How to Win at SimCity 3000

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Last Updated: October 15, 2025

SimCity 3000 is a fun game where you get to act as the Mayor of a town. This article will give you some strategies and tips, but no cheat codes. Also, there is no "winning" in this game.

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Always have more Residential and Industrial zones than Commercial zones.
Throw in a jail because if the police have no place to put criminals, they will be forced to let them go.
Then connect pipes to them and build an efficient water system with pipes all around the town.
Raise the funding for all departments and raise the taxes to 8%. (Sims actually like this tax at first. As your city grows, the tax rate they are happy with becomes ridiculously small.)

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Tips

Build connections to different towns. This way, you can stock up (or lose) money through a Neighbor Deal.

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As you go along your career, keep an eye on the News Ticker. If a petitioner, an advisor, or someone who wants to make a deal needs to contact you, a message, green or red, will scroll down the Ticker. Click on the message to see what it says.

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You may choose to speed up the time. Click on the small rectangle and drag it along.

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Warnings

Don't take out too many loans! This simply leads to a drop in money because you then have to pay them off!

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Water and power connections are good, even in the beginning, you just have to sell all of your extra stuff, and when you need more power, just sell the extra off I have always done this, and it works really well.

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