Farthest Frontier Beginner’s Guide: Tips for New Players

by Mike Alexander / Game Guides, Tips & Tricks / 10 Jan 2022

Crate Entertainment’s recently released survival/strategy/city-builder game, Farthest Frontier, has finally launched into Early Access after many months of anticipation. In it, you will lead a small band of people as they leave the comfort of their homes to start a new life in the wilderness on the edge of the known world.

Farthest Frontier’s many complex systems and mechanics will take lots of time to learn and get used to, and since it’s in Early Access, things can be tweaked in the weeks and months leading up to its full release. However, if you want to get off on the best foot in the current version of the game, then you can follow the tips & tricks in this Farthest Frontier Beginner’s Guide.

Initial Settings

Before you ever set foot in the wilderness, you’ll be presented with a menu after clicking “New Settlement”. This menu will have options that determine the parameters of your game, including the map size, terrain, and difficulty settings. You can also enable/disable Pacifist Mode, which will determine whether or not your game will have raids and combat in it.

The three difficulty settings, Pioneer, Trailblazer, and Vanquisher, all come with different levels of starting resources, wildlife and hunting opportunities, and healthcare adversity. If this is your first playthrough of the game, it is recommended that you select Pioneer, the easiest mode, just to get a feel for the game before you increase the difficulty.

Placing Your Town Center

With all of your settings selected, you will then be dropped into the game. Before you can do anything else though, you’ll need to put down roots and construct your town center. Where you decide to build the town center is incredibly important, so pay close attention.

You’re going to want to set up your town center in an area that is 1.) close to water, 2.) near trees and rocks, and 3.) close to wild game you can hunt, if possible. It’s also worth noting that you should make notes or try to remember where the important resources are on the map before you confirm where the town center will go because once you do there will be a fog of war around it that you’ll need to clear through exploration. Remembering where the important things are will save you some time later.

Collecting Resources

Now that you have the location for your town center, you will need the resources required to build it. Resource gathering is also a core component of Farthest Frontier, so this next tip will help you through the rest of the game as well.

You can harvest resources individually by clicking them, but the much faster and more efficient way of doing this is to bring up the harvest menu, make sure all of the resources are checked, and then click and drag an area that has all of those resources in it. Then, your citizens will go out and gather up anything they find and begin construction.

Hunting

The next step in the process is to start gathering food. Hunting is one of the best ways to do this, but the process comes with a few steps. First, you will need to make sure you have animals available to hunt nearby. If you followed the advice in the town center placement tip, then you’re either already in range, or you know exactly where to go.

Then, you’ll go into the build menu and select Hunter’s Cabin for construction. If you don’t yet have the materials required to build it, collect those, and then your people will build it if they don’t have any other projects in the works. Once it is constructed, the hunting process will happen automatically and you’ll have a steady supply of food coming in as long as there are animals nearby.

Housing and Roads

The citizens of your settlement will of course need a place to live. Housing is also an essential requirement that will increase as the population of your settlement also increases. You can build houses through the build menu, and it is recommended you start off with 8 or so houses to start.

To connect those houses with the town center and the other facilities you will construct, you will need some roads. You can equip the road tool with the M key, and start laying out your roads. Take some time to plan how everything will be connected before you start. A grid pattern will suffice for your first settlement, just to keep things simple.

Farthest Frontier Keyboard Shortcuts and Hotkeys

Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
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