How to get Heatstamps and Prefabs in Frostpunk 2

Heatstamps and Prefabs are the two resources that decide how fast your city grows. Heatstamps are money: you pay them for districts, buildings, research and Frostland routes. Prefabs are the building material every district and building also needs. Neither one runs out mid-turn the way Food does, so it is easy to ignore them until you cannot afford the district that would fix everything else. This guide covers where both come from, what things cost, and what actually raises your income.

Where Heatstamps come from

Your population pays Heatstamps once a week, at the start of the seventh day. According to the Game Vault wiki, the weekly income is +0.1 Heatstamps per unit of Goods your people consume, and Goods consumption starts at 0.01 per person. Worked through, that is about 1 Heatstamp per 1,000 people per week at the base Goods demand.

A few things move that number:

• Goods supply. Income is tied to Goods consumed, and failing to meet Goods demand reduces what the population pays. A Goods shortage also raises Crime. If your Heatstamp income has dropped, check Goods first.
• Laws that change Goods demand. Laws that raise or lower how many Goods people want change income with it.
• Laws that pay or cost directly. The wiki names Paid Essentials and Equal Pay as laws that add income or expenses straight from the population, regardless of Goods. Laws such as Mandatory School are a continuing expense.
• Other sources. The Central District makes a small amount on its own, and some buildings and Frostland sites add small incomes too.

Worked example: at 20,000 people and base Goods demand, the formula gives about 20 Heatstamps a week. That is half a district a week, before research or buildings. The practical lesson is that you grow Heatstamp income by growing population and keeping Goods supplied, not by any one building.

What everything costs

Action	Heatstamps	Prefabs
New district (any type)	40	100 to 200
Expand a district	50	50
Adjust a district's area	50	50
Insulate a district	50	50
Frostbreaking	4 per tile	none
Start a research	50, 100 or 200	none
Production building	80 to 350	40 to 180
Frostland trail segment	25	none
Frostland skyway segment	50	none

District Prefab costs are 100 for Industrial, 150 for Extraction and 200 for Food, Housing and Logistics. The building range here covers the 17 production buildings in our buildings table. The wiki gives 80 to 650 Heatstamps across all buildings, so special buildings can cost a lot more. Frostbreaking also takes 25 Workforce per tile for the 2 weeks it runs.

Two things stand out. First, a district is cheap in Heatstamps (40) but expensive in Prefabs (100 to 200), so Prefabs are usually what blocks a new district, not Heatstamps. Second, buildings flip that: a Goods factory at 180 Heatstamps is four and a half districts' worth of Heatstamps. Plan research and buildings around your Heatstamp income, and districts around your Prefabs.

How to get more Prefabs

There are three production routes, all checked against the wiki or the building lists:

1. Switch an Industrial District to Prefabs. Industrial Districts make either Goods or Prefabs. When a construction push is coming and Goods are fine, flip one over.
2. Build a Mechanical or Salvaging Factory. Both make 40 Goods and also add 10 Prefabs a week, as the Salvaging Factory card on the official Steam page shows. They are the only production buildings that do both.
3. Mine a Prefabs deposit. Extraction Districts can be placed on Prefab deposits. Like every deposit it runs out, after which you adjust the district onto new ground. Patch 1.0.4 made Prefab deposits bigger on Citizen difficulty.

Spending habits that save both

• Expand before you found. An expansion costs 50 Heatstamps and 50 Prefabs and adds output with no new Workforce or upkeep. A new Food District costs 40 Heatstamps but 200 Prefabs, and keeps costing Workforce and Materials.
• Frostbreak only what you need. Since patch 1.3 Frostbreaking is charged per tile, so breaking 3 tiles costs 12 Heatstamps instead of the price of a full order.
• Place districts once. Every adjust costs 50 and 50. Leave room for the 3 tiles an expansion adds, and read the layout guide before placing industry near Housing.
• Insulate districts you will keep. 50 and 50 once, for a heat level you never pay fuel for again.
• Do not let Goods slip. It cuts your Heatstamp income, so a Goods shortage costs you twice.

Cores, the third construction resource

Cores go into advanced buildings and Generator upgrades. Most advanced buildings take 1 or 2. The wiki says they are too advanced to be reliably manufactured, so you find them in the Frostland or dig them from a Cores deposit. The Depleted Cores Tale in Utopia Builder is built around restarting a Core factory. Spend Cores on the building that saves the most Workforce or Materials, because you will not get many.