Script: Ahoy boys, I am KillIt, the speedrun World Record holder for the 1k population category in Cities Skylines II as of the time I am making this. This video is a commentary of my run, where I will explain what I am doing and why I am doing it. This video will act as a guide for the category. I am making this because I want to share all of my secrets to help the speedrun community try and beat this run. I believe competition will help the leaderboard. As of right now, in my view, the run is very optimal and there isn’t any time to shave off, so if you think you can do faster, please try!

The timer starts as soon as the map appears on your screen, and ends when you hit 1,000 population. Since the run is in real time, you want to speed up the simulation immediately so the cars drive into the city faster. Make sure Performance mode is on simulation speed so as to not throttle how fast the city moves. I chose the Twin Mountain map as I just happen to like that one the best, feel free to experiment with other maps, as this one wasn't specially chosen or anything, it's just my personal preference. I assume shorter highways or maybe a map with a good starter interchange could impact the gameplay. Also playing on North American is also a personal preference, European might be faster or slower, I don't know, they could be the same. Feel free to experiment. The speedrun rules don't necessarily say don’t turn on Unlock money, but for the integrity of the run, and following in the footsteps of all previous runs, I have it disabled. You never run out of money so it’s not like it would really help anyway. Turning on all Unlock all would just make your people want all services instantly, and since you don't have everything placed at the start, it would just hurt your happiness, so having it off is the better choice anyway. Tutorials are disabled. They would just clutter your screen with things you already know.

I start the run by making a single large grid. Making smaller communities would be slower. People would be further away from their jobs and elementary school, so I keep everything together inside just 1 grid. I place a small amount of residential zoning as soon as possible so buildings can be made right away. Buildings take exactly 60 seconds to finish, so no one is able to move in until that first building is finished, so the sooner, the better. Placing too many residential zones will just create empty houses, lowering demand or happiness, so that's why I only started with a few at the start and never expanded by creating new communities outside the main grid. I placed water, sewage, and power right after so the city's basic needs are met, maximizing happiness. Only a few factors help population growth, such as happiness, so that must be maximized at all times. I use upgraded water towers to act as parks since you can’t place parks this early into a map. Milestones give lots of money so you never really run out of money, so placing extra schools and police stations are a benefit. After the basics are placed, I place the other services like medic, deathcare, and garbage. I kept the amount of medium density housing small because spacious homes increase happiness, but you don't want 0 medium density as some people want to move into them, and we want as many people to move in as possible, so this section of the market must be taken into consideration. I place more industrial and commercial than is needed, because that way there are empty positions. Empty positions in industrial and commercial means there's jobs for the people. If there aren't enough, or is perfectly balanced, then any new citizens who move into the city won't have any jobs, which lowers happiness. I need happiness to be as high as possible to increase demand for the city. The happier the people, the more they want to stay, keeping my population as high as possible.

I take out loans to make sure I don’t run out of cash. There really isn't a negative to taking out loans, so it won’t hurt the run at all. I avoid larger roads as they would just place red lights. The population is so small in this city that traffic is a non issue, hence why there's no need for larger roads.

You want to close popups fast as they pause the timer. The run is in real time so pausing the game will hurt your time. I have a lot of redundant services. There's no downsides to doing this so it won’t hurt the run, but having many elementary schools and upgraded water towers does help with happiness, so it's always better to have more than less.

I have no idea if a high school is a good or bad idea. I assume it's good since people like having the option, but the run is so small I doubt anyone actually graduates on time. Feel free to experiment if having no high school is better or worse.

I lower taxes all the way since I never run out of money, and low taxes encourage people to move in and stay, so it’ll help the run. I enact these policies as soon as they become unlocked. It doesn't appear that getting milestones sooner to lower taxes actually helps, so I just ignore this problem. Feel free to experiment with this, but when I tried, I got a lower time, so who knows what's going on there. I place the musician mansion because it provides a boost. It doesn’t cost anything.

I increase my budget for all services and lower the service fee, this is just to increase happiness. In a casual playthrough you should never do this as you really can run out of money, but in this speedrun, the milestones are always enough to cover everything so in this speedrun so it's beneficial to do this. I place police and fire as soon as they are unlocked, again to keep happiness high.

The advice in this guide is specifically for the 1k population category. The 1k population category is such a small time that a lot of my planning is short term. While some of the advice could be helpful, in a longer playthrough, problems might arise due to things like low taxes and high expenses, so if you are doing a longer playthrough like 50k population, keep those things in mind. Long term planning is only worthwhile if you ever reach those future points.

Placing road maintenance and the welfare office were kind of side ideas. I was nearing the end of the run so I was grasping for straws on how I could increase happiness.