I think bandits would bring me back to 7 Days to Die, but I'm still unsure. Human enemies in a zombie game would be cool, as long as they're a hell of a lot smarter than the zombies. The catch is timing: bandits were planned for 2025, The Fun Pimps' latest word is only that version 4.0 is "moving along well", and there's no official date for bandits at all.
I've got 626 hours in 7 Days to Die. Here's where bandits actually stand, what the new 3.3 backpack changed, and why I'm not rushing back yet.
When Are Bandits Coming to 7 Days to Die?
There's no official release date for 7 Days to Die bandits. Bandits were planned for the second quarter of 2025 on the roadmap The Fun Pimps put out around 1.0, as Wikipedia's 7 Days to Die page notes, and that date has come and gone. The most recent official update, in The Fun Pimps' V3.2 post on 26 August 2026, says only that "work on v4.0 continues in parallel and is moving along well", without naming bandits.
Bandits aren't a new idea, either. They already exist as an entity in the game's code: the Alpha 21 release notes from June 2023 include "Dodge added to bandits" and a debug menu that counts "local animal, bandit and zombies". Players on the official forum have been asking for years whether they'll ever actually ship, and a thread from April 2026 is still asking. 7 Days to Die has been around since Early Access started on 13 December 2013, and 1.0 only launched on 25 July 2024, per its Steam page.
Do Human Enemies Work in a Zombie Game?
I think it would be cool. I just think they might run into the Rust problem. Zombies being stupid is fine , they're dead, right? But if you're meant to have human enemies as well, they need to be a hell of a lot smarter than the zombies are.
That's because all the zombies are is pathing you abuse to win Horde Night. The Fun Pimps have spent years patching the worst of it: the Alpha 18 patch notes fixed "using poles to fool zombies" and a "zombie AI pathing issue when breaking blocks to get to the player". A moderator explained on Steam in December 2020 that zombies use A* pathfinding, and that bases zombies can't dig into or climb are bugs "exploited to the level that the player becomes completely untouchable".
For bandits to feel meaningful, they'd need to be a genuine threat , not just another entity you can funnel down a corridor.
What Changed With the Backpack in Version 3.3?
Version 3.3, released on 5 October 2026, added a backpack you actually wear. Until 3.3, the backpack was just your inventory grid: 9 by 5, 45 slots, with only the first three rows free before you got slowed down, per the 7 Days to Die wiki. "Backpack" was also the name of the bag you drop when you die.
Here's what the V3.3 post changed:
- The base inventory grid is now 8 by 6 (48 slots): four rows free, two rows encumbered.
- There's a new Backpack equipment slot. Backpacks come in Small, Medium, and Large, with six quality levels each.
- Wearing one takes you up to 96 slots in an 8 by 12 grid. Pack Mule and armour pocket mods then remove the encumbrance from those extra slots.
Pocket mods have been around since Alpha 18 in 2019, which is why they're what most long-time players remember. Inventory space was always earned through perks and mods. Now there's a dedicated equippable item for it as well, which you can craft, loot, or buy.
The JaWoodle Situation and Why It Matters
Would bandits bring me back to 7 Days to Die? I think so. I'm still unsure, though, because of The Fun Pimps' handling of JaWoodle, the creator who got me back into the game before Alpha 20. Without him, I think I would have been on less than 50 hours.
Here's what happened, per GamingHQ. JaWoodle got early access to a pre-release build of 3.0 through the official creator program, and it included content the developers didn't plan to reveal yet , reportedly bandits and chicken coops. He published his videos after the embargo, and was then told he'd been sent the wrong build. According to JaWoodle, The Fun Pimps and Behaviour Interactive put copyright claims on several of his videos and threatened legal action, and he's since said he's taking legal advice.
The Fun Pimps' Crater Creator confirmed on the official forum that the build sent out by mistake included bandits, so they do exist in a playable form somewhere. The studio itself has also changed hands: Behaviour Interactive, the Dead by Daylight studio, bought The Fun Pimps in March 2026.
I wrote about why 7 Days to Die is still worth it solo earlier this month. You can find more on the game on games.gg's 7 Days to Die page.
