Every session starts in the warmth. Every session ends with a question: what did you bring back, and what will you burn?
This page explains what a typical session of Frostpunk looks like. Sessions follow a reliable rhythm, though no two are the same.
Before your first session
The only two things you need to read are Character Creation and the Mission Hub. Everything else on this wiki is optional background — explore as much or as little as you like.
1. Downtime in Hearth
Sessions begin with the players in Hearth. This is your time to:
- Recover from injuries at the Infirmary
- Buy or repair gear at the Watch Armory or Guild Store
- Catch up with NPCs, gather rumors, follow personal leads
- Spend earnings at The Blue Flame
- Pick up a hireling if you want backup on the road
The market square may have visiting traders. Ask around.
2. Choosing a Mission
Every session is built around a Guild mission. Head to the Mission Board in the Guildhall to review active contracts. Each entry describes a known relic site: what’s been found there, what the risks are, and what the Guild is willing to pay. Pick one and go.
Personal leads - rumors picked up in the Residential Quarter, threads from previous expeditions, information from NPCs - are usually pursued as Downtime Activities between sessions rather than the focus of a session itself. If something you’ve uncovered is significant enough, the GM may fold it into the Mission Board as an official contract.
All departures are logged by the Frostwatch at the gate.
3. Gearing Up
Before leaving, stock supplies. Every day of travel costs one Ration. Running out of rations in The Wastes means exposure to the cold and starvation.
Survival checklist:
- Rations (1 per day of travel, each way)
- A light source (torch or lantern)
- Rope, in almost every ruin you’ll find a reason to need it
- Anything specific to the site you’re headed to
See the Hearth Market for what’s available before you leave.
4. The Journey
Travel across the Wastes is measured in Wilderness Turns - roughly one per day on foot. Weather shifts. Visibility drops. Strange things cross your path.
At the end of each Wilderness Turn, the GM checks for encounters. Not every turn produces one. Most don’t. But something always could.
The Wastes do not care about you.
5. The Relic Site
Relic sites are the core of each expedition: ruined laboratories, frozen vaults, ancient dungeons, collapsed shrines, buried machines. Each one has relics to recover - magical artifacts from ages long past.
Explore methodically. Not every room is hostile, but danger is rarely telegraphed. Talk to things when you can. Fight when you must. Each ruin has a history, and often inhabitants; figuring them out is part of the job.
Your primary objective is always the relic, and the Guild lets YOU decide what you keep for yourself and what you throw into the Engine. How you navigate dealing with what (or who) you encounter outside of Hearth is entirely at your own discretion. :)
6. The Return
Getting out is as important as getting in. You have limited Inventory slots, are possibly wounded, might be pursued, and the weather does not improve because you succeeded.
Return travel costs the same rations as the journey out, though takes half as long (Wilderness Turns are halved). Encounters can still happen too!
7. Delivering the Relics
Back in Hearth, relics are delivered to the Engine Chamber in the Guildhall. Nyla Vexorian appraises and logs each one.
The Engine needs at least one relic per expedition to keep the Thermal Sphere stable. Feeding more than that earns Boons from the Engine - temporary or permanent, depending on how generous you are. See Boons of the Engine for the full details.
What you do with the rest of your haul - sell it, keep it, donate it - is your business. But be aware: Hearth’s factions are watching. How many relics you burn, how many you keep, and where any extras end up all carry weight with the people who run this town. Generosity and greed are both noticed.
Leveling Up
All characters start at Level 1. The campaign uses milestone leveling - the whole Division levels together when the GM calls it, not through individual XP. Your first major milestone, becoming a full-fledged Guild member, brings everyone to Level 2. See Character Sheet Setup for more detail.