Whiteout Survival: 17 Beginner Tips to Help You Get Started

Just starting out in Whiteout Survival? Learn valuable tips and tricks to survive and thrive in the harsh, frozen world.

White Out Survival beginner guide tips and tricks
Image via Century Games / Edited by Medievalfun

Whiteout Survival is a strategy survival mobile game and one of the most engaging and exciting of its kind released last year. In this game, your task is to lead a group of survivors through the icy wilderness, rebuild civilization from the frozen ruins, and prepare for the impending snowstorms.

You’ll need to assign unique roles for your survivors such as hunter, cook, woodcutter, and many more while keeping an eye on their health and happiness.

In this guide, we will provide some essential Whiteout Survival tips and tricks to help you survive the snowstorms and build a thriving settlement.

Table of Contents:

Look around for new building slots

New building slot in White Out Survival
New building slot

Unlike the majority of strategy mobile games I played, Whiteout Survival does not feature a building menu where we can see all the available buildings, plus the ones that are already being built. Instead, we need to constantly look for new building slots around the Furnace area in our city and build new buildings.

You will get new building slots after each Furnace level upgrade, so make sure to check the area as soon as you’ve increased its level. Tap it and start the building process.


Be ready before the snowstorm hits

White Out Survival snowstorm countdown and requirements
Snowstorm countdown

This should be your main priority in Whiteout Survival. These storms repeat in a cycle, so it is important to be prepared for them. To pass a storm, you must complete the requirements before the countdown ends.

The requirements in general include producing a certain amount of supplies and upgrading the Furnace, your most important structure, to a specific level.

What happens if you fail to complete the requirements?

Failing to complete the requirements, will cause your city to get smashed by the snowstorm and its windy blizzards. As a result, your production buildings will be severely damaged and you may also lose some survivors.

The good news is that if you manage to complete the requirements before the snowstorm hits, you will be rewarded handsomely.


Maximize your City’s warmth overnight

If you are familiar with its little game brother, Frozen City, then you will know that temperatures drop drastically during the night in this game, making it difficult for your survivors to stay warm and healthy. To prevent this from happening, you should run the Furnace at maximum capacity for the whole night.

To do that, tap the Furnace and switch on the “max Power” option (tap the second screenshot above). The Coal cost will be doubled so make sure you don’t forget to turn it off during the day to save your precious Coal.


Keep an eye on your survivors’ basic needs

Survivors' basic needs statistics in White Out Survival
Survivors’ health bar dropping

To keep your survivors happy and healthy, it is important to make sure that their basic needs are met. If one of the basic needs drops too low, your survivors may get ill or dissatisfied and cause your city’s resource production to suffer. Here are their 5 main needs and how to improve them:

  • Warmth – this depends entirely on the level of the Furnace and the capacity at which it is running;
  • Fullness – can be improved by upgrading the Hunter’s Hut and the Cookhouse level and all the available options from the Furniture tab. Choosing a better meal from the menu will also help (more details on this below).
  • Sleep Quality – Ensure your survivors have enough beds and that the temperature inside their Shelters is just right. This can be done by upgrading the Shelpters’ levels and all the sleep-related features such as beds, desks, and rugs, from the Furniture tab.
  • Comfort – This depends entirely on the options provided by each shelter, related to comfort, such as a washbasin. Upgrade all these comfort-related features from the Furniture tab.
  • Mood – Keep your survivors entertained by upgrading the bookshelves inside each Shelter.

Prioritize Chapter, Growth, and Daily missions

As a beginner in Whiteout Survival, you should try completing as many Chapter, Growth, and Daily missions as possible because they offer amazing rewards that will help you speed up the process of building and upgrading your city.

In the first 6 levels or so, you only have the Chapters and Growth missions tabs available, followed by the Daily missions tab, once you upgrade the Furnace to level 7.

The Chapters are basically the game’s campaign and each Chapter consists of multiple missions that you need to complete before unlocking the next one. You also get an extra reward at the end of each chapter.

Growth Missions are mostly related to your heroes’ development and you have two types of missions in this tab, Main and Side missions. The Main missions offer mostly Gems, while the Side missions mostly provide you with items that you can use to upgrade your heroes, and units.

Daily Missions include resources in most of the rewards, including Wood, Meat, Coal, and Iron. Completing these dailies, also reward you with Activeness points, which are automatically used for unlocking the chests visible at the top of this tab.

There are 7 chests in total, and each chest requires a certain amount of Activeness points to be unlocked, the last one offering the highest reward. To access the missions tabs, tap the little paper scroll icon on the bottom-left corner (see the first screenshot above).


Recruit and upgrade heroes regularly

Heroes ready to be upgraded
Heroes ready to be upgraded

As we mentioned in our previous hero guide for Whiteout Survival, heroes are special survivors that have unique skills, such as gathering resources faster or increasing the production rate of certain buildings, as well as protecting your city from invaders, and helping you win battles.

Make sure to recruit and upgrade your best heroes as soon as you accumulated enough for at least 1 more level or a Star tier. This will make a big difference in combats, especially in the Exploration mode.

We highly recommend saving your Hero XP items for Epic (purple) or Legendary (orange) heroes, as these are the most powerful in the game.


Make sure all Work Stations are filled

Survivor status - Assigning survivors to Work Stations
Assigning survivors to Work Stations

In general, for each level you increase your Shelters, you also get more survivors in your City. Similarly, if you upgrade your buildings, you will unlock more work slots (known as Work Stations in the game).

Make sure there’s always a balance between your survivors’ population and the work slots available. To verify this, first, tap the little user head icons at the top and check if there are any resting survivors. If there are, tap the plus icon on the building that may require more workers (check the screenshot above).

If there are no resting survivors, but you may have some additional free slots, build an additional shelter (In general, each Furnace level comes with additional Shelter slots) or upgrade the existing ones.


Pick a better meal from the Cookhouse menu

As I said above, the Fulness level of your survivors depends entirely on how well they are fed. No matter how much you increase the Cookhouse level, you won’t see a big difference in your survivors’ Fullness bar, until you pick a better meal from the Cookhouse menu.

There are meals available, Healthy Gruel, Nutritious Meal, and Fancy Meal. Healthy Gruel is the cheapest and most basic meal and the one that is offered by default to your survivors.

Depending on the level of your city, you may want to pick the second choice, or the third meal if your city is quite advanced. To change the default meal, tap the Cookhouse building and then select the Stove (see the above pic). Next, tap the little orange menu icon and pick the meal you want.

Remember that picking a better meal will also consume more Meat, so make sure you also upgrade the Hunter’s Hut and the Cookhouse, as high as possible.


Change your chief name and the avatar

Changing your chief name and avatar will make your profile unique and easier to be remembered by your fellow members once you join an alliance. And the good news is that you will be rewarded with 400 Gems for changing your name for the first time.

The first name change is free, while any additional change will cost you 400 Gems, so make sure you are happy with your choice. The avatar change is free though. You can either pick one avatar from the ones available in the gallery (and more will be unlocked as you recruit more heroes) or upload your own picture.

However, the uploaded image might need to be reviewed before being approved, and you can only upload a picture once in 3 days. To change this, tap your default avatar at the top, click the little pen icon, and type in your desired name.


Create a Farm account

A Whiteout Survival farm account will allow you to significantly increase your resource productivity. You can use it to support your main account and accumulate enough resources, and then transfer a large portion to your main account via repetitive attacks regularly. The good news is that it’s quite easy to set up.


Increase the Exploration Idle Income

Exploration is one of the features I like most about this game, besides the winter theme, which I find really fascinating. It allows you to form a squad of a maximum of 5 heroes and fight against various PvE enemies on different consecutive stages.

Every few levels you also need to fight a tougher enemy squad, which is considered to be a Boss enemy. However, there are no significant changes in terms of unit design, but in terms of difficulty is a bit more challenging.

The Exploration also features an idle reward, which (at least at the moment) includes only Iron and Hero XP, which I think is great, considering how hard it is to get them.

The idle income can be accumulated over a 7-hour maximum period, and the reward amount increases gradually as you move up in difficulty levels.


Collect your offline income

Similar to the Exploration idle reward, the game also provides an offline income that you can collect every day, for the entire working period of your survivors. This includes resources and contentment stars, that you can use to activate different perks for a limited time in the Chief’s House.

Keep in mind that the offline income is accumulated for up to a 12-hour period of time, so make sure to collect it as soon as you can.


Unlock the second building queue

Unlocking the second building queue
Unlocking the second building queue

As a new player in this game, you need to progress as fast as possible so you can keep up with the competition, and also because your beginner’s peace shield only lasts for 3 days or so. That’s why you need to build as many structures and upgrade them as you can to boost their effects.

One of the most efficient ways to do that is to unlock the second building queue, which costs 1000 gems for 2 days. This will allow you to build 2 structures at the same time and the price is totally worth it. You also have the option to unlock it permanently by purchasing an inexpensive premium pack.


Claim your System rewards

Mail System rewards in White Out Survival

Every now and then, this game provides free rewards for you to collect. One of these rewards is offered in your in-game Mail under the System folder. The rewards can be delivered either after a Furnace level-up or by the dev team after a big update or maintenance period.

They normally include Gems, Hero XP, and other essential items, and these types of messages are marked by a little gift box icon. So make sure you check your System folder regularly to claim those rewards.


Increase your VIP level

Just like in most strategy mobile games, the VIP system is one of the most important features in the game, as it provides additional benefits that make your progress much faster. You can reach a maximum of 12 VIP levels and each level gives you more perks that you can use to increase your productivity and progress faster.

The level can be increased either by spending Gems or purchasing premium packs. The good news is that you can also open a chest at the top of the VIP page, which rewards you with VIP XP on a daily basis.

The bad news though is that the amount of VIP XP is very low compared to the amount required for each VIP level. Nevertheless, it’s still a great way to increase your VIP level for free.


Join or create an Alliance

Being part of an Alliance is one of the best ways to progress faster in this game. When you become an alliance member, you get additional bonuses and a chance to collaborate with other players. You can then participate in alliance-related events and PvP activities, which will offer you amazing rewards.

This feature becomes available after reaching Furnace level 7 and you have the option to join or create an alliance. Creating one can be a fun experience, but you need to keep in mind the amount of time and energy you have to invest in order to make it successful.

Creating an alliance costs 400 Gems if your Furnace is below level 10, or free of charge if it’s above level 10. On the flip side, joining one for the first time will reward you with 200 Gems.


Sign in consecutively for 7 days

The 7 days login rewards

After signing in consecutively for 7 days, you will be rewarded with a big bundle of resources, and some other great stuff, among which is Molly, a legendary hero.

Other great items include 10 Gold Keys on the third day, 15 Molly shards on the fourth day, and a widget for enhancing Molly’s exclusive gear, the Yeti Spirit.

So make sure you login consistently for 7 days and claim these rewards, otherwise, the streak will reset and you’ll need to start from the beginning.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it! Follow these Whiteout Survival tips and tricks and you’ll be well on your way to progressing faster in this game and pass through Furnace levels and the snowstorms in no time! Good luck!

Strategy Survival
Cosmin
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Cosmin is a passionate blogger and web designer with a keen interest in medieval-themed entertainment - whether it's playing medieval strategy games, watching movies, or reading books about that time period. This led him to create Medievalfun.