How Tos

Puzzles & Survival strategy guide

Puzzles & Survival strategy guide

Left Arrow
0/7
Right Arrow

If you're looking for some useful Puzzles & Survival tips, tricks and much more, then our article is exactly what you need. We have created a guide to help you better understand the role and faction of each hero, as well as listed some essential tips for upgrading your base quickly and efficiently.

For those not in the know, Puzzles & Survival is a strategy match-three mobile game where players can develop their base, solve the puzzle stages and defeat countless hordes of hungry zombies, allowing them to move on to the next challenge. Alongside the classic match-three mechanics, the game also features a collection of heroes that each comes with its own special ability that charges as you play and match more blocks.

In this article, we're going to explore how exactly players can use these hero abilities to defeat the enemies, how to quickly charge them, how to develop the base (quickly) as a free-to-play player and a bunch of other useful game tips.

Click Here To View The List »

Tip #1 - Puzzles & Survival hero guide

To kick off our guide, we'll talk about some key elements regarding the heroes, more specifically their types, how to upgrade them, and how to understand the use of each and every one of them.

Elements

There are a total of 5 elements in the game, as follows:

  • Brave (Green) is strong against Calm (Blue), but weak against Rash (Red).
  • Calm (Blue) is strong against Rash (Red), but weak against Brave (Green).
  • Rash (Red) is strong against Brave (Green), but weak against Calm (Blue).
  • Avid (Purple) and Wary (Orange/Yellow) counter each other.

When an element counters another, it actually means that said element deals an additional 200% damage to the one it is strong against. When it is weak against another element, the damage dealt is reduced to 50% of the total damage (which means you lose half of the damage dealt since the enemy "resists" the attack).

You always want to make sure you're using the correct element, because each round has a set number of moves available, and, ideally, you want to defeat your enemies before you run out of moves by using a countering element.

Unit Type

Just like in the case of the elements, there are also unit types which affect the actual troops you deploy. You can read the skills for each one of the heroes in the Troop Skill tab, which is more or less the equivalent of a hero's "passive skills". Unit types available in the game are Fighter, Shooter, Raider, Vehicle and Economy. Let's break down the characteristics of each one of these types.

  • Fighter units - these heroes specialise in boosting the ATK, DEF or HP of Fighter troops, as well as some "general" skills that affect the overall troops deployed.
  • Shooter units - Shooter heroes will affect the DEF, ATK or HP of the Shooter troops, but they can also feature useful "general" skills.
  • Raider units - these characters will typically increase the Raiders' DEF, ATK or HP, but can also have other "general" skills which can be applied to the output or general ATK of troops.
  • Economy units - Economy heroes are among the best at providing useful PvE benefits, such as increased production, reduced costs of resources and much more.
  • Vehicle units - These units typically boost the battle vehicles' stats.

Upgrading your heroes in Puzzles & Survival

Leveling up

If you want to upgrade your units, there are several ways of doing so. First and foremost, you can level up the units. Leveling up a hero costs Antiserum (Hero EXP), and the amount required for each level increases with every single upgrade.

By leveling them up, you will increase the heroes' basic stats (ATK, DEF, HP), and once a hero has reached its cap, you will need specific items to Evolve it (Combat Manuals and Antiserum). With specific levels, heroes will also unlock their skills (both Troop Skills and Hero Skills), so it is something every player must do with their best heroes in order to advance further.

Starring up

Evolving or starring up the heroes is something a little bit more tedious. Every hero in the game can be starred up to 6* (which is the maximum), but in order to do so, players must first max the hero level for their current star rating, then use Combat Manuals and lots of Antiserum to upgrade their star.

Enhancing heroes

In order to enhance the heroes, players must collect a lot of hero fragments or duplicate heroes, which then turn into fragments. With each new star, the heroes' basic stats increase, and their skills level up, providing better passives.

How to level up the hero skills

The only way to upgrade the skills of the heroes is by upgrading the heroes themselves. Each skill can be upgraded to level 5 at the moment (+5), which goes hand in hand with the hero's star rating.

Tip #2 - Base building guide

The base is an extremely important part of the game because it allows players to develop better heroes and troops and increases the production of resources, including Antiserum - the number one resource used for upgrading heroes.

To have a powerful base, players must build new buildings and upgrade their existing ones at all times. The Headquarters is the core of each base, and that determines the cap for each subsequent building available. The maximum number for the HQ level is 40, and with each level the troop size and infirmary cap increases, allowing for more units deployed in battle.

How to upgrade the Headquarters quickly

The HQ has certain requirements that players need to meet in order to upgrade, and generally, these also have a bunch of requirements themselves. To see which they are, simply tap on the HQ and then on Upgrade, and you will see the time required for the upgrade to finish, which buildings you need to have upgraded (and to what level) in order to start the upgrade, and what materials it requires.

If you want to focus solely on the Headquarters, you can follow the list of requirements for it alone, but we strongly recommend you upgrade all the other buildings you have available on your base as well.

Upgrade all the buildings fast

To upgrade all the buildings quickly, then you must look for the little green arrow next to them - that shows you which buildings can be upgraded. Usually, you can only work on a single upgrade at a time, so we recommend that you always have something upgrading at all times.

Tip #3 - Unlock the Extra Build Queue

If you're new to the game and want to progress twice as fast, then hiring the second building queue is crucial. You can do so by spending Diamonds, purchasing them with real money (which unlocks them permanently), or by acquiring them from various promo codes and offers.

Once you have the Extra Build Queue, you will be able to work on two buildings at the same time, which basically makes the entire process a lot faster.

Tip #4 - Learn all about PvE and PvP

PvE in Puzzles & Survival

PvE is all about what you see once you dive into the game - you battle zombies, upgrade your base and ultimately try to achieve your goals of gathering materials, upgrading heroes and expanding your base. The pace of playing as a PvE player is the one you set yourself, without worrying too much about whether or not you can tackle other players' heroes and bases.

However, this is only one side of the game. You see, there is also the PvP element, which can be extremely fun, yet demanding.

PvP in Puzzles & Survival

Firstly, it's worth mentioning there are two types of PvP: the Arena PvP and the raw, World Map PvP. In the Arena players can deploy their best heroes, the ones of the highest level and well-equipped to challenge other players, while in the World Map that doesn't really matter.

World Map PvP is best done when a player is in an active Alliance since it revolves around attacking other players' bases and capturing their resources. There are regular Alliance vs Alliance wars, especially among the top Alliances in the game. However, we'll cover this on the next page.

If you want to prepare for PvP, then you must be prepared to work pretty hard on upgrading your entire base and some of the best heroes because it's a challenging aspect of the game. You need to also strengthen your defenses, because once you decide to start attacking other players (or if you simply leave your base unprotected) you are prone to attacks from other players.

Tip #5 - Join an active Alliance - very important!

The Alliance is arguably one of the most important features Puzzles & Survival has to offer. It unlocks a bunch of functions that are not only generally useful but also open the game to mass PvP in Alliance vs Alliance battles.

Players should always try to join an active Alliance (it being active is key) because you'll receive a lot more help when requesting, and you will also stand a chance in the World Map against other players trying to attack you.

Don't be afraid to always request help when building something, because while it's not super obvious in the early stages of the game, the more you advance, the more time building upgrades will require, and every bit of help from fellow Alliance members will be more than welcome. In turn, you should also offer your help whenever someone requests it.

Relocate to your Alliance territory

Once joining an Alliance, you should immediately relocate your base on the World Map next to your mates. That will deter most attackers, especially if you are without a protection shield and if you have plenty of resources.

Tip #6 - Deploy the right heroes for each battle

When challenging the Campaign stages, you should always pay attention to the enemies you're about to face. As we mentioned before, choosing the right elements to counter them is going to make things a lot easier, so you should try to upgrade at least one hero of each element, so you'll always have something to counter any type of zombie.

Before you fight, you will notice in the "Enemy lineup" what element each opponent has, and if you have multiple heroes of a countering element, you should try to deploy those instead.

Tip #7 - How to get more resources, items and EXP

If you want to get lots of resources, as well as EXP and other loot, then you need to be prepared for some grind. Players typically receive some items from the Campaign stages, but to get enough to upgrade a hero players must always clear the stages multiple times (basically grind/farm them).

Aside from this, codes for Puzzles & Survival, can be used since they're free and extremely useful at any stage in the game.

Always upgrade your resource farms

When it comes to general resources, there are buildings that generate those over time. Make sure to build all the available resource farms (Food, Antiserum, Wood, etc) and don't forget to collect them once they have reached their cap.

Left Arrow
0/7
Right Arrow
Cristina Mesesan
Cristina Mesesan
Cristina is a lifelong gamer who also loves digital art, she's worked as an animator and tried some game level designing in Unity. Her biggest passion is pixel games (Stardew, To the Moon), and she adores writing and sharing her knowledge about games.