Basics

What is SimCity BuildIt?

Referred to as SCB throughout this site

Simcity BuildIt is a freemium city creation game developed by EA Games and Track Twenty Studios. You begin as an inspiring young mayor tasked with developing a small plot of land into a living, breathing metropolis!

Symbol	Types of Currencies
§	Simoleons (Gold coin)	Main currency in game used to buy everything!
$	Simbucks (Green cash )	Premium currency that you can pay real world money for, or earn in-game by completing achievements.
	Golden Keys	Special currency used to purchase Specialization Buildings

How do you play?

You start the game building and upgrading small residential plots of land into increasingly dense (more populous) areas where Sims live.
- Your bank account at the start includes §25,000 in simoleons and $50 simbucks.

Each residential plot when first created is given a ‘plan’ (in the form of a floating bubble) which shows the required resources necessary to upgrade the plot of land. Collecting these materials is essential for your city!
You gain experience points (XP) by upgrading these residential plots which in turn leads you to increase your level after a you reach a specified amount! Levelling up unlocks new buildings, production options, resources, and tons of other improvements.

OK.. So how do you create materials?

Resource materials are created at factories which cost nothing but time to create.

Great! What’s next?

Depending on your building ‘plan’, you could be done after creating simple materials from factories. However, increasingly complex plans are thrown in the mix that require a little more input at the next stage of production, stores.

So what are stores?

Similar to factories, stores require time to create a new material, but different in that they require materials produced at the factory to run.

Anything else?

Another thing Sims like to do is talk. Speech bubbles pop up randomly throughout your day and in different parts of the city. Touching these bubbles has the chance to grant you a ‘super item’ which i will go into later! Coin bubbles also appear, which task you with providing materials in exchange for Simoleons.

I’ve created a couple buildings but my Sims aren’t happy.. what gives?

Sims are not mindless computer objects in a freemium simulation (lol jk they are) so they need to be kept happy. You do this by providing ‘services.’ Power, water sewage, police, fire, and health all impact your sims happiness. Happy sims pay more taxes which brings us to:

Taxes! We all hate them?!

But not in SCB! We love taxes, as they are a daily source of income that you can collect without doing anything (aside from your previous hard work). Taxes accrue over time but appear as a gold coin above your town/city hall available to collect once enough simoleons have accumulated.

Can I play with my friends?

Sadly the social aspect of the game is really limited only to buying and selling goods. You can visit other Mayor’s cities, but you cannot speed production or help them out in anyway (other than buying and selling their goods.