Walkthroughs

A beginners' guide to Glu's intergalactic freemium building adventure Space City

To infinity and beyond rich

A beginners' guide to Glu's intergalactic freemium building adventure Space City
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iOS
| Space City

The App Store may be littered with freemium titles that enable you to run farms, build your own theme park, sail the seven seas, and even collect stamps, but there are very few that allow you to build your very own extraterrestrial abode.

That's where Glu's shrewdly named build-'em-up Space City comes into play.

The game tasks you with designing a space colony from scratch, attracting both workers and tourists by building various retail and entertainment outlets, and making a pretty penny in the process.

Of course, that's not going to be as easy as it sounds, so we've compiled this helpful guide for you.

Up, up, and away...

The basics

As always in this sort of affair, Space City features two forms of currency: your run-of-the-mill Credits and your premium Atomz.

The former can be earned at regular intervals from diners, pubs, nightclubs, hotels, stadiums, and a range of other buildings, and can be purchased with real cash.

Atomz, however, are earned in very small amounts as you level-up, and can be snagged through in-app purchases. These start at 69p / 99c for 25 and rise to £69.99 / $99 for 3000.

There's also the opportunity to grab some free Atomz by watching selected videos and participating in other actions.

Both forms of currency can be used to buy new buildings and decorations, but the latter can also be spent speeding up processes such as construction.

As you build properties and collect revenue, you'll earn experience points (XP) and level-up, which unlocks new types of premises for you to purchase.

Finally, you'll need to keep your eye on both the workers and the tourists.

You attract staff by building houses, condos, apartments, and other living quarters - these employees can then be put to work in your various businesses.

Tourists on the other hand, are attracted to your community by the building of diners, malls, cinemas, and the like.

The majority of these can only be constructed if you first meet a minimum tourist population.

Hitting population goals will also attract new races of alien to your city.

Construction, decorations



Unfortunately, you can't delete your buildings or expand your city's boundaries, meaning you'll eventually run out of building space.

Save lots of room for the buildings you'll unlock later in the game, as they'll supply you with greater revenue, more workers, and more tourists.

Try to strike a nice balance between the number of buildings you construct for each race. You'll need at least ten of each to unlock Space City's list of Game Center achievements.

And Always remember: fit your buildings close together like jigsaw pieces to maximise your space.

Decorations, like in most games, are useless, so avoid them until later in the game when you have more Credits than you can handle.

If you can't resist making your city a pretty paradise, however, decorations will set you back anywhere between 750 Credits and 35 Atomz.

Get those workers working

As mentioned, you can boost the productivity of your various businesses by employing staff.

Space City features four races: Humans, Starling, Puggle, and Dondee, each with their own unique ability.

Humans, for example, give you a two per cent boost to speed (meaning you can collect revenue faster), XP, and credits.

Puggles give you a ten per cent boost to speed, Starlings a ten per cent boost to XP, and Dondees a ten per cent increase to the number of credits you earn.

Build a Human house and you'll be rewarded with Human workers. Construct a Puggle house and you'll have Puggle workers at your disposal. Simple.

Keep this and their individual skills in mind when it comes to planning your city, and employ the ones that will benefit your current situation the most.

Remember: you can double-tap on tourists and drop them into your staffed buildings. You'll have to pay credits, but you can earn yourself 'fame'.

You can compete for the most 'fame' on daily, weekly, and all-time Game Center leaderboards.

Intergalactic neighbours

Another great way to earn credits and experience points (albeit in small amounts) is to drag your friends into the game.

You can add your friends through both Game Center and Facebook, and visit their neighbouring asteroids once a day.

Unfortunately, you can't currently interact with your friends's city, but you will get a small reward just for taking a gander.

If you have lots of friends, the rewards will soon add up. If you don't, you can leave your Game Center username in the comments section below.

Anthony Usher
Anthony Usher
Anthony is a Liverpool, UK-based writer who fell in love with gaming while playing Super Mario World on his SNES back in the early '90s. When he isn't busy grooming his beard, you can find him replaying Resident Evil or Final Fantasy VII for the umpteenth time. Aside from gaming, Anthony likes hiking, MMA, and pretending he’s a Viking.