any survivor tips?

[mazazon]

I've played a few rounds as a survivor now and so far every round has been
loot security> get seen by a runner> hugged> dead.
Or loot engineering> get seen by runner> hugged>dead.
Or loot sec then engie....then yeah, that.

It just seems like "surviving" as a survivor revolves around never making contact with with xenos at all. Maybe I just need to "lrn 2 engineer" and actually build a defence but even that, in my experience as a xeno, seems to be found quickly and acided through well before the 30+ minutes it takes the marines to turn up. It only takes one competent runner with huggers to take out the 3 survivors if they've grouped up, even if they're armed they don't stand much chance against the one xeno, let alone the friends they'll likely call in.

Even my attempts at hiding have been thwarted by hunters that just happened to check the locker I was in. It's a little frustrating, survivors really stand very little chance. Never the less, as a marine, obviously we do sometimes find survivors. What are they doing differently?

Is there more I can do aside pray to RNGesus? On these forums I've only been able to find an old post referring to an old version of the LV map with a single cheesy strategy.

edit:Well and some suggestions of breaking into the more secure domes on LV. Pretty much nothing for Ice Colony.

[RedsPro]

Nah your right. If you get seen every xeno will come after you. Marines play for Fun Xenos play to win so either hide and go the the sully and get forgotten or make an autism fort in fucksticks nowhere. Being a survivor was much more fun during the Hugger Test

[Karmac]

viewtopic.php?f=94&t=10668

unfinished but still more or less the same information your looking for

[mazazon]

viewtopic.php?f=94&t=10668

unfinished but still more or less the same information your looking for

From the sound of that, it really seems like the best tactic to survive is the first option, hide in a locker like a pansy and hope aliens don't check it. Building fortifications rarely seems to work because the aliens will see you through the wall, start aciding and break through well before the marines turn up.

And again that post only really talks about LV. It's basically telling me stay away from the fun useful stuff and find some out of the way area the aliens won't bother to check.

But most of the successful survivors I've seen were walking around in the open, gathering supplies... There has to be something we're missing right? Or did those groups just get lucky? As a xeno I've seen the occasional queen ban "tall-host" hunting.

[Boltersam]

You can be an antagonist and kill and loot Marines, if you survive the Xenos.

[Karmac]

From the sound of that, it really seems like the best tactic to survive is the first option, hide in a locker like a pansy and hope aliens don't check it. Building fortifications rarely seems to work because the aliens will see you through the wall, start aciding and break through well before the marines turn up.

And again that post only really talks about LV. It's basically telling me stay away from the fun useful stuff and find some out of the way area the aliens won't bother to check.

But most of the successful survivors I've seen were walking around in the open, gathering supplies... There has to be something we're missing right? Or did those groups just get lucky? As a xeno I've seen the occasional queen ban "tall-host" hunting.

I'd say it's like, generally you'll always have more success if you just figure out what places do and don't bother checking for survivors.

[Swagile]

You can be an antagonist and kill and loot Marines, if you survive the Xenos.

This.

Grab a gun and ammo and loot a backpack off of a dead NPC.

Then hide in a locker till marines come, try to kill a few for their gear, rinse and repeat.

Its the only !!FUN!! way to survive because the moment marines rescue you, you become a discount marine without the antagonist rights.

Or you might not even become that and you will be stuck in the Sulaco waiting for the XO to FINALLY give you an ID.

Really, survivor is just boring as fuck if you actually get rescued and all experienced survivors know this; hence they try to make a base in an obscure part of the map or hide in a locker with a gun just to avoid this agony.

[liltiptop]

Basically, there's two ways to play survivor. Guns survivor or hiding survivor.
How to hide:
Step 1: Find a locker
Step 2: Enter the locker
Step 3: Close the locker
Step 4: Wait for marines
Step 5: Win
How to gun survivor
Step 1: Get an assload of metal
Step 2: Build them defenses
(Note, closed welding helmets protect against huggers)
Step 3: Pray xenos don't tackle spam / hugger combat you
Step 4: Get hugged or tackle spammed
Step 5: Get salty in deadchat
IF YOU SOMEHOW SURVIVE, CONGRATS. YOU ARE NOW ROBUST.

[TheMaskedMan2]

From playing Xeno I pretty much have found out that the only way to survive as Survivor is to be robust as fuck, or hide in a locker, even fortifying a spot competent Xenos will notice said fortifications, and check everything inside, if you are spotted, and not on the move, you are pretty much doomed, find an obscure locker or location, hide for your tiny little life, and hope the Xenos can't be bothered to check them all. Despite meta knowledge letting them know how many there typically are, and some Xeno players go out of their way to hunt them down.

[Crab_Spider]

You see those reinforced walls in secure storage? That's where your base should be, but first, grab a box of body bags and those mines in Storage-OBP and run for a welding mask. DON'T WORRY ABOUT A GUN, just grab whatever will suffice you and run for that secure storage. Pay very close attention to this detail, unlike the stupidty Marines exhibit when trying to make an entrance into locked areas, just carve a path into those areas. To remove R-Walls, you need wirecutters, a crowbar, a screwdriver, a welder, a screwdriver again, a crowbar, and then another welder. This will remove the support from it and allow you to make a hidden door. Now, grab the mine box and immediately place it on that tile facing the opposite direction of your entrance (if the entrance requires you to move left, face the mine right), don't step in front of that mine. The second false wall you made will be met with the same fate. Now... There are no guns in that storage, but if you grabbed a headset, you came in luck. Constantly tap into the headset every now and then, and constantly speak to the Sulaco, you want to alert them about what's going on, therefore removing the meta status of their incoming actions, and you'll be saved in a matter of moments.

Little note aswell, make sure mines are 2 tiles apart from each other, this is essential for making sure they'll last long enough if xenos actually take the smuck bait.

[TheMaskedMan2]

You see those reinforced walls in secure storage? That's where your base should be, but first, grab a box of body bags and those mines in Storage-OBP and run for a welding mask. DON'T WORRY ABOUT A GUN, just grab whatever will suffice you and run for that secure storage. Pay very close attention to this detail, unlike the stupidty Marines exhibit when trying to make an entrance into locked areas, just carve a path into those areas. To remove R-Walls, you need wirecutters, a crowbar, a screwdriver, a welder, a screwdriver again, a crowbar, and then another welder. This will remove the support from it and allow you to make a hidden door. Now, grab the mine box and immediately place it on that tile facing the opposite direction of your entrance (if the entrance requires you to move left, face the mine right), don't step in front of that mine. The second false wall you made will be met with the same fate. Now... There are no guns in that storage, but if you grabbed a headset, you came in luck. Constantly tap into the headset every now and then, and constantly speak to the Sulaco, you want to alert them about what's going on, therefore removing the meta status of their incoming actions, and you'll be saved in a matter of moments.

That.. is actually a good idea. Gonna try that next time, and get grabbed by xenos while trying to remember which order tools go and which way to face the mine.

[mizolo]

i know some spots on LV and ice where you can hide, i did it without any tools once, NO TOOLS, and only a double barreled shotgun, they are spots xeno's typically don't look or ignore in some parts of the map

[mazazon]

After some more rounds as survivor I found a few decent places to hide that don't seem to get checked often. It's still a bit of a dice roll, but I can atleast survive the ~25+ minutes it takes marines to turn up and start scouting sometimes. The boxes you have to lay down in like the coffins in the chapel or the crates in medical rarely get checked (open it, drag you're sprite to climb onto it than hit rest in the IC tab to lay down, you can then click the crate to shut the lid, if you hit rest to get up while you're inside it you'll be standing when someone opens it).

After looking up some construction guides I figured I might have a half decent plan to get into the secure dome. If you grab say 14-20 metal, seems like best option I've found is disassembling the racks in the cargo area, you can build a small 2 or 3 wall hut to keep you safe while you cut into the secure dome. If you go on the southwest corner of the dome you can block yourself in with 2 walls instead of 3. It then takes 2 welds to deconstruct each reinforced wall, 2 walls to cut through gives you 4 welds. Without a mask that will only make you partially blind but skipping out on the mask saves you from hitting up the riskier engineering area. Of course you can then rebuild the walls behind you as you cut in.

does that make sense?

[Kerek]

get a gun and metal, get a welder and mask(if you can) and build defences you can get out of.

[Mister Jeether]

The many times i was survivor,i made a good strategy to survive as survivor

Get the metal in storage OBP and get a gun if possible from sec,you can try to break the locker on sec if you want a dank helmet.
Go to NW side of the map,where the containers used to be,get a pickaxe and start digging,when you feel the xenos can no longer see you through the rocks,make a fake wall,build your fallout shelter and stay there,if the Xenos are just playing to win,they will hunt the survivor down at ALL costs,that means they might check NW.

If they don't check NW,you are fine,if the Hive is at NW,then you are fucked.If you find other suvivors and they ain't baldies that are slow as fuck,rapidly tell them your plan,don't waste time.If they are baldies,they will just slow you down until some pesky hunter finds you,after some time,the xenos and marines will be too occupied killing themselves,so you can go to LZ2 and try to get a SSD marine,if there isn't one,try to stealthily kill one,you don't want 56 marines hunting you down and when finished with xenos,banging in your door because you killed one of their comrades. Use the sec gear from sec locker to stun marines and be stun proof.but remember,you can't use the stunbaton,or you will just get shocked,but if you are going with killing marines,remember that if AP doesn't find you first,Comrade sentry will,so be carefull around the FOB,you don't want to step in a hidden mine and be poinblanked with no mercy by a shotgun buckshot baldie.


There's my survivor guide

[Staton]

for lv-624 i just get a radio, a toolbox, and start to cut my way into secure storage
from there you can doomfort to the point to where xenos get tired of trying, and you can call in for help
ive done it the past 4 or 5 times as survivor, been rescued every time

i dont risk the extra time to get a weld mask, u may be foggy visioned at worse if u do everything right, but may die trying to grab extra stuff instead of just going right to it

also i dont use the mines because im not all there in the head and have blown myself up twice doing it

on ice colony, grab radio, hide in trash can, cry for help and hope u dont die

[Jembo]

So as someone who's been finding a lot of enjoyment out of going survivor lately and I picked up some great tips. First off, you 100% need a welding helmet visor down every single alien will spam huggers at you. Which means you're gonna need a helmet and a bit of luck to even survive any bit of an assault. You can get in the roboco vending machines. You'll need to hack the APC's and have a powercell to get power going. After powers online in the room with the roboco vender, you'll have to pulse or cut the access wire so you can even get the helmets out. Gloves aren't required but if you get shocked while hacking the vender you're dead. Slow moving, without a helmet basically dead.

Secondly to increase you're ability of living though a xeno assault, you'll wanna find a buddy or two. One survivor even with a gun, and a welding helmet is already hugged without a buddy to watch their back. The last thing I wanna focus on is that melee weapons will wreck xenos in close quarters, and it will reduce the chance of you mortally wounding you're fellow survivors. Recently me and two other survivors held up in the power station, a hunter broke in though an unwelded airlock. They immediately hugged one of our survivors, but their other hugger got killed. Every other exit was blocked off with the exception of the one they came in though, and that was how we killed it . Between a shotgun slug to the chest, and maybe one or two shots from an automag, and one of our survivors using a surgical drill. The hunter couldn't exactly pounce away in such a close quarters area without risking a boink.

With only one exit, and two humans on each side beating the shit out of it. It couldn't exactly spam disarm with hopes to escape. If I switched the automag for a hatchet, or a fireaxe we would of killed the hunter without any FF. I would almost propose survivors making kill rooms for hunters and runners. One-two hides in a locker, and they leave a false wall with a juicy tall host. After the xeno jumps in, close the wall and just beat the ever loving shit out of it. New meta? I fucking hope so.

Also just a note, xenos can't melt reinforced walls, or the reinforced blast doors in the domes. If you want a semi safe place to stay, you can easily cut inside and use the racking and wood from crates to hold off xenos until you can get help. That being said I've seen xenos take groups of three - four xenos to take down a single survivor while ignoring all the monkeys on the map. Open ever single closed locker, bodybag, and melt though three to four layers of walls just to get that juicy tall host.

[Marcus Jackson]

Toolboxes man... toolboxes fucking hurt like you wouldn't believe.

Find a secure position and camp a corner with your rectangular friend and wait for the aliens to come by, then... WHAM!... you bust em like a redheaded stepchild.

[David Attenbruv]

The way I usually survive is, or at least on LV is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNIHoPeu6xU
(If you didn't click that, it's Feed Em To the Lions)

I usually follow this method

1. Nexus,Security Departmentfirstly to break in the Window and Grille, climb over the table and collect the bits and pieces remaining. Usually there's a few Speed Loaders and a Magnum(?) or whatever it's called though it's enough to peel aXenoshead back further than Lebron's hair line.

2. Secure Storage, to be fair this is circumstancial because of the reason that everyone rushes Secure Storage as soon as they're awake and ready so,Xenostend to flock around there like the single girl at a generally male filled club.

3. Then finally I usually lock myself up in Internal Affairs. Reason for that is, is not because of any valuable loot, I rarely ever try to get any firearms because everyone B-Lines for them like flies to shit so they're usually picked up from the get go even if your rat packing skills are on fleek. I go to Internal Affairs because there's a button on the inside of it that locks it down, all the bulkheads and such. That doesn't however protect you all too much, because theXenoscan vomit their chromosomes all over the shutters and it eats through it with a fair amount of time, there's no vents on the inside of it soXenoscan't just Anne Frank silent sneak through the vent to gank you and even if they did and I'm mistaken, the bulkheads are down so they'll either have to kill you or wait and given forXenosare on a time crunch they don't particularly wait all that much because they get Order 66 executed when the Baldies float down from Sulaco or well, guess that's irrelevant now given the map change.

4. Don't partner up, usually your partner will get you killed accidentally or they'll make you more noticeable than a black man in Sweden. I can see why people do, though for me personally. I usually just go solo. Hence my Feed Em to The Lions meme.
5. I wouldn't rush for weapons, use your what your glorious bald head protects, your brain.
6. Use your flashlight when it's needed, don't just run about with a light on you like it's a Olympic Torch, otherwise you'll get ISIS head chopped. Yes I'm awareXenoscan see in the dark anyways, though I usually, when I'm rocking around on the Colony turn the vision off so I can see the echoed lights that spread out and off in the distance so I don't accidentally go south because I didn't see the Survivor go North on my monitor and I went South on a whim. A little trick, nothing game changing.

[Marcus Jackson]

The way I usually survive is, or at least on LV is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNIHoPeu6xU
(If you didn't click that, it's Feed Em To the Lions)

I usually follow this method

1. Nexus,Security Departmentfirstly to break in the Window and Grille, climb over the table and collect the bits and pieces remaining. Usually there's a few Speed Loaders and a Magnum(?) or whatever it's called though it's enough to peel aXenoshead back further than Lebron's hair line.

2. Secure Storage, to be fair this is circumstancial because of the reason that everyone rushes Secure Storage as soon as they're awake and ready so,Xenostend to flock around there like the single girl at a generally male filled club.

3. Then finally I usually lock myself up in Internal Affairs. Reason for that is, is not because of any valuable loot, I rarely ever try to get any firearms because everyone B-Lines for them like flies to shit so they're usually picked up from the get go even if your rat packing skills are on fleek. I go to Internal Affairs because there's a button on the inside of it that locks it down, all the bulkheads and such. That doesn't however protect you all too much, because theXenoscan vomit their chromosomes all over the shutters and it eats through it with a fair amount of time, there's no vents on the inside of it soXenoscan't just Anne Frank silent sneak through the vent to gank you and even if they did and I'm mistaken, the bulkheads are down so they'll either have to kill you or wait and given forXenosare on a time crunch they don't particularly wait all that much because they get Order 66 executed when the Baldies float down from Sulaco or well, guess that's irrelevant now given the map change.

4. Don't partner up, usually your partner will get you killed accidentally or they'll make you more noticeable than a black man in Sweden. I can see why people do, though for me personally. I usually just go solo. Hence my Feed Em to The Lions meme.
5. I wouldn't rush for weapons, use your what your glorious bald head protects, your brain.
6. Use your flashlight when it's needed, don't just run about with a light on you like it's a Olympic Torch, otherwise you'll get ISIS head chopped. Yes I'm awareXenoscan see in the dark anyways, though I usually, when I'm rocking around on the Colony turn the vision off so I can see the echoed lights that spread out and off in the distance so I don't accidentally go south because I didn't see the Survivor go North on my monitor and I went South on a whim. A little trick, nothing game changing.

Pretty much all this, and be sure to add a comedic twinge to surviving... no point dieing a miserable colonist.

[Nick123q23]

Find everyone else, hole up in a building, and stay put there.

I don't have any really useful, specific tips other than that, because I'm a bad survivor and most of the time I die.

But what I can tell you, is that antagonistic survivors are some of the most fun things you can do if you survive the initial xeno onslaught, there's actually been hostage situations before because survivors were too scared to trust the marines.

[MrMafioso]

Right so on the new LV map this is how you survive, step one get wrench and headset. Step 2. Grab a buddy. Step 3. Get your buddy and yourself to drag a pacman generator to the west temple. Step 4. Close up both entrances to the temple and laugh at the aliens as you have dance battles with em. Yes this literally worked + its so far in the corner they don't really tend to check.

[Skimmy2]

3 easy steps to increase your chances of survival by 5000% on any map.

1: stay calm but hurry
2: Lockers are your friends
3: when hiding, hide in the dark.

[Casany]

So far, the strat thats worked best for me is to rush sec, get the guns and try to get a backpack, then go to medbay and get the plasteel and metal. Then head behind secure storage, wall yourself off with one false wall, make some plasteel baricades and break into Secure Storage. Its better when you have one other guy with you.

[Swagile]

Those strategies are currently outdated due to both fog + the fact that random tunnels ALWAYS spawn in SW Jungle, AKA right next to Secure Storage. So you can never enter unless you have extreme luck or Queen forbids attacking tallhosts.