The main quest order through House Camp
Permafrost's opening main quest route is A New Beginning → Feel the Heat → Horizon's Kitchen → Dog Days → New Home → The Outpost → High Frequency → The Way Home, followed by House Camp Flipper. Progress depends on starter tools, cooking for Robyn, rescuing the dog, constructing your home and repairing the Hunter's Glade tower, then preparing the radio equipment and clothing required before reaching Anna at House Camp.
From the starting area to Horizon and the dog
- Complete A New Beginning to continue into Feel the Heat. The opening objectives include gathering materials and crafting starter Stone tools. Stone tools can be crafted directly from your inventory, without a crafting station.
- Complete Feel the Heat to continue into Horizon's Kitchen. Horizon is the first safe zone you reach from the starting ravine, through a short cave. It is a No Build Zone, so save your own construction plans for elsewhere.
- Cook for Robyn during Horizon's Kitchen to continue to Dog Days. The stone hearth in Horizon's kitchen functions like a campfire. Cooking requires a lit campfire or stove fueled with wood or coal.
- Rescue the dog in Dog Days to continue into New Home. Bone Cave is on this part of the main quest route. Once the dog joins you, its separate container provides extra storage for supplies.
The crafting setup needed for radio materials
Prepare your crafting stations before heading out for radio materials. A Workbench costs 10 Wood and provides access to Flint tools. A Stone Furnace requires 40 Stone and 2 blueprint points in the BUILDING tree. The Flint Pickaxe costs 2 Flint and 4 Wood at a Workbench and can mine Copper and Coal.
New Home, The Outpost and High Frequency
- Construct the facilities requested by New Home to continue into The Outpost. This stage establishes your first constructed home on the opening route. Use the active objective to choose your next construction task before spending materials on optional additions.
- Repair the Hunter's Glade tower when the quest directs you to do so. The Outpost leads into High Frequency, and this stretch of the route brings you to Skinwalker. Repairing a tower prematurely can interfere with later quest steps, so follow the objective order.
- Build a Radio Station Bench at your base before repairing the tower radio for High Frequency. The quest expects this base setup before the radio repair. Check the active stage before interacting with the tower equipment.
- Gather Copper from the ravine beyond the repaired road bridge near your first base when you need radio materials. Cross the bridge and head downhill to the right, toward the rock face and frozen creek bed. Raw Copper must be smelted into ingots for the radio and its wiring.
- Smelt a Copper Ingot in the Stone Furnace to supply your radio crafting setup. The recipe requires 3 Copper and 5 Coal. The finished product appears on the ground beside the furnace's base.
- Craft Wire at the Workbench using 1 Copper Ingot. This converts your smelted Copper into wiring for the radio setup. Check the active recipe for the amount you need before committing your ingots.
Prepare for The Way Home before leaving for Anna
- Collect Skinwalker's blueprints when The Way Home directs you to retrieve them. His quest reward box at Hunter's Glade provides the Tailoring Bench recipe. Taking blueprints or special items before their collection stage can prevent the required step from registering.
- Build a Tailoring Bench after obtaining the required recipe. Clothing recipes need this station, so learning the recipe alone does not let you craft the outfit. Make this part of your preparation before heading toward House Camp.
- Craft the Tribal Clothes Set at the Tailoring Bench to meet The Way Home's clothing requirement before traveling to Anna. Its blueprint costs 2 points and includes Boots, Coat, Gloves, Jacket and Pants. Reserve the points needed for this stage before spending them on other unlocks.
House Camp: Anna, Sean and the wall repairs
- Reach Anna in House Camp's Church to finish The Way Home and continue into House Camp Flipper. She stands in the main hall on the red carpet beside a tall candle stand, just inside the front doors. Look for the LOCAL CHURCH sign outside to identify the building.
- Visit Sean when House Camp Flipper sends you to him. His white wooden house has a covered porch across the yard of snow-covered Damaged Cars. From the Church, use the metal stairs beside the building and cross the yard to reach his house.
- Renovate the 4 wall sections required by House Camp Flipper to complete its wall repair task. The quest leads into Breaking the Radio Silence. Keep the active repair objective in view as you work through the camp.
- Retrieve Anna's rewards from the yellow container beside her when the quest asks you to collect them. It is marked Quest reward, and Breaking the Radio Silence includes an objective to collect blueprints from Anna. The Church's Radio Station Bench is inside a locked cabin reached by scaffolding stairs on the building's side wall.
After Breaking the Radio Silence ends, Tower of Finn appears automatically. Tower of Finn leads into New Town, so the story continues beyond this opening route. Let the next objective appear before planning your next quest trip.
Missing keys, stuck recordings and reward problems
Check your inventory and the reward chest if a quest key is missing. If neither contains it, talk to Anna or Skinwalker for a replacement. This recovery applies to Breaking the Radio Silence, The Way Home and Rise Above the Cold.
High Frequency can be completed while Hopes and Dreams is still active. Hopes and Dreams received a completion fix, but saves that collected the glitched recording before that hotfix can remain stuck. For that situation, consult Quest Issues & Workarounds.
The House Camp Flipper reward problem currently prevents its intended craftable fast-travel recipe from unlocking. Existing travel posts can still be unlocked in person, including the Church post on the snow before the front steps. Travel between unlocked posts is unavailable during combat or severe snowstorms.
In co-op, have the host perform the main quest steps and Skinwalker quests. Guests can join once the host reaches the cabin. Skinwalker's reward box should be opened by the host alone.