Before you ask, the purpose of this guide is to give insight into the preferred routes that should be taken when playing survivor mode for high scores. This guide is not in anyway giving information as to how to complete survivor mode maps as fast as possible. That being said, lets get started with the guide.
This guide will cover the characters that should be played on each map, what multipliers to get, and what order should you complete the optional objectives in. Keep in mind, this guide is being updated with new strategies occasionally, so these strategies are subject to change. Also, these score layouts both benefit people who play on console and PC, so if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to leave a message and I'll get back to you.
Now before I begin, I'd like to cover the logistics behind the survivor mode's score system. Basically your score is calculated entirely by how fast you complete the optional objectives, and how stealthy/resourceful you are. Along with completing the optional objectives, you can be given multipliers that will add on to your final score as an added bonus for performing certain actions in the map. These multipliers include:
- Empty Handed: The player doesn't collect any crafting components
- Never Detected: The player was never detected by the Alien/Androids
- No Flamer: The player never used the flamethrower
- No Tracker: The player never used the tracker
Not only that, but by performing certain actions you can receive bonus points that will be added onto your final score. These bonus point additions are:
- Engineer: The player crafted an item
- No Preparation: The player didn't pick up any items in the starting area
- No Hiding: The player didn't hide
- Gatherer: The player picked up 80%-100% of the items in the map
In order to get the maximum score possible, you will have to choose 1 of 2 different bonus multiplier setups, which are:
1.)
- Empty Handed
- Never Detected
- No Flamer
- No Track
- No Preparation
- No Hiding
2.)
- Never Detected
- No Flamer
- No Tracker
- Engineer
- No Preparation
- No Hiding
- Gatherer
In the end, these multipliers make or break your score, so be careful.
Now to start off the guide, I'm going to cover the first survivor mode map that was ever released.
"The Basement"
Character: Ellen/Ransome/Amanda/Parker Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Collect 2 Crew Cards 2.) Lock Down Stairwell 3.) Delete System Data Multiplier Setup: 1.
The only thing that you'll really need to complete this map is an access tuner and nothing else, though a flare definitely comes in handy. Once you open the door to the map, head immediately to the right and into the storage room where you will find an crew card lying on the top of a box. Next, head towards the stairwell, but before you go lock down the stairwell, go to the left of the entrance to the stairwell and head into the terminal/computer room where you'll find a second crew card on the top of a desk. After getting the crew card, head over to the stairwell and lock it down, and after doing so, head on upstairs to the second floor. At the second floor, go to the right of the reception desk and in that area there's a computer terminal at the far end of the hallway. Use it and you will have deleted the system data. Once this is done, complete the map as you normally would, just don't get caught by the Alien.
"Severance"
Character: Ransome Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Seal Shutters 2.) Delete Records 3.) Disable Cameras Multiplier Setup: 2.
Upon starting the map, go directly to the right and into the break room. Immediately after entering the break room, head down the stairs and across the room where there is a terminal that is hackable. Hack it and go up the stairs and into the long hallway. In the hallway, there is a set of stairs, and to the left of those stairs is a corridor leading to the game room. Enter said corridor and immediately after entering the game room go through the door that you immediately see after entering. After going through that door, go through the door directly across from the door you just emerged from. You will now find yourself in the server records room, where the terminal containing the server records is located. Delete the server records and head back to the long hallway and into the movie theater that's directly to the right of the stairs. Here, facehuggers will spawn, the Alien will be on a leave of absence, and power will need to be restored to the theater. Restore the power while avoiding getting killed by the facehuggers. Once power is restored, head out the theater through the now unlocked exit door, and make your way towards the security area, where you can disable the camera system. Disable the camera system, and start collecting crafting components if the Alien is still not present. If the Alien is present, restore power to the elevator and start collecting items after doing so, just don't get caught by the Alien in the process. After collecting a substantial amount of items, be sure to craft a blueprint or else you won't get the Engineer bonus.
"Scorched Earth"
- Character: Ransome/Ellen
- Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Save Civilian 2.) Unlock Lab Exit 3.) Collect Research
- Multiplier Setup: 1.
Upon starting, head left and hack the door terminal. Immediately head left after going through the door and you will see a civilian who is trapped. Save him by pulling the lever directly to the left of the window that the civilian is pounding on, and take a left after heading out of the room. After leaving the corridor and entering the long hallway, take an immediate left and into the glass showcase room. Here, a research file is contained inside a glass showcase. Hack the glass showcase terminal, grab the research file, and take a left after leaving the room. Head down the hallway and take a left into the game room. Leave the game room and into the research labs. Here, the second research file will be placed on the top of the desk that is overlooking the lower part of the medical facility. Grab it, and immediately head to the locked lab exit. Hack the lab exit and leave through said exit. After leaving said exit, go to the room with the terminal containing Lingard's information on Ransome, and there the last research file will be located. After collecting the last research file, finish the map as you normally would.
"Loose Ends"
Character: Ellen/Ransome Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Disrupt Comm's 2.) Lock Down Security 3.) Collect Nostromo Data Multiplier Setup: 1.
Head directly left after starting the map. After reaching and entering the door to the storage facility, head right and make your way into the communications area. A working Joe is present here so you'll have to be careful. Hack communications and leave the area through the other door. Another working Joe can be present here so be careful. After leaving communications, head up the set of stairs, take a left, and continue to go forward. After leaving the break room area hallway, you'll now find yourself in the security junction, which has an industrial Joe in it's presence. Here, you can either distract the Joe with a flare, or if you're playing as Ransome, can kill him with the bolt gun. Either way, once you know he is distracted and or dead, lock down the security junction. After locking it down, head into the mini storage facility where a glass showcase is present. Open the glass showcase and grab only the keycard. With the keycard, head down towards the reception desk and take a right, where you'll find a locked door that requires a keycard. Use the keycard and enter the room. Here you'll find a terminal with the Nostromo log data. Collect it, and finish the map without getting caught.
"Corporate Lockdown"
Character: Ransome/Ellen/Amanda
Since this is a gauntlet, there's no need to use different strategies. However, keep in mind that since it's a gauntlet and since your items carry over to each map now, you have the ability to craft items and receive the Engineer bonus without having to sacrifice the Empty Handed bonus, so finish the maps in the same fashion as if you were to play them separately, but don't forget to have enough components to keep crafting items in the next two stages.
"Reoperation"
Character: Ellen/Amanda Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Hack MRI 2.) Collect Medical Supplies 3.) Lock Down The Area Multiplier Setup: 1.
Head into the treatment room that is to your right after starting the challenge. Here, you'll find the first medical kit. Grab it, head back to the door from which you entered and instead of going through the door, head to right and down the corridor. Across this corridor you will find a door, and this door leads to the locked MRI room. Hack the MRI room console, and upon leaving, take a right and into the second treatment room. Here, the second medical kit is present on top of a gurney. Grab it and head down towards the other part of the second treatment room. Upon entering the other half of the second treatment room, look towards your left, and you will see the third medical kit on top of a gurney. Grab it and exit the second treatment room through the door that is located in the upper right hand corner of the room. After exiting the room through this door, head right and down the hallway. Down this hallway, there is a gurney that is located next to the entrance of the children's center. Enter the children's center and you will find the fourth and final medical kit. Grab it, exit the children's center, and head left. Back in the hallway, take a left and go through the door leading to reception. At the reception desk, use the computer and lock down the area. With the area now locked down, the door from which you came in from is now locked, forcing you to use the vents in order to go back to the medical wing. At any rate, go back to the medical wing, trigger the quarantine procedures, and make your way back to reception and in turn, the elevator.
"Crawl Space"
Character: Lingard Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Collect Engineer's Report 2.) Collect Medical Kits 3.) Vent Gas Multiplier Setup: 1.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Lingard must have 2 flares at the start of the map on her or else she won't have the necessary supplies needed in order to finish the map without getting detected, and due to the nature of Crawl Space and it's near impossibility of describing how to do the first part of the map, aka the vents, I'm going to instead skip over to the second part of the map so that I don't deliberately confuse you with the directions and what not.
After restoring power to the vent system, head through the vent that was previously closed off to you and instead of going to the left and dropping down into the storage facility, go forward and to the right. Keep going down the vent system until you exit into a room that has already been partially converted into a nest. Here, you'll find the engineer's report on the top of a booth seat. Pick it up, and leave the room from which you came. Dropping down into the storage room, pick up the first medical kit which is located directly in front of you upon dropping down from the vents. After picking it up, kill the three facehuggers in anyway possible, whether it be by the maintenance jack or by the revolver. After killing the three, leave the storage facility and make your way towards the second storage facility, where there's a chance that a facehugger and the second medical kit will spawn. If the second medical kit spawns there, grab it and enter the vent system in the storage facility. If it's not present, enter the vent system and upon exiting the vents, take a right and you'll find the second medical kit on a shelf. After exiting the third storage facility, make your way towards the fourth and final storage facility where two facehuggers and the third and final medical kit spawns. Depending on how the facehuggers behave, you will either have to kill them before or after you get the third and final kit, but in any case, kill the two and grab the kit. Continuing on with the map, set off a flare and toss is out the broken window that is located near the flight of stairs that you have to descend to, and be sure that the flare lands near the right side of the room where the Joes are stationed. Going down the stairs now, kill the last two facehuggers, collect the gas mask, and with as much stealth as you can muster, shut off the gas without the Joes noticing you, as there are two Joes present in the gas room with one of them being an industrial Joe. After shutting off the first gas lever, set off your second flare and toss it towards the entrance to the gas room, and once you are sure that the Joes are not looking at anything but the flare, head towards the second gas lever and shut it off. Once this is done, head to the elevator and escape.
"Overrun"
Character: Lingard/Ellen/Dallas Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Collect Report 2.) Collect 3 I.D. Tags 3.) Secure Camp Multiplier Setup: 1.
Upon starting the map, head towards the sleeping quarters and you will find the survivor's report located on the top of a cart. After grabbing the survivor's report, in the same room/area, you will find a dead body slouched up on a bed, and next to his body is a I.D. tag. Grab it and leave the area. After leaving the area, there is an industrial Joe that patrols the fire-blazed hallway, and at the entrance to said hallway is a dead body with a I.D. tag next to him. Grab it without getting detected and continue down the hallway. At the very end of the hallway you will see an overturned rack with a dead body near it. This dead body also has an I.D. tag, and it's the last one you will need in order to complete the objective. Grab it, and make your way towards the vent that you need to enter in order to complete the map. Upon exiting the vent, there is an industrial Joe that is present and will immediately turn either left or right and if you aren't quick enough, he will spot you and the Never Detected multiplier will be gone. In order to prevent this, you either have to kill him with the boltgun before he can see you (Dallas) or distract him with a flare (Lingard/Ellen). At any rate, once you know he's no longer a problem for you, grab the keycard from the table, open up the entrance to the elevator room, open the terminal door with the keycard, and lock down the area. After this is done, reach the elevator without getting detected and escape.
"Trauma"
Character: Ellen/Amanda
Same thing as before, but instead of using the first multiplier setup, use the second for Reoperation. Just remember to have enough supplies to craft two more items for the next two maps.
Now since the next two DLC's are not necessarily "survivor mode" maps, but instead are "salvage mode" maps, these layouts will be brief, simple, and effective. The main difference between salvage mode and survivor mode is that in salvage mode you are basically playing in just one massive and gigantic area consisting of two levels of which you have access to. With these two levels you are given the choice to choose which level's task that you want to perform, and there are a total of ten levels with about 18 different tasks to choose from, each ranging in difficulty and rewards, and because of the massive amount of levels that you are required to complete, the game implements a save system and removes the multiplier and optional objective system, so it's do or die time. The only way to get points in salvage mode is by completing tasks or by collecting items, and because of this salvage mode is generally very hard to get a high score on as saving takes away points and enemies become increasingly aggressive later on down the line as they always do, so instead of breaking down every single action that you need to take in order to get the highest score possible, I'll provide the level layout that you need to take in order to achieve a high score. So without further ado, let's get started.
"Safe Haven"
Character: All
With Safe Haven you are given the choice of either choosing between the Bacchus Apartments (B#) or Gemini Secondary Systems (G#). The level layout that I take is as follows:
- G1: Restart The Generator. Reward: Pipe Bomb V.2
- B2: Collect Emergency Kits. Reward: Score Token
- G3: Rescue The Civilian. Reward: Shotgun
- G4: Destroy The Working Joes. Reward: Score Token
- G5: Disable The Security Cameras. Reward: Flamethrower
- B6: Shut Off The Gas Supply. Reward: Noisemaker V.2
- B7: Retrieve Seegson Kit. Reward: Score Token
- G8: Divert Power. Reward: Score Token
- B9: Sabotage The Power Supply. Reward: Blueprint Pack
- B10: Find The Keycode. Reward: Score Tokens
As said already, collecting items and completing tasks equals points, so take your time with your scavenging, and be careful with what you invest your components in.
"Lost Contact"
Character: Hughes/Ransome/Amanda
In Lost Contact you are given the choice between the Lorenz Private Wards (L#) and the S6 Emergency Power Plant (S#).
- L1: Restore Power. Reward: Molotov V.2
- L2: Gather 3 Seegson Kits. Reward: Score Token
- S3: Save The Civilian. Reward: Shotgun
- L4: Unlock The Waiting Room. Reward: Smoke Bomb V.2
- S5: Gather 3 Seegson Kits. Reward: Score Token
- L6: Divert Power. Reward: Flamethrower
- S7: Stabilize The Generator. Reward: Medkit V.2
- L8: Save The Civilian. Reward: Score Token
- S9: Lock Down The Primary Routes. Reward: Score Token
- S10: Collect Coolant. Reward: Score Tokens
Now that that's out of the way, lets get back to the fifth and final batch of DLC for Alien: Isolation; The Trigger.
"Damage Control"
Character: Parker/Amanda Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Secure The Armory 2.) Collect Prisoner Tags 3.) Collect Visitor Data Multiplier Setup: 1.
Starting off, head into the first door to your left. Now inside the security room, on top of one of the desks is a I.D. tag. Grab it and head on over to the armory. Lock it down by hacking the terminal and after leaving the storage/armory area, head towards the door that leads to the main hall. On the right of the door that leads to the main hall is a vent. Enter the vent and upon exiting, head right and into the first bathroom stall. Here, you'll find the second prisoner I.D. tag. Grab it, and make your way back to the main hall without getting caught by the Alien. After entering the main hall, make your way across the hall and into the communication booth areas. Making your way through this area and into the prisoner holding area, one of the cells in this area has a dead body that contains an I.D. tag. Pick it up and continue to make your way through the area. Near the end of the prisoner holding area is a room that contains a dead body slouched up in a chair. Next to this dead body is a keycard, which is located on top of the table that is located to the left of the dead body. Pick it up and exit the room by manually opening the locked door. After doing so, make your way back to the main hall and open up the reception booth with the keycard you picked up, and collect the visitor registry data. Once this is done, complete the map without getting detected.
"The Package"
Character: All Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Disable Cameras 2.) Collect Message 3.) Set Off Alarm Multiplier Setup: 2.
Upon starting, head down from the starting area and take a left into the camera hallway. After getting by the camera, head over to the reception desk and disable the camera system, then take a right and head down towards the office where you will find a terminal containing Taylor's message. Activate/use the message, leave the terminal, and immediately start heading towards the synthetic storage room. Continue to go down the synthetic storage room and head into the generator room that's located at the far end of the room to your right. Once inside the generator room, you will see a button. Hit the button and it will activate the alarm for the Alien. Now depending on how fast you can spam use, you can either wait for the Alien to go away, or you can activate the generator and risk the Alien spotting you. Personally I wouldn't take the risk. Anyway, once the Alien is gone, activate the generator and make your way back to the engineering area to get supplies to craft. Once you've gathered enough supplies and once you've crafted at least one item, make your way back to the synthetic storage facility, call the elevator, and escape, just don't get caught as always.
"Blast Seat"
Character: All Completion of Optional Objectives: 1.) Update Waits 2.) Set Off Alarm 3.) Collect Report Multiplier Setup: 2.
Head directly towards the terminal room upon starting. Once inside the terminal room, use the terminal and reply to Waits. After this is done, head into the computer room, where you will find the Alien to be lurking around most of the time. Once the Alien is in a place where he will not spot/detect you, make your way towards the storage room and activate the alarm. After this is done, make your way to the break room where the survivor's report is at. Pick it up and start collecting items. Once you've collected most of the items in the map and have crafted an item, set up the bomb and escape via the elevator.
"The Trigger"
Character: Amanda/Parker
Same process as with the previous gauntlets. Just collect items in Damage Control and remember to have enough components so that you can craft two more blueprints in The Package and Blast Seat.
Well, that pretty much does it for this guide. If you have any questions, concerns, and or complaints about my guide or my strategies, feel free to comment below and I'll answer your question to the best of my abilities. Until then, I hope that I've given you some insight as to how you can get into the top 10 leaderboards of each map, now go get em'!
- Bobbe