Theme Park Tycoon 2 roller coasters are rated on four numbers: guest satisfaction, excitement, intensity and nausea. Developer Den_S has not published the formula, but his December 2022 changelog says the rating looks at scenery and the track layout, and that guests “will be happy to pay significantly more” for well-designed rides. So the way to raise excitement is a longer, faster layout with several big drops, scenery close to the track and no wasted track, while you keep nausea in check.
Game data in this guide was checked against the Theme Park Tycoon 2 Wiki, Den_S’s changelog and the Roblox game page on November 1, 2026 (10:00 UTC).
Table of Contents
Quick answer
- Ratings: each coaster shows guest satisfaction (a fresh ride starts at 50%, according to the wiki), excitement, intensity and nausea. Numbers have shown on rides since version 15 (August 2016).
- Raise excitement: scenery near the track, a long layout with several fast drops, inversions on coasters that support them, and an extra lap. Avoid stacking loops, which players say push nausea up.
- Highest starting excitement: the Inverted launch coaster and Beyond-vertical drop coaster, both listed at 3.20 on the wiki.
- Highest default ticket: the Launched spinning coaster at $31. Junior, Wild mouse and Spinning coasters start at $15.
- Stations: an entrance or exit gate needs a long enough station. In the advanced editor a station piece must be exactly 8 studs long and grid-aligned.
- More trains: up to 7 trains per ride. Each needs its own block section (stations, block brakes or chainlift ends).
- Coaster IDs: design IDs for ready-made coasters are in our Theme Park Tycoon 2 Workshop blueprint list.
How excitement, intensity and nausea work in Theme Park Tycoon 2
The Theme Park Tycoon 2 Wiki lists the starting values as guest satisfaction (50% on a fresh ride), plus excitement, intensity and nausea scores.
- Excitement is how thrilling guests find the ride.
- Intensity rises with loops and high drops, according to players on the wiki’s discussion board.
- Nausea is what makes guests feel sick. Players report that lots of loops and inversions push it up fastest.
- Guest satisfaction is shown as a percentage.
Version 410 (December 21, 2022) reworked the tracked-ride rating system completely. Den_S’s notes say the rating still values “great scenery as ever”, now also weighs design factors “such as the track layout”, and keeps every ride viable for income. There is no official table of thresholds, so treat any exact “excitement 7 = $X” formula you see online with caution.
Scenery counts twice. Besides the excitement boost from v410, the wiki’s park rating page says 4.5 stars requires every ride to have an appearance stat above 1.5, which takes about ten hedges and bushes within three tiles of the ride. The full star checklist is in our 5-star rating guide.
Entrance and exit gates need a long enough station; queues are optional since v215, but a queue that is too short leaves guests unable to join. AI-generated illustration
How to raise excitement on a coaster
Official notes first, then what players report:
- Landscape the track. Put hedges, bushes, trees and rocks within three tiles of the coaster, and run the track through or around them. This is the one factor Den_S names directly.
- Make the layout go somewhere. Since v410 the layout itself is rated. In a wiki discussion thread (April 2025), one player suggests a long track (700 m or more) with several high-speed drops; their best-rated ride, a mine train, has more than ten. Another player recommends “larger drops, make it faster” and more g-forces, “but not too much”.
- Add inversions where the coaster allows them. Only some coasters can use loops and corkscrews (list below). Use them for excitement, but watch nausea after each one.
- Add laps. With the ride operations game pass you can set “Multiple lap mode” to 2 or 3 laps. One player (February 2026) says this is how they raise excitement. It also makes each ride longer, so fewer guests ride per minute.
- Give it a theme. The same mine-train builder gave the ride “personality” with three caves. That is a player tip, not an official mechanic.
- Check the numbers and the ticket. After each change, test the ride and read the stats. Then raise the ticket in $1 steps until guests start thinking it’s too expensive. The wiki says guests think “too expensive” 30-50% of the time if a coaster is too small.
The wiki’s page for the Inverted coaster (4 seats across) shows a built example at 6.90 excitement, 4.45 intensity and 6.12 nausea, against 2.00/2.00/0.00 for a fresh Inverted coaster. That gap shows how much the design can move the numbers, and that high excitement often comes with high nausea.
Theme Park Tycoon 2 roller coaster types and stats
Starting excitement, intensity and nausea as listed on each coaster’s wiki page, with build cost and default ticket. Your own layout changes all three ratings. A dash means the wiki doesn’t list a value. These are current (non-legacy) versions. Since version 520 (November 2024), rides unlock through levels. Version 585 (April 2026) lets you pick each unlock from a tree.
| Coaster | Build cost | Default ticket | Seats per car | Excitement | Intensity | Nausea |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junior coaster | $250+ | $15 | 4 | 1.30 | 2.00 | 0.20 |
| Wild mouse coaster | $300+ | $15 | 4 | 1.70 | 2.50 | 0.50 |
| Corkscrew coaster | $600 | $25 | 4 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 0.90 |
| Inverted coaster | $600+ | $25 | 2 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 |
| Flying coaster | $900+ | $25 | 2 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 |
| Multi-launch coaster | $1,500 | $30 | 4 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 |
| Phase-turbine coaster | $1,500+ | $25 | 4 (first car 2) | 2.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 |
| Floorless coaster | $2,000+ | $29 | 2 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 0.10 |
| Inverted launch coaster | $2,100+ | $25 | 2 | 3.20 | 2.00 | 1.00 |
| Beyond-vertical drop coaster | $2,250+ | $29 | 4 | 3.20 | 2.00 | 0.99 |
| Hypercoaster | $2,250+ | $28 | 4 (no front-car seats) | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 |
| Suspended swinging coaster | $2,250 | $29 | 4 | 1.80 | 2.50 | 1.50 |
| Extreme launch coaster | $2,500 | $30 | 4 | 2.00 | 2.20 | 1.20 |
| Single rail coaster | $2,500 | $29 | 2 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 0.10 |
| Launched spinning coaster | $2,750+ | $31 | 4 | 2.20 | 2.50 | 1.50 |
| Wooden coaster | $3,250 | $30 | 2 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 |
| Hybrid coaster | $4,000+ | $30 | 4 | 2.00 | – | – |
| 4D coaster | $4,500 | $29 | – | 2.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 |
The Mine train and Vertical launch coasters were redesigned in version 585 (April 10, 2026), and the Hydraulic launch coaster in version 394. Their wiki pages have no ratings for the new versions yet, so we left them out rather than reuse old numbers. For income per minute, see the table in our Theme Park Tycoon 2 money and prices guide.
Which coasters can use which elements
From the wiki’s track pieces page:
- Loops and corkscrews: Corkscrew, Phase-turbine, Vertical launch, Floorless, Flying, Inverted, Beyond-vertical drop, Hypercoaster, Hybrid, Wing, Dive, Single rail and Multi-launch coasters.
- No steep slopes or vertical pieces: Junior and Steeplechase coasters.
- No vertical pieces: Mine train, Water, Wild mouse, Spinning and Wooden coasters.
- Top hat (vertical up to vertical down) and level-to-vertical boosters: only the Vertical launch and Beyond-vertical drop coasters.
Theme Park Tycoon 2 roller coaster station tips
These come straight from Den_S’s update notes, which the wiki keeps in its changelog:
- Make the station long enough. If an entrance or exit gate won’t build, the station is too short. Since v86 the game shows an error for this instead of the gate silently disappearing.
- Extend a station from the back. Build a new station piece behind the existing one (v37).
- In the advanced editor, a station segment has to be exactly 8 studs long and aligned to the grid on both ends, or it won’t place (wiki).
- Use the improved physics model. It fits trains to station space more sensibly; for example, 5 short cars fit on 4 station tiles (v273). New tracked rides use it by default since v280, and block brakes only work with it.
- Extra stations don’t slow trains down. Since v283, trains skip a station with no entrance or exit if the next block section is free. You can switch back to stopping at every station in the ride settings.
Scenery within three tiles of a ride raises its appearance stat, and since v410 the coaster rating weighs scenery and layout. AI-generated illustration
How to run more than one train
Version 273 raised the train limit to 7, and v283 added block brakes for all roller coasters. A train rolls over a block brake if the next section is free; otherwise it stops and waits. A chainlift can also end a block section (turn this on in the ride settings), as long as its end doesn’t touch a station, a block brake or another chainlift. Block brakes can’t overlap stations or other block brakes.
The rule of thumb: every train needs its own block section plus one free section ahead of it. The wiki’s ride operations page says 7 trains needs at least 8 stations. The fan-run TPT2 Workshop guides page has a short video on where to place block brakes.
Queue tips
- A queue is no longer required. Since v215, guests can board a ride with no queue if a train is waiting at the station. If the queue is too short or full, though, guests think “The queue of [ride] is full!” and can’t join it.
- One-way signs and doors do nothing on queue paths since v582 (January 8, 2026), so don’t use them to route a queue.
- Since v515 (August 2024), queue paths can be saved inside a ride design, so a blueprint can bring its own queue line.
How to avoid coaster crashes
The wiki’s crashing page says a tracked ride crashes when it runs over a gap in the track, stalls with no way to finish the circuit, or runs over the same section more than 100 times. Guests on board die, and other guests may leave the park afterwards. You then have to close and reopen the ride to get its trains back. Before you open a new layout, check that the circuit is complete and that every launch and lift gives the train enough speed to clear the next hill.
Theme Park Tycoon 2 roller coaster ideas (2025-2026 track pieces)
| Feature | Added | Coasters | Idea |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switch tracks | v575, Dec 18, 2025 | Multi-launch, Extreme launch, Launched spinning, Hydraulic launch, Beyond-vertical drop, Motorcycle | Split the track into two branches and merge them again. Both branches must be built |
| Drop and elevator tracks | v410 (2022), rebuilt in v585, Apr 10, 2026 | Corkscrew, Motorcycle, Extreme launch, Hypercoaster, Stand-up, Launched spinning, Multi-launch, Wing, plus the new Vertical launch and Mine train | A drop track that reverses or launches the train |
| Tilt tracks | v589, Jul 7, 2026 | Multi-launch, Corkscrew, Launched spinning, Extreme launch, Vertical launch, Beyond-vertical drop | Tilt the train forward over a drop, or reverse-launch it |
| Turntables | 10th Anniversary Update, Aug 21, 2026 | “Various roller coasters” (official listing) | New in 2026; the full notes aren’t on the wiki yet, so check your coaster’s build menu |
| Ride modes | v273, Mar 2020 | Tracked rides with the operations pass | Shuttle, powered launch, backwards, or 2-3 laps |
Some settings on switch, drop and tilt tracks need the “Enable ride operations” game pass (90 Robux on the Roblox game page on November 1). It also unlocks chainlift speed (25-250%), boost speed (25-500%), track friction and a gravity multiplier, according to the wiki. Some starting ideas:
- Shuttle launcher: a Multi-launch coaster in powered launch shuttle mode, which launches the train straight out of the station on a there-and-back layout.
- Tilt-drop finale: a Corkscrew or Extreme launch coaster that stops on a tilt track and drops forward into the last section.
- Split-track duel: a switch track on an Extreme launch coaster that sends trains down two different branches.
- Family coaster with laps: a Junior coaster through a garden, set to 2 laps, for parks that need a low-nausea coaster.
The wiki calls roller coasters “very effective at bringing visitors to a park”. Our guide to getting more guests covers park size and guest counts.
FAQ
What is the best roller coaster in Theme Park Tycoon 2?
There’s no single best one, because your layout decides the rating. On the wiki’s starting stats, the Inverted launch and Beyond-vertical drop coasters start highest on excitement (3.20). The Launched spinning coaster has the highest default ticket ($31).
How do you make a station in Theme Park Tycoon 2?
In the basic editor, pick the station track type to add more station pieces. In the advanced editor, a station piece must be exactly 8 studs long and grid-aligned. Make it long enough for the entrance and exit gates, or the game shows an error.
How do I get more excitement on my coaster?
Add scenery within a few tiles of the track, lengthen the layout with more fast drops, and add inversions if the coaster supports them. Den_S’s v410 notes confirm that scenery and layout both count.
Are there roller coaster ID codes in Theme Park Tycoon 2?
Yes, in the form of blueprint design IDs (RD-000-000-000-000) that you paste into the build menu’s search tab. We list verified ones with build costs and game passes in our Workshop blueprints guide.
Sources: Theme Park Tycoon 2 Wiki (coaster pages, Track pieces, Rating, Crashing, Advanced coaster creator, Enable ride operations, Guest thoughts, Changelog 2016-2026 reprinting Den_S’s update notes, discussion threads “How do u get more excitement on coasters” and “Ride stats?”), checked November 1, 2026; Theme Park Tycoon 2 on Roblox (game passes, update listings); TPT2 Workshop guides.
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Featured image: AI-generated illustration
