Play the puzzles that decide Survivor
Each game is rebuilt from a real challenge and linked to the episodes it aired in. The guides show you how to win it.
Try one right here. Get every tile home.
Tap a tile or use the arrow keys.
Players practice. The show noticed.
In 2023, Jeff Probst told Entertainment Weekly that producers had known for years that players were building copies of challenge puzzles at home. Carson Garrett from Survivor 44 had 3D printed a small version of one, and he solved it fast on the show. For Survivor 45, the show retired some of its classic puzzles and brought in new ones.
Old puzzles still come back, and new ones lean on the same skills. That is what these games train. Source
Challenges
- Slide puzzle
Seen in 19 episodes, from Thailand in 2002 to Survivor 48 in 2025.
- Word puzzle
Seen in 26 episodes, from Thailand in 2002 to Survivor 49 in 2025.
Next on the workbench: the block puzzle, where one big piece has to slide out of the frame.
Strategy
- How to solve a Survivor word puzzle
Read the frame, guess the theme, then build from the rare letters. A method for Survivor's letter-tile puzzles, worked out from the 14 real phrases castaways have had to spell.
- How to solve a Survivor slide puzzle
A step-by-step method that works on any slide puzzle, the two moves that finish every row, and what the castaways who won and lost at the puzzle can teach you.