Fundamentals of Black Survival

It's a Searching Game with Speed, Efficiency, and Focus

• Yes, it is a "gacha" 2D battle royale, but in reality, it's a Searching game with Speed, Efficiency, and Focus. I'll explain.

• Searching Game: Search in this game is mostly used for actions in the real world. Everything else are just variables to increase your search efficiency (Speed, Efficiency, Focus). We will look at them in a few.

  • Search Phases (from in-game Guide):

    • At the top is the Main Computer in the Research Center: This is very efficient as if you find it with the System Shutdown Code, you will kill all characters in the game, and win instantly. But this is hard to achieve as you need to hack in the Research Center, and then access the Main Computer. See JP.

    • Then Step on a Trap: Without having to fight, you can kill players by setting traps. The problem is that you can also walk into your own trap, so realistically, only something for Isol.

    • Then finding an Enemy: It's more efficient to kill players, and steal their gear, than making it yourself. The problem is that most experienced players are not going to give you their stuff easily. So this is not too realiable.

    • Then finding Animals: It's also more efficient to kill animals, and steal their ingredients, than searching for it. The problem is that, in tough lobbies, everyone is gunning for them. So you will only get a few there. See Animal Hunting down below.

    • Then finding Corpse: Even if you didn't kill the dead player yourself, you also have one search with higher probability to see the corpse. This make looting corpse efficient in this game. But it doesn't happen very often. See Timing down below.

    • And then you find Items, which is the bread and butter of this game. Let's explain how it works.

  • Searching for Items

    • For same explanation in Video here.

    • Searching for all items: Every search in this game is a probability table. Let's say you take the single Anatomy Model available in the School. What are the chances to get it on the first search? You divide the numbers (#) of copies of the item by the total items in the area: 1/59 or around 1.7%. Then let's say you find Scissors first, and you don't pick it up. What will happen to your second search for Anatomy Model? 1/54 or 1.85%. Why? Because the game assumed you don't need Scissors as you didn't pick it up, so it removed not just 1, but all 5 Scissors from the pool. And you go this way until you see every item in School at least once (including dropped items in the area, and RNG items later). Then if you didn't pick anything, the same order will repeat itself until you pick an item.

    • Force Searching: So when you search through all item to find just one item, like Anatomy Model, this is what players refers as "forcing" it. This is inefficient as you skipped, or wasted many searches, that appeared before Anatomy model.

    • Picking an item resets: And then, as soon as you pick something to add to your inventory like that Anatomy Model, the search probability table resets itself. So this is how you can get multiple copies of an item if you pick one up. So let's say you pick the Scissors in the second search (mentioned in our first example). Then the probability to find a 2nd one would be? 4/58 or 6.9%. There are 4 Scissors left and now 58 items in the School as you grabbed one Scissors and you didn't drop one (I'm assuming you didn't pick the Anatomy Model yet too).

    • Holding an item in the Drop Zone: Be aware that clicking on an item in the Drop Zone is not the same as adding it your inventory, and it doesn't reset the probability table. So you can keep the item in the Drop Zone until you see another item you need from the School pool to avoid resetting the pool. That's what players mean when they say they "hold" an item in the Drop Zone. This is only useful if you already went through a lot of the item in the pool though as you might have to "hold" it for very long.

    • So Searching Efficiently: So to maximizes your chances to find your desired items, you will be more efficient if you go in areas where you can get many items (as more chances to find it first), rather than only one item (Force searching). So the best player are simply able to make more efficient search in this game. How?

• Speed: It's hotkeys (PC) or fingers (Mobile) speed really. The faster you search, or the more action you do in the game, the better you will be. And yes I didn't think I would be able to play this fast at the beginning when I looked at top players. But this is not enough, you might be a fast player, but it won't matter if you are not also efficient.

• Efficiency: Then there are multiple variables to juggle to make every search as efficient as it can be. As a new player, you'll start with simplified decisions, then you will gradually add more complexity over time for the extra edge (See Learning Tips down below).

  • 1. Food: Without food, you die.

  • 2. Armor: Without armor, you spend more food. You'll be aiming for the fastest full Purple gear combination.

  • 3. Weapon: Without Weapon, you get contested more and build "too much Mastery". We'll get to it.

  • 4. Stamina: Without Stamina, you search less.

    • Accelerate Aptitude / Blue Cell are good consideration for this

    • Knowing Glass Cup & Boiling Water crafts goes far.

  • 5. Inventory: Without considering everything in your inventory & equipment, you'll make less inefficient searches. Eg. You might want to craft X, but you have no space right now.

  • 6. Mastery: Without Mastery, you do less damage late game. This basically gets covered from Crafting Efficiently early game, and Animal Hunting now. Because the introduction of Starting Gear gives you more time to gain Mastery.

    • "Too much Mastery": As already mentioned under Weapon, there is also a diminishing return to Mastery. As you fight more, you also burn more food, therefore you might decrease your chance of surviving. Getting contested often also builds Mastery, but you might die soon from being unable to build Armor or Weapon. Furthermore, late game, the difference between S and SS is not that big, and it's more important to preserve one's big food rather than get an extra Mastery level at the cost of having no food left.

    • Non-Mastery Playstyles Exist: Bianca, Barbara, JP, "Poison" Weapons, Trapsol.

  • 7. Timing: There are a lot of events constantly happening that might take priority right now. You get injured, Weapon starts defecting, Players dieing, Noises for fights, Animal Hunting, Wickeline appearing at Night.

  • 8. Character Skills: It doesn't matter as much as players believe it to be.

  • 9. Matchup lobby: You can get information about players, and potential counters. Isol is the main one to pay attention to.

  • 10. Traps: This is also most likely part of Search Efficiency as traps can be lethal. It's just difficult to control it's effectiveness outside of Isol vs food. So most characters don't bother grabbing or crafting any. You will be able to win without crafting traps.

• Focus: You understand Search, you're fast, you're efficient, but nothing matters if your mental game is not on point. This is something you can more easily detect from watching your plays afterward. "Was I distracted here? Why did I miss this item?"

General Strategies

• Early: You typically avoid confrontations and build Armor, Weapon, while having some Food ready to use.

• Mid: You complete your full Purple gear, and then start Animal Hunting, especially Wickeline. You also start building toward big food.

• Late: You stay afloat with small food and preserve your big food until the last confrontation in the last area.

Animal Hunting

• Animal Respawn Timer: In tough lobbies, you will hunt less, as everyone is aware.

  • 1:50 for birds (on the timer at the top of the screen)

  • 2:20 for dogs

  • 2:50 for gorilla/bear

• "Free" Mastery: You don't take any damage from them, and you deny it from other players.

• Efficiency: In one or two searches, you may receive an ingredient. See Search Phases above.

• Wickeline: If ahead, or lucky to get her without contest, she typically builds into a Legendary Weapon. She's a major milestone in the game.

Learning Tips

• Play: As you keep playing, you'll improve on every aspects of the game. It's only up to you.

• PvE mode: It's a no-stress way to Crafting Efficiently without players pressure. See our article on PvE for more here. Search & Speed is not a factor there though.

• Build Foundations Gradually: Seach + Speed + Efficiency (1-5) in Efficiency (See above) is where your initial focus should be. Then you'll keep adding more and more, until victory is yours.