Stuck in the First Area: Where to Find the Foreman
The Foreman is underground in Sub-City 1. The red-smoke rest point is the lookout tower, not the objective — take the stairs down. Plus the wheel blocker to avoid on the way.
The Foreman is underground in Sub-City 1 — the red-smoke rest point is the lookout tower rather than the objective, so take the stairs down instead of climbing.
Where this is being asked · Steam Community, by a player who could not find the Foreman in the opening area and had been steering by the quest marker. The same player confirmed the route below worked, and noted that the marker points at the wrong place.
Evidence
The answer, broken into claims
A grade describes sourcing, not truth. Inferred means we concluded it and the reasoning is shown; unverified means someone asserted it and nobody stands behind it.
UnverifiedThe Foreman is underground in Sub-City 1, down the stairs from the lookout tower.
Answered in the Steam thread and confirmed as working by the player who was stuck. One thread, but a confirmed fix rather than a suggestion.
UnverifiedThe quest marker for this objective points at the wrong place.
Reported by the same player after the route worked. Nobody has contradicted it and no fix has been published.
CorroboratedTurning the wheel and leaving the area can permanently close the hatch.
Two players hard-blocked independently in the same thread. No developer reply and no published recovery.
§01
The route
The confusion has a single cause: the marker and the most visible landmark both pull you upward, and the objective is downward.
The pillar of red smoke marks a rest point at the lookout tower. It is a landmark, not the objective.
From there, take the stairs down rather than up. The Foreman is underground, in Sub-City 1.
The original poster confirmed this resolved it, so this is a fix that worked for the person who was stuck, not a theory.
§02
The quest marker points at the wrong place
This is the part worth carrying with you. The player who was stuck reported that the marker itself was misleading, which is why following it does not work here and may not work elsewhere. Treat the marker in this section as a rough direction rather than a destination. A separate, unanswered Steam thread asks how to clear or move a custom map marker, so there is currently no way to drop your own correction on the map either.
§03
Before you turn the wheel, read this
There is a reported progression blocker in the same sequence, and it has no published recovery. Turning the wheel opens a hatch into the subcity. If you leave the area before going through it, the hatch is shut when you return and the wheel is permanently non-interactive. Two players have been hard-blocked by this independently, there is no developer reply, and no guide site covers it. Nobody has confirmed whether an earlier save recovers the run. If you turn the wheel, go through the hatch in the same visit.
Expiry condition
What would have to change for this answer to be wrong
An answer about a live-service game without this is an answer with a hidden expiry date.
A patch moves the quest marker onto the Foreman, or changes the layout of the opening area. Either would make the route above stale rather than wrong, and the wheel warning would need rechecking at the same time.
Citations
Every source, with its date
A complaint posted before 30 July 2026 describes the playtest, not the game you bought, and a source whose publication date nobody captured cannot show that it postdates launch either. Both are flagged rather than quietly mixed in.
That the Foreman is underground in Sub-City 1, that the red-smoke rest point is the lookout tower rather than the objective, that the route is down the stairs, and that the original poster confirmed the fix and reported the quest marker pointing at the wrong place. Read 2026-08-05; the thread carries no absolute post stamp.
That two players independently hit a progression blocker in which turning the wheel opens a hatch, leaving the area shuts it, and the wheel is then permanently non-interactive — with no developer reply and no published workaround. Read 2026-08-05.
That a player asked how to clear or move a custom map marker and received zero replies, which is why the misplaced quest marker cannot simply be worked around with your own pin. Read 2026-08-05.
Related questions
Underground, in Sub-City 1. From the red-smoke rest point at the lookout tower, take the stairs down rather than up.
