Crafting Skill Unlock Screen (progression display_entry)

Part of the 7DTD Modding Knowledgebase. How the "Unlocks" list on a crafting-skill page (Skills → e.g. Robotics) is built from progression.xml, and how to add a mod item to it or relabel a row. Verified against V3.0.0 (b259).

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Where it comes from

Each <crafting_skill> in progression.xml (under /progression/crafting_skills/) holds:

• One <display_entry> per row shown in the skill's Unlocks list.
• One <effect_group> whose RecipeTagUnlocked passive effects do the actual unlocking (the display_entry is cosmetic; it does not unlock anything).

Vanilla Robotics (craftingRobotics) example:

<display_entry item="gunBotT3JunkDrone" unlock_level="76,80,85,90,95,100"/>
...
<effect_group>
  <passive_effect name="RecipeTagUnlocked" operation="base_set" level="76,100" value="1" tags="gunBotT3JunkDrone"/>
  <passive_effect name="CraftingTier"      operation="base_add" level="80,85,90,95,100" value="1,2,3,4,5" tags="gunBotT3JunkDrone"/>
</effect_group>

RecipeTagUnlocked tags="X" matches the recipe whose name is X (the recipe gunBotT3JunkDrone has tags learnable,perkTurrets,workbenchCrafting — note X is NOT in that tag list, so the match is by recipe name). A learnable recipe with no always_unlocked="true" stays locked until such an effect fires.

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Two forms of <display_entry> — and the label gotcha

Parser: ProgressionFromXml → ProgressionClass.DisplayData. Row label/icon come from DisplayData.GetName(level) / GetIcon(level), bound in XUiC_SkillCraftingInfoEntry. Each row shows exactly one name and one icon (picked by current quality tier), never a joined list.

1. Simple: item="someItem" — GetName returns Item.GetLocalizedItemName(). item= is a single ItemClass.GetItemClass(...) lookup — a comma list does not work here. When item= is set it also auto-adds one unlock entry.
2. Custom: icon="a,b" name_key="k1,k2" has_quality="…" with nested <unlock_entry item="…" unlock_tier="N"/>. name_key values are localized at parse time (Localization.Get). unlock_level = the quality-tier thresholds when has_quality="true" (one item across 6 tiers), else one level per entry.

Key trap: if item= is present, GetName uses the item's own name and ignores name_key. To show a custom row label (e.g. "Robotic Drone, FPV Drone") you must DROP item= and use a name_key whose localized string is the literal label. GetName/GetIcon clamp the tier index into the array, so a single-element name_key/icon with a 6-value has_quality unlock_level still shows that one label/icon on every tier while preserving the quality progression.

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Recipe: adding a mod item to an existing skill row (worked example)

Goal: FPV mod's fpvDroneLauncher shares the Robotic Drone's lvl-76 row and reads Robotic Drone, FPV Drone. Patch (Config/progression.xml):

<remove xpath="/progression/crafting_skills/crafting_skill[@name='craftingRobotics']/display_entry[@item='gunBotT3JunkDrone']"/>
<insertBefore xpath="/progression/crafting_skills/crafting_skill[@name='craftingRobotics']/effect_group[1]">
    <display_entry icon="gunBotT3JunkDrone" name_key="fpvDroneRoboticsUnlockRow" has_quality="true" unlock_level="76,80,85,90,95,100">
        <unlock_entry item="gunBotT3JunkDrone" unlock_tier="1"/>
        <unlock_entry item="fpvDroneLauncher" unlock_tier="1"/>
    </display_entry>
</insertBefore>
<append xpath="/progression/crafting_skills/crafting_skill[@name='craftingRobotics']/effect_group[1]">
    <passive_effect name="RecipeTagUnlocked" operation="base_set" level="76,100" value="1" tags="fpvDroneLauncher"/>
</append>

Plus: a learnable recipe named fpvDroneLauncher, UnlockedBy="craftingRobotics" on the item, and a Localization.txt key fpvDroneRoboticsUnlockRow.

Localization comma gotcha: the label contains a comma, so the CSV value MUST be quoted: fpvDroneRoboticsUnlockRow,progression,Attribute,FALSE,FALSE,"Robotic Drone, FPV Drone".

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Useful vanilla item names (V3.0.0)

resourceElectricParts (Electric Parts), resourceDuctTape (Duct Tape), gunBotRoboticsParts (Robotics Parts), resourceScopeLens (Lens), thrownGrenade (Grenade), resourceMechanicalParts (Mechanical Parts).

All of the above (recipes/progression/items) are restart-bucket load-baked XML; Localization.txt is xui (hot-reloadable).