I recently completed Survivor difficulty, soon to start Survivor+ but having a bit of a break as I literally did it on normal then went straight to survivor. A few tips...
Dont use Shiv's for anything other than opening locked doors, ever! also, dont use the components that are required for Shiv's to make anything other than Shiv's!
On my survival play through, I accidentally used one shiv once, to defend myself against a clicker when getting through the section with Bill and Ellie. Though I did that section well, it did play on my mind about hving lost that one shiv.
I only ever just had about enough Shiv's to open a locked door I came too, and at the very end of the game, I was unable to open a door as I didnt have enough to make a Shiv.
So through the entire play through (except once in that cemetary section) I never used a single Shiv for a weapon, never used any of the components to make anything except a Shiv, did not make a single grenade, and my Shiv's were used on the SOLE purpose of opening locked doors, and I still didnt have enough of them to open all the locked doors!
Bricks and Bottles are your friend, they are the only item you get in abundance. Use them and use them ALOT, use to distract, use them to throw and stun an unsuspecting target then take them down, and pick them up and have it equipped in your HAND as the active item, if you get in trouble and have a bottle or brick in your hand, Joel will use it as a melee weapon which is far more effective than using his fists!. Melee weapons are also scarce, so even if you have one, use brick/bottle first unless you have to use more to survive.
In fact, dont USE anything other than as a last resort, so wont get much ammo and there will be times you need it. It does get easier as you progress, as more weapons mean you have more to fall back on. But I rarely ever had full ammo for any weapon I was carrying.
When facing Infected, your Bow is your friend. Guns attract too much attention, and alert all the infected - and on Survivor they are MEAN S.O.B.S - the things I saw infected doing on this difficulty astounded me, even when they know your there, they will hide behind posts and out of sight, and will pounce when you're not expecting it. I literally once waited for 5 minutes with my gun pointing at a pillar an infected was behind, but he just would not come out until my attention was focused elsewhere. Keep arrows for the times you cross infected, and always aim for the head, especially on clickers as one arrow to the body will not kill them. Always try to get your arrows back, this is totally random though, and there were times that if I got unlucky and used 3 arrows and they alll broke, I would restart and try again.
Dont worry about your health, even if you only have a tiny dot left, as if you should die when you are brought back to the last checkpoint you passed you always come back with about 25% health - even if you had less than that when you reached the checkpoint.
The only time I remember I had no choice but HAD to use a medikit, was getting past the sniper, as with only 25% health a single hit would kill me and there was one part I just could not get past where he would always hit me with that one shot.
Molotov's are very useful, though you wont have lots to use, I did use a fair few. But if I killed any less that 3 enemies with it, I considered it a waste. Play smart, particulary against infected, if your being pursued, shot them to slow them, a shot can knock them back, and a shot to the legs can slow them. Use this to get them gathered up, then molotov them.
The only part I got particulary stuck on, which I died many times trying and took me about an hour to pass, was the sewer section with Henry and Sam.
