7 Days to Die crafting mechanics — from workstations and recipe unlocks to vehicle assembly. Knowledge of crafting & resources is a central prerequisite for progress, because many items can only be produced at specific stations.

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Crafting fundamentals

Items can be produced either straight from the inventory or at one of the five workstations. Many recipes are not available from the start but have to be unlocked through perks, by reading crafting magazines (the Forge Ahead series) or by finding rare schematics (blueprints). You obtain the ingredients you need by looting, mining, farming or trading with traders.

Unlocking recipes

• Perks (attribute tree): Unlock certain recipes or reduce resource consumption.
• Forge Ahead magazines: Reading this magazine series raises your workstation skill level and unlocks recipes as well as new stations.
• Schematics: Rare finds from the game world that unlock individual recipes directly.

:::warning Missing blueprint If you cannot see a recipe or the "Craft" button is missing, check these first: Are you at the right workstation? Does the station have enough fuel? Are you missing a schematic or a perk? :::

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Workstations for crafting & resources

Every workstation has its own exclusive recipes that cannot be replaced by inventory crafting. The small icon next to the recipe name in the crafting menu shows you which station is required for which purpose.

Campfire

The campfire is the first station available and a mandatory build in the early game phase. Only meals and drinks are prepared here. Additional utensils have to be inserted for advanced recipes (teas, stews):

• Cooking Pot — for stews and paints
• Cooking Grill — for grilled meat
• Beaker — unlocks medical recipes at the campfire

The campfire and other open flames attract zombies — place it in enclosed rooms to minimize your heat footprint.

Chemistry Station

The chemistry station is the place to go for scientific products: gunpowder, antibiotics, gas cans, first aid kits and other chemical resources. It needs fuel (wood or coal, for example) to run. Compared with inventory crafting it allows certain items to be produced far more resource-efficiently — antibiotics and glue, for instance.

• Produces on its own, even while you are not present.
• Needs fuel; without fuel the production process pauses.
• The Physician perk speeds up production at the chemistry station.

Workbench

The workbench is mandatory for crafting weapons, vehicle parts and advanced components. It needs neither fuel nor special utensils and processes ingredients directly from your inventory. The workbench works independently — you can do other things while it is crafting.

:::warning Multiplayer note The workbench has no access lock. In multiplayer worlds other players can cancel running crafting jobs or take finished items out. Secure your crafting area with a locked door. :::

Forge

The forge is required for producing metal components such as Forged Iron, Forged Steel, Bullet Casings and Bullet Tips. It needs fuel and optionally utensils (anvil, bellows, crucible), which enable new recipes and faster production.

• Advanced Engineering (perk) lowers resource costs at the forge and speeds up the cement mixer as well as the workbench.

Cement Mixer

The cement mixer is used for producing building materials: Crushed Sand and Concrete Mix — both indispensable for upgrading to a concrete base. No fuel required, no utensils needed.

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Vehicles

In 7 Days to Die, vehicles are assembled from individual parts and almost always have to be built by yourself — fully assembled vehicles are the exception at traders. All drivable vehicles are assembled at the workbench.

Grease Monkey (perk)

Grease Monkey is a perk in the Intellect attribute tree and the central perk for vehicle building. It increases the chance of finding Vehicle Adventures magazines (which unlock vehicle recipes) and lowers the crafting costs for vehicle parts. On top of that, repair kits become more effective, which saves resources when repairing vehicle damage.

Note: In the current version, vehicle recipes are primarily unlocked by reading Vehicle Adventures magazines. Grease Monkey itself speeds up finding those magazines and makes production cheaper.

Available vehicles

Five drivable vehicles are available, from cheap and available early on to the endgame aircraft:

Step by step: building a vehicle

1. Invest in Grease Monkey in the Intellect tree to raise the find rate for vehicle magazines.
2. Collect Vehicle Adventures magazines — the number required rises with each vehicle tier (motorcycle: 45 magazines, gyrocopter: 100 magazines).
3. Gather the individual parts: through looting, traders or crafting them yourself at the workbench and forge.
4. Put all parts into the workbench and assemble the vehicle there.
5. Keep fuel (gas cans) ready — bicycles excepted.

Fuel production

Fuel (gas cans) can be produced yourself with the chemistry station. Oil Shale is mined in desert regions and processed into fuel at the chemistry station. Producing your own fuel is strongly recommended from the mid game onwards, as soon as the motorcycle or 4x4 truck are in regular use.

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Useful perks at a glance