Chapter 3 Steam Core Issues

[Sane Boi Caligula]

Hi,
I think I might have softlocked myself at the start of chapter 3.
I need 1 Steam Core to settle Winterholm, but I can't get any more cores. I already explored the entire map, and I spent all of the cores on Outposts, so I cant dismantle to get them back. I also looked through all of my buildings and districts, and I can't get any from dismantling those either.
Do I need to restart, or is there another way to get a steam core at the start of Chapter 3.

[Ivan]

Same issue here. It's a clear oversight of the game mechanics. I cant demolish anything to return cores because I spent all cores on irreversible things (outposts, etc). Because it was not clear I will need them to progress the main story. Now I am in a dead end.

[Kariax]

Same here, I was kinda hoping that maybe more of the frostland becomes available to explore after the whiteout passes through the whole map, but so far it just looks like I blocked myself. Seems pretty bad design wise.

[Curcă]

Are you sure you didn't at least use 1 core to build a special building in a district? Seems pretty implausible to me that you wouldn't, but if you did you can check districts for buildings and dismantle those.

[Kariax]

Nope, I spent 3 on Generator Upgrade and the rest on upgrading the outposts. IMO they should just give an option to dismantle an outpost to get the cores back.
Welp, at least I still had 3 cores on the autosave from the start of the chapter 3 so I don't have to completly restart, but it's still around 100 weeks that I'm not getting back.

[Anonymous2013]

Yea, there's a limited amount of Steam Cores in the Frostlands and Tesla City's far too damaged to produce any after 30 years of neglect.
You can get a few more Steam Cores if you choose to dismantle certain places that could become Outposts or dismantle the lost Automatons you find.

Sadly, there's no prompt or option asking you if you want to sacrafice a good chunk of your workforce to dismantle already working Automatons for Steam Cores. So you may have to start over from a previous save.

Or you can chose to harvest Whinterhome since its Generator foundation has some 40+ Steam Cores and could solve your problems at the cost of a different ending.

[Proeliumerus]

Are you sure you've searched the entire wasteland? It's a shame if you have, there are 10 cores in winterhome... I finished the game with almost all settlements fully upgraded and multiple hothouses and other advanced buildings....

If you have, then restart the chapter - you lost. Sorry.

[Sane Boi Caligula]

Looks like I need to restart, RIP.
At least I can plan district placement better this time.

[Playzr 🐵]

Where is Winterhome? I've looked at the map but can't see where it could be.

[vanquishValiant]

ran into this problem too. pretty annoying oversight that even taking all the optional cores I still ran out trying to upgrade all the outposts. they really should ensure that you can get at least 1 for the mandatory winterhome quest or give some kind of warning.

Guess i'll have to reload god knows how far back

[Anonymous2013]

Originally posted by Playzr 🐵:

Where is Winterhome? I've looked at the map but can't see where it could be.

Its in the North-West, just explore "Cursed Valley" and you'll find it there.

[Ivan]

I will have to replay the whole chapter which is very annoying. Game devs had to count how many cores are available and can be spent irreversibly. Or they could just create a prompt message when the player attempts spending the last core that core "will be critical in the future."

[Otaku know that on my avatar]

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[Sane Boi Caligula]

For anyone that wants the cheat:

Originally posted by Otaku know that on my avatar:

Use this only for rescuing your save.
You can substract one core away later then you find it propely.

You can add one core using cheating (memory editing software).
Searching for 0 cores is impossible.
But you can search address of Heatstamps or Prefabs.
Use exact 4 byte interger search mode.
To get Steam Cores address you need to add 90 (hex) to Heatstamps address or 48 (hex) to Prefabs address. Offset between them is 48 (hex).