CityVille – Strategies


I’ve talked about some basic tips on specific things and aspects  of CityVille that can help improve your output and building speed.  However, there are some general larger scale strategies that are important to consider if you want to master CityVille.  I’ve divided this page into the ‘phases’ of game play that you will undoubtedly go through.  Let’s begin…

The Early Phase Of CityVille

The early phase of the game is relatively easy. When you start playing for the first time Samantha will appear and introduce you in the game. She welcomes you to the world of CityVille and explains some few basic concepts of the game. You will also be assigned some easy quests such as building certain establishments and cutting trees. Leveling up in this phase is very fast and your city’s progress will be swift and easy (building establishments in the early game require very minimal energy).

  • Strategy #1 – The best approach in the early phase is to prioritize quests. Quests serve as guidelines for you in the game. It shows the basic functions of housing, business, and farming. Several NPC’s will appear in the game offering you different quests to accomplish. These quests will serve as your baby steps to building your megacity.
  • Strategy #2 – Another important tip in this phase is to learn each function of everything in the game. You will notice that each establishment and building has its own unique feature different to another. These features would include the energy you need to spend on building it, the earnings you can get from the building, the benefit it provides ( in the case of housing for example the number of people it can accomodate), and the time in which you can collect this earning. When you become aware with these features, you will be wise in choosing the appropriate building fit for your city as you play the game in the later phases.
  • Strategy #3 – The key to success in CityVille is all about balancing your population, happiness of your people, level of supplies, and number and kinds of businesses. You can’t build too many houses without enough community buildings.  Also, consider that your business will not be efficient if not supported by prosperous farming. You will learn how to combine buildings when become aware of each of the features of these establishments.

The Middle Phase of CityVille

In the mid phase of the game, (assuming that you are already familiar with the basic concepts of the game and the unique features of each structure), you’ll be required to think of effective combinations of buildings to achieve you optimum earnings, maximized land space, and faster leveling up.

  • Strategy #1 – Here are important combinations that you need to be aware of:
    • Housing and community buildings – Don’t build too many houses when you can’t back it up with community buildings to make your people happy. A sad population makes slow development. Your people will be less motivated to buy from your business if they are sad. A happy population on the other hand will keep your business booming!
    • Business and farming – This is an important combination that you need to master. Your farming provides supplies for your business and your business provides good earnings to your city. A strong farming approach and building a set of good businesses will be the secret to your city’s economic explosion. Always keep them in balance. If you can see that your farming is doing very well then back it up by building plenty of good businesses that earn high. You should also be aware of selecting the right crops. I recommend planting crops that give high supplies with relatively good time to harvest.
    • Space – You need to give a lot of space for your farming.  I reserve six blocks for my farming (including storage houses) and 7 seafood restaurants. This effective combination gives me a surplus of cash for my city. 5 seafood restaurants, would just be fine.
    • Decorations and business – Decorations aren’t just trifles. They are very powerful! The smart CityVille player will know how to use these to their advantage.  There are decorations that increase the payout of nearby buildings. A good way of structuring your city would be to surround your business establishments with decorations with a high pay out percentage. I recommend surrounding your business with Arboretum or swing set playgrounds and some shade trees. Yes they do cost some cash, and they eat some space in your city but believe me they are worth building.
    • Transport – Your transport is responsible for trade in your city. Transport is becomes a need when you become short of goods or if you have oversupply of it. It brings some balance to your level of goods.

INSIDER STRATEGY OF THE DAY — Don’t plant too much strawberries! Yes they can be harvested very fast but they also provide less output and you need to expend energy to harvest it. Just think of expending energy every five minutes just to harvest 15 goods! I recommend a combination of cranberries and seafood restaurant. Try using it and you will see your money skyrocketing!

The Later Phase of CityVille

In the higher phase of the game you already have solid, productive combinations in your city.  Everything is churning out in perfect harmony. Your population is happy, your business is going well, and your supplies are just alright to support your booming economy. The ultimate problem in the higher phases of the game is space. You will notice that your city is getting too crowed and there will be no more room for your building plans.

  • Strategy #1 – This is the time that you need to be on the expansion stage. Expanding though is not quite easy. Once block of expansion costs 20,000 and a zoning permit. I believe the zoning permit is the most difficult part. The zoning permit increases as you buy more expansions. When you have 4 expansions for example, the fifth expansion would require you six zoning permits! And zoning permits can never purchased, you only acquire in the form of free gifts and quest rewards. The higher phase of the games requires you to really have lots of supportive neighbors in CityVille.  So the solution is obvious:  Ask for zoning permits from your friends!   The more friends you have the easier for you to acquire zoning permits! In the end, much of the success in this game depends on your networks. You can never succeed in this game if you have no neighbors and likewise success would be slow if you only have a handful.

I hope this helps you to make sense of CityVille from a larger, strategic perspective.  The game changes a lot depending on what stage of play you are at.  So be adaptable and learn to grow, change, and adapt to keep everything running nicely balanced.  Follow these strategies, and you’re sure to build a prosperous city!  If you haven’t yet had the chance, check out my basic CityVille Guide page and the cool tips, tricks, and CityVille hints page.   Happy Playing!

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