Game modes compared - Survival, Tribe, Warrior, PVP and Casual

Choose Survival for the original Soulmask, Tribe if you want invasions, merchants and a much cheaper tech tree, Warrior for hard combat without survival chores, Casual to build freely with a Creator Menu, and PVP only on a PvP server. Every mode can be tuned further in the save or server settings.

Mode comparison

Rule	Survival	Tribe	Warrior	Casual	PVP
Tech point cost	Normal	Much lower, separate tree	Much lower, custom tree	Normal, plus Creator Menu	Normal
Levelling speed	Faster mid and late game than Early Access	Normal	Very fast	Faster	Mode-specific; Awareness capped by server day
Invasions	Yes	Stronger, with Invasion Totems	Off by default	Not changed in the notes	Yes
Death drop	All items	All items	Off by default	Off	Equipped items stay on you
Durability	Yes	Yes	None on weapons or armour	Mostly removed	Yes, tied to server progress
Building decay	Yes	Yes	Off by default	Off	Yes
Tribe and ship caps	Default	Default	Default	Greatly raised	Greatly reduced
Mimicry Ascension	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Survival

The 1.0 default and the closest match to Early Access saves, which carried over. Patch 13 made levels after 40 cheaper and set the single-player Awareness EXP multiplier to at least 3x. Most guides on this site assume Survival.

Tribe Mode

Tribe Mode is about managing a growing settlement:

• an independent tech tree with much lower tech point costs
• a tribe progression and reputation system that unlocks merchant goods
• random merchant events and wandering merchants
• invasions stronger than Survival, plus Invasion Totems to call challengers
• talented tribesmen may join after you repeatedly defend against invasions

It is the best mode for players who mainly want to build and automate. The 1.0 tutorial for Tribe Mode was reworked after launch.

Warrior Mode

Warrior Mode is a combat challenge with save playtime tracking for speedruns:

• your body starts at white quality with no talents, but you get weapons and gear at creation
• more and stronger enemies with smarter AI, including elites in the wild
• dodge timing is stricter, and stamina and poise matter more
• weapons and armour never lose durability
• food and fuel use are greatly reduced
• merchants stay at camps and more boss challenges appear
• the Hammer’s sun protection is halved

Some later features, such as the Floating Foundation and Gene Recovery, are disabled in Warrior Mode.

Casual Mode (added 21 April)

Casual adds a Creator Menu and an Infinite Construction button on the main menu: spawn any item, or build without materials. Part limits on ships, zone restrictions and height limits are removed, items do not drop on death, buildings do not decay, and the caps for ships, tribesmen and animals are much higher. You also start Shifting Sands with an Egyptian leisure cruiser. Use it to test ship blueprints or base designs.

PVP Mode

PVP is built from the official PvP rules. Awareness is capped by server day: 29 on day 1, rising to 60 by days 8 to 10 on official servers. High-tier gear no longer gets extra damage reduction against lower-tier weapons, death keeps your equipped items, tribe population is much smaller and Mimicry Ascension is off.

Adjusting a mode

You choose the mode when you create a world. Many individual rules, such as EXP rates, decay and death drops, can be changed later in the save or server settings, so a Survival save can be made gentler without switching mode. The server settings guide lists the useful ones.