SimCity Buildit - Tips, Tricks, and Strategies for a City that Works

SimCity BuildIt is a city-building game from EA. Your job as mayor is to build houses for people to live in, industry and utilities to serve them, and to try and make sure the good people of your city don't get mixed up in their own sewage.

SimCity BuildIt is straightforward for the most part, but that doesn't mean running a city is always smooth sailing. Here are a few tips to keep your city happy and well-oiled.

Basic Building

• More citizens means more taxes - When all is said and done, your goal in SimCity BuildIt is to attract new citizens and keep them happy so they don't move out. More citizens means more tax money for beautification projects.

• You're not charged for paving streets or moving buildings, so go nuts - Moving stuff around in SimCity BuildIt doesn't cost you anything, nor does laying down roads. You can organize and re-organize your city without fear of going broke, so go for it.

• Visit neighbors' trading posts for cheap goods - Make friends with other players, then visit their cities once a day to access their trading posts. It's a great way to get materials quickly and cheaply. Every player is assigned to a fully-developed neighboring city, so don't worry if you lack friends.

A Productive City is a Good City

• Keep your industry purring at all times - To build a city, you need stuff. Lots of stuff. That's why it's important to keep your factories busy. Downtime is a big waste, and your inaction may come back to haunt you when you discover you're short on materials for building and upgrades.

• Upgrade the city storage ASAP - While it's important to keep your factories running, it's also important to make sure you have a place to store the surplus materials they produce. Upgrade your city storage whenever possible. To get the necessary materials (bars, cameras, etc), tap on citizens' thought balloons.

• Always have plenty of basic materials on-hand - Every project starts with basic materials, so prioritize their manufacture. You can't have hammers without wood and steel. You can't have nails without steel by itself. And so on.

• Some services work in a radius, not along a street - Fire departments and schools serve a radius that's indicated when you pick them up (to pick up a building, tap and hold it for a second). If a residence isn't being served, its tenants will let you know through alarming icons and/or complaints.

Keep Your People Happy!

• Don't put residences near industries - It's SimCity's oldest rule, and it applies here as well. Don't put your residences near factories. If you wouldn't want to live there, neither would your Sims.

• Build nasty things at the end of roads - Make roads as long as possible, then place factories and other filth-spewing utilities at the very end. That way it's easy to keep residences far away from pollution. Try separating residences and industry with parks and non-polluting industries. If a house is too close to a factory, its residents will let you know.

• Upgrade before expanding - Try and fill out a street before you lay down more streets and houses. Build new houses, but don't forget to upgrade the ones you already have. Expansion means having to lay down new plants for water and power, and that adds up to a lot of spent money.

• It pays to spend a bit more money up-front on utilities and services - Spending extra money up-front saves aggravation in the end. Wind-powered energy costs more than coal, but the former makes residents much happier with the city. Large firehouses cover more territory than small ones, meaning a single fire house can cover as much territory as two smaller ones, provided you organize your town for optimal coverage.