Guide Frostpunk 2: How to Clear Ice and Plan Districts on a Hexagonal Map?

The hexagonal map and extraction districts have radically changed the approach to building and developing the city in Frostpunk 2. If you add that the map is covered with ice, which first needs to be cleared with ice picks, planning becomes much more complicated. This guide will tell you how to effectively plan district development on the hexagonal map and minimize mistakes when clearing ice.

As noted in our beginner's guide, the game map of the city is divided into large hexagons (hexes) covered with a thick layer of ice. Hence the question: will the ice pick work take long? For the entire game. Almost the entire tactical map, except for a small area around the city center, is covered with ice.

This intentional complication makes one of the key skills in Frostpunk 2 the ability to effectively distribute and use ice pick squads. The better you organize this work, the faster you will free up space for new districts and reach the coveted parts of the map containing resources. To speed up the ice clearing process, we recommend using several squads simultaneously, even in different places or on parallel routes.

The process is the same for clearing ice, building districts, and upgrading them: you manually select hexes for clearing or construction. Ice picks clear up to 8 hexes at a time, districts occupy 6 hexes, and upgrading a district requires an additional 3 hexes. Warehouses occupy one hex, but they cannot be placed too close to each other — at least one empty hex is required between them.

Another important limitation in the work of ice picks is that they cannot start clearing just anywhere. Ice pick machines must hook onto already cleared territory and move from there deeper into the ice drifts. According to the game's logic, machines cannot overcome impassable ice sections on their own — they need to clear the path in front of them first to move deeper into the map.

You can't... There's simply no planning mechanism; you build immediately. One mistake and you'll have to start over, as the game does not allow canceling clearing/construction if you missed and selected the wrong hex. You can only pause. Tip: at first, just save the game, try different planning options without paying attention to the city, and once you decide, load the save and do everything properly.

Before starting clearing, it's important to carefully study the district. Let's consider this with an example:

Tip: imagine the shape of the area to be cleared as a geometric figure. In this case, we have a shape similar to a triangle, which we will replicate...

We need to break through the ice with ice picks in three arms. To do this, first, from the last hex of the available zone, break through to the farthest corner, drawing one of the edges of the figure:

Then repeat the step, outlining the contour of the land, the second edge along the border of the map:

Close the triangle by connecting the third corner to the starting point:

Inside such a large area, which we are analyzing as an example, there usually remains a large amount of resources. Decide whether you will immediately clear the center or leave it for later — both options are acceptable depending on the strategy.

Planning districts is trickier — don't forget that sooner or later you may need to upgrade a district, which involves adding new hexes. And also building a storage center (warehouse). Sometimes it's better not to expand and build an extra district without a plan for any expansion. Also, do not place an entire district over just one hex with resources.

The fact is that the most efficient location of extraction districts is expensive. It requires more space, and planning for growth, meaning the district will operate at full capacity after upgrading. At the beginning of the game, you just won't have that many heat marks, and maybe not even modules.

Therefore, first, capture the hex with infinite resources and try to occupy as many hexes with raw materials as possible. Try to avoid empty hexes within the district. If the district consists of six hexes, one empty hex is acceptable, but two is a loss in efficiency.

There are no universal solutions here, but we will offer several options for building large districts, which we took as an example.

Upgrading a district is an expensive thing, more costly than building a new district. Upgrading is done by adding neighboring hexes (usually three) in a snake fashion. This increases the district's productivity without increasing the number of required workers.

But how to plan a district with the prospect of its upgrade? The rule is the same — try to build the district so that its expansion captures at least 2 hexes with resources, and 1 hex is empty. Expansion for the sake of one hex is rarely justified and can lead to a loss of workforce.

It is also important to leave at least one free hex between districts for building a storage center. Storage centers reduce the number of workers occupied in neighboring districts. For example, a well-placed center can reduce the load from 900 to 810 people in three districts, freeing up to 270 workers for other tasks (100 of whom will be occupied in the storage center itself).

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What are the optimal city building options you have found? Write in the comments!