Frostpunk 2 Beginner's Guide | Top 10 Gameplay Tips

While it was really fun and addictive, Frostpunk was already a challenging game to play. But unlike the first game, Frostpunk 2 is even more difficult. Unless you make the right decisions early in the game, your playthrough could turn out to be a mess as the game's weeks progress. So here are some tips that you might want to follow when playing Frostpunk 2.

1. Frostbreak Sensibly and Plan the Districts Early

Frostbreaking costs 300 Workforce and 30 Scraps, which is high at the beginning of the game. So, when you start a campaign story or sandbox, only Frostbreak the areas you need to progress. It would be best to plan the areas where you'll construct the different Districts. If you don't plan this early, after progressing the game, you won't have the room for expansion, and notably, one District will not collide with another. Since the recourses are always pre-located, you can't but plan the related Districts accordingly, but you can always plan for the Housing District where there is not much recourse.

So first, I'd suggest Frostbreak the Shallow Coal Seam to construct the Extraction District and, at the same time, Frostbreak the area closer to the Generator to construct the Housing District. The Extraction District will consume 600 Workforce.

When you finish constructing these two districts, turn on the Generator and Frostbreak one Fetial Soil area for Food and one Frozen Forest area for Materials. Always go for the recourses with the infinity symbol (∞) below them so you can expand from there on. But sometimes, recourses with the infinity symbol (∞) are a bit far from the initial Frostbreaking location. So, in that case, you can Frostbreak the closest one, but Frostbreak in a way that you can reach the infinity supply the next time you Frostbreak.

After Frostbreaking Fetial Soil and Frozen Forest, construct a Food District and an Extraction District. These two districts will consume 1200 Workforce. Now, Frostbreak the Shallow Coal Seam recourse area to reach more recourse locations. Once the Forstbreaking is done, Expand the first Extraction District (click the District, and you'll see the Expand icon at the bottom left), which will increase the coal production, and, at the same time, construct another Extraction District on the Shallow Coal Seam area for more coal supply. This extra coal will be necessary before you start your Industrial District.

Now, if you still have an Unsheltered population, expand the first Housing District and then Frostbreak areas close to it. Always Expand before you build another District. If you don't expand before constructing another District, you won't be able to do that later. Construct the Housing District adjacent to each other since this generates heat and reduces demand from the Generator. If there are empty houses after building the second Housing District, click that District and adjust the slider at the bottom that shows (0% to 100%) according to your need.

Now, Frostbreak another Frozen Forest area and construct an Industrial District. Industrial Districts produce Prefabs (in-game currency) by default, as well as Goods. I'd suggest you produce Prefabs initially until you build the research center and then move on to producing Goods. You can construct other Industrial Districts to produce Goods, but not at this stage. So, switch between the products depending on your City's demand.

 2. Start Research Early

As soon as you have the above setup, build the Research Institute. Unlike the previous game, Frostpunk 2 introduces different communities/factions, and your research choices affect their opinions about you. However, some research doesn't involve any debate, and they help you a lot early in the game. So once the Research Institute is constructed, research All Do Maintenance from the City > Maintenance Duty section. This will significantly lower the material demand, which is crucial early and throughout the game.

The game will ask you to build a Council Hall while the research is ongoing, but wait until you research Asbestos Lining from the Heating > Housing Insulation section. This will lower the heat demand from the Housing Districts.

After researching these two, you can build the Council Hall. The first vote will be about your being the Stuart. And don't negotiate with any fraction because they will all agree to give you a chance to run the City. You'll get a few weeks before the next council meeting, and by this time, research Weather-Adjusted Shifts from the Resources > Worker Shifts section.

Now that there's a Council, you'll see the society fractions in the research section and the research ideas they recommend, and every time you research something, you'll need approval from the Council. So once the research on Weather-Adjusted Shifts is complete, propose this as a law at the Council and get it approved. Weather-Adjusted Shifts is recommended by Frostlanders and Pilgrims fractions, and New Londoners and Stalwarts fractions will vote against it. So you'll have to negotiate with either of the fractions to vote for it.

For this particular voting, you'll see that the Frostlanders are asking for a Dust Cole Mine; agree to that since you'll be researching it next. In most cases, the opposing fractions ask you to research certain buildings, grant them an agenda, fund their project, etc. You can always go for the fund option if it's there. If not, select a building type that you can research later on. However, don't select to research any building type that consumes too much material at the beginning since the supply will be very low at the beginning of the game.

After Weather-Adjusted Shifts is researched and approved, research Dust Coal Mine from the Heating > Coal Mines section. This mine will appear under the building menu once the research is done. Expand any Districts collecting coals and place the Dust Coal mine in them. This will increase your coal production and also require fewer materials. Now that you have two Extraction Districts collecting coals with a Dust Coal Mine, you can easily turn the Generator Overdrive once the temperature drops to -40.

Now, before researching more, check Step 4 below, follow the above steps, and subsequently research' Crop Selection' from the Heating > Food Energy Efficiency section, Efficiency Bonuses from the City> Work Compensation section, Liberated Youth from the Society > Youth section, and Skyways from the Frostland > Skyways section.

3. Research and Upgrade the Production Buildings

One crucial aspect of Frostpunk was the food supply, which remains the same in Frostpunk 2. So, as soon you have the coal supply sorted out, research Biowaste Hothouse from the Resources > Hothouses section and immediately place this building after expanding your Food District. If you see that the food production capacity is +20, then a storehouse should be built near the Food District to store Food. Always plan to have a food stock of 50,000. This will make your life very easy in the game.

4. Build Logistic District

Your main town's resources will deplete in no time, and the sooner you build your Logistic District, the better. However, with the basic Logistic District, you can only venture into the safe areas, and there won't be many resources to collect from those areas. So, to venture into the more dangerous areas, you need to build the Survivalist's HQ.

Research the Survivalist's Headquarters or Scouts' Headquarters from the Frostland > Scouts' Headquarters section, and place the building in the Logistic District by the time your Frostland Team explores the nearby safe areas. This building gives you extra scouts, and you'll be able to send them to locations without casualties.

5. Start Storing Food & Goods Before Building Colonies

There are Storage buildings for all types of resources you collect and produce in the game. While you start storing Food early in the game, do the same for materials and goods, too. Do this before you build colonies. Because the colonies will only produce one particular item, or even if they have more resources, you won't be able to extract all due to the Trails capacity limitation. You'll have to supply the items you're not producing in the colonies from your main city.

And if you don't supply the items to the colonies, you won't get the materials you're importing from there, whereas if you have a shortage of those items in your main City, you'll have problems with the citizens. So before building any colony, have at least a stock of 20K materials and Goods.

6. Pause Material/Food Supply from Outposts

There will be times when you'll have multiple outposts supplying Food and materials to the main City. But each outpost consumes 5 of your Frostland Team. The Logistic HQ gives you 15 Frostland Teams, and if you build 3 of them in the main City, you'll have 45 Frostland Teams. But most of them get occupied when you start building outposts for supplies.

And after some time in the game, you won't have enough Frostland Team for the expedition when new areas open up on the map. So pause the material supplies from outposts when you have a reasonable stock. You can resume it later once your Frostland Team has explored a new area.

But if you can't pause the supplies from the outposts, you can also research the Vanguard Logistic Bay from the Frostland > Logistic Bay, increasing your Frostland Teams from 15 to 20. So if you have 3 Logistic Districts, you'll get 60 Frostland Teams, which is enough to venture into most areas on the map.

7. Pay Attention to the Colonies

You shouldn't consider supplying materials or Food, whichever the colonies need to produce resources, is enough. They need the same micromanagement as the main City. Because if you're extracting too much material from the colonies, the Squalor will increase there, resulting in more sick workers and even crime.

So you need to build hospitals and Moss-Filtration Towers (which can be researched from Resources > Filtration Tower) to balance the Squalor. Then again, you'll have a limited population in the colonies. So, it's best not to extract too many resources simultaneously so that you can have spare workers to work on the hospital or different services to maintain the balance.

8. Don't Ignore any Fraction

More and more fractions will form once your City's population grows, and they will all have opinions about what you should and should not do. Even though you'll find some of their suggestions are going against your plan, you should still consider some to keep a balance between the fractions. If you keep ignoring requests from any particular fraction, they'll revolt against you at some point and will cause problems that are difficult to manage.

For instance, they'll start protesting and take over your housing or production districts. Which will force you to meet their demands or take action against them. So it's best to avoid problems with the fractions from the beginning so that you don't have to face any protest at the late game when meeting their demands is difficult.

Also, don't simply fund their project or agenda when a fraction is unhappy with you. Keep these options open until you see them asking for them while negotiating during a council vote.

9. Don't Demolish District Straightaway

Usually, you'd demolish an Industry District when the resources are depleted. This way, you get the Heatstams and Prefabs back. But before you do that, make sure you demolish the special buildings you've constructed within the District. If you demolish the District straightaway, you won't get the Heatstams and Prefabs from the special buildings.

10. Don't Panic

Forstpunk 2 is a difficult game and will become impossible if you panic during tough times like Whiteouts, trust going down, protests, etc. And the game makes things look like they're all out of your hand. Simply pause the game when there are situations like this and asses what's needed to solve the issue. Focus on those points and resolve them.

Take one step at a time and attend to the most immediate solvable issue. You can't do everything at the same time. So, while some problems will still remain, stay calm and focus on solving them all one by one. This is when the game makes you think out of the box and be creative about solving problems.

Well, these are the basic things you need to follow while playing Frostpunk 2, and if you're able to follow this guide, you should not have any trouble playing the game, no matter the situation. Also, check out my Frostpunk 2 review if you find this guide useful, and feel free to ask if you have any questions in the comment section below.