GUIDE · GETTING STARTED
Frozen Ship Beginner Survival Guide
Frozen Ship throws you onto a frozen apocalyptic Earth as captain of a 20-person expedition. There's no tutorial hand-holding — the cold is lethal and the clock is ruthless. This guide gets you from "what is happening" to "stable colony" in your first week.
Read This First: The Three Numbers That Decide Everything
Most "I died on day two" stories come from ignoring three anchors. Internalize them before you build anything:
- 18:00 curfew. Daytime is brutal but survivable; night at ~−67°C is instantly lethal outside. The clock is your boss.
- ~600 wood/day. That's roughly what the ship burns just to stay livable. Wood isn't a resource — it's the difference between a living crew and a frozen one.
- 3 meals × 20 crew. 60 meals a day, every day. Starvation cascades into illness and despair across the whole expedition.
Your First Day, Step by Step
- Assign the boiler + kitchen immediately. Before anything else, put people on heating and cooking. A warm, fed crew is the only foundation.
- Send a small scavenge team out at first light. Target the nearest homes/shops for wood and food. Keep one eye on the sun — and the other on the ship's silhouette. Remember it moves.
- Be back aboard before 18:00. No exception. Greedy first-day runs are the #1 rookie killer — and so is losing track of a drifting ship.
- Build housing next. Sleep cuts fatigue, and fatigue penalties hurt more than the short-term grind gain.
- Establish a workshop. Turn scavenged scrap into repairs and gear so the next run is safer.
- Only then expand. Research lab, infirmary scaling, defenses — luxuries of a stable colony.
The Core Loop (What You Actually Do)
Frozen Ship runs on a repeating rhythm: assign crew → scavenge the −37°C wastes in daylight → return before 18:00 → build & trade aboard the ship → survive the night → repeat. The genius (and the cruelty) is that every loop depends on the last one. Miss the wood run and the boiler sputters; skip meals and morale collapses; lose a scavenger to curfew and the whole math breaks.
Assign Roles, Don't Micromanage
You don't control 20 individuals in real time — you assign them to jobs: kitchen, boiler, workshop, infirmary, scavenger, guard, researcher. A balanced roster (some gathering outside, some keeping the home fires burning) beats throwing everyone at loot. See the Crew Management guide for the full role breakdown and how to manage morale states.
The World: Procedural, Hostile, Full of Loot
The surface is procedurally generated — abandoned hospitals, shops, homes, railways, and whole cities, plus predators and hostile survivor camps. Loot cloth, scrap metal, wood, and food, but always track your distance and route back. Greedy runs are how expeditions end. Our Resource Gathering guide maps what spawns where.
Morale Is a Hidden Resource
Crew aren't stats — they have illness, fatigue, fear, and faith. A sick or terrified crewmember drags everyone down and can spark a death spiral. Build an infirmary early, rotate exhausted workers, and avoid needless losses that erode faith in the mission. One more lever: once you have spare fabric, upgrade coats and thermal gear before selling it. Warmer scavengers reach farther from the ship and come back alive — it pays for itself in safer runs.
Beginner Mistakes to Avoid
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Do this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Over-building day one | Warmth/food stall while you chase structures | Boiler + kitchen + housing first |
| One long greedy scavenge run | Caught by 18:00 curfew → frozen crew | Multiple short daylight runs, always a buffer |
| Grinding one crewmember | Fatigue spirals, then illness | Rotate shifts; rest is productive |
| Selling wood for quick trade | Heating reserve gone → overnight freeze | Never sell your warmth reserve |
| Ignoring faith | Morale collapse unravels the colony | Celebrate safe returns; minimize avoidable deaths |
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is a day in Frozen Ship?
A day runs through daylight scavenging and ends at the 18:00 curfew, after which night (−67°C) is lethal outside. Treat the in-game clock as your hard deadline for every run.
Is there a tutorial?
No hand-holding — the game expects you to learn its systems. This guide (and the linked pages) is your onboarding. Expect to restart a few times while learning the rhythm.
What's the single most important resource?
Wood, for heating. The ship burns ~600/day just to stay livable. Secure a wood loop before anything decorative.
Can I pause to plan?
Colony-survival pacing rewards pausing to assign roles and plan runs. Use downtime aboard the ship to set up the next daylight loop.