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The 1.0 release reorganized the 7 Days To Die perk tree into five attribute trees (Perception, Strength, Fortitude, Agility, Intellect) with exactly 10 perks per attribute, plus 7 general perks that sit outside the five trees: 57 in total. Most perks have 5 ranks with rising point costs. Total perk points by level 100 (the typical multiplayer endpoint) lets you max around 4-5 perks plus partial investment in supporting ones - you cannot max everything, so priority matters.
This page ranks the perks worth investing in for solo, multiplayer, and modded play. The tier list is for vanilla 7DTD 2.x - overhauls (Darkness Falls, Undead Legacy, Ravenhearst) reorganize the trees and the relative value shifts.
| Perk | Attribute | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rule 1: Cardio | Fortitude | The stamina perk. Cuts what running and swinging cost you, which is the single biggest quality-of-life change to mining and horde-night mobility. |
| Mother Lode | Strength | +50% resources from harvesting. The defining perk for any group's miner. One person with maxed Mother Lode supplies the base. |
| The Daring Adventurer | Intellect | Better trader rewards. Free credits per quest. Critical for the trader-loop economy. |
| Healing Factor | Fortitude | Health regen out of combat. Removes the medkit grind for non-emergency healing. |
| Perk | Attribute | Build it for |
|---|---|---|
| Boomstick | Strength | Shotgun build. Best horde-night damage profile. |
| Gunslinger | Agility | Pistols + magnums. Close-range mobility build. |
| Machine Gunner | Fortitude | SMG + assault rifle build. Sustained fire. |
| Animal Tracker | Perception | Hunting builds. Dramatically increases meat economy. |
| Master Chef | General | Better food = better buffs. Multiplies the Cooking + Farming loop value. |
| Better Barter | Intellect | Cheaper trader buys. Pairs with Daring Adventurer for the trader build. |
| Lucky Looter | General | Loot quality boost. Best perk for solo loot runs. |
| Perk | Attribute | When to take |
|---|---|---|
| Salvage Operations | Perception | Vehicle/scrap economy. Useful in modded with vehicle dependencies. |
| Living Off The Land | General | Farming dependents. Take only if your group has a farmer role. |
| Pummel Pete | Strength | Club/blunt-melee build. Strong but outshone by ranged builds. |
| Skull Crusher | Strength | Sledge build. Niche but viable. |
| Charismatic Nature | Intellect | Multiplayer-only buff aura. Useful in groups of 4+. |
For 4-player groups, the highest-EHP build distribution puts each player on a different attribute tree to avoid perk overlap:
| Role | Primary tree | Key perks |
|---|---|---|
| Miner / supplier | Strength | Mother Lode, Pack Mule, Boomstick |
| Hunter / scout | Perception | Animal Tracker, Salvage Operations, The Penetrator |
| Defender / cook | Fortitude | Rule 1: Cardio, Healing Factor, Pain Tolerance (Master Chef is a General perk, so any build can cook) |
| Looter / runner | Agility | Gunslinger, Run and Gun, Parkour, From The Shadows |
| (Optional 5th) Trader / mechanic | Intellect | Better Barter, Robotics, Charismatic Nature |
Solo runs reward broad investment over specialization. Suggested order of investment from level 1:
| Overhaul | Key shift |
|---|---|
| Darkness Falls | New Class system gates perks behind quest progression. Master Chef and Daring Adventurer become MORE important; weapon perks SCALE differently. |
| Undead Legacy | Skill-system rebuild. Vanilla perk tree replaced with custom skills. This page's tier list does not apply - see UL-specific guides. |
| Ravenhearst | Massively expanded tree (hundreds of new perks). Stamina perks become S-tier because the mod's stamina costs are punishing. |
| War3zuk | Adds many new weapons; weapon-specific perks gain value over generalist perks. |
The tier list above is an opinion. This table is not: it is read straight out of
progression.xml in the stable build, so it is the complete list with nothing
missed and nothing invented. Five attributes, 10 perks each, all capped at rank 5.
| Attribute | Perk | Group | Max rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perception | Animal Tracker | General | 5 |
| Perception | Dead Eye | Combat | 5 |
| Perception | Demolitions Expert | Combat | 5 |
| Perception | Perception Mastery | General | 5 |
| Perception | Quick and Perceptive | Combat | 5 |
| Perception | Salvage Operations | Scavenging | 5 |
| Perception | Spear Master | Combat | 5 |
| Perception | The Infiltrator | General | 5 |
| Perception | The Penetrator | General | 5 |
| Perception | Treasure Hunter | Scavenging | 5 |
| Strength | Big and Fast | Combat | 5 |
| Strength | Boomstick | Combat | 5 |
| Strength | Grand Slam | Combat | 5 |
| Strength | Junk Miner | Construction | 5 |
| Strength | Miner 69'er | Construction | 5 |
| Strength | Mother Lode | Construction | 5 |
| Strength | Pack Mule | General | 5 |
| Strength | Pummel Pete | Combat | 5 |
| Strength | Skull Crusher | Combat | 5 |
| Strength | Strength Mastery | General | 5 |
| Fortitude | Fortitude Mastery | Survival | 5 |
| Fortitude | Healing Factor | Recovery | 5 |
| Fortitude | Iron Gut | Recovery | 5 |
| Fortitude | Lightning Hands | Combat | 5 |
| Fortitude | Machine Gunner | Combat | 5 |
| Fortitude | Pain Tolerance | Survival | 5 |
| Fortitude | Rule 1: Cardio | Recovery | 5 |
| Fortitude | Siphoning Strikes | Recovery | 5 |
| Fortitude | The Brawler | Combat | 5 |
| Fortitude | The Huntsman | Survival | 5 |
| Agility | Agility Mastery | Athletics | 5 |
| Agility | Archery | Combat | 5 |
| Agility | Deep Cuts | Combat | 5 |
| Agility | From The Shadows | Stealth | 5 |
| Agility | Gunslinger | Combat | 5 |
| Agility | Hard Target | Athletics | 5 |
| Agility | Hidden Strike | Stealth | 5 |
| Agility | Parkour | Athletics | 5 |
| Agility | Run and Gun | Athletics | 5 |
| Agility | Whirlwind | Combat | 5 |
| Intellect | Advanced Engineering | Craftsmanship | 5 |
| Intellect | Better Barter | Influence | 5 |
| Intellect | Calculated Attack | Combat | 5 |
| Intellect | Charismatic Nature | Influence | 5 |
| Intellect | Electrocutioner | Combat | 5 |
| Intellect | Grease Monkey | Craftsmanship | 5 |
| Intellect | Intellect Mastery | Craftsmanship | 5 |
| Intellect | Physician | Craftsmanship | 5 |
| Intellect | Robotics Inventor | Combat | 5 |
| Intellect | The Daring Adventurer | Influence | 5 |
These sit outside the five attribute trees, so no attribute level gates them. They are also the only perks in the game with hand-written point costs rather than the standard curve, and they cap lower than rank 5.
| Perk | Max rank | Point cost per rank |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy Armor | 4 | 1, 2, 2, 3 |
| Light Armor | 4 | 1, 2, 2, 3 |
| Living off the Land | 3 | 1, 2, 2 |
| Lock Picking | 3 | 1, 2, 3 |
| Lucky Looter | 5 | 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 |
| Master Chef | 3 | 1, 2, 3 |
| Medium Armor | 4 | 1, 2, 2, 3 |
Worth noting: the three armor perks (Light, Medium and Heavy Armor) are general perks, so any build can take them without spending a point on an attribute first. They are what offsets the movement penalty that medium and heavy armor carry.
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