As noted in our review for this dual-stick survival game, there are some facets (such as the night timer) that really can’t be avoided without purchasing IAP. However, the purpose of this guide is to try and guide you towards enjoying as much of the game as possible without having to resort to the game’s IAP unlocks.

There are three key rules that players should follow while playing Trial by Survival (Free) and they are as follows:

Scavenging Is The Key To Success in Survival Mode

While you can certainly go far during normal play in finding parts to ‘build’ weapons, (especially if you pick up the Parts Perk and get lucky on some level completion bonuses), the best way you have to earn enough parts you need to unlock the really fun weapons is by scavenging. By engaging in scavenging, especially early on, you’ll be able to pick up on (hopefully) large amounts of parts saved up and inevitably left stranded by players when they bite the dust in their survival runs. This, combined with your normal part discovery rate, should allow you enough parts to build your weapon of choice and maintain your armor, two items necessary for a successful survival run. There’s just one problem…

In Order to Scavenge, You’ll Need to Earn Coins in Arena

While scavenging is pretty awesome and can be a life savor during survival mode, it requires the use of a scavenger coin. Unfortunately, scavenger coins can only be earned two ways: you can purchase them in bulk from the game’s ‘Survival Shop’ via IAP or they can be earned during the game’s Arena Mode. Arena Mode is a hectic, mass-zombie killing mode that awards a scavenger coin for every 80 zombies killed. Considering the goal of this guide is to try and provide guidance to succeed in Trial by Survival without spending cash, it’s obvious that the way to go will be Arena Mode. However, initially earning coins is a bit harder than it may appear to be.

In Order Successful Farm Coins In Arena, You Need to Unlock The Weapons In Survival

At the onset of firing up Trial by Survival, you’ll notice that you only have access to one weapon in Arena Mode – the crowbar. Alas, in order to use weapons in Arena Mode, you’ll have to use them a lot in Survival Mode. In fact, you can only unlock a weapon for use in Arena Mode after you’ve purchased it and killed 250 zombies in Survival Mode. Thankfully, this doesn’t have to be done in one run, so you can slowly work towards a cumulative kill total. Still, 250 kills is a lot to do, especially when you have no scavenger coins at the onset.

So now, we’re in kind of a conundrum. The best way to succeed at Survival Mode is to scavenge. However, in order to scavenge you need to earn scavenger coins in Arena Mode, which is hard to do until you unlock its weapons, which can only be done by succeeding at Survival Mode, which requires you to… well you get the picture.

With that said, use the following tips in Survival Mode and you should have an easier time unlocking weapons for use in Arena:

Always Go For the Parts Perk

It goes without saying, but you really nee dto pick up the Parts Perk as soon as you can when playing Survival Mode. The sooner you get this, the more parts you earn when you pick up crates in each mission. The more parts you earn, the faster you can build the weapon you want, which means the sooner you get to killing zombies with said weapon and working towards the unlock kill count in Arena. Sure, there are plenty of other perks that may work more towards longevity or playstyle, but we don’t care about that right now. We care about weapon unlocks and, as far as weapon grinding is concerned, you must take the Parts Perk as soon as you can.

Start With The Cheapest Weapon You Haven’t Unlocked 

You might have your eyes set on using that carbine or shotgun in Arena mode as soon as you can, so odds are you probably want to try and get kills towards that one as soon as you can in Survival. While that’s certainly an option, I highly recommend at least starting with a few of the cheapest weapons first. If you get the Axe and the Revolver unlocked first, at least then you’ll have some decent weapons to work with during Arena Mode, which will let you earn some Scavenger Coins quicker, which you can then use to get that high end weapon. Remember, it’s about the scavenger coins first, and then your favorite weapon second.

Never Buy  A Weapon You’ve Already Unlocked

This is more common sense than anything else, but it’s worth mentioning. Say you’ve worked hard and unlocked the axe in Arena mode by getting the requisite number of kills in Survival. If you’re looking to unlock the next weapon for Arena, suffice to say you probably shouldn’t bother unlocking the axe again and save your parts for unlocking the next weapon sooner, which will get you to kill zombies with that weapon faster.

However, this may be more of a controversial tip since some folks may argue that unlocking a better weapon than the crowbar sooner, regardless if you’ve already unlocked them in Arena, is a good idea simply because better weapons allow you to last longer in a run, which lets you earn more parts and thus better weapons in the long term. While I don’t disagree with this assessment, I think most folks can handle a crow bar long enough to save enough parts to get at least the first half of the weapons without much trouble. Once you’re working on the second half, then I’d agree that unlocking a non-crowbar weapon sooner is in your best interest vice waiting for the cheapest weapon you’ve yet to unlock.

Practice Ammo Management

Finally, once you’ve gotten your weapon of choice, it bears repeating that you should practice good ammo management in order to utilize your ammo as efficiently as possible. Pick up a perk that lets you kill more enemies easily with the weapon you’re using. Make sure you’ve gotten aim and range down before you start firing. Finally, if you’re in a 1-on-1 scenario, it may be a better idea to just use a melee weapon and save the ammo for groups of zombies.

If you follow the above tips, you should be able to unlock weapons faster, which let you earn scavenger coins easier in Arena Mode, which will then make survival runs more palatable. It’ll take some work, but I believe that’s some of the fun of Trial By Survival. Finally, if you have a little bit of cash to spare, I’d recommend spending the two bucks to unlock all the weapons and perks in Arena mode. This will let you get right to mass scavenger coin grinding, and then you’ll be able to focus exclusively on whatever strategy you want to employ to make it through Survival Mode.