Alcohol Poisoning in 7 Days to Die: Duration, Effects, and How to Recover

In 7 Days to Die, Alcohol Poisoning is a self-inflicted negative status that manifests as the Sick Drunk debuff. The duration depends entirely on how many beers you put away before the wellness meter started fighting back.

How Long Does Alcohol Poisoning Last?

The effect sticks around for as long as the beers that caused it stay in your character's system. A single beer lasts one minute in game time, so the math is direct: more beers, longer recovery.

Quick note for returning players: since Alpha 20, every instance of Grain Alcohol has been replaced with regular Beer.

While the debuff is active, three penalties stack on top of each other:

• Wellness drops by 1 per in-game hour (about 100 real-life seconds).
• Stamina drains by 5 per second.
• Movement speed slows by 40%.

Dying during the bender costs another 10 wellness on respawn. The apocalypse does not give refunds.

What Triggers Alcohol Poisoning

You need to push past 14 beers in a short window to trigger the full effect. The Sick Drunk status kicks in after just 3 beers, which is the game's way of telling you to slow the pace.

Treating It

There is no medkit for this one. The only treatment is time. Park yourself in a base or any safe corner of the map and let the system metabolize. If you went all in with 14 beers, Alcohol Poisoning clears once your count drops to 9 beers in your system.

You are not done yet. From there you return to Sick Drunk, and then your character earns a 25 minute Hangover. That stage costs 1 stamina per second for its duration, so save heavy lifting or zombie combat for after it clears.

What Beer Does in Moderation

Used carefully, Beer is a real combat tool. It applies the Buzzed buff for one minute and provides:

• +300% Brawl damage
• +100% Stun resist
• +40% Stamina regeneration

These effects stack with additional beers consumed in close succession, which is also the exact path to the trouble described above.

Crafting and Buying Beer

Beer is crafted at the Chemistry Station using 4x Hops Flower and 1x Water. The recipe unlocks after reading 27x Home Cooking Weekly magazines. If you would rather skip the reading, Traders sell it at a base price of 300 Dukes.

Recipes That Use Beer

Beer also doubles as a crafting ingredient for several useful items.

Chemistry Station

• First Aid Kit: 1x Beer, 1x Blood Bag, 1x Bandage, 1x Sewing Kit
• Fort Bites: 1x Beer, 5x Blood Bag, 20x Rotting Flesh, 1x Vitamins
• Recog: 2x Bottle of Acid, 1x Beer, 5x Scrap Polymers, 1x Vitamins
• Steroids: 1x Oil, 1x Beer, 1x Testosterone Extract

Campfire (requires a Cooking Pot)

• Grandpa's Learn'n Elixir: 2x Can of Dog Food, 2x Red Tea, 1x Bottle of Acid, 1x Beer, 1x Ear of Super Corn
• Grandpa's Moonshine: 5x Corn Meal, 1x Beer, 5x Blueberries, 1x Bottle of Acid, 1x Ear of Super Corn
• Pumpkin Cheesecake: 1x Pumpkin, 1x Egg, 1x Corn Meal, 1x Animal Fat, 1x Beer

Drink one or two before a fight, save the rest for crafting recipes, and your character keeps a clear head while still hitting harder.