Survival Mode
Survival Mode plays quite unlike the base game. You build a city from nothing, and a new city’s small population puts enormous strain on every retail and production business in it.
The strategies that carry you through that early growth phase are not the ones the base game teaches. Growing your cities into a national economic powerhouse means learning new ones and executing them well.
Enabling Survival Mode
Open the DLC menu and switch on [Survival Mode].
Two further options appear once it is on.
Developed City at the Beginning
Whether the game starts with a city already developed.
Starting without a developed city is considerably harder — everything has to be built from the ground up.
First City Population
Available only when Developed City at the Beginning is enabled. Sets the first city’s starting population as a percentage of the normal population used in the standard game.
How it plays
The focus is building a nation from the ground up. Starting a new game with Survival Mode on opens with this briefing.
Most products start locked
Only two groups are available at the outset: products in the Food and Beverage mega class, and products your company has expertise in. Everything else must be reinvented before you can make it.
The competing nation’s population
An imagined rival nation’s population is displayed at the top of the screen, so you can measure your growth against it. It exists to keep the competitive pressure visible.
AI company limit capped at 20
Few firms are willing to invest in a nation during its earliest phase of development, and the cap reflects that.