Before you ever set foot in the snow in Permafrost, the game drops you on a “CREATE CHARACTER IN THIS WORLD” screen and a separate world setup. The choices here decide your starting gear, which skills get a head start, how your dog looks, and how punishing the world will be. None of it locks you out of anything later, but a sensible pick makes the brutal opening hours smoother.
Quick answer: Tracker suits the first quests best, any background works, and Story is for exploration while Survival is the harder run. Your dog’s breed and name are set here, but you meet it later in Bone Cave.
What the character creation screen sets
The character block on the left holds everything about your survivor. You set a Background, a Specialization, Gender (Male or Female), Voice Type (Male or Female), Skin Type, and a Color that becomes the accent shade on your winter clothes. Below that, Companion Settings cover your dog’s Name, Race and Coat. When you hit Create, the game asks “Are you willing to play as this character?” with a Yes or No.
Your character is tied to the world you make, since you build the character and the world together in one flow. Permafrost is in early access, so recipes, bonuses and numbers can shift with updates. Treat the values below as how things work now, not as fixed forever.
Backgrounds and starting gear
There are three backgrounds, and each one shows a look, a short description, and three Starting Gear icons. The background changes only what you wake up carrying. It does not change the opening quests, so you get the same first objectives whichever you choose.
| Background | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Survivor | Shaped by harsh conditions and used to basic survival and daily hardship |
| Smuggler | Cautious and adaptable, used to uncertain situations and limited resources |
| Hunter | At home in the wilderness, used to reading the land and time away from safety |
All three begin with a bandage. The other two slots differ by background, giving you a drink and either a food or utility item. The Survivor, for example, starts with a Makeshift Bandage, an Improvised Tea and a Granola Bar. The other backgrounds swap in their own drink and food or utility piece, so the difference is real even if it is small.
Specializations and skill points
Your specialization spends three skill points up front, spread across different survival skills. These are head starts, not restrictions. Every skill climbs with use anyway, so your early picks just save you some grind in the directions you choose.
| Specialization | Skill bonuses |
|---|---|
| Engineer | +1 Running, +1 Axes, +1 Toughness |
| Tracker | +1 Skinning, +1 Bows, +1 Knives |
| Scavenger | +1 Lockpicking, +1 Sneaking, +1 Running |
Skills level by doing the matching activity. Chopping raises Axes, sprinting raises Running, skinning carcasses raises Skinning, and landing arrow hits raises Bows and Accuracy. That means a specialization points you toward a playstyle, but nothing stops you from building the other skills through play.
Choosing your dog’s breed, name and coat
Under Companion Settings you name your dog, pick its Race, and choose a Coat. The Name is free text and defaults to “Rex.” The Race options are Shepherd, Border Collie, Golden Retriever and Husky. The Coat is a numbered variant.
The dog is not with you when you start. You find it later during the main quest “Dog Days” inside Bone Cave, and it arrives with exactly the name and breed you set here. There is no option shown for changing its look afterward, so decide now.
World difficulty: Story, Survival and Custom
After the character, you name the world (it defaults to “World#” with a number) and set its difficulty. Three modes are offered.
- Story — suited to players interested in roaming, building a base and following the narrative.
- Survival — designed for seasoned survivors seeking a stern test: supplies are harder to find, the elements are more severe and mistakes bring harsher consequences.
- Custom — a mode you tailor to your own playstyle.
In Survival, managing the cold is the main challenge. Daytime temperatures hover near -20°C, and nights or storms can bring them down to around -27 to -30°C, compared with starting clothes rated for about -26°C. Your jacket alone won’t suffice overnight; you’ll need a fire or a bed. Containers generally offer only a few items, Bucks arrive in small amounts, and a Crude Bow can take one to four arrows to kill a deer, or two or three to kill a boar. Careful play makes a first run manageable, provided you take the temperature seriously.
What to pick for a first run
Tracker fits the opening cleanly. The first few quests have you shooting deer with a bow, skinning the carcasses for pelts and meat, and using a knife, so its Skinning, Bows and Knives bonuses all pay off right away.
Engineer is the better fit if you are eager to build. Axes speed up gathering the roughly 75 Wood your first base needs, and the extra Running helps with the long treks between the settlement, caves and your cabin site.
Scavenger leans on Lockpicking and Sneaking, which matter less in the first hours. The early locked doors open with a plain Stone Shiv, so those bonuses do not do much until later.
For difficulty, choose Story if exploration, building and the narrative are what you are here for. Pick Survival if you want the colder, leaner experience described above. Background is the lowest-stakes choice, since it only shifts your starting items, so pick the look and the gear you like.
No option to change your background, specialization, dog breed or world difficulty after creation is shown, so treat these as decisions you are committing to for that world.
