Survival worlds

What makes a Survival world

Pick Survival on the New World screen. Levels, classes and loot work as in an Adventure world, and on top of that the world pushes back. The host can turn most of it on or off later on the Survival tab of the world settings; One life can only be chosen when the world is made.

Hunger and thirst

• An empty belly means no sprinting and no healing, and it costs 1% of your health every 5 s. It never takes you below 10%.
• Thirst is a second meter beside the mango. It holds 15 min of water, and the hot realms (the Sunscorch Desert, the Ember Wastes and the Dragonfire Isle) dry you out ×2 faster. Empty, it works like an empty belly.
• Drink (E) at rivers, lakes, springs or the village well; the open sea is too salty. A gulp is worth 3 min, and muddy water only 50% of that (a settling pond or the Clarity Jar help: see Building and waterworks).
• The Water Skin (made at the loom) holds 5 sips. Juicy food counts too: coconuts, melons, milk, soups, tea and fruit.
• New players get 10 min of grace when they first join, and again after 30 min away.

Food that spoils

Raw food keeps 2 game days (fish you'd cook too), cooked food 5, and dried or smoked food 20. Honey keeps, and so do trophy fish. The tooltip says how fresh it is.

• An Icebox stops food spoiling.
• A Drying Rack makes Dried Mango, Dried Banana, berry raisins, dried mushrooms and Smoked Fish.
• Spoiled food turns into Compost, good for the farm.

Cold and heat

A warmth meter follows how hot or cold it is where you stand. The Frostlands are cold (-55 by day, -80 at night), high peaks too, and the deserts and the Ember Wastes are hot, worst at midday.

• At 30 you get a warning, at 55 stamina comes back at half speed, and at 75 your health drains slowly (never below 10%).
• In the cold: warm gear (furs, wool, Frostwalker Boots, heavy armour), a fire within 6 m (a Campfire or Brazier is best, a Torch less), or a Warming Draught.
• In the heat: light gear and sandals, shade overhead, water, or a Cooling Draught.
• Tip: the desert sun peaks at midday. Cross the sand early or late, or rest in the shade at noon, and you'll arrive with your health full.

Nights, light and shelter

• More creatures come out at night near you: up to 18 instead of 14.
• Gloom creatures keep out of the light of a fire, a brazier or a torch, unless you hit them first.
• A bed sets where you wake up only when it has a roof over it and walls on at least 6 of its eight sides. Asleep there you stay comfortable and a little less thirsty.

Night raids

If the host turns them on, some nights (35%, never two nights running) a group of 2 to 6 raiders goes for the nearest base and knocks on its walls and doors. A gator on their own meets only 2, so you can hold your home alone; friends nearby bring a bigger group. The Build Hammer repairs them. Towns, the village, and land whose Home Totem has a lit Brazier within 8 m are never raided. The raiders fade away at dawn.

Cairns

When you're knocked out, your satchel goes into a cairn where you fell (or on the nearest dry ground, if you fell in deep water or lava): a little cairn of stones with a leaf wreath. Your 1–8 bar, your tools, your worn gear, your coins, bound pieces and keepsakes stay with you, and a knockout also costs a tenth of all your XP (a level can drop).

• Only you can open your cairn for 20 minutes. After that, anyone can, and what's inside is theirs.
• Open it with E: everything goes back into your satchel.
• Your cairns show on your minimap, even far away.
• Rookies (below level 8) and friendly duels leave no cairn.

Worn gear

Weapons and armour wear out with use. A weapon lasts about 600 hits, plus 12 for each of its levels; armour lasts 400 hits taken, plus 8 a level. Your gear's tooltip and a little bar on its slot show the wear, and you're warned when a piece is badly worn.

A worn-out piece isn't lost: a weapon hits like bare paws and armour stops nothing until you mend it. Mend at an Anvil (metal) or a Loom (cloth and hide): open crafting there and pick Mend. It costs about 30% of the piece's recipe for a worn-out piece, less for one only worn, and never a boss trophy.

One life

A world made with One life gives each gator a single life. Knocked out, the gator is retired in that world for good:

• You can watch as a firefly: a little light that drifts wherever you steer it (move, Space up, Ctrl down). Nobody sees it and it touches nothing.
• To play there again, start a new gator in the lobby.
• One life is never on for a child profile.

Rewards

• Night Owl (10 nights made it through) and A Hundred Moons (100): you have to be up from nightfall to dawn.
• Cold Blooded: cross the Frostlands (at least 3 minutes in them) without the cold hurting you and without warming up at a fire.
• Hold the Walls: see a raid off at dawn with your walls still standing.
• One and Only: reach level 50 in a One life world.
• A gator that made it through 10 nights in one world wears a SURVIVOR badge on its lobby card.

Survival also makes the land stingier: things regrow ×1.5 slower and creatures drop ×0.8 as much loot. Nothing in the store helps you survive; looks stay looks.