Survivors Arena guide: how to survive all twenty minutes

How a run works

You start every run with one weapon, the Auto Bolt, 100 health and nothing else. Monsters appear in a ring just off screen, walk in, and hurt you while they touch you. Each kill drops an experience gem, and every level-up freezes the arena while you choose from up to three cards.

The run is won the moment the clock reaches 20:00. It is lost when health reaches zero. Either way, the gold you collected is banked for the permanent upgrade shop, so a short run is never wasted.

How the arena gets harder

Three separate dials turn up every minute.

• Enemy health for new spawns grows fastest: roughly 6.8 times the starting value at minute 10 and about 16 times by minute 20. Your weapons need ranks, not just variety.
• Damage you take rises by 10% per minute, so a touch at minute 10 hurts twice as much as at minute 0.
• Enemy speed rises slowly and is capped at 28% faster. You can stay ahead of the crowd all run if you keep moving.

The crowd size follows a fixed schedule. Each new monster type starts trickling in after the previous row and is fully in the mix by the time shown:

No more than four monsters can deal contact damage at the same moment, so being swarmed has a ceiling. Shots from Bat Wizards and bosses do not count toward that limit.

Knowing the enemies

• Treantling: slow, weak chaser. Food for experience.
• Cyclops Bat: fast and fragile, weaves as it closes and moves in tight packs. By the late game these are most of the screen.
• Imp Devil: walks up to about 8.5 metres, stops, winds up for about one second, then dashes straight at where you were when the windup ended. Its aim locks at that moment, so a sideways step as it launches makes it miss. It pauses briefly after each dash, which is your window to hit it.
• Bat Wizard: keeps about 11 metres away, circles you and fires a shot every 2.3 seconds. It backs off if you chase it, so let homing and bolt weapons deal with it instead.
• Rot Worm: the toughest regular monster, and it bursts into two quicker Wormlings when killed. Kill it where your area weapons can catch the pieces.
• Blizzard Dragon: the boss, at 5:00, 10:00, 15:00 and 19:00. Each one has 55% more health than the last on top of the normal ramp. Every 3.4 seconds it fires a spinning ring of fourteen shots. The gaps in the ring are your way out, so step between the shots rather than trying to outrun them.

A defeated boss leaves a chest. Walking over it gives you one extra level-up card and 30 health.

The weapons, and how each one aims

The weapons differ in how they choose targets, which matters more than their damage.

Two details are worth knowing. Frost Halo slows everything inside it to 55% of its speed, which turns it into a defensive tool as much as a damage one. Plasma Wake shots pass through every enemy in their path and only expire on wall bounces or time, so running in a straight line through a crowd sends them straight down its length.

Passives

There are seven passives but only six slots, so one will always be left out. Their rank 5 values:

• Might: +62% damage
• Swift: +38% move speed
• Lodestone: +250% pickup range (your base radius is 2.8 m)
• Regrowth: 3.6 health per second
• Haste: 34% shorter cooldowns
• Vitality: +92% max health, and you are healed by the amount it adds
• Wisdom: +72% experience

Once your weapon and passive slots are full, cards only offer ranks for things you already own. If everything is maxed, you get a Second Wind card that restores 40 health.

Opening plan: the first five minutes

1. Take a second weapon at the first chance, ideally one that covers the Auto Bolt's weakness. Frost Halo or Orbit Shards protect your body while the bolt picks targets at range.
2. Pick up Lodestone or Wisdom early. Both speed up every later choice.
3. Walk wide circles around the crowd so the gems land in your path.
4. Before 5:00, rank up one damage weapon to at least 3. The first boss arrives with a crowd of about 145 behind it.

Mid and late game

From minute 9 onward, damage taken per touch is nearly doubled and the Bat Wizards arrive. Vitality and Regrowth start paying off here, because chip damage from shots adds up. Keep one weapon that handles crowds (Scorch Fan, Frost Halo or Plasma Wake) and one that finishes single targets (Auto Bolt or Seeker Motes).

The 15:00 and 19:00 bosses are the hardest moments of the run. Save your movement for the shot rings and let your weapons work while you circle.

Common mistakes

• Taking every new weapon offered. Six weapons at rank 1 lose to enemy health scaling. Ranks win runs.
• Chasing Bat Wizards. They retreat. Let aimed weapons handle them.
• Stopping to fight. You are faster than the crowd for the whole run. Standing still gives up that advantage.

The permanent shop

Gold is banked after every run, won or lost. Each rank costs more than the last.

If you're stuck

If you keep dying before 5:00, buy Constitution and Sharpening first. If the late bosses beat you, favour Vitality and Frost Halo, and practise stepping through the gaps in the shot ring.