My Best RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic Tips

RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic is the reincarnation of RCT1 and RCT2 and is now available to play almost anywhere: PC, MAC, and mobile devices (download the game here). After personally completing ninety-percent of the scenarios (game levels) on the app, I’ve listed some of my best RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic tips, including what to do first when beginning a new scenario and what ticket prices to charge.

Without further ado, here are the RCTC tips, in no particular order:

Things to Do When First Starting a RCTC Scenario

1. The first thing I do when I begin any new scenario is to check the objective and find out what the end goal is. For example: Have 1,500 guests in your park by the end of October, Year 3. Seems obvious, but from there I take it a step further and define mini goals for myself to make sure I am on track. So for this example, I know I need to add 500 guests per year. My milestones are year 1: 500 guests, Year 2: 1,000 guests, and Year 3 1,500. If I’m falling behind I can take action to catch up: building new rides, maintaining high park rating, and advertising can help bring in more guests.
2. Since this game is called RollerCoaster Tycoon you should always have at least one roller coaster operating as soon as possible. Preferably a high capacity one too, as in more than 1,000 guests per hour. Why? Roller coasters are the main attraction on the midway by bringing in guests to your park as well as the ability to make a ton of money. The higher throughput the coaster has, the more money you can make to pay off that loan and build bigger coasters. What type of roller coaster should you build first? I usually start with one of these three: a wooden roller coaster, a steel looping coaster run  in shuttle mode, or a steel family coaster. I especially like shuttle coasters because they are cheap and don’t take a lot of room or time to build.
3. Check your staff and hire more. I like to have more ride mechanics than rides. I usually hire at least one security guard but I’m not sure if this is completely necessary. If peeps are happy then vandalism doesn’t seemt to be much of a problem. Zone handymen to the exits of any high nausea rides. I also like to zone an entertainer right at the front of the park to give the peeps a happiness boost right off the bat.
4. Raise maximum funding on research so you can get new rides and shops as quickly as possible. The amount of money I spend on research is usually negligible.
5. I like to reduce my loan as low as possible if I can. No reason to waste money on interest if I don’t have to. I’m not afraid to increase the loan if needed, especially if it means building a coaster to increase profits.
6. If the park is charge per ride type of park, check ride ticket prices and raise as necessary (more on this later).
7. For POP parks (Pay-One-Price), you need to generate income outside of the entrance tickets, so you should build rides with on-ride photos to generate more money: some roller coasters and the log flume have on-ride photos.
8. Use double (but not triple) wide paths in high traffic areas, especially if the objective is to have more than 1,500 guests in your park.
9. For objectives where you need to meet a certain park value, do not have any duplicate rides; make sure every ride is unique and no roller coasters of the same type. Rides with tracks tend to have some value-per-foot of track, so build longer tracked rides to help increase your park value.
10. To save time, pause the game while performing actions such as changing marketing campaigns, adjusting loans, adjusting research goals, and setting ride/shop pricing. Unfortunately, you cannot pause when constructing a new ride.

What Prices to Charge in RCTC

Now that we’ve covered what to do when starting a scenario, one of the most asked questions is “How do you know what price to sell items at?” Well, the answer is actually the peeps in your theme park will tell you. Basically, just keep raising the price until guests start saying they won’t pay for it.

1. Ride ticket price should be at least as much as excitement rating. Don’t be afraid to make them too high. Charge a ticket price and monitor guest reactions. Start high and keep an eye on the ride’s profit and adjust. 
2. Newer rides can have higher ticket prices than older rides. As rides age guests may complain the price is too much, so keep watching your profits per ride and adjust accordingly.
3. I usually charge $9 for roller coasters.
4. Charge $0.2 or $0.30 for bathrooms. This would be a terrible practice in real life but we’re playing a game so go ahead. If that’s what it takes to fund your next mega coaster so be it!
5. Umbrellas = $20. Pay day every time it rains!
6. Park maps = $0.90 profit.
7. At least $1 profit on any other item sold like hats, T-shirts, and food items.
8. For POP entrance tickets, look at how much money guests have entering the park. Make your goal just about a few dollars less than the lowest amount a guest entering the park has.

Tell Me Your RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic Tips!

So there you have it. With these tips I hope the money starts pouring in and you can build that theme park of your dreams.

Let me know if you try and find success with any of these RCTC tips. And if you have any of your own I failed to mention here please share your RollerCoaster Tycoon tips!