If you’re new to the genre, Frostpunk 2 is a challenging strategy game and can be a real shock to the system. If you want to start your journey on the right food, here are the differences between Citizen, Officer, Steward, and Captain settings and the best difficulty to use in Frostpunk 2.

Frostpunk 2: All difficulties, explained

You can customize difficulty with four sliders before you start any mission in Frostpunk 2. These sliders can’t be adjusted mid-game and are permanent unless you restart the level.

Each slider tunes a specific part of the game, and here’s what each one does.

Difficulty Preset

The Difficulty Preset moves all of the individual sliders up or down to make the entire game easier or harder. There are four presets, with Citizen being the easiest and Captain offering the highest difficulty.

Economy

Economy governs your people’s needs and the scarcity of resources. On lower difficulties, your residents require fewer resources to survive. You will also find resources more readily and have more time to respond to problems.

Weather

Unsurprisingly, this slider governs the weather. It’s always cold in Frostpunk 2, but seasons of extreme cold are less severe and more brief on lower difficulties.

Whiteouts are an issue regardless, but slightly less so on the Mild weather preset.

Frostland

The Frostland slider dictates how unforgiving the land is. There are plenty of resources, people, and food on the lower difficulties. If you crank the Frostland slider up, you will notice it is harder to find people for your workforce, and there are fewer resources to go around.

Society

Society dictates how well-behaved and tolerant your people are. It’s easier to pass laws on lower difficulties, and your townsfolk will even try to keep violence and civil unrest to a minimum.

People are far more sensitive on higher difficulties, making laws harder to pass. The penalty for breaking your promises is also far more severe.

The best difficulty for new players in Frostpunk 2

Frostpunk 2 does a stellar job of explaining how the game works, but there’s still much to take in. You should set every slider to Citizen difficulty if it’s your first time.

Don’t be surprised if you fail a few quests with the difficulty turned down. You will be pretty overwhelmed by tutorials and explanations when you start playing. I managed to fail the prologue multiple times, but it’s part of the learning process.

On that note, I strongly recommend tackling the story first before trying the Utopia sandbox mode. The story explains the game’s mechanics. Even though the explanations are pretty text-heavy, it’s the best way to familiarize yourself with how Frostpunk 2 works.

The best difficulty for returning players in Frostpunk 2

Returning players will likely still enjoy the Citizen preset, but if you want a challenge, feel free to turn the difficulty up.

The Officer preset is recommended for veterans of the original. Keep in mind that Frostpunk 2 is pretty different from its predecessor. Many mechanics and systems will feel familiar, but it’s a different beast with far more moving parts.

If you’re happy with your difficulty preset but are still struggling to make ends meet, make sure you swat up on how to get every resource in the game.