Introduction

It’s here—Survival Mode!

The newest game mode in Splinterlands has arrived, and everyone is diving in to see if they can outlast the competition. But is it fun? Is it worth playing? And most importantly—is it actually "survivable"?

I jumped in on Day 1 to test it out, and let me tell you—it changes perspective. This isn't just another ranked mode.
You can’t mindlessly grind your way through battles because every loss has real consequences. If a card gets knocked out in Survival Mode, it's gone. Not forever, but long enough that you might start rethinking your entire strategy.

In this post, I'll give my first impressions, break down how it works, and share my Day 1 experience. Let’s see if Survival Mode is as intense as it sounds or if it’s just another gimmick. Let’s survive… or at least try! 🔥

How Does Survival Mode Work?

🔥 Lose a battle? Lose your cards (temporarily).
If a card gets defeated in Survival Mode, it goes into cooldown mode and can’t be used anywhere else until either the cooldown (CD) timer expires or the season ends. No quick recoveries—so pick your battles wisely!

💰 Only SPS rewards (for now)
No Glint or League chests—Survival Mode is all about stacking SPS. However, don’t expect instant rewards. Right now, SPS payouts start at around 200 rating, but as the reward pool fills up, it should even out.

🔄 Survival Mode uses RSHARE values from Modern
The reward pool was based on Modern format’s RSHARE calculations, so earnings might take a little time to stabilize. Patience is key!

🚫 Avoid using your best deck by accident
This is a big one—Survival Mode automatically pulls from your full collection unless you tell it otherwise. To avoid accidentally burning out your best Modern/Wild deck, you need to set up a custom deck and disable it from Survival Mode (trust me, you don’t want to forget this).

📌 Only season rentals are allowed
Short-term rentals won’t work here—you’ll need to commit to a full-season rental if you want to use rented cards.

How to Prepare for Survival Mode

I’ve already written a full guide on how to set up your decks for Survival Mode (check it out here: How to Prepare for Survival Mode), but here’s a quick recap:

Disable your main playing deck for Survival Mode!
The last thing you want is to accidentally lose key cards from your regular battles. Go into your collection, create a custom deck, and make sure it’s unflagged for Survival Mode!

And one last time for the people in the back:
👉 BE SURE YOUR MAIN DECK IS DISABLED FOR SURVIVAL!!! 👈

How to Play Survival Mode

Getting into Survival Mode is easy! Just head to the Play screen, select Survival Mode, and hit Battle.

That’s it! The matchmaking, battle selection, and combat work just like a normal ranked match, so if you've played Splinterlands before, you'll know what to do.

Key Things to Watch For

Check Your Available Cards

Before you jump into battle, make sure you’re aware of how many cards you have enabled for Survival Mode. You can check this here:

If you lose a battle, those defeated cards won’t be available until the cooldown period ends—so plan ahead!

Thanks to @nateaguila and his team: very nice these waiting screens even with the option hide the overlay 👏, most of the time they are on just to watch the image😍!!!

Pick the Right Level of Units

Here’s where things get interesting: Do you risk your best cards early, or play it safe?

• Max-level units give you the best chance to win.
• Lower-level units are safer if you’re trying to conserve your best cards for later battles.

It’s a balancing act—do you burn through your strongest cards early to climb fast, or play conservatively to last longer?

To filter by card level, use this option in the filter screen:

League Progression & Player Strategy

Here’s another twist: It takes time for top players to climb leagues. That means at the start of the season, you might face maxed-out players in lower leagues until they move up.

Some players might:

• Use maxed cards early, then switch to low-level cards later.
• Start cautiously with low-level cards, then push hard later.

This is what makes Survival Mode exciting—it’s not just about winning individual battles, but surviving the season!

Match Over – What Happens Next?

So, you fought bravely, made your moves, and now the match is over. But before you jump into another battle, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Even if you win, defeated units go on cooldown

That’s right—just because you won doesn’t mean all your cards are safe. Any unit that was knocked out in battle is still put on cooldown and can’t be used until the timer expires or the season ends.

If you lose, all your units go on cooldown

Losing hurts even more in Survival Mode. Every single unit that participated in the battle will be locked out for the cooldown period.

How to check which cards are on cooldown

To keep track of your depleted units, go to your card collection and apply this filter:

What Do I Think of Survival Mode?

It’s still early to make a final judgment, but here’s my honest first impression:

🔥 Survival Mode is a hardcore, competitive format.
It’s built for top players and bots (because, well, bots don’t have feelings). Every decision carries weight, and mistakes cost you cards, in terms of cooldown.

✔️ Winning feels amazing!
Way better than regular ranked, in my opinion. It really feels like you outplayed your opponent since you both had something at stake. Plus, right now, it’s humans only—which makes it even more strategic. The bots will come quickly, then winning might be very hard against optimized teams. or again when you really good and can foresee the bot strategy.

❌ Losing? Brutal.
Losing in ranked is one thing—you drop some rating, move on, and queue up another match. But in Survival Mode? You lose the match AND some of your best cards. That hit makes me hesitate to play my strongest decks, which is a weird feeling.

I consider myself a casual player—I love the strategy, the mind games, the planning. But sometimes it feels like Survival Mode favors players with the biggest decks (or just the best skills). If you’re not at that level, you’re gonna get smacked around early on, which is... not the most fun.

That said, it’ll be interesting to see how the mode evolves—will I keep playing, or will I let the bots take over when they arrive? 🤖

The Future of Survival Mode & Closing Thoughts

I think Survival Mode has potential, but I also think most bots will end up here. And honestly? That might be a good thing—maybe it even sparks a discussion about making Wild ranked human-only (now that would be an interesting change).

But my biggest hope? Campaign Mode.

A PvE system where you battle through challenges.
No SPS rewards, just progression, unlocks, or soulbound rewards.
A test of skill, not just a farm for earnings.
Right now, every mode has monetary rewards (SPS), which means every mode is tried to be exploited by bots, i know modern is/should be bot free, but is also very expensive to play when chaos rotates out.
A true PvE mode could let players enjoy the game without worrying about being farmed by bots or whales.

Just as an example—I have two idle accounts with some soulbound cards. I could, probably will, set them up to farm SPS in Survival Mode. It’s not great for the game, but that’s just how the system works. If there was a non-exploitable PvE mode, I’d rather play that.

So, will I keep playing Survival Mode?

I’ll give it a few more rounds, see how it evolves after one or two seasons. If things balance out and players settle into their leagues, it could get more fun.

For now—see you on the battlefield! 👋🔥

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