Important Notes - Frostpunk

Important Notes for Frostpunk

Frostpunk is a punishing city-builder where every decision carries weight. This guide highlights critical warnings, permanent consequences, and often-overlooked details to prevent frustrating restarts. Read carefully before diving in.

Irreversible Choices

Laws and Purpose Trees: Almost all law decisions are permanent. Once you sign a law (e.g., Child Labor, Soup, Extended Shifts), you cannot undo it. The only exception is Faith vs. Order – you can switch between these two branches, but that costs considerable Hope and may trigger discontent. Plan your society’s direction early.

New Home’s Final Winter Storm: The storm cannot be stopped or delayed. Your only option is to prepare: stockpile coal, food, and ensure sufficient insulation. Any unfinished upgrades are lost forever if the storm hits.

Dispatcher’s and Captain’s Ending: In “A New Home,” the final choice of whether to accept or refuse the Londoners’ ultimatum locks you into one of two endings. This cannot be changed after the conversation.

Crossing the Line: If you sign the “Prison” law as Order or “New Faith” as Faith, you unlock a final upgrade (e.g., Propaganda Centre, Temple) but those decisions are permanent and affect the ending.

Missable Content

Scout Locations: Many points of interest (POIs) on the Frostland map appear only for a limited time. If you delay scouting, they may become snowed under or events expire. For example, the “Winterhome” location offers a massive resource cache but disappears after a certain number of days in “The Fall of Winterhome” scenario.

Events and Side Quests: Key story events (like the “Londoner” situation or Tesla City) trigger based on in-game days. Missing the dialogue window means you lose the opportunity to influence the outcome. Always pause and read event pop-ups.

Automaton Upgrades: The Automaton Proficiency tech is only available if you build a Factory and research it. If you skip this, you cannot automate later in the late game, significantly reducing efficiency.

Achievement-locked runs: Some achievements (e.g., “The Ironman”, “Survivor”) require playing on specific difficulty without reloading. Loading a save will invalidate them.

Difficulty Spikes & Traps

Day 1–3: The first three days are the most critical. New players often rush gathering posts and housing, forgetting to build a Coalmine or gather wood. Without a steady coal supply, the generator stops on Day 3, killing everyone.

Temperature Drop: Around Day 5–7, the temperature drops to -30°C or lower. If you haven’t researched heaters or insulated tents, your citizens will get sick en masse. Build at least a few Hunter’s Huts before this.

First Storm (A New Home): Around Day 15–20, a chilling windstorm hits. It lasts 3–4 days and drops temperature by up to 20°C. Without upgraded generator range or steam hubs, you’ll lose many to frostbite.

Londoner Event (A New Home): Mid-game, Hope drops drastically. If you fail to manage it (through promises, faith/order laws, or propaganda), you lose the city to exile. This is a soft-lock scenario.

Resource Scarcity (The Arks): In “The Arks,” you have limited time to research and deliver automatons. Failing to build enough scouts or research buildings by the deadline triggers failure.

Grinding Traps (Time Management)

Over-hunting: Sending extra workers to hunt doesn’t increase food output per hunter hut; each hut has a fixed capacity. Building too many huts early wastes wood and workforce. Stick to 1–2 huts per 30 people.

Over-producing coal: Excess coal is not wasted, but burning it for no reason is inefficient. Use the generator only at night or during cold hours. Also, remember to toggle overdrive – it increases fuel consumption hugely.

Scout Fatigue: Scouts travel a limited range per day. Sending them too far without an outpost or supply depot means they waste days returning. Plan scout routes to collect resources in a loop.

Research Overload: Prioritizing all techs equally is a trap. Focus on essential upgrades (e.g., Coal Mining, Heaters, Scout Speed) before luxury ones (e.g., Faster Hunter’s Gear).

Save Management Advice

Manual Saves Only (Hard Modes): On “Survival” difficulty, auto-saves are disabled. You must manually save before major decisions. The game only provides three save slots by default – use them wisely. Create a “Day X check” save before exploring a new Frostland location.

Never Overwrite a Save Mid-crisis: If your city is collapsing (e.g., generator failure, riots), do not overwrite your only save. Load an earlier save to try a different approach. Use separate slots for “Pre-storm” and “Exploration” milestones.

Exit Without Saving: The game saves automatically when you quit. To revert, you must load a previous manual save. Avoid saving during a bad event; instead, quit via Task Manager (Windows) to not save, but this may corrupt files. Better to have backup saves.

Scenario Saves: Each scenario (A New Home, The Arks, etc.) has its own set of saves. Mixing them can cause confusion. Label your saves descriptively (e.g., “Arks Day 15 – before delivering automatons”).

Common Regrets Players Wish They Knew

Child Labor is not mandatory: You can complete most scenarios without child labor. The game pushes it early, but using shelters for children keeps Hope high and avoids the “Child Labor” law that later angers people.

Generator Range vs. Steam Hubs: Many players max out generator range, which is inefficient. Steam Hubs are cheaper on coal and cover specific areas. Research and use them instead of expanding the generator’s range.

The Beacon is essential early: Build the Beacon on Day 1 or 2. Scouting for resources (especially wood and steam cores) is vital. Without it, you run out of materials by Day 30.

Faith vs. Order is contextual: Faith reduces the need for prisons and guards, better for pacifists. Order gives more control but increases discontent. Mixing both is impossible after committing.

Automation removes workforce issues: Late-game, you may have too many sick people. Building automatons for mines and factories reduces reliance on workers, especially during storms.

Thermal insulation stacking: The generator heat bonus applies only to the first ring of buildings. Buildings further away need their own insulation upgrades or Steam Hubs.

Respect the clock: The game runs in real-time with pause. Use pause constantly to read events, assign jobs, and plan builds. Rushing leads to oversight.

Final Warning

There is no undo button. Think twice before signing a law or upgrading a building that consumes rare resources (e.g., Steam Cores for factories). Once built, buildings cannot be sold back for resources.

On harder difficulties (Hard, Survival), the economy is unforgiving. Coal mines produce less, and wood is scarce. Always have at least two separate sources of coal (e.g., Coal Thumper + Coal Mine) to avoid shortages.

By keeping these notes in mind, you’ll avoid the most common pitfalls and prepare your city to outlast the frost.