A letter to the game planner of SimCity BuildIt
January 26, 2026
Dear SimCity BuildIt game planner.
Hello, respected game planner of SimCity BuildIt! I've been playing SimCity BuildIt for half a decade, and it's a highly enjoyable game that I love playing in my free time. I'd like to discuss and share with you the war gameplay in the game. The war gameplay has been around for many years, and I've been participating in it for quite a while. Although I had some thoughts on this gameplay before, I've never discussed them in detail with you. This time, I want to share my thoughts with you in detail.
In the war gameplay, there are a total of 24 war cards, categorized into three types: common cards, rare cards, and legendary cards. Each card can be upgraded to level 20. Upgrading all 24 cards to level 20 is the dream of all players. In reality, this is challenging and requires a significant amount of cards and golden keys, both of which can be obtained from the game. Cards require a substantial amount of SimCash, so most players focus their resources on upgrading certain cards. Currently, the most popular cards in the game are Magnetic Strike, Loud Roar, B-Movie Monster, Python Entanglement, and Shield Breaker. I primarily upgrade the Magnetic Strike and B-Movie Monster cards. During the upgrade process, I found that the B-Movie Monster card is extremely costly in terms of golden keys, SimCash, and acquisition difficulty. Compared to the similar Loud Roar, it requires more than three times the resources and takes more than twice the time to obtain, yet it yields fewer points than Loud Roar. This is extremely unreasonable. Logically, as a legendary card, the B-Movie Monster should receive more points for the additional resources invested. However, the reality is quite different. In fact, upgrading the B-Movie Monster is more difficult and challenging to obtain, with the number of purchases in the store and the cost in SimCash far exceeding that of the rare Loud Roar card. This game mechanism is unreasonable!
In the war game, the score obtained for each card is determined by the number of points it destroys. This mechanism is reasonable and fair. However, it is unfair that the B-class movie monster, as a legendary card, is compared to the loud roar. Both have 8 energy points, but the loud roar can destroy 11 building points, while the B-class movie monster can only destroy 10 building points, and its score is also lower. This is unreasonable. As a card that requires more resources, theoretically, it should receive more points and destroy more building points. If you have seriously and deeply played this game, you will understand what I mean very clearly.
And now, with the latest update to the unit price of cards in the War Store, the aforementioned gap has widened further. 10 rare cards cost 1220 SimCash, while legendary cards cost 3120 SimCash. It's crazy! I can already clearly feel that I can't afford legendary cards. They're neither worth buying, nor do I have enough SimCash to purchase them. You should know that in the past, legendary cards could only be purchased 5 times, and the limited number of purchases made them more expensive than rare cards.
Based on my analysis above, I suggest adjusting the settings of cards in the game. I propose several solutions for your reference: ① Reduce the input resources and acquisition difficulty of legendary cards, including reducing the number of golden keys required for upgrading and lowering the unit price of legendary cards in the War Store; ② Increase the building destruction points for B-class movie monsters from 10 points to 12, 13, or more points, while keeping the war score for each destruction point unchanged, so that it is worth for players to spend so many resources to cultivate this card; ③ Reduce the building destruction points for Loud Roar from 11 points to one of 8, 9, or 10 points. Among these solutions, ① reduces the game difficulty, which is not conducive to long-term game cultivation and play; ② neither reduces the current players' game experience nor solves the dilemma of legendary cards; ③ reduces the effect of Loud Roar, which is not conducive to the enjoyment and fun of other players. Therefore, I think solution ② is the most reasonable.
The above are my thoughts on war gameplay over the years. I kindly request the respected simcitybuildit game planner to seriously understand the player experience and make the fairest decisions. I look forward to your follow-up communication. Thank you!
A player who loves SimCity BuildIt