Hello, fellow Cubecraft players! I am Powerofbeds, a guy who has played an abnormal amount of Snowman Survival (and Slime Survival) because it is so fun, but with the problem that it's starting to get a bit too easy to win sometimes. That is why I have made all of these threads on tips for playing Snowman Survival:
15 ways to get better at slime survival and its recent revamp, Snowman Survival: Fourteen Ways to Get Better
Tips for using powerups in Snowman Survival
How to use the powerups in slime survival well
Slime Survival tips for evading slime-hitting powerups
Slime Survival basics and map-specific tips
Slime Survival: How to read minds
Slime Survival: Rarely Used Tricks
Slime Survival: Rare uses for powerups
Snowman Survival: Common Mistakes
Snowman Survival: Survivor Strategy
Snowman Survival: Snowman Strategy
Snowman Survival: Adapting to the Update
This thread focuses on tips meant to be used by players who already have a lot of experience and are looking to improve even further, but beginners may be able to benefit from this knowledge as well. If you are a beginner, I would recommend starting with my other threads (Common Mistakes is a particularly good one).
Don't show your powerups!
This first one is not an advanced tip. I'm including it because it is very easy and very important, and the presence of this tip has become a theme of my threads at this point. Get into the habit of selecting your second hotbar slot before the first snowman is chosen and only switching to the first briefly each time you want to use a powerup. This way, snowmen cannot see what you have and thusly cannot play accordingly. As a snowman, you can take advantage when survivors do not do this by anticipating the use of their powerup and doing something to counteract it (eg. staying close enough to a survivor that an Instant Wall would not block you off or remaining on one side so it becomes ineffective, keeping your distance from a survivor who has a Snowman Stabber, and so on). The same goes for if you are a snowman. If survivors cannot see your snowball, they do not know you have it — and some survivors will confidently approach you because they think you don't have it.
Analyze your losses.
This tip can also be used at any level of play, but is more important the better you are. Every time you are converted as a survivor or you lose as the first snowman, analyze why you lost. If possible, find a way that you could have done better. It is not sufficient to say "I lost because that snowman was really good" or "I lost because my fellow snowmen were garbage". If the snowmen play well when you are a survivor, it is your job to play even better, and as a snowman, if the other snowmen are trash, it is your job to carry them to victory. The reason this is becomes more important as you get better is because at a beginner level, you will lose a lot of games and the reason will probably be repetitive. You could have dodged a snowball, so you have to work on dodging snowballs, but that takes time. You also may not understand the real reason why you lost — did you really fail to dodge that snowball or could you have avoided the confrontation in the first place? Every time you lose, there's something you could have done better, may it be that you misused a powerup (which is particularly common with Gravity Explosive), you went the wrong way (because a better direction you could have gone would have resulted in less snowmen seeing you), or you simply walked into a snowball. If you don't understand why you lost, take a video. This can be done on Minecraft Bedrock on PC with Windows + Alt + G. Look at the video and look for what you might have done wrong. Could you have taken a different path? Could you have used a different powerup?
As someone who has played well over five thousand games of Snowman Survival (including Snowman Survival and Slime Survival on Java), I very rarely lose, so every time I do, I analyze what I could have done better. In my most recent loss, I remained somewhere a nearby snowman seemingly could not see me, but I missed the fact that the snowman could see me by toggling the camera to third-person (F5 by default on PC). The snowman caught me before I could react and jump down the nearby ledge. I analyzed this loss, thinking about how the snowman could have been so quick, and then applying it to my own games. Now, I won't make the mistake of allowing the snowmen to see me by toggling the camera while I remain still as if I have not been spotted. You can do the same. When you lose, think of why you lost and try not to make the same mistake again.
The Pac-Man tactic
This tactic is specific to the Toys map. There is a large table on one side of the map that can be accessed using the jump pads on either side. One side has a jump pad that leads up to a block with another jump pad, which is very slow because you have to spend so much time using two jump pads instead of just getting up with one. Luckily, you don't have to waste all this extra time. By landing on the edge of the jump pad closer to the table, you can get onto the table without having to use the second jump pad. This tactic got its name (which is unofficial, I just like to assign my own names to the various tactics I discover) from my "Adapting to the Update" thread, which compared this tactic to going off the edge of the screen in a game of Pac-Man, which greatly slows the ghosts that are chasing Pac-Man. I made this comparison because I thought that the snowmen cannot do this same trick due to the lack of a speed effect, but they can — it's just harder. This will save a few seconds when you are getting onto the table, which can mean a huge advantage when you are getting chased. If you're a snowman, you can use this to close the gap between yourself and a survivor.
Destroying Decoys correctly
Suppose you are chasing a survivor and they suddenly stop moving. That's because they just placed a Decoy. Do you throw your snowball at the Decoy as quickly as possible to make the survivor visible again? That is exactly what I advise you not to do. Your snowball instantly returns to you when you hit a survivor, but it does not return to you if you hit a Decoy. Therefore, after hitting a Decoy, you lose your snowball momentarily and the survivor you are chasing can use some sort of dumb escape plan that would never work if you had your snowball. Instead, go to the Decoy and throw your snowball straight down. By throwing your snowball straight down, if you are not sprinting as you do, you hit everything very close to you and you get your snowball back instantly, even if you did not hit a survivor. By doing so, you can destroy the Decoy very quickly with no inconvenience to yourself.
Elevated Decoy
I really like using Leap powerups into other powerups. I get a nice speed boost without ever not having a powerup. This can be done with another Leap to gain incredible speed and cover great distances in very little time, it can be used into a Snowman Stabber for a very stylish way to get a medal, or, as is my favorite way of doing this, use it into a Decoy and place the Decoy somewhere very high up. Use this onto a high ledge to hold a Decoy in a location that can only be reached using a Leap powerup to be able to stay until snowmen attack you, and find you somehow got a Decoy up there. Another option is to use it as bait to lure snowmen away from other survivors, who, if they are caught, mean one less target to distract the snowmen and one more snowman to chase after you. Smart snowmen know to not go for these Decoys, as they are very obviously Decoys (or ridiculous fly hackers, but that is extremely unlikely), and it is better to just go for the survivor they are chasing after. However, a Decoy placed this way can relieve your fellow survivor of some of the pressure. It's also quite amusing to place a Decoy like this.
Shield Stabber Combo
If you are an experienced Snowman Survival player, you are becoming less focused on winning and more focused on getting medals so you can get onto the leaderboard. I am the same. If I had played all of my ~5.4k games on Bedrock edition, I would be in the top ten on the leaderboard, but since I only switched to Bedrock from Java last year, I only have about 8.2k medals right now. I'm getting there. Anyway, here's a nice idea you can use to get medals. When you find a Snowman Stabber and you are holding a shield, try luring a snowman to the stabber and holding your shield next to it. Most snowmen make the mistake of throwing their snowball at you while you are holding your shield. You can then take advantage of their lack of ability to shoot you again to grab the Snowman Stabber and get a free medal. If they wait to throw their snowball, just stand still for a moment, and grab the stabber and use it as quickly as possible. They have to not only react to your movement, but hit you after you grab the stabber and before you use it, which, if you are quick, is not a big window of opportunity. As a snowman, if you see a survivor doing this, the best thing to do is stand on the powerup pickup in third-person mode, look straight down, and mash right-click (or the equivalent on your controller). If the survivor attempts to grab the stabber, they will be unable to use it because they are also a snowman (the idea is for the survivor to become a snowman right as they pick up the stabber, and if you are too close to them, you may lose your snowball to the shield, and if you are too far, the survivor can grab the stabber without getting hit), and if they run away, you will see them because you are in third-person mode.
Instant Wall Double Jump
How are Leap and Instant Wall similar? How are they different? A lot of people would say that the only similarity between these two powerups is that they are both powerups, and everything is different. That is not true, as an Instant Wall powerup can be used to cross large gaps just as a Leap powerup can. The simple way to do this is by using it as a bridge, but the faster and more stylish way to do it is to jump off the Instant Wall as it is being placed, because despite the name, Instant Wall is not instant. It is built from the bottom up, so by correctly timing placing it, you can jump off it to clear gaps while simultaneously building a shield that prevents snowmen from watching you after the trick or shooting their snowballs at you. Similarly, you can also climb an Instant Wall as it is being built if you have Jump Boost. Very difficult, and you will want to strafe left as you jump up the wall (due to the speed the wall is built).
Tactical Formation
This is the most advanced trick here because it requires the cooperation and skillful execution of two survivors. When one survivor has a shield and another has a Snowman Stabber and an aspiration for a medal, the survivors can work together to attack a snowman. The shield holder approaches the snowman with shield in hand while the survivor with the Snowman Stabber takes cover behind the shield and approaches the snowman for a stab. It is the job of the stabber holder to make sure the shield holder is directly between themselves and the snowman. If this is done correctly, the stabber holder will get an extra Snowman Survival medal. The only motivation to do this if you are the one with the shield is to waste the time of the targeted snowman and to be nice to the person with the stabber. Therefore, you might think it is not necessarily best for your own game as it is probably better to just hold on to the shield, but knowing the way people act with stabbers, your fellow survivor will probably be too reckless without your help, so you're probably better off cooperating in this way.
Some of these tips can be difficult to use, and if you have recently read my other threads, I recommend that you focus more on the tips you learned from them before these ones. Nonetheless, these tips can be great for improving as a player who is already quite experienced. Thanks for reading, and good luck in your games!
15 ways to get better at slime survival and its recent revamp, Snowman Survival: Fourteen Ways to Get Better
Tips for using powerups in Snowman Survival
How to use the powerups in slime survival well
Slime Survival tips for evading slime-hitting powerups
Slime Survival basics and map-specific tips
Slime Survival: How to read minds
Slime Survival: Rarely Used Tricks
Slime Survival: Rare uses for powerups
Snowman Survival: Common Mistakes
Snowman Survival: Survivor Strategy
Snowman Survival: Snowman Strategy
Snowman Survival: Adapting to the Update
This thread focuses on tips meant to be used by players who already have a lot of experience and are looking to improve even further, but beginners may be able to benefit from this knowledge as well. If you are a beginner, I would recommend starting with my other threads (Common Mistakes is a particularly good one).
Don't show your powerups!
This first one is not an advanced tip. I'm including it because it is very easy and very important, and the presence of this tip has become a theme of my threads at this point. Get into the habit of selecting your second hotbar slot before the first snowman is chosen and only switching to the first briefly each time you want to use a powerup. This way, snowmen cannot see what you have and thusly cannot play accordingly. As a snowman, you can take advantage when survivors do not do this by anticipating the use of their powerup and doing something to counteract it (eg. staying close enough to a survivor that an Instant Wall would not block you off or remaining on one side so it becomes ineffective, keeping your distance from a survivor who has a Snowman Stabber, and so on). The same goes for if you are a snowman. If survivors cannot see your snowball, they do not know you have it — and some survivors will confidently approach you because they think you don't have it.
Analyze your losses.
This tip can also be used at any level of play, but is more important the better you are. Every time you are converted as a survivor or you lose as the first snowman, analyze why you lost. If possible, find a way that you could have done better. It is not sufficient to say "I lost because that snowman was really good" or "I lost because my fellow snowmen were garbage". If the snowmen play well when you are a survivor, it is your job to play even better, and as a snowman, if the other snowmen are trash, it is your job to carry them to victory. The reason this is becomes more important as you get better is because at a beginner level, you will lose a lot of games and the reason will probably be repetitive. You could have dodged a snowball, so you have to work on dodging snowballs, but that takes time. You also may not understand the real reason why you lost — did you really fail to dodge that snowball or could you have avoided the confrontation in the first place? Every time you lose, there's something you could have done better, may it be that you misused a powerup (which is particularly common with Gravity Explosive), you went the wrong way (because a better direction you could have gone would have resulted in less snowmen seeing you), or you simply walked into a snowball. If you don't understand why you lost, take a video. This can be done on Minecraft Bedrock on PC with Windows + Alt + G. Look at the video and look for what you might have done wrong. Could you have taken a different path? Could you have used a different powerup?
As someone who has played well over five thousand games of Snowman Survival (including Snowman Survival and Slime Survival on Java), I very rarely lose, so every time I do, I analyze what I could have done better. In my most recent loss, I remained somewhere a nearby snowman seemingly could not see me, but I missed the fact that the snowman could see me by toggling the camera to third-person (F5 by default on PC). The snowman caught me before I could react and jump down the nearby ledge. I analyzed this loss, thinking about how the snowman could have been so quick, and then applying it to my own games. Now, I won't make the mistake of allowing the snowmen to see me by toggling the camera while I remain still as if I have not been spotted. You can do the same. When you lose, think of why you lost and try not to make the same mistake again.
The Pac-Man tactic
This tactic is specific to the Toys map. There is a large table on one side of the map that can be accessed using the jump pads on either side. One side has a jump pad that leads up to a block with another jump pad, which is very slow because you have to spend so much time using two jump pads instead of just getting up with one. Luckily, you don't have to waste all this extra time. By landing on the edge of the jump pad closer to the table, you can get onto the table without having to use the second jump pad. This tactic got its name (which is unofficial, I just like to assign my own names to the various tactics I discover) from my "Adapting to the Update" thread, which compared this tactic to going off the edge of the screen in a game of Pac-Man, which greatly slows the ghosts that are chasing Pac-Man. I made this comparison because I thought that the snowmen cannot do this same trick due to the lack of a speed effect, but they can — it's just harder. This will save a few seconds when you are getting onto the table, which can mean a huge advantage when you are getting chased. If you're a snowman, you can use this to close the gap between yourself and a survivor.
Destroying Decoys correctly
Suppose you are chasing a survivor and they suddenly stop moving. That's because they just placed a Decoy. Do you throw your snowball at the Decoy as quickly as possible to make the survivor visible again? That is exactly what I advise you not to do. Your snowball instantly returns to you when you hit a survivor, but it does not return to you if you hit a Decoy. Therefore, after hitting a Decoy, you lose your snowball momentarily and the survivor you are chasing can use some sort of dumb escape plan that would never work if you had your snowball. Instead, go to the Decoy and throw your snowball straight down. By throwing your snowball straight down, if you are not sprinting as you do, you hit everything very close to you and you get your snowball back instantly, even if you did not hit a survivor. By doing so, you can destroy the Decoy very quickly with no inconvenience to yourself.
Elevated Decoy
I really like using Leap powerups into other powerups. I get a nice speed boost without ever not having a powerup. This can be done with another Leap to gain incredible speed and cover great distances in very little time, it can be used into a Snowman Stabber for a very stylish way to get a medal, or, as is my favorite way of doing this, use it into a Decoy and place the Decoy somewhere very high up. Use this onto a high ledge to hold a Decoy in a location that can only be reached using a Leap powerup to be able to stay until snowmen attack you, and find you somehow got a Decoy up there. Another option is to use it as bait to lure snowmen away from other survivors, who, if they are caught, mean one less target to distract the snowmen and one more snowman to chase after you. Smart snowmen know to not go for these Decoys, as they are very obviously Decoys (or ridiculous fly hackers, but that is extremely unlikely), and it is better to just go for the survivor they are chasing after. However, a Decoy placed this way can relieve your fellow survivor of some of the pressure. It's also quite amusing to place a Decoy like this.
Shield Stabber Combo
If you are an experienced Snowman Survival player, you are becoming less focused on winning and more focused on getting medals so you can get onto the leaderboard. I am the same. If I had played all of my ~5.4k games on Bedrock edition, I would be in the top ten on the leaderboard, but since I only switched to Bedrock from Java last year, I only have about 8.2k medals right now. I'm getting there. Anyway, here's a nice idea you can use to get medals. When you find a Snowman Stabber and you are holding a shield, try luring a snowman to the stabber and holding your shield next to it. Most snowmen make the mistake of throwing their snowball at you while you are holding your shield. You can then take advantage of their lack of ability to shoot you again to grab the Snowman Stabber and get a free medal. If they wait to throw their snowball, just stand still for a moment, and grab the stabber and use it as quickly as possible. They have to not only react to your movement, but hit you after you grab the stabber and before you use it, which, if you are quick, is not a big window of opportunity. As a snowman, if you see a survivor doing this, the best thing to do is stand on the powerup pickup in third-person mode, look straight down, and mash right-click (or the equivalent on your controller). If the survivor attempts to grab the stabber, they will be unable to use it because they are also a snowman (the idea is for the survivor to become a snowman right as they pick up the stabber, and if you are too close to them, you may lose your snowball to the shield, and if you are too far, the survivor can grab the stabber without getting hit), and if they run away, you will see them because you are in third-person mode.
Instant Wall Double Jump
How are Leap and Instant Wall similar? How are they different? A lot of people would say that the only similarity between these two powerups is that they are both powerups, and everything is different. That is not true, as an Instant Wall powerup can be used to cross large gaps just as a Leap powerup can. The simple way to do this is by using it as a bridge, but the faster and more stylish way to do it is to jump off the Instant Wall as it is being placed, because despite the name, Instant Wall is not instant. It is built from the bottom up, so by correctly timing placing it, you can jump off it to clear gaps while simultaneously building a shield that prevents snowmen from watching you after the trick or shooting their snowballs at you. Similarly, you can also climb an Instant Wall as it is being built if you have Jump Boost. Very difficult, and you will want to strafe left as you jump up the wall (due to the speed the wall is built).
Tactical Formation
This is the most advanced trick here because it requires the cooperation and skillful execution of two survivors. When one survivor has a shield and another has a Snowman Stabber and an aspiration for a medal, the survivors can work together to attack a snowman. The shield holder approaches the snowman with shield in hand while the survivor with the Snowman Stabber takes cover behind the shield and approaches the snowman for a stab. It is the job of the stabber holder to make sure the shield holder is directly between themselves and the snowman. If this is done correctly, the stabber holder will get an extra Snowman Survival medal. The only motivation to do this if you are the one with the shield is to waste the time of the targeted snowman and to be nice to the person with the stabber. Therefore, you might think it is not necessarily best for your own game as it is probably better to just hold on to the shield, but knowing the way people act with stabbers, your fellow survivor will probably be too reckless without your help, so you're probably better off cooperating in this way.
Some of these tips can be difficult to use, and if you have recently read my other threads, I recommend that you focus more on the tips you learned from them before these ones. Nonetheless, these tips can be great for improving as a player who is already quite experienced. Thanks for reading, and good luck in your games!
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