Frostpunk: The Board Game FAQ
243 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Introduction, Components and General
- Does progress carry over between Frostpunk scenarios?
- Do the deluxe resources or building miniatures change how the game plays?
- In Fall of Winterhome, when do the Dreadnought evacuation meeples leave the stock on card S06?
- Is Frostpunk: The Board Game cooperative or competitive?
- Do the round tracker's double-sided tokens change the order citizens are fed?
- How do scenarios work, and when are scenario cards revealed?
- Is the Steam Hub technology used in A New Home: Crater?
- Does Frostpunk: The Board Game need the companion app to play?
- In the SC1 scenario, do you put SC1/3 or SC1/7 into play?
- In Scenario 01, can you deliver several resource packs at once?
- In Scenario 1, do you track storm preparation with one tracker or several?
- In the intro game, if you reach round 11 with cold and food covered, do you play round 11 normally?
- How do you get Steam Cores?
Game Setup
- Does the Cookhouse placed on the Generator tile during setup cost Wood?
- Which cards start in the Dusk deck?
- When starting map tiles show Food, is starting Food the sum of the displayed Food or the number of tiles?
- Where does the cold marker start at setup?
- How do the starting wall tokens on the Crater rim work?
- Is A New Home: Crater a separate scenario from A New Home?
- Which buildings do you put out on the building board at setup?
- Which scenario cards go into play for A New Home: Crater at setup?
- Which Storm card does a scenario use, and do the A New Home versions share cards?
- How is the Future Law stack set up for A New Home?
- At setup, does each player discard a Citizen card and pay its penalty?
- Should you read the Storm card during setup?
- Should you use the scenario book for your first game?
- How is the Dreadnought scenario set up?
- Do you start the Dreadnought scenario with the steel in your resources area?
- Do you need all four Responsibility sheets when each player takes an Advisor?
- What counts as a near tile and a far tile when the Generator tile is not in the middle?
- Does round 1 start with the round marker on space 1, and when does it first advance?
Win Conditions and Important Rules
- How do you win a scenario?
- If you are told to activate or exhaust a token but cannot, do you skip the rest of the card?
- In Fall of Winterhome, how is the final win card chosen when round 15 is reached or after a loss?
- When two map tiles are adjacent, are all their spaces adjacent, and does tile orientation matter?
Hope and Discontent
- What is the difference between exhausting, decreasing and discarding Hope or Discontent?
- Does the Call to Rise six-Hope condition mean you can have more than six Hope tokens?
- When a card says +1 of a specific Hope or Discontent type, do you search the bag for that token?
- Does Public Council let you pick a specific Hope or Discontent token when a card says to add a specific type?
- Does Crowded Quarters add an Anger token or draw a Discontent token?
- When a card asks whether you have more Hope than Discontent, do inactive tokens count?
- How many Hope and Discontent spots are there, and what happens when a sixth Discontent is placed?
- When you increase a specific type, can the token you activate be one already exhausted on your board?
Round Phases and Generator
- When does the Generator heat marker reset?
- When during the Action Phase can you fuel the Generator?
- Does fuelling the Generator during the Action Phase add sick citizens or check stress?
- Where does coal spent to fuel the Generator go, and how many cubes drop in during the stress check?
- When are stress cubes added, and what happens to overflow cubes when the Generator breaks down?
- Does the Generator Phase stress check use the heat raised in the previous round's Action Phase?
- Does the Generator upgrade happen on the first Steam Core spent, even if it is not the first Generator action?
- What do the preprinted Platform and Generator spaces on the Generator tile do?
- Can you gather from both spaces on the Generator tile in a single action?
- Can you build on the resource spaces of the Generator tile?
- Can you only build on heated spaces?
- How do you keep Gather and Use a Building actions heated, especially on far tiles?
- When is a building heated, and does a Tent count as heated?
- How should coal cubes be dropped into the Generator?
- Can you build a Field Kitchen on the Generator tile?
- Do you pay the generator's starting cost every time you add coal in a round?
- What are Steam Cores used for?
- Where do you place the Deploy Scouts meeple on an expedition stack that is already out?
- When you deploy scouts, can you start an expedition from any of the face-up A cards?
- If you skip an expedition location, can you come back for it or collect its rewards?
- After an expedition continues onto a stacked B or C card, what do the skipped cards mean for later movement?
- How do you add a new card to an expedition stack?
- When an expedition returns, do you place a new A card?
- Can child workers or child engineers be sent on Expeditions?
- How many sick citizens does the Survive the Storm penalty cause when you have coal stockpiles?
- Can one Prepare for the Storm stockpile action store several food and coal stockpiles at once?
- Can an engineer and a worker both use the Prepare for the Storm card in the same round?
- Can a card effect destroy the Platform or a Generator building?
- When do you choose a Technology card in the Dawn Phase?
- Where do discarded Dusk cards go, and when do they come back?
- Do Morning card icons that remove Workers take them off the map?
- Does a Morning card or event special action still need a meeple to be placed?
- When does the storm resolve if it coincides with the round marker?
- What happens on the Theft morning card if you have fewer than 2 resources?
- Does the Lighter Scout Sleds 'Continue an Expedition' bonus apply on every Scout move?
- With Advanced Automatons, do Automatons cost no Coal in any building when the Heat marker is above the red range?
- Can you build a Steam Hub on a space of the Generator tile, and what does it heat?
- How does the Comforting the Sick Morning card work?
- Does the Hunter's Hut need to be heated to give its passive food?
- After a storm flips buildings to their Ruins side, can you build or dismantle them again?
- Can you build new tents after the first storm, and does the second storm affect them?
Action Phase
- Can you build a Field Kitchen for free and dismantle it for Wood with Construction Planning?
- Does a Field Kitchen cost wood to build?
- Does the Action Phase end as soon as one player stops taking actions, or only when everyone passes in a row?
- Can you build or Construct more than once per Round, and remove snow more than once?
- To upgrade a tent into a bunkhouse, must you dismantle the tent and pay the full Bunkhouse cost?
- Does The Inevitable leave the game after it resolves?
- Do map tile Food icons give Food again each time you gather from that tile?
- Does the Faster Gathering technology give one extra resource from one adjacent pile or from each adjacent pile?
- How many resources does a Gathering Post collect from each adjacent tile?
- Can a Gathering Post take a resource from a space that already has a Meeple on it?
- Can a Gathering Post and a Meeple both gather from the same tile in one round after it is built?
- Does tile orientation matter when you place or reveal a map tile?
- Can citizens shelter in flipped tents, and what does a Field Kitchen do on a tent tile?
- When an action icon shows a +dove, what happens after placing an exhausted Meeple?
- Can you gather resources and then build on the same space in the same round?
- Can you gather from one space of a hex and build on the other space in the same round?
- Is a space with a building but no Meeple considered unoccupied?
- Must the space for a Gather Resources placement have resources on it?
- Can Engineers do every job a Worker can, including build actions?
- What is the difference between Citizens and Meeples?
- When you build on a tile with trees or resources, which part of the tile loses them?
- Is a Remove Snow action always cold?
- How many sick children does Patrick McGretchak's Remove Snow cause?
- Can the G17 Emergency Shift remove exhaustion from two different citizen types in one Action Phase?
- Can the L17A Emergency Shift put exhausted Worker or Engineer tokens in your pool when you have no free Meeples of that type?
- Does the Propaganda Centre give a Citizen a shelter?
- What does it mean to destroy a building?
- Can you build two small buildings on one hex tile?
- Can a large building span two map tiles, or two spaces that are not on the same tile?
- If you build with steel, is the building upgraded for free, and do you need a Workshop action?
- In the Dreadnought scenario, does building with only Steel upgrade the building for free and right away?
- How do you upgrade a building, and does it cost resources as well as a Workshop action?
- How much does a building cost to build and to upgrade?
- Can the Workshop development action be used more than once, and combined with building upgrades?
- Can you use a Technology immediately after developing it during the Action Phase?
- What happens to Technology development progress when a Workshop is destroyed?
- If a card offers a choice like 'lose 2 coal' but you have only 1 coal, can you still pick that option?
- What does a slash in a card's cost mean, like 'lose 1 Wood/1 Coal' or 'exhaust a Worker/Engineer'?
- How do Reuse a Worker and Reuse a Building work, and do they cost extra actions or Meeples?
- Can a Worker sent for a Reuse a Worker effect be used in the same location?
- Can an Automaton be used for the Remove Snow action?
- Without the Advanced Automatons technology, can Automatons use Engineer-only buildings?
- Can an Automaton be placed in buildings that require a Worker?
- Can Automatons be used for scenario cards that require a Worker or Engineer?
- Does Greg Bellowsky only work with the Deploy Scouts action, and does he break core rules?
- Can child Worker or child Engineer Meeples be sent as Scouts?
- Can a child Worker or child Engineer do Worker or Engineer jobs?
- Can children use a Wall Drill after Child Labour is passed?
- Does a child placed on the Young Adepts card still need to be sheltered?
- When is the child engineer placed on the Young Adepts card added to your supply?
- Do Meeples in the Prison stay there permanently?
- How many Meeples can use the Prison in one round?
- Can a Prison's Meeple become sick, and does the normal shelter rule apply?
- Can a Prison use Crowded Quarters' extra sleeping slot?
- What is a Spent Citizen token, and when do the Meeples on it come back?
- Where do spent Citizen tokens come from, and when are they cleared?
- What does 'Place 1 Spent Worker / Engineer token in the Supply' mean?
- When do you adjust Meeples after Citizens die, and which count applies if the Citizen track drops?
- Does a Child Meeple take two sleeping spaces in a Shelter because it shows two children?
- How do you increase population in Frostpunk?
- What are trees for, and do they count as resources?
- How do you get resources from the rim spaces?
- Do the Chainsaw and Carrier Sledge techs stack when gathering wood from a tree?
- Does the Cemetery give more Hope when you bury several corpses?
- If you have an active Motivation and no resources remain on the map, what do you get?
- Which decks are open information?
- Does the Another Settlement event's first option build a Beacon?
- Can an event let you build a Child Shelter without sending a worker to the Construct action?
- How long does the Temporary Worker from the Hungry For Work card stay on the board?
- How many trades per Round can the Beacon handle with the app, and do the trading Meeples need shelter?
- Can you move a building that was already used this turn, and does its Meeple move with it?
- Can you have more than 8 Workers of one type?
- Can big buildings be used twice in one round?
- Can you destroy a building that has a Meeple on it?
- Can Rufus Gladstone's card move a building that has a Meeple on it?
- Can Rufus Gladstone's two build sub-actions relocate two small buildings?
- What is a sub-action in Construct, and how do Jacin Schock and Chrissy Klzmowsky use them?
- Can you split a Construct action's sub-actions with other actions in between, or interrupt them?
- How does Scenario card S07 work with Food and Coal?
Laws, Dusk, Hunger and Night
- How much Wood does a Field Kitchen cost to build under the New Faith law?
- Once The New Faith law is passed, can you build all four Field Kitchens?
- Is there any way to gain more Citizen cards during the game?
- Can you use the same Citizen card more than once?
- How many Citizen cards can you play in one round?
- Do you pay a Citizen card's cost, or suffer its drawback, when you use its ability?
- If a Citizen card says to use a building, do you still take the building's normal action?
- Can you use a Child citizen card if you have not passed the Child Labor law?
- Can Children take actions without the Child Labor law?
- Can Automatons use the abilities of Citizen cards?
- When is the Dusk discard pile shuffled back into the Dusk deck?
- Are resolved Social Dispute cards shuffled back into the Dusk deck?
- What happens to a Dusk card after you resolve it?
- Can a Dusk card let you upgrade a building that has a Meeple on it?
- Can an engineer build a building and then upgrade it right away with the Shared Knowledge law?
- When you pass a law, which consequence card goes into the Dusk deck?
- Can you look at law consequence cards before they are shuffled in?
- What law consequence applies to the scenario law Educated Society in The Arks?
- What are the Feed Citizen markers used for?
- Does a Dusk card that covers a Law permanently replace that Law's effect?
- Can you add coal to the generator before each action in the Action Phase, and again in the Night Phase?
- When does a Dusk Phase card that says to check the board at the end of the Night Phase resolve?
- In what order do Social Dispute effects resolve?
- How do Social Dispute effects that count Hope or Discontent tokens decide what applies?
- On Social Dispute SD01, what does 'for each Resource you cannot take, gain 1 coal' mean?
- Do Laws 1 through 8 cancel their partner laws when one is enacted?
- How do you build a building locked behind a law, such as a Faith building or the Fighting Arena, and what does it cost?
- How does the Starvation Rations law change food spending in the Hunger phase?
- On Morning card M015, can more than one engineer and wood be used in a round to reach the 2 wood needed for the Dusk effect?
- Do citizens who die or are lost in the Dusk Phase still need shelter in the Night Phase?
- When are spent Worker or Engineer tokens added during the Dusk Phase removed from the board?
- How does the Hunger phase work when you have to feed citizens, and in what order?
- Can hunger be reduced at any time with food you gather?
- Which citizen dies in the final Hunger phase of scenario 1 in round 12?
- How are hunger deaths resolved during the Survive the Storm card?
- Do you need an active Justice token on your board to use Law #20?
- If a Dusk card reward is a building you cannot place yet, can you save it for later?
- If you meet a Dusk card's prerequisite but cannot pay for option A or B, do you follow the otherwise section?
- What do the Inevitable Dusk card's steps do, and does the card leave the deck after it resolves?
- Where do you enact Laws, and where do you remove stress cubes from the Generator?
- How does the Emergency Shift law's spent-token removal work, and does it cost Apathy the first time?
- Can food additives or other Hunger or Night phase laws be used during the final storm?
- Do laws like Crowded Quarters or Food Additives apply during scenario card phases such as Hunger on Survive the Storm?
- Does a Medical Post count as a shelter for Crowded Quarters or the Night Care tech?
- Does a Dusk card that stays in the Event Display keep applying its effect each turn?
- In Fall of Winterhome, should stress cubes go on the Safety Track before the Generator stress track?
- In Fall of Winterhome, who is fed in the Hunger phase if all citizens of one type were evacuated?
- Can a ruin be heated for the Makeshift Shelters law, and does the first storm remove the yellow heat token?
Sickness, Death and Curing
- Can a gravely ill citizen's Sickness marker be moved to 0 by a cure?
- Can you cure other sick citizens while the Sickness marker is on its skull side?
- How does treating a gravely ill citizen change the Sickness marker?
- When an event makes you lose Workers, do you also move the Sickness marker?
- Do death effects trigger when an event makes you lose citizens rather than kill them?
- Can Matilda Oakwood let a Worker use the Medical Post or Infirmary to cure citizens, and how many can she cure?
- In Fall of Winterhome, when citizens are evacuated and sick ones are in the group, how does the Sickness marker move?
- In Fall of Winterhome, what happens to a death or sickness effect that targets a citizen type with none left?
- Can a gravely ill citizen stop you reducing that citizen type to zero in Fall of Winterhome?
- Does a Sickness marker flip when moving it would pass its citizen count?
- If a Sickness marker must add more sick citizens than the population count, how many flips happen?
- Does a card's sickness flip happen when no citizens are sick?
- When you gain a sick worker, engineer or child, does the citizen marker move too?
- Does each citizen death trigger a citizen card, even when the death is not from sickness?
- What happens when a card kills a citizen, or a Morning card says a citizen dies?
- Do you move the Sickness marker back when a citizen dies from something other than sickness?
- Does the Prison cure sick citizens?
- How does the Radical Treatment action reduce sick citizens?
- When are Sickness marker effects resolved, and does passing the sickness threshold have an immediate effect?
- At what sickness level do you lose the game: 26 or 29?
- When a Citizen dies from a Morning or Dusk card, do you use the citizen card's effect, and can you discard a card from hand?
- When a Dusk card says not to draw a citizen card for this death, do you still discard one?
- If the Distillery explodes, is the engineer on it destroyed so you skip housing him?
- Can the sick token on Dusk card T058 be flipped from skull to syringe, or from syringe to skull?
- When are worker or engineer meeples removed after citizens die from sickness, and do the dead still need shelter?
Advisors
- In solo play, do you take an Advisor card and also the Call to Rise card?
- Is the solo Call to Rise card discarded after use?
- Does the order of advisor cards returned to the Dawn deck matter?
- How often can an Advisor's power be used in a round?
- Can the Social Advisor card be removed from the game or put in the discard pile?
- Can you use an advisor's ability during a later card, such as the Generator phase of a storm card?
- What are the four Advisors in Frostpunk?