Frequently Asked Questions

For the in-game FAQ (mostly technical/troubleshooting questions), go here.

Have any suggestions for this FAQ? Post them here!

## General Questions

### Which platform is better- Steam or Mobile?

The short answer: it's up to personal preference. The two platforms are roughly equal in performance.

The long answer: Overall, playing on PC is slightly faster than playing on mobile, when hotkeys are used proficiently. However, there are some gameplay elements (ex. changing stances) that can be done faster on mobile. There are top-ranked players on both platforms. Variations in connection speed/player performance generally have a larger effect than the choice of platform.

### How many Black Survival servers are there?

There are 3 servers, which are located in South Korea, North America, and SEA regions. Mobile and PC players play on the same server.

### How do I report a bug or a speed hacker?

From the main lobby, select **Settings** (gear icon) → **Inquiry/Report** → **Report Game Issue** or **Report Abusive Player**. A Nimble Neuron employee will respond to the report. Evidence in the form of screenshots/gameplay footage may be required.

### How else can I contact Nimble Neuron?

GM Eve and GM Knight (Nimble Neuron's English liaisons) are members of the official Black Survival discord server: https://discord.gg/rRkJjvzzQw

They are usually online on Discord during workday hours in South Korea.

### What is the Streamer Support program?

Players who regularly stream Black Survival can earn Gems, Gold, etc. through the Streamer Support program.

To sign up for the Streamer Support program, see this form. Certain conditions are required to be eligible for the program.

### Is Black Survival Free to Play (F2P)? Is the game Pay to Win (P2W) in any way?

While players can use real money to purchase Gems, they can also be earned through the Streamer Support program and other free-to-play methods.

Characters can be purchased using either Gems or Gold; generally Gold is much easier to earn. Supply Boxes can be obtained through the Bear Point card draw; if none are owned, they can also be purchased using Gems. Otherwise, all other in-game purchases that require gems are purely cosmetic. (Character skins, Tech Lab furniture, etc.)

## Character Questions

### Which character should I play?

Play whoever you like, based on whatever criteria (stats, gameplay style, character appearance) you personally value. Almost all characters are viable in competitive play.

The majority of characters can be played on free trial in Normal games; free trial characters reset weekly. If possible, it's recommended to play a character on free trial before deciding to purchase him/her.

### Which character is the easiest?

Generally, these factors determine how easy/difficult it is to play a character:

* Character Skills: How easy is it to use the character's skills? How useful/powerful are these skills?
* Character Stats: Characters with high starting (Level 1) stats have a better chance of winning their desired starting area.
* Mastery Type: Generally, melee masteries are easier to play than ranged masteries. Guns/Bows require Bullets/Arrows, and Thrown Weapons deplete, so multiple sets of weapons need to be crafted throughout the game. Additionally, Guns produce gunshot noises: whenever a gun is fired, all players will be notified where the gunshot occurred. However, some players may find a ranged mastery the easiest to play, depending on personal preference.

The following characters are considered easy to play (this is not a comprehensive list):

* Hart: Hart's Peace Zone skill is very forgiving to newer players. Hart also has pretty good stats.
* Leon: Both of Leon's skills are easy to use. Rapacious Collecting speeds up the rate of item crafting, while Human Torpedo delivers a very strong attack in Water Areas. Leon also has strong Level 1 stats, although his Level 18 stats are somewhat weak.
* Shoichi: Shoichi has strong Level 1 stats, and using his Phony Deal skill will often make an opponent leave the area (since they cannot gain mastery until the Phony Deal effect ends). However, his Level 18 stats are somewhat weak.

### Which character is the hardest?

The following characters are considered hard to play:

* JP: Although JP players can easily win in low-ranked lobbies (when players don't know what hacking is), higher-ranked players know how to counter hacking by guarding the Research Center, hiding or throwing away laptops, etc. If there is more than 1 JP in the lobby, it may be impossible to attempt hacking due to the limited amount of ingredients. Using JP as a standard fighting character is also very difficult because his weapon mastery is completely random, and neither of his abilities are related to combat.

JP has a very low average winrate/expected RP gain for these reasons.
* Isol: Playing Isol requires balancing an additional gameplay aspect (crafting traps) alongside fighting, crafting food/armor, etc. There are three general styles of playing Isol:
	+ Pure Trap Isol: "Trap-sols" only focus on crafting traps throughout the game; they avoid fighting completely. Similar to JP, this requires running away from all other players, so there is no way to make another player leave a desired area. Trap Isol's win-condition is to craft many small/medium traps to build up Guerilla Warfare stacks, then kill the final 1-2 players with a high-damage trap (Ex: Double Guillotine) in one hit. However, trap damage can be countered using EOD Suit and/or EOD Boots. Additionally, since trap crafting requires a lot of inventory, Trap Isols may die early from insufficient armor /food.
	+ Pure Battle Isol: Isol has very strong stats, so he can be played as a standard gun/bow/stab character. Battle Isol players may only set common traps found while Searching, or they may craft very simple traps like Mithril String or Bamboo Trap. The main disadvantage to this strategy is that both of Isol's abilities are related to traps, so this playstyle is akin to playing a character with no abilities.
	+ Hybrid Isol: Hybrid Isol players try to balance both combat and crafting traps, focusing on one or the other at different points throughout the game. While this strategy has the most potential, balancing both aspects is very difficult in terms of both inventory and time management. Hybrid Isol players may find themselves falling behind other players' in terms of damage or with insufficient food.
* Barbara: Barbara has very low base stats to balance her Body Modification skill. Her early game is very unstable until she has gained some Body Modification stacks from turrets, and she has to spend time setting up turrets throughout the game. However, Barbara has very high potential: a Barbara with a lot of Body Modification stacks will have better stats than any other character.
* Cathy: Cathy's weapon type is completely random every game: 1 mastery is promoted to D, and all of the other masteries are F. While Alex can use any weapon mastery (E+ start is only a slight disadvantage), Cathy players must use the random mastery since F start is too much of a disadvantage. This requires proficiency in all of the weapon types. However, if a player knows how to play all the weapon types, then Cathy is very straightforward to play.

### Which character is the "best"?

Refer to the most recent Win Rate data to see which character has the highest win rate, expected RP gain, etc.
Refer to Character Stats to see which characters have the highest stats.

However, generally there is no single answer to this question. Several high-rank players have made their own character Tier Lists, but these are ultimately subjective, and the meta changes often.

### Which characters are on free trial?

The free trial characters for each week are announced on Archbears' Medium page. Some characters such as JP, Barbara, and recently released characters, are not in the free trial rotation.

### What are research journals? What are the rewards for completing them?

Research Journals are character lore/background passages. Once a Research Journal objective is completed, the player can learn more about that character's backstory.

The reward for completing a Research Journal is 400 Bear Points. Otherwise, they do not affect gameplay in any way. Research Journals can only be completed in Normal and Ranked games.

## Item Questions

### Which blade/hand/etc. weapon is the "best"?

Based on attack damage, the "best" weapons are the Orange/Legendary weapons. With the exception of Dart of Souls and Dart of Blood, all of these weapons require Engineered Arcane Motor. This requires obtaining a Holy Blood or Arcane Stone (either from Dr. Wickeline or randomly), and can be time-consuming to make. The time needed to craft these weapons may or may not be worth the extra attack damage, and they can only be crafted during the 2nd half of the game.

Otherwise, there is no single answer to this question. The following factors affect how good/viable a weapon is:

* Attack damage
* How quickly the weapon can be built
* What other items (food/armor) can be built while crafting the weapon
* Special Effect (if any)
* How popular/competitive the weapon route is (if multiple players are trying to craft the same weapon, it might be better to build a different weapon instead)

The meta is always changing, and items are regularly buffed/nerfed to try to balance the meta. To get a general idea of the current meta, watch a variety of Dragon-level streamers and see which weapons are built the most often.

### Which weapon type is the best?

Each weapon type has different advantages/disadvantages.

### Which armor pieces should I make?

Here are some common armor-crafting strategies:

* **Pairing with weapon:**
	+ Common Ingredient example: If your weapon requires Steel (example: Gauntlet), and Iron Ore + Scrap Metal produces 2 Steel, the leftover Steel can be used to craft an armor item (example: Steel Shield).
	+ Common Areas example:
		- Golf Club can be made within 3 areas: Factory (for Steel Pipe), Slums (for Lighter), and Town Hall (for Hammer).
		- You can also craft Uchiwa (Glass Marble from Factory, Cloth from Slums or Town Hall, Fan from Town Hall)
		- You can also craft High Heels (Scrap Metal from Factory or Slums, Slippers from Town Hall).

Therefore, 1 weapon and 2 armor pieces can be crafted within just 3 areas.
* **Pairing with other armor pieces:**
	+ Common Ingredient example: Bulletproof Vest and Bazuband both require Iron Sheet (Scrap Metal + Hammer produces 2x Iron Sheet).
* **Countering other players:** Some armor pieces reduce damage from specific weapon types (Ex: Creed of the Knight reduces damage from blunt weapons by 10%). For example, if the game lobby has a lot of blunt characters, then crafting Creed of the Knight will reduce a lot of damage over the course of the game. These armor items can also be crafted (or looted from a corpse) to counter a specific player.

### What is the "item bookmark"?

Items can be added to the "Bookmark" page of the item index. One bookmark page (8 items) is given for free; additional pages can be purchased using gold.

When using the in-game crafting guide, the player's Bookmark page(s) will appear first. This way, frequently used items can be selected more quickly.

## Animal Questions

### What is the point/advantage of killing animals?

* Item drops from animals can be used to expedite armor crafting or to craft more food.
	+ Ex: If you need Leather, killing a Hunting Dog may be faster than searching for Leather.
	+ Ex: If you have Soy Sauce, you can kill a Bear or Gorilla and craft Pickled Garlic or Braised Burdock.
* Killing animals gives mastery and EXP. Fighting with another player also makes him/her stronger (since both of you gain mastery during combat), but fighting animals only increases your own mastery/level.

### How do I kill more animals?

To maintain animal control, you need to remember what time you killed an animal, calculate when the animal will respawn, then look for the animal again once it has respawned.

The following chart can be used to calculate respawn times. Add/subtract the appropriate time (based on the round/animal) to the time shown at the top of the screen.

(rounds last 3 minutes)
 Night = Rounds 4, 5, 6
(rounds last 2.5 minutes)
 Day 2 = Rounds 7, 8, 9
(rounds last 2 minutes)

Note: the "Round Type" refers to the round type when the animal will respawn, not the current round type. For animals killed during Round 3, the "Night" calculation time should be used if the animal will respawn during NIghttime. For animals killed during round 6, the "Day 2" calculation time should be used if the animal will respawn during Day 2.

Day 1 example calculations:

* Birds/Bat: A bat is killed during round 2; the timer reads "2:00" (total gametime: 4 minutes). The next bat will spawn when the overhead timer reads "0:10" (total gametime: 5 minutes 50 seconds).
* Dogs: The Hunting Dog is killed during round 2; the timer reads "1:30" (total gametime: 4 minutes 30 seconds). The next Lighter Dog will spawn when the overhead timer reads "2:10" (total gametime: 6 minutes 50 seconds).
* Bear/Gorilla: N/A. The second Bear/Gorilla will spawn during the first Night round, so the "Night" calculation time should be used.

Night example calculations:

* Birds/Bat: A bat is killed when the timer reads "1:00". The next bat will spawn when the overhead timer reads "1:40".
* Dogs: The Hunting Dog is killed when the timer reads "1:00". The next Pen Dog will spawn when the timer reads "1:10".
* Bear/Gorilla: The Bear is killed when the timer reads "1:00". The next Bear will spawn when the timer reads "0:40".

Day 2 example calculations:

* Birds/Bat: A bat is killed when the timer reads "1:30". The next bat will spawn when the timer reads "1:40".
* Dogs: The Hunting Dog is killed when the timer reads "1:30". The next Pen dog will respawn when the timer reads "1:10".
* Bear/Gorilla: The Gorilla is killed when the timer reads "1:30". The next Gorilla will spawn when the timer reads "0:40".

Alternatively, play Nadine.

### Who is Dr. Wickeline?

Dr. Wickeline is an NPC. She initially spawns at nighttime start (9:00 into the game) in a random area. She changes location every round until she is killed.

Dr. Wickeline has much higher health/attack than the other animals. The main advantages of killing Dr. Wickeline are gaining mastery from fighting her and taking her Holy Blood, which can be used to make Orange/Legendary items.

See Dr. Wickeline for more information.

### Who is Mr. Meiji?

Mr. Meiji is the NPC that guards the Research Center. The Research Center is only opened if a player successfully hacks using a Network PC.

See Mr. Meiji for more information.

## Gameplay Questions

### How is damage calculated?

Attack Damage = Normal Damage + Skill Damage

#### Normal Damage

Formula = Total Attack Power \* 100 / (Enemy's Total Armor + 100)

Total Attack Power: (Stat Attack + Weapon Damage) \* Modifiers
Modifiers: Mastery Rank or Stance effects
Total Armour: Character Armour + Gear Armour
#### Skill Damage

Skill Damage bypasses character/gear armor. Character skills, item skills, and mastery rank still affect skill damage.

See Rulebook (Encounters & Combat) for more information.

### What is Mastery?

Mastery is a measure of a character's skill level with a particular weapon type (Blade, Stab, Hand, etc.). In-game, your character's mastery level (letter rating) is shown in the bottom left corner, next to the HP/Stamina bars. Mastery is the most significant factor in calculating attack damage.

The main way to gain more mastery is to fight animals/other players. You also gain mastery from crafting weapons (if you craft a Stab weapon, you will gain some Stab mastery) and after a new round of restricted areas is announced.

For more information, see the Mastery section of the Rulebook.

### What's the most important: mastery, armor, or food?

The short answer: they're all important. (mastery does not matter for hacking or pure-trap Isol)

The long answer: they're all important, but different playstyles focus on mastery/armor/food at different times. One player may build a lot of armor first, then catch up on mastery while taking little damage. Another player may start by building their weapon and a lot of food, focusing on mastery first and potentially taking armor from player kills instead of crafting all of it. Other players may choose a playstyle somewhere in between.

Generally, characters with high starting stats can play more aggressively during the early-game, while characters with low starting stats may need to craft armor/food first. Also, farming mastery through fighting requires some amount of food supply, or else you will end up in a very vulnerable position. It may take some experimentation to figure out what kind of playstyle you prefer.

### How do I stop dying early?

Dying early is usually caused by one (or more) of the following:

* Not crafting armor quickly enough, and quickly taking high amounts of damage
	+ Try following an armor route/crafting multiple items at a time, instead of building 1 armor piece at a time.
	+ If someone hits you for high damage, run away immediately instead of trying to hit them back once.
* Fighting too much during the early-game with little or no food, or not eating food often enough while fighting then dying with food
	+ Avoid fighting when you have little/no food
	+ Eat while fighting, as often as possible (every 5 seconds). Always keep your HP bar as full as possible.
* Very bad lag/disconnecting
	+ If you live very far away from South Korea, or in a country with slow Internet, there may not be a fix for this. You can try switching platforms (PC/mobile) or playing on mobile data.

### How do I get better at playing Black Survival?

* Check out some of the player-written guides here.
* Watch streamers on Black Survival's Twitch channel
* Join the mentorship discord! Dragon-level mentors volunteer to help others improve through gameplay review, giving general advice, etc. Mentoring is as casual/hardcore as you want it to be. Sign up for private mentoring, or just pop in whenever you have a question!
* Play more. Practice a particular route/character to refine your skills, or try a new playstyle/character if you're feeling stuck. You can do it!

### Should I use supply boxes? How much of an advantage do they give?

**Herbivore League:** Supply boxes are free to use throughout Herbivore League. Using them is recommended to get more exposure to the various items in the game.

**Carnivore League:** Supply boxes should be saved for Ranked games, since they are no longer free. It's also recommended to not use supply boxes during preseason, in order to save up supply boxes for the next season. Players who have just entered Carnivore League may choose to start using supply boxes in ranked immediately, or they may choose to save their supply boxes until they have more experience with all of the items in the game. It's up to the individual player to decide whether he/she wants to spend gems on supply boxes.

Supply boxes have the potential to give a slight starting advantage to players who use them:

* Supply box items can speed up a player's armor/weapon crafting, if that item is an ingredient in the player's intended crafting route.
* Armor items and weapon items (if the weapon matches the character's mastery type) will give a slight stat boost when equipped. When contesting for starting areas, these supply items may allow a character with slightly weaker base stats to win against one with slightly stronger base stats.
* Food items of greater value allow the player to fight more and gain more mastery during the early-game.

However, there are also many cases where supply box items do not provide any significant advantage.

See Supply Boxes for more information (including which items can be obtained from each type of supply box).

### How do I get more supply boxes?

Supply boxes can be obtained from the Bear Point card draw or can be purchased using gems (1 gem per supply box).

### Which aptitude should I use?

See also: Aptitudes.

These are the most commonly used aptitudes:

* Accelerate: By conserving stamina, Accelerate saves time that would be spent crafting more stamina items or resting for stamina. Especially helpful for character with low stamina stats, but can be used with any character.
* Counter Attack: Reduces the amount of damage taken during combat, if the counter attack is timed successfully. This is particularly useful during late-game 1v1 fighting, or if your connection has some slight lag. Can be used with any character, but Li Dailin's Drunken Master skill syncs particularly well with Counter Attack: you can dodge 1 attack with Drunken Master, then use Counter Attack to take only 60% damage.
* Bread Seeking: This is the free/default Aptitude. Bread can be used to craft stronger food items, either with ingredients found through Searching or with Garlic from Bears. However, at top-level play, Bread Seeking is very rarely used (without Bread Seeking, bread can be obtained from Bats).

These aptitudes are used less often, but may still work well with particular playstyles/characters:

* Ambush: Mostly useless during early/mid game, as using Ambush requires staying in 1 area and doing nothing. However, Ambush can be very useful during late-game, if there are multiple players in only a few areas: if the ambush is set up successfully, you can attack opponents without taking any damage. Most often used with Hart, since Ambush can be set up safely as Peace Zone is ending.
* Ammo Supply/Arrow Supply: Very strong option when using Gun/Bow characters to counter their inherent downsides (ammo).
* Pursuit: Synchronizes well with an aggressive playstyle. This aptitude is most commonly used with Jackie (to chase opponents when Bloodfest is active) and Shoichi (to chase opponents after using Phony Deal on them). However, if you are behind or trying to avoid fighting, then Pursuit does not have much value.
* Scout: Rarely used. Can be useful while playing JP, to check how many people are in the Research Center while hacking.

## Game Mode Questions

### What are the different game modes?

There are currently four game modes in Black Survival.

**Single:** Play against AI (bots).

**Private:** Creates a private lobby with a 6-digit room code. Players who enter the code can join the room. The host can either participate in the private game (standard private game) or spectate the other players (spectator mode).

**Normal:** Available to all players, but only certain divisions are available to each player depending on his/her rank. These divisions primarily serve to match up herbivore league players of similar skill level.

Normal game modes below "Master" have character star limits. Any character over the star limit will have their stats decreased to meet the limit. Characters under the star limit will not be promoted or have their stats increased.

* Starter: Battle against players 2 stars or lower; Mouse and Rabbit League only
* Intermediate: Battle against players 3 stars or lower; Rabbit, Horse, & Buffalo League only
* Apprentice: Battle against players 4 stars or lower; Horse, Buffalo, Elephant, & Fox League only
* Master: Battle against players of all star ratings; Elephant & Carnivore League only

Herbivore League players gain EXP for playing Normal games. Carnivore League players cannot gain or lose RP, but can still earn gold and complete quests/research journals in this mode.

**Ranked:** Only available to Carnivore League players. Players gain or lose RP depending on their performance relative to their rank vs. the other players' ranks.

For more information, see Game Modes.

### Can I complete quests in Single/Private games?

Growth Quests can be completed in Single mode. Otherwise, Quests can only be completed in Normal/Ranked mode.

### Can I complete Research Journals in Single/Private games?

Research Journals can only be completed in Normal/Ranked mode.

### Why are there so many bots in normal games?

To lower queue times, Normal games may contain one or more AI players to fill the 10-player lobby. Bots always have a "Adverb-Adjective CHARACTERNAME" username (ex. AlwaysSad HYEJIN).

If you continuously match into Normal games with multiple bots, this means there are not enough human players queuing in Normal mode. The majority of Black Survival's player base is in Asia, so high-bot lobbies may occur when it's the middle of the night for Asia.

## Ranking Questions

### I just promoted from Elephant to caged carnivore/unranked. Should I do my placement matches immediately, or still practice in normal games for a while?

This varies for everyone; it depends on personal preference/level of comfort with the game. There is a significant jump in difficulty between Herbivore/Carnivore League, so practicing in 4\* or 5\* Normal games may help players improve their skills before attempting placements. However, because Normal games are less serious, they cannot perfectly replicate the environment of Ranked games.

### How is Carnivore League placement determined?

Unranked players will receive their starting Carnivore League rank after playing 10 placement matches in Ranked mode. Win percentage, average placement, # of kills, average lobby rank, etc. are used to determine placement.

If the placement matches are for the new season (at the start of each new season, all Carnivore League players return to "caged carnivore" status), the player's rank from the previous season also affects placement.

### I'm only fox/wolf/lion. Why do I get matched with bear/dragon players?

1. At this time, game lobbies do not show players' current ranks. Although the average rank is displayed in the top right corner, this is only an overall average, and 1-2 high-ranked players may be skewing the average. Animal borders are rewards from the previous season; a player with a dragon border may or may not be at dragon rank.

For more information, see Season Rewards.

2. The matchmaking algorithm tries to balance matching players of similar rank with keeping queue times relatively short. If there aren't many players queuing for Ranked mode, there will be a greater range of ranks within the game lobby.

### What is a good/average/bad win rate?

For win rate averages, see Win Rate Statistics Archives. Data for characters with a low pick rate may be skewed if a high-ranked player mains that character.

Since only 1 out of 10 players can win each game, a win rate between 10-15% is around average. Top 100 players may have a win rate between 25-50%.

Note that win rate is only one gameplay statistic. Other factors (average placement, kill/game ratio, etc.) will also affect a player's Rank Point total.

### How is RP per game calculated?

The amount of RP gained/lost after a game depends on:

1. Placement (1st, 2nd, etc.)
2. Your rank relative to the ranks of the other players
3. Number of player kills (2-3RP per kill; animal kills do not affect RP)
Generally, you cannot lose more than 30 RP from one game. It is possible to gain more than 30 RP if you perform very well in a high-ranked lobby, but generally the limit to RP gain per game is also around 30 points. The first 50-100 ranked games after placement matches can have larger RP gains/losses as the player's placement rank adjusts to the new data.

The lowest possible RP gain/greatest possible RP loss are as follows (assuming 0 player kills):

* 1st place: +10 RP (+12 RP for 1st place with 1 player kill)
* 2nd place: 0 RP
* 3rd place: -5 RP
* 4th place: -10 RP

etc.

Generally, these minimums are only applicable to Dragon I players in low-ball lobbies/Top 100 players. The vast majority of players will receive more than 10 points for 1st place, positive points for 2nd place, etc.

## Season Questions

### When are season rewards (animal borders, reward skins, etc.) distributed?

Season rewards are distributed at the start of the next season. Ex: Season 4 rewards will be distributed at the start of Season 5.

### How long is each season/preseason period?

There is currently no set duration for seasons/preseasons. Generally, seasons last between 6-12 months, and preseasons last between 1-2 months.

Season end/start dates are announced on the Black Survival Medium page.

## Game Lobby/Currency Questions

### When do weekly sales/free trial characters reset?

Weekly character/skin sales (in the "Recommendation" tab of the Shop) and free trial characters reset every Tuesday at midnight KST (Korean Standard Time); this reset time may be on Monday or Tuesday for your local timezone.

### How should I spend my gems/gold?

**Gold**:

* Characters can be purchased with Gems or Gold. For free-to-play users who are not part of the Streamer Support program, it's easier to earn Gold to buy new characters.
* It's worth spending 100 gold to revive dead characters: most of the time you will earn several hundred gold per game.
* Aptitudes can be earned from the BP card draw (1-day supply per card). However, if you run out of the aptitude(s) that you frequently use, you can also buy the aptitude with Gold.

**Gems**:

* If you have a lot of Gems, you can use Gems to buy characters (they can also be purchased with Gold). Keep an eye on the weekly sales in the "Recommendation" tab of the Shop.
* Supply Boxes can be earned from the BP card draw (3 supply boxes per card). However, if you run out of free supply boxes, you can also buy supply boxes with Gems.
* Skins can only be purchased with Gems. Keep an eye on the weekly sales in the "Recommendation" tab of the Shop.
* Although Access Codes can be obtained from the BP card draw (2-3 Access Codes per card), their drop rate is very low. It's most efficient to buy Access Codes through the "Daily Special" sale; you can buy 10 codes for 100 Gems each day, compared to the regular price of 200 Gems for 10 codes. Tech Lab items can only be obtained from the Tech Lab, and they are all purely cosmetic.

### How do I get more Gems/Gold?

The fastest way to get Gems/Gold for free is to join the Streamer Support program. If this is not feasible, there are some other options:

* Joining community-hosted tournaments (these are usually advertised on the Black Survival subreddit)
* Joining streamer private games (streamers will often give gems for participating)
* Completing daily/weekly quests for BP (there's a chance to win Gems/Gold from the BP card draw)
* Purchasing Gems with real money

You can spend Gems to purchase Gold, but this is not recommended.

### What is the Tech Lab?

The Tech Lab (one of the left-hand tabs of the main menu) is a series of shops where players can obtain limited-edition character skins, background themes, and decorative items. Tech Lab items are purely cosmetic and do not affect gameplay in any way. See Tech Lab for more information.

### How do I decorate my game lobby background?

1. Obtain furniture/backgrounds from the Tech Lab.

2. From the main menu, select the "Research Center" button (top right corner).

3. Select the chair/background icons to view and place any furniture/backgrounds that you currently own. Furniture can only be placed with the default background.

## Wiki-specific Questions

### Why aren't Research Journals (besides the basic profile) included on the Wiki?

Nimble Neuron has stated that they want players to unlock Research Journals on their own, and that they do not want Research Journals to be publicly leaked. The Basic Profile section, which is unlocked once a character is purchased, has been included on each character's page.

### The wiki is missing X / has an error about X

Feel free to write suggestions for the Wiki at Black\_Survival\_Wiki:Community\_portal. Type ~~~~ at the end of your suggestions to leave a timestamped signature.

If you see a typo, incorrect information, or if you would like to add a page, feel free to make an edit (a Gamepedia account is not required to edit this wiki). However, avoid making major changes without asking one of the Staff members.