Permafrost Beginner Guide

Character setup: background, specialization and dog

A new game opens with three choices that shape your start. The background picks your starting outfit and a couple of snacks: Survivor, Smuggler or Hunter. Reviewers who played the full build found this choice mostly cosmetic, because it only changes a few starting items.

The specialization matters more, because each one adds +1 to three skills. Tracker boosts skinning, bows and knives, while Scavenger boosts lockpicking, sneaking and running. Marksman covers accuracy, firearms and bows, and Engineer covers running, axes and toughness.

Last, you choose your dog from five breeds: Shepherd, Border Collie, Golden Retriever, Husky or Rottweiler. The breed is your pick, but you still have to rescue the dog during the opening quests. Once it joins you, it carries items, sniffs out loot and warns you about threats.

Pick Story, Survival or Custom

If you host or play privately, you choose the world settings before you load in. Story mode eases hunger, rest and damage so you can focus on exploring, building and the plot. Survival is the full challenge, and Custom lets you adjust individual values.

For a first run, Story is the safer choice while you learn how the cold works. One reviewer who started on Story noted that the settings can be changed later if the game feels too easy. Custom was switched off temporarily during the October playtest, so check what is available in your build.

The first twenty minutes

You wake up with very little: casual clothes, a Makeshift Bandage and a Building Tool. Your Body Warmth starts falling right away, so the opening is a race to get tools and a fire. The tutorial quest A New Beginning walks you through it in this order.

1. Gather Stone from rock nodes and Wood from bushes, branches and wooden debris.
2. Craft a Stone Axe and a Stone Pickaxe by hand; no bench is needed for either.
3. Press B to open build mode and place a Campfire for 2 Stone.
4. Stand next to the fire until the Warmed status stops your Body Warmth from dropping.
5. Open the cabin door; a shiv can break simple locks.
6. Unlock Rope in the blueprint tree, then craft a Crude Bow and Wooden Arrows for hunting.

Fan data from the preview build lists the Stone Axe at 2 Stone and 4 Wood, so a single trip outside covers both tools. Wooden Arrows are cheap and can be picked up again after a shot. The bow becomes your main way to get meat for the next few hours.

The five survival meters

The bottom-left corner of the HUD tracks Body Warmth, Health, Hunger, Energy and Stamina. There is no separate thirst bar, so you never need to search for drinking water. A thermometer readout shows the temperature around you, and it drops sharply at night and in storms.

Body Warmth is the meter to watch most closely. When it runs out you get Hypothermia, which damages you based on how cold it is. Hunger and Energy fall more slowly, and Energy is restored by resting or sleeping in a bed.

Health also suffers from bleeding, infected wounds and Parasites, which you can catch from raw food. Carry a few bandages from the start and cook meat before you eat it. Status effects appear next to the meters, so check them whenever a bar starts dropping fast.

Reach Horizon and rescue your dog

After the cave, the main quest sends you to Horizon, a camp built by Robyn Cane on an isolated hill. It is the first real safe spot in the game, and Robyn teaches you the basics of heat, crafting and building. Here you also meet Mule, the travelling merchant who sells supplies.

The next quests teach cooking in Horizon's kitchen and then send you to the Bone Cave for the dog. You heal it with a bandage and raw meat, and from then on it follows you. The cave also holds a bear, so bring arrows and keep your distance.

Treat Horizon as your home base for the early game rather than a one-time tutorial stop. Between trips you can rest there, trade with Mule and plan the next outing. The official Steam post about the camp notes that Robyn and Mule both return later in the story, so the place stays relevant well after the opening hours.

Build your first base

The quest New Home asks you to set up a proper shelter. Build a Workbench for 10 Wood first, then place a foundation, walls, a doorway, a door and a floor or roof. A heat source inside walls and a roof keeps you far warmer than an open campfire. See the base building guide for the full set of building tiers.

Add a bed and claim it, because a claimed bed sets your home respawn point. A wooden chest lets you store loot so a death does not cost you everything. When you die, your backpack drops where you fell and you can go back for it.

The same quest moves you from stone to Flint tools, crafted at the Workbench. Flint tools can mine copper, coal and sulfur, which opens the next step of the crafting guide. After that, the Woods around Hunter's Glade are the natural next area for hunting.

Habits that keep new survivors alive

Most early deaths come from the cold, not from enemies. Playtesters and reviewers repeated the same advice again and again. These habits cover most of it.

• Always carry 2 Stone and some Wood so you can place an emergency campfire.
• Never sleep outside without heat; rest in a claimed bed instead.
• Stay out of blue Cold Zones until you have warm clothing and heaters.
• Cook meat before eating it to avoid Parasites.
• Save manually before risky trips; see how to save.
• Look for fast-travel points, which look like normal objects and are easy to walk past.

Controls worth learning early

These default keys were seen in playtest footage. Key rebinding was still limited in the playtest, so your build may differ. The journal on J is especially useful, because it holds quests, guides, the map and blueprints.