In Frostpunk, you control the last city on Earth, built around a massive generator that provides heat to the surrounding buildings. Your task is to ensure the survival of your citizens by managing resources like coal, food, steel, and wood, while keeping the city’s temperature stable and citizens’ morale high.

Key Resources:

• Coal: Essential for powering the generator and keeping the city warm.
  
  
• Wood: Used for building structures and basic needs.
  
  
• Steel: Needed for upgrading and building advanced infrastructure.
  
  
• Food: Ensures your citizens stay fed.
  
  
• Healthcare Supplies: Used to treat the sick and injured.

Key Factors to Manage:

• Heat: Vital for the survival of your citizens, especially as the temperature drops.
  
  
• Hope:Represents your citizens' faith in your leadership. Low hope leads to rebellion and a city collapse.
  
  
• Discontent: Represents the dissatisfaction of your citizens. High discontent can lead to riots or a loss of control.

Core Mechanics:

• Heat Management: The generator at the center of your city is your most important asset. As temperatures drop, you'll need to upgrade the generator and set up steam hubs and heaters to keep buildings warm.
  
  
• Citizens' Needs: Your people will need food, shelter, and warmth. Manage these resources carefully to prevent discontent and ensure survival.
  
  
• Hope and Discontent: Your citizens' morale is crucial. If hope drops too low or discontent rises too high, you risk rebellion or even the collapse of the city.

Initial Setup:

• Establish Resource Gathering: Start by sending out scouts to explore the surrounding area. Look for resource piles, outposts, and potential new sites for expansion. Establish resource buildings like coal thumpers, hunter's huts, and workshops to gather essential materials.
  
  
• Plan Your City Layout: Space management is critical. Ensure that your city is organized to maximize the effectiveness of the steam hubs, medical posts, and resource gathering points. Keep heat sources close to the people who need them.

Survival Essentials:

• Build a Workshop: This is crucial for researching technologies that will improve your city’s efficiency and survival chances.
  
  
• Build Hunter’s Huts: Ensure a steady food supply by establishing hunter’s huts early on. You’ll need food to feed your citizens and maintain hope.
  
  
• Coal Management: Set up coal thumpers or coal mines to keep your generator running. Ensure that coal is gathered efficiently, as running out of fuel can lead to disaster.

Coal:

• Coal is Your Lifeline: Your main priority will be maintaining the generator, which requires constant coal supply. Set up coal thumpers and later coal mines to gather it efficiently.
  
  
• Coal Depots: Build depots to store the coal and keep your reserves high, ensuring you don’t run out during cold snaps.

Wood and Steel:

• Building Upgrades: Use wood and steel to construct houses, medical posts, steam hubs, and workshops. Upgrade these structures regularly to ensure maximum efficiency and survival.
  
  
• Steelworks: Research steelworks to produce better materials. It’s crucial for your city’s expansion and development.
  
  
• Resource Gathering Posts: Set up gathering posts near resource piles to maximize efficiency. These structures allow workers to collect resources more quickly, saving valuable time and reducing the distance traveled.

Food:

• Hunter’s Huts: Send hunters out to gather food from the wilderness. This will ensure a steady food supply early on.
  
  
• Cookhouses: Build cookhouses to turn raw food into rations. Later, consider setting up gathering posts near food sources to increase worker efficiency and food production.

Choosing the Right Laws:

• Laws are an essential part of your city’s survival. They allow you to make decisions that directly affect your citizens' lives, but each choice comes with moral costs.
  
  
• Child Labor: You can use children for labor, but this will lower hope and increase discontent. It’s a morally tough decision.
  
  
• Emergency Shifts: Allow workers to work longer hours, but this reduces health and morale. Use sparingly to avoid major issues.
  
  
• Healthcare Laws: Laws like Radical Treatment can save lives but negatively impact hope. Weigh the pros and cons carefully.

Moral Dilemmas:

• Sacrifice vs. Survival: Throughout the game, you will face tough decisions. Do you sacrifice resources to save more lives, or impose harsh laws to keep the city running?
  
  
• Balance Hope and Discontent: Always consider how your actions will affect the overall morale. Too much discontent leads to rebellion, while too little hope can make people lose faith in your leadership.

Healthcare:

• Build Medical Posts: Early in the game, establish medical posts and upgrade them to infirmaries. These are crucial for treating the sick and injured, especially during cold spells.
  
  
• Health and Wellbeing: Monitor the health of your citizens, especially during cold weather and after disasters. Provide adequate treatment to ensure your workforce stays functional.

Workforce Management:

• Assigning Workers: Assign workers to essential tasks like resource gathering, cooking, and medical posts. Ensure there are enough workers in each department without overburdening them.
  
  
• Engineers: Engineers are essential for more technical tasks, such as research, medical care, and advanced workshops.

Balancing Morale:

• Hope and Discontent: Hope can be maintained by fulfilling citizens’ needs like food, heating, and healthcare. Discontent rises when you make unpopular decisions or fail to meet basic needs.
  
  
• Careful Decision-Making: Keep citizens warm, fed, and healthy to maintain high hope levels and avoid rebellion.

Tech Tree Optimization:

• Research Upgrades: Prioritize upgrades that improve resource gathering, coal mining efficiency, medical facilities, and heating. Later in the game, look to automation and advanced city infrastructure.
  
  
• Key Technologies: Early upgrades should focus on generator range and coal mining improvements. Later, automate coal gathering and improve heating tech to cope with extreme cold.

Preparing for the Final Storm:

• Upgrade the Generator: As the temperature drops, the final storm will approach. Ensure your generator is fully upgraded to withstand the coldest temperatures.
  
  
• Stockpile Resources: Start stockpiling coal and food in preparation for the upcoming storms. Ensure your medical posts and food production are fully operational.

Dealing with Crises:

• Diseases: Epidemics can cripple your city. Invest in healthcare technologies and position medical posts efficiently to mitigate this threat.
  
  
• Food Shortages: If food runs low, consider rationing or stealing supplies from other cities.
  
  
• Rebellions: If discontent is too high, expect uprisings. You may need to suppress dissent using force or change your laws to regain control.

• Efficient Resource Management: Keep a close eye on coal, food, and medical supplies. Plan your economy early and adapt as the situation changes.
  
  
• City Layout: Organize your city to maximize heat coverage, especially in crucial areas like homes, medical posts, and workshops.
  
  
• Adaptability: Conditions will change rapidly. Be prepared to shift your strategies to accommodate new challenges, from changing temperatures to unexpected crises.

Multiple Endings:

• Based on your decisions, you can achieve different endings, such as a thriving city or one destroyed by moral collapse or rebellion.

Moral Choices:

• Every decision, whether ethical or ruthless, influences the game's outcome. Will you govern with compassion, or will you embrace tyranny to ensure survival?

Replayability:

• Frostpunk offers a high level of replayability due to the different scenarios, difficult choices, and survival strategies you can explore in each playthrough.

Frostpunk is a deeply challenging and morally complex survival game that requires careful resource management, strategic planning, and difficult decision-making. By balancing resources, making tough choices, and staying adaptive, you can lead your city through the frozen apocalypse. Every choice matters in this bleak world, and only the strongest (and most morally prepared) will survive. Good luck, and may your city thrive against the odds!