Hub buildings are crucially important to resource management inFrostpunk 2. They do this by building up large stockpiles of resources to sustain your city during a difficult stretch, ensuring that all of your districts are running on less resources than they otherwise would, or by keeping the people in your city from causing problems.
There aren’t any hubs that are useless, and you’re likely going to be using all of them at some point throughout your run. But, some of them are going to make a bigger individual impact than others, giving each hub of that type greater value.
12Goods Stockpile Hub
Increases Good Stockpile Capacity By 50,000
The Goods Stockpile Hub is going to be the least important of all of your stockpiles, but it’s still a good plan to build up a little collection of goods. That said, goods are some of the easier resources to gather, and one of the resources of lesser importance.
The more goods you have, the better your heatstamp production is. While having a good heatstamp production is nice, it’s not going to take you long to build up a big bank of heatstamps and not have to worry about it for long stretches of time.
11Communication Hub
Increases Trust In Nearby Housing Districts
Your mileage will vary on this hub; for those who are playing the whole table and keeping good relations with the majority of the factions, this isn’t going to be too crucial to have around.
But, if you’re havingsignificant trouble appeasing factionsand have some particular troublemakers, placing some communication hubs around can make a difference. You’re still probably going to need to make some business decisions in legislation, but it might keep the problem from growing as quickly as it otherwise would.
10Fighting Hub
Decreases Tension In Nearby Housing Districts
The fighting pit is similar to the communication hub in that it can keep underlying problems from growing into disaster-inducing problems, but when things are good, it’s not going to be too critical. Tension is not going to grow as long as things are running smoothly, but fighting for sport doesn’t really take off when things are good, does it?
When things are bad and your population is stressed, the fighting hubs are going to keep that tension from going off the rails with as much quickness as it would otherwise. That’s not to say it’ll keep you from having to address the problems causing it, but these will buy you some time, so you don’t have to scramble quite as much.
9Air Transport Hub
Reduces Workforce Requirements In Nearby Districts
In the early going, you’re probably going to run into workforce issues. You might later on too, but it’s a particular problem early on in Frostpunk 2, and it usually gets better over time. While you don’t have access to the air transport hub right away, it’s not a bad thing to prioritize researching and building.
Later, you’re going to have stretches where you’ve got more workers than you know what to do with. That doesn’t mean air transport hubs would be bad to include, more workers is always better than less workers, but it’s not going to be too paramount. But if you’re looking to min-max to the max, these are going to be your bread and butter.
8Surveillance Hub
Decreases Crime In Nearby Housing Districts
Crime isn’t a big problem until it is, and then it’s a huge problem. Getting a crime problem can eat away at everything else and cause problems everywhere. Luckily, it’s not too terribly difficult to get crime under control. There are a few ways to help, and the surveillance hub is one of them.
Population increase without suitable housing and general unhappiness can cause crime to spiral quickly, so keeping on top of those aspects will be key. When you need a little bit of help in that regard, the surveillance hub is going to be a boon.
7Emergency Medical Hub
Decreases Disease In Nearby Housing Districts
Disease can be one of the more problematic things that can rip through your population. If it doesn’t outright cause deaths, disease will still cause your workforce to lower while people are sick. This is going to decrease production across the board, and if the problem gets too bad, it can cause multiple things to start spiraling.
There are a number of ways to both worsen the chance of disease and lessen the chance of disease, and the emergency medical hub is one of the easier and less expensive optionswhen it comes to lowering disease. Keep them spread throughout your housing districts, and disease shouldn’t be a problem.
6Maintenance Hub
Decreases Material Deman In Nearby Districts
Material production can be one of the more consistent issues you’re going to face in Frostpunk 2, with things going from good, to bad, to great, to terrible, back and forth like a particularly problematic pendulum. So many different things effect your material usage, and keeping up on it is one of the most important aspects of Frostpunk 2.
Maintenance hubs can keep material usage slightly lower across the board. While one might not make much of a dent, tactically sprinkling these around your districts is going to make a big one. They’re inexpensive and important; a perfect combination.
5Rail Hub
Increases Efficiency Of Nearby Districts
While it doesn’t make the focused difference of some others, the rail hub is a great all-around hub that is a great way to min-max your efficiency across the board. These probably aren’t going to be something you slap down when things are bad, but when things are good, and you’re looking to keep them that way, the rail hub is there for you, and having them in the right spots can really take your city to the next level.
But when things are bad, there’s usually going to be one big problem to solve that is going to make a marked improvement, and the rail hub is not the right band-aid to slap down in that instance. When that’s the case, pause time and take a deep look at what’s causing issues.
4Material Stockpile Hub
Increases Material Stockpile By 50,000
With materials being as important as they are, and with them being able to swing from good to bad as quickly as they can, it’s important to to keep a good amount on hand. There are going to be times when you’re producing hundreds more materials than you need; right that wave while you can, because it isn’t always going to be the case.
When you’re desperately searching for more material production and definitely not panicking about it, having that stockpile of a few hundred thousand to fall back on is going to help. You don’t know when you’re going to need it, so you may as well build it up while you can.
3Food Stockpile Hub
Increases Food Stockpile by 50,000
Arguably the most important resource but definitely in the top two, you simply need food. It’s non-negotiable, and if you don’t have it, things are going to get very bad, very quickly. Much quicker than when you run out of other resources.
Building up a stockpile of food is one of the first things that the prologue teaches you, and it’s for good reason. No food means people are going to starve. Aside from the moral failure of it, that causes a logistical problem of less workers, and so less production of everything.
