7 Days To Die 2.6 EXP (Experimental Update)

The V2.6 experimental build is live for PC playtesters with a broad systems pass focused on jars + Dew Collector flow, biome danger scaling, zombie XP rebalance, random world generation updates, vehicle/storage fixes, and performance cleanup.

How to join 2.6 EXP

1. Right click 7 Days To Die in Steam.

2. Open Properties.

3. Open the Betas tab.

4. Select latest_experimental.

5. Let Steam download the branch, then restart your game/server.

2.6 EXP headline changes

• Dew Collectors now require jars as fuel to produce water.

• Jars no longer need a crucible to craft.

• Default Jar Refund chance moved to 60%.

• Zombie XP values were rebalanced around enemy type, HP, and damage.

• Tougher biome spawns were added in snow and wasteland.

Official V2.6 EXP specs (full changelog)

Added

• Discord friends' sessions now appear in the server browser Friends tab.

• Replaced the zombie XP properties list at the top of entityclasses.xml.

• Added roaming sounds for animalChicken and animalChickenHostile.

• RWG town planner now removes some district connections to increase T, L, and Cap tile usage.

• Radiated, Charged, and Infernal mutated zombie ranged attacks now have more distance, speed, and pattern variety.

• Enemy AI now plays an alert sound when fleeing from entities or damage.

• RWG now converts one L tile to a Cap per district group unless doing so would split the group.

• Stag and Doe now have roam and alert SFX.

Changed

• Removed Bone Knife requirement from the Harvest Animals challenge.

• Updated loot list params to add ignore_loot_abundance="true" for construction crate, hidden stash, and buried treasure.

• Snow spawn groups now include Radiated, Charged, and Infernal Chuck variants.

• Wasteland spawn groups now include Radiated, Charged, and Infernal Mutated variants.

• Snow biome gamestage_modifier increased from 2 to 3 and gamestage_bonus from 20 to 30.

• Wasteland gamestage_modifier increased from 3 to 5 and bonus from 30 to 50.

• Wasteland weather adjusted with new hot/cold events.

• Zombie XP progression refactored around zombie HP and damage.

• Reduced block damage on zombieSteveCrawler and zombieMaleHazmat hands to better align with group balance.

• Adjusted various zombie HP values for better in-group consistency.

• Increased player kill XP.

• Removed legacy "Boss" EntityDamage passives from Radiated Utility Worker and Radiated Businessman.

• Chuck hand variants now use new boulder projectiles with progressive entity/block damage.

• Updated loadingTipApiary to warn on Apiary close (instead of open).

• Dew Collector now uses jars as a fuel type.

• Crafting jars no longer requires a crucible.

• Updated chuck hand hit-mask override from arrow to rocket to stop boulders clipping through bars.

• Gyrocopter now supports 5 mod slots (requires crafting a new gyro).

• PC/Mac/Linux now use an uncompressed road splat texture for higher quality blending.

• Increased Dire Wolf and Zombie Bear hearing/sight ranges.

• Increased Mutated zombie ranged attack damage.

• Bears can now fit through 1x2m openings.

• Snakes now play footstep sounds.

• Improved terrain blending where topsoil is removed.

• Disabled allharvest HarvestCount penalty on selected melee weapons to allow basic harvesting of fibers/wood/stone.

• Updated harvest tags on several blocks for perkJunkMiner.

• Updated oreWoodHarvest tag so it only applies to wood, stone, ore, clay, and sand.

• Updated localization for armor perks to better describe boosted loot items.

• Separated Dew Collector and Apiary fuel windows in code/XUI.

• Dew Collector output increased to 3 rows (9 total slots).

• Replaced old buff names used in Stage 2 storm buff logic.

• Reduced completion requirements of several medical challenges to 5; if a challenge does not redeem, one extra cure triggers completion.

Fixed

• Paint rotation on a baseboard in hospital_01.

• Challenge tabs no longer flicker when switching.

• Large Quest Generators now display smoke particles correctly.

• Localization keys for shapewedge60TipTrimQuarterLeft2Sided and shapewedge60TrimQuarterRight2Sided were flipped and corrected.

• Localization typo in some quest reward bundle descriptions.

• Removed debug logging of friend IDs.

• Dedicated server vulture behavior now attacks more than once (fixed one-attack issue).

• ChangeBlocks no longer sets the wrong neighbor topsoil to broken.

• AI nearest-player targeting range fixed for short/inconsistent behavior.

• Bear attack hit timing now aligns with animation.

• Spawner source is now set before entity spawn in affected cases.

• RWG mixer now uses burntForest_mountains instead of generic mountains where intended.

• Fixed a tagging issue that blocked Legendary Parts spawning while armor perks were active.

• Apiary fuel is no longer lost when picking up the Apiary.

• Progress bar no longer resets when fuel is removed from collector-class workstations.

• Shift-click for fuel items now works in collector-class workstations.

• Default jar refund rate set to 60%.

• Floating platforms on growing trees are no longer possible.

• Fixed issues with adding/removing vehicle storage mods and related item loss.

• Large ragdoll forces no longer launch small animal corpses over long distances.

• Sleepers had too short a kill-off timeout and were corrected.

• Rogue Armor Set cowl display issue fixed.

Server admin checklist (before switching live players)

• Clone or backup your world before switching branches.

• Expect balance changes in biome danger, XP pacing, and water economy.

• If you rely on vehicle storage behavior, retest mod interactions after update.

• Revalidate overhaul mods: this is an EXP branch and compatibility can break between hotfixes.

Sources

• Official thread: The Fun Pimps - PC V2.6 EXP

• Patch record: SteamDB patch notes entry