Each subsection will contain a summary, if you don't want to read up on the details (TL;DR essentially), you can just head town to the summary and read it.

I split this guide up a bit in 3 parts; you have a general section with more general information about the game, then the 4 eras and those contain a walkthough for the eras essentially (if you don't want more details you might just want read that first) and lastly a FAQ for some questions I've commonly seen.

If you have any notes or improvements let me know. This guide is actively WIP, so it will be worked on, screenshots/images and more detailed descriptions in sections where those are missing will be added later.

Budget effect is seen in the effectiveness tab. Up to +25 with max budget, with the appropinate constituion option you can get even +50 with max budget. (similarily, with minimum budget it is -25 or -50 respectively.

It also increases the wealth of the workers and the job quality, you see the efect right away when increasing/lowering the quality.

I think there are primarily two ways to use the budget, to ensure a building works at higher effieceny and is always fully staffed. Often you want both of that, I recommend increasing budgets on infrastructure buildings, that means Docks, Teamsters, Construction Offices, Power Plants.
Science buildings can also benefit greatly from increased budget, as their effectivness increase the graduation speed (for high schools, college) and research points.


Summary:

• For effects on effectiveness, budget, job quality and wealth see the table above
  
• Can be used to get certain buildings staffed in preference over other buildings

Effectiveness determines how effective a building operates; that means it can preform it's functions better with high effectiveness compared to a low effectiveness.
For example:

• A farm with 200 effectiveness will produce twice as many goods as a farm with 100 for example
  
• A garage at 150 effectiveness will provide 50% more job happiness to nearby buildings as opposed to 100 effectiveness

There are many influencing factors for effectiveness and it often varies a lot on the building type. Many buildings have their own effectiveness modifiers (often noted in the description of the building), so for example a farm's effectiveness gets modified by fertality (and pollution), but not beauty.

General way to increase effectiveness:

• Increase building budget (also see Building Budget section)
  
• Ensure a building is fully staffed; between -100 and 0
  
• Building upgrades; many buildings have upgrades that increase their effectiveness, keep in mind that those may only pay off after a while
  
• Hiring certain managers such as Foremen or Tycoon (see Dynaster/Manager section for details)

Besides that there are also some building-type specific modifiers or special buildings that can increase effectiveness:

Farms & Hydroponic Farms

• Fertality of the ground (-100 to +50)
  
• Nearby upgraded sugar farms (up to +30) or cattle ranches/factory farms (up to +20)
  
• Argicutural Subsidies edict +50
  
• (Farms only) upgraded Vehicle Factory with "Farming Vehicles" on the island (up +30)

Ranches

• Fertality (-100 to +50)

Entertainment buildings

• Mandi Gras edict +20
  
• upgraded TV Station (TNT Music Television), each nearby up to +20 (for a total of +60 if you build 3)
  
• nearby Fashion Company (up to +20)
  
• (Stadium) other nearby Stadiums +30 (up to +60)
  
• (Stadium) Host the Olympics edict +15
  
• (Tavern, Restaurant, Nightclub) nearby upgraded Rum Distillery (up to +20)
  
• (Tavern) Beauty (up to +25)
  
• (National Park) Beauty (up to +50)
  
• (Museum) Age, i.e. how long it has been built (up to +50)
  
• (Circus) Nearby Llama Farms or Factory farms (up to +15)

Clinics, Hospitals

• Immnuzation Campaign edict +20
  
• Upgraded Pharma Company (up to +40)

High Schools, College

• Literarcy Program edict +50
  
• (High Schools) Nearby upgraded Museum +25 (up to +50)

Factories

• Ecology consitution options (-20 with Zero Emissions, +10 with Economy First)
  
• (Jewerly Workshop) other Jewerly workshops nearby (up to +50), note that those do not have to be staffed
  
• (Vehicle Factory, Steel Mill, Electronics Factory) upgraded Waste Treatment Plant (up to +40)

WIP

Some data is taken from the lua files, and not tested atm; maked by a *

Summary:

• Citizens will prefer a job with high job happiness over a job with poor job happiness
  
• Job happiness is a part of the overall happiness of Tropicans
  
• Things affecting job happiness:
  
  • Garages improve job happiness by 10 of nearby buildings (up to 15 at max budget)
    
  • Budget adjusts job happiness (up to +25), for details see "Building Budget" section
    
  • Changing the constituion can increase or decrease job happiness
    
  • Adding a manager can increase/decrease job happiness (also see Dynasty/Manager section)
    
  • Some building upgrades can also increase or decrease job happiness

Summary:

• Service Quality determains how "happy" people with the service received are when visiting the building; higher is better
  
• Getting service quality as high as possible to maximize happiness is important
  
• Modern and high wealth buildings usually have a higher service quality then other buildings (ex. a Hospital has a higher SQ then a Clinic)
  
• Replace low service quality buildings with buildings that have higher quality when they become available
  
• Can be improved by increasing building effectiveness

Below are some ways to reach maximum service quality on buildings. I assume you have Free Market edict, since budget is important for getting high quality (see effectivness, budget sections).
Costs are based on Very High difficulty.

• Build a cluster with 3 TV stations, 2 Fashion Companies
  
• Poor vistors: Opera + Threepenny Opera upgrade
  
• Poor vistors: Restaurant 99 SQ (with 6 Food Types, Rum Distillery Nearby. Can reach 100 with Mardi Gras)
  
• Well-off: Possible with all buildings except Casino; easist Gang Hang Gliding see table below for math

• Reachable with Grocery or Supermarket
  
• Supermarket vs Grocery: less maintenance, more customers server per worker, 30 extra quality (10 compared to upgraded grocery)
  
• 6 Food types will reach 100 quality on grocery with either Farmers Fair upgrade or Extra Rations
  
• Food are Bananas, Corn, Fish, Milk, Meat and Pineapple
  
• Each type will increase the Service Quality by 5
  [']It seems you don't actualy have to have the food - building a farm and stopping it will increase food quality (bug?)

• Build Hospitals
  
• Issue Immunization Campain
  
• Build 2 Pharmaceutical Companies with "Suppy Local Market" Upgrade

• Use Mortage Subsidaries to lower the wealth requirement of houses by 1 level, setting budget to minimum also lowers it by one level.
  
• Building chucks of houses and boosting with religious buildings (do not need to be staffed) (+20 HQ), Metro Stations (+15 HQ), and beauty gives a boost too
  
• Mansions provide 100 SQ early on for Rich/Well-Off citizens, can provide 100SQ on poor level too (requires buildings though)
  
• Appartments, Modern Appartments and Houses can all provide 100SQ with HQ boosters nearby
  
• Appartments are cheaper then house, and have an upgrade path from Tenements, making them an optimal choice; they can also be used for "tight quaters" getting better space-effectiveness at the cost of service quality (can be offset by electrifcation or metro stations to reach 100 again)

• Build Cathedrals
  
• 99 SQ at Budget 4; 100 at Budget 5

Summary:

• Members can level up at any time, but the cost signifcantly increases after a upgrade (goes down the next game)
  
• You can get new members by playing the game - it's possible to get them from certain quests; usually a new born heir or a heir contest
  
• Changes to dynasty member (i.e. new members, dismissing members, level ups) will only be saved after game completion (winning or loosing a game, NOT leaving)
  
• The president gets his global bonus doubled

I'm guessing getting an optimal dynasty is up to personal preference, but there are some things I think that are more useful then other bonuses, as some properties are harder to get then others.

Useful: reduced construction costs, increased job quality, more starting money, improved envrionment

(More details at a later point)

• Build Guard Towers near Docks, Palace, Farms most importantly (secondly in your city era)
  
• Build Guard Towers in bulk (several next to each other)
  
• Building Guard Towers at narrow paths can damage troops walking by (or force them to attack the towers)
  
• Can be enough to hold off or even defeat weak attacks

• Place military unit buildings next to each other so units arive roughly at the same time
  
• Replace Military Fort with Barracks later (more powerful)
  
• Military Bases offer good troops for more space and initial cost then Barracks, but require significantly less staffx
  
• Always have a sufficent military to repel attacks (see below for details)
  
• Increase damage of troops by increasing building Effectivness, with "Military Drills" and "Right to Arms" edicts
  
• Professional Army constitution requires High School workers making it harder to staff military buildings

• Rebels will target Farms most likely or Industry
  
• Uprisings spawn near residental buildings and will try to take down the palace
  
• Invasions (also "Let them come" era choice) spawn near docks
  
• World War -> Cold War invasion will consist of 3x Infantry Troops, 1x Tank

• Focus on military buildings early on and build many more to overpower enemy
  
• Kill enemy military buildings, then economy. Proceed to Palace as soon it's possible
  
• Recall troops if they are going on suicide missions (i.e. attacking 1 buildings next to many guard towers)
  
• Conscription constitution is generally favorable in multiplayer because it makes it much easier to replace troops

In general the Colonial Era is about two things, creating a basic raw resource economy and getting enough support for the independance. It's usually adviseable to focus on the economy first, and then working on getting independance.

You'll also be doing contracts for the crown along the way, ensuring you stay in power long enough, and slowly plan to build/layout your town.


Staying in power should be quite simple.

Just do whatever the crown asks you to do; if you play a bunch of games you may notive there are certain quest lines that the crown will offer, and I recommend picking 12 month mandate extension as reward as for any task the crown offers. I suggest doing tasks along the way.

If you are running low on time and your task proves difficult, you may want to ensure it gets fuitfilled - for example, if you are tasked to export 3000 Logs, you may want to max the budget on the logging camp so it produces extra and is full staffed - or even build a second one (but usually this is not needed).

Once you'll also get a free 12 month mandate extension when you run low on mandate (6 months), sometimes also the option to pay for mandate extension for 10k if you're running low.

Summary:

• Do the crown tasks and choose 12 month mandate extension
  
• If you run low on time, focus on fuitfilling taks
  
• You get a free 12 month extension once

Since money is vital for success, it's important to build a strong economy early on - all those building will carry over to the next era, and serve as your backbone on the island.

I recommend focusing on farms and ranches; I prefer to build different types as you can take advantage of different deals (and diffrent industry) later on, as well as fuitfilling food diversity quite easily (and getting to 100 statisfaction easily).

As for the placement look for a patch of land that can serve as many types of farms decently (at least yellow, preferablely dark green), try to place 2-3 Sugar farms and 2-3 Cattle Ranches centrally and other farms around them; other type of ranches can be placed whereever you have suitable terrain.
Otherwise 1 of each type should suffice.
The reason for placing sugar and cattle ranches rather central is that with the upgrades they'll provide extra effiency for other farm buildings, essentially boosting them by up to 50.

To maximize your economy and exports I suggest buildings one or two extra docks, and extra teamsters. Also put docks, construction offices and teamsters at maximum budget to ensure they are always fully staffed and working properly.
You should also initiate the most profitable traderoutes, but I suggest not to anger the king too much (so often a +5 route may actually be favorable over a -10 route)

To get a more steady income you can also issue Paid Food once you've enough groceries for your current population or build some entertainment buildings.

I suggest to avoid mines, as they tend to deplete rather quickly and you need them in the later eras (so you can avoid imports). If you need them for a task, build them and do the exports, then just fire the workers (and stop it from hiring new ones).

Summary:

• Put your Construction Offices, Teamsters and Docks
  
• Build 2-3 Sugar Farms, 2-3 Cattle Ranches and other Farms around them
  
• Upgrade your Farms, Ranches
  
• Build some extra Construction Offices, Teamsters and Docks
  
• Initiate some Trade routes for larger export profits
  
• Issue Paid Food and build entertainment buildings

I suggest you start rather early with Research - i.e. after the fist farms have been build and you've received the "Build a Library" task from the Revolutionaries; focus on getting the Farm, Ranch upgrades first, Mines; then the other tiers. Adjust your research if necessary (sometimes you'll receive a task to research something particular like the Trigger or Planks).

As for revolutionary support, I suggest focusing on this once you've setup your economy (unless of course you can do the task along the way without issues). Do all the revolutionary tasks and simply import the revolutionaries all the time, that should get you a nice basis.
It is not necessary to choose the revolutionary option from the king tasks, just the revolutionary taks should suffice.

The next step would be to take care of your people's need which would also help with your approval, that means build Groceries (1 per 150 pop), Missions (1 per 100 pop) and Entertainment buildings; if you've followed the previous section you should get the food support to 100 easily - also may want to issue "Extra Rations".

If you don't have 50% yet, you may want to wait for more tasks - if you're running low on tasks, you may want to consider issuing "tax cut" edict which can easily be a 5-15 percent point improvement or bribing individuals.

You don't have to build houses (I never do, unless tasked to) - tenements in the later areas are a more viaable option and they should not be needed.

Note that if you've reached 51% approval the task will stay, so it's just required to hit that mark once.

Summary:

• Build Library when you have some farms and the task
  
• Start research early, adjust for tasks if required
  
• Choose +3 Revolutonaries for every revolutionary task
  
• Statisfy your people's needs and build Groceries, Catholic Missions and entertainment buildings
  
• Issue edict "Tax Cut" and eventually bribe people if you are stuggling with support
  
• Houses are usually not required for statisfaction

I personally avoid military confontation so early on; Forts take a lot of place and the units are inefficent in later eras.
If you need defense I simply suggest building a bunch of guard towers in bulks at choke points, they are usually strong enough to hold off pirates with the support of your palace troops. Often troops also appear in the same places, like the initial dock.

Pirates come in packs between 1-3, but as long you're low on treasury they can't steal anything. Also pirate attacks tend to be more common with high treasury it seems.

Summary:

• Avoid Forts as they become obsolete easily (and require research)
  
• Build guard towers in bulk (3+) at choke points (i.e. your initial dock)
  
• Spend your money if you still have anything to do, to avoid pirates stealing money

c

Before advacement make sure to check that you've done everything yon can in this era. Make sure everything is build & upgraded.

Secondly I suggest saving a lot of money for the next area, so you can start building the new buildings (like High Schools) right away.

As for the time of advancement unless you a reason to advance early, I suggest you just use your remaining mandate time to make money. Once you run low (6m or so), you just advance to the next era.
This time you have two options, paying the crown or having them attack. I suggest simply paying them off (10k usually, 20k if you have "bad" standing), if you choose the attack, make sure you have a bunch of guard towers (and possibly even forts).

Summary:

• Double-check that you've done anything you can in the era
  
• Amass some money; use remaining mandate time to increase your amount of money (suggest 50k+)
  
• Advance to the next era (pay 10k)

Summary:

• Build 2 High Schools, 1 College
  
• Get the research upgrade for College; delete Library
  
• Put budget of College to max, High School if necessary (or if you have excess money)
  
• Issue Literacy Program (once researched)

Summary:

• Build Clincs to serve your population (1 per 100; with upgrade 1/150)
  
• Build Police Stations (1 or 2)
  
• Replace Catholic Missions with Churches

Summary:

• Build (no-power) Factories (close to docks, between farms/docks)
  
• Construct Coal Mines and a Coal Powerplant
  
• Construct Mine-based industry (i.e. Steel + Coal/Iron Mine. Jewerly + Gold Mine)
  
• Construct power-based industry, such as Cannerys
  
• Upgrade your industry buildings

Summary:

• Build Army Bases (3-5) instead of Barracks (2 can be useful for tasks), place them close to each other
  
• Modernize Palace troops, Forts and Guard Towers
  
• Professional Army Edict should do (can do the others if you have issues)

Summary:

• Build Embassies, invite both countires
  
• Try to get good standing for good trade offers and foreign aid
  
• Alliance requires you to fend off a few troops (2x Infantry, 1x Tanks), but in turn you get 1x Infantry, 1x Tanks upon invasion
  
• Build Custom Office
  
• Build Dry Dock and get the upgrades

Summary:

• Build Housing near work places, garages, beautyful places and quality boosting buildings
  
• Suggest Tenements as they have an upgrade path for each following era
  
• Place gardens to increase beauity if it's yellow or less
  
• Leave space for future buildings (i.e Cathedral 4x6 (TODO - I think?), Offices 3x3, Waste Treatment 4x4)

Summary:

• Make sure you have money and completed everything as usual
  
• Sign deals; Accept their offer or deal with Invasion (3 infantry squads a 1 tank squad)
  
• Axis offer 30 Immigrants but -20 Foreign relations; I suggest not taking this offer
  
• Allies ask you to pay 30k; if you have enough money just take this offer
  
• Having good standing (80+ I think) with either faction can help to bypass the issue completely, they just sign the offer without any requirement

Summary:

• Replace Churches with Cathedrals
  
• Replace Clinics with Hospitals
  
• Build new entertainment buildings, Museum near High Schools is pretty decent

Summary:

• Construct Oil Buildings; Offshore is good for long term (you can import Coal to turn into oil)
  
• Construct new industry, such as Pharmacy Company, Vehicle Factory
  
• Modernize Mines
  
• (Optional) Modernize Farms to Factory Farms; make sure you construct additional Corn farms or import Corn to feed them
  
• Increase your oil & ore deposits; issue Geological Survery and Hydraulic Frakking, upgrade Mines
  
• Construct Uranium Power Plant & Uranium Mine for extra power; alternatively additional Coal Plant
  
• Upgrade Industry Buildings if you have the spare power

Summary:

• Build Waste Treatment
  
• Build Super Markets

Summary:

• Focus on getting "Tourism" area - high beauty, low polution areas, specialize them
  
• Culture: Build goceries and prevent them from getting workers; build Haciendas around them for 150 effiencyc
  
• Slob: Place hotels close to many entertainment buildings for maximum effiency
  
• Eco: A far away place with just a few buildings should do
  
• Family: Can be pretty much placed in any beautiful place, construct police station only if necessary
  
• Construct Airport for some extra tourists, better rating and a bit of income

Summary:

• As always, check on money and make sure you've built everything
  
• Construct either Space Program or Nuclear Program; I suggest Space Program for the Science Boost, Nuclear seems mostly useless

Summary:

• (possibly) Upgrade Farms to Hydroponic Farms (do this few at a time because of education!)
  
• Construct new industry buildings, such as Electronics Company and Fashion Company
  
• Get remaining building upgrades
  
• Construct additional Docks or Teamsters if necessary, make sure to import the resources you need if your mines are depleted

Summary:

• Replace Coal Plants with Geothermical Plants; eventually decommission your Nuclear Power Plant as well if you like
  
• Upgrade service buildings (i.e cathedrals)
  
• Place some Metro Stations
  
• Get new Entertainment buildings (building 3-4 Stadiums next to each other can be quite decent), get rid of low service quality ones
  
• Get 3 new Embassies and invite the other countries

Summary:

• Construct Aerodome
  
• Construct new Hotels (and Luxery Liner)

Summary:

• Eventually amend the constitution to get better standing with the factions
  
• Issue or retract certain edicts to improve your faction standing; make sure you have all benefical edicts

• Buildings from the island will carry over to the next time you play it, so build wisely
  
• You'll choose between 2 islands which you'll be switching for 8 missions, then further two
  
• You can "cheat" some money at the end of a mission for the next: simply place down any expensive buildings so they can't be build for all of your money. The next time you play on that island you can cancel all them and get the money back

• Have a sufficent military
  
• Keep your population happy (check in menu, not just voter approval)
  
• Keep your factions statisfied
  
• Send rebels or rebel leaders away (watch civil unrest, don't do it with high unrest)

This happens due to the edicts you have issued. Some edicts will stop buildings:


In the Cold War section of edict, select the Bonds option (Top left icon); in the menu you can buy back bonds which will increase your credit rating.


There is a general population cap of 2000 in Tropico. You can get more inhabitants temporarily, but the population will drop to 2000 again.
There is a mod to bypass the limit in the Kalypso Forum:
http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=22981&pid=189101#pid189101

V1.4

• Added section to Service Quality for maxing the respective SQ levels

V1.3.1

• Some tips for the campain added

V1.3

• Military section contents added

V1.2

• Missing dynasty / manager options added; fixed some descriptions and added a new note
  
• Job Happiness summary added
  
• Service Quality summary added
  
• Effectivness section contents added