City Story Metro Walkthrough

Team Lava’s City Story Metro has you playing as mayor of your own thriving metropolis. Design amazing neighborhoods, strategically place businesses and factories in your city and help it thrive as you re-invest your profits!  Gamezebo’s quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

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Game Introduction – City Story Metro

Team Lava’s City Story Metro has you playing as mayor of your own thriving metropolis. Design amazing neighborhoods, strategically place businesses and factories in your city and help it thrive as you re-invest your profits!  Gamezebo’s quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

Quick Start Guide

Getting Started

  • City Story Metro can be found by clicking on the “Play Now!” button at the top of this page.
  • Push notifications – You will be asked if you would like the game to send you push notifications when you load the game the first time. You can change these settings any time in the settings area of your device under “application notifications”

City Story Metro

  • Name your city – Once you visit the “Social” area of the menu for the first time you will be prompted to name your city. Note that this is not necessarily the same as your user name unless you want it to be. The game is associated with Storm8 and if you already have a Storm 8 ID from other Team Lava games this will automatically appear on your device as your username. Note – When inviting others to play send them your user name not your town name.
  • Brief tutorial – There is a brief introductory tutorial seen only when you start the game the first time. You are the mayor of your city and you will be introduced to “Anne” your assistant who is your tutorial guide. You will be shown how to place a building on your land after purchasing it from the store, how to collect from buildings, re-stock businesses, and complete quests. This guide will get you started by giving you a more detailed look at the game and will help you with strategies and tips to earn higher overall scores.
  • Daily player bonus – Logging in daily will earn you bonus coins. Once every twenty four hours when you log in you will earn a coin bonus. If you log in each day consecutively you will earn a larger coin bonus each day up to day four which is the maximum. After day four the daily bonus starts over again. This is a great way to get free coins so be sure to log in and don’t miss a day.
City Story Metro

Message Center

  • Messages – If you see a number next to the envelope icon at the top right of the game screen you have messages from other players. These are usually neighbor invitations or notifications of gifts they have sent you that you will need to accept or material requests for you to respond to. Go through all of your messages several times a day to keep adding neighbors and gifts to your inventory. You can always access this menu by tapping on the envelope icon or you can tap on menu then “Social” then “Messages.
  • Newsfeed – This is a listing of all players that have visited your city and any messages they may have left you. There is a link to visit them in the newsfeed if you wish.

City Story Metro

Game Settings

Game setting controls -To access the game settings menu tap on the menu icon at the lower left of the game screen and when this menu appears tap on “Settings” and you will see the menu shown in the image above. Here you can toggle the game music and sound effects, connect to Facebook and adjust your push notifications for specific tasks.

City Story Metro
Game Currency

  • Gold coins -This is the basic game currency used to purchase items such as buildings, decorative items, and expansions of land. You will earn gold coins each time you collect rent from a building, as a reward for quest completion, and as a bonus when neighbors visit your city or your visit theirs. The currency indicator is shown at the top left of the screen. When you start the game you are given twenty thousand gold coins to start out with. You will earn the coins you invest in properties back in the form of rent you will collect at various intervals per building you place.

City Story Metro

  • Gems – This is the premium virtual currency that allows you to purchase privileges in the game such as special animated businesses that earn you much higher coin payouts, extra energy, instant quest completion, instant construction, instant expansion of your city and more. You are given twenty pink gems when you start the game for the first time and may use it however you choose. You can purchase a high end building that will pay rent to you or you may use these gems to speed up processes that take a long time.
  • Purchasing additional currency – You have the ability to purchase additional pink gems by tapping on the “add” button underneath the currency indicator at the top center of the game screen. You will now see the purchase menu and you will use real currency to purchase gems. This is considered an in app purchase and charged to your device according to how you have set it up to do so.
  • If you do not want to make in app purchases tap on the “Help” button in the “FAQ” section and it will tell you how to set your device to avoid this
  • Prices of gems range from $.99 USD for 20 gems to $49.99 for 1400 gems and the more you purchase the better rate you will receive.

City Story Metro

  • Exchange gems for gold coins – You cannot purchase gold coins outright if you need more. You must either purchase gems and exchange them for coins or wait until you can collect rent on your properties. Tap on the “add” button under the coins indicator or look for the “coins” tab along the top of the purchase menu.

City Story Metro

Energy

  • Energy – Energy is critical to the game as you must energy points to construct buildings, collect rent, and cut down trees in the game. Buildings can take anywhere from one to five energy points to build, trees can take two to four energy points to completely remove from your land, and it will cost one energy point each time you collect rent from a house or business in your city.
  • Your energy indicator is located along the top of the screen and is shown with the lightning bolt icon. The maximum amount of energy you can hold in your meter begins at fifteen energy points and this increases as you level up in the game.
  • How to get more energy – There are a couple of ways to get more energy once you run out if you wish to continue playing.

City Story Metro

  • Purchase more energy – Tap on the energy icon or visit the market and you may purchase energy here using gems. It is very expensive at a rate of ten gems for three energy points. If you purchase larger bundles you will get a better deal. The maximum amount of energy you can purchase is twenty points for fifty gems.
  • Energy regeneration – You can also wait until energy regenerates which happens at a rate of one point every two minutes. Note the countdown clock under the meter which always lets you know how long until the next energy point will be added.
  • Level up – Each time you level up in the game your energy meter is refilled to its maximum as a reward.

City Story Metro

Population

  • Population is seen at the top left of the game screen next to the smiley face icon. You will always see your current population number here as well as the maximum or “Cap” underneath which is the maximum number of people you can have living in your city.
  • To increase your population you will need to build houses and place them in your city. Each house which is found in the market will show you its population value starting at a minimum of ten people and the more expensive the house, or housing building the more people will move in. If you try to place a building to increase population and the game won’t let you, this means you will exceed your population cap and will need to place a community building or wonder to increase it before you can place that building. You can try placing a smaller house until you can afford to raise your cap.
  • How to increase your population cap or maximum – To increase your population maximum you will need to either purchase and place community buildings or wonders in your city.

City Story Metro

Goods/Contracts

  • Each time you place a business in your city it will require you to stock it with goods periodically. Each business has a different requirement based on its value. Once you stock a business then you must wait a determined amount of time before it will pay out for you.
  • There is an indicator shown along the top right of the game screen next to the crate icon which will show you how many goods you have in stock for use. Whenever you see a crate icon over a business this means it needs to be replenished before it will earn money or happiness stars for you. Tap on the icon and replenish the business so it will start earning coins for you.
  • How to obtain goods – You will need to purchase and construct the buildings where you can make goods. These include greenhouses and factories in the first fifteen levels of the game.

City Story Metro

  • Contract icon – You will need to tap on the building when you see the contract icon over it and then a menu will appear with options for purchasing production of goods.

City Story Metro

Contract Menu for Goods

  • There are four contracts to choose from in each type of building as shown in image above. You will need to use gold coins to purchase the contracts then wait the stated amount of time to earn a certain number of goods which you will only be able to use once you tap on the crate icon over the building and collect them. Once they are added to your overall total tap on a business that needs to be replenished and the goods will automatically be stocked and deducted from your overall total at the top of the screen.
  • You can wait anywhere from three minutes to eight hours to collect goods with the longer the wait time the higher number of goods produced.
  • Push notifications can be set to remind you when a contract is completed and goods are ready for collection.

City Story Metro

XP Stars

  • (XP Experience points) – At the top left of the game screen you will see a star with a number in it. This number is your current level in the game.
  • Each time you level up in the game you will unlock more items in the market for purchase and your energy meter will refill to its maximum level as well as coins or energy points may be added.
  • Each time you collect rent, construct a building, purchase a building or décor item, or visit a neighbor you will earn star points. You will see these gold stars when you collect rent and do just about every action in the game. These are what help you to level up in the game.

City Story Metro

Market

  • The game market is seen at the lower right corner of the game screen. Tap on it to bring up the menu.

City Story Metro

  • The market menu has several categories for you to choose from;
  • Featured – These are special items for sale for a limited amount of time that can only be purchased with premium currency. (Gems) and when these items are placed they earn you a higher number of XP stars, population, and/or coin payout. You will likely have to wait until you reach certain levels to unlock certain items. If you see a padlock over an item it will tell you what level you need to reach to unlock it for purchase.
  • Mystery? – The icon for this feature is on the menu but it is not active at this time. This feature is coming soon so be sure to watch for it in the market in future game updates.
  • Expand – Tap here to expand your city allowing you to construct more buildings on it. (See “Expansions” below for more details.)
  • Homes – Tap here to purchase homes which will increase your population and pay your rent at various intervals. Houses can be purchased with coins and gems once unlocked.
  • Businesses – Tap here to purchase businesses to place in your city. These will need to be stocked with goods before they earn coins for you so be sure to read about this in the “Goods” section above.
  • Decorations – Tap here to see the décor items you can purchase for your city. Note – décor items do not earn coins for you. They earn XP when you purchase them which can help you level up faster and make your city more attractive.
  • Industry – Here you can purchase buildings which allow you to produce goods to stock your businesses. A population limit must be reached before you can add more industry buildings to your city. These include greenhouses, industrial plants, and factories. You will need to collect contracts from you neighbors in order to build these buildings in addition to paying for them and their construction.

City Story Metro

  • Wonders – These are special attractions which take up a very large amount of land in your city so make sure you have expanded before you purchase them. These are the items which will increase the population cap of your city. Wonders also earn large amounts of coins for you once every twenty four hours. These are the most expensive items in the market and start out at over nine hundred thousand coins for the least expensive wonder. You can also purchase a wonder with large number of gems. It will take quite a while before you have enough funds to place a wonder unless you purchase gems. It is best to place community buildings in the lower levels until you build your city large enough to earn you millions of coins.
  • Community – These are the second type of building that increases your population cap once placed in your city. These buildings are much more affordable than wonders and can be placed in early levels. You will start out with “City Hall” and unlock more buildings as you level up. They will earn coins for you every eight hours and you will have to purchase their construction with energy points. Note – These buildings also need materials in order for you to complete them. You will have to ask your neighbors to send you these materials or you can purchase them using gems if you don’t want to wait.

City Story Metro

How to place buildings or decor in your city/Construction

  • Once you tap on an item you wish to purchase in the market you will need to place it in your city.
  • Important – All buildings must be placed directly next to a road in order to function. You can place it without a road but you will see a “!” symbol and the building will not earn rent for you and you won’t be able to stock or earn from a business unless it is correctly placed.
  • Tap on the item you wish to purchase and you will be taken back to your city with the land divided into a blue grid of squares.
  • Use your fingertip to guide the building or décor item where you want it. You will see a green check mark or a red “X” button on each side of the structure. Once you see a green base in the grid tap on the green button to lock in the purchase. At this point your coins or gems will be deducted for purchase. If you choose the “X” this will cancel the transaction.

City Story Metro

  • Construction phases – Each structure will have a certain number of times required for you to tap on it to complete its construction. Each time you tap it will cost you one energy point. Small houses may take one or two taps to complete and larger community buildings could take five or more. Be sure to figure this into your overall cost consideration before you purchase and place a building in your city. Make sure it is doing what you want it to do for you.
  • Constructible items – Some structures will require you to have items in storage before you can complete construction. This is usually community buildings and wonders. The game will notify you if you need these items and you can send out requests for them from your neighbors or you can purchase them with gems. Examples of these items would be “municipal seals” or “fancy pedestals” in the early levels.
  • Completed structures– Once you complete construction you will hear fanfare and will see balloons temporarily rise up from the structure. Your building will now start to earn rent for you. If it is a business you will now need to stock it with goods and then it will begin to earn rent for you.
City Story Metro

How to move, rotate or store buildings or décor items in your city

  • If you need to move, rotate or store a building or décor item simply tap on the “Edit” button at the lower right corner of the game screen.
  • Now the city will go back into grid mode.

City Story Metro

  • Tap on the structure you wish to move and it will highlight with three buttons over it as shown in image above.  Tap on structure and drag it with your fingertip to a new location and tap again to lock it in.
  • Rotate – Tap on the rotate arrows and the structure will turn once. You will have to tap four times to completely turn it around.
  • Storage – Tap on the item you wish to store then tap on the box icon over the item and the structure will move into storage immediately for later use. There is no confirmation screen and the item will instantly disappear. Note – If you take a structure out of your city it will not count toward your population count any longer nor will it earn any money for you. You may wish to move items here temporarily if you want to rearrange things.

City Story Metro

Finding items in Storage

  • How to find items in storage – Tap on the “Menu” button at the lower left corner of the game screen then tap on “Storage” to bring up your storage menu. Note there are category tabs along the top or you can tap on “All” If you wish to place an item in your city tap on it and place it just as you do when purchasing it.

City Story Metro

Selling items

  • Sell items – Tap on the “$” symbol to sell an item back to the market. A message will appear at the bottom of the screen allowing you to confirm that you wish to sell the item. Note that you will not get the same amount you purchased the item for. You will only get back one quarter or less than the original purchase price. If you purchase items with gems and attempt to sell them you will not get gems back you will get coins and it will only be a quarter or less of the original value.

City Story Metro

Building Status

  • Each building you place will earn rent for you at different intervals. To see when the next payout is simply tap on a structure and a menu will appear from the bottom such as the one shown above.
  • Here you will see how much time is left via a countdown timer before you can collect coins, goods, or speed this time up if you choose. It also tells you how many coins or goods you will earn when this time is completed.
  • Speed up/Instant completion – Each building if you tap on it offers you the ability to purchase instant completion for a cost of one or more gems. Tap on this option and you will instantly be able to collect rent or goods from a structure.

City Story Metro

How to collect rent

  • Once you place houses or housing structures in your city they will instantly begin to collect rent for you at various intervals. You can tap on any structure to see a summary screen of when and how much it will earn for you.
  • You will see a gold coin icon over a house or business once rent is ready to be collected. Simply tap on the gold coin icon and the coins will be placed in your bank and the XP star(s) will be added to your total.
  • Note – It is a good idea to check the game frequently throughout the day and collect the rent as often as possible. If you don’t you will miss out on a lot of income as you must collect rent before it can start to build up again.

City Story Metro

How to supply goods to your businesses

  • Before you can collect rent on a business you must stock it with goods.
  • Each business will have a different requirement.
  • When you see the crate icon and a down arrow over a business this means you need to add stock to it.
  • Tap on the crate icon and goods will be added if you have enough in your inventory.
  • Goods are produced in your industry buildings such as greenhouses, plants, and factories. Be sure to build as many of these as you are allowed per your level and keep them working on production at all times.

City Story Metro

Goals

  • Tap on the clipboard icon at the upper left side of the game screen to access the game goals menu.
  • Here you will see tasks that you will need to complete in order to advance in the game. Once you complete these goals you are given large coin and XP star rewards that will help you level up in the game much faster.
  • You will need the rewards from these goals in order to afford items in the game. It is also a great way to learn how to play the game.
  • It is best to follow the game goals and not make purchases without consulting them as you could miss large rewards and delay the unlocking of additional goals.

City Story Metro

  • Once the goal menu opens you will see a list of goals and the order you complete them is up to you. Tap on a goal to read it.
  • You can sometimes purchase required items right from the goal list by tapping on the “buy” button which will take you directly to that item in the market which is much easier.
  • Once you complete a goal a reward menu will appear showing you what you have earned and once you accept the coins and XP stars will be added to your totals above.

City Story Metro

Expansion

  • You will need to expand your city frequently in order to keep up with the game goals.
  • Tap on “Market” then on “Expand” and you will see your city with a grid of yellow squares. Choose one of these squares you wish to expand. You will only be able to expand one square at a time.

City Story Metro

  • Tap on the yellow square and a menu will appear showing you the cost and how many permits (if any) you will need to do the expansion.
  • You may need to ask friends for permits before you can purchase the expansion. Tap on the “Ask friends” button if you need help.
  • Once you have the correct number of permits accepted into storage and enough money tap on “Expand” and a countdown clock will appear. Each time you expand this time will increase. It starts out at thirty seconds then the second expansion is one minute, then five and so on. As you get to the high levels it could take many hours before the expansion is complete.

City Story Metro

  • You will see a time bar across the square and once it fills up and disappears the land will lighten up and you will now be able to place new items on it.
  • Tip – Be sure to place roads after you remove all of the trees as all buildings must be attached to a road to function.

City Story Metro

How to remove trees

  • Removing Trees – If there are trees on your land you will not be able to place anything over them and they must be removed.
  • It costs several energy points to remove trees. One tree is usually two energy points and you will need to tap it twice to chop it down and remove it completely. Some clusters of trees will take higher amounts of energy to clear away.
  • Once you expand your land take note of how many trees you will need to remove. The only cost is in energy points.

City Story Metro

Social Menu

  • City Story Metro is a very social game and you will need to have many neighbors to do well.
  • Each person that plays the game has a “Storm8” ID. If you have played any other Team Lava game on your device the game will automatically log you in under that name. If you are not sure what your ID is tap on “Menu” then “Help/FAQ” then on “Storm8 ID” and the game will reveal your ID here. It may also be shown at the top right of your social menu screen. You will need to give this name to others so they may invite you and add you as a neighbor.

City Story Metro

How to invite and attract neighbors to your game

  • How to invite neighbors and have others invite you – Once you know your ID you can visit others in the community menu and after you help them out to give them a bonus, be sure to post your storm8 ID on their wall asking to be invited and soon others will contact you with invitations.
  • Tap on “Wall” at the bottom right then paste a message on their wall asking to be added to their game.
  • Tap on “Invite” when you read the Storm8 ID of other players on their and other people’s wall and type in their ID in the box provided. The game will tell you if the invitation was successful and once the other person accepts you will be neighbors.
  • You may also invite people by email address, SMS, and Facebook by choosing the options on the invite menu.

City Story Metro

Community members vs. Neighbors

  • While playing the game you will see two tabs in the social menu and you will need to know the difference.
  • Community member – The players listed here are not your neighbors, they are players of the game that have high social rankings because they visit a lot of others and help them out. This raises your name higher on the list and more people will see you and invite you to be their neighbor.
  • Neighbor – These are players that either you have invited or have invited you to become neighbors. You will earn a once per twenty four hour bonus each time you visit a neighbor versus community members. This reward will be five coins or one star XP.
  • Your goal is to visit as many community members as you can and help them out and post on their wall with your storm8 ID or look for theirs and others and invite them by name using the invitation menu. If you devote a few hours to doing this you will have a large number of neighbors in a couple of days and these people will send you permits and materials needed to build special community buildings and wonders. You will also be able to visit them for coin and XP bonuses each day.

City Story Metro

How to help out community members and neighbors

  • Whether you are in the community menu or the neighbor menu tap on the “Visit” button to visit that person’s city.
  • You will see doorbell icons over any house or business that has not yet been helped by another person since the player’s last collection of rent.
  • Tap on three doorbells per visit and you will see that building begin to sparkle.
  • Sparkling buildings will give the player an additional coin bonus when they collect rent from it.
  • Once they collect rent then another visitor can help by clicking on that building but each player can only help another player once every twenty four hours.

City Story Metro

Neighbor daily bonus

  • Note – Neighbors only when you visit their city will earn you a special daily reward of either five coins or one XP star. Visiting community members will not earn you this reward but you will earn social points for helping out either neighbors or community members so it is worth your time and effort as the higher your social ranking the higher up the list your city will be on the community menu for others to see and visit.

City Story Metro

Social Rating

  • As you visit other people’s cities you will see a small bus icon at the bottom left of the game screen. You can earn up to a four bus social ranking.
  • The more people you visit and help out by tapping on the doorbells of their buildings, the more of these buses you will earn.
  • Having a high social rating will help you as it causes you to appear on or near the top of the community menu where thousands of other players will see your name and will visit you for bonus coins and hopefully post on your wall asking for a neighbor invitation for even more bonus coins and points.
  • Note – If you get your social ranking high you must continue to visit others daily to keep it up. It goes down over time if you stop visiting.
City Story Metro

User Profile and Overview

  • Tap on the social menu then tap on “Overview” with the large suitcase icon. This will take you to your overview menu. Here you can change your profile picture (Tap on it and you can choose from three male or three female icons.) and see a summary of your game progress such as how many houses, businesses, community buildings and wonders you own as well as your level, social rating and how many neighbors you have.
  • Refer to your profile anytime to see how you are doing in the game.

Game Tips

  • Follow the goals and use them to guide you in the purchase of your buildings especially in the early levels.
  • Check to see how big a building is before you purchase it. You may need to expand before you can place another building.
  • Factor in the cost of energy when you are placing a new building.
  • If you are out of energy but close to leveling up, tap on your social menu and start visiting neighbors. If you have a lot of neighbors you can earn XP points to level up and once you do you will have your energy meter filled back up as a reward.
  • The key to leveling up fast and building a huge metropolis is doing the work to have a large number of neighbors. Visit a lot of community members and work to get your social rating high. Post your Storm8 ID on as many walls as you can and especially on the walls of those that have reached a high level in the game and that have a lot of visitors. If you post your name on the wall along with “Add me” you will have several invitations waiting on you to accept.
  • Remember to post your Storm8 ID name not your city’s name or people won’t be able to invite you to be their neighbor.
  • Visit your neighbors and help them out daily. You will earn coins and XP stars which will help you purchase more buildings and level up faster which will unlock more items for you to purchase.
  • Only sell back items if you really don’t want it or desperately need the coins as you will only get a quarter of the purchase price back when you sell something. If you spent gems on an item you will not get gems back when you sell it.
  • If you take any building off of your city and put it into storage it will no longer work for you. Placing houses in storage removes the population it contributed from your city.
  • Chopping down trees costs energy so make sure you factor this into placing large buildings on a new expansion.
  • Each time you place new buildings in your city remember they must be directly attached to a road or they will not be functional.

Congratulations!

You have completed the basic quick start guide for City Story Metro by Team Lava. Be sure to check back often for game updates, staff and user reviews, user tips, forum comments and much more here at Gamezebo