How to play

Getting started

You begin with 150 💰 and a single parcel of 3×3 tiles on an open meadow. Fog covers the land around it and clears as you buy more. Your city grows at your own pace. There is no countdown, no defeat and no penalty for taking a break.

Four cards sit at the top. “Money” shows your balance and, below it, your net income per second. “City” counts residents, workers and jobs and shows the unemployed. “Supply” shows how many buildings are on the road network and whether services from commerce and goods from industry are enough, green for covered, amber for tight and red for a shortage. “Demand” shows which sector is wanted right now. Tap a card and it explains its numbers.

In your first game, “First steps” walks you through five steps: draw a road, zone housing, create jobs with commerce or industry, buy a neighbouring parcel and place a park. If you know all that already, end it from the menu (☰) with “🎓 End the first steps”. After that, the task board (🎯) takes over.

The loop always stays the same. You draw roads, zone districts, let buildings grow, collect taxes and buy more land. Day and night, weather and seasons are pure atmosphere and change nothing about growth, traffic or money. You can fix the season in the menu under 🗓️ Season, while “Auto” changes it every 90 in-game days.

More on this: The right start: your first hour in Tildown

Roads & networks

Buildings only grow and pay taxes when they sit on a road network. Draw a line across your land with the road tool, the same way on desktop and on mobile. Press on the starting tile, drag to the target tile and you see the route as a preview before you let go. It is always a straight line, and if you go around a corner it bends exactly once. Zones, parks and demolition, on the other hand, are dragged out as a rectangle, from the starting tile to the opposite corner.

On a computer, keyboard and mouse help. Keys 1–9 pick the tools in toolbar order, and Esc cancels a stroke and closes windows. Arrow keys or WASD pan the map, the mouse wheel zooms, and holding the right or middle mouse button drags the map. The full list is in the menu under ⌨️ Keyboard & mouse.

One key point: each road network shares workers, customers and goods only within itself. Two separate networks do not help each other. So connect your districts into one shared network, and everyone benefits from everyone else.

If a road is overloaded, you can upgrade it to a main road. The upgrade unlocks at chapter 5 or 3,500 residents. From then on there are two ways to do it: the dedicated main-road tool in the road menu, which also lays a main road directly on empty ground, or a second drag with the road tool that runs entirely over existing roads. Main roads have 8× the capacity against jams. They also count only half towards the commute, so a route along main roads is effectively half as long, which lifts growth and taxes.

Not every patch of land takes a road. It needs reasonably flat ground. If it climbs or drops by more than one step, the game says “Too steep” and you route around it. Over water, the road tool builds a bridge by itself. A bridge costs many times what an ordinary road costs, which is why two banks are usually joined by a few well-placed crossings.

More on this: The right start: your first hour in Tildown

Zones: residential, commercial, industry

You do not place individual houses. You zone areas, and buildings appear there by themselves based on demand. Three zone types interlock.

🏠 Residential brings residents and with them workers. They need jobs and places to shop. 🏢 Commerce brings shops and jobs and needs customers and goods. 🏭 Industry supplies goods and jobs. It needs workers and buyers for those goods, which means commerce. Once goods pile up because no shops are ordering them, even the best factory site only creeps along.

Buy the land first in cursor mode, then zone the area. No sector grows on its own. Each one thrives only when its needs are met.

Planned it wrong? You do not have to demolish. In cursor mode, tap a finished building. The building panel offers “Rezone” with the price next to it. That turns a home into commerce, or a factory into a park. The footprint stays, but the building starts again at level 1.

If you zone larger areas of the same sector, neighbouring buildings merge over time into a complex of up to 3×3 tiles. Four cottages become an apartment block, several factories become a works. From then on such a complex counts as a single building, in the tasks as well.

More on this: Residential, commercial, industry: keeping the balance

Demand & balance

The “Demand” card shows a scale for each sector: 🏠 for residential, 🏢 for commercial, 🏭 for industry. A bar to the right, in the sector’s colour, means it is in demand and you should build more of it. A bar to the left, in red, means it is oversupplied. Resting in the middle means balanced. Tap the card and it also gives you the percentage.

Build what is being asked for. Too much housing without jobs leads to unemployment, and too much industry without residents finds no workers.

Balanced is not the same as fast, though, because growth comes from a surplus. With every balance met exactly, your buildings grow at only about a third of full speed. If you want to grow briskly, zone shops and industry a little ahead of demand. Spare jobs and spare shops are what make housing boom.

More on this: Residential, commercial, industry: keeping the balance

Why a building grows and what holds it back

Every connected building collects growth and rises level by level. With each level more people live or work there, and it pays more tax. A home at level 20 is no longer a cottage but a residential tower.

Four brakes decide how fast that happens. The first is demand for its sector. With no jobs, housing grows slowly, and with no customers, commerce stalls. The second is the air, since fewer people want to live in a smoggy spot. The third is the commute: if work is very far away, the district loses its appeal. The fourth is congestion.

Congestion is the most stubborn of them. If a home’s route is fully jammed, its level freezes no matter how good everything else looks. Nothing is taken away, though, because jams only cap and never demote. Only smog can make a building shrink. The building panel names the brake for you. Tap a house and it tells you whether demand, air, commute or jam is the reason right now.

There is a ceiling, too. The building panel prints it right after the level, as in “level 12/23”. In a newly founded city it sits at 23. At 18,000 residents your city becomes a “Metropolis” and the ceiling rises to 33, at 80,000 it becomes a “World City” and reaches 40. What counts is the highest population you have ever reached, so once a tier is unlocked you never lose it again.

The top floors are earned through good planning. From level 20 a home only keeps rising while its commute stays short. That means about ten tiles of ordinary road, with a main road counting only half and a stretch of motorway not at all. From level 30 it additionally needs a beautiful spot with parks, water or a landmark nearby, and then it grows at only half speed. If a district sits stuck at level 20 despite the milestone, the commute is almost always too long.

More on this: From 10,000 to 100,000 residents

Money, taxes & land

Your income comes from taxes. Only connected buildings pay, and they only pay in full when their needs are met. The 📈 symbol in the “Money” card shows this tax efficiency.

With money you buy new land and pay for roads and parks, later also main roads, the motorway, the railway and landmarks. Zoning itself is free. Residential, commercial and industrial areas cost nothing to draw, and the buildings appear by themselves. Land is always bought as a whole parcel of 3×3 tiles. You can only buy one that borders your land, already carries your own track, lies within sight of Neuschwanstein Castle or belongs to a neighbouring town that your land or track touches. In cursor mode, tap an area marked with ＋. Each further parcel costs noticeably more than the last, and in a big city the price also rises with its tax base.

Under your balance sits your net income per second: taxes minus upkeep minus welfare, plus the tourists of an old town – and all of that multiplied by your task bonus. You pay upkeep for every tax-paying building, and it grows with the building’s level. Welfare is paid for every unemployed resident. Villas, hotels and mines pay several times the taxes, but in big cities they also carry half of that premium in their upkeep. You cannot go bankrupt, because the net never drops below zero. But when upkeep and welfare swallow almost all of your taxes, nothing is left over to grow with.

And when you close the tab? Your city does not grow without you, but the coffers keep ticking within limits. If you were away for at least ten minutes, you are credited your net income for that time when you return. It is rounded down in five-minute steps and capped at one hour.

Now and then, in daylight, a hot-air balloon drifts across the city. Tap it and you get a full hour of your net income in one go.

A good rhythm: bring one district into balance, collect taxes, then use the surplus to open up the next patch of land.

More on this: More money: raise income, keep costs in check

Location: why some houses pay more

Two houses of the same size do not bring in the same tax. Every building gets a location bonus from its neighbourhood, and you can build that on purpose. Housing values greenery and water, commerce values passing trade around it, and industry values being near other industry. The building panel shows the bonus in the “Location” row, up to +25 % taxes. From +20 % a building counts as a prime location, and several tasks count exactly those buildings.

Two special cases make this obvious. Put a home by the water in beautiful surroundings and it turns into a villa, paying many times what an ordinary house pays. Commerce high up in the mountains becomes a hotel that lives off the beauty around it. Both appear by themselves once the conditions are right.

Parks are the strongest tool you hold. They clean the air, lift residential demand and upgrade every kind of building around them. A few well-placed green spaces are often worth more than another row of apartment blocks.

The reverse is true as well. Smog drags the beauty of an area down, and so does a motorway right beside the villa quarter. It pays to keep industry and long-distance traffic deliberately away from the pretty corners instead of spreading everything evenly.

On exactly the same mountain ground there is a third special case, and it cuts both ways. Put industry there instead of commerce and you get a mine. It pays several times what an ordinary factory pays, no matter how pretty or ugly it is around it. In return it smokes several times harder and over twice the radius. The strongest source of income in the mountains is also their biggest smog risk.

How beautiful an area currently is shows in the 🌸 beauty view in the map menu (🗺️), from “nice” through “lovely” to “dream spot”. Parks and landmarks nearby lift it, smog and a motorway next door push it down. That is how you find the places where villas and hotels can appear at all.

More on this: Beautiful neighbourhoods: location, parks and clean air

Pollution & parks

Smog comes from industry. The higher a factory’s level, the thicker the air. Mines high up in the mountains smoke about three times as hard over twice the radius. Traffic itself creates no smog at all, since jams hold your city back a different way.

The smog view shows air pollution per tile: yellow light, orange noticeable, violet heavy. Smog is more than a tint. It lowers the ceiling a home can reach there at all, and the stronger the colour, the more levels are missing. A home already above that line loses residents and shrinks back down. In the orange range it gets hard, because a home stuck at that ceiling pays no tax at all.

🌳 Parks are the antidote. A park cleans the air within four tiles, as far as an ordinary factory’s smoke reaches. A single park tile removes roughly as much smog as one factory tile at level 4 produces. Parks also lift the beauty of the area and with it the location value of every building nearby. The best protection is still distance.

More on this: Beautiful neighbourhoods: location, parks and clean air

Traffic & jams

All map views sit behind the 🗺️ button in the top right. Only one is on at a time, and a small legend explains the colours. The traffic view shows how heavily your roads are used: teal free, amber busy, red jam.

Jams only slow growth, not your income. From 85 % load, before the road even turns red, a home grows more slowly. Once its commute is fully jammed, its level freezes. It is never demoted. Commerce and industry only feel jams from level 20, measured on the road at their door. Tall buildings bring more traffic: above level 20, every level adds a little. What does lower a home’s tax is the length of its commute, not how busy the road is.

Three things help against jams. Add parallel roads of equal length, because a home between two equally short routes splits its commuters. In a jam, some also switch to a freer route up to 8 tiles longer, but nobody takes a wider loop. Move homes and jobs closer together so the trips get shorter. And upgrade the main axes to main roads, which is the strongest lever in the late game.

From 3,000 residents on, not everyone works next door any more. A share of commuters that grows with the city heads for one of the big business districts, just under one in ten at 10,000 residents and a good third from 300,000. These long-distance commuters only travel where roads, motorway and railway still have room, and they never fill a stretch beyond 85 %. So they never slow a house down. Where there is no room, they stay with the workplace next door. Their route does not count towards the commute. The building panel tells you how many residents of a house commute to the centre.

What a single neighbourhood hangs on is shown by the map itself. Tap a residential building and the game draws the actual route its residents take to work, section by section in the same colours as the traffic view. That way you see not only that something is stuck, but where. If the route stalls, the building panel names the bottleneck and “📍 Show” jumps there. The congestion tasks on the task board have the same button. It switches on the traffic view and takes you to the city’s biggest bottleneck.

More on this: Avoiding traffic jams: road networks that flow

Motorways & junctions

From chapter 8 or 15,000 residents the motorway unlocks. One stroke with the motorway tool builds both carriageways at once. Distance on the route does not count towards the commute. Distant districts feel right next to the job core, and through traffic leaves your residential streets by itself.

The motorway serves no buildings and only connects to the road network through junctions. To place one, tap the route, and a main road must lie right beside it, beside and not underneath. Where the route crosses a road on an overpass, no junction can go on that tile. Plan your access points, because with too few ramps the queue forms at the ramp. A junction pays off twice, though. Every factory within four tiles of a ramp delivers 15 % more goods. The route crosses water on a double bridge. Living right next to it is a little less pleasant because of the noise.

None of this comes cheap, since the motorway is a big investment. A tile costs 20,000 💰 per carriageway. Because one stroke builds both, that makes 40,000 💰 per tile of route, and more as an overpass or over water. A junction costs 60,000 💰 per carriageway and is always built as a pair, so 120,000 💰. If you cannot afford the whole stroke, the game builds the route from the starting point as far as your money goes and tells you what the rest would cost.

More on this: Avoiding traffic jams: road networks that flow

The railway: tracks and stations

From chapter 9 or 20,000 residents you will find two more tools in the road menu, track and station. You drag a track like a road, and a single tile carries both rails. The railway runs elevated on a viaduct. Tracks may branch, cross and pass over roads, the motorway and water. Cars drive underneath, and there are no level crossings. Only junctions, overpasses and motorway bridges cannot be crossed.

A station goes on a track and needs a road right next to it. It is the only crossing point between road and rail, and without one your line is just scenery. Two stations are the minimum for anyone to ride at all, and at a neighbouring town, its platform counts as the second.

A station is two track tiles long, the tile you tap and the next one along the line. The preview shows both before you tap, and it never takes any of your building land. The road may sit next to either tile. It will not go on a bridge, nor where only a single track tile is free. In that case, draw the line one tile further.

You do not plan lines, set timetables or buy trains. As soon as two stations are connected, your commuters take the train by themselves wherever it is shorter than the road. The game finds the route, you only build the track.

Trains start running right away, as many and as long as there are passengers, out on one track and back on the other. The roads get emptier, because whoever takes the train is sitting in it rather than in a car. If nobody rides, no train runs.

The build price follows the ground, not the size of your city. Even across open land a line is a big project (from 40,000 💰 per tile, a station 400,000 💰). Straight through a dense quarter the same length costs several times as much, so the route deserves some thought. Running it costs strictly per passenger. A line nobody rides costs nothing in upkeep, and only well-filled trains show up in your books. The risk of a pointless line is therefore the build price, which is spent whether anyone rides or not.

The railway pays off over distance. If homes and jobs already sit close together, the short trip beats any transfer and the line achieves nothing. It shows its strength when two parts of your city lie far apart, or when a long detour sits between them.

More on this: From 10,000 to 100,000 residents

City centre: pedestrian zone, car park and one-way street

When the middle of your city gets tight, three tools help that do not build wider but bring order to the traffic. The one-way street unlocks together with the main road, at chapter 5 or 3,500 residents. The pedestrian zone and the car park follow at chapter 6 or 6,000 residents. All three sit in the road menu, in the middle column.

You drag a one-way street in the direction of travel along a straight road. Tapping a one-way section moves it on, up to the next intersection, through the cycle: one direction, the other, both again. It only works on straight city streets, so not on intersections, bends or bridges and not on the motorway. A tile costs a tenth of what upgrading it to a main road costs.

With one-way streets the game counts the trip there and the trip back separately. In the morning commuters go to work along one route, in the evening they come home along the other, and each route carries half the trips. A one-way street carries only its own direction, but with the whole carriageway. That is why it only works in pairs, out along one street and back along a parallel one. If a home has to take a detour for it, that detour lengthens its commute. So the opposite direction belongs right next door.

If homes can only get through in one direction after a change, the game warns you with “No way back” and tells you how many there are. The home’s building panel says so too. Then turn a one-way street around or leave a way open in the other direction. If a one-way tile later becomes an intersection, a bend or a dead end, the game lifts the direction there and tells you.

You drag the pedestrian zone over a road, which turns into the zone, or over open land. No cars drive here. Shops along it get passing trade and so a better location, homes get a quiet street. A tile costs as much as upgrading one tile to a main road, and on open land the road price comes on top.

A building on the zone is connected if it is at most 4 tiles on foot from a road or a car park. Deeper inside a large zone it is too far to walk. Nothing grows there, and a zoned plot stays empty, unless a running underground station stands on the zone. It is an entrance itself: anyone who lives or works at most 4 tiles from it is connected and arrives by underground. And because no car drives through the zone, the road network ends at it too. If it lies across your only link, you end up with two separate networks.

The car park goes on a free tile next to a road. It cannot go in the middle of the zone, since no car can get there. Put it on the edge of the zone and it doubles as its entrance. Customers and commuters of the shops and businesses within 5 tiles (in the same road network) park there and walk the rest. The car park is an extra destination, not an obligation: anyone who arrives closer at a shop’s own road still stops there. It costs as much as six tiles of main-road upgrade, plus running upkeep.

Important for the location: a car park relieves the roads behind it, not its access road, because that is where everyone who parks in it meets. The entrance itself therefore carries as much as a main road, but the roads leading to it do not. Put the car park on a main road, and the way there carries the load too.

More on this: Avoiding traffic jams: road networks that flow

Underground and Park & Ride

Together with the railway, at chapter 9 or 20,000 residents, three more tools join the road menu: underground tunnel, underground station and Park & Ride. All three take commuters off the road, the underground beneath the dense city and Park & Ride before they even reach it.

You drag the underground tunnel from underground station to underground station, and it runs beneath everything. Houses, roads, tracks and water stay where they are, and nothing is demolished. It only goes under land you own and costs the same everywhere, 60,000 💰 per tile. Across open land that is more than a track; straight through a dense quarter, where every track tile gets dearer, the tunnel is the cheaper route. Drag entirely over an existing tunnel and you fill it in again.

An underground station costs 300,000 💰 and goes next to a road or a pedestrian zone. That is where its entrance is, and on a zone it may even stand deep inside. It only runs once a tunnel connects it to a second underground station. There are no lines or timetables, since your commuters take the underground by themselves wherever it shortens their route. The ride in the tunnel does not count towards the commute, and every change counts like one tile. They walk the last 6 tiles to the station, and anyone who lives further away drives there. A tunnel carries 12,000 passengers per tile, thirty times as much as a road.

Around an underground station in service, within 6 tiles, every residential tower from level 30 grows at full speed instead of only half as fast. The conditions for rising stay the same, a short commute and a beautiful spot, but the underground often brings the short commute with it.

Running it costs per passenger, just like the railway. And like the railway, the underground pays off over distance. If work around a station is closer than any ride, it stays empty, and if you tap it the building panel tells you exactly that. It belongs where the way to work is long or the roads are full.

Park & Ride is a car park on a road, at most two tiles from a station or underground station. Drivers leave their car there and carry on by train, but only those who drive less that way. Anyone for whom the route via the car park is shorter parks anyway, and anyone with more than 10 tiles to work even accepts a detour of up to 5 tiles for it. Whoever already walks to the train keeps doing so, and nobody’s commute ever gets longer.

A Park & Ride has 300 spaces. Once they are taken, they go to whoever saves the most driving, and its building panel says “Full”. A second Park & Ride catches more. For anyone to park at all, a train has to run from there to jobs. It costs as much as four tiles of main-road upgrade, plus upkeep, and for its passengers you pay the railway’s running costs as usual.

More on this: Avoiding traffic jams: road networks that flow

Neighbouring towns: discover, connect, take over

Out in the fog around your land lie neighbouring towns, one just a few parcels from where you started and the others far out. A town only appears once you uncover the map up to it. You do that with parcels you buy in its direction, with a track that uncovers a strip of land as you lay it, or from Neuschwanstein Castle, which looks far out over the land. The game then announces “🧭 Discovered”, the town’s name appears above it, and a dashed line shows how far its land reaches.

From then on it grows while you play – after a break it catches up on at most one hour, just like your coffers. On its own it manages about one stage every half hour. Once connected it grows twice as fast, and three times as fast as soon as its people come to you. There is no upper limit. Every few stages it buys another parcel and builds on it, never right next to your land, and over time its houses grow taller.

Tap it. Its card tells you how many people live in its houses and what it gives, workers for your businesses or customers for your shops. It also says what it would bring you today, or why nobody is coming right now. It only sends workers when your city has more jobs than it can fill itself, and customers only when your shops can serve more than your city needs. On top of that it always helps a little wherever you are short. It brings no more than a quarter of what your own city has – only the Statue of Liberty raises that limit a little for workers. A town complements your economy, it does not replace it.

It counts as connected once one of your roads touches its gateway, one of its lanes or its platform, and the network behind it has jobs. Where a road can join it, the road tool shows you as soon as you pick it up: violet where it works right now, green where your road already lies, gold where you first have to buy more land. The railway takes you to the distant towns. Track may also cross land you do not own, as long as it connects to existing track. The track tool marks where it joins the town’s platform. Run it up to there and put a station on that line in your city. Passengers from neighbouring towns cost you only half the rail running cost.

For money you can support a town. A market square makes it grow faster. “Expand main street” adds a floor to every house and every shop on its main street, even beyond the height where the town would otherwise stop. The town then also sends you up to one and a half times as many people. A housing estate gives it land with houses straight away and two more stages. Market square and main street come once each, housing estates as often as you like, and each one costs more than the last.

The alternative is taking it over. As soon as your land or your track borders the town anywhere, you can buy any of its parcels, in any order and at the normal parcel price: tap it, then “Take over parcel”. The ＋ 🏘️ with its number shows how many houses stand on a parcel. Its houses and lanes stay and become yours. They pay you taxes but cost upkeep like your own, and expanded houses bring their extra floor and its residents with them. In return the town shrinks, and its gift with it. Only the town centre is never for sale. Once everything else is yours, it remains as an old town in the middle of your city and draws tourists who bring you money for good, the more so the bigger the town was when you took it over. Its card tells you beforehand what that would be today and how many parcels are still missing.

Five tasks revolve around the towns, in chapters 4, 6, 9, 11 and 12: connect the first, outgrow each of them, connect a second, take one over completely, reach them all. Connected or taken over both count, and undiscovered towns count too. If you are stuck, the task board shows an arrow pointing roughly the right way.

More on this: Neighbouring towns: find, connect, take over

Tasks & landmarks

Tasks give your city goals. They come in sets of three, and the next three only appear once all three are done. Every task pays cash straight away, and that amount grows with your city’s income up to double the base value. Every completed set of three also brings a permanent +3 % profit – on whatever is left after upkeep and welfare. The bonuses build on each other like interest. After 10 sets you are at +34 %, and after 16 the maximum of +60 % is reached. Further sets bring new chapters and unlocks, but no further bonus.

Landmarks are the big late-game goal: ten world-famous monuments from the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House. The tool (🏛️, in the green group next to the park) unlocks at chapter 10 or 25,000 residents and opens a gallery where you pick first and then place. Each landmark beautifies its surroundings and has its own effect. The Eiffel Tower lets residential towers near it grow without tower hurdles, Big Ben lets the surrounding roads carry 30 % more traffic, the Taj Mahal makes the parks around it clean the air twice as effectively, and Pisa keeps the shops around it full of customers. The gallery names every effect and footprint before you buy. You can upgrade a built landmark twice, for a bigger radius or a stronger effect.

Footprints range from a single tile for the Little Mermaid to 5×5 for the pyramids. Every tile must be free, flat and already yours, and a road connection is not required. The Little Mermaid, the Statue of Liberty and the Sydney Opera House also need one whole side on water that already belongs to you. The first landmark costs from 50 million, more in big cities, and each further one 70 % more than the one before. Choose the spot carefully, because demolishing refunds nothing.

After that comes city prestige. Its section appears at the bottom of the task board once you have 20 % of the next rank’s price in your coffers or a task asks for it. Rank 1 costs 150 million and each further rank 60 % more, and as with landmarks the price also rises in big cities. Prestige brings no income and no bonus, it is pure standing. Your rank shows as a ★ with its number in the top right and as a golden seal on your postcard. The two tasks of chapter 15, “Legacy”, ask for rank 2 and rank 5.

More on this: Landmarks: which one, when and where

Major projects: the stadium

Once your city has completed chapter 13, the major projects arrive. You find them in the landmark gallery (🏛️) under the “🏗️ Major projects” tab, starting with the stadium. Its site needs 5×5 free, flat tiles on your land. Staking it out costs nothing, and you can move it free of charge at any time, along with everything already built. A major project cannot be demolished.

It is built in four construction stages: Foundation stone, Concrete shell, Roof and floodlights, Opening match. A stage stands as soon as you pay for it, but first your city has to earn its approval. The foundation stone needs a main road along the full length of two sides of the site, the concrete shell a forecourt of 8 connected pedestrian-zone tiles and a station or underground station at most 6 tiles away. For the roof and floodlights, half the fans at a home game must arrive without a jam. The opening match asks for 150,000 residents, 70 % without a jam and 50 % by rail, underground or Park & Ride.

Prices range from 25 million for the foundation stone to 500 million for the opening match, more in big cities. Once a stage is approved, its price is fixed. The approval itself stays even if your city changes afterwards; only moving the site means a fresh check. New approvals come as long as your city has at least 95 % of its peak population.

For a home game, 5 % of your residents head to the stadium. Before the opening, the project card works out how many would arrive without a jam today and how many would take the train, the underground or Park & Ride. “🔎 View home game” shows in the traffic view where the fans drive and where they get stuck, and 📍 jumps to the bottleneck. After the opening there is a home game every seventh day: in the evening, cars from all over the city drive to the stadium, the floodlights come on, and the card remembers your best home game.

Major projects: the trade fair

The second major project in the “🏗️ Major projects” tab is the trade fair. Its site needs 4×5 tiles. Unlike the stadium, its visitors come from outside: on fair day they travel in from every neighbouring town you have discovered, old towns included – as many as 2 % of your residents in total. Bigger towns send more visitors, and a town with no way to the fair still counts: its visitors simply do not arrive.

The four construction stages are Foundation stone, Concrete shell, Halls and congress tower, Opening. The foundation stone needs a fair station, meaning a station at most 6 tiles from the site. An underground station does not count here. For the concrete shell, 50 % of the visitors on fair day must travel by rail right to the fair, on tracks from the stations of the neighbouring towns all the way to the fair station. The halls and congress tower need a fair quarter: 15 shops at level 12 or higher on a pedestrian zone that borders the site, at most 12 tiles away. The opening asks for 125,000 residents and a fair day on which 85 % of the visitors arrive without a jam.

Prices range from 25 million for the foundation stone to 375 million for the opening, more in big cities. Approval, fixed price and moving work as they do for the stadium. The project card always works out how a fair day would go today, with one line per town: how many visitors it sends, whether they come by rail or by car and whether they arrive without a jam. 📍 jumps to the town or the bottleneck, and “🔎 View fair day” shows their routes in the traffic view.

Fair day comes every seventh day, from 9:00 to 18:00. After the opening, flags fly in front of the halls, banners hang on the entrance and the tower, and coaches bring visitors. The card remembers your best fair day, and from 95 % without a jam it is fully booked.

More on this: Neighbouring towns: find, connect, take over

Major projects: the world expo

Once your stadium has opened, the third major project waits in the “🏗️ Major projects” tab: the world expo. Its site needs 5×5 tiles. It draws the biggest crowds: on expo day, as many visitors as 8 % of your residents arrive, half of them from your residential areas and the other half from the neighbouring towns you have discovered. Afterwards, half of the visitors carry on with a trip to the old town. The destination is your biggest old town, or without one, the biggest neighbouring town linked to your city by road or track.

The four construction stages are Foundation stone, Concrete shell, Pavilions and observation tower, Opening. The foundation stone needs a green belt: 16 park tiles at most 3 tiles from the site. For the concrete shell, 80 % of the trip to the old town on expo day must run without a jam. Hardly any city manages that by road; it takes a visitor line, meaning an underground line or a track from the world expo to the old town. The pavilions and observation tower need a promenade of 12 connected pedestrian-zone tiles at the heart of the old town. The opening asks for 200,000 residents and an expo day on which 85 % of all trips run without a jam, arrival and trip together.

Prices range from 40 million for the foundation stone to 700 million for the opening, more in big cities. Approval, fixed price and moving work as they do for the stadium. The project card always works out how an expo day would go today, with the arrival and the trip shown separately. 📍 jumps to the bottleneck or to the old town, and “🔎 View expo day” shows both streams in the traffic view: where the visitors travel and where they get stuck.

Expo day comes every seventh day, from 10:00 to 20:00. After the opening, fireworks rise over the observation tower that evening. The card remembers your best expo day, and from 95 % of all trips without a jam it is a world success. Whenever you like, “🌳 Turn into Expo Park” makes the exhibition a park: the pavilions give way to gardens, the tower and the Ferris wheel stay, and expo day rests. “🎡 Reopen the exhibition” brings it back free of charge, and your record and title remain.

More on this: Avoiding traffic jams: road networks that flow

Major projects: the space centre

Once two major projects have opened, you can stake out the fourth one in the “🏗️ Major projects” tab: the space centre. Its site needs 5×5 tiles. It is the first major project that does not belong in the middle of the city, because rockets do not launch next to bedrooms. On launch day, as many spectators as 8 % of your residents arrive, half of them from your residential areas and the other half from the neighbouring towns you have discovered. Nobody lives at the launch site, so nobody walks there: everyone travels in.

The four construction stages are Launch site, Assembly hall, Launch tower, First launch. The launch site needs 175,000 residents, a safety zone with no homes within 6 tiles of the site and a rail siding: a station at most 6 tiles from the site, linked by track to the station of a neighbouring town. The safety zone costs least at the edge of commercial and industrial areas or outside the city. The assembly hall needs 5 landmarks and a city report: 92 % of households without a jam and 84 % of homes in clean air, both at once. For the launch tower, the stadium, the trade fair and the world expo must have opened, and in the dress rehearsal 40 % of the spectators must arrive without a jam. The first launch asks for 250,000 residents, all 10 landmarks and a launch day on which 85 % of the spectators arrive without a jam.

Prices range from 50 million for the launch site to 1,000 million for the first launch, more in big cities. Approval, fixed price and moving work as they do for the stadium. The project card always works out how a launch day would go today, and “🔎 View launch day” shows in the traffic view where the spectators travel and where they get stuck. 📍 jumps to the bottleneck or to a home inside the safety zone.

Launch day comes every seventh day. Once the space centre has opened, the rocket stands on the pad and the card shows “🚀 First launch”: you trigger the first launch yourself, a countdown runs from 10 to 0 and the rocket lifts off. After that, a rocket launches at 12:00 on every launch day if you happen to be watching, and “🚀 Launch” sends one up whenever you like, as long as a rocket stands on the pad. After a launch the pad stays empty until 6 in the morning. If your city has reached a new prestige rank, the next launch flies as a mission named after your city and the number of the rank.

The card keeps your best launch day, and from 95 % of the spectators without a jam it is a picture-perfect launch. After the first launch, a card tells the story of your city from its founding to today: days played, residents, the opening day of each major project, landmarks and prestige rank. “📜 Our story” on the card brings it back at any time.

More on this: Beautiful neighbourhoods: location, parks and clean air

Major projects: the airport

Once your trade fair has opened, you can stake out the airport in the “🏗️ Major projects” tab. Its terminal needs 5×5 free, flat tiles. On the south or east side comes a strip of taxiway and runway, 16 tiles long and 3 wide, which may lie on a gentle slope like a road. While staking out, you turn the runway with ↻ or the R key.

Around the runway lies the noise zone: 2 tiles on either side and 8 tiles beyond each end. Nobody should live under the approach path. From the first construction stage on, homes there stop growing, but nothing is downgraded or demolished, and you lose no tax. Commerce, industry and parks may go into the noise zone.

The four construction stages are Runway, Terminal building, Control tower, First flight. The runway needs 175,000 residents and no home in the noise zone. For the terminal, 80 % of the arrivals on travel day must reach the city without a jam: business travellers head to the trade fair, tourists to the old town. Hardly any city manages that by road; it takes an underground line or a track from the terminal. The control tower needs an airport district of 16 tiles of commerce in the noise zone. The first flight asks for 250,000 residents and a travel day on which 85 % of all trips run without a jam.

Travel day is every day. As many passengers as 8 % of your residents fly out, half of them from your residential areas and the other half from the neighbouring towns. For every four departing, one business traveller and one tourist land. Prices range from 50 million for the runway to 1,000 million for the first flight, more in big cities. Approval, fixed price and moving work as they do for the stadium, and “🔎 View travel day” shows in the traffic view where the passengers travel and where they get stuck.

After the opening, planes take off and land between 6:00 and 22:00 if you happen to be watching. At night it is quiet. The card keeps your best travel day, and from 95 % of all trips without a jam it is on time.

More on this: Avoiding traffic jams: road networks that flow

When things stall: the usual causes

Built it wrong? That is what the demolish tool (🔨) is for. It sits in the toolbar from the start and costs nothing. Use it to clear roads, zonings and whole buildings again. There is no undo, so what is built stays until you demolish it. If there are buildings in the area you drag out, the game asks first.

Nothing is growing? Check the connection first. A building only counts as connected if a road runs along one of its edges, and touching at a corner is not enough. Without a connection nothing grows and no tax comes in.

Still nothing? Then it is usually two separate road networks. Workers, customers and goods only flow within one network. Two districts that do not touch help each other not at all, even if they sit right next to one another. In the traffic view you can see separate networks by their own outline.

Plenty of residents and still no income? Look at the unemployed. Every unemployed resident costs you welfare continuously, and a pure commuter town literally does not pay. Zone commerce and industry until the number comes down.

Net income shrinking towards zero even though the city is growing? That is upkeep. Every building costs continuously, and the cost rises with its level. Growth alone does not help. It has to match demand, or you are buying upkeep without return.

A district stuck at the same level? Tap a house and the building panel names the reason: usually congestion or smog, from level 20 often a commute that is too long, and at the ceiling “waiting for the next city milestone”. Against jams, a main road (8× capacity) or a parallel route helps. Against smog, distance from industry and parks help.

A zone will not go down? Building zones need level ground. That need not be the valley, but a patch without a height difference. On a slope the game says “Too steep”, while roads are more forgiving and still take one step. On a level patch higher up it works perfectly well, and that is exactly where hotels and mines appear.

More on this: From 10,000 to 100,000 residents

Account, cloud & languages

You can play right away without an account. Your save is stored on your device and also backed up to the cloud every few minutes. You will find its city code in the menu under ☁️ Cloud save. With that code you can load your city on any device. Keep it to yourself, because anyone who knows the code can load your city. Without an account, the cloud keeps your city for 24 months after your last save and then deletes it.

A free account only needs a name and a password, no email. It ties your city to the account across devices, and it stays in the cloud until you delete the account. When you register you get a recovery code that is shown exactly once. Keep it safe, because it is the only way to reset a forgotten password. In the menu you can generate a new code and delete your account yourself at any time.

Before every city reset and before loading a map code, the game automatically makes a backup on this device. “Restore previous city” in the menu brings it back and swaps the two, so your current city is kept as the backup. “Load other version” appears when a second version has been set aside. That happens when you did not pick a version at a prompt, for example with two open windows or when signing in, or when you switch devices and last played elsewhere. Loading it swaps the two as well.

The map code (🔗 in the menu) only describes the landscape of your map and is safe to share. It never reveals your city or your progress. Paste someone else’s map code to found your city anew on the same map, and the game makes a backup first here too. With 📮 in the top right you create a postcard of your city in a wide, square or tall format. You can share it, save it as an image or copy the link. What gets shared is your stats, the link and the map code, never your city code.

Tildown comes in six languages: German, English, French, Italian, Danish and Spanish. The game starts in the language of your browser or of the website you came from. You can switch it in the menu once you are signed in, and the choice is then saved to your account and applies on every device. Questions, bugs or ideas go through “💌 Send feedback” in the menu.

More on this: Saves, devices and sharing: keeping your city safe