Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice: Acquiring Shillings and Brass, and what to use them for
In Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice, you’re tasked with maintaining civilization in the face of an oncoming ice age in a Victorian-esque steampunk society. To do so, you’ll need to make hard choices, ration food and resources, and above all, keep the generator that staves off the cold functioning. At all costs, the city must survive.
Phew, heavy stuff, right? Well, fortunately, if you’ve always been intrigued by the world of Frostpunk, but scared off by the somewhat grim atmosphere and demanding gameplay you can now experience the below-zero survival in the palm of your hand. Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice offers players a whole new way to experience the hit game on their smartphone, and like any of these it’s important to know just what developer Com2us is going to try and wring you for.
With that in mind, we’ve put together this basic guide to give you an overview of the currencies in Frostpunk, how to use them, where to acquire them and most importantly how to avoid having to pay for them. This is one demanding city-builder, and it’s not exactly for the faint of heart, but if you like your survival and resource-management sims with a bit more edge then this is the game for you.
So, let’s get started.
1
Shillings
Your standard in-game currency. Shillings are small silvery coins you’ll acquire through a variety of means. Shillings are needed for constructing buildings such as Dwellings and are vital for upgrading your generator. Mainly you’ll be collecting them from your Tax Office, a structure you build early on that supplies shillings every five minutes or so. You’ll also be able to acquire them by upgrading your city, completing tasks and selling finished resources in the Trading Post.
However, bear in mind the tax office actually has a daily limit on the amount of shillings you can acquire. The City Planning Bureau can be a good source of new shillings, and if you are able to - which you should given the amount of wood lying around the map - you can create more plans at the Production Workshop to sell or trade.
2
Brass
Your premium currency, Brass, is used for acquiring a large number of upgrade items. Early on you’ll be able to find items like Bed Frames pretty easily by trading with survivors, and you’ll need these to upgrade dwellings to fit more survivors into. However, pretty soon once you get the trading post you’ll find brass in short supply as you’ll be nabbing whatever you can from there to accelerate your building.
You’ll usually acquire Brass by completing each threshold in the city upgrade path. Basically, for smaller tasks, you’ll get shillings and for completing each step you’ll get brass. Pretty simple, but effective, although you’ll need to either have patience or min-max the heck out of what you’re building to continuously bring it in. It’ll usually be small amounts, so remember to avoid using it for things like Bed Frames which you can usually acquire much more cheaply through survivor trading.
And those are the basics to acquiring currency! Remember, currently Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice is in early access, so things are likely to change. At the moment you’ll want to avoid dropping any cash in favour of working your way through the game’s pre-set path for upgrades, as well as selling goods in the trading post.
You can also check out some of our other guide content for games like One Punch Man World or take a look at some of the most enticing management games on Android.
