Clipping is one of the most powerful mechanics in Anno 1800, allowing players to maximize their efficiency by strategically overlapping building radiuses. Whether you are a casual player, a beauty builder, or a hardcore min-maxer, clipping offers incredible advantages that can transform your city-building experience. In this guide, we will explore everything you need to know about clipping, including its benefits, how it works, and some of the most powerful applications in the game.

What is Clipping and Why is it Important?

Clipping refers to the practice of overlapping the influence radii of buildings that provide area bonuses, such as Trade Unions, Town Halls, Arctic Lodges, and Harbormaster Offices. When two overlapping influence radiuses affect a single building, that building receives the bonus twice, leading to significant advantages:

• Double the benefits from items (e.g., higher production output, reduced workforce, or free byproducts).
• Stacked passive bonuses from Palaces and Local Departments.
• Massive increases in efficiency, allowing fewer buildings to achieve the same or better results.
• Min-maxers can push productivity and population records to the limit.
• Beauty builders can produce more with fewer factories, freeing up space for aesthetic designs.

Is Clipping a Bug? Will It Be Patched?

Many players wonder if clipping is an unintended exploit. While clipping was not present in the beta version, it has been in the game since launch due to the 50% coverage rule, which allows for overlapping influence areas. The game’s developers have acknowledged clipping’s existence but have no plans to fix it, meaning it is here to stay. All top min-maxers use clipping, and even renowned beauty builders incorporate it into their city designs.

Types of Clipping: Horizontal and Diagonal

There are two primary types of clipping:

1. Horizontal Clipping: Occurs when buildings are aligned vertically or horizontally, allowing their influence radii to overlap.
2. Diagonal Clipping: Requires both width and length of a building to be the same even number (e.g., 4×4 or 6×6).

Buildings that follow these patterns can be clipped effectively for maximum efficiency.

Buildings That Can Be Clipped

Many key buildings benefit from clipping. Here are some of the most impactful ones:

1. Gas Mines in the Arctic

• The Gas Mine is 4×4, making it perfect for both horizontal and diagonal clipping.
• Gas is a limited resource, and clipping increases production drastically.
• With clipping, you can power up to 17 Gas Power Plants instead of just 8-10.
• Tip: The Arctic map is identical in every playthrough, so use the community-generated map to place your Arctic Lodges for optimal clipping.

2. Public Mooring

• Only one per island, so clipping lets you stack visitor bonuses for legendary guests.
• Limited placement options, but strategic shore selection enables clipping.

3. Sailing Shipyard (Harbormaster Office Clipping)

• Works with Sailing Shipyards but not Steam Shipyards (odd-number width).
• By stacking workforce reduction and cost reduction items, ships become free to build.
• Infinite ship production = sell ships for endless profit or build fleets effortlessly.

4. Trade Unions for Factory Bonuses

• Trade Unions allow powerful productivity-boosting items.
• Example: Clipping a Cab Assembly Line with double Susana the Steam Engineer yields twice the free goods (e.g., extra light bulbs every four cycles).
• Steam Carriages benefit massively, reducing input costs while doubling free production cycles.
• Works wonders for chemical plants, lacquer production, and other high-tier factories.

5. Forest Production Buildings (Lumber & Fur Production)

• Trade Union clipping with forest-related productivity items enables 100% efficiency with just one tree.
• Saves huge land space, allowing min-maxers to maximize island population.
• Beauty builders can now integrate forestry within city areas for realism.

6. Town Halls (Scholars, Police, Banks, etc.)

• Scholar Residences (4×4) can be clipped but offer minimal impact.
• Banks, police stations, and other services can be clipped, but trade unions provide more impactful benefits.

How to Check If a Building Can Be Clipped

• Place the building and count its tile width and length.
• If both dimensions are even numbers, horizontal clipping works.
• If width and length are equal, diagonal clipping works.

Final Thoughts: Should You Use Clipping?

Clipping is not cheating—it’s an advanced optimization strategy used by top-ranked players. Whether you are aiming for record-breaking population counts, maximum efficiency, or simply freeing up space for aesthetics, clipping is a tool that every Anno 1800 player should understand and master.

• Min-maxers will struggle to break records without clipping.
• Beauty builders can maintain high production with fewer factories.
• Casual players benefit from easier resource management.

If you found this guide useful, be sure to like, share, and subscribe for more Anno 1800 strategy tips! Have any favorite clipping techniques? Share them in the comments!