Few Tips For A Stable Economy Startup?

[Ravagexe]

Usually these kinda games have guides for beginners in Steam but Tropico 6 does not.
So Im kinda stuck. I always lose track of my upkeep and end up losing money.

Im going to focus on some simple Hide/Leather style goods rather than merely cashing out tobacco this time. I also dont plan on expanding my resources far and wide uncontrollably. Maybe max 3 goods to export. Last time I tried having meat/leather/coal/oil all together didnt end up well.

Do you guys have any specific builds to keep a rather positive economy? Like whats the most important building to have? A few houses for poor and mid? Ranch with meat supply to sustain hunger? Maybe fish? Energy Plant/Coal seems useless for beginners for example...

I believe I just need some tips to focus EARLY-ON before expanding to more complex stuff like transportation.

[Snow_Kowned]

I'm finding RUM and CIGARS and BOATS to be really strong early game. You can check the export prices in the trade page.

Also as a side note, if you have a high foreign relation you can import at a discount (cheaper than you can make it and often faster than you can make it) and resell for either normal price (profit!) or if you have an export of the same kind even MORE PROFIT!

[VayneVerso]

I'm also finding it a bit difficult to completely wrap my brain around the economy in this game, but at least in the early game, I haven't really had too much difficulty staying afloat by simply producing a bunch of stuff while keeping pirate cove missions running on repeat. It seems like almost everything you can do is profitable, really, so as long as I make sure that I keep unemployment effectively at 0 and don't have to worry about dealing with broke citizens, I've somehow been growing my bank account. Not by a ton, mind you.

[killedinaction47]

First thing I always max budget on the Construction office and upgrade it with extra workers.

Then I try to find the woods(logging), sugar and tobacco farming areas.
Logging > planks is the cheapest industry to get going so I usually start there, 2 logging camps and a lumbermill.
Then you can decide what you want to go after next by how far the resource is from your docks/city center. Extending yourself too far out very early on can result in long travel times for your tropicans. So then either tobacco > cigars or sugar > rum depending on soil conditions.
Build the Customs Office as soon as you can and keep an eye on the trade screen.
Do short trade missions at first to help build up favor so you'll get a better price for your goods, then sign a bigger contract.
Oil is a terrible export imho as are most minerals unless you process them into something.
If you're collecting a raw resource make sure you're processing it into something.

[Stycks]

I think the education is a resource worth to micromanage in the early game.
As long as you dont have too many people on your island, look in the Almanach under population / education what your educated people are actually doing. For example, it is not a good investment to have your educated citizen work the fields. I would fire the tropicans that do underqualified work and build an industry to fit their skills, so that you make most use out of them.

[Ravagexe]

I have some ideas to build a small steady economy now, will try them all! thanks everyone!

[Venom Jesus]

There are some good tips here already, but one thing that should be worth mentioning is that Tropico isn't like other city builders in the sense that you want to make everyone happy.

Typically, you should focus on expanding your industry and only invests in services if:

A) You have an election coming and you need support

B) This service will provide a logistical benefit to your industry (ex. To stop your workers from wandering too far)

C) You don't have a big unemployment problem and you're already making considerable profit

Knowing to control your expenses is as important as knowing how to expand revenue.

[Naxx]

Spam like 15 plantations mostly sugar and some tobacco with a few others to help with the buffs being next to them. Build 3 teamsters quick build everything you should have like 6-8k money left. Spam buy people to fill those positions until you have like -2k money left. Hit fast forward wait a few months and your making 40k per shipment.... Game is so easy to make money its sad

[NikAkulov]

Originally posted by Venom Jesus:

There are some good tips here already, but one thing that should be worth mentioning is that Tropico isn't like other city builders in the sense that you want to make everyone happy.

Typically, you should focus on expanding your industry and only invests in services if:

A) You have an election coming and you need support

B) This service will provide a logistical benefit to your industry (ex. To stop your workers from wandering too far)

C) You don't have a big unemployment problem and you're already making considerable profit

Knowing to control your expenses is as important as knowing how to expand revenue.

THIS. This is the most important tip that there actually is. I know that we all come from games like Cities Skylines and want to make everyone happy, but Tropico 6 is a Dictatorship simulator, not a city builder. As dystopian as it sounds, making people happy earns you nothing. So unless your approval is in the drain, focus on industry and not services.

[mrxak]

Build economy-producing structures first, and only add on services (or housing) when it's really important (you have to win an election), or you have so much money you might as well invest in those things a bit.

Don't overbuild economy structures either. Keep a very close eye on your unemployment and vacant job numbers. I try to make sure I never have more than 30 open positions, even late game when I'm swimming in cash. There's no benefit to having buildings sitting idle, and chances are the workers will prioritize taking jobs in buildings that will cripple your economy even worse than that, because they'll prefer higher paid industrial jobs over lower paid resource jobs, and you need resources to feed your industry.

Familiarize yourself with the export prices. Have you ever heard of a person getting rich selling coconuts? What about coffee or rum? Think in terms of cash crops, and industries that make a lot of profit. Only produce goods that have high profit margins. Don't diversify unnecessarily. Don't be afraid to build some roads right at the start of the game, out to where the cash crops can be grown.

Understand the total cost of the exported good includes all the labor and upkeep done in all buildings, not just the one that completed the final good, as well as the labor and upkeep to move ingredients around, and the labor and upkeep to keep that population of workers entertained, fed, housed, and faithful. People keep saying boats are very profitable, but I remain skeptical of that. It takes a lot of labor just to produce enough logs to make enough planks to make not a lot of boats, and there's a lot of time spent ferrying logs and planks around which ultimately means you need to have more support buildings. Compare this to the easy profitability of sugar into rum, or tobacco into cigars. I'm sure eventually somebody will work out the math and figure out what industries are most labor-efficient and cost-efficient eventually, but I seriously doubt boats will be on top. I don't feel like I've ever seen much profit from boats. On the other hand, I've gotten so rich off making rum in the colonial era that the whole rest of a game is pretty easy.

[Snow_Kowned]

Once you're out of colonial farm foreign rep with small import and export contracts (faster this way) and then double down on expensive slow to manufacture goods like boats, cars, jewlery, apparel. Even grabbing oil and gold at -15% and reselling it is free money.