7 Days to Die Zombie Settings

Configure zombie speed, spawning, feral sense, difficulty, and AI behavior on your 7DTD server.

7 Days to Die gives you granular control over zombie behavior. All settings are in serverconfig.xml.

Zombie Movement Speed

Zombies have separate speed settings for different times and states:

<property name="ZombieMove" value="0" />         <!-- Daytime -->
<property name="ZombieMoveNight" value="3" />    <!-- Nighttime -->
<property name="ZombieFeralMove" value="3" />    <!-- Feral zombies -->
<property name="ZombieBMMove" value="3" />       <!-- Blood moon horde -->

Value	Speed	Description
0	Walk	Slow shamble — least threatening
1	Jog	Moderate pace
2	Run	Fast — hard to outrun on foot
3	Sprint	Very fast — default for night/feral/blood moon
4	Nightmare	Extremely fast — terrifying

💡 Tip: For a classic zombie experience, set daytime to Walk (0) and nighttime to Sprint (3). For maximum horror, set everything to Nightmare (4).

Feral Sense

Controls how well zombies can detect players:

<property name="ZombieFeralSense" value="0" />

Value	When Active	Effect
0	Off	Normal detection — line of sight, noise, smell
1	Day only	Zombies have enhanced senses during daytime
2	Night only	Enhanced senses at night (extends default behavior)
3	Always	Zombies always know roughly where you are

Spawning Controls

<property name="EnemySpawnMode" value="true" />    <!-- Master toggle -->
<property name="EnemyDifficulty" value="0" />       <!-- 0=Normal, 1=Feral -->
<property name="MaxSpawnedZombies" value="64" />    <!-- Global zombie cap -->
<property name="MaxSpawnedAnimals" value="50" />    <!-- Global animal cap -->

EnemySpawnMode false disables all zombie spawning (peaceful mode)
EnemyDifficulty 1 makes all zombies feral from the start
MaxSpawnedZombies is the single biggest performance lever — reduce to 32–48 on lower-end hardware

Difficulty Levels

<property name="GameDifficulty" value="2" />

Value	Name	Zombie HP	Zombie Damage	XP Bonus
0	Scavenger	Very low	Very low	None
1	Adventurer	Low	Low	Slight
2	Nomad	Normal	Normal	Normal
3	Warrior	High	High	Good
4	Survivalist	Very high	Very high	High
5	Insane	Massive	Massive	Maximum

Block Damage

Control how much damage zombies deal to your base:

<property name="BlockDamageAI" value="100" />      <!-- Normal zombie damage to blocks (%) -->
<property name="BlockDamageAIBM" value="100" />    <!-- Blood moon zombie damage to blocks (%) -->

Set to 0 to prevent zombies from ever destroying blocks
Set to 200 for double damage (hardcore)
BlockDamageAIBM only affects zombies during blood moon hordes

Recommended Presets

Casual / PvE

<property name="GameDifficulty" value="1" />
<property name="ZombieMove" value="0" />
<property name="ZombieMoveNight" value="1" />
<property name="ZombieFeralSense" value="0" />
<property name="MaxSpawnedZombies" value="40" />

Standard Survival

<property name="GameDifficulty" value="2" />
<property name="ZombieMove" value="0" />
<property name="ZombieMoveNight" value="3" />
<property name="ZombieFeralSense" value="0" />
<property name="MaxSpawnedZombies" value="64" />

Nightmare Hardcore

<property name="GameDifficulty" value="5" />
<property name="ZombieMove" value="2" />
<property name="ZombieMoveNight" value="4" />
<property name="ZombieFeralSense" value="3" />
<property name="MaxSpawnedZombies" value="80" />

7 Days to Die Zombie Settings

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