Cities: Skylines Plaza of the Dead (How To Unlock + Building Details)

The Plaza of the Dead in Cities: Skylines
Plaza of the Dead
Cost to Build ₡17,500
Upkeep ₡80/week
Tourism Value 50
Entertainment Value 60
Noise Pollution 25

The Plaza of the Dead is a level 1 unique building in Cities Skylines. Unlocking it requires you to reach the Boom Town population milestone (which unlocks cemeteries) and then you’ll need to have 3 full cemeteries.

It’s a fairly simple requirement, but do expect it to take a while – especially if your population isn’t that large yet.

That’s because each cemetery has a capacity of 3,000, and each citizen typically has a lifetime of 6 in-game years.

Once you have 3 full cemeteries, you can build the Plaza of the Dead from the level 1 tab of the unique buildings menu.

It provides 60 entertainment points, and is a requirement for the Fusion Power Plant monument.

The Plaza of the Dead in the Level 1 tab of the Unique Buildings menu. / Cities: Skylines
The Plaza of the Dead in the Level 1 tab of the Unique Buildings menu.

Building Cemeteries

If you don’t have any yet, build a cemetery from the Healthcare menu for ₡8,000.

It requires water and electricity to operate. And since it doesn’t produce pollution or noise, or lower land value, it’s safe to place close to your residential areas (where most of the deaths will occur).

Building a cemetery from the Healthcare menu. / Cities: Skylines
Building a cemetery from the Healthcare menu.

How To Know If a Cemetery is Full

A notification icon will inform you that a cemetery has no more space.

A cemetery with the “No More Room!” warning. / Cities: Skylines
A cemetery with the “No More Room!” warning.

Once your first cemetery is full, do not empty it—simply build a second one.

Make sure you build one immediately, as people will abandon their homes if the dead are not collected in a timely manner.

The ‘Death Wave’

Normally, deaths in your city will only happen in small numbers at a time.

However, there are times when an unusually large number of citizens will die at the same time. This is known to Cities: Skylines players as ‘death wave’.

This usually happens when a large number of people moved into your city at the same time (say, if you zoned a large amount of residential when the demand was high).

As a result, these people reached the end of their lifespans at roughly the same time.

What To Do About Your Full Cemeteries After the Unlock

After unlocking the Plaza of the Dead, you’re now left with 3 full cemeteries (and perhaps no other functioning cemeteries in your city).

If you’ve reached the Big City milestone, you have access to crematoriums.

Build one from the healthcare menu, then set your cemeteries to empty.

Clicking this button will instruct that cemetery to transfer the bodies either to a crematorium for processing, or to another cemetery within your city for storage. / Cities: Skylines
Clicking this button will instruct that cemetery to transfer the bodies either to a crematorium for processing, or to another cemetery within your city for storage.

This is by far the best way to resolve this, since crematoriums process the bodies instead of just storing them, and therefore don’t fill up like cemeteries do.

However, if you haven’t reached that milestone yet, your only option is to build an additional cemetery to serve your city for the meantime.

Liz Villegas

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Liz is a writer and photographer with a love for building and strategy games. Her spare time is often split between lifting, reading, drawing, annoying her dog Mr. Porky Butt, and squinting at stat tables on the wiki pages of whatever game she's currently playing.

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