Progress in Frostpunk 2 comes at a price. As the Steward, you’re constantly juggling the needs of different factions while pushing for scientific advancement. These breakthroughs unlock new laws and building improvements that are crucial for your city’s survival. This guide outlines the best techs to research in Frostpunk 2, helping you strategize your research efforts for a thriving society. We’ll cover the fundamental research mechanics, followed by our top picks across various categories: Heating, Resources, Frostland, City, Society, and Hubs.
Establishing Your Research Institute
The image shows the requirements for the Research Institute building.Image Credit: 11 Bit Studios
Before diving into research, you need a Research Institute. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Start by constructing a Housing District, which requires six tiles.
- Expand the Housing District by clicking the four-arrow icon in the lower-right corner of its panel, selecting three additional tiles.
- This expansion unlocks a building slot for improvements, including the Research Institute.
- Building the Research Institute requires 100 heatstamps, 50 prefabs, and 400 workforce.
Effective Research Strategies in Frostpunk 2
The image shows the tech tree where certain factions are in favor of a particular research.Image Credit: 11 Bit Studios
While some techs are available early on, many are locked behind prerequisites and progression. Keep these tips in mind:
- Research requires manpower, heatstamps, and prefabs. Additional Research Institutes accelerate research speed.
- Techs are interconnected. Research prerequisites before unlocking advanced options. Some require aligning with specific zeitgeist tenets like Merit or Equality.
- Researching alternative options for a tech replaces the previous one.
- Factions favor specific techs. Researching these improves relations. Some techs might be required for negotiation deals.
- Radical Ideas are often proposed by faction delegates for enactment as laws.
Prioritizing Heating Technologies
The image shows the Heating tech tree.Image Credit: 11 Bit Studios
- Melting Deep Deposits: Deep Melting Drill: This crucial tech unlocks access to virtually unlimited resources like food and materials from deep deposits, eliminating scarcity concerns.
- Generator Upgrades: All three upgrades maximize generator overdrive and increase fuel throughput.
- Housing Insulation and Food Energy Efficiency: These reduce heat demand for Housing and Food Districts, respectively.
- General: Fuel Sources: Focus on techs aligned with your available resources, such as Geothermal Plants or Oil Extractors.
Optimizing Resource Management Technologies
- Worker Shifts: Weather-Adjusted Shifts: This enact-able law reduces heat demand for most districts (excluding Housing) and mitigates disease, at a slight cost to production efficiency.
- New Work Model: Apex Workers: Unlocked through Adaptation tenet choices, this Radical Idea significantly boosts production efficiency and lowers heat demand across all districts and buildings.
- Filtration Towers: Moss-Filtration Tower: Unlocks Filtration Towers for Housing Districts, enabling a district ability to significantly reduce squalor.
- General: Materials: Prioritize material production for prefabs (construction) and goods (crime reduction). Maintain sufficient Foundries, Sawmills, or Composite Factories based on your territory’s resources.
Expanding into the Frostland with Essential Technologies
- Scouts’ Headquarters: Survivalists’ Headquarters: Reduces exploration time and territory threat, crucial for expanding your reach.
- Scout Training: Pathfinder Scouts: Further reduces territory threat level.
- Skyways: Enables skyways, offering higher resource capacity compared to trails.
- Outpost Operation: Extraction Strongholds or Frontier Footholds: Choose between improved production efficiency (Extraction Strongholds) or reduced maintenance teams (Frontier Footholds) for your outposts.
Enhancing City Functionality with Key Technologies
The image shows the City tech tree.Image Credit: 11 Bit Studios
- Work Compensation: Efficiency Bonuses: Boosts production efficiency without downsides, particularly beneficial for Merit-based societies.
- Maintenance Duty: Unproductive Do Maintenance: This Merit-based law slightly increases production efficiency and material demand.
Focusing on Societal Advancement Technologies
- Watchtowers: Patrol Watchtowers: Ideal for Tradition-focused societies, this increases Guard Squads and lowers crime, but slightly increases tension.
- Youth: Dutiful Youth: Another strong Tradition choice, reducing crime, boosting active workers, and granting a workforce-boosting city ability at the cost of trust.
- Hospitals: Recovery Hospital and Treatment: Experimental Treatment: These complementary techs (Tradition and Reason paths, respectively) reduce disease spread and accelerate healing, slightly increasing tension.
Maximizing Hub Effectiveness with Crucial Technologies
- Maintenance Hub: An early-game essential, this hub reduces material demand for nearby districts. Place it centrally for maximum impact.
- Rail Hub: Increases efficiency in adjacent Extraction, Industrial, and Food Districts.
- Fighting Hub: Counteracts tension caused by Radical Ideas and events. Place it amidst Housing Districts for optimal effect.
This guide highlights the most impactful research options in Frostpunk 2. By prioritizing these technologies, you can effectively manage resources, navigate societal challenges, and secure a future for your city in the frozen wasteland.
