Frostpunk Complete Guide: Scenarios, Collecting And Managing Resources, Book Of Laws, Hope And Discontent, And More

Frostpunk is a game that is quite similar to the developers’ previous title This War of Mine in many ways. Just like that game, it’s about making some tough moral choices in order to survive. However, this time around, you’re in charge of managing an entire city and that means a lot of micromanagement and planning ahead if you want to emerge victorious. It also means that you’ll often be pushed to make some difficult choices that won’t sit right with you. To help you along this challenging ride, this guide is here with information about the different resources, scenarios, and more.

If you’re ready, then let’s get started!

GENERAL TIPS AND TRICKS

Keep Collecting Coal

Coal is such an important resource for your civilization as your entire city is powered by the stuff! You can get Coal either through Coal Thumpers, Coal Mines, and Coal Kilns. they each have their own advantages and drawbacks but a good start for beginners would be Coal Thumpers. Also, if you choose one method, just focus on that and ignore the other two. Apart from assigning workers to Coal Thumpers, ensure that you build gathering hubs. Also, build Storage Depots so that you can store any excess Coal to use in the future.

Get More People To Work And For Longer

While your workers will normally only work for 8 hours a day, there are ways you can change this. You can extend this time with laws such as the Extended Shift and we recommend using this law. Also, it will be beneficial to put children to work as it will give you some much needed extra labor. Yeah, it’s a cruel world out there…

Heat Is The Most Important Resource

It’s a cold world out there and many of your buildings will benefit from having some heat sources nearby. So make sure you plan carefully when constructing new buildings. Also, make sure you understand which buildings provide heat as these can be really helpful for your city if used correctly.

Make Sure You Research Insulation

Once you start building houses, make sure you research insulation as quickly as possible as this will allow your citizens to remain warm within their homes. It also helps you save power that you can make use of in other areas.

Make Use Of Automatons

Unlike people, Automatons are immune to the cold and this makes them great to work out in the cold. However, they require fuel to function properly so try and have them working near a Steam Hub as this will cut down the time taken for refueling.

Use Scouts Wisely

Research scout teams early on and increase their speed through workshops. Also, send as many as you can out as this is the only way to get more people and expand your colony, and this is crucial to ensuring that your city survives.

SCENARIOS GUIDE

As if the game wasn’t already difficult, it gets even tougher once you’re 20 days into the campaign and you can read below how to deal with these different scenarios. Micromanagement is crucial for both scenarios and make sure you don’t have any workers sitting by idly at any point in time.

Scenario No. 1: The Arks

With this scenario, you’re left only with a small group of workers so you’ll have to rely on mechanical spiders to keep structures known as The Arks warm. These buildings contain the last seeds of the world and which are necessary to protect so as to revitalize the earth once the harsh times are over.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind with this scenario.

Focus On Alternative Ways To Gather Resources: Since you have no worker class citizens, you’ll have to rely on other methods such as Hot Houses to get resources. Cookhouses and Food Laws will help you use your limited food supplies effectively. Also, you can use your automatons to gather resources and build things.
Research Steam Hubs And Heaters: Get the Heaters and Steam Grades upgrade so that you can ensure that The Arks’ temperatures don’t drop too low. You will need to keep the temperatures for these buildings at least at a level of “chilly”.
Keep Your Scouts Out For Longer: You might feel like calling back your scouts as early as possible but resist the urge until you reach the Last Dreadnought node on the map. This will let you save a lot of time since they don’t have to travel back each time.

Scenario No. 2: The Refugees

In this scenario, a bunch of refugees come into your city and your citizens aren’t too happy with the situation. This can cause a surge in discontentment and can also lead to a shortage of resources.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind with this scenario:

Try To Be More Efficient: People are going to get sick a lot and when your workers get sick, they won’t automatically be replaced. However, whenever some area is not working at maximum efficiency, you’ll see it marked with a less-than-full yellow bar. Look out for these and make sure you replace workers whenever necessary.
Use Heat Zones Wisely: Keep Medical Posts and Houses as close to the Generator as possible to provide some much needed warmth. On the other hand, workplaces already start with higher heat levels so you can have them a little farther out. Basically, make sure you strategically build things so that some buildings get the heat they require.
Sign A Purpose Law As Soon As You Can: With this scenario, the Purpose Law makes them available immediately. Since there are a lot of people to manage this time around, Purpose Laws help keep things from spiraling out of control.

FOOD GUIDE

Food is scarce in this game and that means you’ll have to plan carefully if you want your city to survive. You need to have a steady supply of food at all times or citizens will quickly grow discontent.

You can get food by building the structure known as Hunter’s Hut. This allows you to get a decent amount of food within a day. Another method to get food is to build Hot Houses but these get food only at a slower rate and also require Steam Cores. The advantage of Hot Houses however is that they can function during the day.

You’ll also have to process raw food into an edible form and for this you will have to build cookhouses. These can even be expanded with laws later on so as to make the process more efficient.

HOPE AND DISCONTENT

You will have to manage both a discontent bar and a hope bar and ensure that one doesn’t get too high and the other doesn’t get too low. Every decision you take will have an impact on these, so as always, be careful before doing anything in this game. There are a number of ways you can manage these two important attributes.

First off, you’ll have to ensure that there is a steady supply of food. Having enough food will increase citizens’ hope for the future. The same goes with citizens’ Medical needs, so you’ll have to construct Medical poles close to Heat sources and ensure that your people don’t get too sick.

The next thing you can do is to build structures that have the sole purpose of providing hope to people and these include Entertainment Houses and religious institutions like Churches. These will give your people Hope for the future.

There are various laws such as the Moonshine Law which can also contribute to your citizens’ hope, so make use of those. Finally, ensure that your Generator is safe and functional at all times as it is the core of your city. If it breaks down, then your city is doomed.

COLLECTING AND MANAGING RESOURCES

In this game, you will have to collect and manage resources efficiently to ensure survival. You will have to do everything you can to ensure your city survives and sometimes you can’t have everything, so you’ll have to make sacrifices.

Here are some details about all of the important resources in the game:

Wood: In the beginning, you’ll have to acquire wood from wooden crates. This is an important resource because you’ll need it to build any kind of structure. However, you’ll soon run out of wood crates and so you’ll need to build sawmills nearby frozen trees or Wall Drills near crater walls. Make sure you choose a place with a lot of trees when building a sawmill.
Coal: This is the most important resource without which your Generator cannot run. You can collect this resource from Coal Piles but these have a limit of around 500 coal. Coal can also be found in coal deposits, so you can build a coal mine next to it to collect the coal from these deposits. These deposits have really large amounts of coal, of usually about 100,000.
Food: As discussed earlier, food is a vital resource and you’ll have to build Hunter Huts to gather food. You can then process this food using cookhouses. You can also conduct research and build Hot Houses to generate more raw food in case you’re not able to get the required food from Hunter Huts.
Steel: You can acquire steel from wreckage or by smelting iron and it is a very valuable resource used both for construction and research.
Iron: There are Iron deposits you can find here and there and you should build a Steelworks nearby so as to smelt this iron into steel.
Steam Core: Steam Cores are rare and also very precious because it is used to power buildings such as the Hothouse and Coal Mine. You can find Steam Cores by sending out scout parties.

BUILDINGS GUIDE

There are a bunch of buildings you can find in the game and you can find below details about each of them according to different categories.

Buildings For Food

Hunter’s Hut: This provides decent food at a decent rate but it is raw food that has to later be processed so as to be edible. It provides 15 raw food per day and after an upgrade, it provides 20 food per day.
Cookhouse: This will allow you to turn raw food into edible food. 1 raw food can be converted into 2 edible food, so it’s naturally more efficient to have your food distributed in this way.
Hothouses: These can be built as an alternative to Hunter’s hut and they provide a steady supply of food although at a slower rate. These also require a Steam Core to work.

Buildings For Health

Care House: People who are faced with more advanced illnesses and those who are terminally ill are placed in Care Houses.
Medical Post: These are buildings that act as infirmaries and are used to treat those who fall sick, and sickness is a common occurrence in a city such as this one. Only five citizens can be treated at a time in this building, and they must be built next to a heat zone.

Buildings For Resources

Coal Mine: Build these next to coal deposits to gather coal. Also, be sure to build a gathering hub nearby to maximize efficiency.
Gathering Post: This is a building where all kinds of resources are collected.
Steelworks: These are used to get iron out of iron deposits and also to then smelt the iron into steel.
Wall Drill: Once you research these at the workshop, they can be used to collect wood from frozen trees.
Sawmill: These are constructed near frozen trees so as to collect wood. You’ll have to build these eventually once you run out of wooden crates to extract wood from.
Coal Thumper: These assist coal mines in extracting coal and help turn coal from coal deposits into a usable form.
Resource Depot: These are used to stockpile resource but each Depot can only collect one type of resource.

Buildings For Technology:

The Generator: This powers your city and also provides heat. It requires a steady supply of coal so as to be functional.
Beacon: These allow you to send out scout parties into the wild on expeditions. Other people can also find your city through the Beacon since it emits a glowing light.
Workshop: Allows you to conduct research so as to get any necessary upgrades. These are worth building early one so that you can build some useful structures and get the required upgrades as soon as possible.
Steam Hub: These require coal to function and create heat zones in the city. Many buildings will have to be built near such heat zones if they are to function properly.

Buildings For People

Bunkhouse: These provide shelter for up to to ten citizens. The main draw of these structures is that they are resistant to cold, but they still aren’t an ideal way to house your citizens.
Fighting Arena: This can be unlocked once the Law called ‘Fighting Arena’ is passed. This is a structure that is used to keep people entertained and thereby to keep their dissatisfaction low.
Public House: This is another entertainment building and they must be built in Heat Zones. It helps to keep discontent low.
Child Shelter: This is a structure where parents can send their children while they go off to work. This building must first be unlocked by passing the necessary law of the same name. Each such shelter can house up to 15 children.
Tent: This can be used to shelter people nut it is not resistant to the cold at all. Each tent can house up to ten people.
Snow Pit/Cemetery: At one point, you’ll have to choose how to bury the dead and you can opt to go either for Snow Pits or Cemeteries.

SCOUTING AND EXPEDITIONS GUIDE

You can send out scouting parties on various expeditions. You can find below details about these expeditions along with the rewards for each of these.

Lost Expedition: Finish this expedition to get 3 children, 10 engineers and 22 workers as survivors and you can also explore Gloomy Cave and Sturdy Shelter.
Gloomy Cave: Explore this region to get 4 children, 18 engineers and 11 workers as survivors. However be careful as this is a dangerous area and you might lose your scouts if they fail.
Sturdy Shelter: Explore this to get 102 food, 216 wood and 2 steam core. At the end you also unlock Steel Bridge.
Steel Bridge: Explore this to get 85 automaton or steel cores or 2 steam cores. You also discover Weather Station and Large Convoy.
Weather Station: Finish this expedition to unlock Winterhome and Coal Mine and get 91 coal and 1 steam core.
Winterhome: Explore this region to unlock the ‘We’re On Our Own’ order/faith. Also discover Snow Cliff and American Camp here.
Snow Cliff: Finish this expedition to get 98 rations, 61 wood and 1 steam core. Also unlock the regions Shrouded Cave and Freshwater Springs.
Freshwater Springs: Finish this expedition to save 7 children and 22 workers. Also discover Frozen Grove.
Shrouded Cave: Finish this expedition to save 34 children.
Frozen Grove: Finish this expedition to salvage 258 wood.
Large Convoy: Explore this area to get 18 engineers and 26 workers as survivors.
Coal Mine: Finish this to get an outpost along with 263 coal on completion and then 800 afterward daily. If you lose the outpost, you get 202 coal 208 wood and 2 steam cores. You can choose what to do with the outpost.
Crash Site: Finish this expedition to get 149 wood and 45 raw food. Also discover Observatory.
American Camp: Finish this to get 65 steel and 1 steam core. You also discover Temporary Settlement at the end.
Observatory: Complete this to get 4 children, 19 engineers and12 workers as survivors.
Temporary Settlement: Explore this settlement to get 216 wood or 1 steam core. Also unlock Fishing Village and Walled Colony.
Fishing Village: Finish this expedition and you get to keep it as an outpost and get 2 steam cores and food. Alternatively, you can pull it apart and take away 279 wood and 2 steam cores. Also discover Tesla City.
Walled Colony: Finish this expedition to get 7 children, 18 engineers and 36 workers as survivors.
Tesla City: Complete this expedition to make it an outpost and get 1 steam core daily. Your scouts are at risk on this mission however. Also unlock Dreadnought Landing at the end.
Dreadnought Landing: Complete this expedition to get 128 steel, 116 wood and 1 steam core. Also discover Research Station and Ice Corridor.
Ice Corridor: Discover Stepping Stone and Icebound Dreadnought.
Research Station: Complete it to get 72 steel, 140 wood and 2 steam cores. Also discover Cave hideout.
Cave Hideout: Finish this to get 35 workers as survivors. Also discover Frozen Pond and Wrecked Vehicle.
Frozen Pond: Nil.
Wrecked Vehicle: Nil.
Icebound Dreadnought: Finish the expedition to get 128 steel, 213 wood and 2 steam cores. Also discover Abandoned Sawmill.
Abandoned Sawmill: Explore this area to find Snow-Covered Supplies and 258 wood and unlock Stone Ship.
Snow-Covered Supplies: Find 53 raw food and discover ruined warehouse.
Stone Ship: Nil.
Ruined Warehouse: Finish this expedition to get 173 wood and 53 food.
Ice Crevasse: Finish this to save 12 workers and 7 children.
Deep Hollow: Finish this to save 11 workers and 7 children.
Snow Burrows: Finish this to save 12 workers and 7 children.
Camp Vulcan: Finish this to rescue 19 at-risk engineers.
Camp Compass: Finish this expedition to save 18 engineers.
Camp Meteor: Nil.
Jagged Rocks: Nil.
Ice Caves: Nil.
Fortified Hut: Nil.

THE FINAL STORM GUIDE

At the end of the main campaign, there will a final hurdle to get over and it can be brutal if you’re not well prepared. In the endgame, there will be a big storm, so you’ll have to keep resources stockpiled. You’ll have to make a lot of uncomfortable decisions so as to keep the city under check.

First of all, have at least 3000 rations of food stockpiled since your food production buildings will stop producing food. Also, dismantle these buildings that you don’t need anymore so that you can get the resources from them. The only resource you will need to continue gathering at this point is Coal, so make sure you have Automatons collecting Coal. These coal mines may even break down but make sure you don’t allow coal mines or generators to break down no matter what.

In the endgame, it’s going to get really really cold, so make sure Generator Power 3 and Capacity Overcharge unlocked as these are absolutely essential for survival. These are necessary to keep the heat levels up in the city. You will also need to build medical buildings near these heat zones as a lot of people will start falling sick. Some work buildings are heated, so use heat efficiently by turning down generator output during the day and turning it up during the night.

Finally, things are going to get difficult for your citizens as their discontent grows. You will have to take some harsh measures such as propaganda, military control, and more. You should also increase your Law/Faith orders to maximum so as to completely get rid of the Hope meter. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

BOOK OF LAWS GUIDE

There are a number of laws you can use in the city so as to help you manage it better. While some laws will cause discontent among people, you can try and balance this with certain other laws. You can find below details about all of the different laws you can enact in the game.

Public House: Allows you to construct the pub where people can go and drink and have their discontent at a low level.
Hard Work Rigor: This will allow you to extend work hours to about 14 hours, but it will naturally cause discontent to rise.
Organ Transplantation: This allows you to make use of the organs of the dead so as to help those who are in need of these organs.
Care House: This buildings is used to house terminally ill patients, and it’s a great way to shift people out of Medical Posts. However, this causes discontent among people, so use it carefully.
Emergency Shift: This will have to be toggled separately for the required building, and will extend the working hours to a full 24 hours a day. However, discontent will grow and workers can even die.
Dueling Law: This will allow you to enact a law where people can fight to the death so as to settle scores. People will suddenly die due to this but there will be a decrease in discontentment.
Fighting Arena: Allows you to build fighting arenas which people will view for entertainment, and it will help keep their discontent low.
Organic Fertilizer: You can make use of the dead bodies to fertilize soil in Hothouses. This will decrease Hope by a bit.
Soup: Allows you to make soup so as to save resources. This will decrease hope and increase discontentment. Additionally, you can add the Food Source Law which allows humans to be used for raw meat. Obviously, this will also lead to an increase in discontentment and a decrease in hope.
Corpse Disposal: Dead bodies can be stored outside of heat zones so as to reduce risk of disease. It will reduce hope a little bit. You can also choose to bury teh dead in cemeteries.
Child Labor; Safe Jobs: These allow you to employ children in safe jobs such as cooking. This will lead to hope being reduced.
Radical Treatment: This will lead to any measures being taken so as to cure the ill, and can lead to an increase in hope initially, but it can also lead to crippling some who are ill.
Medic/Engineering Helpers: This will teach children engineering and medicine and they will contribute to these fields. This will lead to an increase in efficiency.