Survival Guide

This guide aims to inform players on Survival objectives and scoring.

Overview

The player assumes control of an SHD agent sent to retrieve a lost case of experimental antivirals from the Dark Zone; their helicopter crashes en route to the Dark Zone, leaving them stranded in a blizzard and suffering from sepsis. The goal is to reach the Dark Zone and extract before the infection kills them.

Survival can be accessed from the Terminal and can choose to play either PvE or PvP modes, along with playing solo or matchmaking to play with others as a team.

In PvE, combat between players is disabled, but there is still competition over scavenging resources.

In PvP, combat between players is enabled outside of Hideouts without penalty; the Rogue system does not exist in Survival, even in the Dark Zone. PvP applies a x1.2 multiplier to a player's final Survival score.

A typical Survival match involves the following steps:

Craft a Virus Filter
Enter the Dark Zone
Retrieve the antivirals (optional)
Craft a Flare Gun
Call for extraction & defeat Hunter
Extract

All players in the session will start with a set of Standard gear and a sidearm, a med kit, and a torn hazmat suit for clothing. Players must then find and craft better weapons and equipment, warmer clothing, and consumables to face Survival-exclusive mechanics such as warmth, hunger, thirst, and infection.

Items and materials in Survival are not shared, even among party members; only one person can pick up any given item, forcing agents to either distribute loot amongst themselves or compete for resources. Equipment and crafting materials can be found scattered around the open world and at unique locations such as Helicopter Crashes and Landmarks. Players can stay warm by visiting fire barrels around the open world (some will need to be manually lit), shelters, or hideouts. Enemy difficulty, available blueprints, and loot drop quality increases as agents approach the Dark Zone, however agents will only find items up to Superior rarity in the open world. High-End items must be crafted inside the Dark Zone using High-end materials and Division Tech, a material found exclusively in the Dark Zone.

Medkits can be used as a burst of HP as normal and also be used to self-revive or revive other unconscious players. Unconscious players can only be revived by another agent within five (5) minutes of going down. The locations of unconscious agents are marked on all players' maps until the player leaves the session. If the timer expires, the player is forced to leave the session and they will drop everything in their inventory, which can be claimed by other players. They can be marked on the map again if another player goes unconscious (this seems to be a bug).

Once inside the Dark Zone, agents can opt to collect a variety of different Sealed Caches that yield different rewards after a successful extract. The player can choose to adhere to the mission and retrieve their designated antivirals from a randomly-chosen nearby location to add more points to their Survival Score and collect 1 Division Tech, but they will ultimately need to procure a Flare Gun and proceed to one of three Extraction Zones. Firing the Flare Gun will attract a Hunter, a powerful Elite enemy with access to SHD Tech and the ability to execute downed foes. More agents present to the current extract will result in additional Hunter spawns. All Hunters must be killed before the helicopter will touch the ground. Once boarded, all agents on the helicopter will return to the Base of Operations, successfully completing the mission.

Hideouts

All players in the match start the session inside a hideout near the edges of Manhattan. All hideouts have a crafting bench you can use to craft clothing, gear, weapons, weapon attachments, and gear mods using crafting materials.
Survival notes can also be found inside safehouses to help teach you things about the game mode
Entering a hideout will fully heal your agent and fill your cold meter over a short period of time
Hideouts will have different blueprints the closer you get to the Dark Zone
Some hideouts have blueprints that are considered more valuable, even at standard rarity
Hideouts closest to the outskirts of the map will have a green Extended Magazine and VX-1 scope, these are not available in any rarity at any other Hideouts
Hideouts closest to the middle of the Light Zone have blue Omega suppressors, also not available elsewhere in other rarities
Its possible to obtain these items as a superior (purple) drop from enemies, but this is extremely rare
you can enter a hideout while in PvE combat but not during PvP combat
This works well at the Library Dark Zone landmark, if you're being pressured, you can fall back to the hideout to regain HP.

Crafting Materials

They are obtained from containers and elite crates around open world, dropped from enemies, or collected by scrapping equipment.

Scrapping items will yield materials

Fabric from scrapping gear
Tools from weapon attachments
Weapon from parts weapons
Electronics from gear/performance mods

They can also be converted to better quality at a ratio of 3-for-1 at the crafting bench:

3 green converts to 1 blue
3 blue converts to 1 gold

You can increase the increment of materials you can convert at the crafting table by pressing “right” while the material is selected.

Fabric and electronics are the most valuable materials in survival, as fabric is required to craft gear and electronics are needed for high-end gear and skills. One high end gear piece costs 3 high-end fabric and 1 high-end electronic, craft these inside Dark Zone hideouts.

All material containers inside Dark Zone will give x1 designated high-end material.

People have the option to rush to Dark Zone to loot materials and div tech to save time they'd instead spend inside Light Zone looting materials, but it comes with the risk of not having good gear to defend against the increased threats in Dark Zone.

Gear & Weapons

Avoid equipping gear with electronic rolls in early-game, since you do not have skills unlocked, electronics will provide no value to you. Focus on stamina and firearms early game for more dps and sustainability. Green gear with firearm/stamina rolls can be better than blue gear with electronic rolls. Find a gun as quickly as possible, almost all guns are better than a standard sidearm.

Gear Crafting Priority

You can craft gear in the Light Zone at hideouts but you should put keep in mind when to prioritize crafting certain pieces. For example, you should craft a holster before other gear, unless you still have lower quality when crafting late game, because it will raise more than one stat at a time. Green and blue holsters will raise two stats while a purple or gold holster raises all three stats.

Gloves are usually next priority due to the raw damage increase potential. Once you know what weapon type damage you're given, choosing which gun to craft becomes easier. This way you avoid scenarios where you have smg dmg gloves but already have an AR crafted. After holster and gloves, priority should go knee pads, then mask, then chest, and finally backpack.

Knee Pads: Critical Hit Damage, Health, Status resistance, and Damage to Elites potential
Mask: Status resistance, Critical Hit Chance, Enemy Armor Damage, and Damage to Elites potential
Chest: Health, Enemy Armor Damage, Skill Haste, and Ammo Capacity potential
Backpack: Critical Hit Damage, and Ammo Capacity potential

Tips

It’s not always about the talent, you’ll almost never end up with the talents you actually want on gear unless you’re crafting for a while.
Stat and attribute rolls on gear are more important than gear talents
Pay close attention to stat distribution as you're crafting and make adjustments as you go
Going all in on one stat isn't always the best strategy, a balanced approach is often best, whether it be between Firearms and Stamina or all three stats
I wouldn't recommend balancing electronics and stamina, having no damage will almost always end badly
If balancing two stats, balance between Firearms/Electroniocs, or Firearms/Stamina for best results
Balancing is technically a min-max activity in Survival, sometimes you won't always have the materials to balance and that's okay. Just make-do with the equipment you get.

Skills

Pulse: Most valuable skill to obtain in Survival. The sooner you obtain Pulse, the more of an advantage you have against everyone else. Not only is it good for finding players, it gives valuable info on NPCs in your direct area. If Elites that are normally patrolling the area are not captured by the Pulse, you're able to save time by relocating
Turret: Pulls NPC aggro, acts as a teammate, and is helpful in landmarks.
Self-heal: If skill power is weak it can still help you get to the next health segment. If skill power is high enough then it can save you from going down or wasting a med kit
Support Station: Will revive you and teammates that go down as well as give a steady stream of incoming HP.
Seeker Mine: will lock onto targets and make them leave cover and will stagger other players if they're hit by it, only really useful in PvP, does hardly any damage
Ballistic Shield: Could make it work if you plan to build around the sidearm and get lucky with gear rolls, an unreliable method
Mobile Cover: A waste of materials that will provide no benefit, placing the cover takes time and it won't protect you from much damage before it breaks
Smart Cover: will provide better weapon handling and resistance to incoming damage but is not something that is considered wasting materials over a self heal and/or pulse.

Some skills have disadvantages in PVP

Support Station: Can be seen from far distances by other players and easily gives away your position.
Sticky Bomb: Can be heard across the map, can be useful if you're built towards all skill power, but otherwise does little-to-no damage.
Seeker mine: Hunters will hack it.

Clothing / Temperature Management

Visiting hideouts, fire barrels, or shelters will increase your cold meter. Equipping better clothing increases your cold resistance, if the meter drops to zero, you will begin to freeze. While freezing, your health will slowly drain and taking fatal damage while freezing will instantly put you into an unconscious state.

Always prioritize better gear first before resorting to crafting clothing, clothing is easily found in the world from backpacks, suitcases, or dropped enemies. Higher difficulty enemies should drop better quality clothing, gear, and guns. If desperate, using an incendiary grenade on yourself will increase your warmth with the trade-off of damage taken from the fire. Some locations like tents or underpasses can have a warmer temperature.

Consumables

If on PC, it helps to memorize your consumables hotkeys instead of relying on the wheel.

Med kits: Provides a burst of HP as normal. Use as a last ditch effort when freezing since it cannot be used to self-revive while unconscious. Can be used to self-revive or revive other unconscious players. Craft at a crafting station using fabric and tools.
Food: Helps manage HP recovery and gives a continuous healing effect. While hungry, HP will not regain whatsoever before the next health segment.
Hydration: Increases loot detection. While dehydrated, the aura of loot is not detectable from any range. (For Div 2 players, this is similar to giving a control point officer resources.) Drink water or soda as soon as possible in the session/early game to find loot faster.
Medicine and Painkillers: Helps manage time while suffering from sepsis. Medicine will pause the timer for the longest amount of time at 5 minutes, Painkillers will pause the infection timer for 2 minutes. The time will decrease after each use and will eventually offer no benefit.

Survival Rank

Survival Rank is the score of an agent's overall performance, regardless of outcome. There are six possible Survival ranks that yield different rewards:

No Rank: 0 Caches
Novice: 1 Survival Cache
Trained: 2 Caches (1 Survival, 1 Gear)
Skilled: 3 Caches (1 Survival, 1 Weapon, 1 Gear)
Expert: 4 Caches (1 Survival, 1 Weapon, 2 Gear)
Master: 4 Caches (2 Survival, 1 Weapon, 1 Gear)

Extracted Sealed Caches

Obtained within the session and will be rewarded after extract. Agents can carry up to six (6) Sealed Caches at once.

Types of Sealed Caches

Weapons
Gear
Mods
Survival

Weapons, Gear, and Mods Caches can be looted from containers or dropped by enemies anywhere in the Dark Zone, while Survival Caches can only be obtained from Named enemies at Landmarks and very rarely drop from slain Hunters. Survival Caches have a 10% + 6% Bonus chance for Classified Gear drops and a small 1% bonus chance for an Exotic item. Survival Weekly Assignments will Reward an Exotic cache x1 per character per week.

A reminder that the PVP game mode adds a 1.2x multiplier to the final score.

There are six ranks in Survival, with Rank 0 being considered "no rank":

Rank 0: No Rank (0-599)
Rank 1: Novice (600-1749)
Rank 2: Trained (1750-3999)
Rank 3: Skilled (4000-7499)
Rank 4: Expert (7500-9999)
Rank 5: Master (10000+)

Achieving Master Rank for the first time awards the Survival Instincts Achievement and Commendation, rewarding the Killer Instinct arm patch.

Survival Scoring

Merits

Time Sensitive Materials (600pts): Acquire the Antivirals within 20 minutes and extract. Collecting the antivirals in less than 20 minutes is enough, it doesn’t matter how long you take to extract after that. (confirmed by @lfop)
Lone Wolf (700pts): Extract as a solo player without grouping, trading items, or reviving other players.
No Man Left Behind (400pts/member): Begin Survival with a group and extract with all group members.
Allied Victory (400pts/player): Extract with players that were not in your group when the session started.
Punisher (1600pts): Help eliminate at least 4 Hunters. Can be earned more than once.
Turncloak (1600pts): Eliminate at least 4 Agents and extract.
Extracted with Chopper (500pts 1st/400 pts 2nd/300 pts 3rd/200 pts 4th/100 pts 5th)
Never Downed (750 pts)
Never Unconscious (500 pts)
Hunter Defeated (400 pts): Can be earned more than once.

Normal NPC Kills

10 Points per Level 28 NPC
20 Points per Level 29 NPC
30 Points per Level 30 NPC

Veteran NPC Kills

20 Points per Level 28 NPC
40 Points per Level 29 NPC
60 Points per Level 30 NPC

Elite NPC Kills

30 Points per Level 28 NPC
60 Points per Level 29 NPC
90 Points per Level 30 NPC

Named NPC Kills

150 per kill

General points

Survival Time: 5 Points per minute
Players Revived: 200 Points per Revive
Thirst Score: 5 Points per 1%
Hunger Score: 5 Points per 1%
Disease Score: 10 Points per 1%
Cold: 20 Points per -1° C

Objectives

Virus Filter Crafted: 300 (Craft the Basic Virus Filter)
Dark Zone Entered: 800 (Enter the Dark Zone)
Flare Gun Crafted: 500 (Craft the Flare Gun in a DZ Hideout).
Antivirals Retrieved: 600 (Find the Antivirals in the Dark Zone)
Time Sensitive Materials: 600 (Complete a Survival run within 20 minutes of the s tart of the game.)
Extraction Completed: 1400

Looting

Gearscore: 5 Points per GS (Up to 163 GS/815 Points)
Medkits: 50 Points per Medkit
Medicine and Painkillers: 20 Points per Medicine/Painkiller
Food: 20 Points per Energy Bar/Canned Food
Drinks: 20 Points per Water/Soda

Scoring Tips

Enemies increase in level as you get closer to the Dark Zone and are level 30 inside DZ.
Higher leveled enemies reward more points.
Consume Meds, Food, and Drinks before boarding the Helicopter, the score potential for Infection, Hunger, and Thirst are much higher than that of simply holding onto them.
Killing 4 Hunters equates to 3200 Points; 1600 for the Hunters Defeated + 1600 for the Punisher bonus + 8 Hunters equates to 6400 Points, and so on.
The points possible for Never Downed can be pivotal in gaining Master rank
Don't be afraid to use your Medkits to stay alive.
Don’t forget your antivirals, you can accidentally extract without them and they are worth points.
Flare Guns are worth 500 points each time they are picked up. The points can be exploited by crafting and sharing them inside the safehouse or from picking up from other dead players.
Remember that PVP will give a 1.2x multiplier to your final score

Commendations

The Vulture: Loot 50 player corpses.
Hunter to Hunted: Kill 20 Hunters.
In the Nick of Time!: Extract with less than 1 minute left on your disease timer.
Well Fed: Carry 3 of each consumable (excluding medicine and painkillers).
Born Survivor: Successfully survive and escape.
Subzero Hero: Obtain clothing to get a survivable temperature rating of -22c / -7f.
Tools of the Trade: Craft the virus filter and flare gun.
Medicine Man: Carry 3 Medkits, painkillers, and medicine at once.
Arm Patch Reward
Pacifist: Kill no other players in the PVP game mode.
Survival Explorer: Complete objectives Pacifist, In the Nick of Time!, Well Fed, and Medicine Man.
Survival Instincts: Achieve Master Rank.
For the Hoarder: Successfully extract 100 items.
Black Pigeon Down: Successfully complete 20 Survival sessions.
Survival Revival: Revive 50 players in Survival Mode. Self-revive also applies.
Survival Expert: Complete objectives Born Survivor, Tools of the Trade, Black Pigeon Down, The Vulture, Hunter to Hunted, and For the Hoarder.

Tips for Commendations

Crafting in Survival counts towards the crafting commendation "Good With My Hands".
Commendations under the "Combat" category will also progress in Survival.

Misc. Info & Tips

Hold down the interact button during the introductory cutscene to skip it, skipping will get you into the match sooner.
Survival is based on an earlier version of the game's Dark Zone before the DZ North expansion was added. Some areas of the DZ are different than they are in the main game now. DZ07-09 do not exist in Survival and some areas are removed or look different.
Spamming escape/back while looting a container removes the chance of being "stuck" in the equip/pick up animation (doesn't apply to materials). Item will drop to the ground and will need to be picked up manually
It takes 5 minutes for a session to start in Survival. If the game finder has been searching for close to 5 minutes then you are probably alone.