Important takeaways
- Stick to one main armor in 7DTD due to resource limitations.
- Some sets are specialized to gather resources efficiently.
- Each armor set offers unique bonuses and equipment enhancements.
There are many armor sets in 7 Days To Die, giving you plenty of options for how you want to deal with the zombie apocalypse. In addition to belonging to one of three major weight classes, which provide different armor ratings, each piece of armor also provides a special bonus ability. Each armor set also has a unique bonus if you only equip parts from that set.
While they all have their optimal use cases, the fact is that resources are time-consuming and sometimes difficult to acquire, so it's better to pick one main outfit and stick with it. If you want to know which duds are the best in the wasteland, here are the best armor sets in 7 Days To Die.
10 Collection clothes
Lumberjack, Scavenger, Farmer, Miner
|
Armor class |
Light (Lumberjack) |
|---|---|
|
Medium (farmer, scavenger) |
|
|
Heavy (miner) |
An important exception to the idea of ”sticking to one outfit” is the clothing specifically made for resource gathering. These armor sets are great for collecting their associated resources but offer little in the way of combat bonuses.
Generally, they provide a combination of stats that allow you to harvest longer, preserve your harvesting equipment, harvest faster, give you more inventory, and increase your yield. Aside from the Scavenger set, to get the most out of this type of gear, just keep the entire set in a box near the relevant resources, switch to them when it's time to harvest, then switch back when you're done.
9 Killer
If you want some Assassin's Creed in your survival crafting experience, you can't do better than the Assassin outfit. This armor set makes sneaking more effective and sneak attacks more lethal. As a medium armor set, this outfit has decent armor.
Combined with the gloves' increased attack speed with Agility weapons (knives, bows and handguns), this set is no slouch should the battles get loud either. Atypical for medium armor, this set produces no extra noise and in fact the boots have a negative noise modifier.
8 Athletic
Rule number one: cardio. Sometimes the zombie apocalypse is not survived by the strongest or the toughest, but by the one who can keep running the longest. That spirit is embodied by the Athletic set, which provides bonuses to health and stamina, the latter of which lets you fight (or run) longer.
The boots also give a nice bonus to sprint speed, so you get more mileage out of your extra stamina. The hat provides a nice cost reduction for food, drink and drugs. The former two will last much longer as the complete set saves food and water as it regenerates health and stamina.
7 Enforcer
This set gives you the Agent 47 look, although you won't be orchestrating Rube Golberg-ian zombie deaths in it as much as you'll be shooting them dead with high-powered guns. The Enforcer set has an interesting array of buffs that are generally useful if not entirely coherent, giving you better bartering, more efficient fuel usage, and a faster sprint.
The armor increases your resistance to damage such as broken limbs, concussions, and bleeding lacerations. While useful in a pinch, you don't want to test it too hard since this is a light armor set. The full set bonus is nice, giving a lot of damage and reload speed to the .44 Magnum and the Desert Vulture – the latter being the heaviest gun in the game.
6 Ranger
This outfit is the very definition of mid, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's medium armor, so it gives decent but not amazing protection. The gloves increase the damage of revolvers and lever guns, which are mid-range weapons, while the whole set increases their reload speed. Its other buffs give the outfit a super-glorious feel; increase your health, stamina and exchange ability.
Good but not great, this set lets you survive zombie wastelands just fine. It's not the middle in a particularly important way, though: it's the neatest 'fit in the whole thing. It has a feel somewhere between Apocalypse cowboy and Fallout 4's minute men, making you a fashionable dispenser of frontier justice.
5 Biker
This armor set fulfills the fantasy of the hard fighting, bar brawling badass Biker. If you want to get into close range fights while maintaining some degree of mobility, no set is better than this.
In addition to being medium armor, this set increases your survivability by giving you more health and an increased resistance to being stunned, an ailment that can be fatal if it hits you at the wrong moment. The rest of the outfit boosts your close combat abilities by increasing your melee damage and reducing the stamina drain of weapon swings.
Full set bonus further increases your armor rating and will reduce the fuel consumption of minibikes and motorcycles so you can keep your pig on the road even longer.
4 Commando
The Commando set gives you a nice mix of survivability and offensive power, with the gloves alone worth it for their impressive boost to all ranged weapons. The rest of the set is focused on staying alive and moving fast enough to get some distance from the braineaters so you can get back to shooting.
You gain shock resistance and faster recovery from critical damage, as well as a boost to your sprint speed. The complete set makes recovery from items faster, lets you heal on the go with ease, and ensures that as long as you're not cornered (and have health supplies), you'll make it out alive.
3 Raider
The Raider set transforms you into a slab of deadly-head-trauma-dispensing metal, clattering around in heavy armor as you swing your weapon and turning the undead into mere dead. Like other heavy armors, you get a lot of armor from this set, which mitigates a lot of damage. The gloves also give you a pretty nice bonus to melee weapon damage.
The helmet is also notable because the legendary version makes you completely immune to being stunned, ensuring you can keep swinging as long as your health and stamina last. The outfit allows you to heal from damage faster while the whole set reduces your chances of getting them to begin with.
2 Preacher
In this lineup, you're ready to kick ass for the Lord. This is perhaps the best weight-to-value proposition in the entire game. As light armor, this set offers no penalty to movement or stealth, but in addition to the modest armor rating of Light armor, the outfit part reduces a percentage of the damage you take from zombies.
This set also has the best gloves in the entire game, bar none. It's arguably the best armor in the entire game, as Tier 6 flat-out increases all your damage by 60 percent. This is for all damage, not limited to a certain weapon class like on other sets. The set bonus is also quite nice, especially early on, giving you resistance to damage and reduced risk of infection, making you completely immune with legendary quality.
1 Nerd
It hurts to say, but the Nerd gear is the best set when it comes to character growth, and one of the better ones when it comes to surviving the zombie apocalypse.
The bonus XP gain from the headgear is nice, but much more impressive is the outfit that gives a chance to gain extra skill levels from magazines, a powerful growth ability unmatched by any other outfit in the game. Its other abilities are quite useful, giving you a safer fall, more powerful towers, and the whole set slows down equipment degradation.
So why should you avoid this set? Simple, the outfit is terrible. It's a mix of apocalypse anti-chic and 80s geek that's as ugly as the fit is useful. It's the epitome of a cool outfit. So if you don't mind looking like the biggest badass in the wasteland, these duds might just be worth it.
