Frostpunk 2: How to complete Chapter 2 Ambitions? Frostpunk 2 guide, tips
Chapter 2 in Frostpunk 2 focuses on the serious expansion of the city, choosing a play style for the future and preparing for a massive blizzard. On this page of the guide we described how to survive the blizzard.
Last update: 25 October 2024
Chapter 2 of Frostpunk 2 will prove to be much more demanding and stressful than the previous one. The first half of the chapter requires you to expand your city and upgrade your generator, which will drastically change how it works. The second half consists of preparations for a massive blizzard. On this guide page we describe how to upgrade the generator and survive the blizzard.
Chapter 2 tips
- Regardless of the path you choose, the old dreadnought is incredibly important as it is your only source of oil for the entire chapter, or most of it. Use the available deposits and build dedicated buildings in extraction districts to increase oil production. Also research and build cable cars and cargo terminals to increase the maximum amount of oil you can transport between settlements.
- Choosing a path will cause a fervour among the opposing faction. You can reduce this by building prisons or increasing your relations with one of the other factions (New Londoners and Frostlanders) and asking them to help you deradicalize a faction adjacent to them.
- Upgrading the generator will cost you cores. These can only be found by exploring new regions - so it's worth investing in scouts and research that will make their work less dangerous and more efficient.
- During the blizzard, you will lose access to outposts (unless you have chosen the Adaptation path and upgraded it multiple times). Make sure you can survive without them by building more districts or stockpiling resources provided by the outposts.
- Unlike a similar segment in the first game in the series, you don't know exactly how many supplies you'll need to survive the blizzard - so you'll have to make an educated guess. No matter how much fuel and food you have, act with the understanding that you have too little and need more - the blizzard is extremely destructive and will quickly eat through your resource reserves.
- The Adaptation path places a greater emphasis on expeditions and the use of many fuel deposits, while the Progression path focuses on the extraction and production of massive amounts of oil.
- In our case the blizzard only hit New London and completely missed the old dreadnought. So you don't have to prepare both settlements for it - focus only on the main city.
- Even with all your preparations, you should be ready for the devastating consequences of a blizzard. Gather a large stock of Heatstamps and distribute them to the factions once the blizzard ends, and also make promises and do favors to them to rebuild your Trust level and thus avoid defeat. New problems may also arise, such as dirt and disease, which you will have to deal with in the next chapter.
Generator upgrade choice
The chapter begins with an important choice that will determine how the generator will function from then on. You can accept the Pilgrims' offer (Adaptation) and upgrade the generator to accept all types of fuel - both coal and oil. You can also agree with the Stalwarts (Progression) and install oil pumps - the generator will now only accept oil, but its combustion will become much more efficient.
Ultimately, the choice is yours - Adaptation will enable you to establish better outposts that have endless resources and are resistant to blizzards, while Progression will give you access to near-infinite resource and food deposits right outside your city. We recommend choosing what sounds more interesting, or what fits the direction in which you developed the city in the first chapter.
Once you've made your choice, you'll now need to craft the upgrades the game requires - we recommend completing the optional goals as well. The Generator upgrade is permanent - you don't need to be careful on the Adaptation path as it will accept all fuel types, but on the Progression path make sure you have a supply of Oil before installing the upgrade. Your coal will become useless once it is installed - from now on you rely exclusively on oil. However, coal can be processed into oil in a dedicated building (pressurized coal liquefaction station) that is worth researching and building. The old dreadnought is your main source of oil for now, so develop it and improve the trail that carries the resources (research cable cars and cargo terminals)
If you have chosen the adaptation path, focus on establishing outposts and building and improving logistics districts. You'll be relying on resources found outside of the city, so recruit scouts, always explore the wilderness outside of New London, and connect outposts to the main settlement. While oil isn't as critical here as it is in the Progression path, it's still very important - expand the colony, research and build cable cars and cargo terminals, and connect outposts and colonies to New London. Either way, you'll need to explore the wilds - upgrading your generator requires cores, which can only be found on expeditions.
Preparing for the blizzard
Once you upgrade the generator, the second part of the chapter will begin - a huge blizzard is heading your way, during which the demand for heat will increase significantly and food production will drop equally significantly. Basic outposts will also cease to function during a blizzard. To survive, you must provide shelter for your citizens and have significant amounts of fuel and food stored. It is therefore worth investing in centers that will enable you to store more of these resources.
Discover outpost locations and exploit them before the blizzard arrives, and extract as much fuel and food as possible. You can't be sure how many resources you need - always assume you don't have enough and try to get more. In our case, however, the blizzard only hit New London and completely missed the old dreadnought - so the main city should be your priority. Give the colony only what it needs and store the surplus.
After some time, nomads who were previously settled in this place will arrive at the old dreadnought. They will demand oil that will enable them to survive the blizzard. If you previously desecrated their graves in Chapter 1 or built an extraction district on them later, they will be angry and demand more fuel. You have two options - you can either give in to their demands (send them oil directly from New London on the exploration screen) or drive them away by force (you can call it from the Stalwarts faction or by researching and building guard buildings). If you ignore them, the desperate nomads will attack the old dreadnought, killing many colonists and temporarily disabling all oil production, with disastrous consequences just before the blizzard.
Blizzard
Prepare as best you can - stockpile materials, overload the generator, transfer the dreadnought's oil reserves to New London. Once the blizzard hits, there is not much you can do - just watch your reserves dwindle and pray you will make it to the end. No matter how long you prepare, it is very likely that you will use up everything you have.
When the blizzard passes, you still won't be able to relax. Chapter three will begin - your new mission is to restore stability, contain the crises caused by the frost, and stay in power.