Abbreviation: SRV

In their first appearance in Etrian Odyssey, the Survivalist's support abilities didn't see much use, but their extremely overtuned offensive abilities like Apollon definitely were. In the following game, their attacks were corrected, but their support skills weren't. Due to a design error allowing you to acquire their ultimate weapon early, they saw use in the main game as a battering ram, and their 1-Turn ability was nigh-on required for some postgame bosses. Untold did not have them be an offensive powerhouse, and their support was mostly still not widely used, but it introduced Efficiency, a passive that jacked healing items the hell up. They were item Medics. Untold 2 turned them into status inflictors and incredible dodge tanks with great damage ability, shifting them away from a field support and into an in-battle survival specialist.

Nexus was kind to Survivalist. EO2U's incarnation was arguably overpowered, but Nexus allowed them to keep many toys from it. They mostly deal in evasion now, protecting the party by increasing everybody's evasion and decreasing enemy accuracy. They have damage still, and it's useful, but support is where Survivalists shine. On top of in-battle support, they also bring field support, carefully balanced and paced so you can invest in it without damaging their battle performance. And they finally figured out how to set their dang arrows on fire, took them long enough. Plus, their incredible AGI and their ability to stack action speed bonuses makes them great item caddies. While they can't directly reduce damage, a Survivalist and a little bit of luck is all you need to survive a battle.


Stats

(Full)

Strong Points: AGI
Medium Points: HP, TP, STR, INT, VIT, WIS, LUC

Equippable Weapons: Bow
Equippable Armor: Light Armor, Cloth Armor

Common Passives: Natural Instinct (Novice), Speed Up (Veteran)


Skills: Force

Boost: Illusory Formation
For 3 turns, increases the party's evasion by 20%, and multiplies their action speed by 3.5x.
This is an incredibly good Force Boost. The Action Speed is so high that your entire party will probably act before the enemies, unless they're using slowball attacks like Imperial Drives, or Gunner Charged Shots. The evasion will also cause SO MANY hits to miss, especially when combined with Trickery. I love this Boost so much.
The speed bonus makes this Force Boost pretty good to bust out in randoms, but it's not particularly useful in big battles as most skills that really want to be faster than the enemy are either already fast enough, or too slow to be helped by this alone. The evasion bonus is pretty helpful all the time, though - the survivalist themself benefits most from it, but it can still help the rest of the party take AoE a little bit better.

Break: Mirage Arrow


Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. Reduces the target's accuracy and makes them act last for a set amount of turns.
...So it's super convenient that Mirage Arrow is just That, But More And For Longer. Forcing them to act dead last is bad enough, but -35% Accuracy?! Yes, please! It also hits even harder than Hazy Arrow at the point that you can get Hazy Arrow, which is a great bonus.

Seriously though, with this, maxed Trickery, maxed Speed Up and maxed Chain Dance the enemy should be completely incapable of hitting your Survivalist! That's sort of incredible.
This is the strongest Force Break in the game in a vacuum, but bow's low attack tends to keep its power in check. Firing this break out of a katana or something will noticably increase results, so if your survivalist's subclass allows them to equip a stronger weapon, keep this option in mind. The actual effect is a much more pronounced and easy to use version of Illusory Formation, essentially, though it uses up a debuff slot. If your party makes use of a lot of debuffs, make sure that you don't overwrite it by mistake! Also, it is classified as an accuracy debuff, so for enemies who can buff their own accuracy, you'll want to time it so it doesn't end up merely negating (or being negated by) a buff.

Skills: Novice

Power Shot


Deals ranged STR-based stab damage that pierces enemy rows.
Those damage numbers look impressive, but unfortunately all Survivalist attack skills are hamstrung by their terrible STR and bows' disappointing ATK. Power Shot will do decently in the early game, but probably won't do significant damage. Its most likely use case is finishing off the last, weakened front row enemy and starting in on the back row. Later on, Survivalist has better things to be doing.
If you keep the skill level low, it (and the next skill) essentially act as normal attack replacements with their fairly low cost and good multipliers. You'll need to be using these skills to deal somewhat decent numbers too, given Survivalist's really bad base damage.

Flame Arrow


Deals ranged STR-based stab + fire damage to one enemy.
You'd expect Flame Arrow to be a similar case, especially in light of its even lower numbers. In reality, Flame Arrow is incredibly useful for random encounters that include an enemy weak to fire but neutral or resistant to phys, that your enemy just can't one-shot. Flame Arrow will let you chunk in some decent damage at them, certainly more than your Imperial can do with freaking resisted Natural Edge.

Blind Arrow


Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. Attempts to inflict blind on the target.
Blind Arrow will tickle the target. The damage is hilariously low. The infliction chance isn't especially high, either, so Survivalist will have some trouble getting it to stick on FOEs and resistant targets. You can probably pull one off, though, especially in the early game where stats are really scrunched. Blind is valuable to Survivalists, as making enemies miss is their whole MO, so investing is this is not a bad idea. It's just a risky one. But so is Survivalist.
60% is actually decently high for an infliction skill, and even with survivalist's kinda bad infliction score, blind isn't as resisted as other ailments by big enemies, and survivalist's high agility makes it useful to mostly neutralize strong enemies in random encounters as well. From my experiences, it's definitely a worthy investment to make.
Chain Dance


Increases the user's evasion and chance of being targeted for one turn.
Chain Dance... is complex. ON ITS OWN, it is not worth it, especially before level 10. If you can combine it with other evasion boosts like Trickery, their Force Boost, Speed Up, skills from a Ninja sub, or even Blind, then it's worth it. Maxed Trickery + Force Boost + maxed Chain Dance is a 75% chance to avoid attacks, on attacks with average accuracy and before account for AGI/LUC comparisons. A good way to protect the party from some attacks, and to set up Hazy Arrow. Won't protect anything from AoE attacks, to be fair, but...
EO2U, this isn't.
There are a few enemies in the game with dangerous random-target attacks with low accuracies, and Survivalist can prevent a lot of accidents with them by using this skill to draw them in. It's also very handy for a certain boss's certain attack that wants to be faster than its target. At the very least, unlike EOV's Phantom Duelists, this skill doesn't increase the damage they take, so getting hit with a stray attack isn't the end of the world.

Safe Passage


For a set amount of steps in the Labyrinth, nullifies damage tiles and muddy tiles. Reduces damage taken from certain FOE field attacks.
I'd advocate for this on a Farmer, somewhat. Survivalist needs their SP, though. Get it only if you want Risk Perception, which is great.
Unlike Farmer's counterpart, you do need this to get Risk Perception, so it can be useful as a Guard Sole replacement. It can also be useful to teach you just how little you'll actually use this effect over the game.

Risk Perception


Gives the user a chance to nullify blindsides.
This skill can save you from otherwise-guaranteed game overs. It works on scripted blindsides, too, which is amazing! Worth subclassing something into Survivalist for, on its own.
I really should take blindside-nullifying skills more, especially given how many of my game overs are the result of bad luck with blindsides.
This won't completely offset a blindside as any start-of-battle skills will still not have a chance to fire, so your characters won't be able to start with miasma armor or stance or taunt or whatever, but it's still miles better than getting hage'd with no chance of input. It's the primary reason why you want to include a survivalist in your farming party, so they don't die instantly to any ambushes.

Resuscitate


Only usable in the Labyrinth. Restores one party member's HP. At higher levels, can also revive dead party members.
Saves you some post-battle Nectars. If that's worth it to you, go ahead and put a point in it. Or three, if you want Sorting Skill.
You need quite a bit of investment in this skill to actually revive people out of battle, but even at level 1 it can be useful to take if your party otherwise has no out-of-battle healing. Keeping everyone topped up before any random battle is important, and using up a ton of medicas every trip is just not cool.

Sorting Skill


Increases max inventory space when the user is in the party.
This doesn't have a lot of battle use, apart from letting you bring way more items than you'll ever need. In a gathering party, though, this is incredibly helpful.

Skills: Veteran

Flank Shot


Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one row of enemies.
Some area coverage. It has a fairly hefty speed penalty, so you're not guaranteed to go first, but the damage is alright. I wouldn't invest more than one point, or three if you want Disabling Shot or Finishing Shot.
From my experience, the speed penalty isn't large enough to stop the survivalist from going first in most cases. It's a pretty nice skill for exploration, but three points is plenty to be functional.

Finishing Shot


When the user attacks an enemy whose current HP percentage is below a certain threshold, they will add an extra follow-up attack.
A bizarre skill. For FOEs and bosses, 30% isn't quite "about to die", but it's close, so if you find yourself struggling to close that gap this skill may be worth it. Against random encounters... Flank Shot will usually finish enemies under that threshold. Still, random encounter enemies in Nexus tend to be a little tankier than in the rest of the series, so it might come in handy to close that gap.
This skill is hindered by Survivalist's really bad base damage with a bow, but since it uses their main weapon, equipping a stronger weapon type from subclass will improve this skill significantly. Though most of those weapons types will probably be melee range, so be careful of that.
Multi-Shot


Deals two instances of ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy.
This is the fourth best damage you'll squeeze out of your Survivalist, but the other three are conditional and one's not very likely to come up in a single-target battle, so you might as well pick this up if you plan on having your Survivalist turn things into pincushions.

Drop Shot


Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. Damage is increased when attacking a target in the back row.
DROP SHOT is a very good skill. It is a very, VERY good skill. It is called Drop Shot not because it is a shot that drops from above, but because it is a shot that makes backrow enemies drop dead. If there's an enemy in the backrow that's going to give you trouble, you use Drop Shot to slam them. Low STR and ATK be damned, this is actually pretty fucking strong and will make your life so much easier.
The game loves to put frail but very rude monsters in the back row, and being able to make them drop dead on the spot is extremely helpful. It's not as useful in big battles, but there are a decent number of bosses and FOEs that can call adds, so it can occasionally be helpful in those battles too.

Trickery


Reduces one row of enemies' accuracy for a set number of turns.
Listen. Okay? People don't usually put a lot of stock into evasion strats. But I'm here to tell you that you should forget about that, because here comes Trickery. A 20% chance, assuming average accuracy and equal AGI and LUC(-ish), to have any individual hit be negated entirely? If you look at it that way, it's the Hoplite's Parry and Magic Parry, but for the entire party and with a much higher chance.

And then you add the Force Boost and it basically doubles.

Survivalist evasion tactics are My Shit and you will pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Regardless of whether you want to use evasion tactics or not, at least drop a point in here as it's literally the only class skill in the game that debuffs accuracy, and there are a few enemies who buff their own accuracy that you really don't want to keep on them.

Cautious Steps


Only usable in the Labyrinth. Reduces the encounter rate for a set number of steps.
Good for a gathering party. If your main party needs less frequent encounters, though, use Ward Bells to fulfill your dark, dark needs.
In a gathering party, your survivalist should learn this skill instead of your farmers, because they have more points to spare. In a main party... you can drop a point if you want to save the need to buy ward chimes I guess, which does come in handy every now and then.

Efficiency


For 6 turns, increases the amount of HP restored by Medica items used by the user, and upgrades their target type to row-target.
Ehhhhhhnnnn...

Mnnneh.

It's no EOU Efficiency, but at least it's not EO2U Efficiency. You could use it on a Farmer subclassing Survivalist, but they don't get the x2 bonus. I see the merit in it, though. Efficiency 4 makes basic Medicas 100 healing to an entire row, which is rad.
You can take this skill to turn your suvivalist into a main healer if you want, but this takes away turns from using their unique supportive talents. If you already have a healer elsewhere, then just use somas.

Quick Step


Targets one party member. That party member will act first on this turn.
Quick Step is awesome. You can have a really slow skill that you REALLY need go off RIGHT THE HELL NOW. It's less useful in this game, where most emergency skills are on fast classes, but Quick Stepping a Medic using Heal-All or Refresh or Unbind is still a classic. Using it in randoms to help an Imperial paste something with a Drive without getting pasted and before the target gets to act is also great. You'll want Speed Up for the evasion eventually anyway, so Quick Step is only a hop, skip and a step away.

Skills: Master

Disabling Shot


When the user attacks with a bow skill, they will attempt to bind the legs of hit targets.
While the chances aren't particularly high, it activates on any bow skill, and leg binds are *very* helpful to evasion tactics. Remember, leg binds halve the target's AGI! That makes their attacks a lot less accurate. If you want to fish for a proc, Multi-Shot will probably check twice, and so should Finishing Shot. I'd recommend bringing someone else to handle the leg binds, but if you'd rather the Survivalist handle all evasion action, taking this can't hurt.
This activates on any skills that can require a bow weapon type, so it won't activate on normal attacks or Finishing Shot, but it will activate on Reprisal Command, even if the user is wielding a gun. And yes, Multi-shot will check it twice. This skill is best in situations where you do appreciate leg bind, but not enough to have someone going for it specifically, or doesn't have a party member who can inflict leg bind in the party to begin with, as it's pretty unreliable for when you do want it go off. It is still better than throwing a Leg Binder, I guess.

Sagittarius Shot


Two turns after use, deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. Attempts to stun the target.

If the user dies, becomes afflicted with panic or sleep before Sagittarius Shot goes off, Sagittarius Shot will fail.
Survivalist's third-strongest attack. Excluding Drop Shot, that is, so in most big fights this is second best. The stun chance is fairly high, but stun is hard to inflict, so you shouldn't rely on it too much. Especially since Survivalist's infliction score isn't great... But it's good damage (as far as Survivalist damage goes), so pick it up at some point.

Hazy Arrow


Only usable if the user evaded an attack last turn. Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. Cannot miss.
Sagittarius Shot was good damage as far as Survivalist damage goes. This is just good damage in general. Hazy Arrow all but requires you to enact evasion tactics, but the damage is well worth it. It only takes 6SP and is very cheap TP-wise, so max it out as soon as you can after getting Master. Hell, maybe stockpile 6SP for it. 1200% is as much as an Imperial's Accel Drive, though keep in mind you don't have their humongous STR and weapon ATK.

...But also keep in mind that you can theoretically use it every turn. And that it's much cheaper.
There's an argument for keeping your Survivalist in the front row once you have evasion tactics fully going, since the front row gets targeted more often than the back, and it'll give you constant Hazy Arrows.
Combine it with Shogun's Great Warrior for best results.

Nature's Blessing


Gives the user a chance to find additional rare gather materials when gathering.
Good for a gathering party, but Farmer has Double Crop and Survivalist doesn't, so you should take a Farmer instead, probably.
Having Nature's Blessing on both main and subclass will stack, so your farming party will be Survivalist/Farmer and Farmer/Survivalists.

Scapegoat


Targets one party member. That party member will redirect a set number of instances of damage from any party member to themself. Damage taken from redirected attacks is reduced.

Scapegoat will fail if the targeted party member's legs are bound.
Scapegoat is capital G, capital S Good Shit. On top of boosting the hell out of your own evasion then Scapegoating yourself to negate three or four hits of an attack, you can also use it to force the enemy to attack a sturdy Defending target like a Hoplite while your party enacts crisis management. Or to cover a frail attacking target like an Imperial. Or trigger the hell out of a counter skill like Front Command or Shield Flare. Scapegoat has an almost comical amount of uses, and they're all SO GOOD.
Some minute details on the skill: If two characters cast Scapegoat on the same target, the number of uses will add up, with the faster Scapegoat's effect being used first. If two characters cast Scapegoat on two different targets, the one positioned first (top left to top right, then bottom left to bottom right) will take hits until they run out of uses/become incapacitated, then the other target will start taking hits. If a character uses Line Shield and has Scapegoat cast on them at the same time, Line Shield will take preference, while Scapegoat will kick in if the other row is attacked. In all these cases, damage reduction will not stack.

Sneak Attack


For a set amount of steps in the Labyrinth, increases the chance of preemptive attacks.
Mnnehh. Theoretically, increasing your preemptive chance also decreases your blindside chance, but I have no idea if that applies to this game too. Either way, you need too much SP for me, personally, to find it worth it, even though it could potentially almost completely disable blindsides in combination with Risk Perception.
Sneak Attack is essentially a second chance check to make a battle a pre-emptive, so having it will reduce chance of blindsides indirectly, but will not eliminate them. Starting a battle in a pre-emptive can be a huge help, but Survivalist's presence already makes random encounters a lot easier than they could be otherwise. Take it if you want.

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