Starting Out

First of all, this guide will assume you've already completed all of the basic tutorials and have a grasp on how the game controls. What we're going to cover in this guide is how to go about playing the game so you can start having fun without being confused by all the numbers. Now, if you just want a basic idea of how to get into the general game flow and want to learn the rest yourself, you can jump from the end of this section to the final ones, as the following sections will just go into the basics of Weapons, Armour and food, which are the other three main sticking points of getting into Black Survival.

I'll also preface this guide by saying I've played the game over several hundred hours during the closed alphas, some of the betas, and the open beta before Early Access, as well as having a good few hundred hours on Black Survival on mobile, PC emulator, and Steam combined, so by now, I've got a firm grasp of the mechanics, myself. Not Dragon-rank level knowledge, but definitely enough to share a basic understanding.

A Little Different Than Most

Black Survival has a very unique gameplay flow thanks to the Mastery system. You can see this window in game by hitting "V", by default.
This is a fairly unique system to the Black Survival series, and whereas it was once represented by Grades from F to SS, Eternal Return represents it in numbers, up to a maximum of 20 for each Mastery.

What do these numbers mean?

Mastery is what constitutes your level. In short, for every action you do, the more experience you gain in that specific Mastery's category. Let me explain:
As you can see above, Sisella's weapon she has equipped are of the Shuriken mastery type. However, most characters can use multiple weapons, and I'll explain why you gotta watch out for that later.
For now, you see how the overall level is one? That'll raise once I gain Mastery EXP, and this is done by fulfilling certain criteria that is unique for each Mastery. You can check these by mousing over the Mastery window by pushing V. Don't worry about memorising or trying to max out specific stats, only a few really matter.
For example, the character gains Shuriken - and similarly for most weapons in the game - mastery EXP for fulfilling any of these criteria:

• Dealing 100 Damage to a Player
  
• Dealing 100 Damage to a Wild Animal
  
• Killing a Player
  
• Crafting a Weapon (Of that Weapon Type)

These each give varying amounts of Mastery EXP depending on the criteria fulfilled - usually in order of difficulty (with Weapon crafting giving more depending on the rarity).
You following me so far?
Now here's why this matters. As you can see along the top of the lil' popup window, beneath the title of the mastery, it describes what you gain for each Mastery level. For weapons, this is typically more damage, faster attack speed and so on. The stats you gain differ depending on the weapon, so I absolutely recommend familiarising yourself with your preferred weapons' stats if you wanna think about what you're building in relation to your character. These are usually summarised in the pre-game weapon select by a brief description, which we'll cover when we talk about why Weapons are important in the next section.
Mastery levels also apply to other stats that come under the other 2 categories besides Combat - Search & Growth, respectively - which also have their own criteria for Mastery EXP gain. You can check the criteria and which stats you gain from them by hovering over each.
To reiterate, this is super important, because while each character has their own stats they gain from leveling up, Mastery levels will increase anything from movement speed to defence, to how much HP or Stamina you regenerate over time, as well as increasing your overall level to enable you to upgrade your skills.

How Do I Go About Leveling These?

This is the million dollar question that no newcomers seem to ask, instead blaming inherent character values, like this was another MOBA. Here's how you solve this problem:


This is probably the most important step of Black Survival as a series, and why so many people struggle to get into it because they don't feel like they're as strong as others seem to be. In the original Black Survival, all you had to worry about was your own level and doing various tasks to increase it, as well as your weapon level. However, knowing what you do now about the way Eternal Return differs, you're probably thinking it's impossible to keep track of. The solution to this is to not worry about specifics and just stay active. Here's a few examples:

• If you're currently searching a search point, craft an item while you grab everything you need.
  
• Kill chickens, bats or whatever you can manage to kill on your way to the next area - they can often drop needed or helpful items and add to your Mastery EXP in a few ways. You also deny certain characters[eternalreturn.gamepedia.com] the chance to benefit from them early on.
  
• If a player is nearby, even if you have no plans to kill them, smack them about a bit with your abilities, you'll work towards the damage needed to gain weapon EXP.
  
• If you need to rest or stop to check something in the catalogue or the map, make some food or add some optional targets to your route.

Where a lot of people go wrong is by just gunning for their items to make the highest rarity they can without engaging with other players or animals, because they may be scared or too focused on what they feel is their powerspike. While some of these really matter, like crafting weapons and armour, the aim of game is to minimise your time spent searching for what you need, and maximise your actions per minute, and making good use of time you actually spend. I'll go more into the benefits of taking small diversions later in each section, but for now, all you gotta worry about is trying to make sure you keep your Mastery levels increasing throughout the game while you're working to create stronger weapons, armour and cooking good food.

Now, with that out of the way, hopefully you have a basic idea of how to go about putting what the game has already taught you into practice, armed with some more knowledge of the Mastery system. If you're content with that, jump into a queue, play a few matches and forget about aiming to win, and focus on the attitude of making your time count. You'll start to notice a difference in levels and damage within a few attempts.
However, if you're still looking for some information, head to the next section where I'll cover some more basics of some other systems Black Survival operates on, as well as habits that you'll have to develop regarding other aspects of the game.

Weapons

So as we touched on earlier, there's a lot of weapons in Black Survival - with more to come - that each fall under a weapon mastery type, with each character (from how it's looking so far) set to have access to a maximum of 3 types of mastery each.
The weapon types we have currently, as you can see on the right here - from left to right, top to bottom - are:

• Glove
  
• Tonfa
  
• Bat
  
• Hammer
  
• Whip
  
• Throw
  
• Shuriken
  
• Bow
  
• Crossbow
  
• Pistol
  
• Assault Rifle
  
• Sniper Rifle
  
• Axe
  
• Dagger
  
• Two-handed Sword
  
• Dual Swords
  
• Spear
  
• Nunchaku
  
• Rapier
  
• Guitar (We'll touch on this one seperately.)
  
• Camera (This one, too.)

You can see what weapons a character uses on their character page: We'll use Jackie's selection of weapons as our first example:
As you can see, Jackie has access to four different weapon masteries - Daggers, Two-handed Swords, Axes, and Dual Swords.

Given that you've played the tutorial, you should know how to make weapons, but the question is usually, which should I make? The answer really simple;


Just like with character choice, you pick based on your preference.
As a quick example, Daggers attack incredibly quickly, but lack a lot of damage that Axes have early on, of which Axes trade for a lower attack speed.
Given that there's so many options and places to start to make them, you can usually get away with building the weapon type that you prefer with the character you prefer. Likewise, if you're playing Squad or Duo, you can build to compensate for your teammate's weakness. An example with Jackie being running daggers/dual blades to compensate for the lack of consistent damage that someone like Sissela has in the early game.
Again, it's all about your preference.

With that in mind, some quick notes to keep a track of:

• All weapons have unique stats, ranging from attack, health, skill amplification and so on. I'd encourage you to look through the Catalogue in the home menu to see what some of the weapons have to inform any builds you're making once you get to planning builds, yourself.
  
• Every weapon comes with their own ranges and baseline stats. As an example, knives are inherently faster to attack than axes, so even if an axe - for an example - boasted the same attack speed bonus as a knife weapon, it would still be slower to attack, so it's good to keep it in mind.
  
• Following on from the Mastery segment, it's possible to swap weapons mid-match, but keep in mind that Mastery does not carry over between weapons. So if you were at Level 10 in Dual Blades but then decided to swap to a Sword, then you'd have to start over. The Mastery you left behind does not reset, however, so if you change your mind, you can go back to the old weapon.
  
• We'll address this in the general tips later, but it's good to remember that while your attack stat does inform your skill damage, the "Skill Amplification" stat or "Skill Amp" will further boost your skill damage exclusively, so it pays to know exactly what you want to go for with your character, as most of the cast can benefit from normal attack and skill attack focuses.
  
• While preference is important, also keep in mind of what you want for your build and work on it accordingly.

Closing on Weapons

To round out, I want to finish by saying that Weapons are definitely not the most complicated part of Black Survival - that definitely belongs to the routing - but your choice of weapon will definitely impact how you get around each experiment in terms of your general safety, how much you have to fight for the materials, and so on. However, now that we're done looking at how to get about putting more pain on others, let's look at how to fend off the pain.

Okidoki, so here's the section of the guide that's either going to be of help as a new player, or educate those crying foul of the game being fundamentally broken - because they're the same people who would wear insulated clothing in the desert.

Armour Categories

So unlike Weapons, Armour only comes under five categories, one for each slot in your inventory besides your equipped weapon.



These Categories are:

• Head
  
• Chest
  
• Arm
  
• Leg
  
• Accessory

A lot of the armour for each category falls under the typical category of increasing defence or defensive stats in some way, but it's very important to remember that not all armour provides defence, usually trading off for HP, Stamina, Attack and other stats.
Here's a quick example:

Stat Tradeoffs and Differences

Wetsuit and Windbreaker are both common items, found in different areas of the Island. They're both Chest piece items, however, as you can see, they differ in stats and fundamental uses.
They both feature defensive stats, but the Wetsuit boasts defence and skill damage reduction stats. This means it's typically a good option against skill-based builds or characters who really rely on damage from their skills, like Chiara and Sisella (based on common builds).
Windbreaker offers additional HP and reduction against normal attacks, meaning it's far more useful against builds or characters who want to be clicking on you a lot with their guns or knives, like Jackie or Aya.
I want to drill this into your heads while you're brand new, because this is a thing that is shared with a lot of MOBAs, but is a lot less guaranteed with Eternal Return, given the ability to almost instantly change your build by end game; While League of Legends and other MOBAs have characters' damage dedicated to specific types, Eternal Return gives the option to focus on normal attacks or skills, so the build is less about eyeing a character and building one option or following a build, and more about adapting to what you experience.
There's a few other statistics that armour items typically offer, like Life Steal or HP & SP Regen. However, there's one particular set of stats that I'd like to draw attention to, as they're fairly unique amongst the other stats and will be good to keep in mind for newer players:



Healing Reduction can be an immensely helpful stat to have, though it's only available for certain pieces of armour, with each piece of armour. However, building it as a base every game isn't typically a good idea, as you lose out on things like Skill Amp and HP which your character may need, and may also be out of the way of your route. As such, you should either make an additional plan ahead of time, or build these as a reaction to seeing characters who may be building towards life steal or characters like Chiara or Jackie, who can get by through a plethora of healing via normal attacks or skills.

In effect, Armour isn't too difficult on paper:

• Craft the armour that'll benefit you, while aiming towards a certain goal, like amplifying skills or increasing movement speed.
  
• Craft appropriate defence for what you think you'll have to deal with, or what you struggle with.
  
• Build as a reaction to things you can see or have experience of, like a Jackie rushing for those good ol' lifesteal items or a Chiara who wants to make her skills hit like a truck.
  
• Avoid building the same thing every game, because if a certain character is becoming a problem, you're going to have to bite the bullet and adapt. Black Survival's unique flow is about making the best of the situation you're in. It's Black Survival after all.

As a closing note, be sure to look through the Catalogue, as well as making use of Saved Plans so you can itemise towards certain developments and commit those alternatives to memory.

The food system in Black Survival's series isn't necessarily that complicated, and I think if you have a grasp of the crafting system, that's about as much surface depth as food really has.
So all I can really offer is a couple of tips regarding food and how you can inject it into the gameplay flow each game. With that in mind, we'll go over some basics:

Food comes in two categories: Health and Stamina / Food and Drink (Defined "Beverages" by the game, but y'know, we're not gonna over-complicate things).

Health items are typically solid food items - ice cream, too - and (unlike in Black Survival) provide an HP restoration effect as indicated on the food item over a fixed time frame.
Drink items are almost always fluids, like water and such, and operate similarly to Health items, with the difference being that they instead restore stamina gradually.
The amount of Health/Stamina food restores depends on the food, the quality of it (uncommon, rare, etc), how exclusive the materials are to obtain - like bread recipes - as well as the quantity, as items that are cooked in larger quantities, like fried chicken, typically heal less. Certain effects, such as Xiukai's Passive, Juggernaut Chef[eternalreturn.gamepedia.com], can also improve the amount of health and stamina restored.
Two good examples of the food items are the two default items that everyone is provided at the start of the game: Bread and Water, health and stamina items, respectively.


While Bread and Water can be found in a good few places, they're fairly versatile with what you can make with them, so your first step should always be knowing what you can make with Bread and Water in the areas you're running through. I'll add extra tips about this when we talk a bit about routing.
For now, however, some all-purpose tips for your gameflow:

• Food is incredibly common, with ingredients that can be used to make various recipes found in every area of the island. It's typically a good idea to pick up what you can, whenever you can, if you have space that will allow you to.
  
• Food should always be a priority once you're finished making your weapons and armour. If you can't find anyone to fight in the moment, it's always best to find stuff to make for later.
  
• Whether or not you have food is a decider at the end of the game. Besides running out of HP as an obvious concern, a lot of characters rely on stamina for using skills, and not having skills can result in that end screen coming a lot sooner.
  
• Always remind yourself what your character uses for skills. Sisella and Xiukai are two characters who use HP for their skills, but rely on stamina for searching and crafting. As those characters, balancing out what you spend more time cooking is in your best interest.
  
• Don't hold onto your bread or eat all of it. As mentioned before, it's very versatile, and hanging onto it holds a spot in your inventory that could instead hold a 500+ heal.

When you first enter a match, you'll see this screen:



This is the map of Lumia Island, and all of it's labelled zones. As you've come to understand, your plan is to go to each zone, making your weapons and armour as you kill animals, fight other test subjects and make food out of illogical recipes. (Cramming a handful of garlic cloves into a whole loaf of bread doesn't sound appetizing, but I mean if it's all you got...?)
You'll select which zone you want to start in, and then off you go to partake in the experiment.
So in Black Survival, you could only set one target item you were aiming for at a time, but with how Eternal Return works, you gain access to "Saved Plans", which you can find in the main menu, up at the top of the screen:



Given how this game functions - though I don't understand why or how - you're required to select a plan before you start. You don't have to follow this plan, but it's nonetheless a requirement before you can play. On a fresh new account, you'll be provided a Recommended plan for each character and each weapon they use by Nimble Neuron. You can, however, press this button -



You can import a selection of plans that other players have created and shared, allowing you to use their plans.
I digress - a Plan, once selected, creates what is termed in Black Survival, a "route". Your route will define what weapons and armour you build when and how, who you run into, and your general pace of gameflow. As an example:



I'm playing as Adriana, with two different routes I tend to use that are imported from other players. This first route is a build that'll have me start in Alley, and take me through 4 other areas for a total of 5 areas before my build - in an ideal scenario - would be finished. As a reminder, your Plan is what you're building, but your Route is how you're going about it.



Just to drive the point home, here's the other Plan, and the Route it leads me down has me start at Factory, and travel through 3 other areas, for a maximum of four.
This is the general idea for Routing in Black Survival; minimize time searching and crafting your final build, and maximize your time spent fighting, travelling and cooking food to build Mastery.
Of course, nothing ever goes to plan. If you're pushed out of a zone - especially in Squad or Duo modes - you've got to be sure you're aware of where you can find what you're looking for from other places.
Gemstones, as example, are very sought after for a lot of Plans, and Pond is a popular place to find them, given that it provides other resources needed to craft them into components - such as hammers. However, Beach, Forest and Temple are also sources for Gemstones, so if you're bullied out of those because you're behind or outnumbered or a character suited for late-game, then don't worry; you have options.
Another good point to note is that some areas on the plan require you to go to the other side of the map. This is easily done through "Hyperloops", which is Eternal Return's way of adapting the source game's function of being able to travel to areas instantly. Functionally, they work as teleporters disguised as phone boxes:



However, not every area has a Hyperloop, so it's important to remember that when building your own Plans so your Route requires less on-foot travel to keep your progress hasty.
While we're on the subject of Hyperloops, avoid using them if not required, as once you've selected an area, during the wind up of the teleport, the location of your teleportation will show up as a small platform, allowing nearby enemies to prepare an ambush.


In short, if you can walk to an area, it's much more advised, because you can see alerts on the map that will notify you for any nearby fights, allow you to hear nearby footsteps, and so on.

I'm New, What Should I Do?

In general, if you're new, I'd advise you follow the recommended plans or import player-made ones to follow. This'll help you keep toe-to-toe with other plays, have a good, quick guide to follow, and if things go right or wrong, either way you'll be learning where all of the game's items are. This is really the biggest piece of advice I can give for routing: learn where the items you need are.
It'll take you a few games of doing it over and over and taking detours to find items elsewhere, but eventually, you'll memorise your options. Even if you cant, you can always click on an item in your plan in the upper right to check the components and where to find them. Either way, it's all part of the learning process, so don't feel disheartened.

A couple of tips related to routing:

• Water and Bread can be found in a few places around Lumia Island, so if you're making a Plan or adjusting your route on the fly, be sure to keep track of those places, as those two foodstuffs are very multi-purpose and are good to have on hand.
  
• Branches and rocks can be found almost everywhere. If you need them later on, gather them when required; taking them early can eat up space in your inventory, as branches don't stack and rocks come in a large number when you only ever need a few, so crafting with them would use an extra slot. The game will pulse an orange frame around these items in your target items window if you're finished with that area's search and need rocks or branches.
  
• When you're making plans, considering what food items you can make along that route and what you need a lot. As an example, going from Chapel to Forest allows you to build a weapon as a Shuriken user, but also stock up on Milk and Honey to make Honeymilk or Honeywater if you need a stamina buffer. You can also grab some Glass Bottles and take them into Forest to combine a Flower and Oriental Herb together to make an Orchid and subsequently - a Healing Potion.
  
• Have priorities. If you need rubber and a lighter to make Flubber, for example, you should make that first and prioritise those items, especially if that area is currently contested.
  
• Play to your own speed. If you don't want to rush through each area if you don't have to, then don't. Take it to your pace and figure things out.
  
• Have an alternate routing for your usual plan, as this'll help you know where you need to go if something goes awry. If Pond gets restricted or is just too busy, you can move to Forest and then Beach for Gemstones and hammers, for example.

This is the other most unique part of Black Survival, and the most complex to get into when making your own Plans and Routes, so it's more than I can really cover in a basic beginners' guide, so I implore you to explore and try out everything, experimenting with making your own routes for what works with your playstyle and character.

NOTE: As of Season 5, the below information is outdated, and revival happens automatically. The process is straightforward, you'll be able to revive as long as you died before Day 3. I'll leave this info here in the event that they choose to revert or change anything in future.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So the nightmare has happened. You've picked up your quill and book, donned your adorable dress and set out to survive another experiment, only for you to watch your treasured teammate, Girl with Bow perish horribly.
What do you do?

Well, as of patch 0.34.0, you can do something about it, and it's metal as hell.
That's right, not resuscitation, not resurrection -

Body Reconstruction

So if this is your first time dealing with this process, I'm here to walk you through dealing with your teammates' death(s). The plural will make sense later. But for now, we'll go step by step.

• First, locate and acquire a freshly (or not so freshly) killed teammate's corpse. You can find them at any point you want, but if you can get to them sooner rather than later, it's probably to your benefit.
  
  
  
  
  
• Now, approach their body and click on them. Once you do, you'll begin collecting their VF bracelet. (It's called a "Regeneration Cuff" here, but it's unmistakably the VF Cell Bracelets subjects are required to wear.)
  Keep in mind you can only take your allies' cuffs - not those of subjects out of your team. Functionally, it's a collection task just like Branches and Rocks, but takes a lot less time, so just make sure you have a hot second to retrieve the bracelet and somewhere to put it before you click your platform sandals and scarper.
  
  
• Okay, you have the bracelet in your book bag and are running for your life, desperate to bring back the owner of that glorious chonky cat. Now what?
  Check your handy map and you should see that in Hotel, Dock and Hospital, there are icons that are similar to the Collect button from earlier. Head to any one of these locations marked by the icons, ensuring you keep the bracelet in your possession in the meantime. I'd advise that you keep this in a slot in your inventory that you might not accidentally click or drop from, because if you drop this, you won't get another chance at it outside of outright killing the poacher of your ally's only chance at an encore.
  
  
• You should now see this terminal in front of you, and interacting with it should bring up the following interface. If you're holding multiple bracelets, you'll have options, but as of now, your only option is to revive your trusted companion, Girl with Bow. So smack your new-book-smelling dainty hand on that button to begin the horrifying body reconstruction endeavour to bring back our cherished Girl with Bow.
  
  A quick process later, the bracelet is removed from your inventory and placed on the pale-complexioned wrist of your brand new Rio. Yay! She'll come back with all of her equipment, fresh as a daisy!
  
  
  
• Lastly, after a terminal is used, it's permanently de-activated and a notification is displayed, alerting everyone of your horrifying efforts at playing god.
  Keep these in mind, as it means two things:
  
  • People are aware that you've brought a teammate back and may return to their corpse to collect their stuff if it hasn't been picked clean already.
    
  • One more station is closed off, which - once a few have been used - means your location may be narrowed down and collapsed on.
  
  
  So that's it! Now, you should be all set with everything you need to know about the Body Reconstruction systems! Your friend Girl with Bow is back, and you're ready to make a comeback, horrifying implications of the process be damned.
  
  I wonder what happened to the old body? Wait, where did Rio go?
  Oh.
  
  

This'll be a very short list and description of miscellaneous mechanics you'll usually encounter during your time in the game, but aren't immediately apparent or explained in the tutorial at the time of writing. That, or I can't fit them in any of the other sections, as most of the mechanics are related to combat, which is more the place for character specialism guides. For any further information or deeper understanding that may be there, I recommend talking to other players or just experimenting. I'll also include some other information about things like the game's lore, since a lot of people new to the Black Survival series seem to think Eternal Return's characters apparated from thin air or wonder where the story is.


While I can't find the names for the following mechanics, they share the theme of occurring when you get a kill or assist. Neither of them are particularly noticeable in the heat of the moment, so many new players may not realise they're there. The benefits you gain will change slightly in different modes, but function the same. With that:

Restricted Zone Timer Restoration

You may have noticed while doing the tutorial's practice game or during one of many first games, but whenever you're within a restricted zone - indicated by the red glow around your screen and on the area on the map - you'll hear a beeping sound and a timer counting down over your head. You can also see this if you look at the timer on the top of the screen indicating how long it is until the next day or phase of the day:



The small stopwatch underneath indicates the time in seconds that you have left to walk through restricted zones before, well... you explode. Initially, back in the first stages of the game's early days, this meant you were in a terrible position if you used all the time you had left, so you'd be forced to play extremely careful. However, recently this was amended with a small change. Whenever you get an elimination during the course of the usual gameflow, you'll be awarded some time back.
While it may not seem like a lot, keep it in mind, as it means that being ahead affords you a little more room to be aggressive or chase people down into restricted zones, or even jump back in to find food or materials you may have missed or need to replace existing items.
P.S: A lore tidbit for anyone curious, but in universe, there's a device forcefully and permanently affixed to each of the Test Subject's arms. This device can be remotely detonated if the subjects do something Aglaia - the organisation who created Lumia as well as the Black Survival experiment to begin with - object to, or if they're rooting around somewhere they don't want them to be.

Player Restoration

Much like the Timer Restoration, this may not be noticed immediately unless you're within an inch of your life. However, in a recent change, whenever you partake in an elimination, your Test Subject will regenerate a small amount of health and stamina. There's not much more I can add to this, as it's very surface-level simple, but be sure to keep it in mind if you're finishing a fight very low on stamina and wouldn't have what you need to escape.

So as of Patch 0.28.0 of Early Access, which also added Bernice and the new Death/Victory screens amongst many other quality of life changes and HUD updates, one of the most considerable additions are "Artificial Meteorites" that can drop from the sky into 3 of 5 areas during the course of the game. These areas are Alley, Temple, Factory, Pond and School.
After the first night (around 4 minutes and 40 seconds into the game), a meteor will drop in one of these areas, and another every 4 minutes afterwards for a total of 3. The areas they land in will change but the place they crash into will remain the same.


Once the meteor has landed in the spot, you can click on it to collect it like you would anything else. The time to collect takes as long as collecting Tree of Life, so be sure to keep that in mind.




Prior to this, the only way to obtain meteorite was to find it in supply drops or from Bears or Wolves. However, this makes certain items a lot more accessible, but as as a result - more widely contested. As with all other limited quantity items, these can be used to make powerful items, like the Hammer weapon: Evening Star.

But Take Caution...



This change is barely a day old at the time of writing, so I've yet to see anything player-orchestrated as a result, but it goes without saying that you shouldn't stand on or near the landing area - marked by a bright orange indicator on the ground - if you know that or hear the meteor is approaching, just don't stand there any longer, or, well...



A lot of new players are coming to Eternal Return because it's a MOBA and/or a battle royale to boot, as most of them do attract people of all competitive bends. As a result, many aren't coming to it from - the now recently re-branded - Immortal Soul: Black Survival and as a result, the root game of the series, so they tend to miss out on the lore and who/what these characters are, and where they came from, given the in-game bios aren't too helpful.
To cut a long story short, and so you won't have to read an entire page of background, I recommend you look here[blacksurvival.gamepedia.com] for any information you'd like to know.
While it's not frequently updated as much as the Korean counterpart, it still contains a lot of the information on characters that'll be eventually included up until Eternal Return's full release. This way, if there's yet to be a character you're fond of introduced in an Eternal Return character concept, you can take a look through the characters here and search for one to be excited for. There are more that aren't included on this particular site, so I encourage you to search through the Korean wiki for the original game if you'd like to see the more recent inclusions, such as Bianca, Chloe and Johann.
The website also includes any background you'd like to know on the world and how it all came to be, as well as some details on Aglaia and Lumia Island. I'd recommend you read up on the world and stuff, considering we very well will soon see many directors and other members of Aglaia make their way into Eternal Return.

This is where I'll be posting a couple of helpful resources for new players that'll provide information for a variety of things.

First off, the Eternal Return Wiki[eternalreturn.fandom.com] is the official wiki for ER:BS and while I've linked it throughout this guide and my Sua guide, I'll leave the link here for your benefit so that you can just get to the wiki's home page right away.

Click right here[support.playeternalreturn.com] if you're having issues and need to find your way to Nimble Neuron's customer support for ER:BS.

Be sure to check out and maybe install ER Lab[play.google.com], ER's official companion app that offers things like daily attendance rewards for events, OPGG integration for on-demand stats and plans, and access to streams broadcasting Eternal Return!

Dak is a third-party site that has recently started co-operating with Nimble Neuron to become ERBS's main external resource[dak.gg] . You can search your own game stats, make plans outside of the game and a bunch of other useful stuff. I used - and still do - it to check my past games and figure out mistake I made in previous games before they added in the replay feature. Just go to the website and pop your username in to find your stats!

Looking to play Lumia Island's Slasher Queen? Check out SaltyGrease's "Complete Jackie Guide". It provides well-written information and structured tips into everything you'll wanna know if you're interested in playing Jackie, who tends to be a fairly popular character. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2490433440
If you want to play Gweon Sua, the Black Survival series' premier best girl and adorable librarian, it so happens that I've written a guide you can find right here. It covers absolutely everything you'd wanna know, so maybe free up a whole lunch break if you're looking to read the whole thing.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2483468536

And with that, it's about the end of the guide and all I can reasonably advise anyone on before being too far out of my own knowledge zone.
However, I'll finish up with a couple of thank yous and suggestions for beginners.

Recomended Characters

Like any other MOBA, Black Survival: Eternal Return is mostly about picking a favourite and just rolling with them, as it'll motivate you more to have fun and maybe want to get better and better.
If you're coming from Black Survival, I urge you to try your favourite from the old game, it's very fun to see how everyone's been adapted. If they're not in yet, then hold tight, because the developers are adding them at a frightening rate of one every two weeks so far, so at this rate, we'll have everyone by next Summer.
However, for brand new players, here's a few recommendations for good, simple characters who'll help you ease into the game without too much difficulty. To clarify, these are recommendations for those coming to Eternal Return as their first MOBA and are brand new to the game as a whole.

• Aya: Aya is a simple character with straightforward abilities and gun masteries. Most of what she has is reactive, and only has one skill you need to aim, that allows you to move to readjust the aim after activating it. Getting used to the limited ammo system for guns is all you have to figure out, and once you do, it's universal between all gun users, so it'll help you later.
  
• Hyunwoo: Hyunwoo is a simple character with one goal: punch, and punch harder than the last one. His passive rewards him for longer fights by healing him upon dealing or receiving damage, and his abilities all make landing one or the other simple, as well as not being too complicated and rewarding new players for getting into the flow of quick brawls that may or may not end in deaths. He also has a very simple ability in First Attack, useful for both escaping and engaging.
  
• Chiara: While Chiara isn't as surface level simple as Magnus, with two of her skills being skillshots, and all of them being close ranged, she has a simple playstyle that revolves around her passive, and sticking onto your target. On top of that, she thrives in larger brawls using her ultimate to heal and deal un-mitigated true damage to a target she's applied her passive onto. Her only disadvantage is that she suffers greatly against targets with good crowd-control skills as well as healing reduction skills and items.
  
• Leon: Leon's a fairly simple character with only the stipulation of his pools to worry about, and his Duck Dive[eternalreturn.fandom.com] is all you have to really worry about hitting, since Surf's Up is a great deal easier to hit. Once you land them, you just beat them up with your normal attacks and weapon skill for some quick damage. His pools give you extra movement speed for escaping, alongside his Duck Dive for a simple escape tool. He's also a glove user like Hyunwoo, so if you try either out, you'll be carrying over some weapon routing knowledge between each.

I'd also like to suggest you find the Discord for Eternal Return: Black Survival. You can speak to the GMs about any concerns you're having and speak to other players there. Everyone is very nice and helpful, always looking to offer advice to new players.
On that, I'd like to say thank you to the GMs and Developers for always keeping us updated and answering all of our questions about the game.

I hope this guide helped you all somewhat, and please feel free to leave feedback, this is my first guide... ever.
Go out, have some fun, and,

• 21/01/21: Clarified wording in certain sections and added to some tips in routing.
  
• 28/02/21: Added "Miscellaneous Mechanics and Other Information" Section, including details about "hidden" mechanics and includes direction in finding lore surrounding the Black Survival Series.
  
• 03/03/21: Corrected facts regarding Elimination Bonuses.
  
• 18/03/21: Made additions to "Miscellaneous Mechanics and Other Information" Section regarding Patch 0.28.0's inclusion of Artificial Meteorites, such as their drop frequency and other mechanics surrounding them.
  
• 01/04/21: Updated images regarding certain items following the 0.29.0 patch's change to Healing Reduction.
  Updated the "Available Weapon Types" image, as well as information surrounding weapon types that were outdated.
  Expelled various forms of text goblins.
  
• 11/04/21: Made text formatting edits and fixed a few small information errors via wording or correcting typos.
  
• 27/05/21: Corrected formatting errors and adjusted images.
  
• 19/06/21: Added a new section detailing the recent "Body Reconstruction" mechanics for cooperative modes.
  
• 20/06/21: Fixed typos within the Body Reconstruction content section.
  
• 27/06/21: Correct terms for additional mastery categories.
  
• 01/10/21: (Precursor to S3 Guide Update) Updated information concerning Body Reconstruction changes as of Patch 0.42.0. Updated Reccomended Test Subjects.
  
• 02/10/21: Clarified some wording.
  
• 07/10/21: Updated information regarding Weapon Types as of Patch 0.42.0.
  
• 30/10/21: Updated some routing information. Images will be updated during later changes. (Wickeline & Alpha and Omega section additions, namely.)
  
• 15/12/21: Re-corrected Body Reconstruction content section, removing now-obsolete elements.
  
• 25/12/21: Merry Christmas! Added the "Resources & Other Guides" section, which will include links to other player guides as well as official and third-party resources for ER:BS.
  
• 26/06/23: Long overdue rework to this guide in the works; in the meantime, added new resources and added disclaimer.