Summary
- Coal Thumper: Ensure a steady supply of coal early on with a Coal Thumper to avoid game over screens.
- Hothouses: Address hunger needs by utilizing Hothouses for food production to sustain the city.
- Steelworks: Prioritize building Steelworks for an almost limitless supply of steel for construction needs.
In strategy games, technology trees are often essential, guiding civilizations through various eras or just ensuring that the player stays ahead of the competition. It's not always an easy feat when greeted with a massive, sprawling list of connected technologies to know where to start, and sometimes players can be heading into the mid or even late game of a title without technologies that would've made their lives much easier.
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This is especially true in the case of complex city builders such as Frostpunk. Players will need a robust workforce and healthy stockpile of resources if they're to survive the (literal and metaphorical) storms ahead, and it's important to get a good order of technologies going early on. This building order is across the early technology tiers, so it's important to note that utilizing first the Workshop and then Drawing Board technologies will be necessary here.
4 Coal Thumper
A Solid Station For Producing Coal - Tier 0 technology
First things first: no coal means no warmth. No warmth means a really depressing game over-screen. Players need to ensure they have a healthy cycle of coal coming into their city and being utilized, and the Coal Thumper uses pressurized water to do just that. A maximum of 560 coal can be produced per day by this station, a great amount for early-mid game playthroughs. This is an especially useful station, becoming basically essential if players have passed Child Labor - Safe Jobs.
Having a law passed for child labor is one of the many things that makes Frostpunk such a dark game, but coal thumping is seen as a safe job that children can perform with little to no danger or risk of death. What this means in practice is a good influx of coal at minimal discontentment, with deaths typically not occurring to lower Hope further.
3 Hothouses
A Steady Supply Of Food For The City - Tier 1 Technology
So, the City is nice and cozy, a good stream of coal is filtering in from the brave and noble child laborers, and now the second most essential need can be addressed: hunger. Basic hunting posts will only sustain a settlement for so long, and Hothouses are a simple means of adding on to the hunters' quarry. Much like Coal Thumpers, children can be put to work in the Hothouses once the Child Labor - Safe Jobs law has been passed, making sure that grown workers are able to tackle more dangerous jobs and work towards more advanced parts of the City than simple resources.
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Frostpunk is a game where the weather directly impacts gameplay, and it's important that if a particularly harsh storm is cutting down on productivity, these low-tier resource producers will have created a stockpile of food to make sure the City doesn't begin to starve while the blizzard rages on.
2 Wall Drills
Infinite Wood In Solid Supply - Tier 1 Technology
Now that the citizens have a decent base of food and warmth, the construction of bigger and better things can begin. Bunkhouses might seem like a tempting upgrade to tents, but in the early stages of the game, they are incredibly expensive with no extra housing capacity for citizens when compared to tents. Before such things can be feasible, a Wall Drill should be constructed, the more efficient cousin to the Sawmill. Wood as a resource is a staple among many survival games, and that is no exception to Frostpunk where it is needed before any kind of major structures can be built, and typically, would be needed in a capacity far greater than what the starting reserves can offer.
Unlike Sawmills, Wall Drills dive deep into the ice of frozen forests, providing an infinite amount of wood once fully operational. This is a dangerous job, so unless players are willing to assign children to work in all fields - instead of just safe ones - adult workers will need to be utilized.
1 Steelworks
Almost Limitless Supply Of Steel - Tier 0 Technology
The most vital resource for the purposes of construction and upgrading into mid and late-game is steel. Like with a lot of steampunk titles, industrial production makes up a good deal of the aesthetic and mechanics of Frostpunk, and it's important that once the necessities are taken care of, steel becomes the next priority. The Steelworks in particular are a dangerous job for workers, but steel is an essential resource for construction and technology, and with Extended Shifts put into effect, a very solid amount of steel for the early game can be accrued.
Before wracking one's brain with the societal mechanics of Frostpunk 2, it's good to get a grasp of the more foundational technology mechanics in this game, with Steelworks being the start of a line of industrial buildings that will produce steel in greater and greater quantities for the city. Wood is more important only for the absolute early game, with the two resources being used in tandem for most mid and late-game constructions, and wood being easier and safer to accrue of the two means that, eventually, the player's focus should shift from maximizing wood accrual to keeping it at a steady baseline while steel takes point.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 86 /100 Critics Rec: 92%
- Released
- April 24, 2018
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Mild Sexual Themes, Mild Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- 11 Bit Studios
- Publisher(s)
- 11 Bit Studios
- Engine
- Liquid Engine
- Franchise
- Frostpunk
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- Genre(s)
- City Builder, Survival
