There are hundreds of survival skills out there. You may be asking yourself, “What’s the next most important survival skill for me to learn?” If you’ve been a prepper for years or just a few months, there’s always a survival skill you can learn to master.
Prepper’s Base wants to help you prioritize your survival skills. We’ve come up with a list of the most important survival skills. Once you’ve learned all of the below listed survival skills, you will be well prepared to survive during a disaster or emergency.
Fire
First things first! You need to know how to make your own fire. Fire is absolutely essential because it gives you warmth, cooks your food, purifies your water, and even gives you psychological confidence. Master the following skills to enable you to fully utilize fire to your survival and advantage.
- Start a fire without a lighter
- Learn how to build and start a fire with just one match
- Understand the different fire starter kits and tools
- Learn how to build your own fire with flint/stone
- Know how to use a tomahawk axe so you can collect your own firewood
Water
Once you know how to build your own fire, water is the next most important necessity. You can only survive a few days without pure water. Dehydration is the most common health problem people face when bugging out for survival. Stay healthy and hydrated by learning the following:
- Purify water by properly boiling it
- Understand how to use a plastic bag to collect water from plants
- Know how to find water in a dry river bed
- Learn about how to make a solar still to distill salt water (especially if you live in a coastal area)
- Find out how to properly melt snow for water
Shelter
Now that you have fire and water, you need to know where to stay during a catastrophe. Shelter is required for survival because it gives you added warmth and protection from natural hazards. A well-built shelter will prevent you from getting hypothermia and heat exhaustion. Here are some skills you’ll need!
- Learn how to build your own debris shelter
- Teach yourself how to build your own lean-to shelter without using any tools
Check out our article on the best shelters to build in the woods for even more tips!
Food
If you don’t eat enough food, you will become mentally and physically exhausted. There are many methods that you can use to obtain food, and the more you know the better. Try to teach yourself these skills so you won’t have to worry about running out of sustenance:
- Understand how to maintain a proper food storage for you and your family
- Learn about foods that pack extra calories (such as olive oil)
- Teach yourself how to make your own fishing basket to catch your own fish
- Know how to make a snare trap for small animals
- Enroll in a firearms training course and learn how to hunt
- Teach yourself how to hunt with a knife
- Learn about and identify the edible animals and plants in your area
- Find out how you can grow your own food for survival
First Aid
When you are bugging out, you need to be prepared for the unexpected. First aid skills could potentially save you or a loved one’s life. The following are some of the most commonly used first-aid practices:
- Know the basics of keeping a wound clean and sterilized
- Find out how to sterilize equipment and tools with fire
- Learn how to set and immobilize broken bones
- Become CPR certified
- Teach yourself how to treat shock, hypothermia, and heat exhaustion
- Learn how you can use box breathing to help you maintain a positive mental state
- Become EMT certified
- Teach yourself how to mend your clothes and maintain clean hygiene
- Take a self-defense course and know how to defend yourself with a knife
Signaling
Last but not least, signaling skills will help you communicate during an emergency. Signaling can be especially important if you are stranded and are seeking help from outside sources. It’s better to know multiple ways to signal so you always have a back up.
- Buy a signalling mirror and know how to use it
- Teach yourself how you can build a signal fire
- Identify other ways you can stand out and signal for help
Which survival skill are you going to learn next? A good place to start is to look at our blog and see if we’ve written about skills you haven’t mastered quite yet. The internet is also a great source where you can find millions of videos, articles, and content on survival.
Good luck!