Anno 2205 is out today on PC (we'll have a review for you in the coming days) and this latest version of the city-builder continues the series' futuristic flavour with a new goal of steering your corporation towards its very own colony on the moon. As well as the usual city-planning challenges, you'll also have to manage multiple settlements and coordinate trade routes between regions if you're to reach your ultimate destination.

If you've dabbled with Anno games in the past, you'll know that there can be quite a lot to take on board if you're not familiar with some of the fundamental nuts and bolts. With that in mind, we got in touch with the development team to ask for their thoughts on a few areas we've come unstuck on in the past. What they came back to us was so insightful, that we have for the most reproduced their thoughts for you below.

Psalm 55 - For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David. Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught. We compare the graphics of Anno 2205 on PC – low vs. Ultra (ultrahigh) graphics settings. We used a GTX 980Ti for this test. In some camera sequences we had visible framedrops.

On this page:

Anno 2205 - city layouts, environments, trade routes, naval combat
How to get started with the early foundations of your fledgling cities.

Other pages:

Anno 2205 - keyboard shortcuts, tips, factories, upgrades
Managing expansion and maximising your production facility upgrades.

Optimal city layouts for different environment types

There are quite a few things to consider when you lay out your settlements - production areas, housing, energy needs and so on. It helps to have a plan, and know exactly what it is you want to achieve, so here are a few tips for creating an efficient infrastructure.

• Try to plan ahead, and keep in mind module sizes and amounts when laying out your city.
• Use the movement tool and test around with your layouts.
• The further away a house is from a public building, the more of its supply it will consume. So place your public buildings centrally so as to extend their reach in all directions. Below is an example of how you can perfectly fit an Infodrome into your starting city.

• In the Arctic sectors you need to supply your houses with heat, which is given off by production facilities. This means you need to mix industry and houses. A good piece of advice here is to take advantage of modules which don't need a street connection.
• Geothermal Turbines and Gas Power Stations have the biggest heat radius.
• On the moon it is important to build an effective shield. Shield generators come in two sizes and cost extra upkeep. You should try to minimize any overlap between them to optimise the cost-benefit ratio.

• As always with Anno: If you have a gap try to figure out what could fit.

Managing trade routes efficiently

A bigger vehicle is not always better than two small ones. Transporting 40 tons with two small transporters is always cheaper than using a bigger one. It's a balance between maximizing savings and ease of management. You can easily calculate your transport costs per ton. Here is an example for transferring 100t of goods between two temperate regions:

• 5 x 20t routes cost 5*50 credits/minute = 250 credits/minute
• 1 x 150t route costs 300 credits/minute
• 5 routes with 20t are most cost effective
• 1 route with 100t is the more comfortable to manage

At a certain point the more comfortable option also becomes more effective (add 20t to the example above and the costs are the same), so remember to check your routes from time to time to see if you can optimize.

How to make more money and balance your economy

Just like the real world, money makes the world(s) go around in Anno, and you'll need to manage your incomings and outgoings carefully if you're to remain stable and in a good position to expand your settlements.

• Balance your economy by balancing your production and the consumption of your employees. Keep an eye on your balances - a zero balance is perfect as it means everything you produce is consumed. A slight under-production is better than a big over-production, as the latter will fill up your storage fast. When your storage space is completely full, any over-production (and the credits you spent achieving it) is lost. If you plan to upgrade your employees, it's a good idea to have a positive balance of the goods they will need.
• Fulfill old needs before you fulfill new ones, as the new ones will most likely cost you more money in the beginning. That happens if one facility produces much more than your employees consume.
• To bring in more money, start upgrading or expanding your city. If, however, you expand too much without upgrading, you might be unable to access new land via bridges. Bridges require a certain amount and a certain type of employees. If you cannot provide these then the bridge can't be build. You might need to go back and tear down parts of your city to meet these requirements.
• A final tip for expansion is that you should check early on if the other islands in your sector can be connected via bridges or with additional Warehouses. Later in the game you can check the strategic view for new sectors that you can acquire from your competitors.

Naval combat tips and maximising the rewards they provide

The naval missions in Anno 2205 have you commanding a small fleet of ships in a map-wide battle against enemy forces. Here are a few pointers to help you maximise the time you spend in this section of the game.

• Upgrade your ships if you can afford it. They last longer and deal more damage, speeding up your progress overall.
• Do the side quests. There are always three of them in each fight, and they give out additional Rare resources for completing tasks that you can probably do quickly on the side.
• Minefields can usually be utilised to your advantage. Try to lure enemies into them and then fire on the mines.
• If you are overwhelmed, try to flee. Your ships are fast and the enemies will eventually stop chasing you.
• The different Enemy classes drop different Special Actions: Bombarders & Bomb Drones can drop Nukes, Hunters & Drone Carriers can drop Support Fleets, and Defenders & Maintainers can drop EMPs. Captain Units can drop all Actions.
• The EMP is ideal for stopping Drone Carriers or Harbors from spawning more enemies for you to deal with.
• Even if you're done with the main objective, check the rest of the map for enemy towers, turrets and harbours (they drop Rare Materials too), as well as Rare Material storages.
• If you unlock a higher difficulty, give it a go but upgrade your ships beforehand and be careful. It's always harder in the beginning and takes a bit longer to complete, but the rewards are also much greate. In the end it's always worthwhile and more efficient to play the missions in a harder mode.
• The hard difficulties require you to play offensively. Make sure you actively engage enemy fleets, as you'll need the Fuel and Actions that they leave behind on the map.
• Check different Missions as they feature other mission objectives, such as destroying the so-called Eradicators before they reach the allied base, or seizing strategic points on the map from the enemy.
• Check your ships for their roles. For example, the Flare vessel that you get a little later in the game is a fragile artillery ship that won't help a lot against other ships, but is awesome when it comes to taking out those pesky Fortified Towers.

- The next part of our guide covers keyboard shortcuts and factory upgrades in Anno 2205.

Factories and production lines drive pretty much everything in the development of your corporation, and getting things right first time can make life a lot easier down the road. Style savvy fashion forward bold. Try to keep the following considerations in mind as you develop the infrastructures of each region you manage.

The most important factory upgrades and their impact

• The most important upgrades are always the production modules. They increase the output of a facility often times more than a new one would produce, cost a fraction of a new facility, cost half as much upkeep and are always more space efficient.

• The smaller modules are for fine tuning and are best used on facilities fully expanded with production modules as they affect the overall upkeep costs.
• Finance Calculators: For energy facilities only! They reduce the overall credit upkeep cost and are thus very powerful. They are even more effective if used on higher tier energy facilities, as they reduce the upkeep by 10%.

• Drone Hives: Reduce the Workforce needed for facilities. Interesting for Arctic, Moon and Temperate supply sectors with low workforce.
• Accumulator Units: Useful for buildings that need a lot of energy and even more useful if they have production modules.

• Storage Depots: Probably the weakest of them all but sometimes you just lack one or two transporters. Also these are much cheaper than Transportation Centers and cost no upkeep at all.
• When you play online visit the council and vote! If you vote you get branded versions of the smaller modules at the end of the election cycle. These branded modules have better stats than their regular counterparts.

Useful keyboard shortcuts and micro-management tips

There are quite a few useful shortcuts in the game that will not only let you expand your infrastructure with the minimum of micro-management, but also save you having to listen to the same snippets of voicework over and over again!

Here are some of the most important ones to start using from the off, so it all becomes second nature as you dig deeper into the game.

• When building houses hold down the left mouse button [LMB] and drag an area to build multiple structures at once.
• Select a house and press [Shift + U] to promote all houses of the selected level.
• Press [A] or [U] to activate the promotion tool. You can either click single houses to promote them, or promote all houses in an area by holding [LMB] and drawing a rectangle. To do this, draw a rectangle starting from the house you want to upgrade while holding [LMB], and all other houses of that type in the marked area will be upgraded as well.
• Press [C] to enter Copy mode, which allows you to clone buildings by clicking on existing ones without having to use the build menu.
• Press [S] to quickly enter Street Build mode.
• Press [D] to enter Demolish mode. While holding [LMB], draw a rectangle starting from the building you want to destroy, and all other buildings of that type in the marked area will be destroyed. This works for streets as well.
• Press [M] to enter the Move mode. With this you can rearrange single buildings. Facilities will be moved with all their modules attached. You can even move whole mines to other Mountain Building Sites.

A handful of useful new player tips

You'll learn a lot of the fundamentals as you work your way through the campaign, but there are a few other assorted tips that will help you manage your money and avoid making expensive mistakes!

• Always watch your Credit balance and check the upkeep costs of whatever you choose to build first.
• Keep an eye on your employees' needs and your storage balance.
• Pause buildings of incomplete production chains if you do not have enough Credits to finish the chains. That will save you some cash.
• Avoid too much over-production.
• Collect crates that spawn randomly on the islands, as they contain Credits and building materials.
• Buy building materials at the trade posts in your sectors to speed up construction.
• A tip when you are in dire need for Credits: The Global Union will provide some cash if you level up. Level-ups are achieved by reaching population milestones. Sometimes it just needs a few more houses or upgrades to reach the next level.
• When you make it to the moon, watch your Credits. Even housing costs Credits up there!

- Return to the first page for the rest of our Anno 2205 guide.

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