Permafrost Walkthrough: Main Quest Route (Early Access)
Updated:
Quick answer: the Early Access main route runs Starting Area → Horizon → Bone Cave → New Home → Hunter's Glade → House Camp → Tower of Finn → Solar Fields → Logan's Camp. Do quest steps in the order given and pick up quest items one at a time — most quest bugs in the current build come from rushing ahead.
Spoiler policy: quest names, structure and rewards only — no story outcomes.
1. Starting area → Horizon ("A New Beginning")
The tutorial has you hand-craft stone tools, light a campfire and secure your first cabin door. Loot as you go: containers don't always show a prompt, so press interact on anything suspicious, and R loots all. An early quest reward is the survivor's backpack (20 slots vs the casual 15).
"Feel The Heat" then walks you to Horizon, the main survivor camp, where Robyn takes over your quest log. Horizon has a trader, the traveling merchant Mule (who sells treated hide), a free repair bench, and a fast-travel sled post.
2. The bone cave ("Dog Days")
Robyn's early errands lead to the bone cave — guarded by a bear. Bring a bandage and a piece of raw meat: you heal the injured dog with the bandage and tame it with raw meat (cooked food does not work). Full details in the dog companion guide. While inside, mine the flint and copper boulders — you will need both within the hour.
3. New Home: your first base
"New Home" establishes your base: build a workbench (10 wood, under a roof), walls, a door, and claim a bed to set your respawn. The chain then asks for the radio station bench (3 wire + 10 wood) — wire means copper, which means the flint pickaxe and a stone furnace first. Build the radio, listen to the transmission, and the Hunter's Glade questline opens.
4. Hunter's Glade and the Skinwalker
"The Outpost" leads to Hunter's Glade, where the eccentric hunter Skinwalker lives in a ruined lookout tower. "High Frequency" has you rebuild the tower (13 repair steps reported, including its radio) — bring wood and building materials. His reward box in "The Way Home" contains the tailoring bench blueprint and a 25-slot utility backpack. Skinwalker also sells heaters, bows, traps and bandages, and offers hunting challenges (seven wolves for the wolf-head hat, among others) with useful cold-weather rewards.
5. House Camp and Anna
At the church camp, Anna Ivaschenko needs the settlement's defenses restored after a Moon Cult attack: renovate 4 walls and 2 gates (10 scrap + 1 wire per wall) while cultist waves push back. The reward is the kitchen stove schematic — see food and cooking. Her follow-up chain ("Breaking the Radio Silence", roof radio 3 scrap + 4 wood) eventually pays out a mountain backpack and the hybrid clothing blueprints.
The side quest "Lost Connection" (also here) is worth doing for its choice: tell Sean the truth about the recording and he opens his locked bedroom — vodka, canned goods, five large medkits, and fuel-free moonstone lamps.
6. Tower of Finn, Solar Fields, Logan's camp
The late-EA route runs through the improvised radio tower toward the Solar Fields and Logan Boyce. The solar facility is the best mid-game loot site reported so far:
- Flare-gun ammo recipe at the entrance from the solar fields
- Battery recipe and more schematics on the rooftops
- TR22 "Rudy" rifle and the J Pistol MK2 behind a grate
- Refined iron pickaxe and shiv patterns
- The legendary Permafrost armor set on a corpse at the top, plus a second pattern across from it
- Military crates with RNG loot — check rooftops and side rooms
The Rat Queen (Rat Queen's Crossing) runs the "Parking Zoo" quest, which teaches the weapon bench and asks you to craft 30 rounds of ammunition.
Getting around
- Fast travel uses sled posts: Horizon, the Solar Fields, the Church, Crow's Nest and The Last Stand. Interact (
F) to unlock a post; travel between unlocked posts is free but blocked during combat and severe storms, and the clock advances. - Repair the collapsed bridge near the start (52 logs reported) — it shortens the Horizon loop considerably and is easy to miss.
- The current build is limited to the starting region; the rest of the map sits behind an invisible wall.
Quest bug survival rules (Early Access)
- Do steps in order; don't pre-loot quest items; pick up quest items one at a time.
- Empty reward box or stuck dialogue: press
Spaceto skip the dialogue, then recheck. - Quest markers vanished: toggle Steam offline/online or reload from the main menu.
- "Key from Anna" is consumed by "Take All" in the wrong container — a patch made Anna reissue it; if yours vanished pre-patch, reload.
FAQ
Is the map bigger than the starting region? Not in the current Early Access build — the invisible wall bounds the playable area.
Can I fail a quest permanently? No failed-state reports so far; most blockers are the ordering bugs listed above.
Where do I get bigger backpacks? Survivor's backpack (early quest), mountain backpack (Anna's chain), utility backpack +5 (Skinwalker).
Related: Beginner guide · Dog companion · Food and cooking
TVF Gaming (YouTube)
Related guides
- Permafrost Beginner Guide: Survive Your First DaysA practical opening route: pick a background, craft stone tools, master campfire discipline, rescue your dog, build a first cabin, and learn how blueprint points and saving actually work.
- Permafrost Dog Companion: Rescue, Commands and Saddle BagsRescue your dog in the bone cave during Dog Days: bring a bandage and raw meat, watch for the bear. Then use its saddle bags as mobile storage.
- Permafrost Food Guide: Cooking, Healing and HuntingCooked food heals. Get the kitchen stove from Anna's quest, combine meat with edible roots for a 50-HP healthy dish, and never eat raw meat.
- Permafrost Base Building: Shelters, Beds and RenovationPress B, snap foundation → walls → door → roof, claim a bed, and avoid no-build zones. Plus material tiers, renovation zones, decay and known placement bugs.
- Permafrost: How to Save Your Game (and Not Lose It)Save manually from the pause menu — the autosave can be over an hour old. Plus respawn beds, backpack recovery and co-op save rules.