Frostpunk 2: How to Decrease Squalor

Squalor is a city problem in Frostpunk 2 that is connected to the amount of pollution that is present. Pollution is created by the Generator, and certain Buildings, and players who want to avoid Disease, slow Population Growth, and District wear will need to combat it. This guide is here to detail the ways in which fans can fight back against pollution, and it will help fans reduce their Squalor in Frostpunk 2.

Hovering over the Squalor icon at the top of the screen provides information about the factors that are increasing and decreasing a City's Squalor. This includes detailing how significant each factor's impact is, with "marginally" being the least significant and "extremely" being the most significant.

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By William Parks

Frostpunk 2: How to Reduce Squalor

Materials

The first thing that a player who is struggling with Squalor should do is make sure that they are meeting their City's demand for Materials. Indeed, Squalor is increased when there is Materials Scarcity, and a red bar beneath the Materials icon in the Resource Tray at the top of the screen indicates that Materials Scarcity is in effect.

Players with a stockpile of Materials can allow the number next to the Materials icon to go negative without activating Materials Scarcity. That said, fans of city builders should make sure that they have a plan for turning that number positive before their Materials stockpile is consumed.

If a player finds that they are not meeting their City's demand for Materials, they should rectify the issue by taking these actions:

Build additional Extraction Districts on tiles that generate Materials.
Research Buildings that increase the Materials output of Extraction Districts, and build those Buildings in already-established Extraction Districts. Sawmills and Foundries increase the Materials output of Extraction Districts, and they are accessed by researching nodes on the left side of Idea Tree's Resources section.
Research Maintenance Hubs (Idea Tree: Hubs), and build them near Districts to reduce their Materials demand.
Improve Production Efficiency to increase the Materials Output of Extraction Districts.
Explore Frostpunk 2's Frostland to find points of interest that provide Materials.

Filtration Towers & Waste Management Facilities

If a City's Squalor is growing after its Materials demands are met, players should use the Idea Tree to research Buildings that directly decrease Squalor. More specifically, fans of post-apocalyptic games should navigate to the Resources section of the Idea Tree, look to the bottom-right corner, and start researching an idea within "Filtration Towers." Once that research is complete, players should expand a Housing District, navigate to the Housing section of the Buildings menu, select their Tower, and place it in the District.

Once a Filtration Tower is built, players should unpause the game and hover over the Squalor icon at the top of the screen. If Squalor is still "Growing," survival game fans should expand another Housing District and place another Tower within it. Players should repeat this process until Squalor changes to "Stable" or "Diminishing" or Squalor is being "extremely decreased" by the Tower.

If Squalor reaches at least "Minor," players can activate the "Rapid Filtration" ability in Housing Districts where they have established Filtration Towers. While this ability may not be a permanent solution, it can be helpful when working to get Squalor under control.

Players can further decrease their Squalor by researching an idea within "Waste Management Facilities." That node can be found near "Filtration Towers" in the Resources section of the Idea Tree, and it will give strategy game fans access to Squalor-reducing Buildings that can be placed in Industrial Districts. After building a Waste Management Facility in an Industrial District, players should hover over the Squalor icon at the top of the screen and use the information that is revealed to take further action.

There are two types of Towers that can be learned through "Filtration Towers" and two types of Facilities that can be learned through "Waste Management Facilities." These types appear to act independently of one another, and each one can be made to "extremely decrease" Squalor. This seems to suggest that Frostpunk 2 players could use these four types of buildings to "extremely decrease" Squalor four times.

Disable Buildings

If a player is unable to get Squalor under control with Filtration Towers and Waste Management Facilities, they may want to see if they can survive with some of their Squalor-creating Buildings disabled. Indeed, turning off just one Building may be enough to drop the contribution of its type from "significant" to "slight" and set Squalor to "Diminishing."