Permafrost: How to Build and Light Your First Campfire

Your first night in Permafrost is a race against the cold, and a lit Campfire is what keeps Body Warmth from bottoming out and taking your Health with it. The whole job takes two Stone, a few pieces of Wood, and the Building Tool every survivor already carries. Here is exactly how to do it during the opening quest, A New Beginning, on Survival.

Quick answer: Press B for the Building Tool, open the BUILDING menu’s Survival tab and place a Campfire for 2 Stone on flat green ground. Press F to open it, drag Wood into a fuel slot (1 Wood burns 1 minute), then press X to light it.

At the start of A New Beginning two Rock Shards are picked up with F for 2 Stone, the Building Tool is equipped with B, and a Campfire (2 Stone) is placed on open snow after a red “CAN’T BUILD IN AIR” preview; in the evening 3 Wood are dragged into a fuel slot (“3m”), X turns the fire on, the readout jumps to 7°C and “Warm Yourself Up” is ticked.

What you need before you build

2 Stone for the Campfire itself.
Wood to burn as fuel — bring at least a few pieces.
The Building Tool, which every character starts with. You do not craft it.

The interaction key for everything below is F. E is the companion command, so pressing E to pick things up does nothing here.

Gather Stone and Wood near the cabin

Each loose stone is a Rock Shard. Search the frozen stream around its boulders and the ground at the base of the rock walls for the small ones. Put your screen’s centre dot over a shard to see “Rock Shard, Press F to pick up”. Press F; “+1 Stone” appears beside you. Collect at least two, since you need two.

Rock Shard on the snow beside two boulders with the prompt Rock Shard, Press F to pick up — A Rock Shard by the boulders: “Press F to pick up” gives 1 Stone.

Your first Wood comes from bushes. Two stand beside the cabin stairs, with more across the clearing behind the bench. Aim at one and the prompt reads “Bush, Press F to harvest.” Press F and you get “+1 Wood” and “+1 Edible Root,” and the bush disappears. No tool is required for this.

A bare bush beside the cabin stairs with the prompt Bush, Press F to harvest — A bush by the cabin stairs: “Press F to harvest” gives 1 Wood and 1 Edible Root.

Nearby usable objects carry a small white circle. The prompt only shows when that centre dot is on the object and you are within a step or two, so look down at the ground to catch small stones.

Place and build the Campfire

Press B to equip the Building Tool, which is a hammer. It appears in your hand and fills the far-right box in your quick slots.

Press the right mouse button to open the BUILDING panel. It slides in from the right with the tabs Furniture, Survival and Utilities, which you switch between with Q and E.

Go to the Survival tab and click Campfire. The number beside it shows what you carry against what you need, so with two Stone on hand it reads “2/2.” The panel then closes and a Campfire preview follows your aim.

BUILDING panel open on the Survival tab listing Campfire and Bed with their costs — The BUILDING panel on the Survival tab: Campfire and Bed.

Find level, unobstructed ground and aim there. Green marks a spot where the piece will fit; red marks an invalid one. Trying the cabin porch or the edge beyond a slope, for instance, gives a red preview with the message “CAN’T BUILD IN AIR”.

Press the left mouse button to place it. The Campfire appears and “-2 Stone” shows beside you — the Stone is taken at once.

Green Campfire preview on open snow beside a bench, with the Building Tool in hand — A green preview on flat snow: the Campfire can be placed here.

Press B again to put the tool away. The finished Campfire now reads “Campfire, Press F Open.”

An unlit Campfire on the snow with the prompt Campfire, Press F Open — The placed Campfire, not yet lit: “Press F Open”.

With the tool equipped, press R to rotate the piece or G to choose a different variation, if available. Placing it leaves the same piece selected. Once your Stone runs out, the preview turns red and displays “MISSING RESOURCES.”

Add Wood and light the fire

Face the Campfire and press F to open its inventory. The right-hand COOKING panel has one PRIMARY ingredient slot, R COOK, a FUEL timer, two fuel slots, and X TURN ON.

Drag Wood from your backpack onto one of the two fuel slots. The whole stack goes in, and the FUEL timer shows the burn time at the rate of 1 minute per Wood — three pieces read “3m,” eight pieces read “8m.”

Inventory screen with Wood selected and its details shown beside the Cooking panel — Wood selected in the backpack; drag it onto a fuel slot to load burn time before lighting.

Press X (TURN ON) to ignite the Campfire. Ignition uses one Wood; the timer ring turns green and displays a flame, and the button switches to TURN OFF. The fire won’t light if no fuel is loaded.

COOKING panel with the FUEL ring green, Wood in the first fuel slot and the button reading TURN OFF — Lit: the FUEL ring is green and the button now reads TURN OFF.

Exit the panel and remain near the fire. The temperature display at the screen’s top changes from the outdoor reading to 7°C, accompanied by a flame icon. In well under a minute, Body Warmth rises from 0/300 to 300/300.

How to tell it worked

During A New Beginning, the “Warm Yourself Up” step ticks off once you have warmed up at the lit fire, and the objective advances to “Craft Stone Pickaxe.” Lighting a fire for the first time also unlocks the Steam achievement “Spark of Life: Start a fire for the first time.”

A player in a backpack stands in the snow at night facing a burning stone campfire with an Open prompt. — A lit Campfire in the snow at night, with the A New Beginning quest tracker showing Warm Yourself Up completed and Craft Stone Pickaxe as the next step.

Pressing X again turns the fire off. The timer stops, and any Wood that has not burned yet can be dragged back into your backpack. The piece already burning is not returned.

COOKING panel with the fire off, the FUEL timer reading 7m and Wood still in the fuel slot — Turned off with 7m on the timer: the unburnt Wood can be dragged back.

Staying warm after the fire

Once you move away from the fire, its warmth no longer protects you. At night, temperatures around -33°C bring back the “BONE-CHILLING COLD” banner when you’re wearing the starting clothes, rated [-26°C] on Survival; Body Warmth then drains again within minutes. If it reaches 0/300 while the banner remains, your Health steadily drops until you die. In daytime temperatures of -26°C to -27°C, Health stayed steady.

The cabin next to the first campsite is a second option. Inside it reads -18°C to -19°C and refills Body Warmth without a fire, once you unlock its door with the Stone Shiv (1 Stone, 2 Wood). For more Wood, make a Stone Axe (2 Stone, 4 Wood) and break the Stack of planks by the stairs for “+1 Wood” per hit, or fell a pine, whose fallen Trunk pieces each gave “+4 Wood” on Survival.

Player in a heavy winter coat crouches in deep snow beside a stack of planks next to a wooden porch, with a break prompt. — A “Stack of planks” beside a snow-covered wooden porch can be broken with an axe for wood during the “A NEW BEGINNING” quest.

Mistakes that stop the fire

Placing against the porch or a slope edge gives a red preview reading “CAN’T BUILD IN AIR.”
Pressing X with an empty fuel timer will not light the fire.
Pressing E instead of F to pick things up does nothing — E is the companion command.
No prompt appears if you’re too far from a white circle or the centre dot isn’t aimed at it.
Walking away from a lit fire with a full bar and expecting the warmth to last at night.

Get those two Stone and a handful of Wood together, keep the preview green, and the first fire is a matter of a few clicks. From there, a stock of Wood at camp means you always have a warming stop ready before the next cold night sets in.