The Strongest Weapons In 7DTD

7 Days To Die is a sandbox zombie survival game that focuses on exploration, base building, and, of course, slaughtering endless hordes of zombies. It features multiple types of enemies, each with their own unique stats and abilities.

Figuring out how to best approach every situation in this game is mostly predicated on choosing the right weapon. While 7 Days To Die has plenty of guns to choose from, some are simply better, whether it’s due to sheer stats or special effects that they bring to the fray.

Updated on October 9, 2024, by Christopher Padilla: 7 Days To Die has released a 1.0 (Stable)! This game has seen many changes since this article was written, never mind across its whole development cycle. Weapons are one of the many systems that were overhauled, tweaked, chopped, and screwed. Weapons look different, handle different, and are built different, with some gone missing and others added to the arsenal. We’ve reflected those changes across all the entries and added some helpful information. Namely what Skill Magazine you use to craft each weapon, and what skills you need to make them at certain qualities. We also added the ingredients for each quality level of each weapon, as well as the main state that increases that weapon’s damage.

15 Robotic Sledge/Robotic Turret

• Skill Magazine: Tech Planet
• Scales With: Intellect

If you’re playing solo, these guys are your only friends in zombieland. Even if you’re not spec’d for Intelligence, it’s still a good idea to keep them with you, should you find them.

The Robotic Turret is a fantastic wingman to take with you when you’re clearing POIs, and it better, because Forged Steel isn’t cheap. Luckily, this guy delivers in spades. Just set it down and start exploring, and if the fighting gets too intense, run the horde back to your turret and double-team those corpses.

The Robotic Sledge is also a fantastic companion, not in normal combat, but during the horde night. With certain base setups, you can set it up anywhere along any elevated section (over a pit or blades) of the zombie path and watch as it knocks zombies off. If you’re a crafty enough builder, you could even AFK as the turrets do the work.

14 Stun Baton

• Skill Magazine: Tech Planet
• Scales With: Intellect

The Stun Baton is a powerful and versatile weapon that, alongside the above Robotic weapons, is a pretty good incentive to go down the Intellect path. This zappy stick does decent damage, but what really gives it oomph is the ability to stun enemies. This allows you all the time in the world to wallop them over the head ‘till they’re dead.

The Stun Baton Repulsor mod might be tempting to use, but it’s not always a good idea. While it’s great for horde nights or combat in the open, it’s not ideal for Clear Enemies quests since they can send enemies flying where you can’t find them, possibly making missions unwinnable.

In duels or fights against small groups of enemies, you’re pretty much guaranteed to win as enemies get zapped every few normal hits and all but the toughest enemies go down with a few headshots. For larger groups, pop some Nerd Tats and tase whole groups of enemies, making them easy pickings.

13 Steel Sledgehammer

• Skill Magazine: Get Hammered
• Scales With: Strength

Sledgehammers are a powerful class of weapon that requires skill and restraint to use because of their big damage and even bigger stamina cost. Swing recklessly, and you’ll find yourself helpless in the middle of the horde, unable to run away until your stamina returns.

This is one of the best non-explosive ways to break down doors and into safes, provided you have the stamina to swing until the job is done. Otherwise, stick to something purpose-built like an axe (wood) or pickaxe (metal).

The Steel Sledgehammer is the biggest and baddest of these and is the hardest-hitting in the game, even beating out guns in per-attack damage. You can bop zombies on the dome for a big (likely lethal and messy) hit or swing wide with the Power Attack and ragdoll multiple zombies.

12 Lever-Action Rifle

• Skill Magazine: Rifle World
• Scales With: Perception

Reminiscent of the gun that won the west, the Lever-Action Rifle is a fantastic and versatile option and a fantastic midgame option. It has a higher firing rate and ammo capacity than all lower-tier rifles, making it a versatile ranged option.

It excels at mid-range, and if you’re confident in your shooting skills, you can even forgo a scope. If you don’t trust the iron sights, then mod it with a Reflex Sight for faster and more accurate target acquisition. These work well at close-mid engagements since you’re not staring down the scope and are more aware of your periphery.

If you want even more accuracy, then mod it with a 2x Scope for even more accuracy at the cost of weapon handling and a little bit of tunnel vision. If you want to improve this weapon, complete the Wild West fantasy with the Ranger set of armor.

11 Compound Bow

• Skill Magazine: Bow Hunters
• Scales With: Agility

If you want to unleash your inner Rambo, you can’t do much better than the Compound Bow. It’s a reliable and flexible weapon that allows you to strike from stealth in rapid succession– or at least fire off some more arrows before you need to switch to something different.

You get the Exploding Arrow/Bolt Recipe from the Ranger’s Guide To Archery Vol. 2. While most of its costs are modest, each arrow does cost one Duct Tape, which are uncommon to find and can be annoying to craft.

If you want to escalate things from First Blood to First Blood Part 2, then equip the Exploding Arrows, letting you do some big damage over a large area as quickly as you can draw and release them.

10 Steel Club

• Skill Magazine: Big Hitters
• Scales With: Strength

Swift and deadly, Steel Club will never let you down when in a tight spot. If you’re going down the Strength route, you should never leave your base without one. As far as stats go, the weapon consumes very little stamina while also dealing heavy damage, with an added chance of dismembering when you land a headshot.

Invest in the perk Pummel Pete if you plan to go clubbing, as it not only makes the Steel Club more powerful but also allows it to do combos where enough consecutive hits deal a burst of damage. At max rank, it also refunds Stamina on a kill, further mitigating its already minimal Stamina costs.

9 Pump Shotgun

• Skill Magazine: Shotgun Weekly
• Scales With: Strength

While not the best shotgun in the game, it is an early game weapon that will allow you to dominate blood moons. It packs a mean punch with a decent magazine but a rather slow reload speed. Putting points into your Boomstick perk increases your shotguns’ performance, as well as making it easier to find shotgun shells. At rank 3, you can stun enemies, while at rank 5, you’re far more likely to shoot their legs off and leave them crawling.

Shotgun shells are as plentiful as any other basic ammo type, and they use different ingredients to craft. They require buckshot, polymers, gunpowder, and paper. That last one is plentiful enough if you break down cardboard boxes and search toilets, but are quite the hassle to make, so make sure you keep them for shell production!

In order to make it more effective, you can attach a shotgun tube extender, which increases your shotgun shell capacity, as well as a Shotgun Choke Mod to it. Your grouping will be so tight that one-shotting regular zombies will be a given. Alternatively, you can use the Duckbill Mod to headshot multiple zombies at once.

8 .44 Magnum

• Skill Magazine: Handgun Magazine
• Scales With: Agility

The most powerful handgun in the world. This is a sentiment echoed in 7 Days To Die, as this is the heaviest-hitting pistol in the game. While it’s considered a mid-tier weapon, the next one up, the Desert Vulture, deals less per-shot damage.

This thing hits like a truck, but it controls like one, too. It’s not a weapon for fighting big hordes, since you’ll need to space out your shots to counter the recoil on it and its modest capacity for bullets. It can, however, make short work of the tougher zombie types. If you can collect every book of the Magnum Enforcer set, the .44 performs better against crowds, since the bonus for the full collection is that all your .44 shots penetrate enemies.

7 Tactical Assault Rifle

• Skill Magazine: Tactical Warfare
• Scales With: Fortitude

This assault rifle is a mid-tier weapon, providing you with reliable automatic fire and decent damage without slowing you down. Given that 7 Days to Die is a survival game, you’ll want to use short, controlled bursts while firing this thing. This game might be more generous than your average survival-crafting game, but you can still blow through your ammo supply quickly, and the last thing you want to hear in a firefight is the click of an empty magazine.

The Tactical is good for close-mid engagements with multiple enemies, but it struggles at the far edge of mid-range, especially if you’re trying for headshots. You may want to equip it with a scope or reflex sight to enhance its accuracy at farther ranges.

6 SMG-5

• Skill Magazine: Handgun Magazine
• Scales With: Agility

This bootleg MP5 is one of the best uses for your pistol ammo and can prove quite useful even in the late game. It will make short work of large packs of zombies with its impressive accuracy and rate of fire. The slow reload speed can be easily fixed with a magazine extender mod.

If you want to make the most out of your SMG-5, maxing out your Gunslinger perk is the way to go. If you enjoy a run-and-gun play style, then this is definitely one of the best weapons in the game.

5 Iron Crossbow

• Skill Magazine: Bow Hunters
• Scales With: Agility

While it might look like an underwhelming option compared to a firearm, the Iron Crossbow deserves a spot on this list because of how effective it is for stealth, given when you can craft or acquire it. It’s not as versatile as bows with its slow reload speed, but it hits hard, guaranteeing that a sneak attack headshot kills all but the toughest monsters.

If you need to go loud, then you can start the party with an Exploding Bolt, which blasts grouped-up enemies. Best of all, sneak attack damage applies to the Exploding Bolt, guaranteeing huge damage if you can get the drop on a particularly nasty creature.

4 Auto Shotgun

• Skill Magazine: Shotgun Weekly
• Scales With: Strength

If you feel like getting up close and unleashing a flurry of buckshot, look no further than the Auto Shotgun. This beast will shred through hordes with ease with its high damage output and decent reload speed. It has a 16-shot magazine that can be increased to 24 with a Magazine Extender and a staggering 32 with the Drum Magazine, with the caveat that it lowers your reload speed.

Throw in some mods like a Shotgun Choke, Fore Grip, and Trigger Group: Full Auto mod to turn your character into a hip-firing god…until you have to reload. Ammunition isn’t too rare, so as long as you play tactically, you shouldn’t run out.

3 Rocket Launcher

• Skill Magazine: Explosive Magazine
• Scales With: Perception

A classic weapon for any respectable shooter, you can’t go wrong when wielding a rocket launcher. Extremely fun to use, this weapon can literally delete a horde of zombies in an instant. It packs two types of ammo: Frag Rockets, which are best used against entities, and HE Rockets, which deal a lot of damage to blocks.

Even though it is one of the highest damage dealing weapons in the game, ammo for it is very scarce and extremely difficult to craft. Your best bet is to save up your ammo for those late game Blood Moons instead of clearing out regular hordes with it.

2 Sniper Rifle

Skill Magazine: Rifle World

Scales With: Perception

If you crave the marksman life, the Sniper Rifle will allow you to make quick work of any zombie you set your sights on. If you max out Perception and your Dead Eye perks, a high-quality sniper rifle will give you an instant kill headshot on any zombie except for the Demolisher.

As far as mods go, you should definitely be using a Bipod, Magazine Extender, and an 8x Scope. With a 12-round magazine and a rather fast reload speed, the Sniper Rifle is clearly one of the best weapons that Perception specialists can get.

1 M60 Machine Gun

• Skill Magazine: Tactical Warfare
• Scales With: Fortitude

Another gun that will make you feel like Rambo during a zombie apocalypse, the M60 packs a mean punch with an incredible rate of fire. Adding a drum magazine to it will increase its ammo capacity to 120 rounds, allowing you to annihilate a large horde of ordinary zombies before having to reload.

Since its bulk can slow you down, consider popping a Bipod and a scope on it and hunker down. This weapon is particularly effective from entrenched positions where enemies can’t easily get to you or come at you in a line. The latter one is particularly nasty if you can afford to stock up on AP 7.62mm ammo. In other words, this is probably the best thing to have in your horde base during a Blood Moon.