7 Days to Die: Complete Guide to All Traders

There are five traders in 7 Days to Die — Rekt, Jen, Bob, Hugh, and Joel — each locked to a specific biome and specialty inventory. You’ll start near Rekt in the forest, then unlock the others in sequence by earning tier points through missions: 10 points to reach Jen, 20 for Bob, 30 for Hugh, and 40 for Joel. If you’re on Navezgane, their map positions are fixed. On random gen, their biome placements hold but exact coordinates shift every seed.

Below is a full breakdown of where each trader lives, what they actually stock, and how to work the mission system so you’re not wandering the map blind hoping to stumble across someone.

Two Paths to Finding Traders: Exploration vs. Missions

Technically, you can just walk main roads until you spot a trader compound. The yellow road signs and compound walls are visible from a distance, and traders appear on your map once you get close enough. That works — eventually. On a large random gen map, though, “eventually” can mean an hour of aimless jogging through the forest before you find anyone.

The faster approach starts on Day 1. Open your Challenges menu and activate the Trader Quest challenge. It runs you through a short checklist: basic crafting, some harvesting, using a few items. Nothing complicated. Work through those checkboxes and the quest rewards you with directions to your first trader. No console commands needed, no map reading required — just follow the marker.

For PC players who don’t mind bending the rules, the dm console command (debug mode) plus the lp command can reveal all points of interest, including trader compounds. But for anyone playing legitimately, the challenge route is the cleanest option on Day 1.

One trader — usually Rekt — will appear in or near the starter town. That’s intentional. The game wants you to find at least one trader early, because missions are the primary engine for unlocking the rest of the chain.

How the Trader Mission Unlock System Works

Every trader offers four mission types: fetch (collect a supply crate), clear (kill all zombies in a location), buried treasure (dig up a marked stash), and later, harder variants tied to higher-tier POIs. Each completed mission earns you tier points based on difficulty tier — a Tier 1 mission awards 1 point, Tier 2 awards 2, and so on up to Tier 5 at 5 points per run.

The unlock thresholds are fixed:

Trader Unlocked	Tier Points Required	Who Gives the Special Mission
Jen (from Rekt)	10 points	Rekt
Bob (from Jen)	20 points	Jen
Hugh (from Bob)	30 points	Bob
Joel (from Hugh)	40 points	Hugh

The chain is strictly linear. Even if you physically walk to Bob’s compound before unlocking him through the mission system, he won’t offer the full mission tier range until you’ve completed Jen’s special “introduction” mission. So grinding points at whichever trader you’ve currently unlocked is always the most efficient path forward.

Here’s where players often lose time: the special unlock mission only becomes available from the most recently unlocked trader in your chain. If you have Rekt and Jen active, only Jen can send you to Bob — not Rekt. Keep your missions concentrated at your frontier trader, not spread across the whole chain.

For fastest progression, run Tier 3 missions as your bread and butter. Three points per run, moderate difficulty, and they tend to be faster than Tier 4-5 clear missions in fortified POIs. Ten Tier 3 runs gets you to Jen. From there, seven more gets you to Bob. The math favors consistency over gambling on high-tier missions you might fail or burn too much ammo completing.

Also worth noting: tier points accumulate across all mission types. A buried treasure mission at Tier 2 counts just as much as a combat clear at Tier 2. Adjust based on your loadout. Low on ammo early? Run fetch and treasure missions. Geared up with solid firearms? Clear missions are faster per point once you’ve got the firepower.

Trader Rekt: Food and Seeds Specialist

Rekt lives in the forest biome — the green, relatively safe starting region that most new players are already wandering through. He’s not friendly. His dialogue is blunt and hostile, which has made him something of a fan favorite. But his inventory is genuinely useful early if you know what to look for.

His specialty stock runs toward food, seeds, and farming supplies. That sounds underwhelming until you’re on Day 5 with a base that has zero food production and your canned goods are running thin. Seeds from Rekt let you start a farm immediately, which in turn gives you a renewable food source that removes one major survival pressure. Plants like corn and potatoes grow reasonably fast and stack well for crafting more complex food items.

The food in his vending machine will feel redundant once you’re established — vending machines appear at trader compounds anyway, so you can buy snacks without going to him specifically. But seeds and farming magazines are the real reason to visit. If farming is part of your build strategy, Rekt is your most relevant early contact.

Trader Jen: Medicine and Medical Supplies

Jen sits in the burnt forest biome, the ash-and-haze zone that borders the green forest to the north or east depending on your map. She’s notably warmer in tone than Rekt — actually seems pleased to see you, which in the zombie apocalypse feels significant.

Medicine is where she earns her keep. Bandages, antibiotics, painkillers, first aid kits — items that are frustratingly scarce in the first two weeks of a new game. She also stocks medical magazines more reliably than any other trader, making her a strong source for leveling the Doctor skill line. If you’re building a medic-heavy character or simply trying to stay alive through your first few horde nights, Jen’s inventory is worth checking every time her shop resets (shops restock at 6:00 AM in-game, roughly every in-game day).

A practical tip: before horde night, make Jen one of your last stops. Stock up on whatever first aid kits she’s carrying. The durability of medkits versus bandages is significant — first aid kits restore far more health and are the safer choice when you’re getting hammered by a feral wight at 2 AM.

Trader Bob: Vehicles and Tools

Bob operates out of the desert biome, which means getting to him involves either crossing through the burnt forest or navigating around it. He’s worth the trip — eventually. In the first few weeks, most of his best stock is priced beyond what you’ll realistically have in Dukes. Vehicle parts in particular are expensive, and tools at Tier 3+ require a solid economic foundation to purchase outright.

Once you’re past that threshold, Bob becomes one of the most important traders in the game. Vehicles fundamentally change how you operate on the map. A bicycle cuts travel time significantly. A motorcycle makes cross-biome runs manageable. A 4×4 adds storage capacity that transforms resource hauling. Community testing suggests Bob’s vehicle schematic stock is weighted more heavily than other traders, meaning he’s more likely to have the schematics you need to craft vehicles yourself rather than buying assembled units.

His tool selection also matters for mining-focused players. High-quality steel pickaxes and augers appear in his inventory more frequently than in other traders’ shops, and the time savings from a quality auger versus a stone pickaxe is enormous once you’re in deep resource gathering phases.

Trader Hugh: Weapons and Ammunition

Hugh is in the snow biome — the frozen region in the north. By the time you unlock him through the mission chain, you should be somewhere around Day 20-30 in a typical playthrough, which means you’ve probably assembled a workable weapon loadout already. That’s fine. Hugh’s value isn’t necessarily in replacing your current guns; it’s in giving you access to higher-tier weapons and bulk ammo that would take a long time to craft yourself.

Guns in 7 Days to Die follow quality tiers from 1 to 6, with higher tiers requiring either good luck looting or deliberate investment. Hugh’s inventory leans toward Tier 4-5 weapons more often than earlier traders, particularly if you’ve invested in the Daring Adventurer perk. Ammo from Hugh also tends to be cheaper per bullet than crafting it yourself if you haven’t maxed out the relevant crafting perks.

One thing to budget for: Hugh’s prices reflect the value of what he’s selling. Weapons and ammo are the highest-value commodity in the apocalypse, and his shop reflects that. Start banking Dukes at Bob’s stage if you know Hugh is your next stop. Arriving at Hugh’s compound with 30,000+ Dukes lets you actually capitalize on his stock instead of just browsing.

Trader Joel: Armor and Late-Game Gear

Joel is the final trader in the progression chain, stationed in the wasteland — the most dangerous biome in the game. Irradiated zombies, landmines buried in the ash, and hostile conditions make this a zone you genuinely shouldn’t enter without decent gear and good situational awareness. The landmines deserve special attention: they’re scattered around the wasteland and near Joel’s compound, and they’ll kill an unprepared player instantly. Stick to the road leading into his compound and watch your step.

His specialty is armor, which at 40 tier points deep into the mission system makes sense. Full armor sets in 7 Days to Die are late-game goals — getting complete Military, Biker, or Plate armor sets with matching quality takes time and resources. Joel carries the pieces that let you fill in those gaps, and he’s more likely to stock matching set pieces than general loot drops.

If you’re building toward a specific armor set for the associated perk bonuses (Military armor enhancing Agility perks, for example), Joel is the most efficient source. He’s also worth visiting for late-game mods and armor upgrade materials that don’t appear as reliably anywhere else.

Boosting Trader Inventory Quality with Perks and Consumables

Trader inventory quality isn’t static — it scales with your character build, and the difference between investing in the right perk and ignoring it is substantial.

Daring Adventurer is the single highest-impact perk for trader optimization. Each rank increases the quality tier of items available in trader shops and improves the reward quality from completed missions. At Rank 3, you’re seeing Tier 5-6 items in shops where you’d otherwise see Tier 3-4. Investing in this perk early — even before your weapons or tools perks — pays compound returns throughout the entire game because better shop items flow into everything else you’re doing.

The Better Barter perk works in parallel. Each rank reduces purchase prices and increases sell prices. At max rank, the economic swing is meaningful enough to significantly extend how far your Duke reserves go. Pair it with Grandpa’s Awesome Sauce — a craftable consumable that provides a temporary barter buff — before any major purchase and you’ll consistently pay less than the listed price.

A few practical notes on shop resets and timing. Trader inventory refreshes every in-game day at 6:00 AM. If you’re running a long session, it’s worth fast-traveling back to your priority trader after sleeping through the night to catch fresh stock. Traders also close at 9:00 PM in-game and reopen at 6:00 AM — getting locked out mid-shopping trip is a real frustration, so plan visits for earlier in the day cycle.

One underused strategy: sell consistently to the same trader you’re completing missions for. Selling items to a trader doesn’t increase your tier points directly, but it builds Duke reserves that let you buy better items from that trader’s refreshed stock — which in turn supports higher-tier mission runs with better gear. The whole system reinforces itself when you’re working one trader at a time rather than splitting attention across multiple compounds.

As of the 1.0 stable release (verified January 2026), all five traders, their biome placements, mission tier thresholds, and specialty inventories function as described here. Balance adjustments to Daring Adventurer and Better Barter have been relatively stable through recent patches, but check the official 7 Days to Die patch notes if you’re playing a version released after this writing — The Fun Pimps have historically adjusted perk values between major updates.