Finished Last Autumn Survivor, here are a few tips

[Carlos]

As with all the Survivor scenarios, it's all about being very precise with your build and law and research order in the first few days. Afterwards it's more or less smooth sailing till the end. I finished 5 days ahead of schedule, before the sea froze over.

- I tried to make do without the Foragers but I couldn't make it work with just the Fisheries before a lot of people started to die of starvation. About 30+ people died before my Fisheries kicked in. Therefore it's better to rush Foragers (first Sawmills then Foragers) and send them west to the hunting camp asap. Two or three people still died but I think with better micro it can be done without anyone dying.

- Next I went for Docks - Drawing Boards - Reloading Stations - Fishing Harbour (as soon as that was done I let my Foragers roam) - Profile Manufacture

- My law order was: Gruel - Sustain Life - Chapel - Cocaine Pills - Pub - House of Pleasure - Evening Service - Bath House - Comfortable Quarters. This order worked best for raising Motivation as fast as possible over the +30% efficiency threshold. Especially the Cocaine Pills are super OP, they'll single-handedly get you to that sweet bonus efficiency in a few days and keep you there until the late-game. The only downside is a couple of people will die of overdose (I got maybe 5 or 6 dead over the entire playthrough). I didn't use the Bath House, I just got it for the Comfortable Quarters perk which lowers discontent nicely and cheaply.

- My build order was: I distributed my people evenly to all the piles and as soon as I had 5 steal I plopped a Gathering Post between the wood piles. With another 5 steel I plopped another one right below. I pulled 10 people from the Steam Core pile and 10 people from one of the steel piles and put them in the Posts. Workers gather material MUCH faster that way. I then built one Workshop, one Medical Post (so that those 3 sick you always get after the first night can start healing asap) and then another Workshop. Then a cookhouse, the Tents, Chapel, Pub, Docks, Reloading Station. It's important to hustle in the first phase since it's very tight. You gotta have the steel flowing asap and build the Telegraph Station. I always make it in the nick of time. Subsequent phases are way more forgiving.

- I'd say the rest is relatively smooth. I personally went with Engineers. Compared to the Workers they lack in the motivation department but again, Cocaine PIlls can easily pick up the slack. Plus Engineers have the Inspectorate that increases workplace safety which is great as it can save you a lot of sick workers and even enable you to work during the 3 degree toxicity. I also like to kindda rush the Infirmary which is way faster than the Medical Posts.

- I also started gathering my coal relatively early and later retooled one of my docks for coal (had 2 steel docks and 2 fisheries until mid-game, then changed one dock to coal). I'm not sure if you can do without the Ventilation Plant but again, it can save you a lot of sick and you can work during the more hazardous toxicity levels. It's also important to gradually upgrade your docks and reloading stations to keep up with the materials (Upgraded Docks and Steam Stations are more than enough). You don't have to upgrade the sawmills at all.

- As for scouting, if you don't want to save scum I think it's not worth risking robbing the Frenchies. Losing 15 workers early on hurts. As for the lost crates just grab the loot and don't give it back, there are absolutely no repercussions. As soon as you finish the Shaft Structure the Winterhome location pops up and you can get more loot and Engineers. They never mention their lost crates.

Good luck :D

[snuggleform]

As to your last comment, you can't save scum on survivor since you can only save when exiting. Also what do you mean by winterhome location, you mean site 102?

I just finished survivor myself but it didn't give me credit for extreme/hard so I have to do it all again with pauses ;p

I have some comments overall:

cocaine pills are really good, they let you easily hit the high motivation buff until the sea freezes over (by then the motivation drops are too harsh unless you enact the highest tier laws like Terror)

the first safety check occurs at 70% progress on the shaft, so blow all your cooldowns and venilation turn ons right at 69% to get the best rescue option. The second blowout on the tower pumps seem to occur more randomly I've seen it at 30% and 55%, it could vary by difficulty. Same with third blowout on the core, I saw it at 44% one time but it could vary as well.

probably the trickiest thing is balancing your workers appropriately between resource collection and generator building. I prioritize just enough resources to get by (one reloader on steel, 1-2 sawmills although I start with 3 I cut down to 1 eventually, 10-20 on fishing once you get 24 hour shifts, then 50 workers on the generator and keep dribbling in workers to gather coal from the bottom deposits.

minor nitpicks: i went foragers first then sawmill, so either way is doable, and you don't have to stick gathering post between 2 woods I just put a gathering post beside each pair of wood/steel and it turned out fine (overall finished generator 6 days ahead of schedule).

I really wonder what affects the chances of success at the end ; after doing the bonus objectives I've seen both "average" and "acceptable" but never "high." There must be something else going on besides just finishing the bonuses and avoiding the bad outcomes when accidents happen to the generator.

[Carlos]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

As to your last comment, you can't save scum on survivor since you can only save when exiting. Also what do you mean by winterhome location, you mean site 102?

You can save scum if you know where your save file is :D Also yeah, Winterhome is location 102.

Originally posted by snuggleform:

I really wonder what affects the chances of success at the end ; after doing the bonus objectives I've seen both "average" and "acceptable" but never "high." There must be something else going on besides just finishing the bonuses and avoiding the bad outcomes when accidents happen to the generator.

I've finished with the Perfectionist achievement (all upgrades, no malfunctions), left the site with oodles of food and materials and still get only "Average". There was another thread about it, one dude claimed he got "High" but nobody seems to know why or how.

[snuggleform]

TBH I'm not even certain you could save scum even if you knew where your save file is; reason being in previous maps the roll is already determined at the start of the map eg no matter how many times you try to reload you will always fail or succeed at getting the extra steamcores on winterhome.

[Mikebrowski]

I just beat it myself and I noticed a few things, spam getting workers and rush protrostetic law, get the workers union and try to get the decks ASAP first bulding other than houses, then reacher. around day 30 ish the winter starts so get ready for even worse time.

The toxic gas goes away after the core so try to get that because it will save you alot of time.

also DO NOT ignore the deadline I got really cocky with the first order and ended up been 5 days behind because of the annoying events that will cockblock you.

[醉仙望月]

I've seen someone could fully upgrade the Generator in 20 days (Yes! TWENTY days!) with 0 death on survivor mode.

[Carlos]

Originally posted by 醉仙望月:

I've seen someone could fully upgrade the Generator in 20 days (Yes! TWENTY days!) with 0 death on survivor mode.

You got link? 20 days seems really fast on Survivor where everything takes forever.

[amordron]

Originally posted by Carlos77:

Originally posted by 醉仙望月:

I've seen someone could fully upgrade the Generator in 20 days (Yes! TWENTY days!) with 0 death on survivor mode.

You got link? 20 days seems really fast on Survivor where everything takes forever.

I also call bull if your going to post such a thing a link is required.

On survivor your looking at a min of 2 days per upgrade and stage plus 2 days to get stage one started and about 3 days before you get going on getting stage 1 going.

That is 18 days if the stars alone and that dose not include taking saftey into account. As you said 0 deaths you have to so your now talking longer and not in the time fram of 2 days longer.

As such till you provide a link your post is worthless.

This is esp the case as even on easy doing in 20 days is possible but not easy. As such I’m sure he was only playing on easy or normal.

[DJ PUNK]

Originally posted by 醉仙望月:

I've seen someone could fully upgrade the Generator in 20 days (Yes! TWENTY days!) with 0 death on survivor mode.

look at this comedian

[Harbie]

Oh boy, I don't even want to think about survivor mode but I might have to try it now since I feel kinda jipped on my endless mode play (built an automation without thinking "wait, I don't have a generator or steam hubs", tried using automation on profile manuf causes crash).

Doing Last Autumn on normal wasn't hard enough but I kinda figured it wouldn't from the amount of time I played this game. I got perfectionist and got only "Average" as well which........I guess is pretty good all things considered in Frostpunk's world.

I didn't do cocaine pill as I figured it would result in a few deaths. In survivor mode, I would not think twice about that. Sounds fun to play with.

The one thing I wanted to add is I didn't realize how the Overseer towers boosted motivation. Its oddly worded and seems to behave funny (I think I remember the 30% thresholds acted funny and didn't line up with UI for me a few times).