7 Days to Die 3.1.0 Henpocalypse Experimental Update

Steam has released the 7 days to die 3.1.0 henpocalypse experimental update as build V3.1.0 b11, introducing livestock capture, a dedicated coop workstation, and major adjustments to world balance settings. While the build is confined to Steam's experimental branch ahead of an upcoming stable rollout, server hosts and players testing public worlds on the 7 Days to Die server list need to address altered sandbox preset structures immediately.

Chicken Farming and Coop Workstations

The update introduces fowl wrangling directly into the survival loop. Survivors must catch wild chickens, haul them back to base while warding off roaming undead, and insert them into a Chicken Coop workstation to generate eggs and feathers. Feed is mandatory to maintain output; players craft Rekt's Chicken Feed using a mixture of corn and rotting flesh.

Station Attachments

The Chicken Coop workstation features three specialized tool slots that modify operational efficiency:

• Brooding Lamp: Accelerates workstation production cycles and speeds up chick maturation.
• Chicken Run: Halves overall feed expenditure by letting the birds forage for insects.
• Nesting Box: Adds nesting slots and unlocks breeding capabilities.

Transport Stress Mechanics

Carrying live fowl introduces a Chicken Stress meter. When an enclosed or carried bird hits 100% stress, the character drops it, firing off an event tailored to current game stage progress. These outcomes scale from simple drops to encounters with enraged zombies or hostile chickens. Server hosts can modify these behaviors through new sandbox configurations.

New Cooking Recipes

Four food recipes expand player survival buffs using coop outputs and hunted ingredients:

• Chicken Nuggets: Made from grilled meat, feathers, animal fat, and corn meal. Consuming them temporarily eliminates player encumbrance.
• Chicken Wings: Blends domesticated chickens, eggs, honey, corn meal, and oil to provide temporary melee damage boosts alongside infection immunity.
• Ash Chicken Stew: Cooked with domesticated chickens, coal, corn, mushrooms, and water. It offers substantial nutrition without generating zombie-attracting food smells.
• Roadrunner Chicken Jerky: Prepared with domesticated chickens, beer, nitrate powder, and yucca fruit to deliver food and a temporary movement speed buff.

Nana's Famous Chicken Mascot cosmetic, The Big Beak outfit, is slated to arrive alongside the stable release rather than this experimental build.

Expanded Sandbox Settings and Day-Night Splits

Steam's patch notes show significant refactoring of world generation variables. Enemy and animal settings are now decoupled, and biome density values no longer share single day and night parameters.

• Spawn Timings: BiomeRespawn and Biome Density sandbox options are now split into dedicated Day and Night sliders.
• Spawn Categorization: Density and Respawn options now cleanly distinguish between enemy and animal entities.
• Workstation Tuning: Dedicated sliders exist for Chicken Coop Time, Chicken Coop Yield (ChickenCoopOutput), and Chicken Coop Input (feed requirements).
• Survival Multipliers: Dedicated multipliers allow server administrators to dial in Infection Chance, Hunger Multiplier, Thirst Multiplier, and Stack Size Multiplier (capped at 30,000 for every item).

Previous revisions such as the 7 Days to Die 3.0.0 b259 EXP update introduced deep configuration tweaks, but the day-night split directly alters how preset values interpret world spawns.

Configuration and Host Requirements

Server administrators hosting this experimental branch must audit their world configuration files prior to launching.

Broken Sandbox Presets

Because enemy and animal respawn rates and densities are separated into distinct day and night values, existing custom preset codes are invalid. Entering an outdated preset code can reset some or all settings to their default values. The developer has updated official presets to accommodate these new day and night parameters, but custom host templates require immediate reconstruction.

Save File Compatibility

Existing saves remain compatible without enforcing an immediate world wipe, though generating a fresh world remains recommended for testing experimental code. Hosts should use the Manage Saves feature to duplicate and archive existing worlds before migrating. This prevents save corruption incidents, such as earlier version conversion bugs like the EndofStreamException fixed in this build.

Network and Engine Fixes

Several crash vectors and performance bottlenecks have been patched. The update eliminates a memory stream serverside EXC error, resolves an EOS exception inside TileEntityNetPackage during POI resets, and stops unnecessary inventory packet spam where client inventory was relayed to the server despite zero item movement. Similar to connection stability improvements delivered in the 7 Days to Die 3.0.1 stable release, clients can also reliably view output from the getsandboxoptions console command.

Changes Players Will Notice

Connecting players will observe immediate balance and UI adjustments across the world:

• Spawn Behavior: Enemy and wildlife distribution will shift noticeably between daytime and nighttime hours, and rare desert and snow spawns like Chuck and Rancher scale accurately with density settings.
• Workstation Interfaces: The turn-on button layering issue and temporary workstation slot selection lockups upon opening are resolved. Dew collectors will no longer instantly fill up when adjusting time options.
• Visuals and Audio: Four new loading screen backgrounds replace old tooltip displays, new audio SFX play during chicken attacks, and turrets or motion sensor cameras no longer display a lingering cursor overlay.
• Discord Integration: Players on Xbox consoles get a Discord login cancel button to prevent input locks, while PC players can enable audible Discord direct messages during matches.