Summary
Players have plenty of options when it comes to customizing the difficulty of a new server or playthrough in7 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 differentNPC traders in7 Days to Die, and future updates for the game should consider changing this.
Considering the impact that traders have in7 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 Dieshould consider adding a nighttime trader, as well as a traveling trader.
The Case for Nighttime and Traveling Traders in 7 Days to Die
Even after the recent rework that made traders in7 Days to Die’s 1.0 updateless 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 in7 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 in7 Days to Diewill 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 in7 Days to Diewill 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 thatplayers can be prepared for their first Blood Moon horde. Hence, why a nighttime trader could be a useful feature in7 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 thatcommunity mods for7 Days to Diehave explored before, though these are only available for PC players for now. The studio behind7 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 Dieshould 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.
