Survival of at least one player is key and my preference is to stay on solid materials such as bloodstone and diamond blocks. This is the most crucial part of the entire game. From there you build out until the dragon spawns. Once you meet the dragon( distance varies from 3600 to 4000 or beyond), it is advisable to make your final base out of bloodstone or diamond blocks, as they are nearly indestructible to dragon fireballs. Then, once all your players have made it to the base, repeat the process, this time with your friends giving your teams ballsy badass cover fire until they make it too a safe height. Make sure your base is not too far above hell or you have defeated the purpose of suicide mode and should continue on with safe mode. That player should then proceed to make stone base WITH A ROOF! The roof part is crucial to limit the amount of zombies spawning inside your base. This stragety consists of one of your teammates running out into hell as far while the rest of the team gives cover fire(shooting directly at the suicide player usually works) as they can until they think they will die and then stacking up as fast as possible. There we make sure we are ready to take on the dragon. From there we dig to "miner's heaven" or "oreland" or whatever you call it.
Once my team and I feel comfortable, we restart the game(keeping our hard earned materials) and rush our way to the desert or until night falls, where we immediately dig straight into the earth and continue to gather extra resources. We build up at least 500 to 600 diamond bullets and at least two bloodstone weapons(of choice) and a bloodstone knife. I prefer to start off a game, no real goal in mind other than to get a fair amount of materials, using hell directly below the spawn tower as a way to farm diamonds and easy access to bloodstone.