Cities: Skylines 2

Cities: Skylines 2 comes with a comprehensive set of tutorials that explain everything from road construction and zoning to each service type and every info view mode. However, there are a few gaps in its coverage, including how to deal with underground construction.

Unlike the original game, Cities: Skylines 2 has multiple underground layers that allow players to build pipes, tunnels, subway tracks, and buried power lines to any depth they need to reach. However, lining up underground tracks and demolishing buried pipes and cables can be tricky for both newcomers and returning players.

How to Toggle Underground Mode

Cities Skylines 2 Underground Mode — The underground mode toggle in Cities: Skylines 2.

Players can destroy any type of building, road, or other objects by using the demolition tool. The tool's icon is the yellow bulldozer, and it's a little to the right of all the construction tools. The demolition tool is one of the few that players get access to immediately as the game starts, and there are no upgrades or development points that apply to the demolition tool.

Unlike the road tool, players can't adjust the demolition tool's height. Instead, players should see a setting called "Underground Mode" appear above the demand bars. Press the button next to the setting to view underground construction. The view should change to look like this:

Cities Skylines 2 Underground Mode Active — Underground construction is now visible in Cities: Skylines 2.

The surface becomes grayer, and all underground construction appears as black outlines. Players can now select pipes, cables, and tunnel segments and destroy them the same way they can with surface objects. If an object is both above and below ground, such as an underground subway station or a tunnel exit, players can demolish it in both view modes.

How to Avoid Underground Conflicts

Cities Skylines 2 Subway Line — An overlapping conflict in Cities: Skylines 2.

One way to avoid having to destroy underground construction is to build tunnels and cables that don't conflict with one another. There are a few things to keep in mind when building underground:

When players are building underground, the game usually tries to keep a tunnel at the same absolute depth no matter how much the surface rises or falls. Players may need to change the end point's height to keep it at the same relative depth.
Underground tunnels look the same no matter how deep they are. Move the camera around to make sure tunnels are meeting and not passing above or below each other.
Unlike with tunnels, buried cables default to a shallow depth that follows the contours of the land. This keeps them out of the way of subway and road tunnels, but not of tunnel entrances and exits.
Buried pipes also conflict with tunnel exits, but not the pipes buried under roads.

Cities: Skylines 2 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image