Generator

"As long as the Furnace was lit, there was hope."

The Generator is one of the most important buildings of the City in Frostpunk, as well as one of two buildings your city starts with. It is the main source of heat and power for your city and its people. The Generator will consume 6 coal per hour (144/day) at its base level.

Description
The Heat Generator Tower, or Generator for short, is an enormous steam-powered furnace/engine that is the main source of Heat and Power in your City. Many of your Buildings require heat and power to keep them operational. Buildings that are further away from the Generator require Roads, which hold steam pipes and electrical cables, in order to function. The Generator also works in conjunction with Steam Hubs, when powered by the Generator, these contraptions create additional smaller Heat Zones around them. It also serves as a Refueling Station for Automatons, unless there is any Steam Hubs closer by.

Keep it fed with Coal to stay on and keep your people warm. And if the Generator is destroyed… Then everything is lost…

Lore
According to in-game Lore, when the Great Frost first was setting in, the United Kingdom and several other countries sent out expeditions to the North to find out what was going on. Many of these research outposts were equipped with Heat Generator Towers for long-term study to discover what caused this phenomenon.

Levels
The Generator has 4 levels. With each progressive steam level, more coal is required, but the heat level of all heat zones will increase. The Overdrive toggle makes the Generator run hotter (+1 heat level, or +2 if Overdrive Couplings has been researched), but this causes the Generator to accumulate stress, which can cause it to explode if it reaches maximum critical level. Stress builds up slower and falls quicker with the Generator Safety Bypass technology.

Changing the heat level causes Steam Hubs to consume more coal, just like the Generator does.

Increasing the generator range also increases coal consumption. The following table details hourly consumptions for all generator levels and ranges.

Events
The following Events are associated with the Generator.

The Generator
This arc is mostly information about the Generator and its use of overdrive, however also includes potentially game ending decisions.

Trivia

 * In the early concept art for Frostpunk, the Land Dreadnought appears to be a mobile version of a Heat Generator Tower or early Generator prototype.
 * Numbered Generators are: Generator 049, seen in Crags and Generator 358, seen in Canyon.
 * In the DLC The Last Autumn one can see that the generator is actually much bigger having a very deep underground part. During an event in this same DLC one can assume that the generator uses geothermal heat.