Permafrost Beginner's Guide: First Hour, First Shelter, First Tools

Permafrost drops you into a frozen city with a single Makeshift Bandage, a set of casual clothes and a Building Tool. The cold starts draining your Body Warmth before you have found your bearings, so the first hour is a race: stone tools, a fire, a wall between you and the wind. This guide walks that hour step by step using the game's own numbers — recipe costs, warmth values and quest objectives — so you know exactly what to gather and why.

Pick a starting class

The three classes share the same loadout skeleton — a Casual Backpack, a Makeshift Bandage and the Building Tool — but differ in clothing and in the two snacks you start with. None of them changes your skills; the four specializations (Engineer, Marksman, Scavenger, Tracker) do that, each adding +1 to three skills.

The first twenty minutes: tools, fire, door

1. 1
   Gather Stone and Wood

   Rock nodes give 5 Stone each and wooden debris gives 1–6 Wood depending on size. You need 2 Stone + 4 Wood per stone tool, so grab roughly 6 Stone and 12 Wood before you craft anything. See every yield on the resources page.

2. 2
   Craft the Stone Axe, then the Stone Pickaxe

   Both are hand-crafted with no station: Stone Axe (10 damage, 150 durability) chops wood; Stone Pickaxe (12 damage, 100 durability) mines Flint and Stone only. The quest A New Beginning asks for the axe first.

3. 3
   Build a Campfire and warm up

   A Campfire costs 2 Stone and is placed with the Building Tool. Standing near it applies the Warmed status and stops Body Warmth loss. The quest's next objective is literally Warm Yourself Up.

4. 4
   Open the cabin door and unlock Rope

   Rope costs 2 Cloth and unlocks from the blueprint tree; it is the gate to the Crude Bow (2 Wood + 1 Rope) and to a Makeshift Splint (2 Wood + 1 Rope). The quest rewards 5 Cloth, enough for two ropes.

5. 5
   Craft a Crude Bow and 3 Wooden Arrows per Wood

   The Crude Bow does 60 damage per arrow and each Wood becomes 3 Wooden Arrows that can be picked up again (50% break chance). A Rabbit has 1 HP and drops Meat and a Hare Pelt; a Red Deer has 100 HP and drops Meat, Bones, Animal Fat and a Deer Pelt.

Your first quests, in order

1. Quest 1
   A New Beginning

   Craft a Stone Axe, build a Campfire, warm up, open the cabin door and unlock Rope. Reward: 5 Cloth. Walkthrough.

2. Quest 2
   Feel The Heat

   Exit the cave and find the leader of Horizon, Robyn. Walkthrough.

3. Quest 3
   Horizon's Kitchen

   Cook meat into a dish and talk with Robyn — your first cooked meal and your introduction to the Cooking skill. Walkthrough.

4. Quest 4–5
   Dog Days, then New Home

   Heal the dog in the Bone Cave with a bandage and raw meat, then build your first real base: a Workbench (10 Wood), Wooden Wall, Wooden Doorway, Wooden Floor / Roof, Wooden Door and a Bed (5 Cloth + 5 Wood), and craft a Flint Pickaxe, Flint Axe and Flint Shiv. Walkthrough.

The Village chain also opens two small tutorial quests you should not skip: Bed and breakfast (light a brazier, sleep, eat an Edible Root) and Tools of survival (collect Stone at the Boulder's Spot and craft another Stone Axe). The Deer Hunter then teaches the full loop — craft a Crude Bow, hunt a Red Deer, build a Campfire, cook the meat. The whole chain is mapped on the quests page.

What actually kills new players

The game tracks 31 status effects and the dangerous ones are mostly cold and hunger. Low Temperature means your Body Warmth has started to drop; Bone-Chilling Cold means you are in a cold zone that drains warmth and you need shelter now; Deadly Cold Zone saps warmth so fast that the game tells you to leave immediately. Once warmth is gone you get Hypothermia, which deals damage based on the temperature difference and makes you drowsy and disoriented. The cure chain is simple: leave the cold zone, stand by a fire, drink something warm.

After the first hour

• Upgrade to Flint tools (2 Flint + 4 Wood at the Workbench): the Flint Pickaxe mines Sulfur, Copper, Coal, Flint and Stone.
• Build a Bed (5 Cloth + 5 Wood) — it recovers Energy most efficiently and clears Tired.
• Place a Wooden Chest (5 Wood) so loot survives a death.
• Carry a Makeshift Bandage (2 Cloth) for Bleeding and a Makeshift Splint for a broken leg.
• Head for the Woods and Hunter's Glade: Skinwalker there sells Simple Bows, traps and Flint tools.