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Guide

Transport Fever 3 Company Ranks, Perks and Prospecting

How your company moves up a rank, what each perk does and which problem it solves, and how to start a prospection, all from the official manual.

Last updated Game version: Release version, manual pages revised 2026-09-28 and 2026-09-29

The short answer

  • Ranks follow your map's population. Your company rank follows the population of the whole map. When towns get what they need they grow, and each time the map's population passes the next threshold, the company moves up a rank.
  • Every rank unlocks perks in four groups: landmarks, prospections, special mechanics, and headquarters upgrades. The Perks tool in the toolbar is where you build landmarks, start prospections and give towns or industries the special bonuses.
  • Prospecting founds new industries. Sends an expedition to look for one type of resource inside a town's municipal area. If that resource is there, a new industry is founded.
  • Mind inflation. With the Inflation setting on, passenger and cargo income shrinks in step with your company rank.

From the official manual

Which perk fixes which problem

The manual sorts perks by type. Here they are sorted by the problem you are trying to solve.

  • A resource you need is missing nearby

    • Prospection: Sends an expedition to look for one type of resource inside a town's municipal area. If that resource is there, a new industry is founded.

  • A town's reputation is low

    • Marketing campaign: Raises a town's reputation and nudges its residents to take public transport instead of their cars.
    • Headquarters upgrades: Some add-on modules are only decoration, but most either speed up reputation recovery or boost the growth of your capital.

  • People drive instead of using your lines

    • Marketing campaign: Raises a town's reputation and nudges its residents to take public transport instead of their cars.

  • A factory is noisy or dirty near homes

    • Industry greenification: Cuts the noise and pollution of one industry.

  • Pollution is high across an area

    • Pollution cleaning plant: Absorbs emissions, but is very noisy itself.
    • Industry greenification: Cuts the noise and pollution of one industry.

  • A town needs better ratings or faster ships

    • Landmarks: A finished landmark gives special bonuses inside the municipal area of the town where it stands, and these usually raise the town's ratings. The manual's examples: the Colosseum cuts road vehicle noise, and the great lighthouse raises the top speed of all water vehicles.

  • Your capital grows too slowly

    • Headquarters upgrades: Some add-on modules are only decoration, but most either speed up reputation recovery or boost the growth of your capital.

How company ranks work

Your company rank follows the population of the whole map. When towns get what they need they grow, and each time the map's population passes the next threshold, the company moves up a rank.

The company window opens from the company button in the game bar (on console, from the radial menu). Its first tab shows your progress: pick a rank to see what it unlocks, and for a rank you have not reached, a bar shows how much more the population has to grow.

The Transport Fever 3 company window listing fifteen ranks from Junior to Tycoon, with the Mechanic rank and its unlocks shown
The company window in a pre-release build, with every rank listed on the left. Screenshot: Transport Fever 3 © Urban Games

The ranks, from an official screenshot. The window above lists 15 ranks: Junior, Mechanic, Engineer, Coordinator, Expert, Team Leader, Supervisor, Manager, Director, Senior Director, CEO, Chairperson, Vice President, President, and Tycoon. In it, Mechanic asks for a map population of 2,167 and unlocks the Medium Building headquarters upgrade (town growth +1.0%), the Amphitheater landmark, and prospecting for fish. These details come from screenshots in the official press kit, taken before release. The manual does not list them, and the release version may differ.

With the Inflation setting on, passenger and cargo income shrinks in step with your company rank. So a higher rank brings more perks but, with inflation on, less income per delivery. A new game starts with an empty bank account, so the first step is a loan. You can hold up to four at once, and the monthly interest depends on the difficulty.

How to prospect, step by step

  1. Reach the rank that unlocks the prospection you want. The company window shows what each rank unlocks.
  2. Open the Perks tool in the toolbar and pick the prospection.
  3. Start it inside the municipal area of a town where you want the new industry.
  4. An expedition searches that area for the resource.
  5. If the resource is there, a new industry is founded. If not, the prospection fails. The manual's example: a fish prospection fails in an area without water.
  6. Connect the new industry to a line. To see what its cargo feeds, look it up in Industries and Cargo Types or plan the chain in the production chain planner.

Landmarks

A finished landmark gives special bonuses inside the municipal area of the town where it stands, and these usually raise the town's ratings. The manual's examples: the Colosseum cuts road vehicle noise, and the great lighthouse raises the top speed of all water vehicles. By default a landmark has to be built: deliver the cargo it asks for to its construction site. With the Landmark Required Resources setting at None, landmarks are finished as soon as you place them. The game has 10 landmarks; one achievement asks you to build all 10 in a single municipal area.

The Transport Fever 3 landmark menu with the Great Lighthouse selected in front of a landmark construction site
The landmark menu in a pre-release build, with the Great Lighthouse selected in front of a construction site. In this screenshot: the Great Lighthouse raises the top speed of ships within its municipal area by 20%. Screenshot: Transport Fever 3 © Urban Games

Marketing, greenification and cleaning plants

  • Marketing campaign: Raises a town's reputation and nudges its residents to take public transport instead of their cars. Launch it in the town you want to win over.
  • Industry greenification: Cuts the noise and pollution of one industry. Apply it to the industry that bothers a town.
  • Pollution cleaning plant: Absorbs emissions, but is very noisy itself. Keep it away from homes: residential districts suffer from noise, while commercial and industrial districts do not.

Headquarters upgrades

Some add-on modules are only decoration, but most either speed up reputation recovery or boost the growth of your capital. Add modules to your headquarters building. The headquarters also adds to the town growth multiplier: 5% at first, more as you expand it.

Rank up faster: help your towns grow

Population comes from towns, and towns grow by earning experience (XP). A town needs 1,000 XP to reach level 2 and 1,500 more for level 3; every step after that takes 1.5 times the one before, up to level 18 (Large Metropolis).

  • Passengers earn XP when they arrive in a town: 5 XP from the same town, 10 XP from a neighboring town, and 20 XP from a town farther away.
  • Cargo earns XP for every item delivered: 10 XP for the least complex cargo, 20 XP for the middle complexity, and 40 XP for the most complex cargo.
  • The XP a delivery earns is multiplied by a factor that depends on the town's Authority and Supplies ratings.
  • Supplies is the average of passenger and cargo supply. Passenger supply depends on how many residents use public transport and is at its maximum from 50% line usage; cargo supply counts the best-served district with cargo demand.
  • Authority is the lowest of six ratings, so lifting the weakest one helps most. The six are Reputation, Happiness, Delivery, Traffic, Noise, and Pollution. Reshaping the landscape, demolishing town buildings and cutting the main roads between towns cost reputation; celebrations and marketing campaigns win it back, and new trees make up for felled ones.

Towns also ask for more cargo as they grow:

  • From the start: one cargo demand each in the commercial and industrial district
  • Level 5: a second commercial demand
  • Level 7: a second industrial demand
  • Level 9: a third commercial demand, possibly one of the most complex cargo types
  • Level 11: a third industrial demand, possibly one of the most complex cargo types

Long passenger trips and complex cargo earn the most XP per arrival, and getting cargo to the right taker is the first step.

The Tycoon mod and achievements

Tycoon mod. It ships with the game and puts the company at the highest rank with every perk unlocked; nothing else changes. The manual adds that achievements are generally unavailable while non-cosmetic mods are active or when gameplay settings differ from the standard values.

  • Promotion: move up a company rank for the first time.
  • Career Ladder: reach the highest company title.
  • Tycoon of Tycoons: earn the Tycoon title in every climate zone, across your games.
  • Centralized: build all 10 landmarks in one municipal area.

Not in the manual yet

The manual does not list how many ranks there are, their names (beyond “Tycoon”) or population thresholds, which rank unlocks which perk, which resources can be prospected, or the names and cargo needs of all 10 landmarks. The pre-release screenshot above shows the rank names and one threshold; we will check those, and add the rest, once the release version confirms them.

Frequently asked questions

How do company ranks work in Transport Fever 3?

Your company rank follows the population of the whole map. When towns get what they need they grow, and each time the map's population passes the next threshold, the company moves up a rank. Each new rank unlocks perks: landmarks, prospections, special mechanics, and headquarters upgrades.

How do I prospect for new industries?

Once your rank has unlocked a prospection, open the Perks tool in the toolbar, pick the prospection and start it inside the municipal area of a town. An expedition searches that area, and if it finds the resource, a new industry is founded there.

Why did my prospection fail?

A prospection only founds an industry if the municipal area where you started it has that resource. The manual's example: a fish prospection fails in an area without water.

How many company ranks are there, and what does each unlock?

The manual does not say. An official press screenshot taken before release shows 15 ranks, from Junior to Tycoon; in it, Mechanic asks for a map population of 2,167 and unlocks the Medium Building headquarters upgrade (town growth +1.0%), the Amphitheater landmark, and prospecting for fish. The release version may differ. In the game, open the company window and select a rank to see what it unlocks and how much more the population has to grow.

What do landmarks do?

A finished landmark gives special bonuses inside the municipal area of the town where it stands, and these usually raise the town's ratings. The manual's examples: the Colosseum cuts road vehicle noise, and the great lighthouse raises the top speed of all water vehicles. By default a landmark has to be built: deliver the cargo it asks for to its construction site. With the Landmark Required Resources setting at None, landmarks are finished as soon as you place them. There are 10 landmarks in total.

What do headquarters upgrades do?

Some add-on modules are only decoration, but most either speed up reputation recovery or boost the growth of your capital. Add modules to your headquarters building. The headquarters also adds to the town growth multiplier: 5% at first, more as you expand it.

Does a higher company rank lower my income?

Only with inflation on. Inflation only lowers cargo and passenger income, in proportion to the company rank. It does not change vehicle prices.

What does the Tycoon mod do?

Tycoon is one of the mods that ship with the game. It puts the company at the highest rank with every perk unlocked; nothing else changes. The manual adds that achievements are generally unavailable while non-cosmetic mods are active or when gameplay settings differ from the standard values.

Related tools and guides

New industries need customers: plan their chains with the production chain planner and check where each cargo can be unloaded in the cargo unloading guide. The guides page lists every guide.

Sources

All game facts on this page come from these pages of the official Transport Fever 3 manual:

  • Finances (company ranks, perks, prospections, landmarks, headquarters, loans; revised September 29, 2026)
  • Towns (town levels, growth XP and ratings; revised September 28, 2026)
  • Free Game (inflation, the Tycoon mod, landmark settings; revised September 29, 2026)
  • Achievements (rank and landmark achievements; revised September 29, 2026)
  • User Interface (the Perks tool; revised September 29, 2026)

The manual's Finances page shows an "old revision" notice at the top, but its history lists no newer version. Checked on October 6, 2026. Seen something different in game? Let us know.