Checked on 21 October 2026 against Update 6.0 (build 0.10.0.653173), for The Last Caretaker. Forum dates are UTC.

Short answer.

  1. Unlock the heaters, the boiler and the Methane Extractor in the skill menu [S5][S18].
  2. The boiler turns methane and fresh water into steam, and the heaters run on that steam [S3][S6]. The chain is salt-water pump, then purifier, then boiler; methane goes to the boiler and steam goes to the heaters [S3].
  3. In one 20 October thread, a heater that would not start had an unplugged salt-water pump [S3].
  4. Players say a pre-heated small heater carried on your back lets you walk around outside for a while without being slowed down [S20].
  5. Keep doors shut so rooms hold their heat [S4][S18].

How the cold works

Update 6.0 added temperature: "low temperatures now hurt you and slow you down, and the HUD shows the temperature when it gets cold" [S1]. Channel37's announcement adds that this happens "When temperatures fall far enough" and that "Even the Gyrocopter is affected by extreme cold." [S2]

Several patch lines in the Update 6.0 notes matter for survival:

  • RC3: "Sharks and night-time swarm eggs no longer spawn in freezing areas." [S1]
  • RC2: "Taking cold damage no longer stops you from using the binoculars." [S1]
  • RC5: "Areas you have warmed up now stay warm instead of slowly cooling down again." [S1]

The heating chain, step by step

  1. Unlock the modules. Thiesen (19 October) told a player who could not find them: "go into the skill menu and unlock the heaters and boiler and methane extractor" [S5]. Ancient Hare's video "Update 6 Is Here… and My Gyrocopter Froze" shows the new skill entries at [24:36]–[25:19]: a local heater, a room heater, an area heater, a boiler, an extractor and a small methane container [S18].
  2. Get methane. In the same video's in-game narration ([11:48]), the Methane Extractor "can draw trapped gas from beneath the ice" and needs power [S18]. Mynaeos's German-language Update 6 guide video puts it under the outpost at [3:34]: "Below the outpost is the new methane extractor" [S6]. Official RC2: it "can now only be built on suitable components" [S1].
    • Inside Bastion Dock or not? One thread disagrees. turvarya (19 October) wrote "just not inside the dock". blastingweevil (20 October) said you can place them "INSIDE Bastion Dock on the iced over water as long as it is ice" [S5].
  3. Make fresh water. Belle (20 October): "The boiler only works with fresh water not saltwater. Salt water pump hooked to water purifier, fresh water to boiler" [S3]. Mynaeos's video says the same at [3:27]: "the boiler requires methane and fresh water" [S6].
  4. Feed the boiler. Methane goes to the boiler, not to the heater. captainzulu (20 October): "U dont use methane into the heater" [S3]. Robert said during the beta (13 October) that the build-menu text claims the boiler uses electricity, but "No Electricity is required. Only Methane and Water" [S11].
  5. Send steam to the heaters. "Steam goes to the heater" [S3]. Players call the connecting line a hose [S3]. Since Update 6.0, a socket shows which resource it uses and which way it flows while you place a module, and RC1 added a steam symbol to steam sockets [S1].

Module values Monty typed from the in-game module list during the beta (15 October) [S10]:

ModuleReading
FLO BH-60 Boiler (Monty typed "GH-60")"10,000 L/h Methane and 10.000 L/h Fresh Water Output 30 Kw Steam" [S10]
FLO TH-30 Area Heater"30 kW Steam input" [S10]
Flo MX-5 Sub-Ice Extractor"36,000 L/h Methane at 10 kW of power" [S10]

A third-party guide's boiler card names it FLO BH-60 and gives the same methane and water figures [S12]. These are not official numbers. Pump and purifier figures are on the Lazarus power and water page.

Linking the steam lines inside North Bastion. Two players report the complex's steam network in separate parts:

  • nonamedkiller (10 October, beta): "The networks split at the long tunnel towards the lift, you can just connect the first network to the second there" [S21].
  • AnimusPEXUS (21 October) posted a similar fix for their base: "interconnect last and before last pipes in corridor from bay to well with gas hose" [S24]. Whether that is the same spot, the posts don't say.

If your heater won't start

In the 20 October thread "Heater won't start", the original poster's fix was "THE SALT WATER PUMP WASN'T PLUGGED IN!" (owainglyndwr) [S3]. Replies before that suggested other things to check [S3]:

  • Is the boiler getting fresh water? A salt-water pump must go through a purifier first (Belle) [S3].
  • Is every module switched on? root.s: "Salt water pump, water purifier, boiler and heater?" [S3]
  • Is anything broken? root.s also asks "Does anything require repairs?". Heaters and the boiler gained durability in RC4 [S3][S1].
  • Are all lines connected and flowing the right way? Belle: "There's a hose line uncoupled somewhere... Just check them all again and ensure they are all flowing in the right direction." [S3]

Heaters missing from the build menu. Hephaestus92 (20 October) moved from the beta to the live build. The heaters had gone, and the methane extractor and the gate token were missing from the build menu too, though the skills showed as unlocked [S16]. Marvin, in the same thread, could build all three heaters and the boiler and suggested going back a save or two [S16]. No fix was posted in that thread.

Wearing the small heater

The small heater is the one you can carry. Official RC2: it "now holds its temperature for a long time and radiates a lot of heat, but warms only a small area" [S1].

  • Putting it on. "Pick up and press (V on PC)" (JHD, 21 October) [S8]. AnimusPEXUS (21 October): "hold it with left mouse button and press V" [S24].
  • Charging it.
    • AnimusPEXUS on the live build: "you can recharge it without taking it off at any steam pipe or your hose with steam." [S24] Monty said the same during the beta (13 October) [S7].
    • Marvin (20 October) reports trouble "connecting the small heater from beta to steam while its in my backpack" [S16].
    • Mynaeos's video at [4:47]: "The maximum length is 20 meters, and the line can get tangled" [S6].
  • Knowing it is full. ProRogueBear's video "UPDATE 6: THE JUMP Is OUT NOW!" says at [8:15] "there's no indicator of like how much it's got on there" [S19]. Belle's tip, from one post: on icy ground "You should see a circle of heated ground forming". When the circle stops growing it is full, which "Takes about 90 seconds" [S3].
  • What it does. Nopileus (21 October): "Take the small heater on your back and heat it up. That allows you to walk around for a while without beeing slowed down" [S20]. JHD says a charged heater on your back also "makes the Gyro fly" [S8]. How far that goes is on the Salvage Gyro page.
  • How long it lasts. JHD: "the charge is not infinite" [S8]. SonicFusion (21 October): "at the minute it doesn't last very long" [S8].
  • Side effects. Official: "Items stowed on your back now count toward carry weight" [S1]. Monty found during the beta that pressing V to auto-fill containers "tosses the heater off first" [S7]. Things worn on your back and weapon cables are covered on the Update 6 known issues page.

Rooms that won't stay warm

Shut the doors. root.s (21 October): "You just need to shut doors where possible since that greatly affects performance." [S4] Ancient Hare's video agrees at [17:36]: "having the doors closed actually makes a difference" [S18].

Officially, warmed areas stay warm since RC5 (12 October beta build 0.10.0.653070) [S1][S22]. One beta player disagreed the next day: SoulKilla wrote "they go back to ice cold again same as before" [S17].

Heater sizes. Channel37's notes list small, medium and large heaters [S1]. Players name them local (skills tab, Ancient Hare at [24:40]), room and area heaters [S18]. The announcement says only that "Different heaters have different strengths, ranges, and efficiency." [S2] Players on 21 October describe the range differently [S4]:

  • Demistic found the room and area heaters "rouchly the same heating radius", the room heater being liftable [S4].
  • Kuzako thinks "larger heater = larger area heated" [S4].
  • root.s says "they all still have different "range" they heat", and that the area heater should reach further than it does [S4].

Ice doors and weapon heat

Some doorways are now "sealed by ice that has to be melted with heat or broken to get through" [S1]. What players use:

  • The crowbar. Ancient Hare at [23:26]–[23:33] [S18]; ProRogueBear at [9:09] [S19].
  • A heater right next to the door. ProRogueBear says at [9:12]–[9:16] that a heater placed next to the door will start to melt the ice [S19]. During the beta Iamkirok (11 October) "tried melting the ice on the door with a room heater...no go." at the Doctor's Office [S26].
  • The flamethrower. Mynaeos's video says at [4:04]–[4:06] that it is "excellent for freeing doors or switches from ice" [S6].

Floor ice is different. Thiesen (21 October) built an area heater directly on ice and "the ice doesn't melt" [S4].

Update 6.0 notes: "The flamethrower and flame pistol now give off heat." [S1] Later beta tuning of weapon heat is covered on the weapons page.

Strange cold after the update

  • Your home area is suddenly snowy. On release day (19 October) Сантехник wrote "my world turned into the snowy biome" [S13].
    • One reply, from The doc, says that if you use the 'Dev Mode' mod, "By default, the temperature is set to 0, which means -100°C. Try setting it to 20°C", and adds "If you're not using this mod... I don't know..."
    • During the beta (12 October), Hephaestus92 used the dev menu to change the temperature, and "that fixed the ice/snow and cold damage" [S14]. Later that day, after removing all mods: "Pulled all the mods, it fixed the lighting issue but the main area is still frozen." [S14]
    • So what causes it is not settled.
  • Freezing far from the north. On release day Earthsearch and Hairy eyeball both froze away from North Bastion. Earthsearch had "snow and cold draining my battery" [S15]. Both fixed it by sailing toward Lazarus: "i turned my ship towards lazarus and the ice went away" [S15].

What changed during the beta

All of these are in the final Update 6.0 notes [S1]; dates and builds are from Channel37's Update 6.0 public beta post [S22].

Beta build (date)Heating-related lines
0.10.0.653002, RC1 (9 Oct) [S22]Boiler could not be placed (fixed); heaters remodelled, glow as they heat, rebalanced [S1]
0.10.0.653002, RC2 [S22]Small heater holds heat longer, warms a small area; large heater more efficient; extractor only on suitable components; cold affects gyrocopter rotors [S1]
0.10.0.653002, RC3 [S22]Heater sound; sharks and swarm eggs do not spawn in freezing areas; missing steam sockets added in the Bastion industrial room [S1]
0.10.0.653002, RC4 [S22]Heaters and boiler gain durability; "Fixed methane being craftable on ice tiles." [S1]
0.10.0.653070, RC5 (12 Oct) [S22]Warmed areas stay warm; heat-blocking spots fixed; "Create heat" first task fixed [S1]
0.10.0.653158, RC8 (15 Oct) [S22]Heat spreads around the player properly [S1]

Getting through the gate to North Bastion is on the Transfer Gate page; where methane and other fuels come from is on Fuel and gas production.

Sources and version

Checked on 2026-10-21 against Update 6.0 (build 0.10.0.653173)