The Long Dark Iron Road Train Starter Guide: Board the Fulmar, Restore the Prototype Train, and Drive the First 30 km

Cauldron Island does not appear in the new-game region list, and there is no bridge to walk. The way in is the Fulmar, an autopilot boat that runs from Desolation Point on Great Bear Island to Port Remnant on Cauldron Island. You can bring a current save: the boat waits in Desolation Point, and it carries gear both ways, so you arrive with your run intact. The crossing itself is the easy part; the decision is what you load onto it.

Iron Road does not change what kills you: cold, hunger, thirst, fatigue, and wolves still run the island. What changes is the shape of shelter. Once you commit to the line, your safe stops sit spaced along the track, so pack food, fire fuel, and repair material before you leave Desolation Point. A comfortable Great Bear stockpile is worth more than a fast departure: the first hours on Anna Island are for learning the line.

The headline job is the Prototype Train: a locomotive hidden for a hundred years at the heart of industrialist Hamish McLeod's failed whaling empire. You restore it, repair it, and maintain it, and Hinterland is blunt about its role — part transportation, part mobile shelter. Follow the island's mystery thread, told through recordings found along the way, and it leads you to the machine. Do not expect a single switch-flip: the restore is a project, and the train stays a project after it moves, with fuel, water, and wear to manage.

Repair Bays are the second half of the system. Scattered along the route, they unlock engine upgrades and cosmetics for the train, and they are where a long run gets reset: damaged parts, new comforts for the cabin, and the pieces you need to reach track you cannot cross yet. Plan your route around the bays: they are the train version of a workbench, and the line between them is where the risk lives.

Driving is the easy part to learn and the hard part to sustain. The line has fuel and water stations, and switches that route you, and the train only keeps moving while those needs are met. The cab gives you the readouts that matter — pressure and speed gauges in front of you, the track ahead through the glass — and the first skill is not speed, it is stopping: stop before a switch you have not read, stop before a section you cannot see through, and always have the next station planned.

At launch, Anna Island is the whole playable Iron Road: one island, a little over 30 kilometres of railway, and the whaling ruins of McLeod’s empire to pick through. The other four islands — Stella, Freya, Morag, and Skye — arrive in later Early Access updates, and Hinterland puts the total past 100 kilometres once they do. Walk the sections you cannot drive yet, learn where the line bends and where it stops, and keep the roadmap in its own words: Hinterland calls it aspirational, not a promise, and the Early Access run is estimated at 18 to 24 months. Buy the launch build for what Anna Island is today.

The track is a working railway with hazards built in. Hinterland’s own list of what the line throws at you runs from broken switches and rockfalls to deep drifts, electrified sections, and Aurora gates — and the cab view above already shows the everyday version, a wolf standing on the rails. The safe default never changes: slow down, stop, and scout on foot before you commit the train to a section you cannot read. An aurora night is the one case where stopping matters most: electrified sections and Aurora gates are tied to the aurora itself, so a green sky should change your plan.

Two launch-week facts change what you should do today. First, the price: Iron Road costs $24.99, with a 10% launch discount to $22.49 until November 3, and Hinterland has already announced the rises that follow — $29.99 around the roadmap midpoint, then $34.99 at 1.0. Those rises are a plan for later; the discount is the part with a date on it: buy before November 3 if you are sure, and check the store page for the current price before you pay. Second, the save warning below, which decides whether your first run is worth starting at all.

Yes. Iron Road is Early Access DLC for The Long Dark’s Survival Mode, and it needs the base game installed.

Yes. Hinterland’s launch post says you can bring a current save: the Fulmar waits in Desolation Point and carries you to Cauldron Island. The 2.59 warning above applies to new games started during the launch-week bug window.

No. The train is built for Cauldron Island alone. The Fulmar carries you and your gear between the islands, but the train stays on the Cauldron Island line.

Anna Island and a little over 30 kilometres, out of a planned 100-plus across five islands. The other four islands arrive in later Early Access updates.

No. The plan is $29.99 around the roadmap midpoint and $34.99 at 1.0. The 10% launch discount to $22.49 runs until November 3.

No. Hinterland says playthroughs started while the bug was active will not be retroactively fixed. Start a new game on 2.59 or later.