Summary
InFrostpunk 2, society has to scrape a living out of the frozen wasteland that Earth has become. For thirty years, the world has been plagued with rapidly cooling temperatures and intense blizzards. Huddled around a generator built at the beginning of this environmental turmoil is the last known city on the planet.
In the game’s Utopia Builder mode, players must build and guide this city through multiple crises to fulfilltheir chosen ambitionsuch as colonizing the frostland or turning their city into a metropolis. They cannot rule alone, however, as the city’s people have joined into various factions that all seek to steer its future in certain directions. Each faction has an active ability that can be used if the player has a good relationship with them as well as a passive perk that is active when they are happy. Some of these are more useful than others.
8Bohemians
Adaptation, Equality, Reason
The Bohemians are a group of people with good hearts and wholesome goals. They want everyone in the city to trust each other and coexist peacefully, which is an admirable but naive ambition. Given the sheer scale of problems facing the world inFrostpunk 2, happiness is unfortunately the cost of survival for many people.
While increasing community relations is certainly a nice perk, it is not necessarily vital to staying in the game. Likewise, while low trust can be a losing condition, players who need help building it are likely facing larger problems that other factions are better suited to help resolve.
7Legionnaires
Progress, Equality, Tradition
Legionnaires promote the idea of using technology to reshape society to be better for everyone by using new technology. Their passive perk when they have a good relationship with the Steward provides extra guards, which can greatly help the player when facing protests and rebellion.
Their best asset, however, is the active ability to generate prefabs. Since Industrial Districts can provide either prefabs or goods, it can be very difficult to generate enough prefabs to expand the city without havingcrime spiral out of controlfrom lack of goods. This is particularly true of the early parts of a Utopia Builder campaign, which is when the Legionnaires are the most helpful. Once enough Industrial Districts have been built, their usefulness wanes outside of violent clashes between the player’s guard squads and disgruntled factions.
6Menders
Adaptation, Equality, Tradition
The Menders are a resilient group of citizens whose goal is to turn the frostland into a home for all. They hope to elevate the poor and create a society of equals among the frost. To this end, their active ability is to venture out to find and rescue survivors in the wilderness by bringing them into the fold of the city. The extra population gained from this ability can be extremely helpful in the early game when population growth is not always high enough to expand the city very quickly. It can also help to recoup losses from deadly events like whiteouts and civil war.
Their passive ability to speed up expeditions is very useful since players will be able to explore more of the surrounding area between whiteouts. Players with the Colonize the Frostland ambition particularly benefit from this, as they can more quickly find and settle each potential colony site.
5Technocrats
Progress, Equality, Reason
The Technocrats are the epitome of the Progress cornerstone, as they indirectlyhelp reduce the squalorthat inevitably comes with steampunk technology in addition to boosting new research. By reducing the number of materials needed in the city, players can produce more goods or prefabs in addition to meeting the material needs of the city.
Once the player has enough heatstamps to consistently research new ideas, the Technocrats' active ability is very useful. Speeding up research can help when the solution to a critical problem is just out of reach. However, if players are feeling limited by heatstamp income, the extra speed may not be very useful since players can’t immediately start the next one. This makes the Technocrats a situational faction.
4Proteans
Adaptation, Merit, Reason
The Proteans start when a group of Thinkers, Foragers, or Merchants get together to advocate for building a society that embraces the survival of the fittest in opposition to the Legionnaires.
Both their passive and active abilities revolve around helpingthe city manage disease. As a passive perk, disease is simply reduced while their active ability allows sick patients to keep working. This can be extremely beneficial during whiteouts when heat scarcity can quickly drive disease upwards. Since multiple factors such as storms, buildings, laws, housing, and research can influence disease, the Proteans' usefulness can last longer than that of some other factions.
3Ice bloods
Adaptation, Merit, Tradition
The Ice Bloods haveembraced the frostlike no other group in Utopia Builder, having gone so far as to wear clothing that exposes much of their bodies to the elements. They boldly volunteer to venture into the frostland with their active ability, where they go and forage food from the wilderness. As Food Districts start to shut down because of a lack of food, this ability can be a lifesaver.
Their passive perk is also helpful, as it just increases food production in general. Players who are strugglingto reduce hungerwould do well to curry favor with the Ice Bloods.
2Venturers
Progress, Merit, Reason
The Venturers are business-minded individuals who have come together to promote wealth in the city. They strive to create a cut-throat capitalistic society where fierce competition wins out, and technology gets the city through the frost. As such, their passive perk is toincrease heatstamp income, generating wealth that the player needs for nearly every action at their disposal.
Their active perk represents another helpful use of the Venturers' wealth: hiring mercenaries. Players can increase the number of guard squads at their disposal when they are in good favor with the Venturers, which can help quell violence in the city.
1Overseers
Progress, Merit, Tradition
The Overseers are an efficient group of machinists, merchants, and lords who want to rebuild the Old Empire with the use of the city’s progressing technology. While they come off as brutal and unempathetic in the face of their opposing faction, the Bohemians, the Overseers are the most helpful faction that players can have on their side.
Reducing crime as a passive perk is useful, especially if players have not put in the effort to build watchtowers and prisons. The real boon of this faction, however, is their active ability that raises production efficiency across the board. Unlike other abilities, Overdrive Output applies to everything in the city from gathering food to fuel extraction to the production of goods and prefabs. This universal boost makes the Overseers the best faction for players seeking to establish a lasting legacy with as many survivors as possible in Utopia Builder.
