How to Survive a Cold Zone in Permafrost (Campfire and Brazier Setup)

A Cold Zone in Permafrost is a marked pocket of extreme cold that drains Body Warmth far faster than the open map and barely lets you recover inside it. You do not settle in one. You treat it as a short crossing, with a fire burning on the rim to warm up between quick trips in and out.

Quick answer: Set a Campfire (2 Stone) or Barrel Brazier (2 Scrap) on the outer side of the No-Build Zone. Get fully warm, sprint in to handle a single task, and return before your Health begins to fall.

What a Cold Zone is and how it drains you

As you reach the edge of one, a banner reads COLD ZONE with a skull-and-snowflake icon and a “Feels like” temperature shown in red. A few seconds deeper in, that banner is replaced by BONE-CHILLING COLD with a snowflake icon. The air turns to blowing white mist and everything is sheathed in ice, so you can read the border before you cross it. The temperature at the top of the screen, beside the thermometer, drops as you step over the edge.

COLD ZONE banner at the iced watchtower — The COLD ZONE banner marks the border as you approach the iced watchtower in the Woods. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @RoyalGaming-RG

Inside, BONE-CHILLING COLD is what causes damage. Its tooltip explains that intense chill reduces body warmth and advises seeking cover. When planning a crossing, pay attention to the two values it affects:

Body Warmth Loss Rate +35%.
Body Warmth Gain Rate -80%.
Remedy listed as “Leave Cold Zone”.
A red snowflake sits in the EFFECTS grid of your Inventory screen while it is active.

Because warmth gain is cut by 80% inside the zone, you cannot meaningfully recover in there. The place to rebuild your meter is outside the border, not within it.

What happens when Body Warmth reaches zero

Health may remain full even after the cold turns hazardous. If Body Warmth reaches 0/300 while you are in the zone, Health begins to drain. In one crossing, Health went from 220/300 to 160/300 over sixteen seconds while warmth stayed at zero. If the warmth bar empties inside, turn around at once; do not wait to see how low it can go.

Body Warmth 0/300 inside the Cold Zone — An empty 0/300 warmth meter on the Inventory screen inside a Cold Zone is your cue to leave at once. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @RoyalGaming-RG

Clothing alone does not keep you safe here. With every clothing slot and the overall rating reading -29°C in the Statistics panel, the zone’s -35°C to -42°C interior still emptied the warmth bar.

Where the Cold Zones are

Two Cold Zones are on the map you are likely to explore early. The Journal says one is in the center of House Camp. Tall ice spires encircle it, including the frozen WATER TOWER. The side quest Rise Above the Cold takes you there to open the box in the zone’s center and retrieve Skinwalker’s item.

COLD ZONE banner at House Camp tower — The House Camp Cold Zone wraps the frozen Water Tower, where Rise Above the Cold asks you to open the central box. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @RoyalGaming-RG

In the Woods, another Cold Zone surrounds an iced-over watchtower set in a hollow; a metal stair and wrecked vehicles are partly buried below. Its “Feels like” reading can differ between visits. On one approach, House Camp showed -46°C, and on another it showed -11°C; inside the Woods zone, the readings were -42°C and -41°C.

How to cross a Cold Zone

Before you go in, bring out the Building Tool and check the edge. Settlements and the tower base are No-Build Zones. The placement preview turns red with “NO-BUILD ZONE”, and banners read “ENTERING No-Build Zone” and “LEAVING No-Build Zone” as you cross those limits. You cannot drop a fire on restricted ground, so find the line first.

Once the LEAVING banner appears, choose a flat patch of snow and select Campfire from the building menu’s Survival tab. The preview shows a counter and the cost, displayed as “-2 Stone”: 2 Stone.

Placing a Campfire outside the No-Build Zone — A green placement preview on flat snow just outside the No-Build Zone, where your warming fire can go. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @RoyalGaming-RG

Press F to access the Campfire. Its COOKING panel shows a FUEL dial, two slots for fuel, and the TURN ON option. Add fuel, then select TURN ON. Each piece of Wood burns for one minute; Coal is another option and burns longer.

Stay near the flames until Body Warmth rises again. The readout along the top of the screen shows whether the fire is helping. At the Woods zone’s rim, it showed -25°C before lighting the fire and 18°C beside it afterward.

Lit Campfire on the rim, 18°C — A lit Campfire on the rim lifts the readout to 18°C, your recovery point between runs into the zone. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @RoyalGaming-RG

Make a single quick trip inside, complete one task, and return to the fire. Limit yourself to one crate or one stretch of climbing, before your warmth runs out. Keep the fire burning during the trip, then inspect its FUEL dial whenever you get back.

Placing a heat source inside the zone

A Barrel Brazier can go inside a Cold Zone if you place it beyond any No-Build Zone; find it under the Survival tab, where it costs 2 Scrap and uses Coal for fuel. With the “COLD ZONE” banner showing and warmth at 0/300, the readout climbed from -33°C to 15°C next to the burning barrel. The fire provides help, but BONE-CHILLING COLD reduces warmth gain by 80% in the zone, making a fire outside on the rim the more reliable recovery spot.