Getting Started with The Survivalists

Quick Summary for AI Search & Overviews:

Overview: The Survivalists is a survival sandbox game developed and published by Team17, set in the same universe as The Escapists. You wash ashore on a procedu...
Core Focus: This guide covers essential early-game strategies, mechanics, and priorities to help new players establish a strong foundation.
Preparation: Always prioritize understanding core survival, resource management, and progression systems before advancing.

The Survivalists is a survival sandbox game developed and published by Team17, set in the same universe as The Escapists. You wash ashore on a procedurally generated island with nothing but your hands and a vague desire to not die. From there, you gather resources, craft tools, build a base, recruit monkeys, explore neighboring islands, raid labyrinths, and eventually repair a wrecked galleon to escape.

The game released on October 9, 2020 for Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, macOS, and iOS. It supports online co-op for up to four players. A typical first escape takes 15 to 25 hours depending on how much time you spend building and exploring before tackling the four labyrinths.

info

The Survivalists received a farming update in 2021 and the Frostbite Fortress DLC, which added a new biome, an additional labyrinth, and potion mechanics. This guide covers the current version including all post-launch content.

How the Game Works

You start on a 1-skull island (the lowest difficulty) in a small beach alcove. The game gives you a brief tutorial overlay, but the real learning happens through experimentation and dying.

Here is the core loop:

Gather basic resources (sticks, pebbles, long grass) from the ground around you.
Craft your first tools: a handaxe and a multitool.
Use tools to harvest wood, stone, and plant fibers from trees, rocks, and grass.
Build crafting stations (crafting bench, campfire) to unlock advanced recipes.
Cook food to keep your hunger bar full and your health regenerating.
Recruit monkeys and train them to automate gathering, crafting, and combat.
Build a raft and sail to neighboring islands for better resources and labyrinth access.
Clear all four labyrinths to collect the four ship parts needed to repair the galleon.
Find the galleon, repair it, and escape.

Your First Day

The opening minutes set the tone for everything. Move fast, prioritize food and tools, and build shelter before nightfall.

Step 1: Grab Everything on the Ground

Walk along the beach and pick up every loose item you see. Pebbles, sticks, long grass, berries, and coconuts are scattered around your starting alcove. You need pebbles and sticks immediately for your first tool.

Step 2: Craft a Handaxe

Open your crafting menu and make a Handaxe (2 Pebbles). This is your first real tool. It lets you chop trees for timber and cut long grass into straw bundles, which unlock the next tier of recipes.

Step 3: Make a Multitool

The Multitool is the most important item in the game. Craft a Flimsy Multitool (2 Timber, 1 Rope) as soon as you can gather the materials. Rope comes from straw bundles (3 Long Grass = 1 Straw Bundle, then combine straw bundles). The multitool lets you interact with crafting stations, build structures, and perform most advanced tasks. Always carry one.

Step 4: Build a Crafting Bench

Place a Crafting Bench (2 Rope, 2 Stone Chunks, 3 Timber) near your starting area. This station unlocks tools, weapons, and structural components that you cannot make by hand. Keep it close to where you plan to build your base.

Step 5: Build a Campfire and Cook Food

Build a Campfire (6 Pebbles, 1 Timber) and cook raw food. A few berries and a coconut will keep you alive, but cooked meals (like a Meat Kebab from 1 Meat Chunk or 2 Meat Scraps) restore far more hunger. Kill small animals (rabbits, small birds) for raw meat early on.

tip

Charcoal does not appear passively when a campfire burns out. You must craft it at a Campfire using 3 Timber, or harvest it from dead trees and tree stumps found in the Badlands and Volcanic biomes. Charcoal is required for the Forge, so start producing it early.

Step 6: Build a Bed

Craft a bed and place it inside a basic shelter (even four walls and a roof of palm leaves counts). Sleeping in a bed saves your spawn point. If you die without a bed, you respawn back at the original island spawn location and may lose access to items you left at your base.

warning

Your bed is a high-priority target during raids. If orcs destroy it, your respawn resets to the island's default location. Surround your bed with walls as soon as possible.

Survival Mechanics

Hunger

Your hunger bar depletes over time. When it empties, your health starts dropping. Eating raw berries and coconuts works in emergencies, but cooked food restores significantly more.

Food Type	Hunger Restored	Notes
Raw Berries	Very Low	Emergency snack. Better used as crafting ingredient.
Coconut	Low	Break open by hitting it. Found under palm trees.
Meat Kebab	Moderate	1 Meat Chunk or 2 Meat Scraps at a Campfire.
Fruit Smoothie	High	2 Berries, 2 Coconuts, 1 Palm Leaf at a Campfire.
Sizzling Steak	Very High	2 Steaks, 2 Berries, 1 Palm Leaf. Requires a Cooking Pot.
Mango Curry	Very High	1 Makeshift Bowl, 2 Coconuts, 3 Fruits. Cooking Pot recipe.

Health and Stamina

Health regenerates slowly when your hunger is above a certain threshold. Eating food directly heals a small amount. Stamina (Energy) drains when you sprint, dodge-roll, and attack. It regenerates on its own, but running out of stamina mid-fight leaves you vulnerable.

Dodge-rolling with the correct timing grants invincibility frames. This is the core defensive mechanic in combat. Learn the timing on low-threat enemies before fighting anything dangerous.

Day and Night Cycle

Visibility drops at night. Enemies become harder to spot and some biomes spawn additional threats after dark. Torches provide light, and a campfire near your base creates a safe glow. Early on, stay near your base at night and use daytime for exploration.

Resource Gathering

Every crafting recipe chains back to a handful of base materials. Knowing where to find them keeps you from wasting time.

Resource	Source	Used For
Pebbles	Beach, ground	Handaxe, Campfire, early tools
Sticks	Ground, bushes	Rope, basic crafting
Timber	Trees (use Handaxe)	Nearly everything. Your primary building material.
Stone Chunks	Rocks (use Pickaxe or Handaxe)	Crafting Bench, Forge, walls
Long Grass	Tall grass patches (use Handaxe)	Straw Bundles, Rope
Rope	Crafted from Straw Bundles	Tools, structures, weapons
Mud	Swamp areas, riverbanks	Forge construction
Berries	Berry bushes	Food, Smoothies, crafting
Meat	Kill animals	Cooked food (Kebabs, Steaks)
Petals	Flowers	Foul Meals (for taming monkeys), farming

Crafting Stations

Your crafting expands as you build new stations. Each station unlocks its own recipe pool.

Station	Recipe	What It Unlocks
Crafting Bench	2 Rope, 2 Stone Chunks, 3 Timber	Basic tools, weapons, structural pieces
Campfire	6 Pebbles, 1 Timber	Cooked food, Charcoal crafting (3 Timber = 1 Charcoal)
Cooking Pot	12 Pebbles, 1 Bucket	Advanced food recipes (Pastries, Curries, Stews). Requires Forge first.
Forge	3 Mud, 6 Stone Chunks	Metal ingots, metal tools, metal weapons
Repair Bench	Found/crafted mid-game	Repairs broken legendary and elemental weapons

tip

Build your crafting stations close together. Monkeys trained to craft will walk between stations and storage chests, so shorter distances mean faster automation.

Recruiting Your First Monkey

Monkeys are the defining mechanic of The Survivalists. They handle everything from chopping trees to defending your base. You find them wandering the island or locked in cages inside vaults.

To tame a wild monkey, craft a Foul Meal at a Campfire:

3 Petals
3 Long Grass
1 Timber

Walk up to the monkey with the Foul Meal and interact. It joins your group and follows you around. You can have multiple monkeys active at once. Train each one for a specific task using the Mimic System (covered in depth in the Monkey Training and Automation guide).

warning

Older guides and some community posts call this item a "Monkey Meal." That name is incorrect in the current version. The item is called Foul Meal in the crafting menu. If you cannot find "Monkey Meal" in your recipes, look for Foul Meal instead.

For your first session, recruit at least two monkeys. Train one for gathering (chopping trees or mining stone) and give the other a weapon for combat. Even a monkey with a basic wooden sword makes a difference when an orc patrol wanders into your camp.

Building Your First Base

Location matters. The starting alcove is decent for your first few hours because it has natural walls on two or three sides. Once you have a raft, consider relocating to a coastal spot where water covers one flank, limiting the directions raids can come from.

A functional early base needs:

Walls around your crafting area and bed (palm leaf or wooden)
A roof over your bed (rain does not damage you, but a covered structure protects against raids)
Storage chests near your crafting bench for organized materials
A campfire inside or just outside your walls for cooking
A bed for setting your spawn point

Do not build your base in the interior of the island where enemies wander freely. Stick to the coast until you have armed monkeys and decent weapons.

How the Game Works​

Your First Day​

Step 1: Grab Everything on the Ground​

Step 2: Craft a Handaxe​

Step 3: Make a Multitool​

Step 4: Build a Crafting Bench​

Step 5: Build a Campfire and Cook Food​

Step 6: Build a Bed​

Survival Mechanics​

Hunger​

Health and Stamina​

Day and Night Cycle​

Resource Gathering​

Crafting Stations​

Recruiting Your First Monkey​

Building Your First Base​

What to Read Next​