With our handy guide to staying warm, you’ll be able to beat the cold
Frostpunk, a frosty city-building game, is still going strong over two years after its release. The game pushes forward with regular updates and even console versions, like the town it portrays.
I don’t expect Frostpunk to disappear anytime soon, even though DLC support has ended. Board games have even been adapted from it!
FROSTPUNK tIPS and TRICKS
Here are our top Frostpunk tips to get you started:
- Gathering posts should be built
- Maintain a warm home
- Extra stuff should be scouted early and often
- All research workshops should be built
- Make alternative energy sources a priority
- Keep your population’s expectations in check
- Try new things and don’t be afraid to fail
Gathering Posts are worth it
My first few Frostpunk playthroughs didn’t involve gathering posts, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. When you can gather all the resources around you for free, why waste time and effort building this cruddy building with limited radius?
Here’s how it works. Resources will be spread around your generator at the beginning of the game. Take the example of a place where there are two coal piles and one wood pile.
There is life in coal and there is life in wood, so you want them both. You’ll need 45 of your most valuable employees on the job if you want to maximize output. That would be more than half of your 80-person workforce gone if you were to employ the first scenario.
Heat your homes
There is nothing wrong with having a post-apocalyptic health service worthy of Finland, but prevention is far better than treatment. A person in a hospital does not work a 24-hour shift in a mine.
The chances of getting sick are far greater for people living in freezing conditions. It could mean the difference between surviving the winter with a healthy population or a healthy graveyard if your health systems are swamped by frostbite casualties.
As a result, what doesn’t happen will be felt. No one can guarantee their health, but at least you won’t have runaway medical emergencies, which is the most important thing.
Scout early, Scout Often
We like free stuff, so let’s put it this way. Due to certain events I will not spoil, there’s a lot of it lying around these days in the frozen north due to a population deficit.
Alternative Energy is Good (in Frostpunk as well)
Whenever you gather resources, it’s tempting to be conservative. It makes no sense to change things if they are working well, right?
It is entirely possible for objectives to demand far more resources than you’ll ever require for yourself, especially late in games when you’ll often find yourself wanting more – especially coal mines and similar.
The menagerie of alternatives comes into play here. A wall drill is top of the list; if you can get one, build one. I would rather lose the steam core than have an unlimited supply of wood.
Other situations may require a more situational approach. Having a hard time deciding what to do with your manpower? Coal Thumpers are easy to build.
Two gathering posts beside it will ensure that a ridiculous amount of coal is gathered for you and that no idle hands will be needed. The Charcoal Kiln, however, is one thing I caution about. The problem is that it tends to hoover up all your wood while you’re distracted if you have too much wood.
Last But Not Least: Experiment
I find playing Frostpunk most rewarding when I’m given the same problem to solve any way I like, with the number of people alive at the end of each session being a measure of my success.
Frostpunk rewards you for finding new answers to old problems despite rote learning in any game. You can pull a lot more tricks in game than those mentioned above. Ultimately, it is the discovery of them for yourself that is the most satisfying. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
