Expanding Your City: A Guide to Acquiring More Land in Cities: Skylines

In Cities: Skylines 2, players begin in a small portion of a larger play area, similar to the first game. As players achieve milestones, they now have the opportunity to purchase sections of the surrounding land and water. However, there have been changes to the size of these sections and the rules for purchasing them.

Instead of receiving one new tile after every other milestone, players can now purchase a set of tiles that increases in quantity as they reach each new target. This gives players more control over shaping their city limits, but it also requires them to be cautious when selecting which tiles to buy.

How to Get Land Permits

Each milestone in the game comes with a number of land permits. Each permit is good for buying one map tile, and the number of tiles goes up with each milestone.

The starting map consists of a grid that spans 23 tiles on each side, totaling 529 tiles. Players begin with nine tiles, leaving them with the opportunity to acquire all but 88 tiles as the game progresses. However, due to certain tiles being water or steep mountains, not all tiles are necessary for players.

Each individual tile encompasses approximately 96 acres or 0.4 square kilometers. Therefore, the initial area is smaller compared to Cities: Skylines 1; nevertheless, in the sequel, a megalopolis will ultimately have access to a greater amount of space than in the original game. To truly commence expansion, players must successfully accomplish the initial milestones.

How to Spend Land Permits

To initiate the acquisition of new land, players should click on the map icon located in the lower-left corner. This action will reveal a grid of tiles, and if players possess unutilized land permits, they can procure tiles from this interface. Players have the option to choose individual tiles or select a designated area by clicking and dragging across a group of tiles. Each selected tile will remain chosen until players click on it using the cancel button, and sets of tiles can be deselected by holding down the cancel button.

The value of each tile is determined by the presence of constructible space and natural resources. For example, a tile abundant in resources and capable of supporting construction holds an approximate value of 30,000, while a tile consisting of ocean is only valued at around 9,000. Additionally, reaching milestones will provide players with a monetary bonus, enabling them to afford the land purchase if they seize the opportunity immediately upon receiving the notification.

To facilitate the construction of specialized industries, it is essential for players to identify the tiles containing natural resources. This can be achieved by selecting the "Natural Resources" view mode, which can be kept active while in map mode. It's important to note, however, that groundwater reservoirs are only visible when the "Water" mode is enabled.

Another important aspect to consider is that players have the option to purchase individual map tiles that are not connected to their current ownership. This can be advantageous for establishing isolated farming towns or exurbs that can utilize highways or railroads for transporting goods and people to the main city. However, caution must be exercised when selecting which tiles to purchase, in order to avoid unintentionally spending money on remote tiles that are accidentally clicked on.

Cities: Skylines 2 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.