Beginner's Guide
Permafrost Beginner's Guide: Surviving Your First Frozen Night
Welcome, survivor. The Moon is gone, the Earth is buried in ice, and the first thing Permafrost asks of you is simple: don't freeze to death before sunrise. This Permafrost beginner's guide walks you through your critical first hour — from your opening steps in the snow to your first fire, your first tools, and a shelter that keeps you breathing through night one. Master these fundamentals and everything else in the game becomes far more forgiving.
Your First Steps in the Snow
When Permafrost begins, resist the urge to sprint off into the white. Your opening priority is orientation. Take a slow look around and note three things: the direction of any shelter or structure, the nearest cluster of trees, and any landmark tall enough to navigate back to. In a whiteout world where the horizon can blur into a single sheet of grey, a memorable landmark is the difference between finding your way home and dying lost in a blizzard.
Check your starting inventory immediately. Most survival sandboxes hand you a small number of items — perhaps a crude blade, a scrap of cloth, or a ration. Know what you have before you spend it. Movement in deep snow is slower and burns more stamina than you expect, so plan short trips rather than long expeditions until you understand how far your resources stretch.
Sprinting constantly drains stamina and warms you only briefly. Walk to conserve energy, and save sprints for escaping danger or crossing dangerously exposed ground.
Warmth Is Life: Managing Cold
In Permafrost, cold is the enemy that never sleeps. Your body temperature is a constant, ticking resource, and letting it fall too far leads to hypothermia, sluggish controls, screen-blurring effects and eventually death. Everything you do in the first hour should be filtered through one question: is this keeping me warm, or getting me closer to a source of heat?
There are three main ways to hold back the cold. First, fire — a campfire is your lifeline and usually your first real crafting goal. Second, clothing — even crude garments made from cloth, hide or fur dramatically slow heat loss. Third, shelter — getting out of the wind, whether behind a rock face, inside a ruin, or within walls you build yourself, reduces the rate at which the cold bites. Wind and blizzards accelerate heat loss sharply, so read the weather and take cover when the storm rolls in.
Blizzards drop temperature fast and reduce visibility to almost nothing. If a storm is building, get to fire or shelter before it hits — being caught in the open during a blizzard is one of the most common early deaths.
Gathering Your First Resources
Three raw materials form the backbone of your early game: wood, stone and fiber. Wood comes from chopping trees and collecting fallen branches, and it fuels your fires and builds your first structures. Stone is gathered from rocks and outcrops and is essential for tools and firepits. Fiber — from bushes, dried grass or plant matter — binds early crafting recipes together and can be worked into cloth.
Prioritise wood above all in the first hour, because fire is non-negotiable. Aim to stockpile a comfortable surplus of firewood before nightfall; running out of fuel in the dark is a death sentence. As you gather, keep an eye out for edible plants, berries and small game — food and water will become urgent soon, and it's efficient to collect them while you're already out foraging.
| Resource | Source | Primary Use |
|---|---|---|
| Wood | Trees, fallen branches | Fire fuel, tools, building |
| Stone | Rocks, outcrops | Tools, firepit, weapons |
| Fiber | Bushes, dried grass | Rope, cloth, bindings |
| Hide / Fur | Hunted animals | Warm clothing, storage |
| Berries / Meat | Foraging, hunting | Food, restoring energy |
Crafting Your First Tools
With wood and stone in hand, your first crafting priority is a set of basic tools. A stone axe lets you chop trees far faster and yields more wood per swing, while a stone pickaxe speeds up mining stone and ore. Early tools break with use, so gather enough materials to repair or replace them before they fail at a critical moment. From there, a simple firepit or campfire should be your very next build — it is the single most important object in your early survival.
Don't neglect a basic weapon. Even a crude spear or club gives you a way to defend against wildlife and to hunt for meat and hide. For a full breakdown of recipes, tiers and workstations, see our dedicated Permafrost crafting guide, which covers everything from your first tools to advanced gear.
Setting Up Your First Camp
Your first camp doesn't need to be a fortress — it needs to be warm, sheltered and defensible. Look for a spot that offers natural wind protection, such as the lee side of a rock face or the shell of an existing ruin, and that sits reasonably close to trees and water. Place your campfire at the heart of the camp, then arrange sleeping and storage around it so heat radiates where you need it.
Keep your first build small. A tight, well-insulated space heats faster and holds warmth better than a large open structure, and it costs far fewer resources to raise before dark. You can always expand once you've survived a few nights. When you're ready to grow beyond a starter camp into a proper stronghold, our Permafrost base building guide covers layouts, heating and defensive design in depth.
Good first camp = wind protection + nearby trees + a water source + a memorable landmark. Hit three of these four and you're in great shape for night one.
Meet Your Dog Companion
You are not truly alone in Permafrost. A loyal dog companion can travel with you, and it's far more than set dressing. Your dog can help you track and hunt animals, alert you to nearby threats, and provide companionship in a brutally lonely world. Treat your dog well — keep it fed and safe — and it becomes one of your most valuable survival assets, especially when scouting unfamiliar terrain or hunting for the hide you need to craft warm clothing.
Surviving Night One
Night is when Permafrost tests everything you've prepared. Temperatures plunge, visibility collapses, and threats grow bolder in the dark. Before the light fails, run a final mental checklist: Is my fire lit and well-fueled? Do I have enough wood to keep it burning until dawn? Am I sheltered from the wind? Have I eaten and drunk enough to survive the night's drain?
If the answer to all four is yes, stay put. Hunkering down beside a strong fire in a sheltered camp is almost always safer than wandering in the dark. Keep feeding the fire, watch your temperature and food meters, and ride out the night. When the sun returns, you'll have survived the hardest part of Permafrost — the first night — and you can begin building toward something more permanent.
Do not explore far from camp after dark on night one. The combination of lethal cold, low visibility and increased threats makes nighttime wandering the single most dangerous thing a beginner can do.
Common Beginner Mistakes
- Hoarding too little firewood. Always overestimate. Running out of fuel at 3am is a preventable death.
- Over-sprinting. Burning stamina you don't need leaves you vulnerable and hungry faster.
- Building too big, too soon. A small insulated shelter beats a half-finished mansion with no roof.
- Ignoring clothing. Even crude garments massively slow heat loss — craft them early.
- Wandering without a landmark. Getting lost in a whiteout kills more beginners than any predator.
Internalise these and your early Permafrost runs will stop ending in the snow. Once you're comfortably surviving multiple nights, deepen your knowledge with our Permafrost survival tips and, if you're playing with friends, our Permafrost co-op guide.