Congratulations! You've just bought My Winter Car, started the game, hopefully have had previous experience from My Summer Car and... now what? You're not at your parents' home anymore? You find a "Problem" bar and there's no project car right out the gate? There's snow everywhere and suddenly you have a sweat and temperature bar? Well, don't worry, because this guide includes everything you need to know about this game... again.
Before you start playing the game, you should watch other people play it first. This will help you begin to familiarize yourself with the game and its mechanics. This game can be even more confusing, tedious, time-consuming and frustrating than its original predecessor (My Summer Car); but you can surely get the hang of it.
The game mechanics are similar to My Summer Car, but even more penalizing right off the start. For sake of clarity, it will be assumed there is no prior experience.
This game's control scheme might be confusing. Take a look at the settings menu and change the controls if you want to. By default, the F key is your best friend in this game. Most actions, like eating food, are activated by using so, since LMB will usually just pick the item up. However, you need to press LMB to open doors and push buttons inside the car.
You may notice the player attributes panel in the top left corner of your screen. It shows whether you chose the permadeath option when starting the game, the day of the week, your money, and, most importantly, your needs.
Being too cold for extended periods will eventually lead to dying of hypothermia. Prevent it by staying near heat sources (heated buildings, warm cars, fires) and choosing the right clothing for the weather. Your body temperature is a combination of ambient temperature, the clothing you wear, and the amount of exercise you're doing, and can also be raised by heat sources like a hot shower.
While most bars are white and turn red at 100%, the temperature bar's color depends on your environment:
Fend off the cold with a Winter jacket or Winter coveralls, depending on the outside temperature.
Sweating occurs when you're too hot — e.g. wearing heavy outdoor clothing in a heated building — and makes your body temperature drop faster. It's also affected by your weight. Sweat slowly goes away when you're no longer too hot (leaving a heated building or removing outdoor clothes indoors), and can be washed away with a scary shower.
The thirst, hunger, stress and urine attributes turn red and stop increasing when they fill the bar — but they actually fill to 1.5× the bar (or 2× for problem/thirst) before you die. Fatigue instead causes you to black out at 1.5×. Dirtiness has no real consequence. As for body temp, don't let it drop to zero — at nothing you'll freeze up and enter a dangerous state where you may die.
You can only save at a toilet or outhouse. Saving progresses time to the next hour (saving at 8:00 loads at 9:00) — abuses time progression with more time management.
You spawn in your new home, an apartment next to the frozen-over lake of Peräjärvi. Outside is your daily-driver car, the Sorbet. Before you can think about speedrunning the new project car, you need to get to the new store next to the town of Peräjärvi. Check the map on the right, in the hallway of your apartment — you live at the outskirts of Peräjärvi!
The four vehicles available from the start:
Inside, walk into the store section of PSK, which holds many important items:
Don't walk out yet — you still need to pay. Head back toward the cigarettes; the checkout area is to the left of them. Walk up to the register to pay, but only if the cashier is present — if she isn't there, wait for her to return. Once she rings everything up, click the register to pay and finalize the purchase.
A small shopping bag appears on the edge of the counter. Take it and walk out of PSK. Place the bag in the Sorbet and start the car — a faster, more reliable way is to spam the W key while cranking (hold the ignition with LMB and spam W, not too fast). Drive back the way you came, park by the electrical outlet, and plug the Sorbet into the block-heater socket.
Head inside the apartment and open the shopping bag by holding F — it sprays the contents everywhere. Grab the sausages and put them in the freezer so they don't spoil. The other items can go anywhere.
To be elaborated: Pick up the Classifieds magazine → Dial a number from there.
When you first walk into PSK, look to the right of the ATM for a bulletin board. There's a flyer with a phone number — screenshot it, because it's the only way to get the project car.
Head back to the apartment in the Sorbet, pick up the phone, and type the number in. Be patient while it dials; when the owner picks up, he'll tell you the time to meet but not the place, saying: "you know where to find me".
You'll need the Kekmet tractor from your parents' house. To get there, hop in the Sorbet, take a right out of the apartment parking lot, another right at the junction, and head straight until you see the first green mailbox on the right. Turn there, take the first left onto the ice highway (across the frozen lake), and at the end turn right toward the parents' house. Take the first left to find the tractor.
Get in the Kekmet. To start it: pull the hand throttle (the large lever on the left dash) and hold the ignition switch (bottom right of the dash). Release the parking brake on the floor to your left. Since it's slow, use the high gear lever on your right to pick up speed.
From the shed, turn right, then left at the next two intersections. Stop at the second green mailbox on the right. If it's daytime, Reijo will be waiting. He'll talk for a while — wait until he's done and pay him the 500 mk for the Rivett in the shed.
Congrats! The Rivett is home!
After building the car, you'll need fluids to run it. In Winter Car, remember that temperatures matter — and that fuel and liquids can't freeze (that feature was too complex).
See the Wiring mess reference for the full connector rundown on wiring the Rivett — all 25 wires, engine bay to trunk.
| Section | Status |
|---|---|
| How it works | To be elaborated on |
| Preparation | To be elaborated on |
| Building | Covered by the Car parts & Bolt sizes references |
| Fluids | Covered above (see also Items) |
| Wiring | Covered on the Wiring mess page |
| Tuning | Covered on the Tuning page |
To build your project car and get it inspected, you need your tires replaced and need to attain the parts in the first place, for which you need money. This can be achieved by doing jobs. Here is a table with some of the jobs you can do in Peräjärvi:
| Job | Requirements | Cost | Location | Availability | Repeatable? | Pay / Wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pumping septic tanks | Access to the Gifu; fuel | Fuel; money for emptying at the Treatment Facility | Two in Peräjärvi; one by the turnoff between Reijo and Kesselinperä; two in Loppe near Fleetari | On-call basis | Yes | 1200 mk / full sewage well |
| Delivering firewood | Kekmet, fuel | Fuel | Varies (TBD) | On-call basis | Yes | 3200 mk per maximum load |
| Working at Futofon | Must apply and not get fired; any form of transit (bus/motor vehicle) | None except your free time (transit, fuel, your own needs) | Futofon Factory, turnoff on the highway between Reijo and Kesselinperä | See job details | While hired — forced; being fired => no | Varies; minimum 2400 mk; raises every few weeks until 3800 mk |
| Driving Passengers in a Taxi | Access to the Machtwagen Taxi | Fuel | Varies all over Peräjärvi | Any time, on-call basis | Yes, unless you lose the Machtwagen | Varies heavily, usually 100–500 mk |
| Delivering advertisements | A motor vehicle | Fuel | Pick up ads at house; drop at mailboxes across Peräjärvi | Twice per week | Yes | ~429 mk for all mailboxes per run |
| Playing Ventti with Ritoranta | Money, and Ritoranta being present | Money | A room inside the retirement home | 21:00 to 8:00 every day | Yes | Can double the money bet, or lose the amount bet |