Basic Gameplay Tips

I’ve read some pretty BS “tips” on random websites. But as per usual, I just wanna give you some stuff I’ve learned from playing A LOT.

• Water rides are perennial favorites and are quite easy to build and people will pay more for them. However, they will typically move slow and thus cause long lines. Because they’re pretty inexpensive, the Log Flume is a ride I usually build pretty early on. Over time, the money will pile up.
• Create “food areas” with your food stalls in one area surrounded by PLENTY of benches and a good amount of trash cans spread out within a decent radius. You can assign one handyman to patrol this area.
• When you hire handymen, turn off “Mow Lawns”. A mowed lawn has no effect on anything, really, and the handymen will always turn to this task and forget about things that are important – cleaning up trash and vomit!
• Place a bathroom and benches after Nausea-inducing rides (and at the exit of just about every roller coaster). Benches will usually suffice for most thrill rides, but use your judgment.
• I like to keep one handyman NOT assigned to patrol an area “with me”. Do this by going to your Staff and clicking that handyman. A box for him will pop up. Put it in the corner of your screen. As you play and manage your park, click the Claw tool to place him wherever and whenever you see trash/vomit. This is a quick way to clean up paths if your patrol guys can’t get there fast enough/are busy. Keep this handyman in the corner of your screen at all times!
• Don’t be afraid to charge a small fee for bathrooms (if you need it, that is).
• Jack up the prices of umbrellas. People are willing to pay $20 for the umbrella (and they won’t whine about it). Don’t worry to increase the prices of food and drinks as long as they’re not astronomical.
• If your rollercoaster has crashed, some people may have the problem of no guests wanting to ride it anymore (and the cars won’t go either). After your mechanic has inspected the crash, close the ride and right click on a track to enter “Build” mode. Delete that track and rebuild it so it’s virtually the same ride. Then double click the red stoplight button. The “Crashed!” sign at the bottom of the box should go away. You can now click the green light. Lower the price and have a small advertising campaign to encourage guests to ride.
• Gentle rides and some thrill rides seem to get less popular with age. In my experience, gentle rides generally have a profit equal to the cost to build. Try deleting the ride and simply building it again (in the same spot or different, you choose). You’ll also get a bit of money from deleting the ride.
• If you have a low rating or people are complaining, a common solution I’ve read online is to simply use the claw tool to pick them up and drop them in water, drowning in them. I usually never do this as it doesn’t seem to work (at least for larger parks).
• The cheapest roller coaster is the Power-Launched ones (see Shuttle Loop). It’s basically a straight line that goes up and comes back, not around. It’s quick and very profitable plus a great space-saver. Use the Shuttle Loop as a model to build your own. Then set it to “Power Launch” mode. You can play with the speeds, it goes up to 60 MPH. I like to do two loops to switch it up. Make sure you test run it by clicking the Yellow stoplight button and increase the speed incrementally – you don’t want a crash!