Among the key choices you can make during the Frostpunk 2 story mode is whether you should Embrace or Defeat the Frost in Frostpunk 2. Both lead to radically different solutions for New London’s future, and lock you out of certain research paths and choices. To help you make a better decision, we’ve made both choices and are here to break down their outcomes.
Frostpunk 2 Embrace or Defeat Frost Choice – What Does Each Do? Explained
In general, the choice to Embrace or Defeat Frost in Frostpunk 2 is similar to the one between Order or Faith in the Prequel chapter.
Each sets you toward the same long-term conclusion, but how you get there differs in some key ways. More specifically, it determines how you can continue to build your city and accumulate resources, and what fuel sources you can rely on to take care of the populace.
We’ve provided more in-depth information on what each choice does down below.
What Happens When You Embrace the Frost?
If you choose to Embrace the Frost, then you lock yourself into a story path wherein New London seeks to adapt to the cold and continue to spread out across the Frostland.
The Frostlanders, Evolvers, and Pilgrims approve of this decision, and they push for Laws that advance their agendas. In particular, they introduce new practices and technologies that modify your buildings and populace to make the Cold less of a problem. These can raise the Tension among your populace, but they also reduce the overall Resource drain of New London and make it easier to stockpile resources.
It also means you can set up new colonies throughout the Frostland. As opposed to the one established at the Old Dreadnaught though, these run themselves after you invest a set number of Resources and Cores into their establishment and provide New London with a steady infinite supply of Food, Materials, Goods, and Fuel sources. They also reduce the burden of the Population on New London, as citizens are sent out to man these Colonies.
This includes Winterhome, the sight of a former colony that had to be abandoned due to toxic gas deposits that nearly wiped out the populace there. By Embracing Frost, you make it easier to settle there again and deal with the toxic gas vents, creating a new home for your citizens to settle at and harvest more resources from.
Finally, this choice determines what fuel source you use for your Generator. Whereas Coal and Oil are your only options initially, this choice can move you toward the use of Steam power, which drastically reduces the consumption of every available Fuel source and ensures your city can Heat its populace without issue.
What Happens When You Defeat the Frost?
Counter to everything laid out above, choosing to Defeat the Frost in Frostpunk 2 makes it easier to reheat your corner of the world with steadfast reliance on your existing Generator and city.
The Faithkeepers, New Londoners, and Stalwarts are all for this, and will push forward Laws that provide ways to better maintain and improve New London. These range from an automated workforce to maximized worker efficiency incentivized by better treatment, and these all contribute toward milking every surrounding resource in the area for everything it’s worth.
This applies to the Frostland as well. While you might not be able to colonize it, you can strip every area of interest of its resources. They can then be brought back to New London and stored for later use, and any Cores you come across can go toward the development of your Generator and how efficiently it burns Oil and Coal.
Which is good, because those are the only fuel sources you can make use of. The use of Steam as a Fuel source is rejected, and you’re aggressively encouraged to Scavenge Winterhome instead of colonizing it. While this does mean you don’t have to spend resources colonizing it, it also results in you having one less place to send your population to, with the Cores there being the only resource you can safely harvest.
In exchange though, it’s much easier for you to upgrade your Generator to the highest tier. This can make it incredibly easy to maintain heat with minimal fuel in New London, and you can focus all of your time and energy into the quality of the city.
Which Choice is Best? Explained
After playing through both scenarios, it’s safe to say that it’s better to Embrace the Frost in Frostpunk 2.
While it sucks that you can’t upgrade your Generator to the maximum level without significant sacrifices, this story path is easier in a variety of ways. The fact that Colonies give you infinite resources is a godsend, and it’s great to be able to move parts of your population around to minimize strain on resources.
Likewise, Winterhome is a must-have colony with a ton of useful resources to extract. Even when you don’t destroy it, there are Cores available for you to use as you see fit, and its Steam veins can be an infinite source of energy for your growing empire.
Which is also worth mentioning: Steam is an incredibly useful Fuel source to have, and it changes the game in terms of Heating and Fuel consumption. After we unlocked it, we never had any more Fuel concerns and our Fuel Stockpile was regularly at maximum capacity. This more than made up for our lack of an efficient generator, and it basically left our playthrough in an ideal place right up to the credits.
Keep this in mind, and only choose to Defeat the Frost if you want more of a challenge.
That’s all we have on whether you should Embrace or Defeat Frost in Frostpunk 2. For more on the game, check out our other choice-based guides on whether you should remove the Corpses from the Oil and whether or not you should Slaughter the Seals.
Published: Sep 18, 2024 07:43 pm