Frostpunk 2 is an incredibly challenging city builder that requires you to expand and manage New London, one of humanity’s final bastions. If you’re wondering the best ways to get started as the Steward, here’s our handy Frostpunk 2 guide to help you on your way.
Frostpunk 2 Guide – 10 Tips and Tricks
Since the game itself doesn’t have a tutorial for you to rely on, we’ve listed and explained the most important tips and tricks below to get started in Frostpunk 2. These will help you revive New London like the new one. flight attendant
Acquisition and use of Prefabs
One of the first and most fundamental resources you start with in Frostpunk 2 is a stack Prefabricated products. These are what allow you to literally expand New London by building various Districtsbuilding specialized Buildings within those districts, and managing their maintenance by repairing them when needed.
Prefabs are also used to help conduct reconnaissance missions across the Frostlands and build Trails and Skyways to establish outposts, other settlements, and the retrieval of newly discovered resources.
Maintaining a good stock of Prefabs is always crucial to maintaining the structural integrity of New London and other settlements. You can make more Prefabs by building Industrial Districts and using their materials to specifically produce Prefabs instead of Goods. Another option is scouting regions in the Frostlands that indicate sources of available Prefabs. Some of those sources may have strings attached, however, so choose wisely.
Obtaining and using Heatstamps
Your other fundamental resource for expanding and maintaining New London is heat marks (also known as “Rags” in the prologue). This also serves as a kind of universal income, because you need it not only for all types of construction but also for Frostbreaking, scouting Frostland regions, researching ideas and financing various factions.
As New London operates, your supply of Hot Tokens will gradually replenish as the city collects them weekly from each community. The higher your population grows, the more Heat Stamps you will earn each week. Those gains can be further influenced by satisfying your city’s current Commodity Demand, building certain Buildings and passing certain Laws.
You can also claim extra Heat Stamps from particular factions, preferably ones that favor you, but do so wisely as this can potentially cause tension where you don’t need it.
Unlocking the Idea Tree
The key to truly expanding and upgrading New London’s technological potential is unlocking the idea tree. To do this, you must first build at least one Research Institute in established Residential District. Once you’ve done that, the Idea Tree and all of its subcategories will be available to you, and you’ll want to start exploring ideas as soon as possible.
Remember that every idea will cost you 50 or more Heat Marks to investigate You can track the progress of an explored idea with the typewriter on the lower right side of your HUD. When it reaches 100%, you will receive a notification that a new idea is ready to be implemented.
As you negotiate laws in the city Council Hallsome factions will stipulate to explore ideas that align with their views. If you agree to one or more, you will need to start researching them as soon as possible, as you will also have a deadline. If you fail to fulfill it, your relations with that faction will deteriorate as a result of a “broken promise”.
To increase the speed of your research, you can build more Research Institutes in other Settlements (recommended), or explore the ( ) region in the Frozen Lands. Employing Frostlander teams there will significantly increase your exploration speed, however at the loss of spare teams to use.
Unlocking the Council Hall
Another building you can unlock early in the Central district of New London is the Council Hall. This will allow you to organize proxy meetings with the city’s communities and vote on different laws that will shape the direction of New London’s future.
When the Council is in session, you can click on its respective button on the lower left side of your HUD to pull up your current selections. There are four categories of potential legislation for you to choose from, but they are only available when delegates request a vote on them.
Once you choose a law you want to pass or shoot down, choose ‘offer’ bring it to the Council floor for a vote. This will also predictably affect your Trust meter, so choose carefully. Before you do, there is also a ‘negotiate’ an option that can allow you to encourage a particular faction to vote either for or against it by agreeing to one of three optional conditions. They range from researching preferred ideas to allowing that faction to decide the next law to be voted on, to providing them with Heatstamp funds (hurrah bribery).
Politics in Frostpunk 2 is one of the most difficult and painstaking aspects of the game, as pacifying the city’s factions is no easy task. You will often find yourself against one or the other, as there are few or no instances where everyone agrees on something.
Pick your battles carefully, and try to avoid letting one or more factions turn hostile against you. If they do, they will start organizing protests that can effectively shut down districts of your city, and if they gain enough support from the population they can and will overthrow you.
Scouting the Frozenlands
As you begin building in the tundra around New London, one thing you’ll want to do as soon as possible is freeze a path to one of the three Old Way Stations found around the outskirts of the city. One is south of New London, one is on the west side, and the other is found in the northeast area near the Shallow Iron Vein deposit.
Once done, build a Logistics District on top of the Old Way Station to make it usable again. This will unlock the option to explore the regions around New London using Frostlander teams. Doing so is essential to prepare for certain goals in each chapter, such as finding Oil, preparing for the Bleaching, discovering the ruins of Winterhome, etc.
Not only that, you can discover several new resource depots that can provide more Prefabs, Materials, Coal, Food, Workers, etc. However, be aware that you only have a limited amount of Frostlander teams available to you, and certain expeditions will cost more teams. Some regions are considered “dangerous” and will cause you to lose some of those teams if you don’t set up a scout station near it in advance.
If you improve your relations with the Frostlanders and Pilgrims specifically, they can help you by providing extra Frostlander teams. Building Logistics Districts at all three Old Way Stations around New London will do the same.
Expanding New London (freezing, districts, buildings)
The first half of Frostpunk 2 is all about expanding and making New London powerful and resilient enough to withstand the worst elements, including Whiteout storms, as well as providing all the necessities needed for your ever-growing population.
As soon as you start Chapter 1, you’ll want to immediately start icebreaking to the most important areas around the city. This includes the Shallow Coal Mines southeast of the city center, the Frozen Forests in the central south area for Materials, and the Fertile Soil deposits on either the southwest or northwest side. Be careful not to freeze too much at once, as doing so will eat up your supply of Heat Stamps.
The best Districts to build first are your essential Extraction districts for Coal, Materials and Food. These will pave the way to build Industrial Districts that produce Goods and Prefabs. However, make sure to build at least one or two Settlements as well to help minimize the number of people exposed to the cold.
Finally, build your first Logistics District at one of the Old Way Stations as soon as possible so you can get scouting parties out on the road.
Repair and upgrade the Generator
The first big goal to get New London up to speed is to fix its damaged Generator, which acts as the central hub to heat the entire city. Heat is one of your most precious needs in an endless winter, so you want to address this issue as soon as possible.
At startup, the Generator is represented by a bright red icon, indicating that it is disabled. To perform the initial repair to the Generator, freeze your way to the nearby Shallow Coal Seam deposits and build an Extractive District on them. This will start producing a sufficient amount of fuel. Next, select the Generator in the center of town to bring up its submenu.
You should now be able to turn on the Generator by hitting the toggle switch on the lower left side. This will start to generate heat for the city and lower the overall demand. Soon enough, though, you’ll need to upgrade the Generator so it can handle higher demand, use different fuel sources, etc.
To be able to update the Generator, you must unlock the idea tree and explore each level of ‘Generator Update’ ideas under the ‘Heat’ category, such as Superior Injectors. The stronger the Generator becomes and the more fuel you provide for it, the better it can handle extreme temperatures and keep your citizens warm and healthy.
Find and secure a source of Oil
After you successfully repair the Generator, eventually the town will notice that the nearby Coal deposits are running low, and you will then be tasked with finding a reliable, steady source of fuel in the Frozen Lands that can help replace Coal (although making Coal is also an option).
You will need to send your available Frostland teams out west to the Desert Coastwhich will be your first discovery of Oil, and will allow you to establish a settlement there named Old Dreadnought. Once you’ve set up enough Extraction districts, you’ll be good to go transferring oil back to New London to use as its newest source of reliable fuel.
Making hard choices and sacrifices
One of the most challenging aspects of Frostpunk 2 is the endless sequence of difficult choices you are forced to make as they appear on your screen. These choices are heavily influenced by various factors, such as how you decide to expand New London, necessities like food and heat, the technology you prioritize, the laws you pass, and the factions you must either pacify or reject any number of times.
One thing to always remember is that just like its predecessor, Frostpunk 2 is designed to be unforgivably brutal, especially from a moral and ethical point of view, and this applies to almost every aspect of the game. The survival of New London as a whole is your goal, no matter what, and that can mean labor exploitation (even children), questionable methods of producing food, hiring police forces to break up protests, and more. To survive a subzero apocalypse, you must be willing to do what is necessary, even if it means sacrificing the weak for the strong.
More Guides for Frostpunk 2
Be sure to check out our other for Frostpunk 2 at Pro Game Guides, like our Frostpunk 2 Review.
