One of the most essential tools for shaping your city’s future through strategic decision-making in Frostpunk 2 is the Idea Tree. It is similar to a skill tree but instead of upgrading your skills, it proposes solutions to the ongoing problems in your thriving city.
While useful, it must be used with care or it might end up causing unnecessary riots in New London or pouring resources into something that might bite you later. To ensure that doesn’t happen, we have compiled this comprehensive guide to tell you how you can unlock and effectively use the Idea Tree in Frostpunk 2.
How to Unlock Idea Tree in Frostpunk 2
Unlocking the idea tree is quite simple in Frostpunk 2. You will unlock it automatically while playing the story mode and that too in chapter 1. You won’t directly unlock the idea tree though. You will unlock the Research Building. This is one of the first building types that you will be able to put up in Forstpunk 2’s story mode.
Once you have unlocked the Research Building, here is what you need to do:
- Expand any of your available Housing District once.
- Place the Research Institute in any of the available building slots.
Once the building is finished, you will be able to access the Idea Tree and research new ideas.
You can build multiple Research Institutes to decrease the research time.
What is the Idea Tree in Frostpunk 2
The Idea Tree will show you multiple problems that your city is facing at the moment. For each particle problem, there will be multiple available solutions. Solutions offered by different factions will solve our problem and put them in a more favorable situation.
Along with that, every idea you research and develop will affect your Zeitgeist which in simpler terms is the direction your city is heading there. There are a total of six categories divided into three combinations of opposing principles; Progress vs Adaptation, Equality vs Merit, and Reason vs Tradition.
If you look at the top of your idea tree, you will see 6 tabs.
- Heating, Resources, and Frostland Affect Progress vs Adaptation
- Choices made in the City section will affect Equality vs Merit
- Society directly affects Reason vs Tradition
The choices you make within the idea tree will also have an effect on your relationship with different factions so it is also important to keep a balance and not favor a single faction too much because that might hurt your standing among other communities.
There are also ideas where all of the factions agree on a single point. These are the easiest and the safest ideas to research so you can invest into them without hesitating.
How to Research New Ideas in Frostpunk 2
There are going to be multiple nodes with each one representing a new idea to be researched. Once you click on the idea, you will see different variations of solutions to the problem and the resources required to research that particular idea.
If you have the required resources then simply allot the resources and once the required time is up, you will have either a new law that you can present in the council, a new building type unlocked, or some other outcome.
Different solutions to the same problem can require different amounts of resources so make sure to compare all of the solutions and only invest in the ones that you believe in and that seem like a good investment to you.
As evident from the name Idea “Tree”, there are going to be nodes that will not be available to you unless you have unlocked the one connected to them.
How to Implement Ideas in Frostpunk 2
Simply researching an idea isn’t going to be enough so you must implement the solution that comes from researching that particular idea. If your idea unlocks a new law, then you must present that in the City Council and pass the law with majority votes to actually implement that idea.
If your research outcome unlocks a new building type then you must build that specific building in the designated district to implement your idea.
This is how the idea tree works and affects your gameplay in Forstpunk 2. To sum it up again, an Idea Tree is simply a place where each faction proposes solutions to the problems in your city with each solution favoring that certain faction.
Make sure to keep researching new ideas but also keep a balance; otherwise, there might be riots, and your city might collapse sooner than you think.