Heartwarming / Frostpunk

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Despite the grim nature of this game and its setting, there are plenty of heartwarming moments in it.

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In General:

• If you build a Child Shelter instead of putting children to work, a woman will thank you for this and state that she's glad you're making a better world for children.
• The description of the Ceremonial Funerals law counts.
  "Those who give their lives in service to the city deserve the highest honor. We will give our dead ceremonial funerals to inspire the living."
• The description of the Sustain Life law also counts. Especially since the Care House and Prosthetics can fully heal the gravely ill.
  "We can't cure the gravely ill, but we can at least keep them alive. We won't risk dangerous amputations with Radical Treatment."
• These become more common the higher the Hope rating goes, even far down the Order and Faith paths.
  • Faith
    • Faithkeepers enter an otherwise empty church to see a man openly weeping. He explains that he had lost his faith after his family froze in London, but seeing it revived in the new city has renewed it within him, and given him the courage to keep going on.
    • The first procession of the Faithkeepers is one, with your citizens cheering them on and giving praise to God. They state that their religion and their faith in a life thereafter makes them no longer afraid of dying in the snow.
    • If you build a House of Healing then an old man will die in it, leaving a letter to you stating that it was just his time to go and that he dies happy knowing you'll take care of the city.
  • Order
    • A young boy approaches a guard patrol and hands them a crude stuffed toy dog. He explains that it didn't seem right that the guards didn't have dogs with them to help keep watch, so he made them the closest thing he could.
    • A guard manages to save a child who was playing near the generator as he was falling to his death and gives him and his mother a stern lecture. His mother is just grateful that the guard was there to save her son's life.
    • If you make use of Foremen to raise efficiency its entirely possible for your people to outperform even what the Foreman expected. Despite the uncomfortable conditions, rather than complain about their labor they're proud to be doing their part to help the city. Especially so if it happens during The Storm.
      "Sir, a group of people found inspiration in their work under the guidance of a foreman and have decided to try organising their workplace on their own. Their spirit and motivation are exemplary today."
• The entire "A Christmas Carol" questline from the December update involved celebrating Christmas in the city. As the entire game's setting is a bleak survival city builder where the last members of humanity are trying to eke out in the frozen world, seeing them able to celebrate a mass festivity for Christmas does give heartwarming feelings for the players.

A New Home:

• It's possible for your explorers to find a group of 30 or so children in a cave. The explanation for how they got there is that, while Winterhome was falling, their teachers took them there before the ugliest chaos started and then died while looking for food. If you choose to escort them back to camp then you'll have saved their lives, and the game itself asks you to have housing for them when they arrive.
• Being able to not only welcome all the refugees but to also take care of the disabled ones. It requires a tremendous amount of prior planning and resources, but it's worth it. The Steam achievement is even called Compassionate.
• Being able to not only reach but also rescue and escort back every survivor in the Frostlands. The Steam achievement for this is called Savior.
• Often times despite the desperation on display the compassionate or levelheaded option is the better choice.
  • Allowing the Londoners to speak will increase their numbers slightly but if hope is on the rise and you've allowed them to say their piece you can take the podium yourself afterward to deliver a rebuttal and many of the Londoners will abandon their cause.
  • When the Londoners kill one of the guards/faith keepers, who were after them for stealing food, the murderer escapes, but you manage to catch one of the thieves. You have the option to imprison him/make him do public penance (if you meet the requirements), exile him (a death sentence) or let him go, since he didn't do it. If you let him go, he comes back a few days later with the stolen food and some friends, expressing personal disgust with the murder and he and his friends abandon the Londoners.
• As the final storm is approaching the city, a man may approach the captain, explaining that his daughter ran off into the Frostlands during the night and he needs to go find her. The captain can either keep him from going (dooming his daughter but saving him), let him go (likely dooming both), or give him a large cache of rations (giving him and his daughter at least a slim chance of survival). On the last night, during the peak of the storm, if given supplies, he and his daughter may return in an event called "Miracles Do Happen".
• The fact that Fridtjof Nansen scoured the Frostland to guide as many refugees as he could to the city, and then stayed behind to care for those who were too ill to travel. That there is genuine selflessness in such a difficult situation brings tears to the eye. (Fun fact: in real life Nansen actually made huge efforts to help World War I refugees and victims of the Armenian Genocide, a true hero and very in tune with his character)

The Arks:

• The Arks scenario can have this if the player managed to Take a Third Option in saving New Manchester while also preserving the Seedling Arks. The citizens of the city will show gratitude when the players made successful deliveries of both resources and automatons. In another mission, the scientists will eventually side with the players if they managed to maintain the arks while also helping New Manchester despite their initial disdain for aids (represented by choices on saving New Manchester giving Discontent in initial quests to increasing Hope in the last ones). Even the ending narration, especially "Let That Be Our Legacy", showing the testaments for the scientists' humanity by saving the troubled city while also ensuring the preservation of the seedling Arks.
• Another ending to this scenario, albeit a bittersweet one, involves the player choosing to save New Manchester without being able to also save the Arks. While the ending laments that the player couldn't save both, it states that this was the right choice if you could only save one. This also qualifies as a Heroic Sacrifice, since doing so requires sacrificing both your mission and your very life to protect the city.
  "Lives matter more."

The Fall of Winterhome:

• Successfully getting a large number of civilians out of the city before its generator fails, effectively giving them a fighting chance at survival.
• Ensuring every child has a spot on the evacuation vehicle, rewarding them for their hard labor.

The Refugees:

• Bringing peace between the Lords and the commoners, so both groups can set aside their differences and live together as equals.
• Saving Lord Craven from the lynch mob, showing mercy to your enemy, and proving yourself the better person.

Endless Mode:

• Endless Mode itself counts as this; you can keep a city alive not just through an immediate disaster, but over the long term as well.
• The Archives and the Relics. They represent your city's attempt to preserve what little of their heritage they could so that future generations will learn about the world that was and about what they had to do to survive in this cold new world.
  • Several of the relics include notes describing the sacrifice of the people who died to save them. Because you explored the ruined dreadnaughts, their sacrifices were not in vain.
  • The note that accompanied the First Folio:
    Henry Wetherby, bookworm: "Remember: not all is lost. The spring will come. Have hope, and endure. With this I leave you, and wish you courage."

On The Edge:

• The Hot Springs settlement is implied to be populated by people from New Manchester, and since they have plants and hothouses to sustain themselves, that would mean the golden ending to The Arks scenario is canon.
  • The exact wording is "This enclave of life clinging to a few hot springs was settled after the Great Storm by people from a town which survived with the help of another city. They set up hothouses here and planted the seeds, as they say, "to pass the gift of life"."

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