EmberFrost build order: what to build first, and why

A good EmberFrost build order starts with the market stall, then a cabin, then whichever place saves you the most walking. After that, the game offers three places at a time in a fixed order, so the skill lies in choosing among those three, upgrading the fire as the village grows and timing the lookout tower.

This guide covers all 26 places of EmberFrost in the order they open, what each one changes, where the fire upgrades and the forge fit in, and how to get the village ready for the last build. It has no story spoilers. If this is your first hour in Tamarisk, start with the beginner's guide.

How do places unlock in EmberFrost?

EmberFrost has 26 places to rebuild in Tamarisk Village, and they open in a fixed order, three at a time. Every place stands on the map from the start as a ruin or a snow mound, but only the next three unbuilt places show a price; the rest wait behind a padlock. Stand on a priced place's dashed zone and your coins flow in as you have them. A half-paid place keeps what you put in, and when one is finished, the next place in the order gets its price. Because the offer is always the three earliest unbuilt places, you can never get more than two places ahead of one you are putting off. Costs rise along the list, from 50 coins for the market stall to 2,165 for the lookout tower. The fire's upgrades and the forge run on tracks of their own. The lookout always comes last.

The free start covers your first three places, any three of the ones on offer. The Full Story opens the rest, as our guide to what is free in EmberFrost explains. Fire upgrades are a separate track and do not use up one of the three.

What should you build first in EmberFrost?

The first five places in the order are the market stall, the ice fishing hole, Cabin 1, the bigger backpack and the north brazier. Three of them are on offer at once. Our pick for the first three:

1. The market stall. The game's opening walks you there anyway. Villagers at the stall pay full price, 3 coins a log, where the sell circle pays 1.
2. Cabin 1. Room for 4 more villagers and 5 points of morale. Once 6 people live around the fire, the fire's first upgrade appears.
3. The bigger backpack or the ice hole. The backpack takes you from 5 items to 8, so every trip pays more. The ice hole opens fish, the best-paying item, but it also starts fish requests at the stall.

That last point catches a lot of new players. Before the ice hole, every villager asks for wood, the thing you already carry. Once it opens, 18% of requests on Normal and 26% on Hard want fish until the fisher arrives, and you catch each one yourself at 4 seconds a fish. For an easy start, take the backpack first and open the ice hole when you are ready to fish. The north brazier can wait: it warms the forest edge, but it burns its own wood.

Every place in EmberFrost, in order

What is the best order after the first three places?

The rest of the list falls into three stretches.

Places 6 to 13: the first helpers. The woodcutter's hut is the turning point: a woodcutter stacks logs on the pile by the fire. Granny Maud tells you whenever a worker's building comes on offer, so you can save for it. Cabin 3 makes room for 14 people, and at 12 Lily arrives and the next fire upgrade appears. Build the infirmary as soon as it appears: without it an ill villager may leave for good, and every illness costs 3 morale.

Places 14 to 20: fewer trips. The fur-lined backpack, the storage shed, the lake brazier and then the carrier's post. The carrier keeps the main fire above half full before doing anything else, which takes your most frequent errand off your hands. Cabin 4 makes room for 18 villagers, enough for the beacon fire.

Places 21 to 26: the last stretch. The festival fire, a second woodcutter, the sled, Cabin 5 and the wind screens, which halve what every storm takes from your fires. Then the lookout tower is offered on its own.

A few rules hold the whole way:

• Build a worker's place the moment you can afford it. Workers go at 60% of your pace, but they keep working while you do something else.
• Do not sit on a place you dislike. It holds one of the three slots until you build it, and it is always the cheapest of the three.

When should you upgrade the fire in EmberFrost?

As soon as each upgrade appears, in most games. Each level shows a price at its zone by the pit once enough people live in the village:

• Stone hearth: at 6 villagers, for 100 coins. Warms 15 m and holds 18 logs.
• Great hearth: at 12 villagers, for 350 coins. Warms 18 m and holds 26 logs.
• Beacon fire: at 18 villagers, for 700 coins. Warms 22 m and holds 36 logs.

The campfire you start with warms 12 m and holds 12 logs. Each cabin makes room for 4 people on top of the first 2, so the upgrades follow your cabins: the stone hearth after Cabin 1, the great hearth after Cabin 3 and the beacon fire after Cabin 4. A bigger fire burns its wood a little faster, but it holds more and warms a wider ring.

When should you build the forge?

Soon after the stone quarry, which is when the forge is first offered, for 250 coins. It adds room for one more villager: Bram the smith. Bring him stone and he forges three levels of tools for 10, 20 and 30 stone, each making gathering faster for you and every worker, then bigger crates and two sled upgrades. Our EmberFrost coins guide has the numbers.

How do you get ready for the Great Blizzard?

The lookout tower is the last place, offered only once the other 25 stand. Finishing it starts the Great Blizzard after a 45-second warning, so you decide when it comes. On Normal it lasts two minutes, on Hard three. The fire must not stay out for more than 10 seconds at a time, and at least 20 villagers must be there at the end. Your workers shelter by the fire while it blows, so feeding it is up to you.

Before you build the lookout:

1. Let the village fill up. Five cabins and the forge make room for 23. New villagers arrive every 20 seconds, or every 15 when morale is 70 or more, and none come while it is below 30. Check the population counter first.
2. Upgrade to the beacon fire. Its 36 logs buy the most time between trips.
3. Fill the wood pile. With the storage shed it holds 80 logs, right beside the fire.
4. Build in the morning. A day lasts six minutes and a night two, and at night the fire burns half as fast again. Our balancing notes put a Normal blizzard at about 50 logs by day and about 76 at night, and a Hard one at about 61 and 91.
5. Use the warning. Top up the fire, switch on the sled and load up from the pile.

Why does this work? A full beacon fire and a full wood pile hold 116 logs between them, more than even a night blizzard on Hard asks for. The How to play page lists six times the usual wood on Normal, and the wind screens, always up by then, halve the extra. If it goes wrong, nothing is lost: the blizzard returns the next day. Our Normal vs Hard guide has the differences between modes.

FAQ

What should I build first in EmberFrost?

The market stall. Villagers pay full price there, three times what the sell circle pays for a log, and the game's opening leads you to it. Cabin 1 and the bigger backpack make good second and third picks.

How many places can you build in EmberFrost?

26 in the main list, from the market stall to the lookout tower. The three fire upgrades and the forge come on top, on tracks of their own.

Can you skip a place in EmberFrost?

Only for a while. Places open three at a time in a fixed order, and a place you leave unbuilt keeps its slot until you build it.

When does the Great Blizzard start?

When you finish the lookout tower, which is offered only after every other place stands. A 45-second warning comes first.

Get started

EmberFrost: Survival Tycoon is free to start on the App Store. Find out more on the EmberFrost game page, see why it made our list of cozy games for iPhone with no ads, or browse every EmberFrost post.