Taking on The Pit of Frostpunk 2 is not for the faint of heart. As one of the more difficult challenges in Utopia Builder, you will be tasked with creating a city around the dangerous and disease-laden depths of the challenge’s namesake: a rocky-bottomed pit.
Although each challenge in this scenario is somewhat random, there are particular traits in this scenario that will remain the same for each playthrough. Knowing what to expect and coming into your challenge with a plan in mind is the very essence of being a good captain and likely the only way you’ll survive.
What Is The Pit Scenario?
The Pit scenario can only be accessed through the Utopia Builder option on the Main Menu.
Like the Endless Builder mode from the first Frostpunk title, this is a never-ending challenge that puts everything you learned from Story Mode into practice.
As with all Utopia Builder scenarios, you can customize the structure of this scenario by changing the ing:
- Difficulty
- Ambition
- Tales
This particular map is already difficult in itself, triply so with Tales included. We highly recommend playing this map on Citizen for your first run.
How To Play The Pit Scenario: What To Expect
The Pit will play out on a brand-new map centered around a pit. While most maps are completely randomized in their resources, The Pit has the same general structure for every instance:
|
Coal |
Found in two places: on the west side of the map, beneath the mountain (with one deep deposit), and on the mountain in Difficult Terrain. |
|---|---|
|
Prefabs |
Located next to the city on the east side in two spots, further east above the pit, and inside the pit itself. A small deposit is located at the tip of the mountain with materials. |
|
Food |
Always north of the city in two prominent clusters. |
|
Oil |
Always centered inside the pit. |
|
Materials |
Found in two giant clusters, one south of the western coal deposit and another southeast of the city center. A third smaller is found at the tip of the mountain. |
|
Steam |
Always northwest of the western coal deposit under the mountain’s slanted peak. |
|
Logistics |
Two exits are located on the west and northmost edges of the map. |
There are two areas on the map worth paying attention to.
- The pit itself is marked as a risky area where building and working within it will have a high likelihood of causing Disease.
- The mountain will require nearly double the amount of materials to maintain anything built on its slopes.
As a result, players should not build inside these areas during the early game at all.
What Are Ambitions?
Ambitions will determine your city’s primary goal. You can choose:
|
Ambition Name |
Goal One |
Best Tale Pairing |
|---|---|---|
|
Repopulate the Frostlands |
Have a population of 35,000 people living in all your colonies combined. |
Beacon of Hope |
|
Develop a Metropolis |
Increase the Capital City population to 50,000. |
Depleted Cores |
|
Build a Prosperous Future |
Create a stockpile of 300,000 Fuel, 200,000 Food and Materials, and 100,000 Goods. |
Apocalyptic Whiteout |
|
No Ambition |
Play with no primary goals. |
|
When you choose an ambition, you will also be able to choose which factions will be present within your community. Your options are:
- Thinkers, Lords, and one random faction.
- Foragers, Machinists, and one random faction.
- Labourers, Merchants, and one random faction.
For more information about factions, see our official guide on the matter.
What Are Tales?
The Tales will add extra scenario tasks and challenges for you to face while attempting to clear your ambitions and survive the harsh winter.
These optional tasks will significantly heighten the difficulty of The Pit.
There are three Tales you can add to this scenario:
|
Beacon of Hope |
Build a beacon of hope and take in five waves of refugees with high numbers of sick and injured. |
|---|---|
|
Apocalyptic Whiteout |
Survive a terrible blizzard that occurs 558 weeks after the start of your game. |
|
Depleted Cores |
Rebuild a core’s factory by exploring the Frostlands and gathering components. |
Please see our official guides on these sub-scenarios linked above if you require more information.
Tips And Tricks For Completing The Pit Scenario
This incredibly difficult campaign is brutal even on the lowest difficulty settings, with a much more difficult beginning and steeper learning curve than the story mode.
For this reason, the first thing you should keep in mind is your choice of Tales. If you are trying The Pit for the first time, either do not turn on Tales or only accept one Tale to focus on and learn.
When you begin this map, you should have the ing priorities:
- Secure Prefabs
- Build Housing
- Frostbreak Coal
- Establish a Council Hall
As you begin with adequate materials and food stockpiled, the above resources and steps are higher priorities in the beginning. However, do not forget to account for these equally important resources once the above are settled.
The resource you will struggle most with in this ever-growing city will be Heat Stamps. This map is very costly in the early game.
To get a good start on Heat Stamps, we have found a good strategy with passing the ing laws early:
- Heat Auctions: Warm Housing generates more Heat Stamps.
- Heatpipe Watch: All Housing raises Temperature +1.
This will also help combat any randomized waves of colder temperatures and preserve some early-game coal costs.
When building your city, your next major goal will be establishing Logistics. Getting out of the city for extra resources quickly is tantamount to your survival.
Why? There is a finite amount of coal within the city, and if you begin with the Depleted Cores Tale, you will have no Steam Cores for either:
- Making your generator run on oil and steam in addition to coal.
- Building Deep Deposit Drills for unlimited resources.
Once the above problems have been addressed, turn your sights to building Goods. This will help you generate more Heat Stamps income. The earlier you can get your Goods above your demand, the likelier you will succeed.
You can decrease the demand for Goods by passing Durable Goods. Likewise, increase your Goods production early through switching Industrial Districts into Goods-specializing and building a Goods factory of choice.
You’ll encounter your first Whiteout approximately 350 weeks into your gameplay. To be best prepared for this scenario, we recommend finishing the ing:
- Researching and installing two levels of Housing Insulation.
- Researching at least one level, allowing Insulation to be used in important working districts.
- Researching the Triple-Ring piping.
- Gathering a large surplus of fuel and food resources.
While there are other very helpful researched items and strategies, the above are must-haves and should ideally be finished before your first Whiteout.
Additionally, we generally do not recommend establishing any additional colonies before your first whiteout. It is better to wait out the storm and establish your new colony after.
As The Pit is a Utopia-builder scenario, it will endlessly continue, and you’ll be free to build your city endlessly until you grow tired of it.
As you clear ambitions and tasks, you will gain the ability to build monuments for your city as trophies — proof you’ve weathered the storm.
