Frostpunk 2 Council Voting Explained: How to Pass Every Vote, Negotiate, & More
InFrostpunk 2,Council Votingsessions are the high barrier between you and the betterment of your city. It requires you to amass support from the various Factions present for their votes, and failure to gain their support can leave your plans rotting alongside your city.
If this sounds imposing, worry not. We’ve compiled this guide on how to make every vote go the way you want it to, and how to make sure no faction is ever too unhappy with you.
How to Unlock and Use Council Voting in Frostpunk 2
After you build a Council building at your city’s center, Council Voting Always functions the same way inFrostpunk 2.
Every 10 weeks, a vote on a new Law to enact is held by the various Factions in the city. They will either be For the vote, as shown by the blue section of the bar; Against the vote, as shown by the red section; or Hesitant, as shown by the faint red and blue bar. At least 51 of the potential votes need to be For the Law for it to pass, or else it fails and needs to be re-presented to the Council in 10 weeks time.
It should be noted that each vote has a 10 week limit as well. During this time, you can carry out several different actions to help or hurt a vote’s chances of success. We’ve detailed all of these down below.
Negotiate With Factions
Before Council Voting takes place, you have the option to negotiate with each faction to sway their vote. When you choose to do this, they’ll give you three options for what you’re able to do for them.
These choices range from researching a specific Law or technology to doing them a favor like building a certain building, giving them funds, or granting them the chance to choose the next Law brought before the Council.
Failure to follow through can lead to a massive decrease in that Faction’s trust for you, so make sure you have the means to follow through before you say you’ll do whatever they say.
Increase or Decrease Trust With Factions
So long as it doesn’t oppose their worldviews, Factions are more likely to vote For a Law if you have a higher Trust rating with them. You can achieve this by promoting their agendas, backing them so that they gain council seats, or showing you support their worldview by building new structures or researching new technologies they approve of.
On the other hand, you can do the opposite if you want to push them toward votes Against a Law. The less they approve of what you’re building or how you treat them, the more likely they are to oppose anything that doesn’t directly push forward their agenda.
Use the Guided Voting Ability
Early on in the Steward’s Rule branch of Laws is the Guided Voting option. Once passed, it allows you to sway almost all Hesitant voters to vote For or Against a Law as you see fit.
To unlock it though, you first need to get the Guided Voting Law to pass. This requires passing a 70 or higher threshold, as any Law passed from the branch tied to the Steward’s authority take power away from all the other Factions. Doing so means making a fair few promises and doing your best ot make every faction as happy as possible until the vote takes place.
We recommend you don’t attempt this method until your city is at least somewhat flourishing, as trying to pass it before that is rather difficult.
How to Use Emergency Voting Session
We also need to mention the Emergency Voting ability. Found by clicking on the City Center/Generator, this option lets you immediately hold a Council Voting session without taking the usual 10 week break between votes. Doing so is a great way to ensure you don’t fail to keep promises made to certain factions, and can help you push forward helpful policies in more difficult situations.
In exchange though, your Trust among every Faction is decreased. This can make whatever Law you try to pass more difficult to get through, but it also means it’s incredibly useful if you’re dead set on keeping something from going into effect.
Weigh your options wisely, and use this useful mechanic accordingly.
How to Unlock Captain’s Authority and Eliminate Council Voting
And with all of that in mind, we should note that it is possible to get full control of the Council via the Captain’s Authority Law in Frostpunk 2.
To do so, you need to first unlock all of the other Laws tied to the Rule branch. As with Guided Voting, they all require you to get at least 70 For votes before the motion can pass. This means negotiating with as many Factions as possible or raising their trust as high as possible, which can be very difficult to do at higher difficulty settings. All the same, it is possible and just takes some patient juggling of needs and resources.
After you manage this, you then need to bring your city to a situation so dire that they’re willing to give up their ability to vote and choose Laws for themselves. This is easier to do in the latter stages of the story mode, but you may also bring it about by stoking tensions between Factions without outright leading your city toward destruction.
Once enough Factions are getting violent and causing trouble, you’re able to use the wider fear of the populace to fuel a vote to give yourself Captain’s Authority. After that, you have the final say on what Law does and doesn’t get passed, which saves you a fair few headaches.
And that’s all we have onCouncil Voting in Frostpunk 2. It’s a lot to wrap your head around at first, but stick with it and you’ll be guiding the city’s decisions like a champ. For more on the game, check out our other guides onhow to get Heatstamps fastand whether you should choose theFaith or Orderstory.
