In SimCity BuildIt items can be manufactured using industrial and commercial buildings. Items are used to upgrade residential zones, craft higher value items in commercial buildings, complete random sales in your town for simoleons, complete quests to earn special items, send off in cargo shipments to earn Golden Keys or air cargo shipments to earn special items, sell on the Global Trade HQ for simoleons, and start disasters.
Items can be categorized by their function. At the beginning, new players can only create raw materials, which are primarily used to craft commercial items. Popping chat bubbles in your town or others' has a chance to get expansion items, which is used to expand either land or storage depending on the item. Commercial items are then produced after unlocking commercial buildings. Building the airport will unlock access to specialized items used for upgrading residential houses of that type (Parisian, Tokyo, or London). Lastly, building the Vu Tower unlocks special items used for starting disasters.
As you level, you will unlock new items or buildings. You can also upgrade buildings once you reach a certain level. Some Items require you to upgrade the commercial buildings before making it. Note that when you enter the Global Trade HQ, you will only see items advertised or in other players' trade centers if you have unlocked those items. You can still visit other players but the locked items will not appear for you.
Factory Raw Materials
Raw materials are items produced in factories and cost nothing but time to create. These materials are the foundation for producing higher value items using commercial buildings but require more time to manufacture. Many raw materials can be created at the same time in factories, but all other buildings limit you to creating 1 item at a time. Depending on the factory, you can produce between 2 and 5 items per factory - at the same time. With 6 of the most upgraded factories, you can produce 30 of any raw item at a time. That makes them far more valuable than other materials when you are selling for profit. You could essentially put 30 pieces of metal on the market every minute. I know that the graph gives a per hour calculation, but that is misleading for raw materials. If you were fast enough to constantly have metal going (and I will assume it takes about a minute to reset the metal production every minute - giving you 30 rounds of production / hour). 10 / metal * 30 = 300 / minute. Assuming you get 30 out in an hour (instead of 60), you could sell that for 9000 per hour. Just keep in mind that you only get one free advertised item per minute, and would have to pay for the rest, and have limited slots until you pay for more. If you calculate multiple production items and factor in the posting limit per minute, plastics would probably be the biggest bang for the buck. Metal would limit you to 50 / minute, but plastics would be 125 / minute. Given the 9 minute waiting period for 30 (which can be posted in about 6 minutes without cost), you have 3 spare minutes per 9 to use anywhere in the game. Assuming a perfect sale: 50 * 9 gives you a maximum of 450 for the same waiting period. With plastic, you would be able to post 125*6 = 750 and have 3 more minutes for whatever you wanted.
Commercial Products
Building Supplies Store
This table was created to maximize earnings by highlighting the high profit items, factoring in materials' individual price versus the item being produced.
Note: The times used are for non-upgraded commercial buildings.
Hardware Store
Farmer's Market
Furniture Store
Gardening Supplies
Donut Shop
Fashion Store
Fast Food Restaurant
Home Appliances
Special Items
A third tier of items exist, called special items, which can be used to upgrade the city storage, expand the city's border, contribute to a club war or to start a disaster. Special items are not manufactured but they can be earned by popping Sims' opinion bubbles in town and in the occasional gift boxes that appear when visiting other cities. War items can be claimed by doing war repairs, bought with war simoleans and using the war trade depot. They can also be purchased in the Global Trade HQ or in Daniel's town. Paris, Tokyo, and London town items can be obtained in the aforementioned methods and also by completing air cargo shipments.
Item | Description | Max Value | Unlocked At |
---|---|---|---|
Items used to increase City Storage | |||
Storage Camera | Special Item to upgrade the City Storage. | 650 | Level 1 |
Storage Lock | Special Item to upgrade the City Storage. | 650 | Level 1 |
Storage Bars | Special Item to upgrade the City Storage. | 650 | Level 1 |
Items used to Expand City Areas | |||
Dozer Exhaust | Special Item to open Expansion Areas. | 800 | Level 1 |
Dozer Wheel | Special Item to open Expansion Areas. | 800 | Level 1 |
Dozer Blade | Special Item to open Expansion Areas. | 800 | Level 1 |
Items used to Expand Beach Areas | |||
Ship’s Wheel | Special Item to expand Beach Areas. | 1,500 | Level 15 |
Scuba Mask | Special Item to expand Beach Areas. | 1,500 | Level 15 |
Lifebelt | Special Item to expand Beach Areas. | 1,500 | Level 15 |
Items used to Expand Mountain Areas | |||
Compass | Special Item to expand Mountain Areas. | 1,500 | Level 23 |
Snowboard | Special Item to expand Mountain Areas. | 1,500 | Level 23 |
Winter Hat | Special Item to expand Mountain Areas. | 1,500 | Level 23 |
Items used to launch Disasters | |||
Vu's Battery | Special Item to launch a Disaster. | 500 | 90,000 |
Vu's Gloves | Special Item to launch a Disaster. | 500 | 90,000 |
Vu's Remote | Special Item to launch a Disaster. | 500 | 90,000 |
Items used to upgrade Parisian residential zones | |||
Fashion Clothes | Special imported item to build and upgrade Parisian Zones. | 1,800 | 120,000 |
La Baguette | Special imported item to build and upgrade Parisian Zones. | 1,800 | 120,000 |
Luxury Bag | Special imported item to build and upgrade Parisian Zones. | 1,800 | 120,000 |
Items used to upgrade London residential zones | |||
Bobby's Helmet | Special imported item to build and upgrade London Zones. | 2,000 | 160,000 |
Teapot | Special imported item to build and upgrade London Zones. | 2,000 | 160,000 |
Telephone Box | Special imported item to build and upgrade London Zones. | 2,000 | 160,000 |
Items used to upgrade Tokyo residential zones | |||
Bonsai Tree | Special imported item to build and upgrade Tokyo Zones. | 2,200 | 260,000 |
Lantern | Special imported item to build and upgrade Tokyo Zones. | 2,200 | 260,000 |
Lucky Cat | Special imported item to build and upgrade Tokyo Zones. | 2,200 | 260,000 |
Items used in club wars | |||
Gasoline |
Bill of Materials
These are the raw materials needed to build and the total time, from factory to completion, each store item. The total time is before any store upgrades or Speed-Up Tokens.
Materials can be produced simultaneously, so the minimum time to produce materials needed for an item is the time it takes to produce slowest-producing material (e.g. to produce Cement it takes 120min to produce Chemicals, the required Minerals will have been produced at the same time).
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