Frostpunk lets you play in different scenarios; you'll unlock them by playing and advancing in the game. Each scenario has its own background, storyline, and settings. For example, the first one you'll play through it's called "A New Home," in this one you'll lead a group of Londoners out of the city and into a new area where you'll have to guide them so they have a place to live, food to eat, coal to keep them warm, etc.

RELATED: Frostpunk: Essential Beginners Tips

In Frostpunk, this scenario has three different acts you'll have to get through; while the first two are survivable once you understand how the game works, the final one brings a catastrophic storm that will lower the temperature to -150 degrees! Here's everything you need to know to survive this final storm.

Updated September 6, 2021, by Miguel Amaro: Frostpunk fans can rejoice as a sequel for Frostpunk is on the way. While there isn't an official release date yet, the game developer, 11 Bit Studios, revealed a teaser trailer where it looks like Frostpunk 2 will still be centered around surviving, but this time using oil as the ultimate resource instead of wood, coal, and steel like they did in the previous game.

While you wait for this sequel to drop, you can scratch your Frostpunk itch by replaying the first game, and since the main storyline for that one is centered around surviving a final and brutal in-game event, this guide has been updated to include even more tips so your people can survive the Frostpunk storm.

How To Know When The Storm Is Coming

refugee groups in frostpunk

The final storm is an in-game event that will trigger sooner or later, depending on your actions. The timer for this event will start once your people find out about Winterhome by the dying man or by having your scouts discover that place earlier than day fifteen. This Frostpunk storm can come way early if you deal with the Londoners in less time than expected.

  • When scouting, don't rush into Winterhome unless you want to face the storm way earlier than it's meant to be.

Either way, you'll know that the Frostpunk storm is coming when refugee groups from the Frostland start arriving at your city; they'll warn your people about a coming storm; that should be your first sign that you need to start preparing.

How To Prepare For The Final Storm

prepare for the final storm from frostpunk

Preparing for the Frostpunk storm will make the difference between surviving or seeing all your people frozen to death. This final event will be the toughest you've faced so far. People will start to riot, discontent levels will rise (meaning that if you do get the cold temperatures under control, you can still lose by having the people throw you out of the city due to high discontent levels), so don't underestimate it.

Coal is pivotal for surviving

how to unlock coal thumpers

If you get to this stage of Frostpunk, you'll know just how important Coal is. After all, this material powers the generator, buildings' heaters, steam hubs, and any Automaton you have working. However, in the final storm, the temperature drops very, very low, so you'll need way more Coal than ever before.

To make sure you'll be able to gather all the Coal you'll need, send your scouts to investigate the coal mine and set an outpost there. This will get you 800 Coal every 24 hours. You can only have two outposts per city, so the other is up to you; you could set an outpost in:

  • Winterhome: provides you with 150 pieces of wood. This is especially useful in the endgame if you also have a Charcoal Kiln (which transforms wood into Coal).
  • The Fishing Village: provides 100 raw food every two hours (also very useful during the endgame)
  • Tesla City: provides Steam Cores (useful if you plan on making Automatons to work the buildings instead of sending your human workers)
  • Icebound Dreadnought: provides your city with 100 steel per day.

If you're running out of time, you could also use Coal thumpers or Coal mines to get more of this resource. Just make sure you also build Gathering Posts to make things easier for your workers and upgrade your resource depots to have enough coal storage.

The exact amount of Coal you'll need to survive will vary according to how much Coal your city consumes, but if you need a number, aim to have at least 7,000 units of Coal.

Don't forget about food

facing starvation in frostpunk

Once the Frostpunk storm hits and it starts getting colder, most of your food-making buildings won't be able to work. You have to prepare by stocking food rations; around 3,000 will work (of course, this number will vary according to the number of people you have living in your city).

  • Remember, it'll be useless to have a vast stock of raw food if you can't use a cookhouse to turn them into food rations, so make sure you are stocking up on the last ones instead.

Become a dictator

new order law in frostpunk

This idea might seem harsh; after all, your people have endured a lot to get here, the last thing they need is an authoritative dictator in charge. However, once you unlock the "New Order" or "New Faith" law in the Book of Laws by signing the Pledge of Loyalty, Forceful Persuasion, or Protector Of The Truth laws, you'll be able to introduce totalitarianism to the city. This will seal the hope bar, meaning you don't have to worry about doing things that will lower hope.

One of the first things you'll notice while playing Frostpunk is that everything you do will affect how your people perceive you, and you want them to see you as a reliable leader. However, the game will inevitably force you to make tough decisions, so not having to worry about hope lowering is undoubtedly a plus.

Research, research, and research

Technology Tree from frostpunk

You won't be able to get far in Frostpunk without researching new technologies in the Workplace. To survive the storm, you'll need to have researched:

  • Generator Power Upgrade III: This is the final upgrade for the generator.
  • Generator Range Upgrade III: extends the heat zone of the generator.
  • Advanced Heaters: raise the temperature in the buildings that have heaters.
  • Generator Safety Bypass: the generator's stress will rise 25 percent slower and fall 25 percent faster.
  • Houses
  • Infirmary

Consider making Automatons

automaton from frostpunk

These robots can work day and night and won't be affected by cold weather. However, Automatons will only have a 60 percent efficiency and will need Coal to function. Still, if you have enough Coal, using these machines to gather Coal from Gathering Posts is a good way of having this resource being gathered all day long.

  • If you research the Medical Automatons technology, these machines will be able to work at Medical Posts and Infirmaries, freeing up some workers and letting people stay at home when the storm finally hits. You can further improve medical automatons by researching the Medical Automaton Integration tech, which will make any robot working at medical buildings 20 percent more efficient.

If you plan to use these machines, you'll have to build a Workshop, have enough steam cores, wood, and steel, and research new technologies to increase their productivity.

Focus on people's health

healthcare protest in Frostpunk

Once the storm hits, there's not much you'll be able to do other than wait it out. However, since temperatures will drop down to -120 degrees, people will start to get sick and fast. To work around this problem, research health-related tech like:

  • Infirmary: Unlocks a new building that has a bigger capacity for patients. Here, sick people will be treated faster (compared to medical posts) and gravely ill people can be treated as well.
  • Infirmary Checklists: Will heal people 15 percent faster
  • Infirmary Mechanisation: Infirmaries will require fewer engineers to function
  • Healthcare Insulation I and II: health-related buildings like Medical Posts, Infirmaries, Houses of Healing, and Care Houses will be warmer.

There are also certain laws you can pass that will help you a lot when it comes to healing people. For example:

  • Overcrowding (Adaptation Law): This one doubles the number of people that can be treated in medical buildings
  • Medic Apprentices (Adaptation Law): Children will be able to work at medical facilities, increasing the building's productivity up to 20 percent
  • Organ Transplants (Adaptation Law): Your people will use dead bodies to help those who are sick. This means sick people will recover faster and they'll be a 20 percent increase in base medical efficiency

What To Do During The Storm

the final storm hits the city in Frostpunk

Once the Frostpunk storm hits, there's not much you can do besides trying to survive.

Get rid of unnecessary buildings

First, dismantle all the buildings that are now useless to get some of the materials back and free space if they are near the generator area of effect. Of course, this will also free up some workers in case you need them elsewhere. Freeing up workers means that they won't have to attend their workplaces, so they'll stay at home where it'll hopefully be warmer and won't risk getting sick or dying.

  • Buildings like the Workplace, food-production buildings outpost, etc will be worthless during the storm, so replace them with an infirmary or medical posts to take care of the sick.

This also includes steel-producing buildings since you won't be needing that resource as much during the endgame, and by not sending people to work there, you'll prevent them from being in freezing conditions.

Keep discontent under control

high discontent levels in frostpunk

Discontent will rise a lot during the Frostpunk storm, you'll have to keep it under safe levels, or people will riot and kill you, ending the game. So do everything in your power to lower discontent levels like signing new laws, using propaganda, ordering new patrols, etc.

Keep an eye on the generator

generator overdrive in frostpunk

During the Frostpunk storm, it is perfectly normal to put the generator into overdrive. While this will keep things warmer, it'll also increase the building's stress level. High stress levels will make the generator explode and end the game.

  • Using overdrive is a good idea since this setting won't consume any extra coal per hour.

To avoid this, make sure to regularly check your generator to make sure it hasn't reached its highest stress level so you can turn the overdrive off before it does. You can get away with letting the generator reach the highest stress level by using a child or a steam core to get it back to 75 percent stress. However, this will only work once, so use this opportunity wisely.

Forget about scouting

scouting in Frostpunk

Scouting at this point is rather useless since most places will be frozen by now, and all you're going to find are hopeless survivors. You can bring them to your city, but that means more people you'll have to provide shelter and food to.

NEXT: Frostpunk: Every Building That Needs Heat