Cities: Skylines II: 15 Tips for Your First City

Here’s how to start a city and keep it growing in Cities: Skylines II.

These tips cover the choices in Cities: Skylines II that are hard to undo, from the map and game mode to taxes, plus habits that keep a city running. Menus and controls here are from the PC version.

Pick Your Map First in Cities: Skylines II

The map sets your terrain, starting roads, and resources, which decide what industry your city can grow around. Many maps that ship with Cities: Skylines II cover a lot of hills or cold weather, so community maps on Paradox Mods are worth a look.

Some community maps are built from real-world height maps. Tile upkeep rises with what each tile holds, so a map packed with resources can strain your budget unless you play on Easy mode, which removes tile upkeep.

Check what the map lacks, too. You can add most outside connections later, but not air connections, and the only resource you can add is forest, at a steep price.

The climate is fixed as well. The base game won’t let you turn off seasons or weather, and rain and snow can lower your frame rate.

Install Only the Mods You’ll Use

To add mods, open Paradox Mods, build a playset, add your mods, and restart the game. Even if you skip mods, the region packs from Colossal Order install the same way.

Each mod adds load time and storage, and the UK region pack alone takes 6.8 GB. Mods save to your Windows user account, so two people on one PC each download their own copies. Keep only the playsets you play, since each one downloads its mods.

Most loading failures come from mods that conflict, fall out of date, or get abandoned. Skyve, a mod manager, flags mods that other players report as broken and launches the game with only the mods you pick. It also reportedly updates mods outside the game and backs up your playsets.

Choose Your Game Mode Once

Since the 2025 anniversary update, starting a new city in Cities: Skylines II asks you to pick Normal or Easy mode. The choice reportedly can’t be changed later, even with mods or developer mode.

Easy mode starts you with ¢2,000,000 instead of ¢1,000,000 and multiplies milestone cash by six. It also removes tile upkeep, turns on government subsidies, and lowers pollution and service upkeep.

Plan Your Layout Before You Zone

Roads cost little, so lay out your main roads early and use the District tool to mark where future zones will go. Most of this costs nothing and saves rework later.

Many traffic jams start with land use rather than roads. For ideas, study cities you know in Google Earth Pro, or look up zoning and land-use maps for real cities.

Build What You Need, When You Need It

Unlocking a service doesn’t mean your city needs it. Place the smallest version first, and wait until citizens ask for the service at all.

The same goes for everything else. Upgrade a road once traffic backs up, add density once you run out of room to spread outward, and add high-capacity transit once the population can fill it.

If you’ve already built too much utility capacity, lower that service’s budget slider or export the surplus.

Avoid Loans

Loans tend to start a cycle where each payment needs another loan. When cash runs low, export surplus utilities, build specialized industry on land you haven’t developed, or push for the next milestone and its cash reward.

Signature buildings cost nothing to place. They give XP, and many boost the zones around them, which raises income with no added expense.

Build With the Terrain in Cities: Skylines II

Turn on contour lines and run roads along them instead of straight up a slope. On steep ground, climb with switchbacks.

You can still build on hills if you grade the ground first. Use up flat land before you move onto slopes, the way real cities grow.

Shape Buildings With Zoning

Block zoning on certain roads and paths to control where buildings appear. Smaller zoned areas generally get smaller buildings.

The smallest zoned building is 2x2, except row homes at 2x1, and the largest is 6x6. High-density offices break the pattern, since some of the tallest sit on the smallest lots.

Vary lot widths, or zone one lot at a time, to mix building types. Zoning a lot one or two units shallower can also remove parking from some buildings, such as the southwestern USA offices.

Watch All Four Types of Pollution

Cities: Skylines II tracks ground, water, air, and noise pollution. Ground pollution comes from landfills and industry, so keep both away from homes or residents get sick.

Water pollution comes from sewage dumped into a lake or river, and from dirty industry zoned over groundwater. Never draw drinking water from a source you’ve polluted, since it can make residents sick or set off a wave of deaths.

Air pollution comes from industry, some services, and traffic, and it drifts with a wind that never changes direction. Check the wind in the air pollution info view before you zone industry.

If homes already sit downwind, the Advanced Pollution Management policy cuts air and ground pollution from industry by 25% but adds 15% more garbage, and it can get expensive. For noise from industry, commercial areas, transit, and some parks, use sound walls, landscaping, or more space.

Sort Roads by Their Job

Highways carry traffic over long distances and touch no property. Arterials link major parts of the city, with few intersections. Collectors connect arterials to local roads, which serve houses and shops.

Following this strictly tends to produce suburbs, while urban areas mix the levels more. How you use a road matters more than its width, so a two-lane road with limited access works as an arterial. The base game doesn’t let you set speed limits, though.

Leave Room Around Buildings

Many service buildings take extensions later, so check what’s available before you place one and leave space. Open land around a building also makes it look like it sits on its own lot.

Extensions don’t have to touch the main building. They only need a pedestrian connection, and garbage is still collected at the main building, so you can spread a school out like a campus or move a harbor’s warehouse down the street.

Give Citizens Ways Besides Driving

Citizens pick whichever route costs and takes the least. If driving costs more or takes longer, they’ll walk or ride transit, as long as it covers their trip and has room.

Transit has its own hierarchy. Trains serve the region, metros cross the city in volume, trams can run as light rail or streetcars, and buses fill in locally. Build stops where riders can switch between modes.

Add Detail and Landscaping

Detailing takes little time. Use the Line tool to plant rows of trees before you place a forestry industry, and the Surface tool to fill gaps around buildings.

Props and landscaping can mark lot lines, and specialized industry like a stone mine can fill a space while still doing work. Mods such as Anarchy and Better Bulldozer speed up detailing, but the base tools cover a lot.

Redevelop as the City Grows

Real cities keep changing, and yours can too. Tear down and rebuild areas you settled early, and use redevelopment as your main way to add density, so the city looks like it grew over time.

Give Taxes Time to Settle in Cities: Skylines II

Tax and budget changes in Cities: Skylines II take a few in-game months to play out. Raising taxes can bring a jump in income that fades over time, so wait before you judge a change.

A 10% rate across the board keeps demand up. To fine-tune, set commercial a little below that, industrial lower, and office lower still.

Residential density reacts differently, too. In one test at 12%, low and medium density demand dropped while high density barely changed, so you can raise residential taxes as the city gets denser.

Small tweaks don’t always work. To attract or push away an industry, try a negative rate or a subsidy, then check back after a few months.

Turn On Developer Mode

In Steam, right-click the game, open Properties, and add -developerMode to Launch Options. Load a save, then press Tab for the developer menu, or Home for the add object menu.

From there you can lock the weather or season, which can help frame rate, run the simulation at 8x speed, and give yourself money. Bypass Validation lets you overlap roads, buildings, and terrain the game normally blocks.

You can also place assets on their own, like the church from a cemetery. Zoned buildings placed this way despawn if the zoning doesn’t match. Achievements reportedly turn off while developer mode is on.

What to Do Next

Start your next city on a community map with plenty of flat land, and pick the game mode before you load in. Sketch the main roads and districts while they cost little. Set taxes to 10%, then give the city a few months before you change them.

Most early trouble in Cities: Skylines II comes from building ahead of demand, so let the city tell you what it needs.

FAQ

Q. Can I switch to Easy mode after starting a city in Cities: Skylines II?

A. The mode locks in when you create the city, and reportedly not even mods or developer mode can change it.

Q. What tax rate should I start with?

A. Ten percent across the board keeps demand up. From there, lower commercial, industrial, and office in steps.

Q. Why won’t my game load after adding mods in Cities: Skylines II?

A. Usually one mod conflicts with another or is out of date. A mod manager like Skyve can point to the one causing trouble.

Q. Should I take out a loan when money runs low?

A. Try exporting surplus utilities or chasing the next milestone first, since loans tend to lead to more loans.