SimTower FAQ/Strategy Guide
Final Version
by Strawhat
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(I.) Introduction to the Guide
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Before I get started, let's get this over with:
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other
web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a
violation of copyright.
And the only sites that are allowed to use this guide are:
1. Gamefaqs
2. DLH.net
3. www.cheats.de
4. faqs.ign.com
Table of Contents:
(I.) Introduction to the Guide
(1.1) Disclaimer
(1.2) Updates
(1.3) Introduction
(II.) The Basics
(2.1) Reach for the Stars
(2.2) Requirements
(2.3) Reading the maps
(2.4) Frequently Asked Questions
(2.5) Events
(III.) The Walkthrough
(3.1) The Walkthrough
(3.2) Challenge Walkthrough
(IV.) Tricks and Tips
(4.1) Tricks
(4.2) Tips
(V.) Ending
(5.1) Finishing Statement
(5.1) Contact Info
Final Version
Improved my crappy format as much as possible. Also added ASCII.
Final Version
I decided to just have this last paragraph for Final Version updates,
because most of them are more sites that can use this FAQ. And one more
was added.
Final Version
7/15/03- One more person wanted to use my guide, so, I let the German
Gaming site, Dlh.net use it.
Final Version
5/28/03-Well, looks like all is done. Unless there's something you really
want to know, then E-mail me and either I'll ignore you or put it up.
Forgot to add my E-mail address(BTW, I just got my first virus from a
Gamefaqs reader :) Makes me so proud to join the rest of the FAQ writers
like this) and made my last and final sections: Challenge walkthrough and
Contact Info. Well, as said, all is done and good bye. Hope you enjoyed
this FAQ!!
Version 1.01
2/19/03-I don't think I'll be updating this FAQ much anymore as I've
basically covered most of the aspects of Simtower. But I still have one more
section that I want to complete and that will be the release of the final
version. Are you curious to what it is? You'll just have to wait ;)
However, I fixed some minor spelling and grammatical errors and added some
more disclaimers throughout the page just to prevent plagarism.
Version 1.0
1/4/03-Yippee! Version 1.0!! Finished most parts, just need to wrap up a few
sections. Finished the walkthrough, take a look! Added a new section: Reading
the maps. Finished off the requirements section too. Added some scenery and
redid the section deviders.
Version 0.1 (Unreleased)
1/2/03-Started off the new year with a brand new FAQ, my first one yet ^_^
Just started this and got the disclaimer and all that boring stuff out of the
way so I can start the FAQ and all the goodies inside it.
This is a guide composed by me, Strawhat, to help those people who are
playing the wonderful game, SimTower. This is my first FAQ that I've made, so
I decided to start out with something small and not too popular:
SimTower. SimTower is a simulation game. The goal of it is to get a Tower
Rating, a high population, and money. Sounds easy? It's not. Trust me. If
you are ever stuck, then you will always have this guide to help you.
This guide is based on ALL aspects of SimTower, so any questions will gladly
be answered on SimTower, done with this, let's get on to the next section.
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(II.) The Basics
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This section deals with the basics of the basics, like how to play the game
and what each thing can do to your tower.
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| (2.1) Reach for the Stars |
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Reach for the stars! A star is a rank that shows how good your tower is. The
more the stars, the better the tower. Just like in a movie. This part will
discuss what things you can build at each level. Just a reminder though,
although it may seem obvious. All the things you have at the first star level
will always be at the next. You can also see a variety more things you can
build by holding down the mouse on a particular item. (like lobby for instance,
and you will see you can build stairs also.)
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1 star
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Condo- Probably the fastest way to earn money. It's easy to maintain, just make
sure that there are ways to get to it and it will probably be sold right away,
assuming that there is an elevator nearby.
Lobby- Must be built on the first floor and every fifteen-thirty floors after
that. They allow Express Elevators (See 3 stars) to stop and pick up more
people.
Office- The second fastest way to earn money. In the long run, it's probably
the best to use. Although you only earn money on the first week day, you'll
get a lot and is smaller with a higher population than condos. Eventually,
you'll have to use them anyway because you can only reach a max of about
10,000 people with condos.
Fast Food- Pretty useless IMO, they usually don't get much money raked into
your account and is hard to maintain. Just make them at the beginning of the
game to maintain offices, if you're making offices anyway.
Bulldozer- Bulldozes most objects. They are free, except you lose all profits
made for the tower.
Magnifyer- Brings up a menu on a person or place and you could rename him/her/
it and change prices.
Hand- Changes elevator hights.
Elevator- It's....an elevator. Carries max capacity of 30 people.
Stairs(hold on lobby)- Stairs to move between floors, similar to elevators.
Remember though, only office workers and hotel (see too stars) will use them.
Flr(Floor)(hold on lobby)- click at the top of your tower to make some extra
floors. These come out automatically when building elevators.
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2 star
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Single room- A single room made to hold one person. It acts like a hotel room.
Very useless, highly reccomended that it is not used. It can get dirty,
make so sure you have...
Housekeeping(hold on single room)- Housekeeping keeps your hotel rooms clean.
Remember, these cannot be bulldozed, so choose a place wisely. But to get them
to the hotel rooms you must have...
Service elevators(Hold on Elevators)- These will transfer ONLY housekeepers
and can ONLY have service elevators on the shafts, not normal ones. These do
not need to touch the lobby.
Security- These keep your tower from getting terrorists and other hazzards
that can greatly damage your tower and the people in them. Make sure you
have a lot of these SPREAD OUT. The key word is spread out, if you place
them one on top of the other they will not do anything. The maximum you
can make of this is 8. It cannot be demolished.
See Events.
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3 star
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Resturaunt(Hold on Fast food)- A much more improved version of the fast food.
They bring in more customers and more money. But they are still hard to
maintain and earn a profit unless you place them next to a...
Cinema(Hold on Fast Food)- These are sort of like resturaunts, but IMO a
little more profitable. The only bad thing is that you need to replace it
with a new movie once in a while to keep it the profits up, and that could
take some money. These are good to bring in more customers to shops around
the cinema.
Souvenir Shops(Hold on Fast Food)- These shops don't get a lot of money and
are hard to maintain. They are best done at the lowest rental rate.
Medical Center(Hold on security)- Absolutely positively needed, if you
ever want a tower rating. Just stick em somewhere, they cost money and
don't bring much profits but the people need it.
Recycling Center(Hold on Fast Food)- See Medical Center. Build as many as
neccesary.
Parking Ramp(Hold on Security)- Office Workers and Hotel people like to park
their cars somewhere. Just add on of these babies and build the parking
spaces. Just remember, they need tobe connected vertically only.
Parking(Hold on Security)- Connect it to a parking ramp for extra spaces.
Twin Room(Hold on Single Room)- Fits two people. Sucks. Don't use it.
Hotel Suite(Hold on Single Room)- Also pretty cheap...you can use it if you
want, but I don't really see why you would need it except for a VIP rating.
See events.
Escalator(Hold on Lobby)- This is used to transfer people from commercial
places. (Shops, Cinemas, etc.) People will often ask for this rather
than an elevator on shops.
Express Elevator(Hold on Elevator)- This is used to to transfer your
people more than 30 floors. They have a max of 100 floors, but only stop
at lobbies.
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4 star
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Metro Station(Hold on Security)- Brings in more people to you SHOPS. Build
one for a 5-star.
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5 star
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Cathedral(Hold on Security)- Absolutely neccesary for Tower Rating. See
Medical Center.
This section deals with the requirements needed for the each star level. Don't
you want to know?
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2 star
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To get a two star rating, you must have a population of at least 250. That's
it. Really.
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3 star
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More of a killer. 1000 population, but not too hard compared to 4 stars. You
also need to have at least 1 security system.
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4 star
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Once you get here, there's trouble. To get four stars, you need a population of
a whopping 5000. Not only that, you need to have a medical center, recycling
center, and also have a favorable VIP rating. See more at events.
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5 star
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You need a population of 10,000 people. Not amazingly hard, just amazingly
tiring. You also need a Metro Station.
To get a tower rating, you need 15,000 people and have a Cathedral. Then, you
have to wait for someone to get married.
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| (2.3) Reading the Maps |
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So, you may be wondering, how do you read these things that keep taking up my
screen??? Well, that's what this section is for. It teaches you about the
date/time screen and the map screen.
Map Screen:
This is a rectangular screen that is at the top left corner of the screen. At
the first screen, it shows clouds and eventually gray blocks will come up.
Those gray blocks are what you have built. They don't tell you what they are,
just where. The screen also has several tabs at the top.
Eval: Stands for evaluation. On each piece of building that you have built and
has a population, there will be an evaluation that shows how well you are
doing.
Blue means very high rating, yellow is medium, and red is low.
Pric: Pricing. It shows how high you have priced your buildings. Light Blue is
Very low, Yellow is medium, Green is high, and red is very high.
Hotel: This screen will show if your hotels are clear. Red means they are not
clean.
Date/Time map:
This map has multiple icons on it.
Clock: The clock tells you what time it is. Hopefully you know how to tell
time.
Date: Next to the clock it will tell the day and year. Before I go on,
remember. THERE ARE 2 WEEKDAYS AND 1 WEEKEND. There, now remember that. It will
either say 1st WD, meaning weekday, 2nd WD, or WE, meaning weekends. Next to
that, there will be a slash showing what year it is. For example:
1st WD/9th year
That will show that it is the first weekday and the ninth year you have been
playing. (Not real time) At the bottom, there will be a line and captions.
It will tell you important messages about your tower, so look at it often.
Building map:
This will show what you are building. Each star gives you different things to
build. Descriptions coming soon.
This section deals with Frequently asked question by all you readers about this
FAQ or the game. Here are some commonly asked questions that people always ask
me.
Q: How do express elevators work?
A: Express elevators are part of a chain that helps get people higher than 30
floors, the maximum a normal elevator goes. But the thing is that they only
stop at lobbies. So make lobbies every 15 floors. Extend your express elevator
to a sky lobby. Then, create a normal elevator nearby and make it go up 30
floors or so. That is how people transfer to other floors higher than 60.
Remember, people will only change elevators TWICE. Here's a diagram:
So, the people go up the express elevator to level 60. (Sky Lobby) Then, they
board the normal elevator to reach floors 61-75. Note: You can do this
multiple times with the same EXPRESS elevator.
Several events can happen while you are playing your game. They are very
important to the outcome of your tower. This section will be dedicated to those
few things.
Terrorist: A lack of security results in terrorist attacks. There will be a
popup screen saying a terrorist demands money. You can either give him the
money, or have security search for the bomb. Usually, you should pay the money.
A terrorist only comes if your security is bad, so they probably won't find the
bomb. If they don't find the bomb, then a few floors will blow up. Yes, blow
up. Not kidding, everything on those floors will disappear.
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(III.) The Walkthrough
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(3.1) The Walkthrough
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This section is...the walthrough. It will help you out with what _I_ did to get
my tower rating. You don't have to follow it, but if you really want to get a
Tower rating and can't, you should. This will only take you to the tower
rating, anything else you want to do is up to you. I'm also assuming that you
read the basics and know what everything does.
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1 star
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OK, so you finally decided to build a tower. So...the first thing you might
want to do is to place a Lobby on the ground floor. Start at the VERY VERY left
edge and go about quarterway towards the the right side. (When I say that, I
mean the evaluation window. Whenever I say "side", that is what I mean ok?)Now,
next thing is to make an elevator. Make it at about 1/8 of the way on the
screen.
Increase it to floor 5. By now, you should have a little bit of money left, so
start to make your tower.
Add 4 offices on the first four floors(They should be
automatically bought, if not, check your elevator). Keep building offices
across
to the right. Make sure you build some stairs between each one of them, but
make
sure that you don't over do it because you'll need them for later uses.
If you're running low on money, then wait until it is the 1st week day(PAY
DAY!!!)
or start building Condos on floor five. By the time you finished about halfway
towards your right, you will have already gotten a 2 star. Pretty easy.
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2 star
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Well, this is a bit harder, but not by much. Just keep doing what you did for
1 star, and you should have a 3 star tower by your fifteenth floor if you
continued right, then up. Hopefully you have hightened you elevators too.
Place some securities and you'll be fine. Just don't stack the one on top of
the other.
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3 star
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Now this is an annoyance. It took me half a school year (I play in computers
class, heh heh heh) to get this far.
Now, I assume you have gotten up to floor 15. On that floor, build a lobby
(known as "sky lobby") and then start placing express elevators. I assume you
know how to work these, if not just read the FAQ. Just make the switch every
15 floors, I won't tell you when you'll reach the because each game is
different
:).
Place 4 floors of Offices after each lobby. Now, in the basement, extend
your express elevators to B4 and demolish your fast foods if you have any and
replace them with resturaunts. Put a couple of Movie theaters next to them to
rack in money and population. This will be your prime source of money when you
go bankrupt. And believe me, at times, you will. Place Medical Centers and
Recycling centers too. It doesn't matter where you place them, people won't
care
less. Only have ONE medical. Oh yeah, don't forget to put the escalators in the
theaters. Build a Party Hall or two and a parking lot.
Right now, if you're broke, don't worry. Just take a shower and wait until the
first weekday. You'll see for five seconds your debts piling up, but a few
seconds after you'll be richer than you had ever been before. And not only
that,
if you check your evaluation, all your places will be blue!! If there are any
red, they haven't been bought and if they are lowered to the lowest rate,
will turn blue automatically. After a few days though, they will go back down
to normal yellows and reds but don't worry. If there are any for sale signs,
just change them to lowest to get some money. If they are ALL for sale though,
then you must've done something wrong and they're missing a requirement, so go
find out what you have done wrong. Remember, at some floor build a Hotel Suite
and a housekeeping. This is for a VIP rating. (See events) Make sure your tower
reaches 5000 population and you get the BEST VIP rating(Don't worry, it's not
very hard) and you'll be fine.
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4 star
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By now, you probably have reached floor 45 or more. Just make a Metro Station
with Floor 7 touching it's bottom (Not Floor 8, the game will jam up, see
Tricks) Now, stuff your basement with Movie Theaters until the fill to get
money and any shops if neccesary. You're going for the hundredth floor. By now,
on Christmas you might see Santa pass by while you are building your tower.
(Lol,
see tricks)
Go for the Hundredth floor and if you've been building your offices, you'll
get it maybe even before you touch it. Make sure everyone gets their
requirements
(except those office workers demanding parking, just see if there are any free
spaces in your lot and if there aren't, build one, but otherwise ignore them.)
Demolish your Hotel Suite and Express Elevator, you won't need them anymore.
Build some extra security and make the max available.
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5 star
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Total Hell. I spent a loooooooooong time on this level. Build the cathedral at
the top of the tower and by now, you're probably wondering what the hell to do.
Demolish the condos. That's right. Start at the very bottom and start killing a
few floors at a time and replacing them with offices. If you're ever in debt,
take a shower and wait until the first weekday. That's all you can do, you'll
be reaching lots of debt here. The Cinemas should help too, make sure they
always have some new (or classic) movies to maintain it at a high level.
If you run out of stairs, ignore the office workers. There's nothing you can do
about it. Also ignore those who think the elevator is too far away.
Just keep building and replacing. If you reach 15000 population, then wait for
a wedding to take place. Then, you will get your tower rating! If you look at
the Cathedral, it will say, Welcome to Tower!
CHALLENGE WALKTHROUGH! So, bored with your average Sim Tower game? Then try
some of these challenges. They're made for all those bored people like you
and me. Me, myself, I have not yet beaten these and probably won't for a while
because I'm almost done with scool and the only way I can play it is if I buy
game...so basically, these are for you to beat and brag about. If you beat them
all...don't go complaining up to me and saying to make more or it was too easy.
If so...too bad.
Resturaunt Tower-Can you make a tower out of only resturaunts?
Spell Hi!-Make a tower spelling HI that's 100 floors without going bankrupt
using whatever you like
Only 1-Use only one type of building to gain the tower rating.
1 year-Get a Tower Rating in under 1 year
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(IV.) Tips and Tricks
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Trick or Treat! Joke, this section will deal with all sorts of wierd glitches
and detours to take in the game, and the "cheats" that SimTower has.
Santa Claue: Just a detour. On Christmas nights, you might see a Blue dot on
your map. Click there, and you'll see Santa Clause! Maybe he'll bring you
stuff?
Once he got me out of debt, but I think that could've been a coincidence 0_0
Double Funds: To double your funds at the very beginning of the game, before
you build a lobby go to the very bottom left corner of the basement and try to
build a lobby there. Your funds will be doubled!
3 Story Lobby: (You cannot double your funds while doing this) Hold Shift and
Ctrl then click.
2 Story Lobby: (You cannot double your funds while doing this) Hold Ctrl and
click.
Spiral Staircase: Build a 3 story lobby and build offices above it. Then make
a staircase in the lobby. (You will not be able to make a staircase before
that)
Jammed game: (Not comfirmed) If you build anything on floor 8, the game will
jam. (It may delete your game, so don't complain to me and tell me I didn't
warn you when you try this)
90 second limit: When building an elevator, use the magnifying glass on it and
make the second number (forgot what it is called, it makes the door open
(slower) 90 seconds. It will allow more people onto your elevator and out and
make them happier.
Max Elevator Shafts: Make sure your elevator shafts have the maximum amount of
Elevators at the beginning of the game. It will help in later times.
Well, that ends my FAQ/Walkthrough. I worked my heart out on the each day I
wasn't busy to reach what it is now. I hope you liked it and it helped you. I
would appreciate your feedback.
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| (5.2) Contact Info |
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Please, Contact me if you have any information about this game. But please
do not E-mail me if your going to do one of the following:
1. Spam
2. Ask a question already in the FAQ
3. Flame me
4. Have an attachment
5. Send me a virus
6. Send me an advertisent
7. Any links
