Everything you must know to survive your very first 30 minutes in the game. From learning how to control your survivor, to efficiently routing XP gems.
This guide is restricted purely to fundamental day-1 progression mechanics. If you already understand how to move and pick up gems, you are in the wrong place! Discover the Best Weapon Combos here, or visit our Tier List Hub to view the latest current meta.
Monster Survivors is a free-to-play roguelite bullet-heaven game. You control a survivor who automatically attacks nearby enemies while you focus exclusively on movement and positioning.
The core gameplay loop is straightforward but addictive. Your character auto-attacks, monsters die and drop experience gems. You pick those gems up, level up, and become powerful enough to endure longer.
Drag your mouse or finger to move your character. They follow your cursor automatically.
Automatic. You do not need to click to shoot. Period. Focus entirely on weaving through gaps in the enemy herd.
Unlike tower defense games, defeated enemies do NOT automatically deposit experience into your account. They drop gems onto the ground. If you stand completely stationary and "camp a corner", your level will remain at Level 1, and eventually, the enemy difficulty will vastly outscale you. Constant movement to sweep up dropped gems is mandatory.
Once your experience bar at the top of the monitor fills completely, you will level up. The game pauses dynamically, allowing you an unlimited amount of time to select a weapon or passive stat upgrade.
Because this is a "Roguelite", you are expected to die constantly in your first few hours. However, every coin you hoovered up during a failed run transfers safely into your permanent pocket structure.
Before your next run, you can spend this gold to permanently upgrade your survivor's Base Health, Base Damage, or unlock shiny new Characters (like Echo and Arcanix). Do not be afraid to fail.
When you reach specific chronological thresholds in an area, the game will warn you of an impending Boss encounter. The most jarring mechanic for a beginner occurs here: the massive open world map is forcibly shrunken by barricades.
You can no longer run away endlessly. The game tests your previously built strength by caging you in tight quarters with a giant monster. If you haven't been gathering enough XP and ranking up Damage abilities prior to the cage descending, you will not have the pure output necessary to burst it down.