5 Frostpunk 2 Beginner Tips to Help You Survive the Frozen Wasteland

Even if you’re a fan of city-builder and management sims, Frostpunk 2 is probably still going to give you a hard time, at least in the early hours. To help you navigate the frozen wasteland, here are some essential Frostpunk 2 beginner tips to get you started.

Frostbreak Everything

Frostpunk 2 introduces a new mechanic called Frostbreaking. What this means is that in order to expand your city, you’ll first need to send people out to Frostbreak the ground, which allows the iced over ground to become a proper foundation for you to build on.

This is going to be the very first thing you do in Frostpunk 2, and considering that it does take time for the Frostbreaking process to complete, I recommend Frostbreaking towards all nearby key resource nodes as soon as you start. For instance, while your housing districts are already underway, send out your Frostbreakers to pave the way for your next building.

Do take note that Frostbreaking does take up manpower and Prefabs, so make sure that your city is able to keep up with those demands.

Heat Is King

Just like in the first game, heat is everything in Frostpunk 2. It doesn’t matter what happens in the city as long as your generator keeps running. Without heat, your people freeze, and without the generator, your city just stops functioning.

With that in mind, it’s essential that you always prioritize heat and energy above all else. Yes, food and materials are important, but it’s much better to have a functioning city that expands a little slower than to expand too quickly and end up stretching yourself too thin.

Population growth takes time as well, so while it may be tempting to expand quickly within a short span of time, be careful not to leave your people overworked. Sometimes the better strategy is just to let things simmer for a while, build your stockpiles, then look into expanding further.

Plan Your City Layouts

There are ways to optimize efficiency in Frostpunk 2, and that’s by planning your city layouts. For example, by putting housing districts next to each other, or by building them near extraction districts that mine coal, you can reduce the amount of heating required to keep your people warm.

Of course, there are some drawbacks to this. Building a housing district right next to an extraction district may keep your citizens warm, but it also leads to squalor and less-than-ideal living conditions. If that keeps up, your people may rebel and cause other problems for you. It’s a bit of a balancing act, but keep in mind that that is always an option if you’re looking to save on resources.

Don’t Be Afraid to Assign Emergency Shifts

As you progress through Frostpunk 2‘s story mode, you’ll eventually need to hit certain milestones within a set number of days in order to survive and keep going. If you’ve been expanding at a suitable pace, you should be able to meet these milestones pretty easily.

However, every now and then the game will demand just a little more from you, and it may seem impossible to meet its requirements in time. To that end, don’t be afraid to kick things up a notch by getting your workers to work overtime and to work harder. You can do this by clicking on a district and assigning emergency shifts. This will increase your output, though it will make your citizens unhappy.

But hey, better to be angry and alive than dead, right?

Explore the Frostlands

Finally, this last tip is for folks who have reached a somewhat comfortable pacing with their city expansion. While the Frostlands may look intimidating and it’ll even be slowgoing trying to Frostbreak everything there, that territory is home to plenty of resources and extra workers you can recruit.

If you find yourself in need of more resources and manpower, take the time to Frostbreak through the Frostlands and see what you find there.

And that does it for our Frostpunk 2 beginner tips to help get you started. Be sure to search up The Escapist for more tips and information on the game.