Frostpunk 2 – Should you defeat or embrace the frost in Chapter 2?

Is it better to side with the Stalwarts or the Pilgrims?

New London in Frostpunk
Screenshot by Dot Esports

In Frostpunk 2, at the start of Chapter Two (Ambition), you’re presented with a choice regarding the City’s future. You can either click “We Will Defeat The Frost” or “We Will Embrace the Frost”—and this choice greatly affects how the rest of the campaign plays out.

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Difficult choices are woven into the fabric of Frostpunk 2. Your strategy and chances of success or failure are shaped by your choices at every step of the way. But a few of these decisions carry a lot more weight than the rest, and your choice between defeating and embracing the frost is the first of these big decisions.

It affects how Chapter Two plays out and has consequences for the rest of the story campaign. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly.

Should you defeat the frost or embrace the frost in Chapter 2 – Ambition?

The defeat or embrace the frost screen in Frostpunk 2.
You know it’s an important choice because it has an entire screen to itself. Screenshot by Dot Esports

There’s no concrete right or wrong answer here because neither choice is better than the other. In fact, I’d say you should make one choice on your first Frostpunk 2 playthrough and then make the other choice on your second playthrough. This choice is impactful enough that you’ll have a quite different gameplay experience on each playthrough.

Personally, I went with embracing the frost because I was more persuaded by the Pilgrims’ argument that the frost is here to stay and that we should learn to live with it. You can “roleplay” the decision as I did, or you can base this decision on your playstyle. If you enjoy exploring the Frostland and discovering all the goodies hidden out there in the ice, then embrace the frost. But if you prefer to focus more on city management, you’ll probably find that defeating the frost is better suited to your style.

What happens if you embrace the frost in Frostpunk 2?

New London immediately after embracing the frost.
Embracing the frost is about exploring and exploiting the wider Frostland. Screenshot by Dot Esports

If you embrace the frost, then you’ll be able to upgrade your generator so it can use any kind of fuel: coal, oil, or steam. You’ll also be able to find Frostland settlements with unlimited resource output. The downside is you won’t be able to melt the deep resource deposits surrounding New London and your colonies. You’ll also gain the Pilgrims’ approval and annoy the Stalwarts, but not by a huge amount in either case.

What happens if you defeat the frost in Frostpunk 2?

New London immediately after defeating the frost.
Defeating the frost prioritizes keeping New London warm. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Defeating the frost allows you to upgrade your generator so it uses oil much more efficiently, but it won’t be able to run on coal or steam at all. You can convert coal to oil using Coal Liquefactors, but this is an expensive, time-consuming extra step on the path to getting the heat you need. You can also access the deep resource deposits surrounding New London and your colonies, but Frostland settlements with unlimited output will be off-limits.

Author
Image of Gavin Mackenzie
Gavin Mackenzie
Gavin Mackenzie has been playing video games since the early 80s, and writing about them professionally since the late 90s. Having been a writer and editor on various British magazines including PLAY, GamesTM, and X360, he's now a freelance guides specialist at Dot Esports.