Steam store screenshot. Midnight Workshop / Lilith Games. Used here as editorial illustration.
Survival Log is a $11 zombie hoarding sim: you get a short preparation phase, then you have to hold a house for 100 days. Midnight Workshop shipped it on 12 August 2026; Lilith Games publishes. Reviews sit in Very Positive territory, and the systems are chunky enough that Google queries split cleanly — which is why this hub exists.
This page is the guide hub. It answers “how do I play?” and “what should I do first?” then points each deeper intent to its own URL so those pages do not cannibalize each other.
How to play
You already died once. The replay starts with a countdown measured in hours, not days.
- Prep (about 10 hours of game time). Walk, bike, or drive. Loot free containers. Convert starting cash into systems — a car, a door that survives a wave, power, and a way to grow food. Buying a fridge full of snacks and nothing else is how runs die on day 4.
- Holdout (100 days). Research farming and cooking immediately. Neighbors want daily favors. Zombie waves hit the door and the windows, not a fog-of-war map. Weather (cold snaps around day 35 on many runs) is as lethal as the horde if you skipped the air conditioner.
- Loop. Dying is not the end of the save’s knowledge. Later characters and unlocks sit behind surviving long enough to open the city and run drone aid.
Controls and UI labels can shift with patches. If a menu name below does not match your build, search the same job (buy car, plant food, repair door).
Quick tips (do these, skip the fluff)
- Buy the cheap used car. Community timing tests put a walking loop in the 3-hour range and a car loop closer to 2.5. The trunk is extra storage during prep.
- Spend on the house, not the pantry. Titanium door, bulletproof window, AC, a cooker, power storage, and a hydroponic / grow box beat 40 packets of crackers.
- Juicer is not optional after the mid-August patches. Fruit and tomatoes turn into trade juice. That loop replaced “loot the supermarket forever.”
- Bank survival points. Several players report ~5% interest if you let the pile grow (a common target is 200 before spending). Do not dump points on cosmetics the first night.
- Spikes, not sandbags, for early waves. Three spike barriers at the door for wave one; add the window for wave two. Sandbags show up in some panic guides; they are the worse spend before day 50.
- Student cannot craft molotovs. Worker and Warehouse Manager can. Pick before you commit a 100-day save.
- Day 49–50 wipes more runs than day 1. If the door has not been upgraded and spiked, that wave is the campaign.
What to read next
| If you are stuck on… | Open this page |
|---|---|
| Opening cash, car, and the last-hour riot shops | 10-hour prep: what to buy |
| Wave calendar, day 50, chainsaws, endings | 100 days walkthrough |
| Worker vs student vs clerk | Characters compared |
| Unlocking the third origin | Warehouse Manager |
| When to spend the point pile | Survival points |
What this site will not invent
Some English articles already list “Belief Points,” loop-3 mutation percentages, and other numbers we could not match to the Steam store, achievement list, or high-signal community guides. Until we reproduce a mechanic in-game, it stays off the page.
Steam still lists 93 achievements, including First Night, Week 1, One Month, Fifty Days, One Hundred Days, Evacuate, and Side By Side. An achievements guide comes after these core intents are indexed.
Official facts (store, Aug 2026)
- Windows only. 16 GB RAM minimum. No macOS / Linux, no Steam Deck / gamepad claim on the store.
- English and Simplified Chinese.
- Developer support email on the store: survivallog-service@lilith.com.