After exploring through the frozen wastes outside of New London, you’ll eventually come across the ruins of Winterhome, a former colony that is rich with Cores, but comes with a deadly toxin beneath the surface. As you start Chapter 4 of Frostpunk 2 you’re given a critical choice, do you choose to salvage the former Colony or do you choose to settle it. Keep reading to learn the outcome of both choices.

View Full-size

You will have to make the major choice of salvaging or settling Winterhome in Chapter 3 of Frostpunk 2.

The choice you make here will determine how the various Communities and Factions view the Steward going into the game’s final Chapter, and may inadvertently cause one of the opposing Factions to your main ideal to go hostile, causing many issues. As such, think this over carefully, Chapter 4 already pits you up against the clock, so deciding whether it’s going to be a short-term stay or a longer one is of critical importance.

Salvage Winterhome¶

As you may suspect from the choice itself, choosing to Salvage Winterhome is a choice that favors progress, and the Stalwarts Faction at the expense of Adaptation and the Pilgrims Faction. The plan is to blow the ruins and cause the Toxic fumes to leak, leaving you with a rush against time to extract as many Cores with minimal casualties.

If you’re planning to choose this route, hopefully you didn’t choose to send the opposite Faction out to Winterhome as this will only make matters worse. As a result of your actions, they will kill citizens and cause general revolt as you look to use Winterhome just for its Cores.

This will give you the objective to salvage 40 Cores so that you can build the next Generator upgrade in New London, and this is no mean feat. You’ll need to deal with the level of Disease that will build during this time, so consider setting up Hospitals to offset that. You’ll find that you need to send resources and Workforce over from New London to get the ball rolling, so get on that as soon as possible.

View Full-size

1

2

(1 of 2) There are plenty of Core deposits to make use of when Salvaging Winterhome.

View Full-size

View Full-size

There are plenty of Core deposits to make use of when Salvaging Winterhome. (left), Remember to send resources over from New London to get that Generator running! (right)

If you can, Research and Build the Automated Workforce Factory as not only will you get more Workforce out of it, but you’ll also get a different type of Frostbreak that won’t cost you as many lives. You will have to deal with the Colonists attempting to sabotage your efforts here though, so be sure to set up Watchtowers and other measures to try and keep things under control and grab those 40 Cores.

Settle Winterhome¶

This path, then, is the opposite to Salvage Winterhome in that it favors Adaptation and the Pilgrims at the expense of Progress and the Stalwarts. As with before, don’t send the opposite Faction to the Colony beforehand if you can help it as it will only make controlling the Colony much more difficult.

As you may expect, with the goal to settle Winterhome as a new Colony, your objectives are going to change massively. More interestingly, the site of Winterhome will look a different to that found in the Salvage path (due to not using the explosives). The first thing you’ll need to do is build Fume Filtration Districts over the Toxic Springs, this means you’re going to need to do a lot of Frostbreaking. Where possible, always use Safe Frostbreaking to prevent needless death and see Tensions rise.

View Full-size

Avoid using Rapid Frostbreaking if you can help it, you don’t want any more reasons to cause the already rising Tensions to increase faster.

The biggest issue with this path is the resources you’re going to need and, once you’ve fulfilled the first objectives, rebuilding Winterhome requires 9,000 population and keeping Cold, Hunger, and Disease absent, not an easy task. The best way to aid yourself here is by redirecting some resources from your Frostland exploration or sending them over from New London.

Regardless of your chosen path, Chapter 4 will end in exactly the same way, by the opposing Faction taking care of the opposite Faction, this sets the tone for Frostpunk 2’s challenging final Chapter.