Beasts of Bermuda is a multiplayer creature survival game from Sastrei Studios, in Steam Early Access since 21 December 2018. You pick a prehistoric animal, spawn onto a shared server with dozens of other players, and try to grow from a hatchling into an adult without starving, overheating, panicking or being eaten. The three play modes split the audience: Free Roam grows you slowly with forgiving resources, Life Cycle speeds growth but tightens survival and tracks monthly leaderboards, and Combat drops you in as an adult on a small map for straight fighting. What separates it from the other dinosaur survival games is the talent system, which spends points you earn as you grow across Power, Speed and Survival branches, so two Tyrannosaurus players can end up with completely different animals. Weather, tides and hurricanes are simulated rather than cosmetic, and stress from bad weather or the wrong neighbours will drain you faster than any predator.
Starting Beasts of Bermuda can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Beasts of Bermuda is a survival game built around Growth from hatchling to adult and Power, Speed and Survival talent branches. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tyrannosaurus rex | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Acrocanthosaurus | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Apatosaurus | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Parasaurolophus | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Mosasaurus | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Acrocanthosaurus. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Mosasaurus as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Growth from hatchling to adult
Growth is a number between 0 and 1 and it drives everything else. A creature spawned from the creature select screen starts at 0.4 growth with 10 talent points already banked. A creature hatched from an egg starts at 0.1 growth with no talent points at all, which is why hatchlings are so fragile and why players who want a fast session spawn in instead. Points unlock at fixed growth thresholds, so time in the world is the only real currency.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Growth from hatchling to adult works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Ancestral Plains
Historically the largest and most used map in the game, built around vast open grassland and a huge inland sea. Sightlines are long, so ambushes are rare and fights are decided by stamina and build rather than surprise.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Pounce and latch: it's the most accessible early upgrade. Small agile carnivores can leap onto a larger animal and stay attached, chewing while the target tries to shake them off. It is the only way a pack of light creatures reliably threatens a fully grown giant.
Step 4: Understand Power, Speed and Survival talent branches
Talent points go into three colour coded branches. Power is red and covers damage, bleed and other offensive output. Speed is green and covers sprint speed, jump height and general mobility. Survival is blue and covers health, healing rate and resistance. You can respec by dying, but you lose your growth doing it, so most players commit to a build early and live with it.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Rival Shores
Slightly smaller than Ancestral Plains and split into several large islands, each with its own biome. Temperate forest, desert, snowy tundra, dense jungle and tropical semi forest all sit within swimming distance of each other.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Growth from hatchling to adult
Growth is a number between 0 and 1 and it drives everything else. A creature spawned from the creature select screen starts at 0.4 growth with 10 talent points already banked. A creature hatched from an egg starts at 0.1 growth with no talent points at all, which is why hatchlings are so fragile and why players who want a fast session spawn in instead. Points unlock at fixed growth thresholds, so time in the world is the only real currency.
Power, Speed and Survival talent branches
Talent points go into three colour coded branches. Power is red and covers damage, bleed and other offensive output. Speed is green and covers sprint speed, jump height and general mobility. Survival is blue and covers health, healing rate and resistance. You can respec by dying, but you lose your growth doing it, so most players commit to a build early and live with it.
Comfort and stress
Stress is a survival stat alongside hunger and thirst, and it climbs when you are near the wrong company or caught in bad weather. Carnivores and herbivores stress each other on proximity, and carnivores are only comforted by their own species, so mixed groups quietly bleed each other dry. A stressed animal loses condition and regenerates poorly, which turns an even fight into a loss before anyone bites.
Nesting and inherited marks
Adults can nest and lay eggs, and other players hatch out of them at 0.1 growth. Inherits are extra points baked into a talent that act like a weaker version of a normal point, and they run from minus three to plus two. They come from the parents, from the conditions the nest was laid in, and from how you performed in a reincarnation trial, so a well made nest is worth queuing for.
Weather, tides and natural disasters
Storms, hurricanes, lightning and shifting tides run on the server rather than on your session, and they reshape where it is safe to stand. Apatosaurus is resistant to lightning and can hand weather resistance to its group through the Shelterer talent, which is the clearest example of the weather system driving group composition. Tides open and close shoreline routes, so an escape path that worked an hour ago may be underwater now.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Hatching from an egg on a first session, starting at 0
1 growth with zero talent points, and dying to the first thing that notices you.
2. Grouping herbivores and carnivores together for safety, which raises stress on both sides and cripples regeneration during the fight you were grouping to survive
3. Dumping all talent points into Power early, leaving a fast growing animal with no health, no healing and no way to disengage
4. Treating weather as scenery
Lightning, hurricanes and storms deal real damage and stress, and only some creatures resist them.
5. Chasing a wounded target into deep water as a land carnivore, or into shallow water as an aquatic one
Both mistakes end the same way.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Growth from hatchling to adult and Power, Speed and Survival talent branches
- Choose Acrocanthosaurus as starting build
- Clear Ancestral Plains main content
- Acquire Pounce and latch or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Rival Shores
- Spawning from the creature select screen puts you at 0.4 growth with 10 talent points. Hatching from an egg puts you at 0.1 with none. If you have ninety minutes rather than a weekend, spawn in.
- Stress is not a background stat. Carnivores and herbivores raise each other's stress just by being nearby, so a herbivore hiding next to a friendly carnivore is quietly ruining both of them.
Tips for New Players
- Spawning from the creature select screen puts you at 0.4 growth with 10 talent points. Hatching from an egg puts you at 0.1 with none. If you have ninety minutes rather than a weekend, spawn in.
- Stress is not a background stat. Carnivores and herbivores raise each other's stress just by being nearby, so a herbivore hiding next to a friendly carnivore is quietly ruining both of them.
- Carnivores are only comforted by their own species. A Tyrannosaurus and an Acrocanthosaurus standing together are not helping each other, whatever the chat says.
- Apatosaurus with the Shelterer talent hands weather resistance to its group. On a server that runs hurricanes, one grown Apatosaurus is worth more to a herd than three extra fighters.
- Inherits run from minus three to plus two. A badly laid nest can hand a hatchling a permanent penalty, so check who is nesting before you queue for an egg.
- Do not spend talent points the moment they unlock. Points are permanent for that life, and the build you want at 0.9 growth is rarely the build that felt right at 0.5.
- Life Cycle mode grows you faster but makes survival harder and feeds a monthly leaderboard. Free Roam grows slower with easier resources. Pick the mode that matches how often you can log in, not the one with the best rewards.
- Tides change which shoreline routes exist. Plan an escape route that is still there when the water level moves, or you will be cornered against your own map knowledge.
- Bleed does more work than raw bite damage over a long chase. Acrocanthosaurus players who trade blows instead of disengaging are throwing away the animal's whole design.
- Mosasaurus loses everything the moment it beaches itself. Never follow prey into water shallow enough to strand you, no matter how close the kill looks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Beasts of Bermuda finished?
No. It entered Steam Early Access on 21 December 2018 and Sastrei Studios has not announced a full release date. Updates have continued, with Carcharodontosaurus added as a playable creature in the March 2026 wiki update, so the roster is still growing.
How many talent points do I start with?
Ten, if you spawn from the creature select screen at 0.4 growth. Zero, if you hatch from an egg at 0.1 growth. Additional points unlock at fixed growth thresholds after that.
Which creature should a new player pick?
A herbivore such as Parasaurolophus. Foliage is everywhere, growth is quick, and the alarm call gives you a job in a herd while you are still learning where the tides and storms will catch you out.
What is the difference between the three modes?
Free Roam grows you slowly with easier resource management. Life Cycle grows you faster but makes survival harder and runs monthly leaderboards. Combat spawns you as an adult on smaller maps like Caldera and skips growth entirely.
How many maps are there?
Six are currently playable: Ancestral Plains, Rival Shores, Titania, Caldera, Forest Island and Volcano Bay. Bloodbath and Tropical Atoll have been decommissioned and no longer appear in server rotations.
More Beasts of Bermuda Guides
- Beasts of Bermuda Beasts of Bermuda Overview
- Beasts of Bermuda Best Builds
- Beasts of Bermuda Tier List
- Beasts of Bermuda Walkthrough
- Beasts of Bermuda Tips & Tricks
- Beasts of Bermuda Weapons Guide
- Beasts of Bermuda Combat Guide
- Beasts of Bermuda Boss Guide
- Beasts of Bermuda Maps & Locations
- Beasts of Bermuda Crafting Guide
- Beasts of Bermuda Classes & Characters
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- Rust Beginner's Guide: survival game with similar mechanics
- ARK: Survival Evolved Beginner's Guide: survival game with similar mechanics
