Nuke a City Tools Hub

This hub is the pocket list for Nuke a City when you have cash in hand and a bad habit of opening every shop. There is no official damage calculator and no secret spreadsheet you must import. What you need is a repeatable order: redeem the code, feed the best dropper, expand only when nuclear is the prize, rebirth on a plateau, and dump research into money. The long version of that order is the upgrade priority planner. Paid skips — auto launch, auto dropper, army crates — are filtered on gamepasses. This page is the set of mental models that tell you when to open those tools.

Pair it with how to rebirth for statue timing and with the machines tier list when you forget which pad is actually S. Tools here do not replace those pages. They stop you from buying a fountain level because it was glowing.

Mental model 1: one bottleneck at a time

Every session has one bottleneck. Name it before you spend.

• Fill bottleneck: explosives are slow to 100 EXP. Buy dropper levels, not rocket cosmetics.
• Launch bottleneck: bars are full and you are not at Control. Sit down and fire, or stop calling it idle play.
• Unlock bottleneck: nuclear, poison, and the statue are still behind a plot expand. Save for the land.
• Multiplier bottleneck: you already print cash and the curve is flat. That is a rebirth question, not a fuse question.

If you cannot name the bottleneck, default to the current best dropper. That default is correct more often than a new pad.

Mental model 2: codes are a timing tool

BOOM is the code worth typing the moment a run can use Playtime Points and a crate. Redeeming it after you already rebirth, or after you already wasted a crate on a totem you will reset, is how a free gift becomes a shrug. Code timing belongs at the start of a plot you intend to keep for a while, or right before a session where the crate can land on a totem you will actually place. Check the upgrade priority planner for the BOOM-first step, and treat new codes as the same rule: claim them when the account can keep the reward through the next statue if the reward is permanent, or spend them on the run you are about to play if they are run-bound.

Do not sit on an unredeemed code because you wanted a “perfect moment.” The perfect moment is the first loaded session.

Mental model 3: rebirth is a plateau button

The statue is not a loot box. It wipes machines and cash for research points—often about five RP. That is a good trade when returning to nuclear will be faster than squeezing one more fountain level. It is a bad trade when you still have cheap nuclear upgrades on the pad. The checklist:

1. Is the best dropper no longer moving the next launch in a way you can feel?
2. Do you already own the expand that grants nuclear?
3. Will the RP buy a money node (or finish one) instead of a walk-speed vanity?
4. Did you fire the ready explosive instead of resetting on a full bar?

If you answered yes to the plateau and the money node, go to how to rebirth and take the reset. If you answered no, you wanted a shop, not a prestige.

Mental model 4: leftover cash is not a personality

After nuclear is funded, leftover cash can touch poison, fountain, or fuse. That is allowed. What is not allowed is letting leftover cash become the plan. Support machines are B–C for a reason. If you are arguing with a fuse wait while nuclear is still cheap, you do not have leftover cash. You have a distraction. Confirm the rank on the machines tier list and then come back to the planner.

How to use this hub in a session

Load in. Name the bottleneck out loud if you have to. Redeem BOOM if you have not. Open the upgrade priority planner only if you are about to spend a spike. If the spike is “I think I rebirth,” open how to rebirth first. If the spike is “which pad,” open machines. If the spike is “I have RP,” remember money first.

That is the entire tools category on this wiki: short lists that keep 6-player sessions from turning into window shopping. No slider claims to know your exact cash. Your eyes on the EXP bar already know.