The Survivalists Tips and Tricks
Each entry below is one mechanic, what it costs you, and the patch it was last checked against. Filter by category or difficulty to narrow the list, and use the anchor beside any heading to link straight to a single tip.
Defense
#No weapon here blocks, and both shields are decoration
Swords, spears, clubs, and bows all lack a block, so rolling clear is your only defense. The Roman Shield and the Viking Shield are loot you sell. The closest thing to a block is the Shield Ward trinket, which eats one attack on a cooldown.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Equipment
#A broken legendary is repairable, so do not throw it away
Elemental weapons break under heavy use and turn into a Broken item rather than vanishing. Take it to a Repair Bench with 3 Refined Gems, which both repairs a damaged weapon and rebuilds a broken one from scratch.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Stamina
#Only sprinting and charged attacks cost you stamina
Ordinary swings and rolls are free. If you keep running dry mid-fight, you are sprinting into engagements instead of walking into them. A Slow Cooked Stew adds 100 to your maximum on top of that.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Basics
#A bed does nothing until you put a sheet on it
Craft a Makeshift Bed Sheet from 3 Palm Leaf and use it on the bed. This is the most common reason a new player cannot sleep, and nothing on screen tells you the bed is unfinished.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
#Rope comes from Long Grass, not from Straw Bundles
Long Grass gives 3 Rope apiece, and Straw Bundles are a separate recipe entirely. A Flimsy Multitool costs 1 Rope and 2 Timber, and without a multitool you cannot use a crafting station or build a structure at all.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Raids
#Raiders spawn where you are standing, not at your bed
Since the 2021 Farming Update, walling in the bed specifically buys you nothing. The moon turns red every five in-game days, roughly an hour of real time, and the raid lands the next day. That same Blood Moon restores every resource and respawns every enemy in the world.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Base Defense
#Hostile plants go in Orchards, where they guard your walls
A Spiked Seed grows a Venus Fly Trap, a Toxic Seed a Swamp Bog, and a Burning Seed a Volcanic Spitter. They mature in roughly 2 real minutes, stay friendly to you and your monkeys, and attack everything else in range. Line the Orchards along your outer wall.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Monkey Automation
#A hands-off production line takes four monkeys, not two
Harvesters fell trees and the timber lands on the ground. A gatherer sweeps it into a chest. A supplier lifts it back out and loads the bench. Only then does the crafter work. Skip the supplier and your crafter stands at an empty bench.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Monkey Tools
#A broken tool stops a monkey as dead as no tool at all
Monkeys never re-arm themselves. Crafting and building need a Multitool, harvesting needs any weapon to swing, and gathering into a chest needs nothing. Check durability in the Journal. Watering cans are the exception, since monkeys fetch fresh ones on their own.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Stations
#A finished Forge stays cold until you feed it 10 Charcoal
Charcoal is not a 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 before the Forge is finished.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
#Building the Alchemy Bench unlocks not one of its recipes
They unlock separately, either by clearing Labyrinths, most reliably from labyrinth mini-bosses, or by finishing all four Totem Pole requests in the Red Orcling camps on Island 5. Build it before either and it sits there doing nothing.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Farming
#Dry soil pauses growth without losing any of your progress
Soil stays wet for exactly one in-game day, which is 12 real minutes. Once it dries the clock simply stops until you water again, so a patch you forgot about costs you time rather than the crop.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
#Fruit Trees are the only renewable source of Hardwood
A harvest gives 5 to 6, where a wild swamp tree drops about one. Since 3 Hardwood makes 1 Hardwood Slat and the Alchemy Bench alone eats 12 slats, plant them well before you reach the recipe that needs them.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Storage
#The Mysterious Chest is the one your monkeys will not raid
It costs 500 doubloons from the Mysterious Stranger, and gathering or supplying monkeys leave it alone entirely. You get one per character, so treat it as a safe for Refined Gems, legendary weapons, and doubloons rather than as bulk storage.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Task Tokens
#There are exactly 29 Task Tokens and 29 things to spend them on
Never buy the same blueprint twice, because a known bug lets ones you already own reappear in the shop after a world replenishment. Balance Patch 1.1.3 also pulled elemental weapons out of labyrinth boss chests, so the Taskmasters are the only route to them now.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Achievements
#Three achievements only count when you do the work yourself
Harvester needs you swinging, Opulent Curio needs you crafting the Gold Statue, and Home and Away needs your own multitool raising the blueprint. Handing any of them to a monkey moves the counter and never fires the achievement.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Collectibles
#Lore pages come from Skeletal Remains, never from chests
That is why so many players stall on Lore-man with a full treasure hoard and nothing to show for it. Sweep every skeleton you walk past, and clear labyrinths, since each labyrinth clear hands you a Founder page on the way out.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Vaults
#Every vault ends with a guaranteed caged monkey
There is at least one Treasure Chest alongside it, which makes vaults the most reliable route toward the 20-monkey cap. Clear each one once and only once, because a reloaded vault keeps neither the chest nor the monkey.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Stations
#The Repair Bench is an early build, not a late-game station
Most players write it off as somewhere to fix legendary weapons and skip it. It restores any worn tool to full durability for almost nothing, and a Flimsy Multitool costs 1 Rope to repair. Skipping it means binning tools you could have kept the whole run.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
Vault Puzzles
#The emote a vault switch wants is painted right beside it
There is no guessing, and only six poses exist: Dab, Praise, Handstand, Sit, Wave, and Snake. Open the emote menu with V, match the wall, and stand on the plate. For a room with more plates than bodies, hold Q, press E over a monkey, then strike the pose yourself.
Verified on Balance Patch 1.1.3
What to Read Next
- Monkey Training and Automation. Tools, work radii, and the four-monkey chain that actually runs itself.
- Crafting and Combat. Stations, stamina, elemental weapons, and the Task Token economy.
- Farming and Alchemy. Crop timings, Fruit Trees, Orchards, and the Alchemy Bench unlock.
- Islands, Biomes and Labyrinths. Vault puzzles, labyrinth keys, and what each island holds.
- Achievement Guide. All 42, including the three no monkey can earn for you.
- Getting Started. Rope, multitools, and the raid cycle, if this is your first island.