Frostpunk 2 DLC Guide: Every Expansion and Release Date

Every Expansion at a Glance

The endless winter is almost over for New London's Steward, at least in terms of new content. With The Surge arriving in December, the full Frostpunk 2 DLC lineup is locked in: three expansions and an upgrade path that bundles everything together. 11 bit studios has confirmed that The Surge is the final story-driven scenario for the game. After it launches, active support shifts to minor fixes and improvements, so now is the time to work out which expansions are worth your heat stamps.

Here's the full lineup:

Add-on	Release date	What it is
Fractured Utopias	Dec 8, 2025	Utopia Builder expansion with faction skill trees
Deluxe Edition Upgrade	Dec 8, 2025	Extras plus all future DLCs
Breach of Trust	Jun 23, 2026	Story scenario set in New Edinburgh
The Surge	Dec 14, 2026	Final story scenario set on frozen American soil

All three expansions are on PC and consoles.

Fractured Utopias: Utopia Builder Gets a Spine

Fractured Utopias leaves the campaign alone and focuses entirely on Utopia Builder, the sandbox mode. If you only play Story Mode, nothing here changes your campaign.

Image: Steam / 11 bit studios

What you get:

• 8 faction Utopias, each with its own systems, tools, and endgame
• 8 faction skill trees, with 12 unique unlocks per faction (laws, hubs, abilities)
• 8 faction hubs and 8 faction-specific housing district variants
• Over 100 new narrative events
• 2 premium Tales: "Doomsayers" and "Plague"
• 1 new Plague-themed map

The headline change is the redesigned start screen. You can now force your starting faction, something players asked for repeatedly. Choose the Technocrats if you want to chase innovation, or the Legionnaires if you want a militarized city. You get access to that faction's Utopia Tree immediately. In base Utopia Builder, these factions usually only show up mid-run.

The Utopia Tree doesn't move forward with time the way research does. You earn Utopia Points by meeting the agendas of the three smaller communities that make up your faction's values. You have to satisfy them evenly. Pushing one community hard while ignoring the other two earns you nothing.

For example, to advance the Overseers' tree, you need to keep the Machinists, Merchants, and Lords happy. The Imperial Academy, earned from their tree at the start, lowers Tension in nearby housing districts and unlocks Mementos, a resource only the Overseers use.

Once you're well into your tree, an opposing faction shows up in your city, representing the values your city did not choose.

The Tales and the Patch History

• Plague: A disease spreads through your districts. You'll need quarantines, contaminated zones, and a vaccine race.
• Doomsayers: A despairing faction tries to sabotage morale and tear the city down.

The Plague Tale shipped with serious bugs, including sudden spikes in infected citizens that could fail the Tale early. Patch 1.5.4 fixed that spike. It also added a new ability, Test Plague Therapies, which you unlock after searching the Patient Zero Location and can use in districts with a Research Institute. The patch also made Pharmaceutical Labs produce more vaccines and cut the heatstamp cost of Plague research.

Base game owners also got free content alongside Fractured Utopias: 13 new centrist policies, a Doomsayers-themed map, and a refreshed UI.

Breach of Trust: Fire, Ice, and a Two-City War

Breach of Trust is the answer for players who wanted a real scenario with a real story. You take the helm as First Citizen of New Edinburgh, a city built near a volcano destabilized by the reckless use of geothermal energy to power its Generator.

Image: Steam / 11 bit studios

The Old Captain is gone, food is short, and Aurora has cut off your supply. Aurora is your former colony on a frozen lake. A periodic Vote of Trust measures whether the city still wants you in charge.

What's inside:

• A new story across New Edinburgh and Aurora, with a branching middle act. In one branch, the two cities attempt coexistence. In the other, one side wins and must choose between retaliation and reconciliation.
• Five new Communities and Factions. Four-fingers, Brokers, and Founders appear in the first chapter.
• Tremors and Volcano Night, two new environmental hazards
• An Independent Colony system. Deal with Aurora through trade, extortion, or outright conquest.
• Two new scenario maps, five new buildings and hubs (including the Emergency Hub), and new laws

Tremors are the mechanic you'll feel every few weeks. They wreck districts, burn through materials for repairs, and kill citizens who aren't covered by emergency shelters.

The war path adds Barracks, Platoons, and Heavy Weaponry for the siege. Trade negotiations with Aurora play out over weeks of offers and counter-offers.

Be warned: the opening is tough. Food is short early, and your workforce runs thin fast.

Free Content That Came With It

Everyone who owns the base game got these with the Breach of Trust launch:

• A simplified Volcano Night challenge for Utopia Builder
• The Twilight Waters map, which is Aurora's map, added to Utopia Builder
• The Fishing Hub, usable only on that map

Surviving New Edinburgh: Tips That Actually Help

Hotfix 1.6.1 softened the scenario considerably. It raised starting prefabs from 30 to 130 and increased starting materials and goods. It added coal outposts to the Frostland and made a few nearby territories easier to explore. It also made weather less demanding on the Citizen and Officer difficulties and lowered tremor rates on Steward and Officer. If you bounced off the scenario at launch, try it again.

Image: Steam / 11 bit studios

Use these tips to get through the early game:

• Free up workforce early. Steam Extraction Districts eat workers while producing a resource you have plenty of at the start. Deconstruct some of them to free workers, delay tremors, and recover a large amount of prefabs and heatstamps. On lower difficulties, keep the southernmost one running and take down the rest.
• Keep some steam if you plan to negotiate with Aurora. Running on steam makes it much easier to stockpile coal for those deals.
• Explore right away. Your Warm Logistics District starts with 20 Frostland Teams, which is enough to reach medium-difficulty territories. Expect some injuries, but the surrounding land holds food you badly need. Also use each starting community's Community Actions to cover the early food gap.
• Build several Barracks. Recruiting Platoons is slow with only one. Back them with a strong materials economy through Foundry research and the eastern iron deposits.
• Hit Aurora's outposts before the siege. The food outpost is the most valuable one. It's the only dedicated food outpost available, and taking it lowers Aurora's Strength.
• Attack with at least 50 Platoons. Larger forces lose less often and take fewer casualties.
• Build one Weapon Factory either way. Heavy Weaponry makes the siege easier, but the Resistance starts stronger afterward. Even if you skip heavy weapons, you'll need weapons to fight the Resistance later.
• Time the Generator Hull move carefully. Dismantling it while heat output is high can injure or kill workers. If warmer weather is coming, wait for it. An expanded Warm Logistics District on Overtime can supply the 30 Frostland Teams needed. If you're short on time, insulate your districts and keep heat production below 250.
• Prepare Aurora before shipping food. The Resistance only activates once you start sending food from Aurora to New Edinburgh. Before that, give Aurora insulation, an active Housing District with a Hospital, and Treatment research.
• Cover every district with shelters. Tremor deaths hit all districts, not just housing. If people still die with full coverage, check whether the district is damaged, broken, or switched off.
• Be careful with restricted food rations. The resulting hunger can starve a few citizens. Counter it with the Founders' community ability or food hoarding inspectorates in your housing districts.

The Surge: The Final Chapter

The Surge launches December 14, 2026, on PC and consoles. After a long trek across the frozen remains of the USA, your people reach a mysterious valley. Rumors there speak of a relic left by history's greatest mind.

Here's what's planned:

• A new story-driven scenario in a region far beyond anything Frostpunk 2 has explored so far
• Tesla's Legacy: A new resource that pushes city automation to new levels. Factions will fight over how it should be used.
• Tame the Lightning: Storm-driven technology that turns whiteouts into resources you can harvest and store. The Great Storm stops being only a threat.
• Explore the Unknown: Caves and forgotten ruins to search, with hidden treasures beneath the ice
• Two new factions feuding over the city's future

Which Bundle Should You Buy?

Your options depend on how much of the content you want:

• Deluxe Edition Upgrade: Includes a digital copy of the novel Warm Flesh from the Frostpunk anthology, a digital artbook, the soundtrack, an exclusive in-game item, and all future DLCs. Once The Surge is out, the Deluxe Edition becomes the complete package with every released expansion. If you want everything, this is the most direct route.
• 3 DLCs Pack (Xbox and PC): Covers The Surge, Breach of Trust, and Fractured Utopias, plus an exclusive in-game item. It doesn't include the base game. Pick it up from the Frostpunk 2: 3 DLCs Pack page on the Xbox Store.
• Individual purchases: Buy Fractured Utopias or Breach of Trust on their own from the Frostpunk 2 Steam page.

Choose based on how you play. If you live in Utopia Builder, start with Fractured Utopias. If you play Frostpunk for its stories and dilemmas, Breach of Trust and The Surge are the ones to get.

FAQ

Does Fractured Utopias change Story Mode?

No. It only expands Utopia Builder. The campaign plays exactly as it did before.

Do I need the DLC to get the new maps?

Not all of them. The Doomsayers-themed map, Twilight Waters, the simplified Volcano Night challenge, and the Fishing Hub all came free with the base game. The Plague map and the two premium Tales require Fractured Utopias.

Will there be more expansions after The Surge?

No. The Surge is the final story scenario for Frostpunk 2. After it, support is limited to minor fixes and improvements. The Frostpunk universe continues with Frostpunk 1886, a reimagining of the original game planned for 2027.