Quick Links
While no one has ever said thatFrostpunk 2is easy, the Apocalyptic Whiteout Tale in Utopia Builder is the game’s hardest single challenge and potentially the hardest endeavor in the series to complete. Requiring you to use everything you’ve ever known, used, and once balked at, Apocalyptic Whiteout takes no prisoners.
After struggling to complete this multiple times across several Utopia maps, we have finally narrowed down just what it takes to face Frostpunk’s most brutal storm yet. Knowing what to expect with this Whiteout isn’t enough. You’re going to need a plan, and a plan for when that plan fails, and a plan for when all others are buried in ice.
What Is The Apocalyptic Whiteout?
The Apocalyptic Whiteout is a Tale — or a subscenario — that can be optionally added to your Utopia Builder playthrough. In it, you mustsurvive a 120-week severe Whiteout without losing more than half of your city’s population.
There are no set tasks to complete while you prepare for this event.Your only goal is to survive.
Should I Add More Than One Tale To My Utopia Builder?
When it comes to the Apocalyptic Whiteout Tale, it is generallynot recommended to pair other Tales with the Apocalyptic Whiteout on a first attempt.
Once you have learned how to face the whiteout and successfully survived once, you canconsider adding other Tales.
The best Tale to pair with Apocalyptic Whiteout is theDepleted Cores scenario.
Although you begin with no cores,completing Depleted Cores will grant you access to the IEC Factoryfor unlimited core production. This will help open the last upgrade for the generator for improved survival chances.
Beacon of Hopeis a challenging fit for the Apocalyptic Whiteout. By substantially increasing your population, you may struggle to appropriately stockpile and optimize heating in your city before the Whiteout. Additionally, the Beacon of Hope’s own whiteout can cause devastating setbacks.
How To Prepare For The Apocalyptic Whiteout
There are 558 weeks before the whiteout begins.Your first priority is to build your citywith heating and resource-stockpiling in mind.
To help keep you on track for the amount of resources you need to survive all 120 weeks, you shouldapply the ambition: Build a Prosperous Future. This will give you a clearer view of your resource stockpile.
For your best chance at survival, aim to complete all but the Goods category of your ambition prior to Day 300.
After you have fulfilled your Ambition, you shouldhave a stockpile of resources equivalent to or greater than the following amounts before Day 550:
Fuel (combined)
1,000,000
600,000
800,000
300,000
Prefabs
3,000
What is above is the bare minimumand not negotiable if you want to survive. If you want to do more than survive,aim to increase the above numbers by 50 percent.
If you choose to take up the research that restricts your fuel to Oil, you should make sure the map you have chosen for your city has a limitless Oil supply. We also recommend you increase your fuel goal to 1,250,000 as Oil cannot be transported during storms.
How To Get Resources For The Apocalyptic Whiteout
Now, how do you get that much in resources?
Doing this challenge in a single city without severe casualties is almost impossible. While we completed the Tale without colonies on our first attempt, the casualties and resulting Trust devastation were enormous.
Instead, you shouldbegin building colonieswhere possible to quickly and significantly raise the available resources.
The Food Colony is an absolute must because, unlike the Materials Colony (for example), only Food and Coal can be transported between colonies during a Whiteout. This will allow you to stockpile Food in two locations and continue to send it to your main city.
Deep Melting Drillsare almost required to succeed due to access to their incredibly important upgrade:Deep Cogenerating Drill. This machine willraise a district’s Temperature by +2.
By installing this in an Extraction or Food zone, you cancontinue producing during the Apocalyptic Whiteout.
Beyond the Deep Cogenerating Drill, there areseveral research upgrades you should absolutely invest in:
Ensure that every buildingwith the above researchhas insulationand,where possible,a method of increasing its temperature level. For Housing, that will be Pressurised Heat Dispatchers.
While the Heat Dispatchers are very important for heating your homes, they will raise the Squalor. To combat this, install periodic Ventilation Towers (or Waste Management facilities) where possible.
While you have a lot of flexibility for laws, two laws shouldbe strongly considered:
The former will furtherprotect your housing from the cold,while the latter will helpprevent Trust from becoming an even greater threatduring the Whiteout as situations arise and evolve.
Make sure that you have the following before the Whiteout arrives:
The week before the Whiteout comes, recall all of your scouts. Sending them out on expeditions during the storm will result in fatalities and a steeper Trust decline
How To Survive The Apocalyptic Whiteout
The whiteout will havethree distinct phases marked by Temperature. The first and longest wave will be at -100C, lasting approximately 80 weeks.
As the wave comes,your Trust will drastically fallas a result of Temperature, heating, and the end of any active Rallies.
Your first actions should be:
You might wish to consider keeping one Industrial district operable at times. Prefabs will be important for your survival going forward.
If you have colonies during the storm, you mightconsider abandoning them. You can re-colonize them after the storm.
However,there are two exceptionsto this consideration. Unless under duress, you should not abandon any colony that:
If you have a colony that you do not wish to abandon, you shouldshut off all production districtsand have your folkshuddle around the generatoruntil the storm is over.
Once in the depths of the storm, you will receive a prompt about broken heating pipes. How you deal with this is up to you. However, from this point on,district heating will randomly break.
When a district’s heat pipe breaks, all heating in that district will cease. You mustfix it quicklyfrom its individual tab bypressing the fire icon that says “Repair Heat Leak.”
This will cost you approximately500 in Workforce and 200 Prefabs.
If you find yourself in the depths of the storm when this happens but have no Prefabs, you can try scrapping your Logistics districts for extra Prefab materials and rebuild them later.
Eventually, the Temperature will decrease further to -110C. By this point, your Trust will start becoming an issue.
To deal with your dwindling trust,the following actions should be taken:
If you choose to use the Heat Homes tactic, you should refrain from doing so unless you have a ten week span you can remain consistent without draining your resources.
Finally, when you reach the final push at 25 weeks, the Temperature will plummet to -120C. At this point, you shouldhave the Generator Overdrive on at all times.
Do not throttle the Overdriveif you can help it. Each time your Housing Temperature plummets, it will decrease Trust and not recover even if you turn the heating back on.
Thankfully, this last stretch is very short. When at last you make it to the end, your Trust should increase slightly as the Temperature drastically increases.
From here on, you will have torecover as best you can. Raise your Trust and rebuild your city and colonies.
As a reward for taking on this monumental challenge,you will receive:
