7 Days to Die Co-op Guide: Horde Nights, Base Chores, and Server Safety

7 Days to Die co-op guide players know a mistimed reload or stray demo can wipe a night, so this 7 Days to Die co-op guide stitches together practical lessons from recent Blood Moons, overhaul mods, and map runs to keep squads alive. You get horde-night roles, base maintenance, land-claim etiquette, and server safety so your crew lasts longer than one bad moon.

7 Days to Die co-op guide quick wins

Co-op wipes usually come from silence, clutter, or unclear jobs. Fix voice levels before you craft, label boxes by function, and assign tasks by day seven: one farmer/cooker, one ammo crafter, one builder, one scout. Rotate roles weekly so burnout stays low.

Horde-night roles that stop chaos

• Main DPS: Two players on automatic rifles or coil rifles if modded. Carry AP and HP rounds; swap when cops or demos appear.
• Stun/control: One player on electrical triggers, fences, and flinger grenades. Call out when fences break.
• Repair lead: One player with nailgun, steel, electrical parts, and forged iron. Stays off the main catwalk to avoid blocking shots.
• Trash detail: One player with molotovs and timed charges to delete loot piles between waves so pathing stays clean.

Base chores between Blood Moons

• Storage discipline: Label chests by ammo, meds, mods, food, sellables. A panic chest near the horde base saves time on blood night.
• Farm + cook: One plot of super corn, one of potatoes, one of coffee. Pump out Grandpa’s learning elixir and fish tacos; XP and sustained stam matter.
• Trap tests: Fire one demo in a test lane after every major upgrade. Electrical fences and dart traps should never sit unwired.
• Paths and wedges: Keep one fallback ladder and a second fighting position. Demos and vultures will eventually crack the first line.

Land-claim and server safety

• One claim per base layer: Overlapping claims make traps unpredictable. Stack vertically instead of horizontally.
• Backup saves: Nightly auto-backups and chunk reset checks stop the disappearing-items bug common in overhaul mods.
• Mod etiquette: Align mod lists. Darkness Falls, Undead Legacy, and Rebirth overhaul loot, claims, and vehicles—sync configs before launch.
• Trader runs: Set a shared trader chest; everyone drops sugar butts, eye candy, and candies to stretch dukes. This keeps server economies friendly.

Weapon and ammo pairing

• Rifles + AP for cops and armoured zeds; shotguns + HP for corridors.
• Explosives on callouts only; one demo pop at the wrong time erases pathing.
• Turrets on separate circuits; SMG turrets for vultures, shotgun turrets for stairs.

Horde base shapes that work

• Stairs-to-funnel: Classic wedge tip or half-block ramp leading to a two-wide shooting lane. Electric fences at knee and head height.
• Pole-dancer lanes: Double pole supports so cops vomit into poles, not into faces. Repair from the backside.
• Fallback floor: One ladder to a backup lane with turrets preloaded; when a demo blows, retreat without losing DPS time.

World generation and scouting

On Teragon or random gen, prioritize towns with two traders and a bookstore. Quest tiers climb faster when the group shares fetch/clear loops. Mark crack-a-books, working stiffs, and cracker boxes early; books, parts, and engines define midgame pace.

Performance and crashes

• Trim entities: Kill wandering hordes before night to keep Blood Moon under the max alive cap.
• Chunk resets: Restart the server weekly after patching; chunk corruption often begins after hotfix chains.
• Cloud saves off on clients; desync spikes during Blood Moon when cloud sync kicks in.

Key takeaways

• Define horde-night roles and rotate them weekly.
• Keep one unnamed backup claim/base and a panic chest ready.
• Pair weapons with the right ammo: rifles/AP for cops, shotguns/HP for corridors.
• Build fallback lanes and test traps with demos before night.
• Back up the server and align mod lists to avoid wipes from bugs.

For more map-specific setup, browse the 7 Days to Die category and cross-check block values on the 7DTD wiki before your next Blood Moon.