Wondering how to raise Trust in Frostpunk 2? For 11 Bit Studios’ return to Frostlands, plenty of mechanics have received an overhaul and a rework. This includes how the citizens of The City you preside over will view your success.
Trust in Frostpunk 2 is a new metric, and it’s vital to your survival as Steward. So here, we’re going to go through the best strategies for raising Trust, the smartest ways to keep Trust high, and the dangerous pitfalls you’ll want to avoid if you intent to stay in the top job for long. If you’re after more Frostpunk 2 though, be sure to check out the rest of our catalogue. Whether you’re after the best graphics settings or want our Frostpunk 2 preview from hands-on time with the beta, we’ve got you covered.
What Is Trust in Frostpunk 2?
First things first; it’s important to understand what exactly Trust is from a gameplay standpoint. Put simply, Trust is an arbitrary metric measured by a bar at the bottom of your UI. The metric will show as the full, gold-coloured portion of this bar, and can exist at several different states. It indicates the general mood of your citizens, and how much they trust in your leadership.
When Trust is high, and you’re Accepted or Beloved by your people, you’ll have fewer problems to worry about. High Trust generally goes in hand with sweeping support from your population. We’ve yet to see if it will also come with more direct bonuses in the full release build, such as more support when trying to pass laws in Frostpunk 2, but that’s a distinct possibility.
Low Trust, however, is far more problematic, as it means The City has begun to turn on you. This can result in a variety of problems, starting with protests which shut down districts. In the worst-case scenario, if your popularity falls low enough, you’ll be given an ultimatum: Raise Trust in your leadership or be thrown from power. Needless to say, the latter option will result in a game over.
How You Can Raise Trust in Frostpunk 2
So, it should be apparent that keeping Trust high is going to be a priority if you want to make it far in this game. Here are our top strategies to help you raise Trust in Frostpunk 2.
- Keep resources plentiful to prevent negative statuses from accumulating.
- Try to win the favour of the largest factions, or keep on reasonable terms with all of them.
- Pick research options and pass laws that your population will favour.
- Address timed events or crises as soon as they arise.
- Try to keep deaths to a minimum.
Let’s go over each of these in a bit more detail and explain why they’re important.
Keeping Your Resources Plentiful
Arguably, this is one of the trickiest things to do in Frostpunk 2 in the long run. Early on, you’ll find resources are still decently plentiful within the confines of The City and its surrounding area. But they won’t stay that way.
This becomes a problem because each negative status effect in your city is tied to a certain shortage. For example, too few Materials will lead to a rise in Squalor, not enough Heat will cause Cold to increase, less food will increase Hunger, and so on. Any one of these problems getting out of hand can turn the public against you, especially if they begin leading to deaths. Multiple crises at once can be an even greater problem.
We’d advise that, when planning your city, prioritise of course, but also ensure you’re giving each resource and asset to your city fair attention. As long as you’re able to mitigate shortages at a minimum, you’ll be able to hold any particular status effect from growing. Long-term, it’s worth getting Logistics Districts set up as quickly as possible, since these will allow you to begin rapidly exploring Frostland. Expeditions, colonies, and bases outside of The City are capable of supplying vast amounts of resources to supplement your own shortages as immediate sources run dry. This is an absolute necessity in the long run if you want to keep your city in order.
Winning Over or Pacifying the Factions
Politics are a big part of Frostpunk 2, and they’ll be key to navigating your character’s popularity. We’d in fact argue that this is the single most important factor, as hovering over the Trust metre in-game will reveal that your approval from various factions, and their size, determines the current score.
Balancing faction approval in the early game isn’t too hard. Since some factions have relatively similar goals, you can always try alternating between siding with one in research and lawmaking, then siding with another. Later into the game though, this balance becomes more challenging to walk.
If you’re struggling, our advice would be that you aim to go all in on one or two factions, throwing your support behind them and working to grow them as quickly as possible. This might result in protests from opposing factions, but as far as Trust is concerned, you’ll still technically be favoured by a majority of the population.
Keep an Eye Out for Trust-Affecting Policies & Research
Though not as common, you’ll find that some policies and research branches have a chance to affect Trust. This is most common under society trees. Things like choosing to honour deaths with traditional burials for example will lessen the impact of those deaths on the community, retaining more Trust. Make sure to read your options carefully, and you may be able to pick up a little extra Trust here and there throughout the game.
Address Events & Crises Promptly
You’re going to face more than your fair share of problems as leader of The City, and they won’t always be easy to solve. Nonetheless, speed can be key when it comes to keeping or building Trust. In particular, keep an eye out for any event where your chosen resolution involves making a promise. Often, these promises will involve researching something specific, passing a certain law, or meeting another straightforward criteria. But you’ll only have a certain amount of time to meet it, and if promises begin to stack up, it can become difficult or even impossible to fulfill them all.
This can be a problem, as breaking a promise will severely impact relations with the faction you made that promise to, and by effect have an impact on The City’s Trust in you. We’d advise that, if your resources are stretched thin or you’ve got a lot on your plate, you consider choosing a promise based on what is easier to keep rather than what is necessarily the best.
Try to Keep Deaths to a Minimum
Just like deaths affected Hope and Discontent in the first game, deaths in Frostpunk 2 have a negative impact on Trust. This can become a particular problem during Whiteouts, long stretches of stormy weather during which the temperature plummets and certain industries are forced to shut. Without proper preparation, your reserves can quickly run dry. Reaching a coal deficit during a Whiteout is particularly dangerous, as Cold will increase rapidly and can lead to mass deaths.
Ultimately, you can’t stop deaths entirely, but you can mitigate their impact. Firstly, consider passing laws on funerals that reduce the Trust loss from citizen deaths. Secondly, keep an eye on the weather forecast in the top right of the UI to anticipate Whiteouts and other cold spells. Thirdly, aim to prioritise a healthy coal production and reserve as soon as possible in the early game, before switching to large scale exploration from the mid-game onwards. This will help you to ride out Whiteouts more effectively.
That covers everything we have for you on raising Trust in Frostpunk 2. There’s plenty more the get to grips with ahead of the full release in July however. Be sure to get familiar with how to build Districts. Or if you fancy a change of pace, why not check out what we know about the Frostpunk 2 Story so far?
