Frostpunk 2 Intruders: Should you deliver oil to the nomads?

Everyone wants the black gold

11 bit Studios

Frostpunk 2 greatly expands the frozen world in which you need to survive – and that includes the construction of outposts or entire colonies as well as the interaction with other survivors.

Taking over an old dreadnought and using it as an outpost to produce oil for your main city is a necessary step towards securing your energy supply for the future, but such sites generally do not come without strings attached to them. Other people likely have knowledge of these places.

So what happens when you’ve settled an outpost and another group comes knocking on your door, saying it’s claimed this location before you as a sacred site that you’ve now desecrated? That’s what the Frostpunk 2 Intruders event is all about.

Should you deliver oil to the nomads in Frostpunk 2?

After taking over an outpost site, nomads may show up there and issue a threat: Give us some of the oil so we can make it through the next storm or be raided.

Appropriately, you have the following choices:

1. Promise to deliver them oil – if delivery is met, there will be no raids on the outpost.
2. Turn them down and secure the site – there may be casualties among your guards.

Option 1 is the peaceful and friendly version of the event. If you agree to deliver the nomads oil and go through with this inside the specified timeframe, they will simply move on and not bother you again – but they want 30,000 units of oil. That is a substantial amount, especially if you only just started getting access to it or a whiteout is imminent, which will massively increase your consumption.

However, if you try to betray the nomads by not keeping your promise, they will retaliate and attack your outpost, killing workers, damaging the facilities, and stealing resources.

To counter this – and to enact Option 2, which is telling them to go pound snow – you’ll need a complement of guards. You can see how many of those you have in the top right corner, where your current number of scout teams is listed as well. If you have at least 15 guard squads, the nomads’ attacks can be fended off, although you will suffer some casualties and some of your people may not be too happy about waging war instead of helping fellow survivors.

If you have ample oil reserves and there is no whiteout on the radar, you can easily deliver the oil and deal with the nomads that way. If your own situation is dire and you have guards to spare, a more aggressive approach is recommended.

For more information on the game, read our Frostpunk 2 review and check out whether you should save the child workers in the Fire in the Shaft event.