Bus Simulator: Ultimate Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Cheats, & Strategies to Become the Largest Bus Corporation

Bus Simulator: Ultimate has grown to become one of Zuuks Games’ most successful mobile titles. Almost a year after its release, Bus Simulator: Ultimate has amassed more than 10 million downloads total from the Google Play Store alone. It has likewise maintained largely positive average user review ratings and has been highly ranked in top lists of games in the simulation category.

Bus Simulator: Ultimate goes well beyond providing top quality graphics. The controls are also as good as it gets and the numerous features leaves a lot more than what would leave fans and enthusiasts satisfied. If you enjoy driving as well as business management simulation games that offer numerous details and possibilities on both ends, then you should definitely give this game a try.

This game sets you up as a budding entrepreneur who has just started your very own bus company. From setting up offices that serve as destinations for your potential passengers, you also get the feel of actually driving your very own bus. Contrary to racing games and most other driving games, driving a bus full of passengers has a lot of complex mechanics built into it.

On top of ensuring that each passenger is happy and comfortable, you also need to ensure that your performance as a driver is superb, meaning that you are as careful as can be on the road, following every bit of rule and law as you travel long and tiring distances. On the back side, you can also make upgrades to the buses you own, purchase better ones, hire your own drivers, and rent more offices to unlock more travel destinations. Competition can be tough if you are just starting out, but patience and active involvement in your business will always pay off.

Overall, Bus Simulator: Ultimate can leave an overwhelming impression for starters. There are various menus before you start out and the bus itself has a plethora of controls to figure out. There may not be a lot of tutorial involved as well so when you start out you need to explore a bit more on your own. Naturally, every business venture is at its hardest during the initial days. As such, keep in mind that it can only get better as you spend more and more time in the game.

If you seem to be lagging behind as far as earning cash is concerned, or simply looking for more efficient ways to grow your company, then read on and check out our Bus Simulator: Ultimate beginner’s guide. We have compiled a detailed guide for the game, that comes with a bunch of tips, cheats and strategies to help you grow your bus company fast!

1. Familiarize Yourself With How To Operate Your Bus

Bus Simulator: Ultimate does not shy away from providing players with a plethora of controls and feature to simulate driving and operating a passenger bus as much as a mobile game can. As the head and owner of your very own bus company, it is basic for you to learn and understand how the whole business works right down to the very core.

Additionally, since you are just starting out, saving as much from extra expenses will be key to the initial growth and financial liquidity of your enterprise. As such, you should initially consider to appoint yourself as your very own bus driver instead of immediately delegating the task to any other driver you can hire.

Just like in real life, being a bus driver in Bus Simulator: Ultimate is not an easy task. You will not actually exclusively focus on the driving part of the job but will also tend to each passenger’s needs. To be able to do that efficiently requires mastery of how to operate the bus from controlling the doors and other amenities down to running it through long drives.

Once you have picked up passengers at the station and be on the ready, you will see a lot of icons on your screen relating to operating the bus. It can seriously become overwhelming for the less experienced and total beginners, but practice and time spent on driving your own bus will eventually give you the hang of it.

First off, you can adjust the view by tapping on the camera icon at the upper left side of the screen, just below the “pause” icon. There are many available views to cycle from so be sure to check each of them out before you start moving the bus.

Just below the camera icon is the radio icon. Tapping on it spreads 3 other icons. The first one is the power button, the second is the display that can be used to search for actual radio frequencies, and the right-most button is the preset channels you can actually choose from. The radio function does not actually impact the game and will just be a treat for you especially for long drives.

The ”passengers” icon goes below the radio icon and it is one of the icons to keep an eye on. Clicking on this icon will reveal the comfort level and hunger level of your passengers. These statuses will initially be at 100% and as you begin to travel, it can gradually decrease. The idea is to keep both statuses as high as possible as the overall rating for the trip will be impacted by it.

Now on the upper right side of the screen starting from the top, you will first see the side mirror. This may not be as widely used in racing games or other driving games but it is very important to look at from time to time in Bus Simulator: Ultimate. Although it only shows the right side of the bus, it can still prevent some potential collisions from turns and exits.

Below the side mirror is your engine button. Tapping on it turns it on or off. Keep in mind that after parking and loading or unloading passengers, it will always turn off. The same applies for quick stops at gas stations and you can only fill up gas when your engine is turned off.

Presumably, everyone is familiar with the gear lever or gear stick. Sliding it up to “D”, which means drive, will shift gears to move forward while sliding it down to “R”, which means reverse, is needed to run backwards. Note as well that a “P” or park option is available between the two gears. If you have not played a lot of driving games, especially ones with gear levers on them, you should always check on this before you hit the accelerator.

The icon below may seem like a simple speedometer, but clicking on it reveals an option for the bus to automatically maintain its speed without you having to hold down on the accelerator. As useful as the feature is, be sure to take extra care when opting to leave it on, especially if you have not yet secured a firm grasp of driving the bus manually.

On the lower right side of the screen are the brakes, the acceleration or gas pedal, and the handbrakes. Chances are that you will be mostly using only the brakes and the gas pedal, but if ever you need to reduce speed or stop immediately, then remember that there is a handbrake feature available in Bus Simulator: Ultimate.

At the bottom right side of the panel, you can find the controls of the luggage and passenger doors. For the baggage, you will only need to open it before passengers board the bus and again, after reaching the desitination. It is fairly easy to remember opening them on both instances because of the voice prompt but what you may occasionally forget is closing them before leaving the station.

You can use the wipers and horn as well although both do not impact the game. You can adjust the headlights from low to high when it is dark and there is also a mic icon you can toggle to make announcements. You can practice safe driving by using turn signals before you actually make a turn but for the most part, it does not impact the behavior of other vehicles around you, just light turning hazard lights on.

On the bottom panel, one of the most important areas to tinker with is the gear icon, which contains amenities you can provide to your passengers. Airconditioners ought to be kept on as much as possible and if you have multimedia installed, you should keep it on as well. Whenever people are hungry and no stop-over is in sight, be sure to tap on the catering button. What you will constantly monitor as well is the gas gauge. Note that amount of fuel is indicated by two green lines. It may happen that you will only be considering the one on the right side but emptying that out simply means you still have half as much fuel left.

2. Adjust The Control Settings

Game developers spend some time and effort to ensure that the game they design comes with the best possible control settings as possible. However, it often cannot be helped that the default button layout and control settings will not be what is best for each and every player.

As such, some games provide ways for players to reconfigure controls and as much as Bus Simulator: Ultimate packs a decent enough set of controls by default, you can still customize it a bit to fit your preferences.

On the lower right side of the main screen, tap on the gear icon to check the settings. There are many items you can tinker with in the settings menu, but the more important ones relate to the control type and layout. In addition to the camera view, which you can also cycle through once you ride the bus, feel free to test configurations out to find the combination that works best for you.

3. Drive Defensively

It is a fact that accidents can always happen on the road, and when you are a bus driver responsible for at least 30 other people, you have to be much more careful during each and every trip. Just like driving in real life, you are not always safe just because you are driving good enough as accidents can stem from the driving behavior of other vehicles on the road. As such, always keep a conscious watch on your surroundings and keep a good eye on your side mirror as well other areas where you can see other vehicles come from.

Bus Simulator: Ultimate is realistic as well as far as making it so that driving a bus is a lot more difficult than driving a car. On your first trip, be sure to keep a safe speed limit. Keep in mind that there is no time limit within which you must reach your destination and passengers will not be cranky at all if ever it take you more time to take them to the designated station. With this, you should save overtaking for later but also avoid going too slow in that traffic gradually piles up behind you as cars start to honk their horns angrily at you. If they start overtaking, it may become difficult for you as well.

Another thing to consider is traffic lights. As you will likely travel long distances, you will surely pass by intersections where traffic lights are installed. Depending on your device’s screen size, it can be a challenge to clearly see the traffic lights. One trick to follow is by looking at other vehicles. If you see one stopped at the corner, then that is a clear enough sign for you to halt as well.

On top of decreasing comfort of passengers with every mishap, close calls, and traffic violations, each one can also cost you some unwanted extra expenses. There is a huge opportunity for you to earn more cash by driving the bus yourself but if you make a lot of mistakes, then costs may overrun your earnings.

Likewise, it is important to always push for a higher satisfaction review and rating especially at the start of your business considering that it will determine how many passengers you can nab on each trip and, eventually, how much fare you can ask for your service.

4. Make The Right Investments

Bus Simulator: Ultimate certainly leaves a lot for you to spend earnings on and with the amount of cash you will receive per trip in contrast with the prices of every item or upgrade that can be purchases, you just know that it will take a lot of hours and grinding to be able to end up with a huge enough bus company. It can be very overwhelming when you start off but at the very least, you have 2 offices that unlocks one route, and the lowest tier bus that does not offer much comfort, but still sufficient enough to earn a viable amount of income.

As we mentioned earlier, one of the key concepts you have to keep in mind is to avoid extra expenses a much as possible, which is why you should master operating your first bus yourself instead of hiring a driver immediately and having him drive in your stead. One of your priorities ought to be centered around how to earn more profits as soon as you can with what you have and for that, the best focus should be on improving your bus.

On the main screen, what you may want to initially visit once you have enough earnings is the garage, which can be accessed through the bus icon at the upper right area of the main screen. You can check the gallery and set your sights on better buses that you will eventually be able to afford as you make progress but for starters, you should check your current bus by tapping on the “SHOW” button.

By clicking on the choose button beside the bus’ name on the left side of the window, you will be presented with various options for you to customize your bus. There are various ways to customize the way your bus looks but for the most part, aesthetics are exclusively for your fun and enjoyment and does not impact its performance or boost their ability to earn more money.

Under the “Personalize” icon, however, you can purchase and install Wi-Fi and multimedia, bringing more comfort to your passengers and ultimately increasing their numbers on each trip. With this, you should only initially invest in these add-ons and only spend on skins and aesthetics when you have loads of extra cash.

Another thing to consider upgrading are your offices within the different terminals. Initially, it will not have rest rooms or restaurants to make waiting passengers happy but once you have earned gold coins, you should not hesitate to spend them on these upgrades. These upgrades will impact the comfort of passengers as well as the probability of them taking your bus on their trip. You will naturally have more waiting passengers than you can cater to early on but as you acquire more buses, these investments will prove their worth.

5. Extra Buses And Drivers Unlock Idle Earnings

Once you are able to afford purchasing another bus, you should consider hiring a driver as well. Depending on how often you can drive the bus yourself, you should strategize around which driver gets on which bus as you reserve one of them for you to drive yourself. You can view a wide selection of available drivers under their respective icon above the screen and, soon enough, you will be able to afford purchasing another bus for them to use.

Once you have set up a route and start departure of the bus, it takes some minutes for you to collect earnings for the trip. For the most part, these earnings pale in comparison with how much you can get whenever you take the bus on the road yourself, but whenever there is an option for idle earnings, it is hard to ignore given the need for extra cash to grow your business quicker.

Be sure to always take note of the time it takes for your driver to complete the trip, especially if you will be out and away from the game. “Even if you do not have much time to actually spend playing Bus Simulator: Ultimate, quick regular visits will help you earn cash once you have drivers.

6. Take As Many Breaks On The Trip As Needed

Driving a bus from one city to the next can be a tiring experience not just for you as a driver, but for all your passengers as well. There may be several items to keep an eye on while you are driving but the mini map at the upper left side should occasionally be a part of it. From there, you will not only see the waypoint leading to your destination. You can also see gas stations and other facilities where you can stop over for a quick break.

One of the amenities you can provide to your passengers is a catering service that can instantly replenish their hunger level. Each activation of this option has its own costs depending on how many food types you selected before the start of setting a trip and you can select a maximum of 4, which will all be served every time you give out free meals.

On the other hand, stopping over at restaurants or food marts within gas stations ultimately lead to having the same effect. It will be difficult to memorize the cities and roads you will be driving in so keep a keen eye whenever any icon pops up ahead on the mini map. Taking breaks will take the trip longer to finish but it is a good way for you to rest your fingers as well.

7. Claim Gifts As Often As You Can

Every trip that you or your drivers accomplish has its own rewards in Bus Simulator: Ultimate. In truth, earnings will be somewhat slow as you start out and it may take several hours for you to be able to earn enough just to be able to afford another bus and hire another driver. Beyond that, there are also new offices that you need to rent so you can put up more stations across various cities.

On the top of the screen, the first icon you will see is a gift box. After tapping on it, you will be presented with an option to watch a 15 to 30-minute ad to earn cash and gold. In all honestly, the amount that you can get here for free, provided that you can spare 30 seconds of your time at the most, can exceed profits earned for a full trip. As such, you should continue to play these ads as long as there are available ones. You can empty out your chances and wait for another 2 hours for it to replenish, Do remember to tap on the gift boxes you have earned to open them up after watching the video ad.

Beyond the occasional gifts that you can claim, you may notice the pot of gold banner at the right side of the main screen. Clicking on it will present you with a list of opportunities for you to earn extra cash. It most involves subscribing and following the developers on various social media channels. Each one offers huge amounts of cash and some let you earn gold.

Each one only requires a minute for you to accomplish provided you already have an existing account on the channel. Some will simply take you to a web page and you can exit out of it quickly to earn the rewards. In any case, be sure to take advantage of these opportunities as any free cash in the game is an opportunity that should not be missed.

And that sums up all the tips, cheats and strategies we have for Bus Simulator: Ultimate. We certainly hope that our guide has been helpful to you, and equally enjoyable. Again, we would like to stress the value of actively playing the game to speed up your progress. If you have played enough and have discovered some other helpful tips in addition to what we already discussed, we welcome you to share them with us through the comment section!