The World
Forest Survival has 8 maps and 8 biomes — one biome per map, none reused. The map you pick decides which hazards can kill you, which storm rolls in, and how much room you have to kite.
Forest Survival's 8 maps are Deep Forest, Scorched Wasteland, Frozen Tundra, Desert Canyon, Toxic Swamp, Military Outpost, Twilight Vale and Ancient Ruins. You pick one on the Solo setup screen — heading "CLASSIC MODE" — or on the Tutorial's "CHOOSE YOUR MAP" screen. The Random Mode toggle ("Adaptive difficulty + randomized atmosphere & map") rolls one for you.
Three things change between maps: which terrain hazards are present, the signature storm species, and how much open ground you get. Desert Canyon and Frozen Tundra are the two largest. Everything else is shared — every map carries ARK-07 relay spires, explosive barrels and the same robot archetypes.
Each map pairs a biome with one feature that changes how you fight on it.
| Map | Biome | Signature feature |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Forest | forest | Dense trunks — the best natural line-of-sight cover in the game |
| Scorched Wasteland | volcanic | Lava pools: 26 damage/second to anything standing in them |
| Frozen Tundra | tundra | Slippery frozen ponds and blizzards; one of the two largest maps |
| Desert Canyon | desert | Sandstone pillars and sandstorms; the other of the two largest |
| Toxic Swamp | swamp | One vast sheet of toxic water: 9 damage/second nearly everywhere |
| Military Outpost | military | Hard man-made cover and the highest barrel count |
| Twilight Vale | twilight | Bare branches and drifting wisps — thin cover, long sightlines |
| Ancient Ruins | ruins | Stone columns and broken walls that form firing lanes |
Every map below opens with its verbatim in-game description, then what that scenery means once robots close in.
Deep Forest is the forest biome and the reference map for everything else. In game: “A thick, ancient forest with towering trees, fallen logs, and mushroom clusters.” No terrain hazard exists here, so the map is pure geometry — trunks genuinely block robot line of sight, which makes rotating to a fresh angle the core skill. Rain is the signature storm, and heavy rain masks your footsteps.
Scorched Wasteland is the volcanic biome and the most lethal ground in the game: “A charred landscape of obsidian pillars, lava pools, and smoldering embers.” Lava pools deal 26 damage per second and burn robots on the same terms as you, so walking a melee pack across a pool edge trims a wave without spending ammo. Ashfall is the signature storm, and the narrow obsidian pillars make this a kiting map rather than a camping one.
Frozen Tundra is the tundra biome and one of the two largest maps: “A frozen expanse of ice spires, snow-laden pines, and frozen ponds.” Frozen ponds are an ice hazard — no damage, but you slide, which wrecks the precise strafing the Sniper wants. Blizzards cut how far robots can pick you out, deep snow drags on your movement, and Frozen Tundra is one of only two maps with 4 ARK-07 relay spires instead of 3.
Desert Canyon is the desert biome and the other of the two largest maps: “Towering sandstone pillars, sun-bleached arches, and hardy cacti dot this arid canyon.” No terrain hazard is present, but the open ground and long sightlines make Desert Canyon the friendliest map for the Sniper and the harshest for the Shotgun. Sandstorms are the signature storm, and when one lands, robot engagement range drops sharply. Desert Canyon also carries 4 relay spires.
Toxic Swamp is the swamp biome and the one map where the hazard is the floor: “A drowned wetland — one vast sheet of glowing toxic water threading between gnarled trees, silt banks, and luminous fungi.” Toxic sludge deals 9 damage per second — survivable in short crossings, fatal if you stand and trade — so the silt banks are the real map. Spore blooms are the signature storm and arrive more often here than anywhere else; playing Medic for its 0.5 HP/sec regen makes the wading cheap.
Military Outpost is the military biome and the most man-made arena in the game: “An abandoned base with concrete walls, sandbag bunkers, and watchtower frames.” Concrete walls are full-height cover that blocks robot sight completely, which makes this the strongest map for holding an angle rather than kiting. Military Outpost also carries the most explosive barrels — up to about 53 against roughly 39 elsewhere — so the Engineer always has something to wire. Rain is the signature storm.
Twilight Vale is the twilight biome and the map with the least usable cover: “A vale of bare, gnarled trees and floating wisps under a deep purple dusk sky — silent, haunted, otherworldly.” Bare branches look like cover but block almost nothing, so robots hold sight of you far longer than in Deep Forest and flanking pressure builds fast. No terrain hazard is present. Spectral wisps drift through rather than blanket the map, so do not expect them to cut robot vision the way a blizzard does.
Ancient Ruins is the ruins biome and the most structured arena: “Crumbling stone columns, broken walls, arched doorways, and forgotten statues.” Columns and broken walls form repeating firing lanes that suit a corner-peek rhythm — hold a lane, break sight, reload, step back out. No terrain hazard is present, and rain is the signature storm. Arched doorways funnel a wide melee pack into single file, which is exactly what the Shotgun and the Launcher want.
Forest Survival has 3 terrain hazard kinds, and the rule that matters most is that hazards damage robots on exactly the same terms as the player.
| Hazard | Effect | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Lava | 26 damage/second | Scorched Wasteland |
| Toxic sludge | 9 damage/second | Toxic Swamp |
| Ice | No damage — slippery footing | Frozen Tundra |
Because the damage is symmetrical, kiting a pack through lava is a real play rather than a gimmick. Robots that close for melee follow you straight in and lose health every second they stay there: 26 damage per second erases a 30 HP Fast robot in barely over a second. The trick works far less well on the Ranged archetype, which kites at distance and has no reason to enter the pool at all.
Forest Survival's weather runs on 6 storm species — rain, sandstorm, blizzard, ashfall, spores and wisps — layered over 3 sky states: clear, gloomy and storm. Each map has its own signature storm, so you never see a blizzard in the swamp or a sandstorm in the tundra.
Weather has teeth. A sandstorm or a blizzard genuinely cuts how far robots can pick you out, which turns a losing long-range fight into a fair one; deep snow drags on your movement; heavy rain masks your footsteps. Read the sky before you commit to a position.
Forest Survival offers 6 time-of-day settings: day, night, dawn, dusk, twilight and auto. Time of day changes atmosphere and visibility rather than rules — night raises the contrast on muzzle flashes and robot emissives, while day gives the cleanest read on distant silhouettes. Learn a map's layout on day, then switch.
Every map carries ARK-07 relay spires — 3 of them, or 4 on Desert Canyon and Frozen Tundra. Each spire projects a 55 m field, sits at least 130 m from the next and at least 65 m from spawn, and stamps a permanent risk-reward zone onto the map.
Robots inside a field gain up to +90% damage and up to +45% speed, and that irradiation lingers on them for up to 45 seconds after they leave — so a spire you passed two waves ago can still be feeding the pack chasing you. You take radiation damage after a 2.2 s grace window, your vision distorts, and an equipment jam force-expires any held power-up. The payoff is up to +50% bonus score on kills made inside the field. The network also fires two wave events, Overdrive Surge and Null Wave, and it runs in multiplayer — but not in the tutorial.
Explosive barrels are scattered on every map, roughly 39 by default and up to about 53 on Military Outpost. Shoot one as a melee pack funnels past it and you clear a cluster for a single round. The Engineer's Demolition ability improves on that by wiring a nearby barrel into a remote bomb you detonate on your own timing.
One barrel type behaves differently. Barrels that spawned inside an ARK-07 field become irradiated cores — 32 m nukes the Engineer cannot wire. Treat those as terrain to avoid, not as a tool.
Deep Forest is the map to start on. Deep Forest has no terrain hazard, the densest trunk cover for breaking robot line of sight, and the tightest fighting space, so mistakes cost less while you learn the movement and reload rhythm covered in how to play. Move to Military Outpost for harder cover, Desert Canyon for long-range fights.
All 8 maps are playable in multiplayer, and the ARK-07 network runs there too. What does not carry over is the solo-only content layered on top: the four tactical robot archetypes, the Revenant, the Mystery Box wave perks and the Tactical Director. The multiplayer page lists the full split.
Five of the 8 maps have no terrain hazard: Deep Forest, Desert Canyon, Military Outpost, Twilight Vale and Ancient Ruins. Only Scorched Wasteland, Toxic Swamp and Frozen Tundra carry one. Every map still has explosive barrels and ARK-07 fields, so none of them is completely safe — see the FAQ or the full guide.
Terrain, weather and hazard systems are documented system-by-system on the wiki. It is maintained separately from this site and kept in step with the code.
Forest Survival runs in the browser with no download and no install. Solo and Tutorial need no account — only multiplayer asks you to sign in.