Written By Annie S.
Survival campaigns come in lots of different flavors. Some are about the slow grind of exposure and scarcity, some are about crossing terrain that’s actively trying to kill you, and some are about realizing far too late that something terrible lives in the place you thought was empty.
This guide walks through ten of the harshest biomes a survival campaign might call for, what makes each survival genre tick, and a battlemap that captures it well.
1. Arctic / Tundra — Blue Dragon Lair (Ice Temple)
Arctic survival is all about exposure: frostbite, whiteouts, and the steady drain of cold-weather travel pushing a party to ration supplies and find shelter before nightfall, all while the terrain itself works against them.
There’s a melancholy to being stranded in the icy wilds, and the Ice Temple version of this Blue Dragon Lair captures it well, its broken pillars standing alone in the frost with no one left to explain what happened here. It’s exactly the kind of shelter a freezing party can’t afford to pass up, even knowing something hungry might be inside waiting for them.
2. Desert — Fallen Ancient Tree
Desert survival often boils down to water, shade, and distance. A party crossing open dunes under the sweltering sun must plan every stop with care, and any sign of previous travelers can double as both a landmark and a warning.
This Fallen Ancient Tree gives a traveling party exactly that kind of stop—its sprawling branches offering rare shade in an unforgiving landscape, while the scattered supplies suggest someone camped here first—but didn’t necessarily make it much further.
3. Jungle / Tropical — Cloud Forest Camp (Natural)
Jungle survival trades the obvious temperate dangers of other biomes for something different: a whole ecosystem working against you a little at a time—insects, poisonous plants, and foliage so dense that nothing can be seen or heard—until it’s too late.
This Cloud Forest Camp map leans into that oppressive, overgrown feeling perfectly, with mist curling low between the ferns and switchbacks that slip in and out of sight, never quite letting you see what’s just ahead.
This location also comes with an animated illustrated scene, perfect for easing your players into the mood of the jungle before the battlemaps start coming out.
4. Ocean — Open Ocean Pack
Ocean survival thrives on scale. The same vast, uncharted water that makes every direction feel like an adventure waiting to happen is also what leaves a party utterly exposed, with nothing but a creaking hull separating them from the deep, cold waves.
The Open Ocean pack meets the scale of nautical travel head-on, offering 84 modular battlemaps you can slot in and out as the voyage unfolds. Whether your party’s course is charted for volcanic islands, a pirate stronghold, or sunken ruins, there’s a map ready to match wherever the wind in their sails takes them.
5. Swamp / Bog — Battlefield Bridge Blockade (Swamp)
Swamp survival turns the ground itself into the enemy. Solid footing is never guaranteed, murky water hides whatever’s beneath it, and every step risks sinking deeper into the mire—all while the slow going makes it that much harder to outrun anything that’s decided to follow.
The swamp version of this Battlefield Bridge Blockade map leans right into that unease, with broken carts and debris caught in the algae hinting that whoever crossed through here didn’t make it through cleanly—or at all.
6. Wasteland — Jungle Lava Flow (Wasteland)
Wasteland survival is about scarcity above all else. Whether the land was blighted by war, magic, or catastrophe, there’s little left to forage, and less to shelter behind. Every choice about where to cross or camp carries tons of weight when the terrain offers no second chances.
The aptly named Wasteland version of this Jungle Lava Flow map leans fully into that emptiness—ash where there should be growth, scattered ruins the only evidence anything ever lived here, and its cracked, ashen ground offering nothing to eat and nowhere comfortable to stop.
7. Space / Planetary — Sulphur Planet
Sci-fi survival trades familiar wilderness threats for the wonder and dread of the truly unknown. A crash landing on an alien world means no guarantee the air is breathable, the water is safe to drink, or that the local life even recognizes you as something other than food.
This Sulphur Planet map doesn’t waste time being subtle about the danger. The wreck of a crashed pod and the half-dissolving creature slumped beside it tell you exactly how this world treats its visitors, with every discovery sure to only raise more questions about just how far from home the party has landed.
8. Volcanic / Badlands — Dragonlands Fort
Survival in scorched, volcanic lands forces a constant trade-off between two dangers: the open badlands outside, scorched and offering no cover, and whoever—or whatever—is already occupying the shelter available.
Carved into the mountainside and ringed by flowing lava, this Dragonlands Fort is the kind of foothold a bandit crew or smugglers might have claimed long before your party arrived, and exactly the kind your party might need to clear out, or bargain their way into, if they want somewhere safe to rest amidst the badlands.
9. Deep Cave / Underground — Mycelial Cave (Night)
Underground survival removes the one resource that most take for granted—light. Torches burn out, spells run dry, and once both run out, a party is left completely blind to whatever else is down there with them.
The night variant of this Mycelial Cave stands as a beacon in all that darkness, with walls covered in bioluminescent fungi bright enough to illuminate the entire cavern, growing thicker and brighter towards a massive glowing bloom at its heart. It might feel like a relief at first, but a party would do well to wonder what else might have been drawn here like moths to a flame.
10. Dungeon — Cavern of the Venom Queen
Dungeon survival often comes down to outlasting whatever’s had generations to adapt to the dark—and any party walking in is sure to find itself fighting on someone else’s home turf.
The Cavern of the Venom Queen map shows exactly what that looks like at an intimidating scale. Ordinary living quarters quickly give way to tunnels choked in swathes of webbing, unmistakable proof of a creature that’s long since made this place entirely its own.
Didn’t find what you were looking for?
These ten battlemaps only scratch the surface of the 12,000+ battlemaps and variants in the Czepeku Fantasy and Sci-Fi Map libraries. If none of these quite match the adventure you’re building, the search bar is organized by tags sorted by biome, terrain, weather, time, and environmental features—making it easy to dig up exactly what your campaign calls for.
We’ve also put together a guide to help you navigate the collection if you want a more thorough walkthrough of how to get the most out of the library.
👉 How to Find the Czepeku Map You Need
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