Starting out in Cities: Skylines 2 can be a little intimidating, as the realistic city builder has many complex and detailed systems that, if not managed correctly, can quickly result in the downfall of your city. Thankfully, we’re here to help, as we have compiled 18 essential tips and tricks to help you build a flourishing and successful city in Cities: Skylines 2.

Beginner’s Guide: Essential Tips for Building a Successful City

Understand the Map You Are Building On

Before building your first city, it’s vital that you fully understand the map that you’re building on, as features, such as climate, outside connections, or natural resources, could ultimately have a significant impact on your city that you may not have initially planned for. 

Here’s what you need to know about all six map features and how they can impact your city:

• Theme: While the theme of your map won’t adversely impact any services or facilities, it will affect the visual styling of buildings in residential and commercial zones, street markings, traffic lights, vehicle models, and other roadside props. Just be cautious of which theme you select, as while most items can have their theme manually changed from their default styling before building, your city will ultimately be forced to obey either left-hand or right-hand traffic rules permanently – so choose wisely.
• Climate: Alongside Outside Connections and Natural Resources, climate is one of the most crucial aspects you need to consider, as not only does climate (and latitude) dictate the weather, daylight hours, and temperatures, but it also changes the behavior of citizens, increased need for maintenance services, and spikes in energy consumption. You can learn more about the effects of climate in our dedicated climate section below.
• Latitude: As a general rule of thumb, northern latitudes typically see an average temperature decrease, whereas southern latitudes see an average temperature increase. Also, daylight hours will be affected, as more northern latitudes will see increased daylight hours, and vice versa. Other factors that coincide with climate are cloud coverage and precipitation. 
• Buildable Area: The percentage of buildable area is important, as it indicates how much of the playable land can be built on. While most maps will boast a playable area of 159km2 — an astounding five times more than Cities: Skylines — only a small percentage will be buildable land. With a large landscape, map tiles have also been made significantly smaller, so each map has approximately 441 map tiles, with available resources and buildable areas playing a part in their costs. A vital thing to note is that you can unlock any buildable land tile on the map, as it does not need to connect to an unlocked tile.
• Outside Connections: Each map will feature its own unique outside connections, whether it be Outside Roads, Train, or Ship Connections – if a map is missing a connection, you’ll need to build one from scratch. Outside Connections allow new citizens to move in and tourists to visit, as well as import and export resources, goods, and surplus City Services such as Electricity, Water and Sewage, Road Maintenance, Healthcare, Garbage Management, Fire and Rescue, Police, and even Education to surrounding cities in exchange for additional income.
• Natural Resources: Certain services and Specialized Industries will take advantage of natural resources. Having local availability of materials supplied by Specialized Industries will significantly benefit your Industrial zones. Local supply will be a crucial factor in increasing Industrial demand.

Climate Affects More Than Just the Temperature

As mentioned in our map breakdown above, climate affects more than just the temperature; it also affects the changing of seasons, daylight length, unique weather patterns such as cloud coverage and storm intensities, facility and service increases, citizen behavior, and more.

Paradox Interactive has gone as far as categorizing each map into the following three climate categories:

• Temperate Climates feature distinct seasonal changes, moderate precipitation, and a wide temperature range.
• Continental Climates feature significant annual variations in temperature. Depending on each map, maps that fall under this climate category will experience considerable differences.
• Polar Climates feature short and cold summers and longer-lasting cold winters.

As we touched on earlier, weather can also significantly affect your citizen behaviors, as rain and cooler weather will see citizens looking for indoor leisure activities to partake in. In contrast, sunshine and warmer weather will see citizens preferring to spend their time at parks or other outdoor activities.

During cold and warm weather, you’ll also see increased energy consumption spikes as citizens will use air conditioners to cool down and heaters to keep warm. 

Additionally, green energy sources, such as solar, will take a minor hit in efficiency as daylight hours shorten during the cooler months.

Tip: Weather will also damage roads, so it’s essential to have a Road Maintenance Depot on hand at your earliest convenience, as they’ll repair roads, plow excess snow during winter, and help clean up traffic accidents.

Understanding the Progression System and Milestones

Progression in Cities: Skylines 2 is based upon two main factors: Milestones and Development.

There are 20 milestones to unlock in Cities: Skylines 2, with each milestone representing a new stage in your city’s development – whether this be a small village, a booming town, a huge city, or a megalopolis. And, unlike the first game, milestones are reached through Expansion Points, otherwise known as XP. 

Expansion Points are earned actively through upgrading existing services and buildings, constructing signature buildings, or performing general upgrades throughout your city. You will also passively receive XP points 16 times each day for increases in citizen happiness and population growth.

When leveling up milestones, you’ll receive cash bonuses, development points, additional land tiles to purchase, and new buildings, features, and upgrades.

As you begin accumulating development points, you can spend these within the Development tab to unlock new features and services for your city, such as new roads, green energy services, larger parks, tourist attractions, underground parking, advanced education systems, and disaster emergency services.

When it comes to the best unlocking strategy, there really isn’t one, as it ultimately comes down to your development plan. Still, it’s worth considering your city demands, as well as your overall citizen happiness, improvements needed to increase efficiency or level up, and potential Chirper complaints, as you may find that a particular upgrade could assist in approving your city, such as new road designs, a better education system, or leisure activities for your citizens to enjoy in their downtime. 

Some upgrades can also cost a pretty penny to build, and their upkeep can strain your monthly budget. So keep those factors in mind before spending your hard-earned development points.

Tip: Development Points can be stacked up, so don’t feel the need to spend as soon as they’re made available.

Don’t Be Afraid to Pause

When first starting, the pause feature will be one of your greatest assets, as you can use this feature to plan your initial city design without any pressures, as well as implement core services within your town such as water, electricity, sewer, and even rubbish removal, without the stress of citizens moving into town and not having access to these essential services. 

This feature continues to prove vital as you progress through the game, as you can use this to plan and reassess your city’s development and make general changes without worrying about causing any live disturbances that may cause unhappiness or complaints from your citizens.  

Start From Humble Beginnings and Don’t Overbuild

When first starting, it’s crucial that you start small and do not overbuild, as this will often end in a costly mistake that will see you chewing through your initial budget and unable to maintain a healthy return on your investments during your early years. Coming back from negative monthly revenue is incredibly hard and a huge time investment, so avoiding this scenario is vital if you’re looking for your city to succeed.

Another thing to consider when first starting your new city is to keep zone sizing small, as larger properties – both business and residential – will incur more expensive rent. Higher rent can be particularly harmful to many residents, as they’ll often be unable to afford the cost of rent and general living costs. 

When it comes to residential zoning at the start, we found 4×4 Low-Density Residential Zones work best and allow for more sustainable living for your low-income residents. Anything larger will see this zone-type receiving backyard, increasing rent and land value. 

The same applies to Medium Density Residential, Low Rent Housing, and High Density Housing. So, we suggest mixing it up with different zone sizes to see what fits your city’s needs and demands best.

For the best results, use the Marquee tool to size each building manually – you’ll need to wait for each building to begin construction before you size the next building.

Simplicity = Success

While Cities: Skylines 2 may be a simulation, don’t feel the need to go over the top with extravagant city designs or intersection systems. There’s a reason real-world cities keep designs simple – they just simply work. It also doesn’t hurt to research real cities that excel in their design fundamentals – maybe there’s a thing or two you can implement from their practices. 

Tip: While locked behind Development Points, Cities: Skylines 2 pre-built intersections are perfectly designed and also very easy to use.

Know Your Demand and Avoid Zoning Everything At Once

As tempting as it may be to zone everything straight out of the gate, we highly recommend that you avoid doing so for several reasons. 

While we break down our reasons below, our TL;DR version is to zone areas as you need and then wait for demands to replenish. If you overzone for your city, especially with commercial zoning, you’ll be left with businesses struggling to stay afloat due to a lack of customers. 

Since your city is ever-growing, it only makes sense that different types of zones will be in demand at different times, especially as new citizens move in or even move out, and when your city sees growth in higher-educated citizens.

Zoning as you need allows you to make changes on the fly to meet your citizen’s demands and adjust your city’s layout as required. It’s also important to keep space free for the likes of landscaping and service upgrades, as immediately zoning around services such as High Schools, Police Headquarters, and Medical Facilities will leave you with no space to upgrade these services to meet demands in the future. 

Remember that while you can plan roads and districts ahead of time, you don’t need to zone them or have every available zone square occupied immediately.

You can view your city demands via the City Information section, where you’ll find a list of current pros and cons within your zone types – these are frequently updated and should be monitored closely to understand how to better help each zone type reach its full potential. 

It’s worth noting that an increased abundance of positives will increase the demand for that particular zone type, whereas negatives will decrease demand.

Why You Should Avoid Zoning All at Once

First, you want to ensure you’re leaving space for future upgrades, as specific services will need additional spacing for future facility upgrades, such as education enhancements, cemetery expansions, extra bus depot lines, specialized emergency response services, and jail cells, to name a few. 

What would happen if you started to zone every free space available before you have the money to perform such upgrades? Well, you would essentially be setting yourself up for development disaster and community disapproval as you would be forced to make one of three choices:

• Move services out of designated areas for more space, which runs the risk of surrounding land value decreasing.
• Keep the existing service facility but build another with the needed upgrades, which is inefficient and costly.
• Move out families and established businesses to make room for your upgrades, temporarily disappointing those nearby in the community.

Secondly, as you progress through different milestones, you’ll begin to unlock new zone types, such as medium-density housing, low-rent housing, mixed housing, and high-density businesses. While it’s not a huge deal to rezone areas, but it can be when you’re starting out. 

You want businesses and residential areas to have a chance to build up their land value, which increases when they’re within reasonable distances from shops and services, schools, workplaces, and pollution-free locations. Land Value isn’t something that will change overnight; instead, it takes months of hard work and persistence to develop. 

Lastly, if you let the demand for particular zone types grow out of control because you have overcompensated with other zones, you may find that rent increases, thus also increasing land value. While that may be a positive further into your city’s progression, doing this too early will see consequences such as lower-income residents struggling to pay rent, ultimately forcing them to find cheaper alternatives. Having options and available space around your area to work with is essential for your city’s development.

It’s also worth noting that if you pre-plan too much of one particular zone, you may find empty building plots, making your city look patchy and unorganized.

Building Upgrades Are Not Essential When First Starting Out

While many services and buildings will offer upgrades to their facilities, such as extra storage, extensions, cleaner services, and more intake capacity, we highly recommend avoiding such upgrades until they’re needed in your city. Not only are they costly, but their upkeep will put a massive dent in your monthly budget. Unless you’re running a Metropolis or higher, there’s a chance you can get away without performing most of these upgrades.

Just be warned: building upgrades can not be removed or refunded, so be sure of your purchase and their placement before making any definite decisions. 

Be Extra Cautious When Building Services That Output Pollution

If you’re not careful, pollution can be one of the biggest downfalls to any city, as poor placement of services that output pollution can cause significant effects on citizen health, whether through air, water, or ground pollutants, as well as reducing yield from specialized industries.

For this reason, it’s crucial that you pre-plan the best locations for your pollution-causing services, as their pollution range — remember to factor in wind direction — needs to be kept far away from precious natural resource deposits, residential areas, and future development sites.

Here are some crucial tips you should consider when it comes to minimizing pollution:

• Sewage should always be placed well downstream, preferably as close to your border as possible. 
• Investing in sewage upgrades when the opportunity presents itself is essential – you’ll thank yourself as you expand your city, especially when unlocking those downstream tiles.
• Water Pumping stations should always be placed upstream, far away from any pollutants entering your water system.
• Some services and zones, such as Landfills and Industrial businesses, will cause ground population. Even when removed, these services will leave behind pollutants that will take years to disappear entirely.
• Natural resource deposits are always found in the exact locations on every map. So, if you want the advantage of knowing where these locations are so you don’t accidentally contaminate them with the likes of a Landfill or Coal Power Plant, you can load up the map with All Unlocks selected, gaining instant access to the Natural Resources Info View, which is typically locked behind Milestone 3: Large Village.
• As citizens become more educated, they’ll learn better waste management and generate less garbage. 
• While a Small Coal Power Plant or purchasing electricity from outside sources will be the most cost-effective method of producing electricity when starting, we highly recommend switching to renewable energy, such as Wind Turbines, as soon as possible if your city has wind speeds to power them efficiently. Both your land and your citizens will thank you for the switch.

Create Districts and Set Unique Policies

In addition to standard City Policies, you can also create Districts, which not only allow you to assign dedicated local services but also implement unique sets of policies such as Combustion Engine Bans, Gated Communities, Energy Consumption Awareness, Roadside Parking Fee, Speed Bumps, and more. 

While each of these policies has its pros and cons, as long as they are responsible requests – remembering to take into account those who live in the area and their provided services, such as public transport – the community will generally be well on board with the changes, with many residents commending the noise reduction from heavy traffic and speeding.

Implement Public Transportation As Soon as Possible

As your city grows, public transportation is an absolute non-negotiable and should be implemented when given the opportunity at Milestone 4: Grand Village, as traffic, alongside pollution, is among some of the biggest complaints you’ll receive in any city.

Public transportation will not only decrease traffic congestion, but it’ll also lower the overall cost of transportation for your citizens and tourists. Much like real cities, tourists play a crucial part in your economy. With more accessible and cost-effective transportation, visitors to your city will have more money for goods and services, which is vital for your businesses.

Cargo Transportation, which uses Trains, Ships, and Airplanes, is also beneficial, as it lowers the cost of shipping goods and materials, which in turn helps your businesses turn more profit.

Tip: Remember that despite building the necessary transportation depots, you also need to place down Taxi Stands and Bus Stops, as well as implement Bus lines; otherwise, these services will not be functional.

Listen to Community Feedback and Complaints

Chirper is an essential tool that can be used to better your city, as citizens, city services, and companies will frequently chirp about their opinions, problems, and successes.

To pinpoint where issues are occurring, such as noise or lack of services, click on the writer’s name. This will show their location, as well as their household details, occupation, age, and more.

If you have attempted to rectify an issue mentioned by a citizen on Chirper, you can select the Follow button in the bottom left corner of their information box to follow up on their Chirps and their current statistics quickly.

Adjust the Tax Rate, City Policies, and Public Transport Rates

Nobody likes taxes, but if you’re trying to stay afloat with monthly positive revenue, you may need to consider adjusting your city taxes until you can balance your budget or find other revenue sources.

When visiting the Taxation tab in the Economy menu, you’ll find four sliders, each representing a zone type. Each zone type can have its Tax Rate raised or lowered. As you adjust these sliders to your desired tax rate, an immediate estimation of their monthly revenue will be displayed.

Just be warned: raise your tax rate slowly over a few months. The true impact of a price rise isn’t immediate, as it takes a few months for residents to fall behind on payments, unable to maintain the property maintenance, or even struggle with everyday living costs before ultimately moving on to a new home or even homelessness, which sees homeless families residing in public parks until they can afford a place to live.

Be sure to also keep an eye on Chirper for any community complaints and the Demands tab, which will display any positives or negatives (including taxes) affecting the demand for certain zone types and services.

You can also up the cost of ticket prices for individual Bus Lines within their route menu — this can help you profit just a little more if you’re struggling with funds.

Cut Service Upkeep Costs to Save on Money

Is Service Upkeeps constantly running your monthly balance dry? Under Services in the Economy menu, you can adjust the budget for particular City Services to save on operating expenses or earn a little extra from increasing service fees. Just be warned, lowering the budget slider will decrease the number of employees hired and the service’s quality and performance. 

The impact of your changes is not immediate on your citizens, so keep that in mind before making drastic reductions, as it could result in a costly mistake that will take time to recover from.

Prepare For Natural Disasters As They Can Be Devastating On Communities

Don’t forget to place down Emergency Shelters and Early Disaster Warning Systems, as disasters can strike at any time. Despite their rather costly price tag and upkeep, they’ll keep your citizens safe and allow buildings to prepare for the disaster, enabling them to suffer less structural damage.

While costly, Fire Watchtowers can help reduce the chance of forest fires from occurring.

If you’re unprepared when a disaster strikes, it could unnecessarily burden healthcare, death care, rescue services, and more. You’ll find everything you need to keep your citizens safe under the Fire and Rescue section.

Hover Over Icons For Additional Information

Cities: Skylines 2 is a complex game, and with so much to do and learn, you’ll be happy to know that if you hover over any settings, icons, or details on Building and Info Views panels, you’ll be prompted with immensely detailed tooltips that can help you better understand each feature and the factors that can sometimes contribute to statistics.

So, keep this in mind if there’s ever a moment you’re stuck or want to learn more about specific features and aspects of the game.

Say Goodbye to Darkness, as There’s an Always Daylight Option

If you’re like us and find the dark visuals during the evening hours too hard to play, head to the Gameplay Settings and toggle the Day/Night setting off. While time will continue to tick into the evening hours, daylight will always be visually present.