Crafting and Combat
Crafting moves through five tiers: hand crafting, the Crafting Bench, cooking at a Campfire or Cooking Pot, metalwork at the Forge, and legendary elemental gear unlocked by Taskmasters and bought with Task Tokens. Combat is real time and there is no shield or block button, so rolling clear is your only defense. Every weapon type except the bow has its own charged ability on a held attack. Upgrade as fast as your stations allow, and wall off your base with spike traps and armed monkeys before the first Blood Moon raid.
Everything in The Survivalists feeds through the crafting system. Your tools determine what you can gather, your weapons determine what you can kill, your food determines how long you survive, and your structures determine whether your base is still standing after an orc raid. This guide covers the full crafting tree from your first pebble handaxe to legendary elemental weapons, plus combat techniques and raid defense strategies.
Crafting Progression
Crafting follows a tiered progression. Each tier unlocks when you build the required station and discover or purchase the right recipes.
| Tier | Station | Materials Used | Items Produced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - Handcraft | None (personal menu) | Pebbles, Long Grass, Timber | Hand Axe, Rope, Stone Chunks, Straw Bundles |
| 2 - Basic | Crafting Bench | Timber, Stone Chunks, Rope | Clubs, spears, bows, tools, structural pieces |
| 3 - Cooking | Campfire / Cooking Pot | Raw food, Berries, Coconuts | Cooked meals, buff foods, Elixirs |
| 4 - Metalwork | Forge | Ore, Charcoal, Pelts | Metal and gold ingots, tools, weapons, glass |
| 5 - Legendary | Taskmasters, then the Token Shop | Task Tokens, Refined Gems | Elemental weapons, trinket blueprints |
How Recipe Unlocking Works
New recipes appear in your crafting menu when you:
- Craft a prerequisite item. Making a Hand Axe unlocks Rope, Straw Bundles, and Comfy Padding all at once. Rope then unlocks Stone Chunks and the Tool Handle, and the Crafting Bench blueprint appears once you build a Small Chest.
- Build a new station. Placing a Forge reveals all Forge-specific recipes.
- Complete Taskmaster quests. NPCs called Taskmasters give tasks (gather X items, defeat Y enemies) that reward legendary blueprints.
- Buy from the Mysterious Stranger. The balloon merchant sells blueprints for elemental weapons and advanced structures.
Crafting Stations in Detail
Crafting Bench
Your first major station. Build it as soon as you have the materials.
Recipe: 3 Stone Chunk, 2 Wooden Rod, 3 Rope. The blueprint unlocks after you build a Small Chest.
Key recipes unlocked:
| Item | Ingredients | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Wooden Club | 4 Timber, 1 Palm Leaf, 1 Rope | Your first real weapon. 50 durability, 10 damage |
| Bone Club | 4 Bone, 1 Palm Leaf, 1 Rope | Straight upgrade at 80 durability and 26 damage |
| Flimsy Pickaxe | 1 Tool Handle, 2 Stone Chunks, 1 Rope | Mines rock and ore deposits |
| Bow | 1 Wooden Rod, 2 Rope, 2 Mud | Ranged option. Arrows are a separate recipe |
| Wooden Rod | 3 Timber, 1 Rope | Gates the Crafting Bench itself, the Raft, the Bow, and the Spear |
| Wooden Slat | 4 Timber, 2 Rope | Feeds the Repair Bench, Trinket Bench, doors, and larger chests |
| Watering Can | 3 Makeshift Bowl, 1 Tool Handle | On the second page. Crafting one unlocks Hardwood Slats |
There is no wooden sword. All four swords in the game are metal tier or above, so clubs carry your early game. The Spear is also not a starting weapon, since it costs 2 Wooden Rod, 2 Metal Sheet, and 3 Boar Pelt.
The Raft is a Building-menu blueprint and not a bench item, unlocked by building the Crafting Bench. It is made from Wooden Rods and Rope, and it will not sail without a Makeshift Sail. See Islands, Biomes and Labyrinths for that chain.
Campfire
Your primary cooking station for the first half of the game.
Recipe: 6 Pebbles. It is available in the Blueprint tab from the very start.
| Recipe | Ingredients | Restores |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit Smoothie | 2 Berries, 2 Coconuts, 1 Palm Leaf | 50 hunger, 20 health |
| Meat Kebab | 2 Meat Chunks or 4 Meat Scraps | 20 hunger, 50 health |
| Charred Fish | 2 Fillet, 1 Palm Leaf | 20 hunger, 50 health |
| Sizzling Steak | 4 Steaks, 4 Berries, 1 Makeshift Bowl | 100 hunger, 100 health |
| Slow Cooked Stew | 6 Bat Wing, 2 Steak, 2 Makeshift Bowl | Full, plus +100 max health and +100 max stamina |
| Foul Meal | 3 Petals, 3 Long Grass, 1 Timber | 50 hunger, but you want it for befriending monkeys |
| Glass Bottle (Clean Water) | 1 Glass Bottle (Dirty Water), 2 Charcoal | Volcanic biome resistance |
| Glass Bottle (Elixir) | 1 Glass Bottle (Dirty Water), 1 Bone, 3 Petals | Swamp biome resistance |
| Charcoal | 3 Timber | Forge fuel and crafting ingredient |
The Campfire is where the heavy food lives, not the Cooking Pot. The June 2021 Expeditions Update moved that whole recipe tree back here, so any guide sending you to a Cooking Pot for a Sizzling Steak or a Slow Cooked Stew predates that change.
Charcoal is not a passive byproduct of campfire usage. Craft it at a Campfire at 3 Timber each, chop the dead trees in the Badlands and Volcanic biomes, or dig up tree stumps with a Shovel. Stockpile at least 10 before you finish your Forge, because a finished Forge will not craft anything until you light it with 10 Charcoal.
Cooking Pot
An upgraded cooking station for advanced food recipes. These meals restore more hunger and some provide temporary buffs.
Recipe: 12 Pebbles, 1 Bucket (requires Forge to be built first)
The Cooking Pot's entire recipe list is the pastry tree, and that is all it does. Nine recipes sit in it, and each one unlocks by crafting the one it hangs off.
| Recipe | Ingredients | Unlocked by | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pastry | 1 Wheat, 1 Sugar | Available from the start | The base ingredient for everything below |
| Chocolate Bar | 1 Cocoa Pod, 1 Sugar | Craft Pastry | Makes tamed animals fall in love |
| Meat Pastry | 2 Meat Scrap, 1 Pastry | Craft Pastry | Heals a medium amount of health and hunger |
| Fish Pie | 4 Fillet, 2 Pastry | Craft Pastry | Heals a large amount of health and hunger |
| Fruit Pie | 4 Berries, 2 Pastry | Craft Pastry | Heals a large amount of health and hunger |
| Chocolate Cake | 3 Chocolate Bar, 1 Wheat, 2 Sugar | Craft Chocolate Bar | Heals all hunger |
| Chocolate Pie | 2 Chocolate Bar, 2 Pastry | Craft Chocolate Bar | Heals all hunger |
| Meat Pie | 4 Meat Scrap, 2 Pastry | Craft Meat Pastry | Heals a large amount of health and hunger |
| Gourmet Pie | 3 Steak, 2 Pastry | Craft Meat Pie | Full health and hunger restoration |
That chain is why "Overcooked!" takes only four crafts. Make a Pastry, a Chocolate Bar, a Meat Pastry, and a Meat Pie, and the other five unlock behind them without you cooking any of them.
The "Totally Buff" achievement requires having health, stamina, and biome resistance buffs active at the same time, and every part of it comes off the Campfire. Cook a Slow Cooked Stew for the health and stamina buffs, then drink a Glass Bottle (Clean Water) for volcanic resistance or a Glass Bottle (Elixir) for swamp resistance before the stew expires. No DLC and no Alchemy Bench are involved. The achievement shipped with the game in 2020.
Forge
The metal-tier crafting station. This is the gateway to weapons and tools that can handle Island 3+ enemies.
Recipe: 8 Mud, 16 Stone Chunks. Since Stone Chunks are crafted from 6 Pebbles each, that is a 96-pebble build, and Mud needs a Shovel.
The Forge smelts raw ore into metal ingots. From ingots, you craft metal versions of your tools and weapons. Pelts are the real bottleneck at this tier, and the guides that skip them leave you short.
| Item | Ingredients | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Metal Sword | 1 Sword Handle, 1 Metal Sheet, 1 Metal Nails | The Sword Handle is the true cost at 6 Metal Sheet, 1 Metal Frame, and 5 Wolf Pelt |
| Lightweight Pickaxe | 1 Tool Handle, 1 Metal Sheet, 2 Metal Nails | Mines Gem Stone, Volcanic Rock, and Basalt |
| Lightweight Axe | 1 Tool Handle, 1 Metal Sheet, 2 Metal Ingot | Faster chopping |
| Sturdy Multitool | 1 Tool Handle, 1 Metal Ingot, 1 Rope | The durable multitool |
| Gold Sword | 1 Gold Sword Handle, 1 Gold Sheet, 1 Gold Nails | The best non-legendary weapon after sharpening |
Repair Bench
Recipe: 6 Stone Chunk, 4 Wooden Slat, 6 Rope. It unlocks right after the Crafting Bench, which makes it an early build and not a late one.
Its main job is restoring ordinary tools and weapons to full durability, and it does it cheaply. A Flimsy Multitool costs 1 Rope to repair, a Wooden Club the same. Its second page handles Legendary items, where 3 Refined Gems both repair a damaged one and rebuild a Broken one from scratch.
Trinket Bench
The Trinket Bench unlocks after the Repair Bench. It turns gem fragments into crystals (Quartz, Emerald, Sapphire, Topaz) and crystals into trinkets, which give passive combat and gathering bonuses.
Trinkets split into Enhancement Wards (Harvest, Protection, Shield, Speed) and Combat Charms (Burning, Critical, Damaging, Explosive, Infectious, Life Steal), plus Pets. You can equip five at once, one per tier plus a Pet, and the effects stack.
| Trinket | Effect |
|---|---|
| Harvest Ward | Raises your damage against rocks and trees, from +100% up to +250% |
| Protection Ward | Reduces incoming damage, from 9% up to 22% |
| Shield Ward | Blocks one incoming attack on a cooldown, every 60 seconds at Weak tier down to every 20 at Ultimate |
| Life Steal Charm | Heals you on every hit. The Ultimate tier heals 5 |
Every Ultimate-tier trinket costs the same thing: 4 Topaz Crystals, 4 Refined Gems, and 1 Ornate Orcling Relic. Ultimate is a tier, not a single item.
Completing Tasks only unlocks a trinket recipe. You still buy it from the Mysterious Stranger with Task Tokens, and there are exactly 29 tokens in the game against 29 purchasable items, so never buy the same blueprint twice. The Ultimate Combo Trinket blueprint drops in the Big Cat Labyrinth boss room, and unlocking all four does mean regenerating your world and clearing that labyrinth at least three more times. The recipe that drops is random, so three is a floor and not a guarantee.
Alchemy Bench
A late-game structure unlocked after the Forge, requiring 10 Basalt Rock, 12 Hardwood Slats, and 6 Glass Sheets. It converts resources into other resources, and that is what makes metal, gold, basalt, brimstone, gemstones, and glowstones renewable. It arrived in the 2021 Farming Update and is base game, not part of the Frostbite Fortress DLC, and it does not brew potions. See Farming and Alchemy for full details.
Weapon Tiers
Weapons follow a clear power progression. Upgrade as fast as your materials and crafting stations allow.
| Tier | Examples | How to Get | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood/Bone | Hand Axe, Wooden Club, Bone Club | Hand crafting, Crafting Bench | Low durability. Bone Club at 80/26 carries you a long way |
| Metal | Metal Sword, Spear, Metal Club | Forge | 100 durability, 100 damage on the sword |
| Sharpened | Sharp Sword, Sharp Gold Sword | Grindstone, using whetstones | The Sharp Gold Sword at 175/225 is the best non-legendary weapon |
| Gold | Gold Sword, Gold Spear | Forge | Better than metal on both damage and durability, with no trade-off |
| Legendary/Elemental | Fire Sword, Wind Spear | Taskmasters, then the Token Shop | 300 damage, 200 durability. Repairable at the Repair Bench |
Gold has no drawback against metal. The Gold Sword is 150 durability and 150 damage against the Metal Sword's 100 and 100, so it is a straight upgrade that only costs more to build.
Elemental Weapons
There are eight legendary elemental weapons in the game. Each one deals bonus elemental damage and has a visual effect.
| Element | Weapons | Special Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | Fire Sword, Fire Spear | Ignites enemies, dealing damage over time |
| Ice | Ice Sword, Ice Pickaxe | Slows enemies on hit |
| Earth | Earth Club, Earth Pickaxe | Knockback effect, staggers enemies |
| Wind | Wind Axe, Wind Spear | Increased attack speed |
All eight come from the four Taskmasters, two each, and you can collect the full set in a single solo save. Finishing a Taskmaster's final task unlocks their two blueprints for purchase from the Mysterious Stranger's Token Shop, at 1 Task Token apiece.
| Taskmaster | Island | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Beast Master | 2 | Wind Spear, Fire Spear |
| Survival Gourmand | 3 | Ice Pickaxe, Wind Axe |
| The Collector | 4 | Earth Club, Earth Pickaxe |
| The Salesman | 5 | Fire Sword, Ice Sword |
Before Balance Patch 1.1.3, elemental weapons dropped directly from labyrinth boss chests. That loot table was removed and labyrinths now give you a trinket slot instead. Taskmasters are the only route, and you pay in Task Tokens and not doubloons. The game holds exactly 29 Task Tokens against 29 purchasable items, so never buy the same blueprint twice. A known bug lets blueprints you already own reappear in the shop after a world replenishment.
Elemental weapons break after heavy use. When broken, they become a "Broken [Weapon Name]" item. Take them to a Repair Bench with 3 Refined Gems, which both repairs a damaged one and rebuilds a broken one from scratch. Do not throw away broken legendaries.
Combat Mechanics
Combat is real-time and action-based. Understanding the core mechanics is the difference between clearing a labyrinth and losing your entire monkey squad.
Basic Controls
There is no shield and no block button in The Survivalists. The weapon types are swords, spears, clubs, and bows, and rolling clear is your only defense. The only thing resembling a block is the Shield Ward trinket, which stops one attack on a cooldown.
| Action | Control | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | Left Click | Hold to charge a weapon ability |
| Roll | Tap the run key | Rolls across gaps, spike pits, and away from attacks |
| Sprint | Hold the run key | The only thing besides charged attacks that drains stamina |
Weapon Abilities
Holding the attack button charges an ability, and each weapon class has its own. This is the real reason to pick one weapon type over another.
| Weapon | Ability | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Sword | Circular Slash | Hits everything around you. The standard answer to a bat swarm |
| Club | Power Smash | Straight extra damage on one target |
| Spear | Spear Throw | Throws the spear like an arrow. It drops where it lands, so go pick it up |
| Bow | None | Bows have no charged ability |
Rolling
Rolling is how you get out of the way, and it is also how you cross spike pits in labyrinths. A 2020 patch made combat actions interruptible, so you no longer have to wait out a swing animation before rolling.
Key tips:
- Against charging enemies like boars, let them commit and then roll clear. If they crash into an object they stun for a few seconds, which is your damage window.
- Against big cats, circle to the flank and hit them while they turn, then roll out. Do not trade blows.
- Rolling costs no stamina, so roll as often as you like.
Stamina Management
Stamina drains from exactly two things: sprinting and charged power attacks. Ordinary swings and rolls are free. Your base pool is 100, and it refills on its own once you stop sprinting.
- Do not sprint into a fight, so you arrive with a full bar for charged attacks.
- Sleeping raises your stamina temporarily, scaled by the quality of your bed sheet, and buff foods raise it too.
- A Slow Cooked Stew adds 100 to your maximum stamina and 100 to your maximum health.
Enemy Priority
Not all enemies are worth fighting. Some are resource drains that eat your food and damage your weapons without giving meaningful rewards.
| Enemy | Threat Level | Worth Fighting? |
|---|---|---|
| Rabbits, Deer | None | Kill for meat. Easy resources. Deer flee, Stags charge |
| Boars | Low | Aggressive when provoked. Good meat source |
| Warthogs | Low | Badlands boars. Same tactics, slightly tougher |
| Snapping Turtles | Low | Three-shot acid spread. Annoying at sea because they damage your raft |
| Cougars and Tigers | Moderate | Dangerous alone. Worth the pelt materials |
| Volcanic Spitters | Moderate | Rooted plants, not roamers. Low damage, easy kills, and they drop Charcoal |
| Orclings | High | Fight to defend base. The Chief summons reinforcements |
| Devil Boars | High | Attack twice before a delay and spawn in groups |
| Spectres | High | Always kill first. They cannot hurt you themselves, but they raise their five skeletons endlessly |
| Elephant Birds | Very High | Three acid rounds plus a heavy melee. Attack from behind |
| Frabbits | Very High | Not a threat, a prize. High health, and they drop metal, gold, gems, and crystal fragments |
| Sharks | Extreme | The highest damage in the game. Spear or bow only, never melee, never in the water |
| Panthers | Extreme | The deadliest creature in the game. Two attacks per cooldown and they spawn in groups |
Raids
Raids run on the Blood Moon cycle, not on anything you do. A Blood Moon falls roughly every five in-game days, about an hour of real time. The moon by your minimap turns red at night and the raid arrives the following day, so the game always gives you a full night of warning.
The Blood Moon also restores every gathered resource and respawns every enemy in the world, and that is what keeps the island farmable.
Who Shows Up
Raiders depend on which island you are standing on when the raid lands, not on what you have fought before.
| Island | Raiders |
|---|---|
| 1 | Orclings, all types |
| 2 | Devil Boars or Wolves |
| 3 | Tigers or Devil Boars |
| 4 | Elephant Birds or Panthers |
| 5 | Red Orclings, the stronger variant |
Raid size scales with how far you have progressed. Plan around the island you actually live on, because a base on Island 4 has to survive Panthers and not orcs.
Raid Preparation
- Wall off your base. Walls around your critical structures force raiders to break through instead of walking in.
- Place spike traps. Wooden, Bone, and Metal Spike Traps outside your walls damage raiders on approach. Funnel them into narrow lanes.
- Plant your defenses. Venus Fly Traps, Swamp Bogs, and Volcanic Spitters grown in an Orchard turn friendly to you and your monkeys and attack everything else. Tamed animals can be set as guard animals too.
- Arm your monkeys. Handing a monkey a weapon is all it takes to put it in combat mode.
- Stockpile weapons. Keep a chest of spares near your base, since monkey weapons wear out.
Walling in your bed specifically does nothing. Since the 2021 Farming Update, raiders spawn wherever you are standing and never at your bed.
Skipping a Raid Entirely
Raiders do not spawn if you are away from your base when the raid triggers, so a Blood Moon night is a good time to go exploring. Better still, walk into a Vault or a Labyrinth as dawn breaks and the raid cancels outright, with the on-screen message "The Raiders were scared off." A cave works too, and so does sitting out on a raft.
During a Raid
- Stay near your base and fight alongside your combat monkeys.
- Focus on raiders attacking your structures instead of chasing stragglers.
- Eat between waves if your health drops. Do not wait until you are nearly dead.
- If you are overwhelmed, get on your raft. Staying out on the water halts the raid.
After a Raid
- Assign repair monkeys with multitools to fix damaged walls and structures.
- Replace any monkey weapons that broke during the fight.
- Check your storage chests. Raiders damage them, and a damaged chest can stop your monkeys using it until you repair it.
Relocate your base to a coastal spot with water on at least two sides. This cuts the number of directions raiders can approach from, making your walls and traps more effective.
Fishing
Fishing provides a steady food source without much risk, and there are four ways to do it.
- Spear. Any spear works, and there is no such thing as a dedicated fishing spear. Throw it at a fish shadow in the shallows. If it lands in deep water you need a raft to get it back.
- Bow and arrows. Same idea at longer range.
- Fishing Net. Crafted at the Crafting Bench from 2 Cloth and 3 Rope, on the second page. Fish caught in a net stay alive and can be kept in a Pond.
- Fish Trap. Place it, bait it, come back later.
Speared fish drop as raw fillets. Cook two with a Palm Leaf at a Campfire for Charred Fish. The "Got Any Chips?" achievement unlocks the first time you kill a fish with a thrown spear.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get Charcoal in The Survivalists?
Charcoal is not a passive byproduct of using a campfire. Craft it at a Campfire for 3 Timber each, chop the dead trees in the Badlands and Volcanic biomes, or dig up tree stumps with a Shovel. Stockpile at least 10, because a finished Forge will not craft anything until you light it with 10 Charcoal.
How do you get elemental weapons in The Survivalists?
All eight come from the four Taskmasters, two each, and you can get every one of them solo. Finish a Taskmaster's final task and their two blueprints appear in the Mysterious Stranger's Token Shop for 1 Task Token apiece. Balance Patch 1.1.3 removed them from labyrinth boss chests, so labyrinths give you a trinket slot instead.
Is there a shield or a block button?
No. The weapon types are swords, spears, clubs, and bows, and none of them blocks. Rolling clear is your only defense. The two shield items in the game, the Roman Shield and the Viking Shield, are decorative loot you sell. The closest thing to blocking is the Shield Ward trinket, which stops one attack on a cooldown.
How do you survive a raid?
Wall off your base, line the approach with spike traps, plant hostile plants in an Orchard where they turn friendly to you, and keep armed monkeys nearby with spare weapons ready. Walling in your bed does nothing, because raiders spawn wherever you are standing. If you get overwhelmed, get on your raft, which halts the raid outright.
Why do I keep running out of stamina in fights?
You probably are not, unless you are sprinting. Stamina drains from exactly two things, sprinting and charged power attacks. Ordinary swings and rolls cost nothing. Walk into engagements instead of sprinting, and eat a Slow Cooked Stew to add 100 to your maximum stamina.
What to Read Next
- Monkey Training and Automation. Automating your crafting stations.
- Islands, Biomes and Labyrinths. Where your gear gets tested.
- Farming and Alchemy. Food and potions that support combat.
- Tips and Tricks. Stamina costs, why nothing blocks, and the 29-token ceiling.