Frostpunk 2 Factions Guide: All 12 Factions and Abilities

Every Steward eventually learns that the cold isn't the only thing that can end a run. The Council Hall can do it too, through a vote of no confidence, a protest that shuts down a district, or a civil war. Frostpunk 2 factions are organized political blocs. They decide which laws pass, which research gets funded, and whether your city holds together. This guide covers how they form, what each one believes, what their abilities do, and how to keep them working for you.

Communities vs. Factions: The Core Difference

Every citizen belongs to exactly one group. You can see all of them along the bottom of the screen. Hover over a group to check its share of the population and how it currently feels about you. That share matters, because each group gets Council seats in proportion to its size out of 100.

Communities are ordinary civilians. They make up most of your population for much of a playthrough.

• Each community is tied to a single Cornerstone.
• Their delegates usually vote with that Cornerstone but can swing either way on other issues.
• You can negotiate with them, even to vote against their own Cornerstone.

Factions are radicalized offshoots of communities.

• Each faction holds three Cornerstones, one from each Zeitgeist axis.
• They refuse to vote against their beliefs and can't be negotiated with in the Council.
• When relations are positive, they hold Rallies. When relations go negative, they hold Protests. Both bring in new members.
• They give you more ways to interact and more rewards for keeping them happy.

New faction members come from the community that shares the faction's values. If a faction shrinks, those people return to their original community.

The Six Cornerstones and How Factions Form

The Zeitgeist has three axes, each with two opposing ideals:

Image: Steam / 11 bit studios

• Progress vs. Adaptation: conquer the Frost with machines, or learn to live with it. Progress-leaning projects cut workforce demand and boost industry but raise squalor. Adaptation cuts heat and material demand but can hurt citizens' health.
• Merit vs. Equality: reward the capable, or share equally. Merit boosts efficiency and breeds resentment among the poor. Equality builds trust but slows factories.
• Tradition vs. Reason: rebuild the old order, or chart a new course. Tradition reduces crime and grows the population at the cost of freedoms. Reason speeds up research at a human cost.

Every law, building variant, and idea pushes one of these bars, or stays neutral. Two ideals on each of three axes gives eight possible combinations, so Utopia Builder has eight factions. In Utopia Builder, a faction forms once your city has stepped toward a Cornerstone on all three axes. It takes on whichever three ideals currently lead. Its direct opposite shows up afterward.

You can steer which faction appears. If you lean Adaptation, Equality, and Tradition, the Menders form, and the Venturers follow as their rivals.

All Utopia Builder Factions and Abilities

Abilities only open up once relations improve. Community and faction actions require at least favorable relations. Passive boosts require the faction to be devoted, which is much harder to reach.

Image: Steam / 11 bit studios

Faction	Cornerstones	Rival	Active Ability	Passive (while happy)
Bohemians	Adaptation, Equality, Reason	Overseers	Mindshaping: raises Trust	Trust Fostering: randomly boosts community relations
Icebloods	Adaptation, Merit, Tradition	Technocrats	Volunteer Expeditions: +80 Food output	Hunting Trips: more Food production
Legionnaires	Progress, Equality, Tradition	Proteans	Raise Prefabs: instant Prefabs	Guard Recruitment: extra Guard Squads
Overseers	Progress, Merit, Tradition	Bohemians	Overdrive Output: Production Efficiency	Voluntary Patrols: less crime
Proteans	Adaptation, Merit, Reason	Legionnaires	Coordinate Patient Care: returns the sick to work instantly	Healthcare Assistance: less disease
Technocrats	Progress, Equality, Reason	Icebloods	Optimize Research: faster research	Maintenance Optimization: lower Materials demand
Venturers	Progress, Merit, Reason	Menders	Finance Mercenaries: extra Guard Squads	City Investment: more Heatstamp income
Menders	Adaptation, Equality, Tradition	Venturers	Organize Rescue Operations: +500 population	Faster Expeditions

Balance has shifted since launch:

• Hotfix 1.5.2 raised the Legionnaires' ability prefab output from 2 to 8.
• The same hotfix stopped banished Proteans from coming back to the city.
• The Breach of Trust patch reduced the research speed bonus from the Technocrats' Optimize Research.

Utopia Builder Communities

Community	Cornerstone	Opposed By
Foragers	Adaptation	Machinists
Machinists	Progress	Foragers
Laborers	Equality	Merchants
Merchants	Merit	Laborers
Lords	Tradition	Thinkers
Thinkers	Reason	Lords

A Utopia Builder city starts with three communities, each making up roughly an equal share of the population. In the current version, you choose those three communities from the Zeitgeist axes when you set up the game. Older versions paired two opposing communities with a random third.

Story Mode Factions

New London begins with two communities and one faction:

Image: Steam / 11 bit studios

• The New Londoners, who value Progress.
• The Frostlanders, who value Adaptation.

Your prologue choice decides the starting faction. Choose Order and you get the Stalwarts. Choose Faith and you get the Faithkeepers. As the story continues, the opposing faction rises against them.

Faction	Cornerstones	Utopia Equivalent	Active	Passive
Stalwarts	Progress, Merit, Reason	Venturers	Recruit Enforcers: extra Guard Squads	Assemble extra Prefabs
Pilgrims (oppose Stalwarts)	Adaptation, Equality, Tradition	Menders	Deploy Guides: faster Frostland expeditions	Volunteer Scouts: extra Frostland Teams
Faithkeepers	Progress, Equality, Tradition	Legionnaires	Evening Prayers: raises Trust	Sermons: lower Tension
Evolvers (oppose Faithkeepers)	Adaptation, Merit, Reason	Proteans	Enhance Workers: citywide Production Efficiency	Assisting Treatment: heals the sick periodically

That makes 12 distinct factions in the base game. In the final chapter, you can banish a faction. If you do, the banishment colony is built by Builders until it's handed over to the exiled group.

Managing Relations: Every Lever You Have

A group's relations feed into overall city Trust, weighted by the group's size. Fulfilling promises, running research they want, moving toward their ideology, and using actions on them all raise relations. When relations sour, Fervor builds. Fervor counts the radicals inside a faction. High Fervor raises Tension and makes protests more violent, up to the point where a protest can wreck a district.

Actions available to both communities and factions:

• Fund Projects: spend Heatstamps for relations.
• Make Promise: commit to a law, research, or action. Keeping it raises relations. Breaking it costs relations and Trust.
• Grant Agenda: an instant relations boost. In exchange, the group sets the next Council vote, and you can't change the proposal. You keep the bonus even if that vote fails.
• Raise Funds / Demand Funds: take Heatstamps at the cost of relations. Demand Funds pays roughly double but also costs Trust. Payouts scale with group size.

Actions available to factions only:

• Promote: the faction gains members and Council seats, relations rise sharply, and Fervor drops.
• Condemn: the faction loses members and seats, and Fervor rises. Use it on a group that already hates you to shrink its weight on Trust.

The parent community can also Deradicalize its faction, which wipes out Fervor at a relations cost. This option only appears once your relations with that community are in the gold.

Council Tactics That Actually Work

A normal law needs 51 of 100 votes. Rule laws need 67. To estimate the outcome, add the "for" votes to half of the hesitant votes. If the result lands near 51, negotiate rather than risk it.

• Pick negotiation targets wisely. Factions with an active promise, or groups whose worldview opposes the law, won't negotiate. Go for the largest group that is mostly hesitant or against.
• Choose terms you wanted anyway. If a community's price is a law you planned to pass or a research you needed, the promise costs you nothing.
• Recycle relations into Heatstamps. Early on, Raise Funds from a community, then win the relations back with a promise or a Grant Agenda that matches the law they were already pushing.
• Chain a promise loop. In Story Mode, the Faithkeepers sometimes ask you to use an ability, such as Dutiful Youth, as their promise. Use it to gain workforce, collect the relations, spend them on Raise Funds, and then use Evening Prayers to win back the Trust Dutiful Youth cost.
• Use the Secret Police. Once that rule law passes, you can revoke a faction's Council seats for the next session, removing a hostile bloc from the vote.
• Grant Agenda to minorities. A faction without a Council majority can't force through much, so its goodwill comes cheap.

High Trust from broad support also lets you keep using city abilities like Rush Research, which is another reason to keep every group at least favorable.

Fractured Utopias and Faction Expansions

The Fractured Utopias DLC launched on December 8, 2025. It reworked Utopia Builder around these eight factions:

• You can force your starting faction from the redesigned menu.
• Each faction has its own skill tree, called the Utopia Tree, with unique buildings, hubs, laws, abilities, and traits.
• Each faction gets a dedicated Faction Hub and a housing district variant. For example, the Overseers' Imperial Academy lowers Tension nearby and produces Mementos.
• Utopia Tree points only come when you satisfy all three of the communities behind your faction's Cornerstones in equal measure. As the Overseers, for example, you need to keep the Machinists, Merchants, and Lords happy together.
• The Doomsayers Tale adds a despair-spreading faction that undermines morale.

Breach of Trust brought five new communities and factions to New Edinburgh and Aurora. The Surge, the third and final story expansion, launches December 14, 2026. In it, factions clash over how to use a new automation resource.

If you're new to the game, the Deluxe Edition on Frostpunk 2's Steam page bundles all released content once the final DLC is out.

FAQ

Can I negotiate with a faction in the Council?

No. Factions never vote against their beliefs. Win their support with promises, Fund Projects, Grant Agenda, or Promote, and negotiate with communities instead.

Why did my faction's opposite suddenly appear?

Every faction has a rival that holds all three opposing Cornerstones. In Utopia Builder, the rival forms after your first faction. In Story Mode, the Pilgrims rise against the Stalwarts and the Evolvers rise against the Faithkeepers.

How do I get rid of Fervor without strengthening a faction I dislike?

Have the faction's parent community Deradicalize it. This requires gold-level relations with that community and costs some relations. Promote also clears Fervor, but it grows the faction.

Do bigger factions give more Heatstamps?

Yes. Raise Funds and Demand Funds pay out based on the group's size, so tap your largest groups for cash.