Tribe Switch

A Tribe Switch (also known as Tribe Shuffle or Tribe Swap) is the very first game-changing twist of Survivor. This twist sends members from one tribe to the rival tribe and vice versa.

About
The Tribe Switch is a twist can happen in a random point during a game and this reassignment of tribes will be effective until the tribes merge or a new opportunity to switch tribes shows up (e.g. a Mutiny or a second switch.) This is denoted by contestants wearing a newly supplied Buff that is colored according to their new tribe. They would then drop their old buff on the ground and start wearing the new one.

Normally it would send half of the tribe to the other when both tribes have equal number of tribe members (known as Tribe Swap), though it has changed over the course of the game. This also applies to season that has an Exile Island twist, where if the number of remaining contestants is odd, the odd-man-out will be sent to Exile Island, and would wait for a tribe to vote out a member, and be their replacement, thus having equal numbers.

A variant of the tribe switch, the Tribe Dissolve, where one or more tribes are vacated and don't exist after the switch. It either requires the entire tribe to be dismantled and its remaining members are spread into the remaining tribes (absorption) or requires that all remaining players, usually in four or three tribes, in the game are shuffled between two of four tribes. The other tribes that are not used in the shuffle ceases to exist.

Very rarely, a third tribe will be created when a tribe switch occurs. These tribes are called Post-Swap Tribes. So far only two seasons have seen this occur, Laos and Survivor: Revival. The Bimmaáhchiia and Devolvi tribes are so far the only post-swap tribes.

Survivor: Laos
The first time a tribe witch occurred was in Survivor: Laos, where the tribes were switched at eight people left. This also saw the formation of a post-swap tribe. The moderators of Survivor: Laos sorted out the new tribes.

Survivor: Cuba
The second time a tribe witch occurred was in Survivor: Cuba, where the tribes were switched at fourteen people left. The seven contestants on each tribe were to rate the tribe from 1 to 7 (1 being the "Most Valuable Player" and 7 being the "Least Valuable Player"). The person with the lowest average will choose three people to send to the rival tribe.

Survivor: Revival
The third time a tribe witch occurred was in Survivor: Revival at the final 15. Initially, this was supposed to be a mutiny, but because more than half of the Regreso tribe mutinied, a tribe switch occurred instead. Because this was a penalty, a post-swap tribe was created.

Tribe Dissolve
See Tribe Dissolve

Mutiny
See Mutiny