Cities: Skylines Sea-and-Sky Scraper Unlock Guide

Sea-and-Sky Scraper
DLC	None
Building Type	Unique Building
Level/Category	6
Build Cost	₡20,000
Upkeep Cost	₡320/week
Milestone Required	Capital City
Entertainment Value	100
Noise Pollution	25
Visitor Capacity	300

The Sea-and-Sky Scraper is a level 4 unique building in Cities: Skylines. To unlock it, you’ll need to do a few things:

Have access to ship outside connections
Build a passenger harbor
Build a cargo harbor
Reach the Capital City* milestone (8,000 – 36,000 population, depending on the map)

*Although the Level 6 tab of the Unique Buildings menu opens up at the Small City milestone, you’ll need to reach Capital City in order to build the required harbors.

Once you’ve been able to build a harbor and a cargo harbor, you’ll be able to build the Sea-and-Sky Scraper from the level 6 tab of the Unique Buildings menu for only ₡20,000.

The Sea-and-Sky Scraper in the Unique Buildings Menu.

Note: The Sea-and-Sky Scraper is a requirement for the Medical Center monument.

Playing on a Map with Ship Outside Connections

You’ll need to be on a map with an outside connection for ships, or else you won’t be able to place the harbors at all.

Among the official (non-workshop) maps, the following do not have the ship connection:

Two Rivers
Northwood Hills
Wolf Creek
Marble Canyon
Woodgarden
Biomes Valley
Farmland Flats
River Valley Plain
Desert Pass
Prussian Peaks
Pine Rivers
Crater Falls
Desert Oasis

On the New Game screen, you’ll be able to check whether or not a map has a ship connection.

Make sure you plan out your map tile purchases in order to gain access to the connection.

Generally the ship connection is out in the open sea, although there are some maps where they can be accessed from the rivers.

Task 1: Building the Harbor

In the game, “Harbor” refers to the passenger harbor that brings tourists and citizens in and out of your city aboard cruise ships.

You’ll find this in the Ship tab of the build menu. It costs ₡80,000.

As you place it along your shoreline, it will try to find a direct line to the ship connection.

If it cannot find a direct path (e.g., if it is obstructed by land), you’ll get a “Cannot connect to route” error instead.

Building a passenger harbor along the coastline.

Unlike your local modes of transport (e.g., buses, metros), there is no need to assign lines for the harbor to work.

As long as your harbor has power, water, and a connection to your road network, you’ll start to see cruise ships coming in and out with tourists and citizens aboard.

Task 2: Building the Cargo Harbor

The Cargo Harbor allows your city’s trucks and delivery vans to import and export cargo through ships (instead of having to drive in and out of the city).

You’ll find the Cargo Harbor also in the Ship tab of the build menu. It costs ₡60,000.

Place it along your shoreline in the same way that you built the cargo harbor.

Supply it with power and water, and connect its road segment to your existing road network. Then you’ll be good to go!

Building a cargo harbor.

Making Use of Your New Harbors

Since you’ll be spending ₡140,000 for your passenger and cargo harbors to get this unlock, so you may as well make the most of them. Here are some tips for maximizing their use.

Tip #1: Use landscaping tools and quays to create a nice harbor area

The terrain near shorelines is typically craggy and uneven. Use landscaping tools such as the Level Terrain tool to flatten out the area where you want to place your harbor.

You can also use quays to make the area look even more polished. Both the passenger harbor and cargo harbor can be built on top of existing quays.

Tip #2: Give the cargo harbor direct access to your industry and commercial zones

Your cargo harbor will draw large amounts of traffic from delivery trucks importing and exporting cargo. If not managed properly, this can cause traffic jams in the rest of your city.

Try to give your cargo harbor a direct route to and from your industrial and commercial zones. You want to make it so the trucks don’t have to pass through any residential areas as they bring their cargo in and out.

Tip #3: Provide public transportation options near your passenger harbor

Each cruise ship docking at your harbor can bring up to 100 passengers (tourists and citizens) at time.

If there are no public transport options nearby, these passengers will magically whip cars out of their pockets and drive where they need to go in your city. This can significantly impact your road traffic and cause problems.

However, if you provide something like a metro, monorail, or even a bus line nearby, those passengers will be more than happy to take those modes of transporation.

Note: Try to set up your local transport so that the tourists can easily take public transport to major tourist spots, like unique buildings and parks and plazas.

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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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