Can You Survive Every Disaster Scenario? The Gauntlet

You've played one of our survive-the-scenario quizzes. Good. Now try ten in a row. The gauntlet is a rite of passage for Quizzy regulars. Here's the full lineup, ordered from approachable to genuinely brutal.

Tier 1: Natural Disaster Warm-Up

Survive an Earthquake

Our Survive Earthquake quiz starts the gauntlet. Key concepts: Drop-Cover-Hold On (the modern doctrine — NOT doorways), the "triangle of life" myth (debunked), aftershock windows, liquefaction zones, gas shutoffs. If you've done any California earthquake drill, you should be at 70%+.

Survive a Tsunami

The Survive a Tsunami Deep Dive goes into seismic wave physics, drawback as a warning sign, vertical evacuation vs horizontal, the 2004 Indian Ocean death toll lessons, the 2011 Tōhoku lessons. Survive if you reach 30m elevation or 3km inland, whichever is faster.

Survive a Wildfire

Our Survive a Wildfire quiz covers evacuation triggers, fire shelter use (last resort), clearing defensible space, wind-driven vs fuel-driven fires, and the deadly 2023 Maui fire lessons.

Tier 2: Survival in the Wild

Survive the Desert

Water is the only priority. Survive Desert quiz covers how much water you actually need (4+ liters/day), why you should travel at night, why drinking cactus water is a myth that kills, and how to make a solar still.

Survive the Arctic

Our Survive the Arctic quiz is about hypothermia thresholds, the Rule of Three (3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter in hostile weather, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food), vapor barriers, and why sweating kills you more than cold does directly.

Survive Bear Attack

Our Survive Bear Attack quiz: play dead for grizzly (defensive), fight back for black bear (predatory), pepper spray is more effective than firearms per studies. This is one of the most misunderstood scenarios.

Survive Shark Attack

Our Survive Shark Attack quiz covers the punch-the-gills strategy, staying grouped, leaving the water slowly and calmly, and the real statistics — fewer than 10 fatal shark attacks per year worldwide.

Most survival panic kills come from compounding decisions — leaving shelter too early, drinking the wrong water, pushing on past the point where you should have rested. Individual facts matter less than decision sequencing.

Tier 3: Historical Time Travel

Survive the Medieval Era

Our Survive Medieval quiz and Deep Dive are brutal. Plague vectors, child mortality, food security in a bad harvest year, why almost no one read. Our Survive History quiz generalizes this.

Survive the Trenches

WWI trenches. Conditions that killed more men than combat. Coming in Apr 21 from our existing queue.

Tier 4: The Extreme

Survive Space

Our Survive Space quiz is the hardest of the set. Re-entry angles, the vacuum exposure sequence (not instant death — 15 seconds to useful consciousness), radiation shielding, oxygen partial pressure, microgravity physiological issues.

Survive Nuclear

Our Survive Nuclear quiz covers shelter-in-place vs evacuation, fallout timeline, iodine tablet rationale, the Cold War duck-and-cover legacy, and why basement is better than attic.

Survive a Pandemic

Our Survive Pandemic quiz — built in the post-COVID era — covers non-pharmaceutical interventions, herd immunity math, why the 1918 flu killed young adults, and the WHO pandemic classification system.

Tier 5: Fiction Plus Logic

Survive Zombie Apocalypse

Our Survive Zombie quiz is a fun-with-logic exercise — the Max Brooks / Walking Dead mental playbook. Hoard canned goods, avoid urban centers, don't trust groups of more than 12, etc.

Survive Alien Invasion

Our Survive Alien Invasion quiz combines movie logic with actual survival principles.

Run the Full Gauntlet

Pick ten quizzes above. Play them in one sitting. Total your score out of 500. Post your number as a comment wherever you share this. Over 400? You're ready for an apocalypse. Under 250? Maybe buy a backpack.

The best entry point is usually Survive Earthquake — it's the most "real" and the most useful, so the information will stick. From there, pick the scenario that terrifies you most. Your curiosity will carry the learning.