Content Type: Gaming Guides
Cold and quiet. ICARUS’s snow biome is a deceptively calm place. First-time visitors, mesmerized by the otherworldly sights, are enticed to keep pressing in: they do not anticipate just how many things can go wrong quickly — very quickly. At some point, a line of no return has been crossed. The body of an unfortunate prospector will be lost to the freezing desert, perhaps forever.
Mastering ICARUS’s Arctic Biome will take more than a few tips and a couple of visits, but you still made the right choice in opening this guide.
Below you will find sections that walk you through the essential preparation you will need to do before venturing into this biome, as well as arm you with many tips and strategies that will help prevent unnecessary deaths. We will guide you through a list of items you want to bring with you, a way of securing a safe path into the biome, threats to watch out for, and some strategies for developing a self-sustained outpost inside the region.
Some of the tips you will see below came from our discussions with the kind members of the official ICARUS Discord server: special thanks to @Cav3dust, @NfiniT, @sta7ic, and @Dionaea for their observations and tips.
Preparing for the Arctic Biome
You will need to do extensive preparations before venturing into the Arctic. There are not many ways to over-prepare for this region, even for a high-level character: aggressive wolf packs, massive polar bears, resource scarcity, and unforgiving blizzards will not make your stay in the biome easy.
Minimum Character Level: 17.
We recommend that you thoroughly develop your Tech Tier 2 before you venture into this biome for the first time.
Here are the central challenges you will need to plan for:
Freezing temperatures and blizzards: Immediately, you will be affected by the extremely cold climate of the region, with temperatures dropping dangerously low during weather events and at night.
- You can’t sleep through the coldest periods of the day without a source of heat.
- The cold will make you consume more food at best, and lead to persistent damage and nasty debuffs like the Frostbite if left unchecked.
Wolf packs and polar bears: Prepare to deal with more dangerous counterparts of forest carnivores. We will discuss them later in this guide.
Scarcity of resources and water: Provided you survive your first night in the Arctic, shortage of basic crafting resources and water might become highly pressing, unless you plan ahead of time.
In the two sections below we will discuss essential tools and equipment you should bring with you to account for these challenges and make your stay in the biome much more comfortable.
Essential Tools

1. Fur Armor Set
Requirements: Tier 2, Lvl 20, Textiles Bench
Materials required (for the full set): Leather (30), Fur (74), Rope (22)
Fur Armor is much more expensive to make than Cloth Armor, but this set will help you endure most of the ambient temperatures in the Arctic without acquiring Frostbite. If you don’t plan to run into the biome just to gather a bucket of ice, Fur or Polar Bear armor sets are a must.
Incomplete Sets: Full Fur Armor Set awards a 5% cold resistance buff — for best performance it’s not advised to mix-and-match your set with Cloth, Carbon, or even Polar Bear pieces. Aim for a full Fur Armor or Polar Bear Armor set.

2. Potbelly Stove
Requirements: Tier 3, Lvl 20, Machining Bench
Materials required: Iron Ingot (40), Copper Ingot (6), Epoxy (10)
Fur can keep you comfy during a sunny day in the Arctic. Once the night hits, or the winds pick up, you need to be inside and you need to be warm. You will also use your heat source to process meat for food, and to melt ice for your canteen. A Campfire or a Fireplace will prevent you from freezing, but the Potbelly Stove provides enough heat for you to navigate around your hideout and for multiple teammates to sleep comfortably through the night.
Downgrading: In most circumstances, a campfire will work just fine for all of the basic functions, but it needs to be placed very close nearby. Be very careful not to catch aflame.

3. Recurve Bow
Requirements: Tier 3, Lvl 20, Machining Bench
Materials required: Steel Ingot (8), Rope (8), Aluminium Ingot (18), Epoxy (8), Steel Screws (4)
Animals of the Arctic Biome are vicious, and so you should be as well. You will need to deal very high damage at a distance for your polar bear encounters, while wolf pack assaults will require a lot of high-end ammo. Get a high-tier weapon to match your weapon Talents.
Downgrading: If you are confident in your stealth and headshots, and have some talent points invested into bow damage, you can get by with a Longbow. Try to avoid polar bears unless you can build traps.

4. Bandage Set (Basic Bandage, Suture Kit)
Requirements: Tier 1, Level 5
Materials required: Fiber (40) for Bandage; Fiber (10), Bone (5), Leather (2) for Suture Kit
You can only dodge so much until you get hit. Wolves leave a Minor Wound while polar bears can inflict a Major Wound condition on your character. Pack some Bandages for the former and some Suture Kits for the latter. Do not let your wounds fester.

5. Steel Pickaxe
Requirements: Tier 3, Lvl 20, Machining Bench
Materials required: Iron Ingot (40), Copper Ingot (6), Epoxy (10)
The Arctic Biome’s reward for completing its challenges is ore. Plenty of precious, highly useful ore. Higher tiers of your tools increase the speed and the yield, so bring only your best pickaxe(s) with you and prepare a plan for transporting your heavy booty.
What to Bring with You
We discussed the essential tools for basic survival in the Arctic in the previous section, but if you want to increase your chances for survival, are planning on conducting a mining operation, or even setting up an outpost, there are several more items you should consider.
If you are serious about conquering the Arctic — keep on reading! We will discuss some ways you can venture deep and even set up a base that can be supported with mining and hunting within the biome itself.
What to Do in the Arctic
Once you are fully set up in the Forest and are ready to take on more challenges, the Arctic can become your gateway to high-tier crafting. This biome is also a great destination for leveling through mining and hunting alike.
Let’s talk about a process of securing a safe travel path through the hostile region, with three different stages to support increasing distances of travel further into the biome while protecting yourself from its deadly elements.
Threat Management
The Arctic is a relatively quiet place: whistling winds and wandering wolves. However, the dangers that are present in the area carry a very deadly edge. They require both extensive preparation and thinking on your feet.
Dangerous Wildlife
Polar Bears
These vicious beasts blend into their surroundings and quietly survey the area. Before you can equip yourself to fight back confidently both in gear and Talent points, these beasts will likely tear you to shreds with little to no effort, leaving your body and your equipment in the middle of a snow desert.

- Before you are ready to venture into the Polar Bear territory, you want to feel confident avoiding or defeating an average Forest Bear. Start with our guide for dealing with bears and develop a strategy that works for you.
- Keep some
Suture Kits on you to treat the
Deep Wounds inflicted by this animal.
- It’s important to remember that Polar Bears have even more health than regular bears and can easily break through the majority of barriers you build to hold them back. Try to kill them quickly — try using guns.
Do not venture far into the snow desert until you are either absolutely confident in your equipment or skills, or are prepared to lose.
Arctic Wolves
Arctic Wolves are similar to their Forest counterparts, but there is a catch: in most cases they travel and attack in packs. The entire pack might not always be visible due to shadows, slopes, and rocks, but its members average around three — they can go up to five and above.

- Avoiding wolves means avoiding every single member of the pack: work on your stealth Talents and learn to survey your surroundings efficiently.
- Arctic Wolves inflict
Wounds which can be treated with
Basic Bandages.
- Taking this animal down often means defeating each pack member of their in one or two shots before they reach you: work on your stealth attacks, weapon Talents (bows, spears, or firearms), and practice headshots. Always carry a knife for close combat.
Snow Leopards
Snow Leopards are similar in their behavior to Lionesses of the Desert: their whitened fur, quiet movement, and fast leaping allows them to easily ambush their prey. It’s a good idea to be prepared to face leopards in close combat. However, unlike wolves, they tends to travel alone.

- It’s a good idea to spot and stealthily dispatch of Snow Leopards before they see you. Still, you might find yourself attacked first by them more than a few times. Have a knife handy, as well as some methods of healing: some
Cooked Meat or a
Health Restoration Paste, for example.
- Snow Leopards inflict Wounds which can be treated with Basic Bandages.
- Biggest danger brought by the Snow Leopards is initiating battle with other predators nearby. Within a close distance, more animals can join in and easily overwhelm you.
Weather
If you could continue hanging out and chopping trees during a mild storm in the Forest, you cannot do so in the Arctic. Extreme cold will penetrate through your Fur Armor and snow storm exposure can quickly kill you if left unchecked.
Cold Nights
Arctic nights are too cold to stay outdoors. Earlier in the guide we discussed the importance of warm shelter with a bed: prepare ahead and try to sleep through the night when possible. Keep in mind that temperatures are deadly unless you are inside a sheltered area — campfire alone will not be enough to protect you.
Arctic Storms
Severe storms in this biome require you to be aware of your closest secured shelter even during the day. Never risk being too far from one: the storm will slow you down to a crawl, and before you know it you will be taking too much damage to survive.
Establishing a cave network will definitely help before you establish a more permanent base. However, you may want to consider carrying a small pack of stone construction materials on you, enough for a tiny shelter and a campfire in cases of emergency.

Available Resources
The Arctic is one of the two biomes scarce in basic resources. Yet, should you take up the challenge, it will generously reward you with massive caves populated with plenty of mining nodes. This snow desert will be bereft of plant life aside from mushrooms in the caves, but a few pieces of driftwood can be collected as wood.
Ice in the Arctic biome is abundant in the transition areas as well as deep within (should you have a shovel), and it can be melted to fill up your drinking containers. Note that, despite the ore abundance, you will still want to locate caves if you want to get your hands on ore nodes aside from Oxite, Sulfur, and Silica.
Wolves can provide for most Tier 2 crafting when combined with ore, helping you dabble with some of the more ambitious Tier 3 projects as well. Keep in mind that while Polar Bears provide Polar Bear Pelt, they do not drop regular Leather or Fur.
Ores
Animal Byproducts
Animals yield:
Raw Meat (some)
Bone (abundant)
Leather (abundant)
Fur (some)
Polar Bear Pelt (some)
Fish yield:
- Fish Meat (none)
We hope this guide on the ICARUS’s Arctic biome was helpful! Please leave us any questions or suggestions you have in the comments below.