City-building simulators aren’t just about choosing aesthetics for your buildings and managing modes of transportation. People will eventually come to live in your city, so the Cities: Skylines 2 happiness attribute will become something you’ll constantly need to check on.
Several factors can affect the happiness levels of your citizens, so it’s a pretty good metric of how well your city is being managed.
In this guide, we’ll go over some tips on how to improve or maintain your Cities: Skylines 2 happiness levels.
How to make citizens happy in Cities: Skylines 2
Happiness is divided into four categories in Cities: Skylines – Residential, Industrial, Commercial, and Office. Each category will have different ways of determining happiness levels.
This could be expanded on in the sequel, but details on that haven’t been released just yet. So for now, we’ll be taking a look at effective ways to improve happiness from the first Cities: Skylines game.
Residential
Happiness in your residential zone is mainly determined by the basic needs of your citizens. Here are some things you can try to improve happiness in your residential area.
- Make sure the area isn’t affected by pollution.
- Provide proper sewage management.
- Build hospitals nearby.
- Minimize the unemployment rate.
- Enact policies that promote health.
Industrial
The major contributors to an industrial zone’s happiness include a steady supply of raw materials, a well-educated workforce, and sufficient means to sell finished products. You can try the following if you find your industrial zones unhappy.
- Improve traffic situation in and around the zone.
- Build enough schools for citizens.
- Don’t build industrial zones too far away from other districts.
- Build plenty of commercial buildings.
Commercial
Much like industrial zones, an efficient supply chain plays a major role in the happiness of commercial areas. Here are some tips on increasing your commercial zone happiness.
- Provide enough industry to supply goods.
- Build enough schools for educated employees.
- Add transportation options for delivering goods.
- Lower taxes.
Office
Raising happiness in office areas is relatively simpler compared to industrial and commercial zones. Here are some things you can try out.
- Provide educated employees.
- Reduce taxes.
How to check on happiness levels in Cities: Skylines 2
You can check on your city’s happiness level by going to the smiley icon in the lower right corner of your screen. You’ll be able to see the happiness of each individual category, plus the global happiness which is the average across all four zone types.
The original Cities: Skylines had achievements tied to certain happiness levels, so we are expecting something similar for the sequel.
And that’s our guide for the Cities: Skylines 2 happiness attribute. If you’re looking to play the game on PC, don’t forget to check out its system requirements and how to make a roundabout.