• ON SI
  • SI SWIMSUIT
  • SI SPORTSBOOK
  • SI TICKETS
  • SI SHOP
Video Games
  • NEWS
  • GUIDES
  • REVIEWS
  • FEATURES
  • SI.COM

Cities: Skylines 2 – beginner tips for the best possible start

How to get your perfect city up and running

Griff Griffin

Cities: Skylines 2 – beginner tips for the best possible start
Cities: Skylines 2 – beginner tips for the best possible start /

Cities: Skylines 2 has hit PC Game Pass. The sequel to Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive’s 2015 city simulation invites you to build and maintain your own sprawling metropolis. But that’s easier said than done. If you’re new to the series and want to know how to get off to the best possible start, or just fancy brushing up on your city building skills, here are some helpful Cities: Skylines 2 beginners’ tips.

Best starting map

It’s important to start small. Any Cities: Skylines player will tell you there’s a long and potentially complicated road ahead as you grapple with the intricacies of developing your city. That’s why there’s no shame in keeping it simple. Choose the smallest map and take it slow at first. You can always scale up later. Once in your map, use the tab to check for resources, so you know what you’re working with.

Smaller maps provide a good starting point, keeping your city focused :: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

Keep zones separate

A core tenant of Cities: Skylines 2 is to separate your zones. The likes of residential, commercial, and industrial zones should never mix, unless you want to negatively impact your citizens. For example, industrial zones generate harmful air and noise pollution. Trucks passing through will also cause traffic problems. That’s why you should decide early where to put each zone and stick to it. No one likes to live next to a factory.

Make sure to check the wind directions as well, since air pollution travels along with the wind.

Use the variety of filters available in the top left to get all the information you need about your city :: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

Make money fast

The quickest way to get an early influx of cash is by using roads. By implementing a policy called roadside parking fee, you can charge people for parking, and watch the money roll in. OK, it’s more of a trickle, but it’s better than nothing. You can set up each district with its own bespoke policies, so try the roadside parking policy in one and see how it goes before applying it to more districts.

Producing cheap green energy, such as through wind turbines, and selling it to other cities is another clever way of making money.

A thriving economy is not the only way of making money :: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

Raise taxes for more revenue

For an even quicker source of money, you can try raising taxes. Doing so increases your revenue, but of course, nothing comes for free. The downside is citizen happiness – the higher you raise taxes, the less happy they’ll be. That will grind your city to a standstill as you won’t attract new inhabitants, your population size will stagnate, and new wealth will be harder to generate. It’s recommended to keep your tax rate at 12%, which is the perfect balance between money for you and happiness for them.

If people want to live in a nice city, they'll have to pay their fair contribution :: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

Use public transport

Don’t neglect public transport. This is vital to increasing traffic flow through your city and avoiding any nasty traffic jams. Buses are the cheapest tier of public transport, so start with them. Unlike with trains or trams, you don’t need to modify your existing road layout; just place bus stops along your desired route. Later on, you can use bus routes as an indicator for popular areas, then build subways or a train system along those routes, catering to as many people as possible.

Building cargo terminals in your industrial zones helps alleviate traffic issues as well by getting cargo trucks of the road and on to the rails instead.

Traffic is a challenge for any city and you'll need to get creative to tackle it effectively :: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

Place paths to negate traffic problems

Paths are an underrated aspect of Cities: Skylines 2. You can use them to link up areas for pedestrians, who will always prefer them to roads. When pedestrians travel by paths, it not only reduces the amount of traffic on roads, but makes people happier and healthier, since they’re not sharing the same space as cars and breathing in all those nasty fumes.

Pedestrian paths are a solid alternative to huge roads in some areas of your town :: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

Get new tips from Chirper

Cities: Skylines 2 contains a faux social network called Chirper. This is a key insight into your citizens’ wants and needs. If there’s a problem, people will write about it on Chirper, letting you identify immediately what area of your city needs fixing. It’s essentially an in-built tips Discord channel allowing you to get to the root of the problem and make improvements fast.

You can always find the in-game tutorials by using the help feature on the top right of the screen :: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

For more on this title, check out our Cities: Skylines 2 review, the best Cities: Skylines 2 settings to increase performance, and explore the Cities: Skylines 2 DLC roadmap.

Published
Griff Griffin
GRIFF GRIFFIN

Griff Griffin is a writer and YouTube content creator based in London, UK.

Home/ Guides

玻璃钢生产厂家义乌城市玻璃钢雕塑晋城不锈钢仿古玻璃钢雕塑公司3d打印玻璃钢雕塑九江个性化玻璃钢雕塑河南开业商场美陈采购6m高玻璃钢雕塑深圳特色商场美陈厂家直销江汉玻璃钢雕塑厂家上海大型玻璃钢雕塑询问报价广东公园玻璃钢雕塑销售厂家九江步行街玻璃钢雕塑制作内蒙古雕塑玻璃钢郑州玻璃钢人物雕塑公司杭州玻璃钢彩绘雕塑商场画展美陈萍乡玻璃钢花盆南通玻璃钢动物雕塑厂家价格浦东新区玻璃钢雕塑推荐厂家济南港粤玻璃钢座椅雕塑南昌公园玻璃钢雕塑公司玻璃钢 泡沫雕塑德惠玻璃钢雕塑工程磐安玻璃钢人物雕塑温州小型玻璃钢花盆宇航员摆件玻璃钢雕塑太空人金山区镜面玻璃钢雕塑诚信企业晋城玻璃钢仿铜雕塑公司广东高架桥玻璃钢花盆曲阳雕塑玻璃钢美陈玻璃钢卡通雕塑现货香港通过《维护国家安全条例》两大学生合买彩票中奖一人不认账让美丽中国“从细节出发”19岁小伙救下5人后溺亡 多方发声单亲妈妈陷入热恋 14岁儿子报警汪小菲曝离婚始末遭遇山火的松茸之乡雅江山火三名扑火人员牺牲系谣言何赛飞追着代拍打萧美琴窜访捷克 外交部回应卫健委通报少年有偿捐血浆16次猝死手机成瘾是影响睡眠质量重要因素高校汽车撞人致3死16伤 司机系学生315晚会后胖东来又人满为患了小米汽车超级工厂正式揭幕中国拥有亿元资产的家庭达13.3万户周杰伦一审败诉网易男孩8年未见母亲被告知被遗忘许家印被限制高消费饲养员用铁锨驱打大熊猫被辞退男子被猫抓伤后确诊“猫抓病”特朗普无法缴纳4.54亿美元罚金倪萍分享减重40斤方法联合利华开始重组张家界的山上“长”满了韩国人？张立群任西安交通大学校长杨倩无缘巴黎奥运“重生之我在北大当嫡校长”黑马情侣提车了专访95后高颜值猪保姆考生莫言也上北大硕士复试名单了网友洛杉矶偶遇贾玲专家建议不必谈骨泥色变沉迷短剧的人就像掉进了杀猪盘奥巴马现身唐宁街 黑色着装引猜测七年后宇文玥被薅头发捞上岸事业单位女子向同事水杯投不明物质凯特王妃现身！外出购物视频曝光河南驻马店通报西平中学跳楼事件王树国卸任西安交大校长 师生送别恒大被罚41.75亿到底怎么缴男子被流浪猫绊倒 投喂者赔24万房客欠租失踪 房东直发愁西双版纳热带植物园回应蜉蝣大爆发钱人豪晒法院裁定实锤抄袭外国人感慨凌晨的中国很安全胖东来员工每周单休无小长假白宫：哈马斯三号人物被杀测试车高速逃费 小米：已补缴老人退休金被冒领16年 金额超20万

玻璃钢生产厂家 XML地图 TXT地图 虚拟主机 SEO 网站制作 网站优化