All 11 V3.0 "Dead Hot Summer" Presets - And Which One to Run on Your Server

Updated July 23, 2026. V3.0.1 is the current stable branch; the 11 presets below are unchanged. The new note is V3.1.0.

V3.1.0 "Henpocalypse" (now in experimental) changes preset codes. On the latest_experimental branch, Density and Respawn are now split into day and night values, and into enemy and animal types. Because the option set changed, preset codes made under V3.0 may be invalid on 3.1.0 - some or all settings can silently default. The Fun Pimps updated the official preset codes to match, so if you run a custom preset, re-copy it from the updated official set (or rebuild it) after moving to 3.1.0. This only affects servers on the experimental branch; V3.0.1 stable presets are unaffected until 3.1.0 promotes.

V3.0 replaces the old difficulty slider with composable sandbox rules: 150 options, shareable player-made presets, and 11 official preset modes with names worth the price of admission. For server owners the presets are the headline - they are ready-made server identities. Here is each one as officially described, and an honest read on which work as community servers.

The official 11

  • Undead Matinee - vintage-movie melee mode: slower zombies, swarming numbers, scarce ammo, and the new headshot finisher setting. The "Romero mode" the community asked for by name.
  • Madmole's Mayhem - fewer supplies, harsher penalties, including the new item loss and item durability loss on death, under constant pressure.
  • Almost Creative Mode - "the apocalypse, minus the actual apocalypse. Because dying is inconvenient."
  • Bite Club - hardcore permadeath: one life, use it wisely.
  • Legacy Survival - "old-school survival with modern consequences. Play like it's 2014."
  • 7 Days Later - modern-movie chaos: fast-moving hordes.
  • Caveman's Life - "an apocalypse where tools peaked at sticks."
  • Dumpster Diver - scavenging-first: "turning garbage into greatness."
  • Dying World - fading resources on a clock.
  • Disaster Film - "catastrophes stack faster than you can fix them."
  • Chibi Mode - "not only are they cute… they're fast, too."

Which presets work as community servers

  • Best public-server draws: Undead Matinee and 7 Days Later. They are legible from the name alone - slow-zombie cinema versus fast-zombie panic - and "Romero server" has been requested in this community for a decade. Expect these two to dominate server listings in week one.
  • Best event mode: Bite Club. Permadeath plus a fixed start date is a ready-made seasonal event; one life per player turns a server wipe into a tournament.
  • Best for veteran groups: Legacy Survival or Madmole's Mayhem. Legacy resets the habits 12 years of QoL built; Mayhem's death penalties give private groups the stakes public servers cannot afford.
  • Careful with: Dying World and Disaster Film on long-term servers. Escalating-pressure modes are designed to end; they suit seasons, not persistent worlds.
  • Chibi Mode is the novelty draw - a strong week-one population spike, unknown retention.

Custom presets: the real feature for server owners

The presets above are starting points. V3.0 lets you build, name, and share your own preset from the full 150-option set (player damage, zombie speeds per time-of-day, blood moon rules, loot abundance per category, trader rules, quest settings, even zombie digging and headshot mode). A community server's ruleset becomes a shareable artifact - expect "preset codes" to circulate the way seeds do. On dedicated servers the chosen ruleset is carried by the new SandboxCode property; the mechanics are in our SandboxCode serverconfig guide.

Timing

Experimental is live now on PC (since Monday, June 15; opt in via latest_experimental), after the June 12-14 streamer weekend; Steam and console stable are targeted ~June 29. Exact option values per preset are now inspectable in the build. Until stable, run presets on a test world before committing your community save - and remember saves do not load backward, and a 3.0 client cannot join a 2.6 server.

Sources