Frostrail survival checklist

Print this, pin it, or read it on voice. It assumes you already know the loop from How to Play. Each line is a yes/no. If you cannot tick it, you are not ready for the hatch. The longer why lives in Survival, Train and Eden Engine, and Co-op.

0. Before anyone clicks Ready

• Steam client is the playtest/beta app, not a confused store page. See closed beta if someone cannot join.
• Crew size is 1–4. No fifth “just spectating in the car.”
• Voice works. Push-to-talk is not the interact key (controls).
• Host has drivers and a wired connection. Specs are TBA; crashing is still on you — system requirements.

1. Engine board (do this first, every stop)

• Power and Heat on the Eden Engine are not in the dirt.
• Cab Pressure / Speed / Consumption glanced, not worshipped.
• Repair bench is reachable. Hammer or wrench is on a hotbar, not in a junk crate.
• One named Engine player stays aware of obstacle-clearing fights.
• Doors you do not need are shut. Heat is a resource.

If this block fails, nobody loots. The pilgrimage is the train.

2. Jobs said out loud

• Engine — boiler + veto on “one more room.”
• Scout — first out, calls Revenants vs soldiers (enemies).
• Salvage — value, not volume.
• Rear — last out, last in, owns the walk home.

Solo: do Engine, then a short Salvage, then Rear for yourself. Do not “full shrine then fuel.”

3. Body and bags

• Blizzard clothing on before the door. Dungeon layer ready to swap on the train, not in a cellar.
• Temperature widget understood. −28 °C outside is a briefing.
• Ammo counted for the gun you will actually fire (weapons).
• Torch or close-range answer for interiors. Not both if you are already heavy.
• One empty slot for a Relic. Four people stuffing chairs is a fail.

4. Stop plan (thirty seconds)

• Building type called: camp, village, wreck, bunker, dungeon.
• Time-box or turn-back rule: half ammo, temperature X, or Engine ping.
• Multiple exits remembered. The shrine is optional.
• Relic activation window named before pickup: defense, exfil, or bench. Relics.

5. During the stop

• Fuel and repair mats beat souvenirs.
• Scout calls faction. Rear does not wander.
• Engine ping overrides loot. Defense encounters are part of driving now.
• Nobody “catches up later.”

6. Walk home and spend

• Group exfil. Rifle or shotgun up according to what you saw, not according to what you crafted for fun.
• First thirty seconds back: heat, then bags, then screenshots.
• Repair queue on the workstation.
• Relic activated if this was the window — on the train, not in the snow.
• Craft only what you can feed. Extra carriages after you fill the ones you have.
• One bug report as a crew if something broke. Survey if it was a feeling.

7. Host-only anti-chaos

• New player has opened Getting Started once. You cannot voice-chat a missing bind.
• LFG pugs hear jobs in the first minute or they do not board. Links for Discord, not for miracles.
• If the session is a test, someone actually hits the in-game bug button. FakeFish cannot patch a vibe.

How to use this without turning it into homework

Read section 1–4 every stop for the first two hours. Then only read the lines you failed last time. The checklist is a scalpel. If you recite all of it after it is muscle memory, you are stalling.

When Early Access lands in Q4 2026 and FakeFish adds biomes or named Relics, we will add lines — not a novel. Until then, if a line conflicts with a Steam news post, the news post wins and this page is wrong until edited.

Related arguments that do not belong here: DPS (weapons), 1.0 dates (roadmap), keybinds (controls).