Frostwake strategy guide: controls, objectives, and verified tips

Command a glacier rescue under a closing whiteout: survey three hazards, build warmth and shelter, shape the ice, and evacuate all 30 crew members. This guide expands on the verified controls, objective, recovery loop, and practical route choices; the game page remains the canonical place to play.

Understand the objective

Scan North Rift, Melt Basin, and Wind Shelf; extend heat from Base Ember; place shelter and defenses; draw hazard-specific trenches, berms, compact routes, fracture seals, and heat cable; choose heat output through the storm; then dispatch three survivor groups separately.

Keep the shelter, battery, heat network, and fractured ice stable long enough to evacuate the 8-person survey crew, 10-person medical team, and 12-person convoy for a 30-of-30 rescue.

Use the verified controls

Mouse: left-click to aim or confirm, drag an armed field tool to shape ice, right-drag or Alt-drag to orbit, middle-drag to pan, and use the wheel to zoom.

Keyboard: W A S D moves the camera; 1–5 select structures; Q, E, F, G, and T select trench, berm, compact, seal, and heat-cable tools; Enter applies and B starts the storm.

Heat and rescue: Z, X, and C choose Conserve, Balanced, or Emergency heat; 7, 8, and 9 dispatch the three eligible groups; Space or Escape pauses.

Touch: rotate to landscape, tap to aim, drag to pan, use two fingers to orbit and zoom, arm Touch edit before drawing, then press Apply action to confirm.

Plan a reliable run

• Survey all three hazard sectors before spending material so every structure and surface tool answers a known risk.
• Connect relays and heaters outward from Base Ember, then place the shelter within 16 meters of connected heat before committing to the storm.
• Use trenches for Melt Basin water, berms for Wind Shelf exposure, seals for North Rift fracture growth, and a compact route between shelter and base.
• Emergency heat protects the shelter but drains battery and increases meltwater, so reserve it for the coldest part of the whiteout and dispatch only eligible groups.

Recover, retry, and verify the run

Battery exhaustion, sustained lethal cold, runaway fracture, or shelter collapse ends the operation; choose Run it again or Restart operation to begin a fresh deterministic rescue without reloading the page.

Ready to test the strategy? Play Frostwake and apply the verified controls and tips in a fresh run.

Attribution and derivative disclosure

A source-owned OpenGame derivative based in part on winchxyz’s MIT-licensed Tidewright, with retained conservative third-party notices. It builds on Tidewright by winchxyz at commit ebf06be3303c2ee9588c394230971e5e475b3f1c, distributed under the MIT license.