Frostpunk beginner guide: staffing, coal, food and research

Edition: Original Frostpunk PC Steam base game (app 323190), A New Home on standard Medium. Frostpunk 2, Frostpunk 1886, Endless, other scenarios and DLC-specific rules are outside scope.

Verification scope: Public sources checked on 2026-10-04, including official Patch 1.6.2 (2022-10-11) and Achievements & Localization Quality Hotfix (2025-10-20). Announced 2026 features for 1886 are excluded. In-game behavior and the distributed build number are untested.

Sources checked: 2026-10-04

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Start by moving workers and watching the display

The baseline is ordinary Medium. Do not count the entire starting population as workers; distinguish workers, engineers and children.

Pause. Check unemployed workers, engineers and sick people through the population display at the bottom.
Select Wood Crates, Steel Wreckage or Coal Piles. Assign available people in the staffing panel; this is not an order to move each citizen individually.
To transfer staff, reduce assignments at the original pile or facility, then select the new workplace and assign the freed people. Recheck the original workplace afterward.
Place the needed building from Construction and connect it to an existing road leading to the Generator. Distinguish a blueprint from a finished facility.
Advance time and inspect efficiency, work status and resources as well as staff count. Reassign people when a resource pile is exhausted.

Workshops and early Medical Posts use engineers. Reserve places for healthcare and research before assigning every engineer to ordinary gathering.

Diagnose a stopped facility in order

Do not treat every case of no production after construction as the same problem.

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Diagnose a stopped facility in order: 8 entries
Symptom	Display to inspect first	Required staffing or connection	Action
No road connection	Facility warning	A completed road must join the existing network.	Repair unfinished segments or disconnected ends.
Zero assigned staff	Required occupation and unemployed count	The required worker type must be available.	Remove people from another gathering job and assign them here.
Staffed but inefficient	Absences, illness and operating state	Available workers and treatment capacity	Check empty beds and engineers on the healthcare side rather than ignoring illness.
Research or sawmilling stops at night.	Facility working hours	Ordinary daytime shifts are off duty.	Do not assume a fault; prepare workers and materials for the next shift.
Cooking or treatment stops from cold.	Facility temperature tier	Cookhouse and Medical Post require at least Chilly.	Check heat-source operation, coverage and Heater in order.
A Gathering Post gathers nothing.	Resources left in piles within range	Staff assigned to the Gathering Post itself	Move staff if piles are exhausted; check for new nearby piles.
A production facility reports full capacity.	City storage limit and ground piles	Production, collection and storage are separate.	Adjust storage if city capacity is full; add collectors if a Thumper pile is full.
Construction does not finish.	Building progress and road completion	Citizens available for construction and road access	Wait for the next essential building before expanding a large construction queue.

Resolve the individual shutdown reason, advance time and check that the warning clears. Maximum staffing does not fix off-hours operation or depleted resources.

Separate obtaining, processing and storing each resource

Representative A New Home facilities are listed below. Staffing capacities are ordinary basic human slots, excluding special law, research and Automaton arrangements.

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Separate obtaining, processing and storing each resource: 11 entries
Resource or facility	Production prerequisite	Staffing and operation	Exception
Starting Coal Piles, Wood Crates and Steel Wreckage	Finite ground resources remain.	Assign directly to a pile or a Gathering Post in range.	The same person cannot staff both pile and post.
Gathering Post	Build for 15 Wood and 5 Steel with piles in range.	Workers or engineers; basic capacity 10	It does not fell trees. After initial piles run out, it can still collect Thumper piles.
Coal Thumper	Research and construction; no dedicated deposit slot required	Basic capacity 10; separate people collect the produced pile.	The standard model is described as matching two Gathering Posts. Compare actual shifts, research and efficiency on both sides.
Coal Mine	Coal Mining research, designated deposit and one Steam Core	Basic capacity 10; production enters city stocks.	Unlike a Thumper, it needs no accompanying Gathering Post for collection.
Wood: Sawmill	Research it, then build with frozen trees in range.	Basic capacity 10; consumes trees in range.	Separate from collecting crates. Prepare a new source before the trees run out.
Wood: Wall Drill	Required research, designated ice-wall site and Steam Cores	Staff and operate after construction.	It does not use the nearby-tree check of a Sawmill.
Steel: Steelworks	Research it, then use a designated iron deposit site.	Extend roads and staff after completion.	Waiting until initial wreckage runs out before researching delays the transition.
Raw Food: Hunters' Hut	Available to build from the start	Assign workers; food arrives when hunters return.	Night hunting and post-return rest differ from hourly daytime production.
Food Rations: Cookhouse	Raw Food, roads, operating temperature and working hours	Basic capacity 5; standard meals turn 2 Raw Food into 4 Food Rations.	More Cookhouses cannot produce food if Raw Food is zero.
Storage: Resource Depot	Specify the resource after construction.	No staff needed; increases capacity.	Building storage does not create resources.
Steam Core	Obtained mainly through exploration outside the city	Used for certain buildings and manufactured machines	Not a resource manufactured in a Workshop like Wood or Steel

Daily output varies with difficulty, sick absences, research and shifts. Filling these staff slots alone does not reproduce a video's stockpile.

For coal, ask whether it lasts until the next shift

Open coal production and consumption in Economy. Heating still consumes coal at night while gathering is stopped.

Check which supply facilities are working now. Coal piled beside a Thumper is not available stock until collected.
Inspect the Generator, Steam Hubs and Heaters on the consumption side. Recheck consumption after changing power or range.
For example, an unupgraded Generator at power 1 and range 1 for 24 hours uses 6 × 24 = 144 coal. This basic example excludes Hubs and Heaters.
If night consumption exhausts stocks, improve daytime collection or review overlapping unnecessary heat sources and workplace Hub schedules. Do not switch off all housing and medical heating together.

Multiplying current hourly consumption by 24 works only if settings and active facilities remain unchanged for all 24 hours. Divide days with scheduled Hubs or completed research into intervals.

Control heating coverage, strength and time separately

Hover over a facility's temperature to read its heat contributions. Choosing one cold facility before making changes helps isolate the cause.

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Control heating coverage, strength and time separately: 5 entries
Inspection target	Controls	Display that changes	Caution
Generator	Secure coal and enable the power setting.	Heat zone and coal consumption	Completing power research alone does not replace checking the actual setting.
Workplaces outside the zone	Build a researched Steam Hub on a road.	Facilities reached by the heat zone	Overlap with the Generator or another Hub does not double heat.
One cold building	After researching Heaters, enable that workplace's Heater.	Facility temperature and coal consumption	For homes, consider housing upgrades or heat zones rather than searching for the same Heater control.
Housing and healthcare at night	Inspect the responsible Hub's schedule.	Does the zone remain active overnight?	Do not copy daytime workplace schedules onto homes or round-the-clock healthcare.
A temporary cold spell	Watch stress if using Generator Overdrive.	Heat and stress	It costs no extra coal but cannot run indefinitely. Decide when to switch it off.

Chilly is the minimum for medical and cooking operation, not a guarantee against illness. Warm homes alone do not solve continued exposure at cold workplaces.

Bridge the gap between researched and operational

A Workshop costs 15 Wood and 5 Steel, with a basic capacity of five engineers. Check research selection, resource payment and active research speed separately.

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Bridge the gap between researched and operational: 5 entries
Goal	Prerequisite	Action after research	If it stops
Explore outside the city	Research Beacon in a working Workshop.	Build the Beacon, then create scouts with 40 Wood and five unemployed workers.	Research, building and team creation are separate costs.
Move beyond starting resources	Choose Sawmill, Steelworks or coal research according to remaining stocks.	Build at a valid resource site and add roads and workers.	Unlocking a building does not transfer old assignments automatically.
Select research below the first tier	Required research tier and connected prerequisite technologies	After unlocking the tier, research the intended technology too.	Do not mistake unlocking a tier for completing its building research.
Speed up research	Secure additional engineers and operating hours.	Staff Workshops without emptying healthcare.	Full Workshops give 100% for one, 130% for two and 150% for three. Building count does not simply multiply speed.
Treat more gravely ill people	Infirmary research, materials, Steam Cores and engineers	Build and staff the Infirmary, then check temperature and beds.	Treatment cannot proceed with every engineer left on research.

Those research rates compare fully staffed Workshops operating together. Assigning just one engineer to each of several buildings does not produce the rate of several fully staffed Workshops: the same total number of engineers is still doing the work.

Check upstream causes of food and patient backlogs

Hunger and illness can expose problems originating at another facility.

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Check upstream causes of food and patient backlogs: 4 entries
Current state	Check order	Next action
Little Raw Food and few rations	Raw Food sources such as hunters → cooking	Inspect food-source staff, returns and supply. Do not merely add Cookhouses.
Raw Food accumulates, but rations remain low.	Cookhouse temperature → hours → staffing	Restore cooking and make room in ration storage.
Many sick people leave jobs vacant.	Cold homes or workplaces → medical temperature → beds and engineers	Reduce cold exposure before merely adding beds.
Gravely ill people remain untreated.	Patient severity → facilities able to admit them	Check Infirmaries and signed laws. The laws guide explains their differences.

This is a short diagnostic sequence. No fixed building count guarantees sufficient food or treatment for everyone.

Frequently asked questions

Why can I not add spare engineers to research?

Check that the destination is a Workshop and its engineer slots are not full. Basic capacity is five. Another Workshop needs additional engineers and working hours as well as materials.

Can a Gathering Post replace a warehouse?

No. It is a workplace collecting nearby piles. Resource Depots increase storage capacity; specify what they store after building them.

A second Cookhouse did not increase food

If Raw Food is zero, inspect hunting or another supply source first. Otherwise check Cookhouse staff, hours, temperature and ration storage capacity.

Is nighttime research shutdown a bug?

A normal Workshop works from 08:00 to 18:00 and stops at night. Changing its hours requires separate conditions. Check current shifts and research speed before choosing laws.

Is everyone safe when healthcare is Chilly?

Chilly is the minimum operating temperature. Also inspect beds, available engineers, patient severity and cold exposure in homes and workplaces.