Even though the world of Frostpunk might first appear as a completely uninhabitable, icy-cold wasteland, it is your duty as the city’s leader to create a safe (and warm) haven for your citizens. Gathering Posts are pretty much the very first rung on a ladder that is quite prone to snapping, breaking, and falling apart.
Frostpunk is not an easy game. Your citizens will face many challenges as they attempt to carve out a life for themselves on the icy wastes. Gathering Posts are a good place to start. Here’s everything you need to know about this rickety building, including the best way to make use of the Posts in the early game.
5 Gathering Posts Are Available Right At The Start Of The Game
Gathering Posts are not more than a roughly put-together pile of scrap metal and wood, and for that reason, you can build them from the Resources tab right at the start of the game. No research needed. They cost 15 Wood and 5 Steel and will take 1 hour and 30 minutes to construct.
Rather than have your citizens scrabble around in the ice and snow in the freezing cold, the Gathering Posts give them very small protection against the chill. That is, it has one level of heating insulation, which is just enough to keep people healthy for the first few days.
They’re a pretty invaluable building at the start of the game. Knowing how to use them can make a big difference between a strong start and one that will leave your citizens freezing and close to death within the first few in-game days.
4 Gathering Posts Are Much More Efficient Than Gathering Resource Piles By Hand
Resource Piles are found dotted around the wasteland at the very start of the game. These are where you get the first bunch of resources needed to start planning out your city and developing to the point that you are producing resources rather than collecting them.
You can send your citizens out to collect resource piles by hand, gathering up the wood crates, steel wrecks, and coal piles, but it is much more efficient to build a Gathering Post. With a fully staffed Gathering Post (with 10 people) you can gather resources at roughly three times the efficiency, and without the need to send 40+ people out into the cold.
These resource piles are a limited resource, however, so when you start to notice your workers no longer collecting anything from the piles, it’s time to shut them down and use those workers somewhere more useful. Frostpunk, after all, is a game all about managing your workforce.
3 You Can Gather Piles Quickly With Gathering Posts And Extra Citizens
If you’re looking for a strong start to the game, you can build a Gathering Post next to a group of Resource Piles and then have citizens staffed on each of the piles. You’ll have multiple citizens gathering resources which will speed up the process and give you a headstart.
Gathering Posts will also stack. You can build multiple posts close to Resource Piles and your workers will gather resources side-by-side. Just make sure to close down the Gathering Posts once all the resources have been collected, otherwise, it’s a waste of manpower and resources.
It should be noted that there is no real method to control which resources are gathered by your Gathering Posts. Your workers will simply be assigned to the nearest resource pile and move outwards in a small circle radius.
2 There Isn’t Much Need For Them When The Resource Piles Run Out
Though you will start with several resource piles, they will quickly be depleted if you’ve built enough Gathering Posts. Once you start to move into the mid-game, where you have buildings producing resources on their own, you won’t need Gathering Posts as the resource piles have either disappeared or are no longer worth your time.
One use for the Gathering Post is to set them up next to a Coal Thumper. The Thumper produces enough coal to require two Gathering Posts to allow citizens to collect the coal. Later in the game, when you have access to Automatons, you can staff a single Automaton on each Gathering Post and have your citizens work at the Thumper.
1 You Can Upgrade The Gathering Posts
There are a few different upgrades for the Gathering Posts, including two levels of Efficiency that increase work rates by 15 percent each. It’s also possible to upgrade the insulation of the Gathering Posts by +1 heat level, for a maximum of three insulation against the cold.
While these upgrades might seem insignificant considering the short lifespan of Gathering Posts, those same upgrades for work rate speed apply to Automatons as well as your workers. This means you can increase the efficiency of your coal harvesting from the Thumpers.
There are probably more important upgrades that you can prioritize ahead of Gathering Posts, but it’s a good thing to keep in mind if you feel like you might be using them throughout your game.
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