How to set up efficient Trails and Skyways in Frostpunk 2

New London is only a small part of the Frostlands in Frostpunk 2, and if you’re brave enough to face the cold, you can explore it with Trails and Skyways.

Early on in the game, you unlock the Frostlands map. Well, a portion of it at least. You’re expected to hunt for fuel before your limited Coal supply runs out, and you’ve only got a handful of weeks to establish a Trail connection to bring what you find back to your Outpost.

This is only the beginning of your journey in establishing Trails and Skyways paths to send resources and citizens from one Outpost to its many colonies, and vice versa. In this guide, we’ll go over how each works and how to set up an effective network.

How Trails work in Frostpunk 2

Trails are a way to establish a connection between one Outpost and another. When you connect two Outposts, you can transfer resources and citizens between them.

How to connect the Trails

If you’re on Chapter 1 and need to connect Trails to send Colonists to your newly discovered community, here’s what you need to do:

1. Click the circle on the right corner of the Frostland map (which you can open by pressing V.
2. With the Trail tool open, connect the path from the Old Dreadnaught to New London.
3. You can connect it directly, instead, go bit by bit by placing markers on the black spots until you get there.
4. Once you reach the marker next to New London, click it and select the check to start building it.

Keep in mind that, while Trails are cheap, they still require resources: 10 Frostland Teams, 25 Heatstamps per route segment, and 5 Prefabs per route segment. Each section in between markers is a route segment in your Trail.

Why can’t I place a Trail on the red dots?

You can only build a Trail in charted territory. If you haven’t explored a certain area of the map, you can’t set up a Trail just yet.

First, you need to launch an Expedition. To do so, click on the name of an area you haven’t explored yet, say, the Highlands, and select Launch Expedition. Expeditions also require Frostland Teams and can be either Dangerous or Deadly, which means some of your Scouts could be injured during their travels – something you can boost with the Research Institute.

How to set up a Skyway in Frostpunk 2

Trails vs. Skyways

After a couple of hours, you’ll be ready to graduate to Skyways and leave those Trails in the dust. Skyways work just like Trails, but they cost a bit more: 10 Frostland Teams, 50 Heatstamps per route segment, and 20 Prefabs per route segment.

Skyways come with an upgrade, though: You can ship up to 600 resources, which is more than double the Trails’ 250 limit.

How to unlock Skyways

You can unlock Skyways after you’ve built the Research Institute. Open the Ideas Tree with R and choose the Frostland tab. Here, you’ll find the Skyways Idea under your Outposts’ core belief. You can unlock it in exchange for 50 Heatstamps.

That’s all you need to know about Trails and Skyways in Frostpunk 2. While you’re here, you may also want to learn more about the best way to get Cores in the game.