Survival Mode Needs Saving
Tales from the Cryptmancer (@synist3r) recently dropped a video unpacking some of his biggest concerns facing Splinterlands right now — from inflated leaderboard ratings to the deeper problems with liquidity bots, Glint mechanics & Survival Mode.
It’s a solid listen & well worth your time.
But today, I want to zero in on just one piece of it.
Cool Format, Shame About the Execution
On the most recent episode of The People's Guild – Episode 142: An Azircon Conversation, we raised an uncomfortable but important question:
What happens if Survival Mode—after all this build-up—flops when it goes to a DAO vote?
Because – let’s be real – if nothing changes, that’s a real possibility.
So I wanted to take a minute and throw my two cents into the ring — not to again echo the frustration, but to offer a few practical suggestions that I believe could steer this format back on course.
Three Ways to Fix Survival Mode
Reinstate league-based card caps
Let players compete in the league they choose — Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond — & cap cards accordingly. This brings back some structure & gives low and mid-level players a reason to show up and participate. Accessibility matters.Scale cooldown duration to league level
A Silver-league player shouldn’t be punished by the same rules that a Champion-level player is. Adjust cooldowns based on the league players compete in — so a Silver card’s cooldown behaves differently than a maxed-out Champion deck.Remove cooldown penalties outside of Survival
If a card is depleted in Survival Mode, it should only be unavailable for that format. Players should still be able to use those cards in Ranked, Brawls & Tournaments. Depleting cards across all formats only discourages engagement.
Of course, there are plenty of other ideas floating around—many of which could also help shape this into a more accessible & compelling format. These just happen to be what I would look to see come to the format.
I’m rooting for Survival Mode to succeed. But if we want it to serve the broader player base — & this is the key to its success in my opinion — we’re going to need to course-correct before it’s too late.
Let’s get it right.
Comments (9)
Those three points, in particular 1 and 3 would see me try Survival mode and very likely go to the market to build up multiples of summoners and key cards for Bronze or Silver level, I mean with CL prices as they are, why wouldn't I ?
Up to now I have not played Survival mode for two reasons, firstly I have only one real viable deck, my additional cards, particularly summoners are not viable for any kind of run at Survival and they live in my rental account. Secondly, I can't risk losing my cards from my deck for Brawls or ranked ( Mainly Brawls as I have a responsibility to fill a Brawl fray,ranked play is more "optional")
Those are solid suggestions.
I feel a bit left out of Survival, and seeing as I've dropped in excess of $20k into this game in the last four years, I think that is definitely a bit of a "miss"
Completely agree. Accessibility for as many players as possible is the key. Survival was very exciting in the early seasons for me, especially with my Silver alt account – I've a ton of depth in that deck that makes it much more interesting. However, being able to only really play once a season before the cooldown reset makes it completely unviable. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts here Tarabh! Looking forward to how this whole thing shakes out
Thanks for sharing! - @azircon
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Great stuff Jangles. I really enjoyed the conversation you had with Az on the show and thank you for this post. Thank you for positing these possible solutions. Keep the posts coming bud.
Thanks man! Me, too. Definitely trying to contribute where I can towards turning this format into something sustainable & accessible for all of us. Cheers OFG!
I don't partake very much in Survival mode anymore, but every game mode that Splinterlands has is a huge positive. So when this comes up for a DAO vote you can make a safe bet that my 1 million+ staked SPS is voting for funding it :)
I agree that every additional format is a win for all of us but we've gotta get as many formats to be as widely-accessible as possible in order for them to be rewards-supported by the DAO long term. Fully expect a big revamp to survival before it's all said and done - lookin forward to seein how it shakes out! Cheers Seattle!
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STOPI really like 1 and 2! I was always a fan of level caps in the leagues, just makes it more fun in my opinion. And I never really understood why they were removed, and not fixed.
On 3. - I think that part is the excitement of Survival. Having to be very careful with your cards, or just not use the key cards. It also ties nicely to what was promised for Land - the Revival Potion. If that was implemented, the Cooldown wouldn't be a problem anymore. If you need a card urgently, you can quickly revive it, if you're willing to pay the price. Or be more careful in using it next time.
Thanks for this summary!
I never understood the removal of league caps either!! It was obviously not supported by the majority of the community, and I never bought the 'explanations'. Bring back league caps to all ranked formats!
I absolutely agree!
Thanks man!
Totally agree that league-level caps just feel right. They’ve always offered that healthy middle ground between fairness and fun.
Re: point 3 – there’s definitely a thrill in making every card count and the tension of losing access adds some real strategic depth. That said, I think the bigger goal here should be encouraging wider participation. If the cooldowns are too punishing, especially across multiple formats, it ends up driving people away instead of drawing them in.
Maybe the better path forward is limiting cooldown impact to just Survival—or excluding some combination of Ranked, Brawls or Tournaments. That way, players can still feel the risk and weight of decisions in Survival, without losing access to all other game modes elsewhere.
At any rate, I expect some very different mechanics and a fully revamped look to come to Survival mode before too long – definitely before we get it to a full DAO vote for long-term rewards. Hopefully we can get it to a point of being polished and engaging for most.
Cheers dude!
Maybe just losing the cards for ranked modes, but not for tournaments and brawls would be good. Keep those separated from the rest. Thanks for taking the time for a long answer. I'm pretty sure there will be a solution, and that they don't just kill it.
I'm with ya - I reckon we've come too far to give up on Survival. We've a creative bunch of folks in this community & we've got the time to iterate on this thing to get it to a positive for most folks that are here. Cheers dude!
I tried Survival Mode when it first launched, then ended up botting it… and now, to be totally honest, I’ve stopped caring about it altogether. It just isn’t fun for me.
If the mode is necessary to give large cardholders something to do—so be it. But it should at least be fun and not just another ROI-focused min/max bot that benefits only a few. If that’s what we need to keep the economy rolling, I can accept it… but as a more casual player, it’s just not a mode that speaks to me.
Matt once mentioned that players should only need to buy what they actually want to play with—this direction seems to go against that principle.
As for soaking up excess cards, I still believe Land was designed for that. We’re only seeing about 30% utilized in Land so far, and that was always intended to be the core sink. So I keep asking myself—do we really need this mode?
Sure, it introduces an interesting tradeoff with losing a card for a while—but at the moment, it feels like only bots are making those decisions, not players with emotions (I might be totally off here, just a feeling i have).
All that said, I’ll stop the rant there 😅 I'm all for experiments testing new mode and different approaches 😁, even holding on to survival and test different methods like you suggested.
If there are players who genuinely enjoy Survival Mode, then we should look for ways to improve or refine it. I personally like Option 3—it makes the loss feel less punishing, and one might join with a single deck also not just multiple extra cards. But I also get that it's about making tough choices (you can use a card only once), so I’m still on the fence.
And just to be clear: I really appreciate you taking the time to put together these constructive suggestions. 😍
You’re not alone in feeling disconnected from the mode—I’ve heard similar things from a number of casual and mid-level players who just don’t see the fun in it and have clearly felt that same shift over the course of this test period, as well. If we’re building something meant to last, that feedback has to be part of the conversation.
Your point about emotional decisions vs. bot efficiency is also spot on. If it’s only bots making the “sacrifice,” we lose the human element—and that’s what makes tough decisions interesting.
And yeah—Option 3 (scaled cooldowns) feels like it could bring some real players back into the mix without gutting the identity of the format.
At the end of the day, it sounds like the general consensus is that Survival is not sustainable and appropriate for the long-term and we need to inject some fun & fairness into it in order to get there.
Anyway, thanks again for the thoughtful response as always, Beaker!
Let’s see where this whole thing goes!
P.S. where ya been in the T.P. chats of late?! We've missed ya, dude!
Yeah, I’ve been popping into the T.P. chats every other week—whenever the timing works out a bit better for me. 😅
One of the sessions falls right in the middle of the night for me, and the other’s around 8 PM my time… but I’m guessing you might be asleep by then! 🤣
Ah! Yes, we must miss each other then – I'm only able to attend the 10am EST session. Definitely sleeping during the other :)