If you’re looking for games within the survival genre to play on your Apple TV, then an Apple Arcade subscription will unlock more biomes, crafting benches, farming options, resource management, recipes to cook, labyrinths to explore and enemies to vanquish then you could ever possibly have time for.

Check out Stranded Sails, Outlanders, Cozy Grove, Nightmare Farm, The Oregon Trail, Sneaky Sasquatch (maybe not strictly a survival game but it sure ticks a lot of the boxes), and of course the star of today’s story – The Survivalists (it’s right there in the game’s title!).

The genre really seems to have taken off on Apple’s subscription service.

It’s highly unlikely you’ll have enough hours in the day to do them all justice, but with all these survival game options available on Apple TV, you’ll no doubt find at least one that floats your boat (or completely wrecks it right at the start of the game). From there it’s a case of learning the mechanics, peeling off layers of depth and complexity, and making that game’s world your own.

Today’s titular subject, and the reason ATVG has teed off on a survivalist tangent, is the fact that The Survivalists from Team 17 today received a massive update, promising to carve even more hours out of the day or night. Or both.

Back in October 2020, when The Survivalists launched on Apple Arcade, ATVG jumped straight in and started surviving. Or trying. I actually chronicled my first hour in-game right here.

I haven’t had a chance to jump into Team 17’s huge addition yet, but on paper it looks like there’s a lot to sink your teeth into.

Team 17 emailed ATVG deep into Australia’s Friday night, dishing the goods on what the studio is calling its Farming Update.

“The update lets players plant and harvest crops for resources (even rare ones) while new, dangerous plants can be grown as a defence mechanism,” advised the studio. “Monkeys can be taught to help with crops via the Monkey Mimic system, and there are new structures, recipes, and items to aid your arable adventure, including a faster raft to make island-hopping more expedient.”

While farming is a large focus of this 1.3 update, there’s a whole raft of other goodies lashed together. Combat is an important part of surviving The Survivalists, and Team 17 has put some work into making it even better.

“Combat as a whole has been overhauled too, giving greater control over direction of attacks for more fluid fighting,” continued Team 17’s missive. “Lunge and knockback changes have also been made, and stamina has been altered, leaving players less likely to be worn out during combat and harvesting resources.”

There’s some new animals to try out the improved combat on too, such as Wolves, Tank Birds and Flock Birds, and Big Cats, Wolves, Elephant Birds, Boars, Deers, Stags and Rabbits can now all be tamed and bred. Some animals have new attack patterns, and night time will see players facing off against more large predators.

New minibosses are waiting for brave explorers of Labyrinths too, so tool up and get prepared for some deep dungeon dives.

With all this, Team 17 had still not finished piling more into version 1.3.

“Additional features of this update include new dyeing and weapon benches, a grindstone for weapon improvements, net and fish traps, a refuse pit to destroy items, and new cosmetic features,” the studio finished.

Reaching the end of Team 17’s communiqué, I sought some shut-eye, waking up this morning to compare the email to the patch notes on the App Store, finding a long list of quality of life improvements as well as the big tent-pole additions listed above for The Survivalists.

Gonna be a busy weekend.

If you’re new to The Apple TV Gaming Blog (ATVG), or just new to Apple TV gaming in general, or both, then the best place to get acquainted is our Best Apple TV Games of 2020 article. You’ll find a great collection of games to play, and a bunch of useful links to our previous site content. Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.