On the Edge: Hard Difficulty

The few walkthroughs available for this DLC appear to pertain to Normal difficulty, and are minimally helpful for Hard or Extreme difficulty. This guide attempts to bridge that gap.

Part 1: Establishing the Outpost

Some general tips to keep in mind:

• This scenario hinges upon resource management
  
• You need to stay on top of your medical needs, or you will find yourself drowning in Gravely Ill people. Keeping your people warm is key to preventing them getting sick.
  
• Do not expand your settlement with additional Survivors from the Frostland until trade with Hot Springs is established (around Day 13). Food resources are extremely limited at the beginning
  
• Unlike other guides, we will not be beelining Military Warehouse tech because consistent use of Emergency Shift makes that unnecessary at the grand cost of one dead worker

Days 1 - 3 are pretty critical to the success of your outpost.

Day 1: Build a Workshop right out the gate, and set your people to gathering the Steel on the road, and wood. Overnight build cycle: Another Workshop, a Medical Post, 7 Tents, and a Gathering Post on the left side by the ruins. The tents are best placed to either side of a preexisting road to avoid using precious wood on roads and help with future heating needs.

Day 1 Research: Faster Gathering or Sawmill

Day 2: Your workers should clear the Steel pile on the road in the morning. Put them right back to work gathering wood. Overnight build cycle: Cookhouse, another Medical Post, road to Military Warehouse, Administration building, Transport Depot, another Gathering Post. Make sure you demand more Raw Food from New London the moment communications go up as they will only honor that request once.

Day 2 Research: Heaters

Day 3: Temperature drops, so make sure your people are not exposed to the elements. Start rotating your engineers between the Medical Posts and Workshops. Only staff the Cookhouse with 1 worker. Raw Food needs to be managed to ensure there is enough. Fully staff the Military Hanger as soon as you have Heaters as it runs colder than all the other workplaces. Launch a scout to the Collapsed Building. Overnight build cycle: Another Medical Post, 2 Tents, another Gathering Post or Sawmill depending on your research order.

Day 3 Research: Sawmill or Handcarts

Day 4 Research: Handcarts or Drafting Boards

New London will give you Emergency Shift on Day 3. From this point forward, this guide assumes that you will be using it every 2 days on the Military Warehouse.

You've just built pretty much the majority of your Outpost. You should have come through the first couple days with sufficient medical coverage and avoided any Gravely Ill. You need only send one steel/cores shipment to New London for quest purposes. They will start limiting your Raw Food shipments regardless and the resources can be much better used towards developing the Outpost.

From here on out, you need to be working towards improving your Military Warehouse output, but it can wait behind some other critically needed infrastructure. The Emergency Shift every two days will generate ample Steel output for your initial research needs.

Upcoming Research needs in priority order:

• Bunkhouses prior to the temperature drop on Day 10
  
• Coal production building of your choice by Day 8
  
• Faster Scouts by the quest to search for Hot Springs on Day 9

Have your scout waiting at the Frozen Den for when the quest to find Hot Springs opens on Day 9 to cut down on travel time.

Part 2: Trading Partners

Day 11

If you built your Bunkhouses prior to the cold snap on Day 10, you should have prevented any citizens from falling Gravely Ill. If you had your scout waiting at the Frozen Den and immediately moved towards the Hot Springs, you should have just made contact at the start of Day 11. You're likely out of food and have a handful of starving people by this point. Hold fast people, they won't die before your scout returns with its precious cargo of Raw Food. Borrow some workers out of your Sawmill and ship the Construction Team off to Hot Springs.

Day 10-11 Research: Improved Heaters. Your Military Hanger is mighty cold right now.

Immediately request more food from Hot Springs once communications opens. Your handful of starving people might raid the Raw Food supplies your Scout brought in, but you now have a double shipment following from Hot Springs. Dispatch your Scout in search of one of the nearby Survivor groups. Once you've got additional people to man a second Scout unit, dispatch both in search of the two other Trading Settlements.

Now comes the logistical juggling portion of this scenario. Favor with trading partners increases periodically at noon and midnight each game day. Start working your way through the settlement upgrades. Keep an eye on your Favor and request free goods whenever you can. If you've been diligently using Emergency Shift on the Military Hangar, you should be sitting on 400~ units of Steel at this point. The resource chokepoint will now be Wood as the Outpost only has limited trees available.

Upcoming Research priorities:

• Military Hanger tech
  
• Second level Coal tech as needed
  
• Infirmary
  
• Improved Heating

Day 16
You should have made contact with Shipwreck Camp by now. You'll want to meet their requests to gain sorely needed Wood. You've already likely had to slow down on research due to limited Wood resources. Make sure you have an Infirmary up and running before you start on the level 2 Hot Springs and Shipwreck Camp upgrades because they both will have an accident sending 10 Gravely Iill your way apiece.

Day 20
Contact made with Children's Mine. Safe Route established with Hot Springs, with a second underway to Shipwreck Camp. That will have blown through all of your stockpiled Steel. Be mindful of the fact you can request different kinds of materials from the other settlements with Favor, as that will help balance out your incoming resources with all the outlay of materials going into the Safe Routes. Research priorities should be moving towards the final Military Hangar tech and heat upgrades.

Day 25
All three Safe Routes completed. 7 days remaining to complete the settlement upgrades before the confrontation with New London.

Day 30
After copious abuse of Favor and your long-suffering Military Warehouse workers, all settlement upgrades shipped off with 1.5 days to go. Three Settlements stand loyally at your side to face New London.

Part 3: New London

Day 31: 25 hungry, ill refugees arrive from New London. You may need to build another Infirmary or two to handle the influx of sick. You now have the choice, save New London, or let them perish.

With your loyal allies taking care of three out of the four shipments, all you have left is to ship 250 Steel and 5 Steam Cores in 5 days. Your Military Warehouse workers just rolled their eyes and shuffled back into their trenches.

Day 33: Win Game. 1 Worker death (outside of 5 scripted deaths during Hot Springs quest). No Amputees.

Achievements earned:

• Iron Man (On the Edge)
  
• We Are In This Together (or Unforgiven depending on personal choice)
  
• Social Activist
  
• Contractor
  
• Guardian
  
• Defender of the Oppressed
  
• Green Thumb
  
• All Your Base Are Connect To Us

[mat.gonzales]

Excellent.

[elloooo]

pog

[THE_NEW_GUY_ZA]

Nice