Once the island has gained its independence (and thus ending the Colonial Era), the player, represented by "El Presidente" and his dynasty, must win three bets against the US President to befriend him; at the same time, a real estate tax must be paid continuously to the Crown.

Once the invasion is defeated, the player must accrue a large sum in their Swiss Bank Account in order to purchase Switzerland and get "Dr. Zweistein" onto the island.

This leads onto a demonstration of the tourism mechanic, in which the player is tasked with paying fees to The Order while, at the same time, trying to get enough tourists onto the island.

Then, the island must produce and export Uranium for The Order, while at the same time, stopping the protests and increasing strikes from destroying the economy.

At the end of this mission, Kane's plan is revealed: becoming dissilusioned with his mission after seeing complete Human apathy for the countless conflicts, the Cold War's proxy wars chiefly among them, he deemed mankind too far gone and decided to use the uranium to build enough nuclear missiles and launch an attack on the entire world, killing most of the population before then restarting it with a small pool of Order-picked survivors.

Once this has been done, the second military-themed mission has the player building a large army, not to defend, but to invade the island of Cayo de Fortuna.

The location of Kane is discovered, before he has the opportunity to start a nuclear war, and the player must complete a variety of tasks that help to assassinate him.

After this has been completed, Tropico must export resources in order to dissolve the USSR, and then bring all the modern superpowers together and dealing with constant military threats to end the campaign.

[17] Ars Technica criticised the "excess number of quests" and the "lack of motivation and enthusiasm" that the game had.