Frostpunk 2 – How to decrease Cold

Of the five main city problems in Frostpunk 2, Cold is the most fundamental because it’s bound to be when trying to survive an ice age. When you can’t control the weather, you can take measures to make the Cold less of a problem.

To be clear, when I’m talking about how to decrease Cold in Frostpunk 2, I’m talking about how to decrease the problem of Cold. There’s no way to decrease the cold in the sense of actually increasing the ambient temperature. But keeping an eye on the weather forecast can help you deal with Cold more effectively. It never goes away; even the “warm” seasons in Frostpunk 2 are pretty damn cold.

Cold increases Disease and Tension, reduces population growth, and causes death—and two factors decrease Cold in Frostpunk 2: Heat and Shelter.

How to heat your city in Frostpunk 2

Heat is produced by the generator in the Central District of your city or colony—the machine without which no settlement could exist in the first place. A generator’s Heat output is limited only by how much fuel you can feed into it. Every district and building demands Heat, so the bigger your city gets, the more fuel you need to be bringing in. Heat demand is also affected by the weather. The colder the season, the higher the Heat demand, with Whiteouts being the coldest seasons. As a general rule, if you’re not stockpiling surplus fuel during warmer seasons, you’re going to be in big trouble when the weather takes a turn for the worse. So, finding and exploiting new fuel sources should always be a high priority.

How to protect your people from the frost in Frostpunk 2

Heating your city in Frostpunk 2 is useless if you don’t have sufficient indoor space where people can take shelter and keep warm. That’s the main purpose of Housing, which produces Shelter, which in turn decreases Cold. Unlike other resources, you can’t stockpile Shelter when you have a surplus. But I would still strongly advise having a surplus of Shelter whenever possible. You never know when an influx of new citizens is going to arrive, and various events (including some types of Whiteout) can decrease the effectiveness of your Housing, so it’s a good idea to build a bit extra when times are good.

You can expand Housing Districts to increase their Shelter output and make space for Buildings. Building Housing Blocks, researched under the City tab of the Idea Tree, in your Housing Districts gives them an additional boost to Shelter output.