The official National Transit knowledge base

Learn the game. Understand your nation.

From your first connection to the relationship between cities, transport and public finance. The Guide records the current rules and helps you find the real cause of national problems.

Four ways in

Start with the question you have now

01

Coming from an earlier version?

Guides for Major Update

Switching guides for each major version — what changed, what to check after updating, and what to try first.02

New to National Transit?

Quick Start

Build your first functioning nation and learn the essentials as you play.03

Why does the world behave this way?

How the World Works

Understand the forces connecting nations, cities, population, transport, the economy and policy.04

Need an exact answer?

Facts & Figures

Look up metrics, rules, parameters, controls, versions and other exact answers.

Read in order

Collections

Collection5 articles

Creating the map you want

Understand map creation: what each choice decides, which ones are permanent, and how the terrain you generate keeps charging you.

  1. What the map decides
  2. Land and water
  3. Terrain is a price list
  4. Where the people go
  5. +1 more
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Collection8 articles

Economy and public finance

Understand the cycle linking economic activity, public revenue, expenditure and transport investment.

  1. How the economy fits together
  2. GDP, population and development
  3. Where public money comes from
  4. What your transport network costs
  5. +4 more
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Collection4 articles

Building and operating the network

Understand how each transport mode is built, operated and tuned — road, rail, air and water.

  1. Roads: grades, tolls and upgrades
  2. Railways: track and operating lines
  3. Aviation: airports, markets and subsidies
  4. Waterways: ports, routes and ferries
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Collection6 articles

Designing your cities

Understand the city layer: what you are given to build with, and how to design a city inside it.

  1. Land, allowance and no construction fund
  2. Reading your city
  3. Zones, floors and the people in them
  4. Streets and corridors
  5. +2 more
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Recommended reading

Settlements, transport service and metros

Understand how network performance turns into service scores, accessibility, growth and metro clusters.

Policies and development stages

Understand how national development stages unlock policies, and how policies change growth, demand and revenue.

Milestones and achievements

Understand how national milestones are evaluated, what they award, and how one-time funds differ from unlocks.