Landmarks: which one, when and where

Unlocking and the price ladder

The 🏛️ tool unlocks as soon as you reach chapter 10 or your city counts 25,000 residents. Reaching that number once is enough. From then on a slim 🏛️ bar appears in the Money card, showing what percentage of the next landmark you have already saved up.

The base price follows a fixed ladder: 50 million 💰 for the first, 85 million for the second, 144.5 million for the third, around 246 million for the fourth and around 418 million for the fifth. The tenth alone costs around 5.9 billion 💰, all ten together around 14.3 billion. Which one you build first makes no difference to the price. Only how many already stand counts. So the cheapest rung on the ladder belongs to the landmark that does the most for your city.

On top of that comes the link to your city: if the “Taxes (max)” line in the Money card is above 12,000 💰 per second, prices rise with it, but more slowly than your tax power. At 24,000 💰/s you pay 1.8 times as much, at double that tax power just over three times. The highest value your city has ever reached is what counts, so letting it decay makes nothing cheaper. Because your tax power grows faster than the price, the next landmark still moves closer with every growth phase.

The ten landmarks and what they solve

• 🔭 Neuschwanstein Castle (2×4 tiles): discovers neighbouring towns up to 24 parcels from the castle and makes free land up to 9 parcels around it buyable, even without a border to yours. Upgraded, it is 36 and 60 or 15 and 24 parcels.
• ⛴️ Statue of Liberty (3×3, by the water): all neighbouring towns grow twice as fast and two stages further, and towns whose gift is “people” may fill 35 instead of 25% of your jobs. Every upgrade raises all three values.
• 🏙️ Eiffel Tower (3×3): within its radius both tower hurdles disappear, the short commute from level 20 and the beauty from level 30. Residential towers there rise at full instead of half speed.
• 🛍️ Leaning Tower of Pisa (2×2): shops within its radius always have full custom and grow half again as fast. The tourists bring neither staff nor goods, though.
• 🚲 The Little Mermaid (a single tile, by the water): people cycle. For homes within her radius a commute of up to 14 tiles still counts as short (normally 10), and they send 30% fewer cars out.
• 🏗️ Sagrada Família (3×3): across the whole city, building sites finish twice as fast and zoned land fills up half again as fast; within its radius, every building also rises 1.5 times as fast.
• 🚦 Big Ben (2×2): streets and main roads within its radius carry 30% more commuters, and homes there only freeze at 115% load.
• 🌿 Taj Mahal (4×4): parks within its radius clean the air twice as strongly, and smog pushes the ceiling of homes there down only half as far.
• 🐪 Pyramids of Giza (5×5): factories within their radius always sell all their goods; across the whole city, caravans even out up to a fifth (20%) of the demand for goods, shortage and surplus alike.
• 🎭 Sydney Opera House (3×4, long side on the water): as the city grows, your residents’ expectations of shops rise by only up to 20 instead of 45%, and by 12 and 5% once upgraded.

The Eiffel Tower, Pisa and the Sagrada Família reach 48 tiles, the Little Mermaid, Big Ben, the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids 54 tiles; each upgrade adds 18 tiles. The castle, the statue and the opera house have no radius; they apply everywhere. No landmark raises your tax rates: they earn you more because buildings grow faster, are better supplied or sit in fewer jams. What each one also does for location and beauty is in the tip on beautiful neighbourhoods.

Which one first? Choose by the problem

• Residential towers are stuck at level 20 or 30, and the panel says “only grows further with a short commute” or “only grows further in a beautiful spot”: the Eiffel Tower. If it is only the commute, the Little Mermaid helps too, because her cycle lanes also count for this hurdle. More on both hurdles in From 10,000 to 100,000 residents.
• Homes are “waiting for clear roads” and the traffic view shows red: Big Ben if the roads are only slightly too tight; the Little Mermaid if the commutes are long as well. What else helps against jams is in the tip on avoiding traffic jams.
• The panel of your homes says “capped by smog”: the Taj Mahal. It halves the damage without you having to move the industry.
• Shops lack customers: Pisa. If shops are missing instead (🛍 red in the Supply card), the opera house helps, because it lowers the need. So the two solve opposite problems.
• 📦 Goods short, or factories without buyers: the Pyramids. How to spot a shortage of shops or goods is explained in the tip on keeping the balance.
• Lots of zoned land is waiting to be built on, or everything simply rises too slowly: the Sagrada Família.
• You are relying on neighbouring towns: the Statue of Liberty. If you still lack towns or free land, the castle first. What towns do for you is in the tip on neighbouring towns.

So before you buy, don’t ask which landmark looks best. Ask what is holding your city back. The building panel names the brake under “Growth” when you tap a few homes in the affected district, and the cards at the top show whether shops or goods are short.

If there is no clear brake, take the landmark that reaches most of your buildings. In a city full of residential towers that is usually the Eiffel Tower. You see whether the choice works right after building: tap the landmark, and its card counts live what it achieves, such as how many towers grow only thanks to the Eiffel Tower or how many road tiles would be jammed without Big Ben. If the number stays small even after a few minutes, the location is to blame, or the brake was a different one.

Where to put it: spread, don’t stack

The radius counts from the middle of the footprint, as the crow flies. So it is round, and a big landmark reaches no further than a small one. While placing, the game shows you the ring and its size, for example “radius 48 tiles”.

48 tiles is a lot: from the middle, a landmark covers a circle almost a hundred tiles across. So put it at the centre of gravity of the buildings it needs: the Eiffel Tower among the residential towers, Pisa in the shopping district, the Pyramids by the industrial area, Big Ben where the main axes meet, the Taj Mahal between industry and housing.

Different landmarks don’t get in each other’s way: where their rings overlap, each brings its own effect. Only the beauty that every landmark spreads on the side does not add up; there the strongest counts. Putting them all in one park wastes the second district that would otherwise be lifted too.

They are built on free, flat, bought land without roads or zoning; no landmark needs a road connection. That makes them the best use for flat spots that bring nothing otherwise, such as an inner courtyard with no access or a level height in the mountains. Mind the space: the Pyramids take 25 tiles, the Taj Mahal 16, the Mermaid one.

The Statue of Liberty, the Mermaid and the opera house need a whole side directly on the water, the opera house its long one with four tiles. That water must already be yours. So buy the waterfront parcel in front first; if the preview says “You don’t own the water in front yet”, that is exactly what is missing.

The castle belongs at the edge, not in the middle: its sight range applies all around its parcel, and in the middle of the city it would mostly cover land you already own. At the edge of town it opens up new land nine parcels out, such as a lake for villas or mountains for hotels. Keep in mind: land with no border to yours starts out as a separate road network. You can connect it with a road once the land in between is yours, or with a track and a station at each end.

Upgrade rather than move

• For the seven with a radius, each level only grows the ring, by 18 tiles; the strength stays the same. The city-wide parts of the Sagrada Família and the Pyramids do not change either.
• For the Statue of Liberty, the opera house and the castle, the effect itself gets stronger: towns grow two and a half and three times as fast, expectations rise by only 12 and 5%, far sight reaches 36 and 60 parcels.

Every landmark can be upgraded twice: tap it or choose “📍 View & upgrade” in the gallery, then “⬆️ Upgrade”. Level 1 costs 60 million 💰, level 2 150 million 💰, and both rise with your tax power just like the landmarks themselves. What a level brings is in the list above. That gives a simple rule: only upgrade a radius landmark if there are buildings beyond its ring that need it. Its card counts how many it reaches today. The three city-wide ones are worth upgrading as soon as you rely on their effect.

Over time the price ladder shifts the trade-off: up to the third landmark a new one costs hardly more than an upgrade, and a new effect usually beats a bigger ring. After that it tips: the fourth costs around 246 million 💰, the fifth 418 million, an upgrade at most 150 million. From then on it pays to upgrade the ones you have first.

You can’t move a landmark. Demolishing refunds nothing, the upgrade levels are lost, and rebuilding costs the full price again. An Eiffel Tower on a pretty shore, far from the towers, stays an expensive mistake. Plan the spot before you build.

All ten are a goal for many hours; by the tenth at the latest you are talking billions. Along the way, the bar in the Money card and the “saved” note at the bottom of the gallery show how far you have come. Alongside them, independent of the landmarks, there is city prestige: its row appears at the bottom of the task board as soon as you have saved 20% of the price of the next rank. Rank 1 costs 150 million 💰, each further one 1.6 times as much. Prestige has no effect of its own; it is a goal for money your city doesn’t need right now. How tasks and prestige fit together is explained in the guide; how to earn the money is in the money tips.