Quick Links

Frozenheim is chock-full of content to playthrough - and that content tailors to just about every kind of player. You have four lengthy campaigns, a fully-fledged Skirmish mode, online multiplayer, a relaxing City Builder mode, and Survival. That last one is pretty intense - and will put all of your skills to the test.

Related: Frozenheim - Beginner's Tips

Survival Mode is where you go when you want to challenge yourself. It is a constant battle against the clock, the world, and the invading hordes, and it is up to you to overcome it all. Well, for as long as you can if you turn on Endless. If you want to come out looking like a champ, you should know what you are getting yourself into.

What Is Survival Mode?

Frozenheim Survival setup screen

Survival is where you take a village from nothing, and build it up (maybe even expand) in preparation for waves of enemies to come crashing down. You have about half an hour to prepare, and once things get rolling, you better have your armies ready.

Starting Survival is as simple as going into the Singleplayer menu, going into Custom, and selecting Survival. From here, you can change a few options. You can alter your starting resources, how many waves you want to endure, how many units you start with, and the difficulty.

There are nine maps to choose from, but none of these is unique to Survival. If you have any experience playing Skirmish or City Builder, you will be off to a great start.

Scout Everything

Frozenheim Watchtower being claimed by Scouts

Scouting is by far the most important thing you can do in the early game - aside from building your village of course. You want to get a Scout up and running as soon as you can and have them explore the world. Start close to your base and slowly move out, making sure to map any potential weaknesses in your natural defences. For example, if you are surrounded by mountains, make a note of any pathways into your base.

Not only that, each map is littered with neutral interactables. These can be anything from Trader Caravans, Runestones, and free resources, to quests. You want to find as much as you can, and exploit it all to gain as much of an advantage as humanly possible.

Focus On Production Early

Frozenheim Fisherman's Hut next to a warehouse

Having a large army is great, but to get to that point, you need to have a solid production line. You need a reliable and effective method of obtaining every resource in the game. Food, Skins, and Wood are by far the most valuable. Food is needed to sustain a large population. Skins are needed to make Clothes and for trade. Wood is a limited resource that needs a solution.

Having powerful production facilities and layouts can drastically increase your effectiveness. For example, using Warehouses to circumvent having to travel to your Jarl’s House can exponentially increase the speed at which you harvest just about everything.

Related: Frozenheim - Combat Guide

Expand Your Territory

Frozenheim closeup view of an advance village

This is not always going to be a great idea as it can put strains on your defence, but expanding your “empire” can lead to huge gains in terms of resource gain. This is especially true for Wood, Stone, and Bog Iron. Whilst Scouting, keep an eye out for resource-rich locations that can be easily defended.

You will need to make sure these Outposts have either a standing army or plenty of defences like walls and towers. They are an expensive way to gain resources, but the trade-off - if you can maintain them - is immense.

Don’t Forget The Marketplace

Frozenheim Scouts visiting a Trader Caravan

Another way to fill any gaps in your production is with the Marketplace. You can trade excess resources for ones you are lacking in. This is an excellent way to get your hands on Wood, Stone, and Bog Iron.

Clothes - one of the easiest resources to make - can be traded very favourably. If you have a solid production line for Clothes, you essentially have infinite resources when using the Marketplace. You can also use Mead, which is harder to come by but is also very valuable.

Build Defensive Structures

Frozenheim: Blizzard Hitting Player Settlement

You want to keep your armies as healthy as possible. To this end, you want to have defensive structures take the brunt of the enemy's assault - or at least, provide some damage support. Placing defensive structures and walls in key choke points and entryways is a must.

Remember to use Gates to allow your troops an easy way to engage the enemy outside of your walls. Wells are also very handy, as they can help keep your buildings healthy and not on fire.

Pick The Right Clan

Frozenheim Axemen and Archers fighting Jarl Erlands troops near a bridge

There are four Clans in Frozeneheim, and you want to make sure you pick the right one for Survival. There are two that stand out here, and they are the Deer Clan and the Bear Clan.

Deer Clan

The Deer Clan are unrivalled when it comes to production. Their people use less food, they produce more resources, they have better deals at the Marketplace, and their population is happier than anyone else. Not only that, but the Deer Clan also have access to one of the strongest units in the entire game - the Housecarl.

Housecarls are incredibly tanky infantry units that specialise in killing other infantry units. Most enemies in Frozenheim are Infantry. Deer Clan is the easiest to get up and running, and they will do a standup job later in the game.

Bear Clan

The Bear Clan are the turtles of Frozeneheim. Their units and structures are harder to kill, they have multiple ways to make them even harder to kill than that, and they come with a unique unit - Trappers. Trappers are fantastic as they can lay traps which immobilise enemy units. If you place this outside of your base, but in range of your defences, you can decimate large hordes of enemies without much issue.

On top of that, they are unlikely to rebel due to their passive Discontentment reduction, they can produce massive armies cheaply due to not needing Wood or Steel later in the game, and their siege weapons are half price. All of this combined means you can have huge armies of powerful ranged units and defences all capable of taking more damage than anyone else and dealing back in droves.

Next: Frozenheim - Clan Breakdown