Tools

Tools are essential items in 7 Days to Die used for gathering resources, mining, building, salvaging, and repairing. Choosing and upgrading the right tools dramatically improves your efficiency at every stage of survival.

Gathering Tools

• Stone Axe — The basic starting tool, craftable by hand from wood, stone, and plant fibers. It chops wood, breaks stone, and can harvest in a pinch, though it is slow and weak.
• Axe — Specialized for chopping trees and wooden structures, yielding wood faster than a stone axe.
• Pickaxe — The primary mining tool for stone, ores, and hard materials, far outperforming the stone axe underground.
• Shovel — Used for digging dirt, sand, and soft terrain quickly, useful for landscaping and clearing.

Salvage and Repair Tools

• Wrench, Ratchet, and Impact Driver — Salvaging tools that break down vehicles, appliances, and machinery into valuable parts like mechanical parts, springs, and electrical components. The impact driver is the fastest tier.
• Repair Tools — Most tools and blocks are maintained with repair kits or the appropriate resources, keeping your gear in working order.

Power Tools

Power tools require gasoline and are crafted at the Workbench:

• Chainsaw — Cuts through wood extremely quickly, ideal for large-scale harvesting.
• Auger — A powered mining tool that tears through stone and ore far faster than a pickaxe.

Quality and Upgrades

Tools come in quality tiers; higher tiers deal more damage, last longer, and gather resources faster. Quality is improved through perks, magazines, and crafting at higher levels. Tool and weapon mods can further boost harvesting yield, durability, and speed.

Practical Tips

• Upgrade from stone tools to iron and steel tools as soon as your Forge allows.
• Match the tool to the task — pickaxe for mining, axe for wood, shovel for dirt — for the best speed.
• Invest in relevant perks to increase harvest yields and reduce stamina cost.
• Carry repair supplies so tools do not break during long expeditions.
• Save power tools and their fuel for heavy jobs where their speed pays off.

Updates Needed

This page is community-maintained and may be incomplete or out of date. Spotted something wrong, or know a detail we missed? Sign in and hit Edit to propose changes — approved edits go live and help every survivor who reads this after you. Fresh tips, updated numbers for the latest patch, and clearer step-by-step guides are always welcome.