Starting Island Where To Go Toward The Ice: The Complete 22x22 Grid Escape Guide

If you just booted up Dragon Dropper’s latest old-school dungeon crawler and find yourself staring at an empty snowy expanse surrounded by a black skybox, you are not alone. The most common question among new players stuck on the starting island where to go Toward The Ice is a matter of trusting the void.

To leave the initial 22x22 grid and actually begin the campaign, you must walk directly to the northern edge of the map at coordinates X:11, Y:22 and step straight into the pitch-black darkness. There is no greeting, no NPC, and no glowing portal. This unmarked tile is the level transition to the Frozen Lands.

For a game released in May 2026, dropping players into a literal featureless box feels like a bug. Steam forums and Reddit threads are already littered with frustrated adventurers who think the demo is broken or that the game failed to load its introductory cutscene. But this is a deliberate design choice. Toward The Ice is a hardcore gridder and blobber. It demands you understand the mechanics of classic DRPGs before it hands you the reins. Here is exactly how to break out of the starting zone and get your party on the road to rescuing the prince.

01

The Narrative Context: Why Are You on the Ice?tag

Before you worry about escaping the grid, it helps to understand why your party is standing in the snow in the first place. The game's premise is delightfully simple, yet entirely absent from the immediate spawn zone. A fair princess was out hunting for food in the wilderness. Unbeknownst to her, her younger brother—affectionately dubbed the "idiot brother" by the developer's marketing—secretly followed her into the freeze.

She only realized he was there when she heard his screams. A band of trolls had ambushed him, and they were too strong for her to fight off alone. She watched helplessly as he was carried off to a cave in the mountains via a winding route through the Dwarven lands. Now, she has recruited your party of six mercenaries to track the beasts, defeat the Troll kidnappers, and bring the prince back safely before he is eaten.

The game's lore is doled out in sparse, text-heavy paragraphs reminiscent of 1980s PC gaming manuals. The princess is not a helpless royal; she is a hardened survivalist, which is why her default class in the lore is essentially a Ranger. Her idiot brother, however, is a liability who managed to attract the attention of the region's most dangerous predators. The trolls in Toward The Ice are not mindless beasts; they are organized kidnappers who use the abandoned Dwarven highway system to move undetected beneath the ice. Your journey will take you from the blinding white of the surface down into these pitch-black, trap-filled subterranean mazes. This urgency makes the confusing starting area even more jarring. You are supposed to be on a high-stakes rescue mission, yet you spawn in a desolate square of snow with no obvious exit.

02

The 22x22 Grid: Starting Island Where To Go Toward The Icetag

The map itself is a literal 22x22 grid. You begin at the spawn point X:11, Y:1, facing North. The entire perimeter is wrapped in a void skybox that looks like a placeholder asset or a broken texture. However, the level transition X:11, Y:22 is secretly tucked into the northernmost center tile. Navigating the initial grid map to reach the Frozen Lands requires ignoring your instincts to stay in the light.

In modern gaming, darkness usually signifies an out-of-bounds area or a death pit. In Toward The Ice, it is simply the edge of the current map instance. Because the game utilizes strict grid-based movement and turn-based combat, the engine loads zones in discrete chunks. The starting island is essentially a lobby—a safe space to open your menus, arrange your party formation, and double-check your equipment before stepping into the hostile overworld.

If you look closely at the floor textures, the spawn area is completely devoid of landmarks—no rocks, no trees, no ruined pillars. This stark minimalism is what tricks the brain. When players boot up a modern release, they expect environmental storytelling. Instead, they get a mathematician's blank canvas. The grid is a pure mechanical space designed to test whether you know how to operate the game's tank controls. Pressing 'W' moves you forward one tile, 'A' and 'D' rotate you 90 degrees, and 'S' steps backward without changing your facing. Mastering this clunky, deliberate movement system here, in the safety of the void, is mandatory before you face enemies that can flank you. If you wander around the edges, you will hit invisible walls on the East, West, and South sides. Only the Northern edge contains the trigger to load the next map.

03

Step-by-Step: Starting Island Where To Go Toward The Icetag

Escaping the zone is mechanically simple once you know the trick, but executing it requires trusting your in-game compass.

1. Verify Your Coordinates: Open your automap or cast a basic location spell if your Cleric has one. Confirm you are at the starting Y:1 axis.
2. Walk Due North: Move straight ahead 21 tiles. Do not deviate East or West.
3. Face the Void: When you reach the northern edge, the skybox appears as an impenetrable wall of black. Ensure your in-game compass must face direct North at coordinates X:11, Y:22.
4. Step Forward: Even though it looks like the edge of the world, stepping forward triggers the hidden area transition. Remember that no UI prompts will warn you before leaving—you simply load into the next zone.

This complete lack of handholding is a signature of Dragon Dropper, the Uruguay-based indie studio behind the title. As a standalone sequel to their previous hardcore crawlers—Into The Inferno, Navigating The Labyrinth, and Crossing The Sands—this game assumes you already know that moving into the map border is how you travel.

04

Early Grinding: Starting Island Where To Go Toward The Icetag

Should you leave immediately? Not necessarily. While the initial map seems barren, walking back and forth across the Y:22 axis will eventually trigger random encounters. You will likely see a message stating "A Frost Rat attacks!" before being thrown into turn-based combat.

Defeating a few of these low-level rodents gives your party a crucial XP buffer. In classic DRPGs, the first real dungeon floor is often a meatgrinder. By pacing back and forth on the starting island, you can safely grind your party to Level 2. If a character takes too much damage, you are still in a relatively safe zone where encounter rates are low, allowing your Cleric to regenerate mana or use basic healing items without the threat of a Troll ambush. Defeating a few of these rodents gives your party a crucial XP buffer so that when you finally step into the void, you can confidently say "The Frozen Lands await" without immediately wiping to the first Troll.

05

Building Your Party to Survive the Frozen Landstag

Before you take that final step off the starting island, you need to ensure your party composition is actually viable. Toward The Ice allows you to build a party of six from any combination of ten character classes. If you rolled a party of six squishy Mages, you will not survive the winding route through the Dwarven tunnels.

To build the optimal starting party for surviving the Frozen Lands, you need a mix of durability and utility. A Dwarven Defender serves as an excellent frontline tank, while a Ratling Archer provides consistent ranged DPS. Back them up with a Human Cleric as your primary healer. In the early game, expect your output to be split roughly as physical damage 65% and magical damage 35%, as early-level spells consume too much mana to be used in every random encounter. Because this is a classic gridder and blobber with turn-based mechanics, a balanced frontline is essential against Troll kidnappers.

Beyond the core trio of tank, archer, and healer, you have three remaining slots to fill. A Bard is highly recommended for their passive group buffs; in a game where you face waves of enemies, a persistent +2 to AC (Armor Class) can be the difference between life and death. For your magic users, an Elemental Mage is crucial for exploiting Troll weaknesses to fire, while a Rogue can disarm the lethal traps that litter the Dwarven highways. Remember that party order matters: characters in slots 1 through 3 are your frontline and will take melee damage, while slots 4 through 6 are protected in the backline. Never put your Cleric in slot 2.

06

FAQ: Starting Island Where To Go Toward The Icetag

Is the starting island a bug? No. The empty 22x22 grid surrounded by a black skybox is a deliberate, albeit confusing, design choice by the developer to serve as a safe sandbox for party management before the campaign begins.

Can I return to the starting island later? Once you step through the northern transition at X:11, Y:22, you cannot return to this specific grid. However, there is no unique loot or quest tied to it, so there is no mechanical reason to go back.

Why is my map completely black? Toward The Ice features a strict fog-of-war system. The map only fills in as you step on each specific tile. You must physically explore the 22x22 grid to reveal it on your automap.

What happens if I walk South? Walking South, East, or West will simply result in your party bumping into an invisible wall accompanied by a dull thud sound effect. Only the North edge contains the exit.

07

The Verdict on the Voidtag

Modern gaming has conditioned us to expect glowing waypoints, tutorial pop-ups, and helpful NPCs shouting directions. Toward The Ice violently rejects this philosophy. By dropping you into an unmarked snowy square and demanding you figure out how to leave, the game sets the tone for the brutal, uncompromising dungeon crawling that follows. Form your party, check your compass, and walk into the dark.