Summary

  • Frostpunk 2 involves guiding a city through multiple crises with different factions each offering unique perks and abilities.
  • The Legionnaires generate prefabs and extra guard squads, benefiting the player in managing protests and rebellion.
  • The Menders provide +500 population through rescue operations and expeditions while the Technocrats prioritize research speed.

In Frostpunk 2, society has to scrape a living out of the frozen wasteland that Earth has become. For thirty years, the world has been plagued with rapidly cooling temperatures and intense blizzards. Huddled around a generator built at the beginning of this environmental turmoil is the last known city on the planet.

The council with
Frostpunk 2: 10 Biggest Changes From The Original

Frostpunk 2 expands upon and tweaks many elements from the original game. These are some of the biggest changes in the sequel.

In the game's Utopia Builder mode, players must build and guide this city through multiple crises to fulfill their chosen ambition such as colonizing the frostland or turning their city into a metropolis. They cannot rule alone, however, as the city's people have joined into various factions that all seek to steer its future in certain directions. Each faction has an active ability that can be used if the player has a good relationship with them as well as a passive perk that is active when they are happy. Some of these are more useful than others.

8 Bohemians

Adaptation, Equality, Reason

Bohemian faction beliefs
  • Hold mindshaping sessions: Increases Trust
  • Good relations perk: Periodically boosts community relations

The Bohemians are a group of people with good hearts and wholesome goals. They want everyone in the city to trust each other and coexist peacefully, which is an admirable but naive ambition. Given the sheer scale of problems facing the world in Frostpunk 2, happiness is unfortunately the cost of survival for many people.

While increasing community relations is certainly a nice perk, it is not necessarily vital to staying in the game. Likewise, while low trust can be a losing condition, players who need help building it are likely facing larger problems that other factions are better suited to help resolve.

7 Legionnaires

Progress, Equality, Tradition

The Legionnaires Faction beliefs
  • Raise Prefabs: Generates prefabs
  • Good relations perk: The city has extra guard squads

Legionnaires promote the idea of using technology to reshape society to be better for everyone by using new technology. Their passive perk when they have a good relationship with the Steward provides extra guards, which can greatly help the player when facing protests and rebellion.

Frostpunk 2 Priorities
Frostpunk 2: 10 Most Important Priorities, Ranked

Players have a lot of things to manage in Frostpunk 2 and must prioritize accordingly. These are the most important issues that require attention.

Their best asset, however, is the active ability to generate prefabs. Since Industrial Districts can provide either prefabs or goods, it can be very difficult to generate enough prefabs to expand the city without having crime spiral out of control from lack of goods. This is particularly true of the early parts of a Utopia Builder campaign, which is when the Legionnaires are the most helpful. Once enough Industrial Districts have been built, their usefulness wanes outside of violent clashes between the player's guard squads and disgruntled factions.

6 Menders

Adaptation, Equality, Tradition

The "Menders Formed" screen from Frostpunk 2
  • Organize rescue operations: +500 population
  • Good relations perk: Expeditions are faster

The Menders are a resilient group of citizens whose goal is to turn the frostland into a home for all. They hope to elevate the poor and create a society of equals among the frost. To this end, their active ability is to venture out to find and rescue survivors in the wilderness by bringing them into the fold of the city. The extra population gained from this ability can be extremely helpful in the early game when population growth is not always high enough to expand the city very quickly. It can also help to recoup losses from deadly events like whiteouts and civil war.

Their passive ability to speed up expeditions is very useful since players will be able to explore more of the surrounding area between whiteouts. Players with the Colonize the Frostland ambition particularly benefit from this, as they can more quickly find and settle each potential colony site.

5 Technocrats

Progress, Equality, Reason

Technocrats faction beliefs
  • Optimize Research: Greatly boosts research speed
  • Good relations perk: Materials demand is reduced

The Technocrats are the epitome of the Progress cornerstone, as they indirectly help reduce the squalor that inevitably comes with steampunk technology in addition to boosting new research. By reducing the number of materials needed in the city, players can produce more goods or prefabs in addition to meeting the material needs of the city.

Frostpunk 2 Collage
Frostpunk 2: 4 Bad Decisions That Will Ruin A Playthrough

Frostpunk 2 is already a difficult game, but some decisions spell an early game over. Here's what decisions to avoid in order in any playthrough.

Once the player has enough heatstamps to consistently research new ideas, the Technocrats' active ability is very useful. Speeding up research can help when the solution to a critical problem is just out of reach. However, if players are feeling limited by heatstamp income, the extra speed may not be very useful since players can't immediately start the next one. This makes the Technocrats a situational faction.

4 Proteans

Adaptation, Merit, Reason

Protean faction beliefs
  • Coordinate Patient Care: Sick people return to the workforce
  • Good relations perk: Disease is reduced

The Proteans start when a group of Thinkers, Foragers, or Merchants get together to advocate for building a society that embraces the survival of the fittest in opposition to the Legionnaires.

Both their passive and active abilities revolve around helping the city manage disease. As a passive perk, disease is simply reduced while their active ability allows sick patients to keep working. This can be extremely beneficial during whiteouts when heat scarcity can quickly drive disease upwards. Since multiple factors such as storms, buildings, laws, housing, and research can influence disease, the Proteans' usefulness can last longer than that of some other factions.

3 Ice bloods

Adaptation, Merit, Tradition

Iceblood faction beliefs
  • Lead volunteer explorations: +80 Food output
  • Good relations perk: Food production is increased

The Ice Bloods have embraced the frost like no other group in Utopia Builder, having gone so far as to wear clothing that exposes much of their bodies to the elements. They boldly volunteer to venture into the frostland with their active ability, where they go and forage food from the wilderness. As Food Districts start to shut down because of a lack of food, this ability can be a lifesaver.

Their passive perk is also helpful, as it just increases food production in general. Players who are struggling to reduce hunger would do well to curry favor with the Ice Bloods.

2 Venturers

Progress, Merit, Reason

The "Venturers Formed" screen
  • Finance mercenaries: Recruits additional guard squads
  • Good relations perk: Heatstamp income is increased

The Venturers are business-minded individuals who have come together to promote wealth in the city. They strive to create a cut-throat capitalistic society where fierce competition wins out, and technology gets the city through the frost. As such, their passive perk is to increase heatstamp income, generating wealth that the player needs for nearly every action at their disposal.

Their active perk represents another helpful use of the Venturers' wealth: hiring mercenaries. Players can increase the number of guard squads at their disposal when they are in good favor with the Venturers, which can help quell violence in the city.

1 Overseers

Progress, Merit, Tradition

Overseers faction beliefs
  • Overdrive Output: Raises production efficiency
  • Good relations perk: Crime is reduced

The Overseers are an efficient group of machinists, merchants, and lords who want to rebuild the Old Empire with the use of the city's progressing technology. While they come off as brutal and unempathetic in the face of their opposing faction, the Bohemians, the Overseers are the most helpful faction that players can have on their side.

Reducing crime as a passive perk is useful, especially if players have not put in the effort to build watchtowers and prisons. The real boon of this faction, however, is their active ability that raises production efficiency across the board. Unlike other abilities, Overdrive Output applies to everything in the city from gathering food to fuel extraction to the production of goods and prefabs. This universal boost makes the Overseers the best faction for players seeking to establish a lasting legacy with as many survivors as possible in Utopia Builder.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image
Frostpunk 2 Tag Page Cover Art
Frostpunk 2
Display card tags widget Display card system widget
Display card community and brand rating widget
Display card open critics widget Display card main info widget
Released
September 20, 2024
Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Developer(s)
11 Bit Studios
Genre(s)
Strategy, Survival, City Builder