Quick Links
Players in Survival Fountain of Youth can choose the difficulty of their survival experience right at the start of the game. This is perhaps the most impactful decision in a playthrough, as difficulty settings cannot be changed during a run.
The impact on gameplay is drastic, and knowing which settings are best suited for you is crucial information before starting a New Game. To that end, this guide covers everything there is to know about the Survival and Difficulty settings Survival: Fountain of Youth offers. Here’s the breakdown.
![A Cartographer's Tree from Survival: Fountain of Youth with the game's logo in the foreground](https://static0.gamerantimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/untitled-design-40.jpg)
Survival: Fountain of Youth - How To Map Regions
Unlike many games on the market, players will have to draw their own map in Survival: Fountain of Youth. Here is how it can be done.
All Survival Mode Options in Survival: Fountain of Youth
There are three Survival Mode options in the game:
Tourist | Always revive after dying. |
---|---|
True Survivor | Revive 6 times after dying. The number of lives can be increased by drinking Living Water. |
Iron Man | Only has one life. Cannot revive after dying. Living Water does not increase the number of lives. |
Living Water is a rare item that can only be found and not crafted.
All Difficulty Options in Survival: Fountain of Youth
There are five difficulty options in the game:
Very Easy | Vital Drain, damage from animals, Penalty for fainting, Negative effects from diseases are Very Low. The chance of curing disease is Very High. |
---|---|
Easy | Vital Drain, damage from animals, Penalty for fainting, Negative effects from diseases are Low. The chance of curing disease is High. |
Normal | Vital Drain, damage from animals, Penalty for fainting, Negative effects from diseases are Normal. The chance of curing disease is Notable. |
Hard | Vital Drain, damage from animals, Penalty for fainting, Negative effects from diseases are High. The chance of curing disease is Low. |
Very Hard | Vital Drain, damage from animals, Penalty for fainting, Negative effects from diseases are Very High. The chance of curing disease is Very Low. |
Difficulty settings are permanent. Once selected, they cannot be changed during a playthrough.
What is Vital Drain
As the player character spends time outside carrying out survival tasks, they’ll notice that their health and stamina bars start turning red starting from the right edge of the bars. This red section is the Vital Drain, increasing the longer the player goes without sleep. Sleeping is the easiest way to restore Vitals Drain, but some rare medicines like the Buffalo Potion can also do the trick.
What is Penalty for Fainting
Every time a player faints in Survival: Fountain of Youth, they drop all items in their inventory at the spot where they died. This is the same across difficulties. What does change is that when a player dies, their food, water, and energy stats are drained by a certain amount, and their maximum health is reduced. The intensity of this stat drain is decided by the difficulty.
What Are Diseases
Diseases play a major role in Survival: Fountain of Youth. Diseases can range from a common cold or sunburn due to bad weather to getting malaria from mosquito bites. Players can be cured by either sleeping it off or taking certain medicines. The chance of the player getting a disease changes with difficulty.
Which Difficulty Setting Should You Choose?
For new players, the Normal difficulty provides a good balance between getting familiar with the game’s survival mechanics and not being too overwhelmed. Both the Hard and Very Hard modes can be incredibly punishing for new players, as everything that can go wrong will go wrong, and if players don’t prepare beforehand for the worst-case scenario, they’ll be punished for it.
The Very Easy mode is perhaps too easy, as it makes some of the core mechanics, like disease, injuries, and hostile animals, obsolete. If players find the Normal mode hard to tackle, Easy mode is an overall better experience than Very Easy.