To start off your journey on survival mode, you must turn it on first: go to settings, click gameplay, then click on survival mode (NOT reccomended for starters, if its your first time playing the game, consider playing on normal first).

After that, you are ready to start your game. Skipping ahead to the cubs, while they are in the den, your only job is to try to find food, cubs don´t starve or are targeted by predators while still in there. To keep them safe, the only thing you have to do is stay on the main area.

The cubs aren´t going to starve in the den, but they won't grow if they are still there either, so you need to go hunting.

Hunting on survival mode is way more complicated than on normal, but you will soon get used to doing it.

• Rarity:Common
  
• Spawn Places:Everywhere
  
• Seasons:All (colors may vary according to the season)
  
• Feeds:Two cubs

The main thing you must be worried about is your stamina, it regenerates slowly and you will be constantly using it to use your scent view, and you really need it to find your prey.
To find prey, you can wonder around and hope that you find a rabbit chilling out there or use your scent view at the cost of a little bit of stamina.
Once you locate prey you must press Ctrl to couch and approach it slowly, once you are close enough to have the advantage on a chase, run after it and you should get a fresh kill to feed the hungry mouths waiting for you, but if the rabbit spots you before the right moment, chase it! Rabbits are faster in survival mode, however they are predictable: if you try to get one from the left, it will run right and vice-versa, if you manage to beat the tricky rabbit, you´ve caught meal for the cubs.

Once your cubs leave the den, you will find an imense variety of prey including:

• Mice
  
• Pheasants/Grouse
  
• Deer
  
• Frogs
  
• Eggs

However, all of these have different ways to be caught.

• Rarity:Rare
  
• Spawn places:Meadows,Mountains and The Lake
  
• Seasons:Spring-Summer-Autumn
  
• Feeds: One cub

These tiny guys are easy prey, they run from one burrow to another and are really slow. if you stand in one´s path, it will just go straight into your mouth, and if you aren´t lucky enough to get this free food, just run after one while its running.

• Rarity:Uncommon
  
• Spawn places:Meadows,Mountains and The Lake (only in forests or woods)
  
• Seasons:All
  
• Feeds:Three cubs

Pheasants are fast and alert. They are hard to get even on normal, so on survival mode, it is tough!
However, you can master the pheasant catching skills with practice and luck. My recommendations are:
Start couching from far away, it reduces the chances of being spotted;
Try to corner it;
When it starts flying, thats your chance! Jump to grab it!
If none of these works, don´t lose hope, one day you will grab one!

• Rarity:Uncommon
  
• Spawn places:Tundra, Mountains and The Lake
  
• Seasons:All
  
• Feeds: Everyone (including you)

Deer are hard to get because they run very fast and they are alert to their surroundings, so you must be strategic to get one! It´s better to start stalking from far away and approach it slowly, when the first one spots you, start the chase and target the closest one, since you don´t have a lot of stamina, you can jump to get closer to it and save your energy. Once you are close enough, jump! If you catch that big deer, there is food for all of your cubs and for you! Enjoy!

• Rarity:Rare
  
• Spawn places:Meadows,Mountains and The Lake (Swamps Only)
  
• Seasons:Spring-Summer
  
• Feeds:One cub

Frogs are easy prey, they jump around on swamps and all you need to do to grab one is run after it. However, they can be hard to locate since you can´t smell them, but they make a lot of noise, so if you hear croaking, there must be one around.

• Rarity:Rare
  
• Spawn Places:Anywhere
  
• Seasons:Spring-Summer
  
• Feeds:All cubs

Eggs are a free meal, once you find a nest on the ground, your cubs will run after it and eat the eggs. There are also owl eggs, that are located on top of trees, guarded by their mothers. So if you see an owl on top of a tree, she must be guarding a nest. But don´t worry, she means no harm, and you can shake the tree she is sitting on to make her nest fall down so your cubs can eat the eggs.

On survival mode, prey migrates from one zone to another according to the season and to your zone, so to avoid starvation, I recommend living near a border that leads to another zone so you can go to it if you don´t find any prey after the season changes.

Predators may be harder to escape in survival mode, but, believe me, some can save your life!

• Spawn places:Tundra
  
• Seasons:All (but more common in Summer and Winter)
  
• Kills:One Cub
  
• Killable:No

These guys are scary, and very ferocious. On survival mode, cubs can´t jump on cliffs themselves, and that is a big problem because the only way to escape a wolf´s fangs is jumping on high ground. So you have two options:
1.Sacrifice one cub for the life of the other three
2.Jump on the cliff carrying a cub, and after that, repeat it three more times and hope the wolves only arrive after all the cubs are safe and sound on top of the cliff.
I believe it´s really hard to master the ability required to succesfully perform option two, so my recommendation is: DO NOT GO TO THE TUNDRA NO MATTER THE CAUSE!!!

• Spawn places:Meadows, Mountains and The Lake
  
• Seasons:Spring-Summer-Autumn
  
• Kills:Every cub out of your vision camp
  
• Killable:Is that even a living creature?

No one actually knows what The Blob is: Some call it a Flood, others believe it´s some kind of Fog, it may even be the Lonesome Fog, but one thing is for sure: This is what nightmares are made of!
There are two ways to defend your cubs against The Blob: lie down on the ground, wait for your cubs to come near you and DON´T MOVE! You can´t risk one of your cubs getting out of your vision camp, or else: It´s dead! So lying down is the best way to keep your cubs around you.
Or if you want adrenaline to flow in your bloodstream, you can try to move to high ground when it´s coming, but a cliff is not enough: to succesfully escape from The Blob, you must climb an entire mountain! If you manage to do so in time, this not only means that you are a hardcore mother, but that you´re one of the best Shelter 2 players!

• Spawn places:Lake, Moutains (Brown/Glizzily) and Tundra (Polar only)
  
• Seasons:Spring-Summer-Autumn (however, the polar bear also spawns in winter)
  
• Kills:Knocks you out and makes one or two cubs starve
  
• Killable:No

The Shelter 2 bear is not as friendly as the Paws bear cub, because this one is going to destroy you and, while you recover from the attack, one or two cubs are going to starve nearly to death (View Starvation topic to see some ways to solve problems like this). The best thing to do is avoid bears and, if one spots you, run to a cliff! Don´t worry about the cubs, the bear doesn´t want them. Trying to outrun a bear is the last thing you would like to do in a chase, remember, in survival mode you have low stamina! But it´s not impossible, so, if you´re hardcore enough to try to do so, you´re free to try!

• Spawn places:Everywhere (on the Tundra, you can find Artic Foxes)
  
• Seasons:All
  
• Kills:One cub
  
• Killable:Yes

Foxes are tricky, so you need to be trickier to grab one! You'll be alerted of their presence once you hear twigs snapping and grass rustling, so keep your ears perked. Chasing one is almost useless, but if you do so three times, you can tire the fox so it can´t run as fast as before, and, when that happens, get it! Foxes are a rare prize in survival mode: they feed four cubs! However, it isn´t without dangers: If one of those swifty thieves gets too close, it will snach one cub and run away! But it´s not a game over, not yet! The cub´s weight slows down the fox, so you can grab it and rescue your poor kitten before it´s too late, and, as a reward, you get a nice tasty meal for the cubs!
*Note:It doesn´t attack teenage cubs

• Spawn places:Everywhere
  
• Seasons:All
  
• Kills:One cub
  
• Killable:Yes

Eagles are very scary, however, they can literally save the life of one of your cubs, or destroy the life of another. When an eagle spawns, you will hear a soar, followed by a scary song*, you can run to a den or a cave when this happens, but its easier and more advantageous to kill it when it comes down to grab a cub. All you need to do is jump on the eagle when it is strugling to lift the cub. If you successfully take down the eagle, there is food for all the cubs!
*Know the Song? It is the same song from the eagle attack on Shelter. You can take the revenge on the eagle for killing your badger pups and their mother! >:D
**Note:It doesn´t attack teenage cubs.

• Spawn places:Meadows-Moutains and The Lake (Only on woods or forests)
  
• Seasons: Spring-Summer-The very beginning of Autumn
  
• Kills:One cub, but can hurt others
  
• Killable: You aren´t a firefighter

Fire is really hard to deal with. The best thing to do when the sky becomes dark and you hear a thunder, followed by a Song* is: call your cubs, keep them close to you, and run away from the woody area. You can also run to a place with water, it also works, but you can always go to a cliff and put all your cubs on top of it, but this takes quite a long time, so the best to do is run away or run to a lake. Another option is to keep your cubs close to you and wait until the fire surrounds you, leaving a single open passage, which you have to walk trough calmly, do NOT freak out and run. If you do this, the cubs cannot keep up well with you, and the chance of one surviving if it gets separeted from you is incredibly low.
*Know the Song? Its the same song from The Forest Fire on Shelter!

Starvation is your main trouble on survival mode, because it is a lot harder to avoid and to deal with. But with the right strategies and a bit of luck, you will manage to deal with it easily!

First, you should always be aware of your cubs´colour, if one of them is visibly too grey, you better feed it quickly. However, some cubs (like white and grey ones) don´t turn grey when close to starvation, so keep your ears alert to any louder cries, these are ways for the cubs to comunicate their hunger.
Hint: If prey is too hard to find, the creatures have probably migrated, change your zone to find some food.

There are some things you must check before going hunting:
1.Listen carefully to your surroundings, if you hear any twigs breaking or steps in the grass, there is a fox around, and they love taking starving cubs. That fox can save your cub´s life, if you find it and kill it (go to the Dangers section if you don´t know how to), if you do it, bring the starving one to the fox and let it eat.
2.Near water? If so, take your cub to it and make it drink, it will replenish its hunger, but only for enough time to find prey and properly feed it.
3.If the cub is in a forest/wood area, take it away from there, if a fire starts, it wont be able to run.
4.In case of prey migration, pick up the starving kid and move to the next zone, if you leave it behind, it will be auto-killed.
5.If you are in the Tundra, place the cub on high ground, so you don´t have to worry about foxes or wolves while you´re away.
6.Remember to check if there are any nests around, if there is one near you, place the cub next to it, this replenishes its hunger for a short time, so find prey before its starves again.
If none of these apply to your situation, go hunting, is the best thing you can do.

You also depend on luck to solve starvation troubles, mainly if more then one cub is starving, but those hints give you and your cubs a better chance to survive.

Teenage cubs starve quckly, but they also hunt on their own, however, this doesen´t make your job easier.
One of the advantages of the teenage cubs is that they can jump on cliffs, then you can pay a visit to the Tundra. They also have less predators and run a lot faster.
But, of course, there are some negative points: they starve faster, eat a lot more, you can´t carry them around and they are less cute.
If a teenage cub starves, just go hunting, there is nothing else you can do but pray that no wolf decides to pop out of no where. Or one cub that isn´t starving may save the other´s life by bringing a fresh meat piece, if this happens, that cub is nothing but a hope for the family!

I hope this guide was userfull and that it helped you raising all your four cubs to adulthood on survival mode!
Thats it then, may the force be with you and your cubs!
Fox out.