Cities Skylines 2 Guide - Tips for Beginners

Source: Cities Skylines 2, developer: Colossal Order

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Cities Skylines 2 is the second installment of popular city builder series. In game, you can take the role of mayor and create the megapolis of your dreams. If you want to play CS2, here are some beginner tips. In our guide you will find information on how to build industrial zones and a lot more.

Build industrial districts away from residential areas

Industrial zones generate noise and air pollution. Both of these have a negative impact on citizen’s happiness. This is why industry should be far away from residential areas.

1. To reduce noise, you have to keep the distance. If the industrial zone is connected to the rest of city by a highway, you can also install sound barriers for additional protection.

1. To protect the city from air pollution, you also need to pay attention to the wind direction. Go to the "Info Views" and check "Air Pollution". Next choose a place, where wind does not bring pollution over residential buildings.

Read more:

1. How to Remove Zone in Cities Skylines 2

Start using public transport

People in your city travel from home to work, park, school etc. If they don’t have an alternative form of transport, they use cars. This can cause traffic problems. Transportation is an important element of the city. If used properly, it can significantly increase traffic flow.

1. The cheapest type of public transport in your city is buses. You don’t need to build extra tracks or roads. You only have to build a bus stop in a chosen place. However, remember that too many lines assigned to a single stop can create problems with traffic flow.
2. Subway and trams are more effective but expensive. You should build this type of transport only in crowded places. Replace the most used bus lines with more efficient types of public transport.
3. You can change the number of the public transport vehicles on the line. Go to “Transportation” in „Info Vievs” and choose type of transport. Then go into the details of the selected line.

Upgrade roads

More people equal more cars. If you want to keep high traffic flow, you must upgrade roads.

1. More lanes can solve the problem. You can do this easily by changing smaller streets into bigger ones, use replace tool in menu “roads” to do this.
2. Normal junctions aren’t effective in heavy traffic. To increase traffic flow you must replace them with roundabouts. Eventually, if you do not have enough space to put them, you can always use asymmetrical roads. They will guarantee you an extra lane for cars.

Read more:

1. How to Upgrade and Elevate Roads in Cities Skylines 2

Control your budget

After reaching Tiny Village milestone, you get access to City Economy. In this menu you can control taxation and services budget.

1. You can increase the city's revenue by raising taxes slightly. It is best to stay at a maximum tax rate of 13%. Otherwise, people will not want to move in and leveling up existing buildings will be slower.
2. Roads are the easiest way to earn money. Create a district with policy “Roadside parking fee” and raise fee in car parks.

Read Chirper

Chirper is the place where citizens write about pros and cons of living in your city. You will see the notification when someone posts new comment. These messages can tell you what causes unhappiness among residents. This will allow you to quickly respond to the problem.

Start selling energy

In Cities Skylines 2 you can impot or export electricity. If you want to earn money easily, you should produce more energy than city needs. To sell it, you need to connect the network to Outside Power Line. However, there is one condition – you must produce high voltage.

1. Power plants generate high and low voltage electricity, so you can connect them to Power Line directly.
2. Wind turbines produce only low voltage electricity that can’t be sold in its raw form. First, you must connect turbines to transformer station and from it further to Outside Power Line.

In both cases export of electricity will start automatically. You just have to wait a while.

Read more:

1. How to Fix Electric Cable and Power Line not Connected in Cities Skylines 2