Go Behind The Scenes Of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X's Toughest Challenges

This season has served up a slew of intense Immunity and Rewards challenges that have put the castaways on Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X to the test, mentally and physically.

Let's dive deeper into each Season 33 challenge and learn more about what makes each one so memorable.

Watch all-new episodes of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X on Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS and CBS All Access.

The final challenge of Season 33 was the same one fans saw at the end of Season 24 and Season 27, and featured traditional Kava bowls from Fiji that took the pyrotechnics department two weeks to construct.

Watch the castaways compete in "Operation Balance Build" in Episode 14, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

This challenge, which was named after a song by classic-rock legends The Who, required competing castaways to split their focus between keeping a ball from dropping and completing a block puzzle.

Each table had over 200 bolts for the balls to bounce between and each return chute took about 30 seconds to spit each ball out.

Watch the castaways compete in "Pinball Wizard" in Episode 13, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

This difficult challenge involved 300 meters of rope at a location known as Paradise Point during low tide.

The log crawl—which is hands down the grittiest element of the challenge—was made even harder when the crew wrapped each log up tight with rope.

Additionally, the final rope maze had double the amount of ins and outs, making that element the hardest it's ever been.

Watch the castaways compete in "Rope-A-Dope" in Episode 12, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

Taking place at a location known as the "Sand Pit," this challenge's snake puzzle resembles the one seen back in Survivor: Philippines (Season 25).

The crew had to reinforce the hand and foot binds after the team broke through them during the rehearsal. In case you were wondering, this course runs 30 meters long.

Watch the castaways compete in "Slither Me Timbers" in Episodes 10/11, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

Funnily enough, the "With A 10 Foot Pole" challenge the castaways competed in during this episode actually included 15-foot bamboo poles.

The idea for this challenge was conceptualized while the team was playing darts in the office. They also decided to make the balance beams thinner the further back they go. 

Watch the castaways compete in "With A 10 Foot Pole" in Episodes 10/11, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

This grueling challenge was first seen on Survivor: South Pacific (Season 23), where it ended in a win for Savaii tribe member Whitney Duncan.

The balance beam that the castaways stand on is known as the "Cramp Ramp," a name conceptualized by the crew's head grip Callum.

To add a new twist to this season's version of the challenge, the track was made a little thinner to test the group's balance even more.

Watch the castaways compete in "Bow Diddley" in Episode 9, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

This Individual Immunity Challenge, which was named after the classic Led Zeppelin song "Fool In The Rain," offers a twist on a former Survivor: Africa challenge called "When It Rains It Pours." For the latest edition of the challenge, paint was added to each water-filled bucket to make the release more vivid and dramatic for viewers.

Watch the castaways compete in "Fools In The Rain" in Episode 8, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

Before the castaways competed in "Bail Out," the crew made sure to weigh out each coconut individually. Then, each team was given the same amount of coconuts, which were all of equal weight, to compete with.

In order for each tribe to drop their flag, the castaways had to land approximately 40 coconuts in the net.

Watch the castaways compete in "Bail Out" in Episode 7, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

For this challenge, the crew decided to make the table-maze element a two-person job, which placed as much onus on the person calling as the person navigating the puzzle.

Also, the original plan was to have the castaways cut open the heavy bags with knifes, but that didn't result in enough action during playback, so stitching was added to each bag, which ensured they could be more easily untied from the top.

Watch the castaways compete in "It's In The Bag" in Episode 6, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

This challenge, named after a song by heavy metal icon Ronnie James Dio, was filmed at something called an atoll, which is a chain of islands formed from coral.

The buoys in this challenge got deeper as they moved further from the first pontoon, with the deepest at 10 feet and the shallowest at four.

Watch the castaways compete in "Holy Diver" in Episode 5, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

"Angry Chair" was executed in this season's fourth episode and was originally going to be a memory challenge, but when the game didn't pan out as expected, the crew quickly adapted by turning it into a retrieval system.

Exactly how high were the castaways pulled up in the air by their tribe mates? Seven meters. To help add traction in case of rainfall, sand was added below the chair to assist the pullers.

Watch the castaways compete in "Angry Chair" in Episode 4, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

Each bag of coconuts included in this challenge weighed 40 pounds and, originally, players were going to toss them at the puzzle; however, once the crew saw the force of the coconuts, they decided to stray from any potential danger and go with tossing sandbags instead.

All the rain that fell throughout the building of this challenge turned the landscape into a total mud pit.

Luckily, things dried up just in time for the shoot. ​

Watch the castaways compete in "Going Coconuts" in Episode 3, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

For "The Ocean," the nets the castaways were tasked with clinging onto were dropped to a 45-degree angle.

Following the rehearsal, the formation of the targets were changed to make it a bit harder for the competitors and more visually appealing for the viewers. 

The way the cameras were positioned for this particular challenge really showed off just how up-close-and-personal the crew was able to get.

Watch the castaways compete in "The Ocean" in Episode 2, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

All of the war clubs seen in Season 33's first Immunity Challenge were custom-made by Survivor's art department and perfectly placed at a location called The Beachfront.

Originally, this was intended to be a water challenge, but after Cyclone Winston forced production to push filming back a week and the tides no longer matched up, the challenge was moved to dry land.

One last thing: John Kirhoffer, Survivor's Supervising Producer, is a huge KISS fan, so he named the challenge after the glam-metal band's song, "Got To Choose." ​

Watch the castaways compete in "Got To Choose" in Episode 1, Season 33 of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X.

Watch all-new episodes of Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X on Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS and CBS All Access.