Frostpunk is 11 bit studios' city-survival game where you lead the last city on Earth through a volcanic winter apocalypse. Building around a central steam generator, you manage heat, resources, workforce, and the moral direction of your society through a book of laws. The game forces genuinely difficult ethical decisions — child labor, 24-hour shifts, organ harvesting, and authoritarian control are all tools available when survival demands it. Five scenarios plus Endless Mode offer distinct challenges, from preserving seed vaults to managing refugees. The final storm in A New Home is one of gaming's most intense survival experiences.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best builds, equipment worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
generator management
The central generator heats your city in concentric rings. Upgrading its power level (1-4) increases heat range and output but consumes exponentially more coal. Overdrive pushes beyond safe limits, risking explosion but providing maximum heat during crises. Steam Hubs extend heat to outlying buildings. Every building placement decision revolves around heat zones.
hope and discontent system
Two meters track your society's morale. Hope drops when people die, go homeless, or face crises. Discontent rises from overwork, harsh laws, and unmet promises. If Hope hits zero, you're banished. If Discontent maxes out, you're overthrown. Laws, promises, and successful management maintain the balance. Making promises you can't keep is catastrophic.
law system
Two branches — Purpose (Order vs. Faith) and Adaptation — let you pass laws that permanently change your city. Adaptation laws include Child Labor, Extended Shifts, and Soup (food stretching). Purpose laws lead to either authoritarian Order (propaganda, prisons) or theocratic Faith (temples, shrines). Both paths have increasingly extreme options.
scouting
Scouts explore the Frostland map, discovering resources, survivors, and story events. Each scout team takes real game-time to travel between locations. Finding resources and survivors through scouting is essential — your starting population and resources aren't enough to survive alone.
temperature mechanics
Temperature drops throughout each scenario, from -20C to -150C during the final storm. Buildings have insulation levels, and people in unheated buildings get sick, then gravely ill, then die. Workplace heat, housing insulation, and medical capacity must all scale with dropping temperatures.
Builds Overview
| Build | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order path | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Faith path | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Adaptation focus | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Exploration focus | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Automation focus | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our Frostpunk builds guide.
Equipment Guide
| Equipment | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Hub | Extends your generator's heat zone to outlying buildings. | City expansion, workplace heating, all scenarios |
| Generator upgrades | Strong option for most content. | Multiple builds |
| Automatons | Robotic workers built at the Factory that replace human labor entirely. | Automation builds, late-game optimization, Coal/Steel production |
| Hunter's Huts | The primary food source early-game, sending hunters out during the night to return with raw food by morning. | Early game food production, A New Home scenario |
| Coal Mines | Advanced coal production buildings that generate far more coal than Coal Thumpers or Gathering Posts. | Mid to late game coal production, storm preparation |
Steam Hub: Extends your generator's heat zone to outlying buildings. Each Steam Hub heats a small radius, letting you build workplaces and housing outside the generator's direct range. Essential for expanding your city beyond the initial ring. Costs coal to operate.
Automatons: Robotic workers built at the Factory that replace human labor entirely. They work 24 hours without food, housing, or heat. The initial research cost is high but each Automaton replaces 10-15 workers. Late-game cities can run on Automatons while citizens stay home.
Hunter's Huts: The primary food source early-game, sending hunters out during the night to return with raw food by morning. Upgraded to Hunter's Gear for +30% production. More reliable than Hothouses early on but requires available workforce during night shifts.
Coal Mines: Advanced coal production buildings that generate far more coal than Coal Thumpers or Gathering Posts. Steam Coal Mines are the final upgrade. Coal is the single most important resource — running out means the generator stops and everyone freezes.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| New London (A New Home) | Tutorial/Main scenario | Full mechanics tutorial, complete story arc, most replayable scenario |
| The Arks | Second scenario | Automaton mastery, efficiency-focused gameplay, unique story |
| The Refugees | Third scenario | Population management skills, moral dilemma focus, faction dynamics |
| The Fall of Winterhome | Fourth scenario | City rebuilding skills, time pressure experience, lore reveals |
| On the Edge | DLC content | Trade mechanics, political storyline, advanced resource management |
New London (A New Home): The main scenario and tutorial campaign. You lead 80 survivors building around a generator with the Great Storm approaching on Day 44. The difficulty curve teaches all mechanics gradually. The final storm sequence is the game's iconic moment.
The Arks: A scenario focused on preserving seed vaults (Arks) with only a small workforce and Automatons. No new survivors arrive, making Automaton research essential. A unique puzzle-like challenge about efficiency rather than growth.
The Refugees: A crisis scenario where waves of refugees arrive at your city, straining resources. Managing the tension between existing citizens and newcomers drives the law system choices. Features the most difficult discontent management.
The Fall of Winterhome: A prequel scenario where you take over a failing city with a damaged generator. You must repair and reorganize an existing (poorly built) city rather than starting fresh. The generator will eventually explode — evacuation is the real goal.
On the Edge: DLC scenario set after the Great Storm where your outpost depends on trade with New London. Political tensions between your settlement and the main city drive the narrative. Features the most complex supply chain management.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Build roads only where necessary — they cost wood and take up space that could hold buildings within heat zones
- Emergency Shift on Day 1 at the Workshop gives you an immediate research boost that compounds throughout the game
- Gathering Posts collect from all resource piles in their radius — one well-placed Post replaces several individual gatherers
- Soup law (reducing food quality for 40% more rations) is almost always worth the discontent spike early game
- The final storm drops to -150C — stockpile 5000+ coal, 3000+ food, and have the generator at Level 4 before Day 40
- Sick people can still work in Medical Posts with the Overcrowding law — this keeps your economy running during health crises
- Scout toward Tesla City and Winterhome first in A New Home — they provide the most valuable resources and survivors
- Build 2 Workshops early for parallel research; add a third by mid-game to reach critical technologies before temperature drops
- Child Shelters (instead of Child Labor) give a hope bonus and eventual engineering/medical apprentices — better long-term
- Dismantle Gathering Posts once you transition to Sawmills and Coal Mines — reclaim the workers for better jobs
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Building outside the generator's heat zone without Steam Hubs — unheated workers get sick and die rapidly.
- Not researching the Beacon early enough — scouts are your primary source of extra resources and population.
- Signing extreme laws (New Order/New Faith final tier) too early, triggering massive Hope penalties.
- Ignoring coal reserves until it's too late — the generator stopping for even a few hours causes cascading deaths.
- Overextending the city before securing stable food and coal production fundamentals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Frostpunk a city builder or survival game?
Both. You build a city but the focus is surviving increasingly harsh conditions rather than expanding infinitely. Every building decision is a survival calculation.
How many scenarios are there?
Five main scenarios (A New Home, The Arks, The Refugees, Fall of Winterhome, On the Edge) plus Endless Mode with multiple maps. Each scenario has unique mechanics and win conditions.
Is there a right moral choice?
The game deliberately avoids clear right/wrong answers. Child labor saves lives. Soup stretches food. Faith or Order both have costs. The game evaluates your ending but doesn't moralize individual choices.
How hard is the game?
The first scenario on Normal is approachable but challenging. Hard and Extreme difficulties require precise optimization. The Fall of Winterhome is widely considered the hardest scenario.
Should I play Frostpunk 1 or 2?
Frostpunk 1 is a tighter, more focused experience with perfected scenarios. Frostpunk 2 expands the scale to districts and politics. Start with 1 for the definitive experience.
What to Read Next
- Best Frostpunk Builds — Detailed breakdowns with gear, stats, and playstyle guides
- Frostpunk Tier List — Current meta rankings
- Frostpunk Walkthrough — Step-by-step progression from start to endgame
- Frostpunk Beginner's Guide — First session essentials
- Frostpunk Tips & Tricks — Advanced strategies and hidden mechanics
