7 Days to Survive Dying

This game has come a log way since the version I called "Die Every 7 Minutes"

Here are some of my tips:

1) Drop Nothing

Before starting the game, in the Advanced options, set Drop on Death to Nothing, unless for some reason you like doing corpse runs. Personally my time is too valuable to waste on that sort of thing.

What? Miraculously coming back to life is fine, but not losing your stuff if so immersion breaking? Come on, bro.

2) Do Quests

Trader Rekt is insufferably douchey, I know, but this is the best way to get better gear. Eventually he'll send you on to the next trader (Jen) and you won't have to deal with his cranky A anymore. Plus she's nice on the eyes.

• Fetch - Retrieve a bag from a location and return.
• Clear - Kill all the zombies within a location and return.
• Fetch/Clear - Both of the above.
• Infested Clear - Same as above but more zombies and significantly better loot.
• Turn On Power - Night only for some reason, and only between 22:00 and 1:00. That's a pretty narrow window. I recommend skipping this mission type.

Once the Quest marker is activated, you fail the mission if you leave the location or die.

3) Base Camps

Set up a base camp across the street from the entry gate to each trader. Use the empty lots. You'll be tempted to pick a pre-built structure (the devs call them POI (points of interest), but you should not. If a location is involved in a quest, when you activate the quest marker the POI will regenerate, wiping anything previously inside it.

In your base camps, make a platform from building blocks that's higher than zombies can reach with a ladder leading up to it. On the platform place a sleeping bag (that's your spawn point), campfire, and storage crates.

4) Scouting Ahead

This can be seen as a bit of a cheat. As mentioned in the previous item, when a location regenerates, the containers inside of it refill. You can essentially double your loot and xp gain by doing a scouting run first. Of course, you have to fight double the amount of zombies, but at least you'll familiarize yourself with the types and locations they'll occur. Fortunately, if you die on the trial run (before you activate the quest activator), you don't fail the quest. Once you know the layout, you should be able to clear it a second time as a breeze. 

5) Aim High

Specifically shoot at the upper chest just below the neck. This has the best chance of hitting center of mass with a fair chance to line up head shots or take arms off while moving. Shooting at the legs can sometimes slow them down (or blow them off) but you're better off to withdraw out of their reach. Climb up on stuff and engage groups of zombies from on high. If you're above them you have more of a chance of hitting them in the head.

6) Loot to Look For

• Top Priority - Weapons, Armor, Ammo, Lockpicks, Repair Kits, Antibiotics, First Aid Kits/Bandages, Food, Water (early on, grab the dirty water and cook it)
• Aloe - Found in the desert. Under the Science crafting tab, five makes Aloe Cream. Combine that with a bandage (just cloth) for First Aid Bandages.
• Honey - Use an axe on stumps. This fights off minor infections before they get out of control, useful since it allows you to save antibiotics for worse infections.
• Polymers - Used to make the Dew Collector which makes drinking water, which needs 100 pieces and its fairly common. You can get it by smacking tires you find lying around.
• Cookery - Cooking Pot, Grill, Beaker. You need to be able to cook the animal meat to stay fed. Grilled Meat is better than Charred. This is also the early way to get clean water.
• Parts - Mechanical / Electrical, Springs, Pipes, and weapon parts. You'll be glad you picked them up later when you start crafting weapons. Get a wrench (or ratchet) and left click on abandoned vehicles to get a load of various parts.
• Duct Tape (Glue) - Use for splints and a load of other crafting and repairs. The best weapons require a buttload to craft. Glue is required to craft it, so look our for that too.
• Animal Parts - Kill animals and skin them with a knife. Leather is used in many crafting recipes. Fat is for torches and more advanced cooking. Bones can be rendered into glue (see above).
• Bullet Components - Gunpowder, Casings, and Bullet Tips. Once you can build a workbench, you can turn them into much needed ammo.
• Materials - Metal, Brass, Lead, and Gas are handy for trade goods and for crafting. Gas should be held onto for your vehicles later in the game.
• Wheels - You want a bicycle as soon as possible, so take every wheel you find. You may get one as a quest reward. Later you can make a motorcycle and a 4x4 truck. Terrain can be rough on them, so keep repair kits on you.
• Drone - Vital for those infested stashes so you can take all the loot home. Keep some extra ammo, cash, and first aid items on it. Oh, and you'll want to set it to quiet mode. Look at it and hold E (that is if you can get it to hold still!).

7) 𝅘𝅥𝅮Take a look... It's in a book𝅘𝅥𝅮

Loot every bookshelf, mailbox, and newspaper dispenser you find. Raid every bookstore you come across! Consume as many all important reading material you can. These mostly raise your crafting skills but also impart some special abilities.

8) Treat Thyself

Zombies can occasionally inflict some nasty side effects along with regular damage. Also there's the chance you might possibly break something when falling from too high (until you raise your Agility and Parkour skill, that is).

• Bleeding - Treat with Sewing Kits / First Aid Kits / Bandages. You need to stop bleeding ASAP. When the heart icon appears, disengage, get on something high or sufficiently far away and use the healing item.
• Sprained / Broken Limbs - A major pain because they take longer to heal the more you use them. Jumping and running exacerbates an injured leg and using weapons does so for an injured arm. 
• Concussion - Keep some painkillers on hand for this injury.
• Fatigue - Keep vitamins on you. This comes on inevitably the longer you go.
• Infection - Gets worse the longer you leave it untreated. Use antibiotics, herbal antibiotics, or honey to be rid of it.

Check out Part 2...