Challenge Scenarios

Master SimCity's challenge scenarios! Learn strategies for San Francisco Earthquake, Bern Traffic, Detroit Crime, Tokyo Monster Attack, Boston Meltdown, and Rio Flooding.

There are eight scenarios total. You are first given six and upon completion of these you gain access to two bonus scenarios. The Las Vegas bonus scenario is the only challenge scenario to contain Presents (Casinos).

San Francisco Earthquake (1906)

Duration: 5 years
Goal: Recover from the big Earthquake of 1906, creating a bustling city.
Methods: The Earthquake will not occur immediately, so put up Fire Departments. After the earthquake hits, bulldoze debris and flammable buildings near the fires so they can not spread. Restore power and roads/rails. Once done, create a bustling city to draw back the people you lost because of the turmoil.
Cheap Moves: Set the game speed to sleeping to get all of your Fire Departments into place before you set the game speed back in motion.

Bern Traffic (1965)

Duration: 10 years
Goal: Relieve the heavily congested roads of Bern and get a Metropolis to become the National Transportation Planner for all of Switzerland.
Methods: You should work on creating a more effective rail system to take many cars off the road. Also, you should rid yourself of roads that are the heaviest in congestion on traffic. If you are a really good budgeter, you can replace ALL road with rail to create a completely non-congested road ratio!
Cheap Moves: Use the existing structure to limit costs. Most Rail is in place to touch all Zones with some help.

Detroit Crime (1972)

Duration: 10 years
Goal: Lower crime and revive the sagging Industrial economy.
Methods: Your first goal is to lower the ghastly crime rate by putting as many new Police Departments in the worst crime areas to expand your coverage. Next, once the crime has been lowered sufficiently, put Industry up where your population will not be polluted by it, but they will still have easy access to it. Once you have done that, work on lowering crime till it basically no longer exists, and expand your city to increase the population.
Cheap Moves: Destroy the excess Fire Stations to reduce yearly upkeep costs.

Tokyo Monster Attack (1961)

Duration: 5 years
Goal: Recover from the monster (Big Bad Bowser) attack, creating a bustling city.
Methods: You start the scenario before the monster (Bowser) takes his stroll, so set up a slightly better fire coverage ratio (you may want to increase police coverage as well due to high crime). After he comes, go to work on containing the damage, and then proceed to recover your losses before you move onto the expansion of Tokyo to finish the scenario with a larger amount of people than you started with!
Cheap Moves: Set the game speed to sleeping to get all of your Fire Departments into place before you set the game speed back in motion. That way, you are prepared for the impending disaster that is on its way.

Boston Nuclear Meltdown (2010)

Duration: 5 years
Goal: Isolate the contaminated areas of the city, and rebuild in new areas to bring in new population.
Methods: The disaster occurs right at the start, so bulldoze all of the areas affected by the Radioactive sections, isolate the fires, and then start to rebuild your city. Be sure to keep pollution and crime down as you work your way back up to a thriving city again, and bulldoze the extra Sea Ports as one is all you need.
Cheap Moves: You can hold the B Button as you enter the scenario, and then you go bulldoze the two Nuclear Power Plants before they explode. You will not have to deal with any radiation since there are NO Nuclear Power Plants left to meltdown in the first place. Patrick Jolicoeur shared that after the initial threat of meltdown it is perfectly safe to build new Nuclear Plants, as they will not meltdown. Needs to be confirmed it’s in the NES prototype.

Rio de Janeiro Coastal Flooding (2047)

Duration: 10 years
Goal: Build up the waterfront properties to prevent the rising sea level from flooding your city.
Methods: You have many years to work, so you have lots of time to get the problems under control. The first set of floods are particularly brutal, so try your best to contain any fires that spring up as a result. After you get the floods under control, start expanding your shoreline properties to help prevent flooding. Keep in mind this scenario will have floods happen multiple times. After a few years, floods will lessen, and you will have a quicker cleanup period.
Cheap Moves: You can pause the game and bulldoze all the shoreline. Dr Wright will still say a Flood is occurring, but with no coastline, nothing ever happens.