Quick Links
As will quickly become apparent inFrostpunk 2, your city isn’t capable of sustaining itself just with the resources it has on-hand. Local deposits will run out and your needs will only increase as the population grows, so sooner rather than later you’re going to need to send brave scouts into Frostland to seek out new sources of food, fuel, and materials.
Exploration works similarly to how it did in the first game, but there are some key differences. Whether you played the original or not, it pays to know what you’re sending the scouts into when you dispatch them into the white unknown.
How To Recruit Frostland Teams
The only way to interact with the Frostland map is byrecruiting and deploying Frostland Teams.This is done bybuilding Logistics Districts, which must be placed on thecompass iconsnear the edge of the city map. Each Logistics Districtrecruits and maintains fifteen Frostland Teamswhen operating at full capacity, and can be upgraded with buildingsvia the Frostland section of theIdeas Treeto recruit more.
Since there are only a few locations that can house a Logistics District, there is a hard cap on the number of Teams you can ultimately recruit. Be sure not to build anything else that would prevent you from zoning a Logistics District! Chances are you’ll have tofrequently reassign Frostland Teamsto meet your shifting needs.
You can always see the number of Frostland Teams that areavailable to receive ordersin the upper-right corner of the screen, indicated by a compass icon. Teams currently on an Expedition, recovering from losses, or manning an Outpost (see below) are not included in this number - it just shows how manydon’t currently have an assignment.
How To Explore Frostland Regions
Once you have Frostland Teams available, you may visit the Frostland map byclicking on the mountain iconin the upper-right corner of the screen, or justzooming outuntil the screen transitions. From here, you candeploy your Frostland Teamsto seek and recover resources, survivors, and more.
Time doesn’t stop in the city while you’re on the Frostland Map unless you remember to pause.
At first, you’re able to only see the region immediately surrounding New London; you’ll need toexplore other regionsto exploit their resources. Clicking on a region will bring up a window that shows several important details:
These numbers will vary based on the terrain, the size of the region, and its distance from New London; in general,far-off regions and those with mountainous terrainare more dangerous and time-intensive, but yield greater potential rewards.
You can only start an Expedition if you havea sufficient number of Frostland Teams awaiting orders. Once deployed, those Teams will be unavailable for any other missions until the Expedition is complete.
You cancancel an Expedition in progressto recall the Teams back to New London, but doing so gives up any progress they made towards charting the region - future Expeditions will have to start from scratch.
Once an Expedition is complete,one or more diamond-shaped iconswill appear on the Frostland Map in the newly-charted region. Clicking on them will reveal what the scouts found; there is no additional cost or time requirement needed to do this, and while most offer a decision, they also give you the option toput off making a choice until later.This is especially useful for nodes that provide a large lump sum of a resource, as it allows you time tobuild extra Stockpile Hubs.
Dangerous Expeditions
If an Expedition is listed as dangerous, then it is likely that members of the Frostland Teams will be injured, killed, or lost in the wilderness. This results incasualties, impacting the Trust of your population back at home, and the lost Teams will need to be replaced. A particularly disastrous Expedition could conceivably fail to complete their objective if all the Teams are lost, wasting time and resources. You canresearch and build training facilities at Logistics Districtsto prepare your scouts for the worst,reducing the overall danger of Expeditionsand also speeding up travel times in Frostland.
How To Build A Trail
When they aren’t risking life and limb in search of salvage for New London, Frostland Teams canoperate Outposts and Settlementsto extract and ship resources back home. However, many of these require that youfirst construct Trails, which isn’t necessarily as intuitive as it could be.
Outposts that require a Trail willprompt you to do sofrom their event popup when they’re revealed after an Expedition. You can alsofreely build Trailsby clicking on the icon at thelower-right corner of the Frostland Map, but since Trails cost Heatstamps and Prefabs it’s best toonly build them when and where they’re needed, in as straight a line as possible.
You can start a trail from any established Colony, including New London, or a section of an existing Trail; thepitons on the maprepresent end points that need to be connected for the new trail to be valid. When you select a starting point for your new Trail section, you’ll see anarea of black dotsindicating how far the section can go; Trails in open areas can stretch further for the same cost than Trails in forests and hills, so in some cases it can bemore cost-effective to go aroundrough terrain than to try and cut through it.
Each section of Trail has an individual cost, but thesame group of Frostland Teamswill work on a Trail section-by-section until it’s completed.
Keep adding Trail sections until you can connect to a piton; at that point, acheck mark buttonwill appear, the same as when you’re constructing a District. Click it to confirm, and your Frostland Teams will be dispatched to begin building the Trail.
