Welcome

Welcome to the SimCityPlanningGuide and Blog

Inside you'll find: 

• Photos of all the SimCity maps
• Photos of all the resources
• Design guides
• Tips from the combined experiences of the SimNation Guild membership.
• Information for the SimCity BuildIt mobile game.

Interested in other City Builder Games? You can check out my other websites:

CitiesXXLPlanningGuide.com
SkylinesPlanningGuide.com

Use the navigation buttons at the top of the page to find your way around or continue reading below for all of my blog posts.

I'd like to thank everyone in the grooviest Sim City guild around, The SimNation Guild on Facebook for coming up with many of the tips found here through many hours of gameplay, discussion, and sharing. Many of the tips were written by various members and I've been trying to document them all here for everyone's benefit.

Did you find a bad link, error or omission? Do you have a question?

You can email me at randy @ simcityplanningguide.com

I hope you find this website helpful and it makes the game more enjoyable for you!

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How I earned $10,000 Sim Cash Without Hacks or Cheats – The Sandbag Method

I recently hit the $10,000 mark  in sim cash earnings from CoM (update: now up to $16,000). The method I discovered to do that was basically a mistake because I really wasn’t trying to do good. As it turns out, that was the secret: Keep your city level as low as possible and don't do good until you get to Megalopolis League

History:
When CoM got introduced I participated for a while and made some good efforts at advancing and winning the whole thing. I eventually got sick of the entire endeavor because it seemed like so much of it was based on luck. One person could do all of the highest point tasks, and yet still not win. So while others participated, I generally would only do the easiest tasks in order to earn the minimum required to get the Club Challenge rewards.

When wars got introduced, I jumped into that with full spirit and would often be one of the top scorers. Eventually I decided to make a second city so I could earn more points for my team. I purposefully kept that second city small, and like my main city, would do just enough to earn the Club Challenge Rewards in CoM.

Accidental promotion:
I never paid much attention to CoM since I really wasn’t doing it, and eventually noticed I was in Metropolis league. How? I had no idea. One look at the scoreboard showed that the leaderboard was mostly empty. The other people who had the same low contest rank as me just didn’t participate in CoM. Thus, without even trying, my super low scores of 1500 or 2000 points were enough to advance to the next stage.

Gametime
Since I was in the middle of a season, the win bonuses were doubled. Thus a win in Megalopolis League would earn $4,000 simcash. So I decided, heck, I might as well make a run for the title since the competition was basically non-existent. I won Metropolis league, and then did my best to win the megopolis league. In my first attempt, I came in 2nd, earning $2,000 simcash. Unfortunately the season was ending, so I waited until the next season and then repeated the process:

The Strategy

• Use a feeder city. Keep it as low a level as possible. Preferably below level 30.
• Barely advance to the next stage by keeping your CoM scores as low as possible, yet still advancing.
• Keep scoring low until you get to Metropolis
• Once you get to Metropolis, make your best attempt..
• Sim Cash your way through boat and plane shipments
• Use a ton of gold coins to speed things up
• Chose only the highest point tasks

That second attempt earned me first place, netting me $4,000 sim cash. I took a bit of a break to build up my Vu supply and then made another attempt, again winning first place, netting another $4,000 sim cash. Since then, I've  repeated it again it with a 3rd place finish and another grand prize.

Note: I did all of this in my feeder city, which again was purposefully kept small, and at a low level (below 30) and a low contest level. My main city is level 99 and had:

• Large supply of general items that I could share 
• Large supply of Vu 
• Large amount of bronze, silver, gold tokens stored up (I had about 100 of each)

The city that was competing in CoM had

• Level 28 
• Contest Level 12 
• Large amount of bronze, silver, gold tokens saved up 
• Large amount of golden tickets saved up 
• About $300 sim cash saved up from wars.

Don't Be a Wimp - Spend Sim Cash to Win

Keep an eye on the sim cash amounts that you can potentially win. Know that the sim cash you spend is an investment into guaranteeing a larger payday at the end. You've probably grown accustomed to not spending sim cash on anything, but when you are trying to win the title, spend sim cash, and spend it freely. I spend anywhere from $50 - $250 sim cash for each win, but considering the difference between 1st and 2nd place is $2,000 sim cash, it was a calculated decision and one I don't regret. 

No Guarantees

Although I think this method is a much easier method than trying to fight it out with the big dogs, there is no guarantee you'll win. I think luck still plays a factor. One of my wins was by less than 100 points. I wouldn't be surprised if the programming rewards players who spent the most sim cash. So when you try to make a run for the title, do so making sure you can still earn enough to cover the sim cash expense and/or be happy with a top finish of 2nd-5th place or whatever your break even point is.

Enter the Season

The rewards are much greater during a season, so I would highly recommend only doing this during one. The more you play, the more your contest rank will increase and the competition will be harder, so keep that contest rank low and only go for it when it really counts.

Good luck!

Guide to Club Wars

War Basics
Each player has 10 health.
Each player has a 12 slot energy bank. You start off with 6.

The Dome: Once your health goes to zero, no one can attack you until you completely rebuild. You will often be rewarded with war items for rebuilding.

Who can start a war?
Senior, Vice President and President members of the club can initiate a war

The War Timeline
The war timeline lasts 48 hours

• 12 hours of prep time
• 34 hours of attack at 1X energy
• 2 hours of attack at 3X energy

48 Hour Timeline
12 Hours	34 Hours	2 Hours
Preparation Stage	Attack Stage	Attack Finale
6 Energy Provided	1X Speed *	3X Speed **
* 1X Speed = 15 minute intervals
** 3X Speed = 5 minute intervals

Managing your energy bank:
1X Speed (15 min per 1 energy) -- All but the last 2 hours.

• 2.5 hours for 10 energy
• 3 hours to max out at 12 energy

3X Speed (5 min per 1 energy) -- The last 2 hours of war is at 3X speed.

• 50 min for 10 energy
• 60 min to max out at 12 energy

War Strategies
Watch out: Some teams will jump out to a higher score, and then hide out while their entire team is under a dome. They’ll just quit playing, and really who likes doing that?

To combat that, you need to maximize your ability to score points. You can do that with the following strategy.

• Take your opponents down to one health left. 
• Use a high point disaster (6 points or greater) as the final one to put a dome over them. 

Why waste a high point disaster on an opponent with only one health?

You will be rewarded the full amount of points no matter how much health the opponent has.

For example:

Have a teammate knock an opponent down to 1 health. Your team will have earned 900 points. If you then use your own 9 point disaster to knock them from 1 health down to 0, you will still earn 900 points even though you've only removed 1 health. By using this method, your team will have earned 1,800 points off of an opponent’s 10 health. Multiply this over 25 opponents on the other team, the potential score you can obtain from your opponents will increase substantially, thus limiting the ability of the opponents to jump out to a lead and hide under a dome. 

Minimize the other team's ability to score off of your 10 health.

• Don't rebuild your city until you're under a dome. Rebuilding allows the other team to score additional points off of your 10 health.

After your entire team is under a dome:

• Attack right as you reach a max energy of 12. Make sure you can score a full 12 points. If the other team is not employing these strategies, they'll limit themselves to 10 damage, and you will have gained a 2 point advantage. 

Earning Chests
The maximum number of energy saved in the full 36 hours is 166. That equals a base score of 16,600 if each attack earns you 100 points. When you reach level 2, your attacks will earn an extra 10% i.e. 110 points for a 1 point attack. Thus if you want to earn two gold chests you'll need to make sure you attack pretty much every single time.  Once you reach level 2 or 3 on some of your attacks the extra bonus points will add up, allowing you to skip an attack or two and still hit 16,000.

Chest Rewards
Bronze	250
Bronze	500
Bronze	1,000
Silver	2,000
Silver	4,000
Silver	8,000
Gold	12,000
Gold	16,000
Gold	27,000

Post War
The waiting period for the next war to begin is 12 hours.

War Loot

Win Reward

• 30 Simcash
• 3 Gold Tokens
• 3 Platinum Keys

Participation Trophy (You lost, but you still get something)

• 10,000 coins
• 3 Silver Tokens
• 5 Keys

Draw Reward (unconfirmed)

• 15,000 coins
• 3 Gold Tokens
• 15 Platinum Keys

Note: If you do not attack the enemy, you will not earn any rewards.

Unlocking additional weapon levels:
Over time you will be rewarded randomly with disaster cards. Once you obtain enough cards, certain disasters will unlock. You will earn additional points with weapons at higher levels. For instance, a level 2 weapon will earn 110 points per one health.

Unlock Level 1 Weapon - 4 keys
Unlock Level 2 - 8 or 16 keys

The Art of the Burger Deal

**********
WARNING:
**********
 I've heard that burger farming does not work as well as it used to. You can still use the techniques listed below, but the burger deals don't exceed 20 burgers at a time. However, I have not confirmed this. Please leave a comment below if you've tried it recently.

Now back to the original post
************************

"Burger deals", "Coin deals", "Burger farming". I'm not sure what exactly to call it, but there's a secret method of making money that has become the "Fight Club" of SC BuildIt.

"The first rule of burger deals, is don't talk about burger deals." 

The theory has been that it's such a great method of making money, that if word got out...everyone would start doing it. If everyone starts doing it, the developer would then rid the game of this method of earning money. I've never fully agreed with that theory and meanwhile I've seen people hinting at it and talking about it more often. I've even seen a youtube video on it.  So here you go: I'm breaking the First Rule.

Many of the top players are using multiple methods to earn their cash.

• They manufacture goods 24/7, selling everything off for pure profit.
• They trade away rare items for greater than max value.
• They make multiple "feeder cities" using separate accounts/devices thus allowing them to make and sell even more goods.
• Shhhhhh..... They supplement their income with "burger deals"

OK. So what is a burger deal?

If you click on the coin icons that pop up on various buildings, you will be offered to sell off some random items. You've probably become accustomed to just dismissing them because you don't want to sell off your rare items. If you do the calculations you'll notice that the offers vary in price, from a bad deal (less than face value) to an ok deal (slightly over face value) to great deals (30%+ profit).

Most of the time, these deals seem completely random, but more often than not, it's items that you have in stock. Thus, if you'd like to force the game to give a specific deal, you could sell off everything but that one type of item. The next piece of the puzzle is the fact that the selling price varies. By waiting for a good deal, you can earn up to 30% above max value. Then you take into account that burgers are the most expensive item that you can manufacture in the game. Adding these three things together the picture becomes more clear. So the steps are:

• Sell off everything but your burgers.
• Buy all the burgers you can find.
• Wait for a coin icon to pop up
• If you see an offer for $900-$1000 above max value per burger: Take it!

Additional things to keep in mind:

• Burger deals only originate from police precincts.
• If you don't see a deal pop up, buy a burger at the Trade HQ. 
• Keep repeatedly buying burgers until a deal pops up
• Dismiss deals that you don't want to take.
• The more you take burger deals, the more difficult it will become to find burgers at the Trade HQ. Once this happens you're better off going back to your regular gameplay of making and selling goods. Once you start seeing burgers in the Trade HQ again, you can sell off all your items and try the burger method again.

This deal netted me over 500k in profit

SimCity BuildIt - Park Data

I've compiled all of the stats for the parks in the table below. In order to calculate an efficiency, I've multiplied the area x bonus. The higher the number, the more efficient the park is.

In the table at the bottom of the page, I've grouped them by their size. I prefer to use the skinny parks that are one square wide.

Listed in order they appear in the game
Parks	Special	Area			Width	Bonus	Keys	Coins	SimCash	Area x Bonus
Small Fountain Park		8	x	8	1	5%		4,000		3.2
Modern Art Park		8	x	6	1	10%		5,000		4.8
Plumbob Park	iOS only	8	x	6	1	10%			140	4.8
Holiday Gift Market	Holiday	4	x	10	1	20%		10,000		8.0
Delicacy Market	Holiday	8	x	10	1	25%		32,000		20.0
Ice Skating Rink	Holiday	11	x	10	2	25%	5			27.5
Holiday Tree	Holiday	9	x	10	2	30%	7			27.0
New Years Tower	Holiday	9	x	9	2	40%	9			32.4
Holiday Fountain Park	Holiday	10	x	10	2	50%			320	50.0
Reflecting Pool Park		8	x	6	1	20%		6,000		9.6
Larry the Llama		8	x	8	2	25%			280	16.0
Peaceful Park		6	x	10	1	25%		8,000		15.0
Urban Plaza		8	x	6	1	20%		12,000		9.6
World's Largest Ball of Twine		6	x	8	2	30%			300	14.4
Sculpture Garden		6	x	8	1	30%		16,000		14.4
Row of Trees		12	x	4	2	30%		20,000		14.4
Anchor Park		8	x	8	2	30%			500	19.2
Soccer Fields		8	x	8	2	25%		24,000		16.0
Jogging Path		8	x	8	2	30%		28,000		19.2
Water Park Playground		8	x	8	2	25%			400	16.0
Giant Garden Gnome		8	x	8	2	30%			500	19.2
Basketball Court		10	x	6	2	30%			600	18.0
Dolly the Dinosaur		10	x	8	3	30%			700	24.0
Tokyo Town Gate		10	x	10	2	25%		38,000		25.0
Skate Park		6	x	12	1	40%			800	28.8
Sakura Park		8	x	8	1	25%		60,000		16.0
Grouped by Park Width
Parks	Special	Area			Width	Bonus	Keys	Coins	SimCash	Area x Bonus
Small Fountain Park		8	x	8	1	5%		4,000		3.2
Modern Art Park		8	x	6	1	10%		5,000		4.8
Plumbob Park	iOS only	8	x	6	1	10%			140	4.8
Holiday Gift Market	Holiday	4	x	10	1	20%		10,000		8.0
Reflecting Pool Park		8	x	6	1	20%		6,000		9.6
Urban Plaza		8	x	6	1	20%		12,000		9.6
Sculpture Garden		6	x	8	1	30%		16,000		14.4
Peaceful Park		6	x	10	1	25%		8,000		15.0
Sakura Park		8	x	8	1	25%		60,000		16.0
Delicacy Market	Holiday	8	x	10	1	25%		32,000		20.0
Skate Park		6	x	12	1	40%			800	28.8
World's Largest Ball of Twine		6	x	8	2	30%			300	14.4
Row of Trees		12	x	4	2	30%		20,000		14.4
Larry the Llama		8	x	8	2	25%			280	16.0
Soccer Fields		8	x	8	2	25%		24,000		16.0
Water Park Playground		8	x	8	2	25%			400	16.0
Basketball Court		10	x	6	2	30%			600	18.0
Anchor Park		8	x	8	2	30%			500	19.2
Jogging Path		8	x	8	2	30%		28,000		19.2
Giant Garden Gnome		8	x	8	2	30%			500	19.2
Tokyo Town Gate		10	x	10	2	25%		38,000		25.0
Holiday Tree	Holiday	9	x	10	2	30%	7			27.0
Ice Skating Rink	Holiday	11	x	10	2	25%	5			27.5
New Years Tower	Holiday	9	x	9	2	40%	9			32.4
Holiday Fountain Park	Holiday	10	x	10	2	50%			320	50.0
Dolly the Dinosaur		10	x	8	3	30%			700	24.0