Sniper Elite 5 Survival Mode: Best Skills & Tips

The long-awaited Sniper Elite 5 is out in the wild, and players can not get enough of it. The game again drops players into the boots of allied sniper expert Karl Fairburne.

He is on a mission to unveil the Nazi secret plans during World War 2 and also destroy them to the last bit to save the world. Apart from the storyline, Sniper Elite 5 introduced many improvements and features to enhance the gameplay experience. These also include different game modes, with the top being Sniper Elite 5 survival mode, which is grabbing the attention of a lot of players. 

Apart from the daily mission activity in the game’s campaign mode, you can also hop into the co-op survival mode to get your character invaded by Nazi enemies. All you need is to hold your position and survive the waves of the enemies to produce a high score.

You can play the survival mode solo or with three more players as a co-op playthrough. The objective remains the same to defend your position from enemy invasion. Meanwhile, keeping up to the aim will not be an easy feat.

You will incorporate a series of elements like weapons, skills, and strategic tips to ensure maximum survival of your character and score higher. With that said, let’s discuss Sniper Elite 5 survival mode tips and skills to ensure the survival of your character during an invasion. 

The Rundown

• Survival mode in Sniper Elite 5 requires players to defend their position from Nazi invasions, either playing solo or co-op with up to three more players.
• The mode requires strategic planning, sharpshooting skills, and team coordination to tackle intense situations.
• The game allows players to choose from a variety of weapons, ranging from sniper rifles to pistols, ammunition, panzerfaust, and explosive mines.
• The game includes a stage system, containing A, B, C, and D, with each stage spawning its waves of enemies that get increasingly challenging.
• Sniper Elite 5 offers three skill trees: Combat, Body, and Equipment, each with 28 skills to unlock and acquire.
• Skills points earned in the campaign mode can be used in any game mode, including survival mode.
• Skills require strategic planning when playing co-op survival mode or solo.
• Top skills to consider in survival mode are: Steady Hands/Swift Hands, No Time to Bleed/Combat Medic, Carry More Explosives/Secondary Special Ammo, Focus Range/Focus Movement, and Speedy Recovery/Stabilised.
• Steady Hands reduces scope shake during the rush of taking the shot and costs one skill point; Swift Hands automatically obtains ammo and medical items from the enemy and costs 2 skill points.
• No Time to Bleed allows immediate access to secondary weapon after incapacitation and Combat Medic allows reviving with Bandages instead of Medic Kit; No Time to Bleed costs 1 skill point and Combat Medic costs 2 skill points.
• Carry More Explosives increases carry limit for explosives and Secondary Special Ammo adds another special ammo slot for secondary weapons; Carry More Explosives costs 1 skill point and Secondary Special Ammo costs 2 skill points.
• Focus Range provides a higher radius of focus and Focus Movement enhances character’s performance while utilizing the Focus feature; Focus Range costs 1 skill point and Focus Movement is a prominent skill to consider.
• Adding Speedy Recovery under the Body skills tree will improve health regeneration and Stabilised skills will reduce heart rate while using bandages and medkits.
• Stealth is not the only option in Sniper Elite 5 survival mode.
• Looting off dead enemies can provide ammunition, grenades, and bandages.
• Vantage points on higher ground can provide a comprehensive look at enemy movements and yield more kills.
• Keeping distance from enemies is important to avoid close-quarters combat and capture of your base.
• Strategic planning and incorporating different skills and tactics are key to success in survival mode.
• Success in survival mode can earn players medals and other perks for other game modes.

Sniper Elite 5 Survival Mode Explained

Survival mode is one of the five modes introduced in the latest entry in the Sniper Elite series. What makes this mode unique is the intensity of the battle between you or your team and the waves of enemies. Your prime objective is the Tower Defence while enemies are closing in. You are your team can utilize a series of weapons, from sniper rifles to the best standard rifles in Sniper Elite 5. 

However, that is not all to the survival mode. It is also going to challenge your sharpshooting skills and team coordination to take the higher ground and put an end to the enemies circling you. For that instance, you might want to know how to play the survival mode effectively to tackle intense situations. Let’s discuss how to play the survival mode to maximize your character’s performance. 

How to Play Survival Mode in Sniper Elite 5?

The survival mode is self-explanatory and requires players to survive the hordes of enemies circling in from all sides. You will have a Tower Defense that you need to take hold of no matter what. Meanwhile, enemies will try to kill your character viciously, resulting in losing your progress. 

The match will start by allowing your character and teammates to collect their loadout and ammunition and prepare for an invasion of Nazi enemies. You can choose a variety of weapons ranging from sniper rifles, pistols, ammunition, panzerfaust, and explosive mines, which can be set on the ground to give your enemy a blasting surprise. 

You will have 40 seconds to get your load out and move out to the position of Tower Defence and kill all the enemies. As said earlier, defeating the Nazi enemies will be an intense round. So make sure to follow a strategic plan to kill most of the enemies at the start of the wave. This way, you can save ammunition and the character’s health while scoring maximum points. 

Once you have killed all the enemies in the first wave, you will have to prepare for the second one in 35 seconds. The game now allows you to loot off the corpse of enemies to get ammunition for your loadout and bandage to recover the character’s health. 

As soon as wave two starts, you must return to a planned position to quickly take down most of the enemies. As you progress through waves, the Nazi enemy count and defenses also increase.

Taking them down will be more challenging with each wave. But once again, team coordination and the right strategy are the keys to clearing every wave game throws in survival mode. 

Apart from the waves, the survival mode also features a stage system containing A, B, C, and D. Each stage will spawn its waves of enemies that gets challenging with each wave. Itis definitely trouble for your band. But at the same time, it is meant to enhance your experience by giving a grizzlier time to put you against enemy and tanks hordes. 

Top Skills for Playing Survival Mode in Sniper Elite 5

Now that you know how to play survival mode, it is essential to incorporate some prime elements to smoothen your gameplay experience. As the stages with each wave intensify the enemy count and their attack power, your character needs more than just ammunition and explosives to secure victory in the mission. 

This is where skill trees come in handy for customizing your character with unique abilities. Sniper Elite 5 offers three skill trees: Combat, Body, and Equipment. Each of these skill trees comes with a total of 28 exceptional skills that are available to unlock and acquire by your character. 

For that instance, you must play the campaign and survival mode to earn XP and skill points to unlock different skills and use them for your battle needs. Moreover, these skills points will be available for use in any game mode of your choice.

If you have earned some skills points in the campaign mode and you fire up the survival mode, you will be able to use the skill points earned earlier for your character. 

On the other side, skills also require special consideration for the type of gameplay you are pursuing in survival mode. If you are in a co-op survival mode, you will have to use the skills with strategic planning among teammates.

Or, if you are a solo hunter, you can pick up any skill that fits best your character’s needs. Here are some of the top skills that you might need to consider to improve your performance and claim a higher score in each stage of survival mode. 

Steady Hands/Swift Hands

The first and most important skill to acquire from the Combat skill tree is Steady Hand. It is the prime contributor to getting good kills early in the wave. Especially if you are playing solo in survival mode, you might want to get accurate kills before the enemy surrounds your character. 

Steady Hands will reduce the scope shake during the rush of taking the shot. First of all, you must maintain a position at a comfortable location on the map. After that, you might still need a steady scope to ensure your bullets register the enemies’ bodies. 

During the wave, some of the enemies will take a cover, which is not much of a problem for players. But in the case of sprinting enemies, Steady Hands can significantly improve your weapon accuracy by drastically reducing the shaking. Steady Hands will cost you one skill point. 

With Steady Hands, you will also need Swift Hands skill for survival mode in Sniper Elite 5. The main reason is that ammunition is in short supply in the mode. If you are out of ammo, hordes of enemies attacking are not something your character will make out alive. For that instance, you will have to loot off the corpse of dead Nazi enemies to use their ammunition and medic supply. 

With this Swift Hands at the cost of 2 skill points, players can automatically obtain all the ammo and medical items from the taken down foe. Although, that will only work in close quarters, such as a melee attack. But still, it is a worthy addition to the combat skills. 

No Time to Bleed/Combat Medic

Next, players might also need No Time to Bleed to increase the chance of survival in brutal game mode. Unlike campaign mode, where once your character is down, he is dead for good. In the survival mode, instead of dying, your character will be incapacitated by putting him in a low-energy state. 

Meanwhile, if you have equipped the No Time to Bleed skill before the match, your character will be able to draw a secondary weapon immediately after going incapacitated. You can use this weapon to kill the enemies in the surroundings and get another chance to go back to the battle. 

Not just that, but you must also consider Combat Medic for reviving the teammates. Either you or any of your team members must invest in the Combat Medic skill. It will allow you to use the Bandages instead of Medic Kit for reviving a player. As for the skill points, No Time to Bleed requires 1, and Combat Medic needs two skill points. 

Carry More Explosives/Secondary Special Ammo

All the skill points you receive from any mode in Sniper Elite 5 must be distributed equally among the three skill trees. That is why you should invest in some skills for the Equipment skills tree to gain maximum advantage in the survival mode of Sniper Elite 5. 

Carry More Explosives is also one of the top Equipment skills worthy of adding to your daily survival mode matches. Adding this skill will increase your carry limit for explosives like grenades and TNT. Considering that you will encounter tanks and heavy artillery, destroying them with guns is impossible. You will need a lot of explosives to decimate these tanks and progress through enemy waves. 

Carry More Explosives will cost you only one skill point while expanding your inventory capability with grenades and other explosives. Along with that, you can also consider Secondary Special Ammo. The main reason is that the skill will add another special ammo slot that will be used for your secondary weapons. 

At the cost of two skill points, getting another slot for using the special ammo in the survival mode can be a huge relief. So make sure to add these skills to your character to avoid going down earlier in the survival mode. 

Focus Range/Focus Movement

When it comes to the skills for claiming most kills, Focus Range and Focus Movement under the Body skill tree are never an exception. As a soldier to hunt down Nazis, you must be skilled in your weapon and personal abilities. 

This is where Focus Range comes in handy and provides a higher radius of Focus. With that, you will be able to take down multiple enemies simultaneously, thus enhancing the character’s performance to the next level. It only costs one skill point, making it a worthy addition to your character. 

To utilize the Focus feature to its full potential, Focus Movement is another prominent skill you can use in survival mode. Focus Movement is going to increase your movements while using the focus. It will cost you two skills points, so make sure you invest these points appropriately and get Focus Movement and Focus Range before going out in the wild. 

Speedy Recovery/Stabilized

Lastly, Speedy Recovery is also an important consideration under the Body skills tree. As the name implies, adding the skill will start Health Regeneration sooner.

With a bullet storm and explosions around the map, your character is always prone to taking damage no matter how prepared you are. Meanwhile, Speedy Recovery skills on your side will significantly improve health regeneration. On the other side, adding Stabilized will add a combined effect with Speedy Recovery. 

Stabilized skills will significantly assist by reducing the heart rate while using the bandage and medkit. Like every other skill, Speedy Recovery and Stabilized will cost one and two skill points, respectively. 

Tips for Sniper Elite 5 Survival Mode

Playing the survival mode is some of the best experiences that players can avail themselves of in the game. It comes with various weapon choices, skills, and teams that will yield numerous opportunities to follow your plan and pursue an ideal playthrough. At the same time, players might also need to incorporate different tips and tricks to achieve success at the end of each wave. Let’s discuss the best tips you must follow for the best experience. 

Stealth is not the only Option.

A large portion of the Sniper Elite community follows a stealthy approach toward killing the Nazi invaders during the survival mode wave. However, it is essential to note that it is not the only path you need to follow. Especially with huge map sizes, stealth indeed holds a wealth of opportunities. 

It becomes perilous in the case of survival mode as the enemy closes into your unique position and will eventually spot your character. On top of that, you also need heavy weapons to defeat a large pool of enemies. In this case, suppressed weapons are not your ideal weapon in the day of surviving a survival mode in Sniper Elite 5. 

To increase the chance of success, you must ensure multiple vantage points with the help of your co-op teammates. Only this way you can progress through the waves and complete the stages efficiently. 

Loot off Dead Enemies

As said earlier, ammunition and bandages are the top aspects you need to consider in between the short interval of each wave. Instead of returning to the spawning point of each stage, you can also loot off the corpse of enemies to collect ammunition, grenades, and bandages for your character. 

The time interval after each wave is as short as 35 seconds. So you will need to be fast enough to loot anything that seems vital for your weapons. 

Set Vantage Points on Higher Ground

Vantage points higher in the buildings have always proven to assist players. It is because staying above the enemies allows players to get a comprehensive look at the enemies’ movements. Once you have acknowledged these movements, you can quickly strike the enemy with a sniper rifle or explosives to yield a cluster of kills. 

As said above, getting the most kills early in the wave is always important to spare some energy and focus on the most intense waves. Cooperate with the co-op partners, and register kills early with the help of high ground vantage points. 

Keep Your Distance

Last but not least tip that you should consider is to keep your distance. It is highly important for players to never engage in close quarters combat with the enemies. You may run into the enemy at an unfortunate corner and use the melee kill as an advantage. But pursuing close and personal combat for survival mode is never recommended. 

The main reason is that the enemy is aware of the situation and will approach your base to capture the point. If your character is already in the hornet’s nest, there is no chance of coming out alive. Keep your distance from the entry points of the enemies, and always be careful never to get caught in the melee combat. 

Final Words

Sniper Elite 5 survival mode is a famous addition to the game that tests the player’s patience and skill in dealing with hordes of enemies. The mode will encourage players to follow strategic planning to stay alive and contribute to most kills in each stage. On top of that, the game will reward players with medals and numerous other perks that are usable in other game modes. 

The key to success is to incorporate different skills and tactics into your gameplay to avoid losing all the progress in the mode. That is about it for the survival mode of the latest entry in Sniper Elite. Do you find this guide helpful for playing the survival mode in Sniper Elite? What are your approaches to tackling the storming Nazi enemies in each stage of the mode? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section down below. 

Now that you are here, why not check out Sniper Elite Mission 2: All Collectibles[Occupied Residence]