Beginner’s Guide for Survivor.io - Everything You Need to Know to Get a Good Start and Win Runs
Survivor.io draws a lot of inspiration from the hit roguelite title Vampire Survivors, in the sense that it features a very similar gameplay style, while still adding its own unique touches to make itself stand out. As a result, we can find a game that plays very similarly to Vampire Survivors, but that also has a lot of progression elements surrounding its gameplay that will keep you glued to the screen and trying to get farther every run on each round.
Table of Contents
- Play on BlueStacks to Enjoy a Better Survival Experience
- Survivor.io Gameplay Basics
- Character Gear
- The Evolution System
- The AFK Farming System
If you’re familiar with Vampire Survivors, then Survivor.io won’t hold any major surprises for you. However, even if you have experience with this type of game, Survivor.io is unique enough to throw you off your guard, especially when it comes to the gearing and skills aspect of the game. For this reason, we’ve decided to create a Survivor.io tips and tricks guide where you can learn about all the basic aspects of the gameplay in order to get a good start in your journey.
Whether you’re new to the genre or already have experience with roguelites like this one, this guide will surely have a few important beginner bits and pieces of info that will help you in your journey to survive and progress through the many levels in Survivor.io. If anything, it would help you get familiarized with the progression and gearing elements of the game!
Play on BlueStacks to Enjoy a Better Survival Experience
Before jumping into the beginner’s guide itself, it’s important to mention that the best way to improve your odds of survival in this game is by using the best controls and having a good and stable performance. And what better way to get these perks than by playing Survivor.io on PC with BlueStacks.
Our Android app player lets you play this survival roguelite on your large computer monitor, granting you a much better view of the battlefield at all times. And not only that, but with the Keymapping Tool, you can create customized control schemes using your mouse and keyboard, which will give you much better handling when running around the field avoiding enemies. And if a KB+M setup isn’t your cup of tea, BlueStacks also offers full gamepad support so that you can play using your controller.
If you’re interested in enjoying the best gaming experience with this roguelite, then check out our PC setup guide for Survivor.io. Afterward, make sure you read our BlueStacks usage guide for this game to learn how to configure and use our tools and features to enhance your gameplay experience with Survivor.io.
Survivor.io Gameplay Basics
If you’re familiar with Vampire Survivors, then feel free to skip to the next section. For those who are new to this type of roguelites, Survivor.io has a very simple premise: Your goal is to run around the stage avoiding touching the hordes of enemies that will constantly be spawning around you, while your character shoots and attacks automatically using the skills that you pick up along the way. As such, this game follows pretty much the classic roguelite formula, except for the fact that your character attacks periodically in an automatic manner.
The defining roguelite element in Survivor.io comes from its skills system, which we’ll talk about in greater detail in another guide. In a nutshell, as you continue to defeat enemies and pick up experience points and chests, you’ll find powerups called “skills”, which are basically items that grant your character different attacks and passive buffs, and that can be upgraded to enhance their functionality as you continue fighting and defeating enemies. You can only pick up a certain number of skills, though, so the ones you choose for your run will effectively constitute your “build” for the round. Moreover, these drops are entirely randomized, so no two runs will ever go exactly the same.
Each stage in Survivor.io has an approximate number of enemies, as well as a duration. The idea is to survive for the entire duration, which is when the final boss spawns. Once you defeat this tough enemy, you’ll complete the stage and get a nice XP bonus for your efforts. However, even if you don’t win—which is the most common outcome for newcomers—you’ll still earn experience and gold, which you can use for upgrading your character.
Speaking of which…
Character Gear
One of the features that makes Survivor.io stand out from the rest is its gear system which, along with the evolution system, are the two core progression components in this game.
Simply put, as you continue to clear levels and complete different challenges, you’ll be able to claim unique rewards in the form of gear. Similarly, certain challenges reward you with keys that you can use in the store to open chests, which also contain gear of different rarity and type. Once equipped, these pieces of equipment can grant your character unique passive buffs that will increase their effectiveness in combat. Moreover, you can upgrade these pieces of gear by using the right design along with gold to increase their stat boosts.
The gear that you find in Survivor.io comes in varying levels of rarity. In ascending order of rarity, the gear in this game includes the following:
Normal > Good > Better > Excellent > Epic > Legendary
While the level of your gear will determine the strength of their stat boosts, their rarity will unlock access to additional stats and passive boosts. For instance, a “Good” rarity Kunai will grant the ATK +10% buff, while an “Excellent” variant will grant the aforementioned buff along with an extra 30% Kunai damage, and the possibility to begin the stage with a level 2 Kunai. Similarly, as rarity increases, your gear will inherit further properties.
It goes without saying that you should definitely look for gear with the highest rarity, and only upgrade the best pieces in your inventory, particularly since designs and gold can be hard to come by.
The Evolution System
As we mentioned above, Survivor.io has an evolution system to complement its gearing aspect, not to be confused with the skill evolution system that you can find in the actual combat stages. This system lets you invest gold and other materials in order to unlock a variety of passive upgrades that permanently enhance the stats of your characters. As such, as you continue fighting and grinding, you can progressively purchase upgrades that will enhance your effectiveness in combat, allowing you to face tougher and more significant challenges as you continue powering up your character.
You can access the evolution system from the main menu, by clicking on the “Evolve” tab to the far right. This system is designed like a ladder with incremental boosts that can be purchased using gold mostly. The higher you go, the more expensive and significant these boosts will get. However, some of the more powerful buffs require Key Evolution items, which are much harder to obtain, as they are only found through the trials system, which you can unlock after beating chapter 2.
It’s crucial that you keep your character upgraded as this will give you the boosts needed to survive as the difficulty of the stages increase progressively. However, keep in mind that these upgrades are hard-limited by your account level. As such, you can’t purchase upgrades that are in a higher category than your current level.
The AFK Farming System
Survivor.io is a mobile game first and foremost, and this fact doesn’t change even if you’re playing it on PC with BlueStacks. As such, it has systems designed to reduce the grind and help players to progress even if they don’t have much time to play. Case in point, Survivor.io has an AFK grinding system in which your character generates resources at all times, even while offline. Through this system you can obtain gold, experience, gear, and even designs.
This AFK system caps out at 24 hours, after which your character stops generating resources. It’s important that you at least login twice a day and claim these AFK rewards to avoid overcapping your reserves and miss out on resources due to this. You can find the AFk farming feature by clicking the “Patrol” button in the stage select screen. To pick up your rewards, all you need to do is click on the green “Claim”, which triggers a 10-minute cooldown before you can do it again.
After claiming your resources, remember that you can always use your surplus resources to purchase upgrades in the evolution menu, which is the main purpose of these items.
The best way to get good at Survivor.io is simply by jumping in the field and practicing. Nevertheless, with this beginner’s guide you should hopefully know everything you need to know in order to get a good start.
