Hi! I am Powerofbeds, a guy who plays way too much Snowman Survival. It has become available once again for this winter, and so I am uploading this thread to help you to improve your game because I have played around four thousand games (including Snowman Survival and Slime Survival on Java), so it is difficult to find worthy opponents. I have uploaded several threads in the past as well:
15 ways to get better at slime survival
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
This is the second of two threads I am uploading at pretty much the same time. Both are focused on strategy, and this one is focused on strategy for snowmen. The other, which is focused on survivor strategy, is at the bottom of the list above. Part of the strategy for snowmen is knowing what survivors will do, so I recommend reading it before reading this one.
Snowmen will have to play according to the strategy survivors try to use. These are the four main strategies survivors will use throughout the game. Their names are unofficial.
The passive strategy
As explained in my survivor strategy thread, the passive strategy is when a survivor remains in a spot that is difficult to get to and/or shoot at, and is easy to escape if a snowman approaches. How to combat this strategy depends on how many snowmen there are. Early in the game, it is wise to attack survivors using this strategy to force them into the active strategy, which means they run around like everyone else. Later in the game, step one is to get snowmen to cover the escape options while another (or two) approaches the survivor directly. Obviously, this will be unavailable early in the game when you are the only snowman.
The active strategy
The active strategy involves running around with the idea of not remaining in the same place for too long, using powerups when necessary. Survivors using this method are generally easier to catch because they are not constantly using high ground to give themselves a tactical advantage, but this comes with the difficulty of it being harder to corner them. What is important as a snowman when trying to catch someone using this strategy is to never follow the survivor directly in most cases. Instead, maintain high ground and attempt to get where the survivor is trying to go using a faster path. This will help to make your shot easier. Remember that their permanent speed boost makes them faster than you. If they make the common mistake of forgetting to hide their powerup, you can use this to your advantage because you know what to expect (by selecting the second hotbar slot, survivors can hide their powerups, but if they keep holding the powerup, you know what it is). See my thread on tips for evading slime-hitting powerups for more information on this. That thread is made for slime survival, so just pretend I’m saying “snowman” instead of “slime” and “Snowman Stabber” instead of “Frost Sword”.
The aggressive strategy
The aggressive strategy is an extreme version of the active strategy that comes with the intent of drawing the attention of the snowman so the other survivors are safer. If a survivor uses this strategy, they want you to attack them. If you have played four thousand games like me, you can just shoot these players and show them who’s boss, but usually, you will just want to leave them. Their intent is to avoid letting anyone else become snowmen so there are less threats to themselves. Therefore, they will continue to follow you for a while. Go for the other survivors who lost track of your location and are easy to sneak up on. And maybe turn around and quickly attack the aggressive player occasionally. They might not see it coming.
The hiding strategy
Survivors using the hiding strategy hide somewhere with the intent of never being found and never having to escape anyone. However, if one snowman enters their spot, two leave. This is the difference between this strategy and the passive strategy. It aims to never get caught in exchange for having no escape in an emergency. Therefore, it can be difficult to find these players, but if you do, they should be an easy kill. Right-clicking (or whatever the equivalent on your controller is if you’re using one) is a trick that will often be useful here as it will convert the survivor into a snowman faster and more reliably. What is also important is to make sure the survivor does not escape. If they do, they may be easy to catch because they have little practice escaping snowmen (because when they get caught, they usually don’t escape), but sometimes, the best thing to do is leave a snowball at the exit of their hiding spot and just walk in. Sometimes, they’ll just walk into the snowball as they try to escape you (that’s called “taking the bait”), and other times, they will remain with you until you can just hit them anyway. The first snowman can track survivors, which is especially useful for catching these players.
Survivors will usually switch between these strategies throughout the game (unless they use the hiding strategy, which they will likely use until they are snowmen or the game ends), so your strategy for catching them should also change. Your strategy throughout the game should also change as time goes on because at the beginning of the game, you are the only snowman and survivors have little to no powerups, and later on, there are several snowmen, but survivors have many powerups to use.
At the beginning of the game, you may want to analyze who will be the best target to go for first. Many people begin the game by taunting the first snowman. If they remain there until you are released, standing on one of the barrier blocks next to you, they are likely trying to run through you as soon as the game begins just for a good laugh. Just look at them and mash right-click and they will instantly reconsider their life choices. More commonly, they will simply run away after a few seconds, but they get less time to run, so they are an easier target. Usually, the best idea is to try to chase them towards an edge of the map so they are forced to turn. If you turn in the same direction when they do, you will quickly cut them off.
If you let these arrogant survivors get away, that’s okay. The other survivors tend to not be quite as good at evading you because they don’t have the same level of confidence. Try to find one who is not constantly trying to keep an eye on you. Instead, find one who is unaware of their surroundings. The game will become much easier when there is a second snowman.
With multiple snowmen, strategy also gets a little more complicated because you now have a team. If you see another snowman already chasing a survivor, don’t chase them in the same way. You’ll only block your teammate’s vision while they block yours and neither of you gets any chances the other doesn’t. Instead, try to follow in a different way. If they are following directly, prioritize maintaining high ground, or perhaps try coming at the survivor from the front to pincer them. It is foolishly common for snowmen to all chase a survivor in the same way. This is barely any better than just one snowman chasing. And if you’re the one chasing the survivor when another snowman comes along and chases in the same way, switch up your own methods.
Another tactic you can use against survivors who are running from another snowman is to throw your snowball in front of them so that they cannot move forward without running into it. This allows your teammate to either convert them to a survivor or fail and embarrass themselves. And also, a tip I say in every thread is to not show your powerups. Select the second hotbar slot until you are ready to use the item, then switch to the first hotbar slot and use it. This is a very simple and effective tip that also works for snowmen. By hiding your snowball, survivors think you do not have it and are thusly less of a threat. If a survivor knows you use this method or at least could, they still do not know whether you have it.
These tips work nicely against the active strategy and the aggressive strategy, but the strategy for snowmen to combat the passive strategy and the hiding strategy is very different. The key difference here is that these strategies are much more slow-paced. Because the survivor aims to stay in the same location for an extended duration, snowmen have extra time to prepare an attack.
The hiding strategy is always simple. My advice for the survivors regarding the hiding strategy is to just not use it, but for snowmen, it can be difficult to know to what extent you should search hiding spots. If you can glance into a common hiding spot, doing so is a great idea. It takes less than half a second to look into a hiding spot and see if you see any lime green armor. However, especially if it takes several seconds to enter and leave a hiding spot, it is often not a good idea to search hiding spots unless you don’t see any survivors around. The main snowman can track survivors, which makes them the best candidate to search hiding spots.
As for the passive strategy, survivors are ready to use one of a few escape options to get away when they are attacked. The best thing to do is to try to coordinate an attack involving one snowman covering each escape option while one or two approach the survivor directly. However, since this can take time, it is often best just to attack them yourself and force them to run around where they are more vulnerable, or, if you see a teammate attacking them, go to their best escape option to ensure they cannot use it.
If you are not the main snowman, and you do not see any survivors, try to find and follow the main snowman. If they use their tracker to locate survivors, they will take you to them. I used this just yesterday to catch the last survivor with less than a second left on the clock, and had I not used that strategy, I would have lost.
With these tips in mind, you should be able to catch survivors more easily. This may be the last thread I ever make on Snowman Survival because I have already covered so many topics in my various threads, but who knows if I might find more tips or if the game will get an update? Some of my other threads have some other related information you might find useful as well (such as how to act when you see a survivor’s powerup), but since those topics were already covered in those threads, I didn’t cover them here as well. Anyway, thanks for reading!
15 ways to get better at slime survival
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
This is the second of two threads I am uploading at pretty much the same time. Both are focused on strategy, and this one is focused on strategy for snowmen. The other, which is focused on survivor strategy, is at the bottom of the list above. Part of the strategy for snowmen is knowing what survivors will do, so I recommend reading it before reading this one.
Snowmen will have to play according to the strategy survivors try to use. These are the four main strategies survivors will use throughout the game. Their names are unofficial.
The passive strategy
As explained in my survivor strategy thread, the passive strategy is when a survivor remains in a spot that is difficult to get to and/or shoot at, and is easy to escape if a snowman approaches. How to combat this strategy depends on how many snowmen there are. Early in the game, it is wise to attack survivors using this strategy to force them into the active strategy, which means they run around like everyone else. Later in the game, step one is to get snowmen to cover the escape options while another (or two) approaches the survivor directly. Obviously, this will be unavailable early in the game when you are the only snowman.
The active strategy
The active strategy involves running around with the idea of not remaining in the same place for too long, using powerups when necessary. Survivors using this method are generally easier to catch because they are not constantly using high ground to give themselves a tactical advantage, but this comes with the difficulty of it being harder to corner them. What is important as a snowman when trying to catch someone using this strategy is to never follow the survivor directly in most cases. Instead, maintain high ground and attempt to get where the survivor is trying to go using a faster path. This will help to make your shot easier. Remember that their permanent speed boost makes them faster than you. If they make the common mistake of forgetting to hide their powerup, you can use this to your advantage because you know what to expect (by selecting the second hotbar slot, survivors can hide their powerups, but if they keep holding the powerup, you know what it is). See my thread on tips for evading slime-hitting powerups for more information on this. That thread is made for slime survival, so just pretend I’m saying “snowman” instead of “slime” and “Snowman Stabber” instead of “Frost Sword”.
The aggressive strategy
The aggressive strategy is an extreme version of the active strategy that comes with the intent of drawing the attention of the snowman so the other survivors are safer. If a survivor uses this strategy, they want you to attack them. If you have played four thousand games like me, you can just shoot these players and show them who’s boss, but usually, you will just want to leave them. Their intent is to avoid letting anyone else become snowmen so there are less threats to themselves. Therefore, they will continue to follow you for a while. Go for the other survivors who lost track of your location and are easy to sneak up on. And maybe turn around and quickly attack the aggressive player occasionally. They might not see it coming.
The hiding strategy
Survivors using the hiding strategy hide somewhere with the intent of never being found and never having to escape anyone. However, if one snowman enters their spot, two leave. This is the difference between this strategy and the passive strategy. It aims to never get caught in exchange for having no escape in an emergency. Therefore, it can be difficult to find these players, but if you do, they should be an easy kill. Right-clicking (or whatever the equivalent on your controller is if you’re using one) is a trick that will often be useful here as it will convert the survivor into a snowman faster and more reliably. What is also important is to make sure the survivor does not escape. If they do, they may be easy to catch because they have little practice escaping snowmen (because when they get caught, they usually don’t escape), but sometimes, the best thing to do is leave a snowball at the exit of their hiding spot and just walk in. Sometimes, they’ll just walk into the snowball as they try to escape you (that’s called “taking the bait”), and other times, they will remain with you until you can just hit them anyway. The first snowman can track survivors, which is especially useful for catching these players.
Survivors will usually switch between these strategies throughout the game (unless they use the hiding strategy, which they will likely use until they are snowmen or the game ends), so your strategy for catching them should also change. Your strategy throughout the game should also change as time goes on because at the beginning of the game, you are the only snowman and survivors have little to no powerups, and later on, there are several snowmen, but survivors have many powerups to use.
At the beginning of the game, you may want to analyze who will be the best target to go for first. Many people begin the game by taunting the first snowman. If they remain there until you are released, standing on one of the barrier blocks next to you, they are likely trying to run through you as soon as the game begins just for a good laugh. Just look at them and mash right-click and they will instantly reconsider their life choices. More commonly, they will simply run away after a few seconds, but they get less time to run, so they are an easier target. Usually, the best idea is to try to chase them towards an edge of the map so they are forced to turn. If you turn in the same direction when they do, you will quickly cut them off.
If you let these arrogant survivors get away, that’s okay. The other survivors tend to not be quite as good at evading you because they don’t have the same level of confidence. Try to find one who is not constantly trying to keep an eye on you. Instead, find one who is unaware of their surroundings. The game will become much easier when there is a second snowman.
With multiple snowmen, strategy also gets a little more complicated because you now have a team. If you see another snowman already chasing a survivor, don’t chase them in the same way. You’ll only block your teammate’s vision while they block yours and neither of you gets any chances the other doesn’t. Instead, try to follow in a different way. If they are following directly, prioritize maintaining high ground, or perhaps try coming at the survivor from the front to pincer them. It is foolishly common for snowmen to all chase a survivor in the same way. This is barely any better than just one snowman chasing. And if you’re the one chasing the survivor when another snowman comes along and chases in the same way, switch up your own methods.
Another tactic you can use against survivors who are running from another snowman is to throw your snowball in front of them so that they cannot move forward without running into it. This allows your teammate to either convert them to a survivor or fail and embarrass themselves. And also, a tip I say in every thread is to not show your powerups. Select the second hotbar slot until you are ready to use the item, then switch to the first hotbar slot and use it. This is a very simple and effective tip that also works for snowmen. By hiding your snowball, survivors think you do not have it and are thusly less of a threat. If a survivor knows you use this method or at least could, they still do not know whether you have it.
These tips work nicely against the active strategy and the aggressive strategy, but the strategy for snowmen to combat the passive strategy and the hiding strategy is very different. The key difference here is that these strategies are much more slow-paced. Because the survivor aims to stay in the same location for an extended duration, snowmen have extra time to prepare an attack.
The hiding strategy is always simple. My advice for the survivors regarding the hiding strategy is to just not use it, but for snowmen, it can be difficult to know to what extent you should search hiding spots. If you can glance into a common hiding spot, doing so is a great idea. It takes less than half a second to look into a hiding spot and see if you see any lime green armor. However, especially if it takes several seconds to enter and leave a hiding spot, it is often not a good idea to search hiding spots unless you don’t see any survivors around. The main snowman can track survivors, which makes them the best candidate to search hiding spots.
As for the passive strategy, survivors are ready to use one of a few escape options to get away when they are attacked. The best thing to do is to try to coordinate an attack involving one snowman covering each escape option while one or two approach the survivor directly. However, since this can take time, it is often best just to attack them yourself and force them to run around where they are more vulnerable, or, if you see a teammate attacking them, go to their best escape option to ensure they cannot use it.
If you are not the main snowman, and you do not see any survivors, try to find and follow the main snowman. If they use their tracker to locate survivors, they will take you to them. I used this just yesterday to catch the last survivor with less than a second left on the clock, and had I not used that strategy, I would have lost.
With these tips in mind, you should be able to catch survivors more easily. This may be the last thread I ever make on Snowman Survival because I have already covered so many topics in my various threads, but who knows if I might find more tips or if the game will get an update? Some of my other threads have some other related information you might find useful as well (such as how to act when you see a survivor’s powerup), but since those topics were already covered in those threads, I didn’t cover them here as well. Anyway, thanks for reading!
