Recommended Mods Guide

Cities: Skylines★ 4 · 73 ratings4.7k views178 favorites8 min readby ShomudiUpdated May 11View on Steam ↗

Audience:

This list is for people who like to build realistic, detailed and aesthetic cities.

Mods' status:

All mods on this list work well after the March 10, 2026 update.

"Must Have" mods:

Harmony:
Mod dependency, other mods need it in order to work
Move It:
The best mod of Cities Skylines!
- Move buildings, nodes, trees, props
- Copy-paste anything
- Move anything up & down
- Rotate anything
- Delete multi items at once (very useful for deleting stuff over a large area)
- Copy-paste multi items at once
And more...
Find It! 2 :
A search engine for buildings, props, trees, roads, parks, decals, fences.
You can search by name, type, size, creator name, level, DLC and more.
TM:PE:
Traffic management.
- Add/remove stop signs, traffic lights, yield signs, crosswalks.
- Restrict right / left turns, or make a lane right only/left only
- Set speed limits
- Restrict roadside parking
- Restrict certain types of vehicles (private, bus, cargo, etc)
"Parking AI": makes cars look for a parking space instead of disappearing when they reach their destination.

"Disable vehicle despawning": if its ON, vehicles will not disappear when stuck in traffic, so the traffic simulation is much harder.
Network Anarchy:
Build any network (roads, fences, railway tracks, paths, quays) however you want. Avoid the many game restrictions.
81 Tiles 2:
- Makes the entire map (all 81 tiles) available to build on.
- Enables electricity & water flow through roads (so water pipes and electricity lines are not required).
Loading Screen Mod Revisited:
- Reduces your RAM usage by sharing textures and meshes between assets.
- Reports what dependencies (props/trees) are missing, what assets failed to load and more.
Ploppable RICO Revisited:
- Plop RICO (Residential / Industrial / Commercial / Office) buildings that are larger than 4X4.
- You can set it that buildings will not be abandoned / destroyed even if they are in the wrong zone or without zoning.
- You can set it that buildings will be automatically set as "historic" when plopped down.
- Convert ploppable buildings (for example unique buildings) into RICO buildings.
- Set the number of households for each Residential building.
- Set the number of employees for each Commercial, Office or Industrial building.
Picker:
Pick anything in-game and duplicate it
Extra Landscaping Tools:
- Adds a brush tool for terraforming, placing trees or props
- You can add / remove ground resources (oil / ore / fertile land) in-game
- Lets you add water sources in-game
Surface Painter:
Paint the ground with Pavement, Field, Ruin or Gravel textures

Extremely helpful mods:

FPS Booster:
(requires the "Patch Loader Mod")
Increases your FPS by making the simulation more efficient.
Realistic Population:
- Makes the number of households per Residential building much more realistic.
- Makes the number of employees per Office/commercial building much more realistic.
Lifecycle Rebalance Revisited:
Makes the lifecycle of cims more realistic and randomized.
Avoid the "Death Waves".
City Vitals Watch:
See all the important metrics in one place:
Water availability, Electricity availability, Sewage, Unemployment, Crime Rate, Healthcare, Deathcare, Garbage processing, Education
Node Controller Renewal:
Node manipulation.
Due to its complexity, best is to read its description and watch a YouTube tutorial.
Intersection Marking Tool:
Add custom lines, crosswalks, fillers, props, fences to intersections and roads.
Due to its complexity, best is to read its description and watch a YouTube tutorial.
Network Multitool:
Adds many useful tools for manipulating networks.
Due to its complexity, best is to read its description and watch a YouTube tutorial.
Forest Brush Revisited:
Select a few trees and bushes and "paint" them over large areas.
Or by using the right-click, erase all the trees over large areas.
UnifiedUI (UUI) 2.2.1 - Continued [BETA]:
Groups the access to many mods in one place.
Hide It!:
Allows you to hide many objects and sounds you don't want to see or hear.
For example:
- Seagulls
- Grass sprites
- Chirper
- Different sounds
- Pollution
- Ruining
etc
BOB, the Tree and Prop Replacer:
Replace or hide props and trees that are inside buildings or parks.
Especially useful for hiding or replacing the vanilla trees and bushes, as well as hiding oddly placed parking lots inside buildings.
Prop Control:
- Place props anywhere, even inside the area of buildings / roads / parks.
- Make props larger or smaller (you'll need the "Move It" mod for that)
- Raise / lower props (you'll need the "Move It" mod for that)
- Ability to snap props to buildings
Tree Control
- Place trees and other plants anywhere, even inside the area of buildings / roads / parks.
- Make trees/plants larger or smaller (you'll need the "Move It" mod for that)
- Raise / lower trees (you'll need the "Move It" mod for that)
- Ability to snap trees to buildings
ACME :
Camera mod.
Increases the Zoom-in and Zoom-out of the camera.
Increase control over the camera.
Play It!:
- Change the game's speed
- Change the sun location, to view stuff better when building, or when taking screenshots
- Change the time of day (when the game is paused) to see how things look at night for example.
Render It!:
Graphics mod.
Make the game look much better by changing the graphics settings.
Line Tool:
Place trees or props in lines (straight or curved).
Toggle It!:
View / Hide different elements in-game:
- Zoning
- Ground elevation
- Notifications
- District names
etc
Yet Another Toolbar:
Makes the main toolbar at the bottom easier to use

Improved Public Transport 3:
- See the vehicle count per line, easily add/remove vehicles
- Change the type of vehicles per public transport line
- Set unbunching on/off per line
- Set ticket Prices per transport type
- Better boarding behavior
- Set the max people that can wait at a stop, per public transport type
- Depot Selector per line
And a few other things that are listed in its description

Really helpful mods:

Game Anarchy
Adds a long list of "anarchy" options, best is to read its description.
Building Control:
When you place a building, you can:
- Set the ground texture to: pavement / no texture / asset default
- Set terrain flattening on / off
- Set the placement mode to: Roadside / OnGround / PathSide / etc
Bulldoze It!:
Automatically deletes buildings that were abandoned or destroyed
Advanced Building Level Control:
Control the level of growable buildings. You can also control it by district.
Customize It Extended:
Change the values of ploppable buildings:
Cost, maintenance, entertainment, employees, tourists, electricity, water, garbage, etc
Repaint:
Change the color of buildings in-game
Precision Engineering:
- Adds angle and distance measurements when building roads, train lines, pipes and power lines.
- Display height of the road you are placing relative to ground level
- Hold CTRL to enable snapping to angles (in 5 degree increments).
- Hold ALT to enable snapping to guidelines.
- Display height difference between start and end point of a road (when placing, holding SHIFT)
Network Skins Continued:
(replaced "Network Skins")
Works for sections of roads, not the entire network:
- Change the color of the road
- Remove the road arrows
- Remove road signs
- Remove "road decorations"
- Change the type of lights
Watch It!:
1. Offers same functionality as "City Vitals Watch", but I prefer "City Vitals Watch" due to its better UI
1. You can see a list of all the problems in buildings and networks
2. You can check how close you are to the game's limits:
  Buildings, Nodes, Citizen Units, Props, Trees, etc.
Building Spawn Points:
Lets you change the spawn points of service vehicles (police, fire, ambulance, etc) and cargo trucks.
Useful for large buildings such as: industrial buildings, large commercial buildings (malls, wallmart, costco, etc), fire stations, police, universities, hospitals, schools, unique buildings.
Also useful if you want to place parks or buildings away from the road.
Hide TMPE crosswalks: Renewed (an add-on to "TMPE" and "Node Controller"):
(replaced "Hide TMPE crosswalks")
1. Hides the crosswalks when you use TMPE to delete crosswalks from an intersection
2. Hides the crosswalks when you use "Node Controller" and hide markings
Historical Districts:
Set all buildings in a district to "Historical", so they will not change when the level changes.

"Nice To Have" mods:

Garbage Bin Manager:
Hides the garbage cans that appear in front of each building when there is garbage.
Better Road Toolbar:
Improves the "Roads" section of the toolbar.
Better HealthCare Toolbar:
Improves the "HealthCare " section of the toolbar.
Better Education Toolbar:
Improves the "Education " section of the toolbar.
Vehicle Selector:
Allows you to select the types of service and public transportation vehicles (buses, metro, fire, police, garbage, post, etc)
Broken Nodes Detector:
Detects broken nodes, stuck citizens and a few other problems.
Control It:
Removes some communications with the Steam server, to reduce the load time and maybe improve privacy.
Better Train Boarding:
Cims will board trains, buses and metro in a more efficient way.
Unlimited Outside Connections Revisited:
As the name says - build unlimited number of outside connections.
Extended Error Reporting:
Gives more detailed error messages

Special cases:

Rebalanced Industries Revisited:
Highly recommended if you own the "Industries" DLC.
Roundabout Builder (UUI Fix):
If you like building roundabouts, its definitely recommended.
Procedural Objects (Empty popup fix):
For heavy detailers with patience, this mod lets you change the shape of buildings, props and decals. Create custom buildings, signs, bridges etc.
You will need to watch tutorials and be ready to spend time learning how to use it.

Unfortunately the custom buildings created with this mod are not functional, but you can use "RICO blocks" or "Service blocks" to make them functional.

Tutorials:

If you want to learn more there are YouTube tutorials for some of these mods.
Search YouTube: <mod name> cities skylines

Recommended Youtubers for tutorials: