Given the massive scale and improvements introduced in Cities Skylines 2 compared to the previous game, it can be difficult to get a bearing on things as you start the game. Instead of spending countless hours figuring things out, why not check out our Cities Skylines 2 tips to help you understand the basics of how to get your city up and running.
Whether you are a veteran or trying out Cities Skylines 2 for the first time, there are a lot of systems at play and things to keep track of. If you aren’t focused on the right things, it is easy to lose track of your city’s management. With these tips, we will help you avoid such issues so your journey to building a perfect utopia in Cities Skylines 2 is as smooth as possible.
Be thorough with the Map you will build on
It is better to get familiar with the grounds you’re about to build on instead of going head first with no planning. Before beginning the game, in map selection – there is an “Unlock All” option in Map Options. This would allow you to take a look at the layout of the map, including all the Raw Materials. With this, you can plan the city in a much better contrast when you’re aware of the layout of the land instead of trying to Milestone 3: Large Village to locate all your resources. Call it sort of like a cheat, but it is not really.
Theme Switch in Architecture
When it comes to adding more variety to your plants and architecture, you fortunately can toggle between North American and European styles of Architecture. With the switch between themes, you can utilize the best of both architectures in your new metropolitan city using the Theme switch tool in the bottom left corner.
Getting the Perfect Grid
You might notice that it is hard to get the perfect grid. Because of the nuisance of dragging from the center to make a straight grid, you might leave some open spaces in the middle. This can, even in certain circumstances, infuriate a lot of people.
The solution to this problem is simple. You have to turn off Snap to Guide Lines and Snap to the sides of a building. You’ll find these toggles in Parallel mode.
Manage your electricity production
If your map has Wind resources, we highly recommend that you begin with establishing Windmills. These would not only provide you with electricity soon in the game, but you can also export it by connecting their power line to the outside. This would help you start earning money right off the bat.
However, in case you can’t do that but still require electricity, in a similar fashion to exporting the electricity, you too can import it from outside. The easiest way to buy electricity from outside is to place a transformer nearby and then connect it with power lines to the outside.
While it is best to keep your power plants separate and preferably isolated from the household, you also need to subject its location in regard to the direction of the wind. If the power plants are close by, and if the wind direction is towards the residential area, then the smoke would lead to further health issues. The public would also start complaining about the smoke.
It is best to understand the wind direction and then place your smoke-creating factories so that it doesn’t affect the public.
Tone-down preview highlights
The previews in Cities: Skyline 2 are needlessly bright. You can dull it into a sort of dark mode by pressing “I” on your keyboard. This would be the needless white color from the map, making it more bearable to see and navigate around. You can see the difference given in the screenshots we have made.
Invest in education
Education is extremely important in Cities: Skyline 2. It is an asset in the city where you need to fulfill the demand for highly educated workplaces. The education system is slow in this game, so getting the work done takes time. However, it is better to deal with the buildings as soon as you can.
Therefore, having Primary School, high school, and College right, in the beginning would help you satisfy high education-related works early on in the game since the sooner you build up the institutes, the sooner you’ll be able to produce professionals.
Rent Management
When it comes to rent management, the best path to take is to keep the rent low in the green light. The people of your metropolis pay rent, which is a good chunk of your earnings – if not the biggest source. Keeping high rents only causes more issues for the people, which would decrease the number of people that would take up homes in your city, leading to decreased rents.
It’s best to keep them satisfied, and you can provide them with smaller lot prices to reduce the prices of the rent as well. You have the power to determine the amount of land you give away, so make use of it to its full extent.
Rush milestones by spamming
If you want to clear out milestones as quickly as you can in Cities: Skylines 2, the easiest way to do that is to spam and create as many power plants as you can. They are the fastest way to achieve milestones in the shortest amount of time.
You can also use this technique a little slowly by creating power plants when you’re near completing the milestone but simply lack a little; this is a good alternative to obtain that milestone you were stuck at. Each power plant provides you with 300 XP.
Don’t upgrade Emergency Services too early
Emergency Services are vital for any city. While we recommend that you get them for your city’s safety and precautions, what we do not recommend is upgrading them – at least at the beginning of the game.
When you’re starting out, sure, the Emergency Services would help you out as much as they can, but you’ll notice there won’t be a need to upgrade them. Moreover, upgrading those increases their regular upkeep, causing issues if you’re not making a lot of money.
So it’s better to upgrade them when the city has started earning a good chunk to maintain it on its own. To make it worse, once you’ve installed the extension, you cannot remove it either without deleting the whole building.
Fix the sewerage system to avoid sickness
The sewerage system is essential for all towns and cities in Cities Skylines 2. They not only reduce sickness but are needed to keep the town clean, polished, and presentable. It goes without saying, but sewage from water treatment plants and extractors is best dumped away from a source of fresh water. If it’s near a water body, then it’s best to create the pipeline going down the stream. This will greatly reduce sickness and health issues if your town is facing any.
Plan your green areas beforehand
Trees take time to grow – in-game included. It takes several in-game years to grow them, so trying to add greenery after the town is built would be a difficult task to do. What you can do, however, is plant them right from the beginning. If you plan to add lots of green trees and forests that surround your town, it’s best to begin by spamming the trees all over the place.
This way, as you keep building your town, you’ll have plenty of trees covering your town, and you won’t need to worry about growing them later on or making a separate plan to grow them around the town.
Roadside Parking
Nobody likes it when people park their vehicles on the side of the road. This can easily be fixed – and even turned profitable. You can begin by adding the Roadside Parking Fee, which would cause a fine to park on the side of the road.
If you maximize the fee, people would be immensely discouraged from parking, and so they would start seeking out the parking lots for it. This is important as if you fail to provide sufficient parking areas people would be unhappy. However, if you do manage to pull it off, you can charge them a reasonable fee for parking, and the money will start rolling in.
Workplace Availability
This is an important set of data. This graph shows the jobs you have available, and how many people can get them and on what education level. It will assist you to keep an eye out for your citizens and make sure that the joblessness issue can remain at a low. Maintaining job availability for the citizens is essential as it would improve the amount of taxes that can be obtained as well. More jobs mean more money for the town.
Fixing the terrain
The last tip to send you off into the world of Cities Skylines 2. Use the Contour Lines settings as much as you can. The map in Cities: Skylines 2 is three-dimensional, and the terrain is made to attempt to be as realistic as possible. Which means that the ground is uneven. Using the Contour Lines, you can determine the ground level and if it is bumpy or not.
Making a road on such a path would only lead to more issues and would be aesthetically not pleasing. You can use the ground leveling tools along with the contour lines to fix the area before building up the area.
