Before playing, run through the tutorials. They are VERY useful and pretty darn amusing. Also, make a habit of checking with your advisers on a regular basis; if there is something wrong, they will bring it to your attention but only if asked. Many problems are not apparent and can only be discovered through their sage advice.
Remember the general rule: in Heaven, good is good and bad is bad. In Hell, bad is good and good is bad. Thus, heavy traffic is desirable in Hell and should be allowed to get as snarled as possible. Energy Syphons produce toxic waste; therefore, build them far away from your Fate zoning in Heaven and build right next door in Hell. Most importantly, you want strong bad vibes in Hell and strong good vibes in Heaven.
The four squares in the middle of each realm may look like the shadow of your Karma Tracks but they are, in fact, the shadow of the Planet. DO NOT build Karma Tracks across the Planet’s shadow or they will be inoperable.
Build your Karma Stations and Tracks early and coordinate the location of your initial building in Heaven and Hell to allow both realms to share Karma track. It’s much more efficient and cheaper.
Remember, the inhabitants of the Planet believe certain things about the afterlife. What they believe dictates exactly what their afterlife will be like (i.e., if they don’t believe in Heaven, they will never see it no matter how good they were.) Belief systems have three parts: whether there is an afterlife or not, whether you get multiple punishments and visit multiple realms, and whether reincarnation exists. These beliefs affect many things, most importantly, the percentage of permanent versus temporary SOULs, and whether you need to build a reincarnation system.
In both realms, build Gates at a distance to zoned areas as they tend to produce undesirable vibes (good in Hell, bad in Heaven).
Topias emit VERY positive vibes and should be built close to zones, though (since angels and devils can fly) they need not be hooked up to roads.
When you receive a gift from the Powers That Be, decide very carefully where to place it. Many of the gifts ward off Bad Things and function regardless of placement. Some, though, simply produce intense desirable vibes and should be positioned in areas plagued by the undesirable kind. Save the game before placing these buildings. Try some different positions and check on the effect it has in your map view.
In Heaven, place Fate zones touching each other whenever possible. Separate them as much as possible in Hell.
Since SOULs in Hell deserve to walk a lot to get to their punishments, make roads long; they will be more efficient. In Heaven, though, make roads short; good SOULs deserve a short commute.
When Bats fly over Hell and drop guano on your more precious buildings, don’t worry. In Hell, guano is good and actually increases the efficiency of the soiled Fate structure.
Keep a close eye on your Fate Structure balancing. It directly impacts on your efficiency and, in turn, your SOUL Rate. A high SOUL Rate is vital to run a profitable afterlife.
Build Training Centers and Topias early. One of the most important tactics is to keep your labor costs low. Topias allow all your angels and devils to live in the afterlife and avoid commuting (a commuting worker is an expensive worker.) So build them and build them big; they fill up quick. When you first build your Training Center, push admission up to the maximum and observe the effect on your imported labor force in the Labor Costs graph (a home grown worker is cheaper than an imported one.) Also keep an eye on the intelligence of your workers via the AQ or DQ (Angel and Devil Quotient, respectively) also found in your Labor Costs graph. If your workers get too stupid, they will be less efficient. To increase the intelligence of your workers, lower the admission percentage on your Training Centers. 30% is an acceptable level of imported labor; anything lower and you have some pretty dumb workers.
To prevent idle workers, turn off your Training Centers when your advisors tell you to. Then, when your imported labor percentage goes above 30%, turn the training back on.
Make a habit of placing a lot of single-square generic zones around your Fate Structures and don’t forget to keep them connected to roads. This will minimize the damage from Heaven’s Nose and Hell In A Handbasket disasters since they prefer to suck up single square zones and are more likely to skip over larger zones.
SOULs will only tolerate walking three squares to reach a road so make sure your zones are sufficiently close to the roads. If you zone an area and any squares are grey instead of the designated color for that zone, it means that it’s too far from the road.
Learn how to use your Macromanager and how to intervene in activities on the Planet. Both actions will cost you a very hefty fee, but the benefits can be extraordinary and can save a lot of work. For example, once your realms are established, it might be a good idea to go to the expense of auto balancing them. You will save a lot of time instead of individually balancing zones. Don’t do it too early, though, or it’s a waste of money. Also, if one realm is far more populated than another or you want to stem the flow of a particular vice or virtue (say your Lust zones are far more full than your other punishments), intervene to discourage the unwanted vice (by putting the likes of Pat Buchanan in power, I presume) or influence the belief system of the Planet’s inhabitants to assure that they don’t believe in Hell and will, therefore, never see it.
Build Banks while you still have the money to do so. Then, if you run out you can always get a loan.
Utilize the speed settings. If you want to see how an action effects the situation, immediately crank up the speed and see what happens. You can toggle between the last speed you set and Divine Intervention (you may build and tinker but no time passes) with the space bar. Use Divine Intervention to your advantage. When you see that you are losing SOULs, hit the space bar and investigate. This will minimize your SOUL loss and will give you time to remedy the situation carefully.
Efficiency is the key to success. The more efficient your rewards/punishments, the higher your SOUL Rate. The higher your SOUL Rate the more money you make. The higher the number of SOULs in a Fate Structure, the more efficient it is. The more evolved your Fate Structures are, the more SOULs they hold. The better zoned, powered, vibed, and roaded your afterlife is the faster it will evolve. Got it? Enjoy your omniscience.
