Frostpunk 2: Chapter 1 Walkthrough

Congratulations on surviving the Whiteout in the Prologue and making it to the first official chapter in Frostpunk 2! The first chapter presents new challenges and considerably expands the gameplay by introducing new buildings, ideas, and social elements while also requiring you to manage a larger city and its growing population. The premise of the first chapter is to secure an alternate fuel source to power the generator.

However, this isn’t an easy task and requires completing a series of smaller tasks to complete the objective. If you’re finding it confusing to navigate the objectives in this chapter, the following guide should help you understand each one and complete them successfully.

Secure Coal And Expand Shelter

The first objective in Frostpunk 2’s first chapter is to build Extraction Districts on Coal Seams to power the generator. You’ll then need to build two Housing Districts to secure shelter for your citizens.

Frostbreak To Reach Shallow Coal Seam And Construct An Extraction District

Before starting your frostbreaking efforts, hold down the left “ALT” to bring up the base economy overlay and spot the Shallow Coal Seams. Extractable resources in Frostpunk 2 have a distinct symbol and hovering over them displays their name. Refer to the image above to learn how Shallow Coal Seam icons appear in the game.

Once you’ve identified the Shallow Coal Seam, press “X” to begin frostbreaking and make the Coal Seams accessible for Extraction Districts.

When frostbreaking, aim for tiles that contain resources rather than empty ones.
Frostbreaking consumes Heatstamps
, so you want to be as efficiency as you can when use it to clear land.

With the Shallow Coal Seams accessible for you, press “B” to pull up the District Construction menu and select Extraction District. Now, build the Extraction District over the Shallow Coal Seams you uncovered. Building an Extraction District requires six frostbroken tiles, and in this case, try selecting the tiles that provide access to Shallow Coal Seams.

Turn On The Generator

Once the Extraction District is built and coal starts to fuel the generator, you can turn it on by clicking the generator in the center of the city and flipping the switch to power everything up. The generator provides heat to the entire city, and it’s crucial to keep it running at all times.

Construct New Housing District To Address Lack Of Shelter

With fuel and heat secured, it’s time to tackle the problem of shelter. Housing Districts are built on tiles that don’t have any resources to extract. However, you’ll still need to frostbreak to access these tiles. When choosing a spot to build Housing Districts, look for those that are outlined in blue, as they are protected by environmental factors and provide additional heat. However, it’s not mandatory to always prioritize these eco-friendly spots.

Building two Housing Districts adjacent to each other activates the Mutual Heating passive ability.

Scraping The Barrel

With the first objective complete, it’s time to tackle the next set of objectives, one of which introduces the ability to research new ideas.

Expand An Existing Housing District

With the Housing Districts built, your next task is to expand an existing one. To do this, click on a completed Housing District to open the management panel. Then, refer to the image above to identify the expand icon. Click the expand and select three adjacent empty tiles to complete the expansion. Expanding a Housing District provides it with a Building Slot, which is used to outfit these Districts with technological upgrades. Consider expanding both Housing Districts you built to fulfill the shelter requirement.

Housing Districts can be expanded twice, provided there are three adjacent tiles for each expansion. Expanding twice increases the district’s living capacity and provides it with two Building Slots.

Keep in mind that Housing Districts don’t have a Building Slot when first constructed. You must expand them to unlock Building Slots. It’s a good idea to expand as many Housing Districts as possible, as there are no downsides to doing so.

Build A Research Institute

Having expanded the houses, the next objective is to build a Research Institute, which allows you to research new ideas shared by the different factions living in your city. A Research Institute cannot be built independently and requires an expanded Housing District with one Building Slot available.

Constructing a Research Institute requires 400 Workforce, 100 Heatstamps, and 50 Prefabs. Make sure you have these resources, then press “N” to open the Buildings menu and select the Research Institute. You’ll see the option to build it on one of your expanded Housing Districts. Complete the construction before moving on to research your first idea.

At this stage, you may need to build additional Extraction Districts on Shallow Coal Seams to meet the growing heat demand as the colder season approaches.

Research An Idea For New Coal Mines

With the Research Institute built, you now have access to the Idea Tree, which can be opened by pressing “R.” Your next task is to research a new coal mining idea to boost coal production from the Shallow Coal Seams. The Idea Tree has six categories, each addressing different needs of your city. You can explore these categories by navigating the corresponding tabs at the top of the screen.

Research pertaining to quests or promises you make to your factions is indicated by an exclamation mark. To research Coal Mining, click the Heating category, then Coal Mines. To research Coal Mining, click on the Heating category, then select Coal Mines. You’ll now see three coal mining ideas proposed by different factions. Let’s take a closer look at how these ideas differ from each other:

• Dust Coal Mine: Proposed by the Frostlanders, Dust Coal Mining produces 150 coal while using only 20 Materials. However, it also increases the risk of disease among your citizens.
• Blasting Coal Mine: This idea is shared by both the New Londoners and Stalwarts. Researching it will produce 180 coal but at the cost of 60 Materials. The Blasting Coal Mine prevents disease among workers but increases Squalor, which can eventually lead to illness and factory malfunction if not addressed.

It’s recommended to research Blasting Coal Mine over Dust Coal Mine to ensure a steady flow of coal while minimizing risks to your workers’ health.

Depending on whether you researched the Blasting Coal Mine or Dust Coal Mine, select the corresponding structure from the Buildings menu by pressing “N” and navigating to the Extraction tab. Hover over the structure to see where it can be built in an Extraction District. Proceed with the construction and wait for it to be completed.

A Place To Settle Differences

Now that you’ve chosen one proposed idea over the other, one of the factions isn’t too happy with you. To address discontentment, you must proceed to build a Council and win the Vote of Confidence.

Build A Council Hall

To settle the disputes between factions, you must build a Council Hall, which can be done by pressing “N”, and then navigating to the Central tab. Constructing a Council Hall requires 200 Workforce, 80 Heatmaps, and 40 Prefabs. Hover over the Council Hall to see where it can be placed in your city. The Council Hall is where you’ll pass laws to streamline city management.

Pass The Vote Of Confidence

With the Council Hall built, it’s time to pass the vote of confidence where the council members will decide if you remain in power. You may notice that a few council members are firmly in your favor, a few are against you, and the majority are hesitant.

However, you can tip the scales in your favor by negotiating with the factions. Clicking “Negotiate” will take you to the negotiation screen where you pick one of the deals proposed by each of the three factions and strike up a deal. These deals may involve researching new ideas, constructing structures, or enacting specific laws. Successfully negotiating can sway factions to vote for or against a law. In this scenario, consider negotiating a deal with each faction to increase your chances of staying in power.

Failing to fulfill a negotiated deal will result in a loss of trust from the factions, and you’ll need to find alternative ways to regain their support.

Find New Source Of Fuel

The idea you researched was only a temporary solution to exploit the coal reserves, and the council understands that the city cannot depend on coal for powering the generator. You must now find a new source of fuel to keep the generator from shutting down.

If you negotiated with the factions before passing the vote of confidence,
you’ll now need to fulfill those deals
. Promises made to factions can be viewed under your objectives, and they come with a timer before which they must be fulfilled.

Build A Logistics District On An Old Waystation

Before building the Logistics District, you must first identify and access an Old Waystation. These stations are depicted with a compass symbol and, just like Shallow Coal Seam, you can easily identify them along with their names by holding down the “R” key. Frostbreak your way to one of the Old Waystations and press “R” to select the Logistics District and build over the Old Waystation.

Completing the Logistics District construction unlocks Expeditions, allowing you to explore regions surrounding New London.

Find A Permanent Source Of Fuel Outside The City

With Expeditions in effect, you can now explore all territories marked as safe. Exploring these territories will reward you with materials, Steam Cores, and new people willing to join your city. Consider exploring all regions marked with an exclamation point, and eventually the Desolate Coast, where you’ll discover oil.

The oil comes from the Old Dreadnought, the same structure used as the generator in the prologue. Before using the oil, you’re faced with a choice: remove the bodies from the oil tanks or respect the dead. Choosing to respect the dead, locks away one of the oil tanks, though this isn’t permanent — you can choose to access it later.

Black Gold

Now that you have found oil as an alternate fuel, it’s time to settle a small group of Frostlanders near the Old Dreadnought and begin the oil extraction process.

Establish A Small Colony At The Old Dreadnought

Before you can send the colonists to the Old Dreadnought, you should build a trail that connects New London to the Dreadnought. The tighter your trail is, the fewer weeks it will take to transfer resources to and fro between the two locations. You can create a trail by clicking the “We Found Oil” option, and then proceed to connect the small markers, connecting both New London and the Old Dreadnought.

Once the trail has been established, you can send a team of 3,000 colonists to colonize the Old Dreadnought and begin oil extraction efforts. Oil extraction works similar to mining coal. You begin by frostbreaking your way to the oil tanks, and then construct an Extraction District on the above the oil tank. Since you also sent the colonists to the Old Dreadnought, you also need to build the required Housing Districts and meet their basic needs. This is where Resource Transfer comes into play — more on that in the next section.

Transfer At Least 75 Oil Output To New London

With oil now discovered and extracted, it’s time to send it to New London from the Old Dreadnought. To transfer the oil, click the oil barrel icon in the top-right corner of your screen, then select the “Resource Transfer” option. This will open the Resource Transfer panel, allowing you to transfer all essential resources, including Oil, Materials, Food, and Goods, between the two locations.

To accelerate oil extraction, consider building Extraction Districts on available oil tanks. Once you’ve stockpiled enough oil, you transfer it to New London through the Resource Transfer. After sending 75 oil, Chapter 1 of Frostpunk 2 automatically concludes, and Chapter 2 begins!