Cities: Skylines Veteran Shares Some Tips to Avoid Common Pitfalls

CitiesSkylines·7/14/2025

About Construction Sequence

Basic infrastructure construction sequence to meet minimum city living needs:

For advanced starts, follow this sequence; for unlocked starts, you can complete all construction at once with initial funds.

Zoning considerations:

Don't zone commercial and industrial areas together as it causes severe traffic congestion
Commercial zones shouldn't be adjacent to residential areas either - while convenient for shopping, industrial truck traffic creates pressure and commercial noise pollution affects resident health
The best approach is zoning commercial areas near office districts where traffic pressure is minimal and noise pollution isn't an issue
Commercial zones should maintain appropriate connections to both residential and industrial areas for goods transport and shopping convenience, while avoiding highway space occupation

Key points of power systems:

As long as buildings are connected, just one power line enables electricity sharing
All buildings have built-in wiring functionality
Simply connect the power plant to any building and the entire area will receive power
When planning power grids, frequently observe electricity coverage areas as this greatly helps overall layout

Causes and solutions for mass citizen deaths:

Game mechanics divide citizen life cycles into five stages: child, teen, young adult, adult, elderly
All citizens' life cycles are essentially synchronized
Mass zoning of residential areas causes many citizens to enter the same life stage simultaneously
Resulting in simultaneous deaths, retirements, and workforce shortages with spiking hearse demand
Solution: Residential zones should be planned and built in phases for more realistic simulation

Game economy management tips:

Making money isn't difficult - no need for infinite money cheats
With all buildings unlocked at start, initial funds are 715,000
Recommend keeping 100,000-150,000 as liquid assets, using the rest for city construction
Tax threshold is around 12%-13% - you can temporarily raise taxes when funds are tight early on