InCities: Skylines 2, you’ll come across various crucial services for your citizens, and one significant service you’ll encounter early on is transportation. Beginning with road transportation, you’ll gradually expand to include air and water transportation options to meet the growing needs of your citizens.

If you choose to improve transportation services with a water option, setting up a harbor is crucial. This enables citizens to use ships for their transportation needs. Fortunately, this guide will help you unlock the water transportation option and establish harbors, allowing you to make the most of the rivers and the ocean in your city.

unlocked water transportation from transportation tree in Cities: Skylines 2.

How To Unlock The Harbor

The option to unlock the harbor becomes available early on, specifically in thefourth milestone, as you reach theGrand Village. At this point, you gain access to transportation options, starting with the basic option as the initial service.

However, to unlock other options, it is important to keep in mind thatyou need development points to unlock each tier node. Fortunately, you will be able to unlock the water option from your first access to the transportation development tree and won’t need to unlock any other node tiers before accessing them.

containers in cargo harbor in Cities: Skylines 2.

To easily unlock the harbor, simplyunlock the wateroption from the transportation development treeusing two development points.

When you initially access the transportation option, concentrate on the basic transportation choice. As you progress, you’ll gradually require the other options, all while keeping in mind thatharbors come with a higher cost.

Setting up a cargo harbor in Cities: Skylines 2.

How To Set Up A Harbor

Once you’ve unlocked the harbor, you’ll have two options, Cargo Harbor and Harbor used for passengers.It’s recommended to start with the Cargo Harborif you already have other passenger transportation options in place.

Cargo Harbor

TheCargo Harborserves as a water point,enabling the import and export of cargo to and from outside connections. It functions as a hub with cranes and container yards, facilitating the loading and unloading of cargo ships. Additionally, it stores the cargo until it is ready to be shipped further.

If you decide to set up a Cargo Harbor, anticipate an initial cost of 490,000, along with a monthly upkeep of 67,000. In return, you’ll receive acapacity of 15,500 tons as cargo storage, with three available upgrades to consider.

Setting up a passenger harbor in Cities: Skylines 2.

Harbor

If you decide to create a water terminal to offer citizens a water transportation option, you’ll have the choice of aharbor functioning as a passenger terminal. This allows passengers to board and disembark from passenger ships.

To establish the passenger harbor, you need to pay a cost of 420,000 and keep in mind a monthly upkeep of 60,000. This investmentprovides you with one pier, and you’re able to upgrade the harbor with two additional upgrades.

purchase map tiles in Cities: Skylines 2.

How To Set Up A Seaway

Once you have finished establishing the harbors, you may create seaways that connect between your harbors or directly link them to outside connections.

You can choose from three types of seaways, andyour selection depends on the available space in the water body. If you’re creating a seaway on a river,consider the width of the river, along with the needs and the upkeep cost.

setting up a seaway in Cities: Skylines 2.

Keep an eye on the bridges over your rivers to avoid issues related totheir elevation.

To establish a seaway that connects to outside connections, keep in mind thatyou need to purchase map tiles to reach the map edge.

setting up cargo ship line using cargo ship route tool in Cities: Skylines 2.

Water Lines

To establish water lines over seaways, choose the tool that suits your needs. If you want to create a cargo line, select the Cargo Ship Route Tool. Then,connect the cargo harbors you want to link with each other or with outside connections. Ensure that you create a loop line to allow for a round trip to import and export.

The process for creating a passenger line is similar to the cargo harbor line. Utilize thePassenger Ship Line Toolto establish a passenger ship route over a seaway.Connect the passenger harbors with each other or with outside connections, ensuring that you create a loop line for efficient transportation.

Tracking a passenger water line in Cities: Skylines 2.

Once you establish the water lines, you’ll be able to manage them aswater transportation boomingin your city.

To manage water transportation, you’re able to follow the same steps as with other transportation options. Access thetransportation menu in the info views, then click on theship icon. This will allow you to view and manage all the lines you created earlier, withcargo and public transport lines separatedfor easier handling.

Tracking a cargo ship in Cities: Skylines 2.

You also have the option to handle each line byclicking on the details icons beside the line you want to manage. This provides access to manageline color, schedule, and assigned vehicles, and you can alsoassign a different name to each line for clarity.

Additionally, you can monitor each line along with its points, and byclicking on each pointon the line, you willfocus on where it is linked. Similarly, for ships, clicking on them allows you to see all thedetails about the line of that ship and the storage. You can also identifythe type of goods on that ship.