Quick answer: V3.1.0 "Henpocalypse" hit stable on 27 July 2026 across PC, PlayStation and Xbox in one go, and it is the default build now. Your world survives the upgrade, no forced wipe this time. Two things deserve a look before you reopen to players: Sandbox Options now split enemy and animal density and respawn into separate day and night values, which breaks preset codes saved on older builds, and the classic version mismatch will still hide your server from the browser list if clients have not updated.
The good news first
Nobody has to wipe. Worlds from the previous version load straight into V3.1, and anyone who has run this game for a while knows that is not a given. Past major versions of 7 Days to Die usually meant a fresh map and a farewell to everything your group built.
Worth saying though: loading fine is not the same as playing the same. Keep reading.
The preset code problem
This one bites server owners who are not paying attention, mostly because nothing warns you about it.
Density and respawn for enemies and animals used to live in single settings. V3.1 splits each of them into a day value and a night value. Great news if you ever wanted calm daylight hours and brutal nights on the same server. Bad news for any preset code you exported on an older build, because those codes may not apply anymore.
So before you post in Discord that the server is back, open Sandbox Options and read what is actually there. A preset that fails quietly is nastier than one that throws an error. You will spend an evening wondering why difficulty feels off while your players insist the zombies got easier, and the answer will be sitting in a menu you never opened.
Update the server and the clients together
When a 7 Days to Die server vanishes from the browser after an update, nine times out of ten the box is fine. Clients on the old version simply cannot see it.
Handle it in one session. Patch the server, ping your players, have everyone update before they try to join. If the server updates overnight while half the group still runs the old build, expect a wave of "server is down" messages that have nothing to do with downtime.
Mods need rebuilding, as usual
7 Days to Die breaks mods harder than most games on a version jump, since so many of them edit XML files that the developers restructure between releases.
Split your mod list into two piles before you do anything:
Server side only mods touching spawn rates, loot tables or economy live entirely on the server. Players never install them, so nothing changes on their end.
Mods that add blocks, items or UI need to be on every client at the exact same version, or that player gets booted on join. One person unable to connect while the rest of the group is in? Start here.
What Henpocalypse actually added
Chicken farming is the headline. Catch a live chicken, haul it back to base, and stick it in the new Chicken Coop workstation for eggs and feathers. On its own it sounds minor. On a server that has been running for months it matters, because food becomes something your players produce instead of something they strip from lootable buildings.
Practical side effect for admins: players hang around their bases more. Keep that in mind if your spawn tuning assumes a group that spreads out across the map.
Sizing a 7 Days to Die server
The game is deceptively heavy, and the destructible world is the reason. Every block change gets tracked and none of it ever goes away.
That explains the classic complaint of a server getting sluggish after weeks with zero config changes. Each crater, collapsed tower and abandoned drop bag still lives in the region files. A map with a month of hard play behind it works the hardware far harder than a fresh one would on the same box.
| Setup | Realistic RAM |
|---|---|
| Small group, fresh map | 6GB |
| Established world, several players | 8 to 10GB |
| Large group, long running, mods | 12GB+ |
Our 7 Days to Die hosting starts at EUR 6 a month, which comfortably covers a small group on a fresh map.
The honest benchmark is blood moon night
Forget testing on a quiet afternoon. If you want a real answer on whether your server is sized right, watch it during a blood moon.
Blood moons push the most pathfinding entities through the server at once, and that is when rubber banding and teleporting zombies appear. Those are CPU symptoms, not bandwidth ones. A box that handles six nights beautifully and chokes on the seventh is not broken. It is just too small.
Where you host it
We run 7 Days to Die out of the Netherlands, North America, Singapore, India, and Australia. Horde night pulls your whole group online at the same time, so pick the region that sits closest to most of your players rather than closest to you personally.
FAQ
Do I need to wipe my world for V3.1? No. Old worlds carry into V3.1. Take a backup before any major update out of habit, but nobody is forcing a wipe.
When did V3.1 Henpocalypse go stable? 27 July 2026. It shipped to PC, PlayStation and Xbox on the same day and is the default build now.
Why did my server disappear from the list after updating? Nearly always a version mismatch. Old clients cannot see a new server. Patch the server and your players in the same session.
Why do my difficulty settings feel wrong after updating? V3.1 split enemy and animal density and respawn into separate day and night values, so preset codes from older builds may not apply cleanly. Open Sandbox Options and verify by hand.
Do my players need to install the same mods? Only mods adding blocks, items or UI. Server side mods for spawn rates or loot need nothing from players.
Why does my server get slower after a few weeks? Block damage and entity data pile up. The world is destructible and every change persists, so an old map does more work than a fresh one on identical hardware.
Related reading: 7 Days to Die hosting plans from EUR 6 a month across five regions.