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Full Steam announcements and update articles for this title.
Update 1.4.2 is rolling out to all platforms today!
With Test of Time in the rearview mirror, we’ve continued to be hard at work revisiting some of Civ’s preexisting systems to help give them greater depth. To that end, this update brings a handful of features and improvements we’re excited to share with you.
We’ve heard players asking for more options in Peace Deals, and with 1.4.2, we’re happy to add new ways to negotiate. You'll now have an expanded toolkit of items to exchange to bring a war to a close, along with an upgraded, cleaner UI. In a similar vein, we’re also making improvements to Leader Relationships that give you more control and clarity over your diplomatic strategy.
With Victories getting an overhaul in Test of Time, we had to do some tinkering to get individual Victory settings back up and running. Now, with 1.4.2, you can once again disable or enable specific Victory types, crafting a path to greatness that’s all your own!
Lastly, we’re launching the second part of the paid Brush and Blade Collection.* We introduced Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Heian Japan, and Sengoku Japan last month, and now, players can delve into Korean history with the addition of Yi Sun-sin, Goryeo, and Joseon. For more details on their Unique Abilities, Units, and gameplay styles, read more below!
We’re grateful for your continued support and the many turns taken! To hang out and keep the conversation going, join our growing empire over on the Official Civ Discord. You can share your latest game stories, leave feedback on Update 1.4.2 (and other areas of Civilization VII), and join in on fun community events with fellow Civ fans. As always, read on for the details, start your next empire, and stay civilized!
*Base game required. Each DLC will be delivered automatically in-game when they are available. Terms apply.
An important note for PC players regarding mods: Like our previous update, this update will do a reset to disable all active mods. We highly recommend giving our amazing modding community a little time to update their work before toggling things back on manually.
Using a mod that has been updated and is stable? You can simply re-enable these mods by navigating to "Add-ons" in the Main Menu. Browse your list of installed mods and toggle on the ones you want to play with.
Update drivers: We recommend ensuring your graphics drivers are up-to-date and to double check our Minimum System Requirements for the best experience.
Backwards compatibility: While we aim to maintain backwards compatibility for existing saves as much as possible, some new abilities or effects may not appear until you start a new game. For the best experience, we recommend starting a new game.
Legacy branch: Are you playing on Steam and want to finish your current save under a previous version? You can do so using our legacy Steam beta branch. To join the legacy branch, right-click Sid Meier's Civilization VII in your Steam library, select Properties, then click over to the Betas tab. From there, select the “legacy” option.
As a reminder, you can visit our tracker to see known issues. If you’re encountering an issue, you can submit a bug report with the team here.
We’ve given Peace Deals some more options so you can settle your disputes like a true statesman (or a highly pragmatic conqueror).
Peace deals are no longer strictly a property market! Where previously you could trade Settlements, you can now throw Gold and Influence onto the table to resolve your conflicts. Notably, the amount of Gold and Influence that can be traded is determined by Age; we chose to focus on meaningful lump sums to help better manage the economy of war and, importantly, set up the AI to better negotiate.
As with most of our changes, we’re rounding it out with some new UI to improve the overall experience. The Peace Deal screen will feel more colorful and compact, and yes(!) - you can now dismiss a Peace Deal temporarily to survey the map and make a truly informed decision when it comes to Settlement swaps. We still have more in store for deepening Diplomacy and War, including new ways to maintain your alliances without joining allies’ wars, among other new features. Stay tuned!
No empire is complete without some clever diplomacy, and with this update, we’re making it easier to keep track of how you’re faring with other Leaders. For starters, the Leader Relationship panel now displays which Leader initiated an event that changed your relationship (for example, which of the two started an Endeavor).
We’re also adding more information to the Leader Agenda notifications, as well as new, unique messages from Leaders when their Agenda significantly changes your relationship.
Additionally, we’ve updated the Reconciliation Diplomatic Action. Previously, you were only able to initiate Reconciliation with a Hostile opponent. Now, you can extend an olive branch even earlier and initiate Reconciliation with an Unfriendly leader, too.
Launching alongside Update 1.4.2 is the second part of our latest paid content collection: Brush and Blade.* This collection journeys deep into East Asian history, exploring the balance between art and conflict, ambition and fortitude.
Part Two Includes:
New Leader: Yi Sun-sin
New Civilizations: Goryeo and Joseon
More Customization: a new border for your player profile
How it works:
If you purchased the Brush and Blade Collection when it launched alongside Update 1.4.1 last month, you’ll receive access to this Part 2 content right as Update 1.4.2 releases. Otherwise, you can purchase the collection any time to receive Part 1 and Part 2 content together!
*Base game required. Each DLC will be delivered automatically in-game when they are available. Terms apply.
The famed admiral, Yi Sun-sin, was a man of duty and resolve. Through a volatile career plagued by betrayal, Admiral Yi never strayed from his duty, answering the call of his king even from the depths of prison. From the splintered remains of the Korean navy, he forged a fleet of strength and led his men to victory against the overwhelming odds of the enemy, cementing his legacy as a hero to his men and to his people.
Attributes: Militaristic, Scientific
Unique Ability - Samdo Sugun Tongjesa: Can train Fleet Commanders after studying the Discipline Civic during the Antiquity Age. Receive a free Fleet Commander once you have both a Harbor and Discipline in Antiquity. Defeating an enemy with a Naval Unit provides Science equal to a percentage of its Combat Strength. All Fleet Commanders receive XP upon construction of Science Buildings. Gain a set amount Gold per Age per point of Fleet Commander XP earned in Combat.
Agenda - 13 Ships: Increase Relationship with civilizations that have a minimum amount of Naval Units and Fortification Buildings. Decrease Relationship with civilizations that don't meet these minimums.
Check out the full Game Guide for Yi Sun-Sin here.
Out of the fragmentation of Korea’s Three Kingdoms period came Goryeo, a center for scholarship and art, and a formidable force in East Asia. Established in 918 CE, Goryeo became a bastion of Buddhist scholarship, and was an early innovator in moveable type – in other words, the printing press. Additionally, Goryeo celadon pottery is famous for its sophistication and artistry. Goryeo faced challenges, though, keeping peace on the peninsula at first through strength, and then through strategic positioning as a vassal of the Yuan Dynasty of China. Yet in that empire’s fall, a new order arose – Joseon.
Apex Age: Exploration
Attributes: Cultural, Diplomatic
Unique Ability - Byeongjo:
Tier 1, Antiquity Age: Increased Culture from active Endeavors you started or supported. Increased Culture on Unique Improvements in Towns and increased Influence on Unique Improvements in Cities.
Tier 2, Exploration Age (Apex): Further increased Culture from active Endeavors you started or supported. Increased Culture on Unique Improvements in Towns and increased Influence on Unique Improvements in Cities.
Tier 3, Modern Age: Even further increased Culture from active Endeavors you started or supported. Increased Culture on Unique Improvements in Towns, increased Influence on Unique Improvements in Cities, and increased Tourism from all Unique Improvements.
Unique Military Unit - Hwacha (Unique Siege Unit): Deals Splash damage equal to a percentage of the total damage done to the target.
Unique Military Unit - Tobang (Unique Cavalry Unit): Increased Combat Strength when Stationed or Occupying a District. Increased Influence for each City Center with a Stationed Tobang.
Associated Wonder - Buseoksa: Increased Happiness. Joyous Settlements within a set number of tiles from this Wonder receive increased Influence on Unique Improvements. Ecstatic Settlements within a set number of tiles from this Wonder receive increased Influence and Gold on Unique Improvements. Must be placed on Tropical or Grassland Terrain adjacent to at least one Mountain tile. Goryeo receives increased Production toward constructing this Wonder.
Check out the full Game Guide for Goryeo here.
As stable as it was isolated, the Joseon Dynasty was a five-centuries-long period of peace in Korea, marked by the elaboration of Confucianism, a strong defense, and a carefully balanced political system. Founded in 1392, the kingdom lasted until just before the dawn of the 20th century, repelling invasion after invasion from its neighbors. It was a highly structured society, with a rich scholarly tradition that carefully monitored outside influences, selecting only that which would make Joseon prosper. It would fall in 1897, after pressure from the ascendant Meiji Empire and the United States became overwhelming.
Apex Age: Modern
Attributes: Cultural, Expansionist
Unique Ability - Munchi:
Tier 1, Antiquity Age: Increased Specialist Limit in the Capital. Decreased Specialist Limit in all Cities other than the Capital. Joseon begins the Age with a set City Limit. Can purchase Tier 1 Science and Culture Buildings in Towns.
Tier 2, Exploration Age: Increased Specialist Limit in the Capital. Decreased Specialist Limit in all Cities other than the Capital. Joseon begins the Age with a set, increased City Limit. Can purchase Tier 1 Science and Culture Buildings in Towns.
Tier 3, Modern Age (Apex): Further increased Specialist Limit in the Capital. Increased Specialist Limit all Cities other than the Capital with a Seowon Unique Quarter; decreased Specialist Limit in non-Capital Cities without a Seowon Unique Quarter. Joseon begins the Age with a set, increased City Limit. Can purchase Tier 1 Science and Culture Buildings in Towns.
Unique Civilian Unit - Jangyongyoung (Unique Commander Unit): Land Units in a Capital receive increased Combat Strength within the Command Radius.
Unique Military Unit - Turtle Ship (Unique Heavy Naval Unit): Decreased Ranged and Bombard Strength compared to other Heavy Naval Units. Has increased Bombard Strength and increased Ranged Strength when on Coast Terrain.
Associated Wonder - Hwaseong: Increased Culture, Tradition Slots, and Social Policy Slots. Acts as a Fortified District that must be conquered. Must be placed on a Flat tile adjacent to at least one Rough tile. Joseon receives increased Production toward constructing this Wonder.
Check out the full Game Guide for Joseon here.
(★ = Community Influenced Item)
Addressed a reported issue where AI Gilgamesh would continue making new alliances after finding his best friend, not taking advantage of his War Support Bonus.
Addressed an issue where the AI fails to use the Disperse Shinobi Clan action when the player moves a Shinobi near the AI Leader's Military Unit.
(★) In addition to Settlements, Gold and Influence can now be traded during Peace Deal negotiations.
Dev Note: The amount of Gold and Influence you can trade is set by Age. Instead of continuously tweaking a deal to squeeze a couple extra Gold, we chose to focus on meaningful lump sums. Trading Yields in predetermined amounts helps us better manage the economy of war and set up the AI to negotiate better.
(★) The Peace Deal screen has been updated with a more compact design, and can be temporarily closed during negotiations so players can survey the map.
The Reconciliation Endeavor can now be used with leaders that are Hostile OR Unfriendly, instead of just Hostile.
The Leader Relationship screen now displays which leader initiated an event that changed the relationship (i.e. who started an Endeavor or declared war).
Added new unique messages when an Agenda significantly changes your relationship with another Leader.
Independent Powers will no longer spam-build fortifications at the beginning of each turn.
You can now enable or disable any of the individual Victory conditions (including scores for that particular Victory). Newly compatible with the reworked Victories from Test of Time!
Addressed an issue where Machu Pikchu could become an uncapturable District when surrounded by walls.
Updated in-game descriptions of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Agenda to be more consistent across sources.
Addressed an issue where the Despotism Celebration was able to stack multiple times.
Addressed an issue where Mexico’s Revolución Government passive ability affects all players in games with Mexico.
Made several changes to resolve crashes and improve overall stability.
Addressed a reported issue where AI could stack multiple Combat Units in a City Center. (Sorry, AI, no more death stacks!)
Addressed an issue preventing purchased Units from spawning when Quarters were occupied.
Triumph-based Leader Challenges now consistently grant completion credit.
Dev note: We've tracked down the root cause of this issue, and we’re sorry to everyone who missed out on Leader XP as a result. This issue is resolved going forward as of Update 1.4.2. While we don't currently have the ability to restore previously missed XP, we're actively exploring improvements to our backend tools that would allow us to do so in the future. If you ran into this bug and would like to be kept informed, please hit Follow on our Known Issues page and you'll receive an email when updates become available. Thanks for your patience!
Addressed an issue where some Dedications would fail to appear at the start of the next Age.
Addressed an issue where Tonga's Ngatu I Tradition incorrectly applies +1 Culture to Warehouse Buildings.
Addressed an issue where a Settler would fail to spawn when players completed the “From Nagu to Nagu” Triumph while a Commander occupied the Capital.
Added new DLC leader Yi Sun-Sin.
Ashoka, World Renouncer:
Ashoka was nerfed due to surrounding balance changes in Test of Time, and now, we get to bring him back up to fighting weight as he makes use of our new Happiness mechanics.
New Abilities:
+1 Food in Cities for every 5 excess Happiness (unchanged)
+10% Food in all Happy Settlements during a Celebration, or +15% in Joyous Settlements, or +20% in Ecstatic Settlements. (Previously: +10% Food in all Settlements during a Celebration)
Happiness, Food, and Unique Buildings gain a +1 Happiness adjacency for all Improvements. (Previously: only Unique Buildings)
Dev Note: This stacks, so a Food/Happiness Building or a Unique Happiness Building gets double!
Added new DLC civ Goryeo (Apex in Exploration Age).
Added new DLC civ Joseon (Apex in Modern Age).
Improved slot alignment on the Choose Dedications screen on lower resolutions.
Improved icon and element alignment in the Civilization Details screens.
The player is no longer blocked by unbuildable items when viewing the “Hidden list” of the Production menu.
Civilization and Leader selection menus retain scroll functionality after navigating away and returning within the Multiplayer Lobby.
Controller functionality now remains stable when the player disconnects from the network.
The Legacies icon now properly appears in the radial menu during the tutorial.
Improved cursor functionality while navigating various screens and menus.
The Radial Menu and Unit Panel can no longer be opened at the same time.
The scrollbar for the Legacy menu can now be more easily moved downwards.
The "Inspect" button remains functional on the Victories Menu while progressing to the next turn.
Resource icons tooltips no longer shake when highlighted in the Commerce Screen.
Tile tooltips are now hidden while the Great Works menu is open.
Newly founded Settlements will no longer have the same name as your Capital.
The Specialist Slots UI now correctly appears inactive when viewing Damaged/Pillaged/Radioactive Fallout tiles with the Growth Lens.
The Heian Defeat screen now correctly plays when retiring during the Antiquity Age.
The “Choose your Advisor” pop-up no longer appears twice when passing a turn where a Unit was auto-moving.
Hovering over Treasure Resources text in the Treasure tab of the Commerce menu now plays the correct audio when using Narrate on Hover.
The turn axis of the Economic Victory graph now properly syncs with the current turn.
Leader portraits no longer disappear when opening the Economic Victory tab while progressing to the next turn.
Selecting “Itsaraprahab” while closing the Diplomacy menu of an Independent Power no longer causes a game crash.
Oshikochi No Mitsune's Activate Great Person button should now work properly when standing on a tile with one completed Culture Building and one Culture Building being constructed.
The Government Selection screen now shows which Civics are required to unlock a Tradition.
The Befriend Independent Power UI in the Diplomacy Menu now correctly displays the top two Leaders competing to befriend an Independent Power.
The Fleet Commander Focus Fire ability now is able to target Fortified Districts with garrisoned Units.
The progress timer now properly appears when hovering over keywords of a tooltip with Tooltip Autolock enabled.
The Unit movement highlight now correctly excludes invalid tiles and tiles for units that have consumed all movement.
Addressed an issue where players could not select Units after triggering the Exploration tutorial in the Antiquity Age.
The Just One More Turn button is no longer present when the player selects No More Turns after losing to an AI opponent.
The Leader XP bar no longer fails to appear when viewing the progress menu.
\ The Friends tab no longer replaces the Lobby tab when opening the social menu in the Internet Lobby.
The promo image now correctly changes when swapping tabs with pips in the Carousel menu.
\ If an outdated driver causes a crash, a window communicating this will be displayed.
The player swap screen now correctly appears when the turn timer reaches 0 with the Diplomacy menu opened.
The Advisor Council menu is no longer empty when loading the save created by the client in Hotseat mode.
The 'Close Peace Deal Proposal?' pop-up now correctly appears when selecting the 'Close' button in the Peace Deal Menu as the receiving player.
Choose Dedications menu selection slots now correctly register for the non-host player when a turn timer is active.
Players are no longer able to observe other players’ unit move track when viewing the fog of war.
The Turn Timer will now have Extended Turn time on the first turn of Antiquity.
“First to” Triumphs are now correctly locked for other players and cleared from their journals once completed by a player.
Hovering over the text on the Hotseat Player Curtain now correctly narrates the Leader name when using Narrate on Hover.
The Defeat screen now correctly appears when the current player is defeated in a two-player game.
Diplomacy Menus now feature iconography to help identify actions more easily.
Leader attribute descriptions no longer disappear when switching tabs in the Leader Attributes menu.
City Caps have been renamed to City Limits to keep terminology consistent throughout the game.
(★) The City Details Panel now has a tooltip you can look at to see a breakdown of the "base" Improvements in the Settlement, accessible via a small icon next to the Improvements header.
E.G., if a Settlement has one tile with a Farm, and one tile that was a Farm but now has a Unique Improvement on it, this tooltip communicates that the Settlement has 2 Farms.
New tooltips for Population and Production have been added, accessible by hovering the mouse cursor over City Banners.
You can now hold inspect on a tooltip to permanently hide it and hold inspect to have it pop up again.
Addressed several instances of tooltips not properly closing.
The game no longer crashes when opening many nested tooltips.
Note for modders using utility-serialize.js: The utility provides a "catalog" to Store and retrieve arbitrary key/values for the world or per-player, and has been significantly updated since the last patch. Any mods currently using this file may run into issues where values read immediately after writing to a "catalog" may receive incorrect values: those mods should be updated to await an event confirming the write operation has completed before reading values. Currently catalogs are cleared out each Age by default. An upcoming release will have catalogs persist across Ages. Please refer to the corresponding utility-serialize.ts in the SDK for more notes on usage.
Added new Test of Time ambient war track during the Antiquity Age.
Addressed instances of incorrect or overlapping SFX playing.
Addressed a reported issue where loading screen VO continued to play after entering a multiplayer game.
Civilization themes will now properly update when switching players during Hotseat multiplayer.
Update 1.4.2 is dropping tomorrow, July 28 at 7AM PT / 10AM ET / 4PM CET. This update includes a handful of improvements and changes aimed at deepening your diplomatic strategies:
Expanded Peace Deals (you can now trade Gold and Influence in addition to Settlements)
Improved Leader Relationship Clarity
Disable or enable specific Victories (back up and running post- Test of Time!)
and plenty more in the patch notes, when those go live tomorrow!
Plus, Yi Sun-sin, Goryeo, and Joseon join the roster with the second part of Brush & Blade. Learn more about the collection here.
Firaxian and designer Taymoor breaks it down in the video below:
Another update is around the corner for Civilization VII, featuring a handful of improvements and couple major changes all about deepening your diplomatic strategy:
Expanded Peace Deals: You can now offer Gold and Influence in addition to trading Settlements. We've also updated the UI so you can temporarily dismiss a peace offer to survey the map before making your final decision.
Leader Relationship Clarity: Keep closer tabs on your rivals. The Leader Relationship panel now displays who initiated key events, while expanded Agenda notifications give you better context on where you stand.
And more! Turn on and off Test of Time Victories; lead your empire with the newly buffed World Renouncer Ashoka, and reconcile with Unfriendly leaders before things turn Hostile.
...and of course, improved game stability, several squashed bugs, and other improvements will be included in the full 1.4.2 changelog when the update goes live. What lies even further beyond the fog or war? We’re mapping things out now…
Alongside the free 1.4.2 update is also the second part of the Brush & Blade collection*, where our spotlight shifts to Korea! Dominate the seas with the scientific and militaristic leader Yi Sun-sin, guide Goryeo and Joseon to glory, and enjoy new Wonders Buseoka and Hwaseong.
How the collection works:
Players who have already purchased the collection will have immediate access to Part II when the update goes live, or secure a copy now to receive both parts.
Keep an eye out for First Looks and Game Guides dropping soon!
*The Brush and Blade Collection is available for separate purchase. Base game required. Terms apply.
We’re deploying a hotfix that addresses an issue where AI opponents weren’t declaring war as often as expected.
Note for Switch players: This fix will be coming to Nintendo platforms alongside our 1.4.2 update in the coming weeks. Until then, Crossplay Multiplayer with users running the latest 1.4.1 Hotfix 2 release on other platforms will be unavailable. We appreciate your patience! In the meantime, Steam players can still use the console-compatible-switch beta branch to play Crossplay Multiplayer with Switch players until 1.4.2 releases. To join this branch, right-click Sid Meier's Civilization VII in your Steam library, select Properties, then click over to the Game Versions & Betas tab. From there, select the “console-compatible-switch” option.
If you’re still running into issues after this patch, please let us know through our Support portal.
We’re deploying a hotfix specifically for console and Linux/Steam Deck players. This update primarily addresses a controller responsiveness issue, while also bringing over a few fixes that were previously released for desktop players.
Addressed a reported issue where the controller could lose functionality when choosing an Enhancer Belief.
Addressed a reported issue where Affirmation Traditions failed to appear under the Heian Traditions tab during game setup.
Heian’s quote now properly appears in the Civilization Details screen during New Game creation.
Improved mountain rendering to prevent texture pop-in when uncovering connected tiles.
If you’re still running into issues after this patch, please let us know through our Support portal.
Hey Civ fans, welcome back to This Month in Civ!
Last month was one of the biggest months for Civilization VII since its launch, and this June, we aimed to keep building on the momentum from the major Test of Time update!
We launched the new Hotseat multiplayer mode (one of our community’s most-requested features), introduced an all-new Archipelago map type, and implemented fresh takes on Happiness and Governments that make these systems more impactful turn-to-turn. We also launched Part 1 of our new DLC Collection, Brush and Blade, that immerses players in East Asian history.
There’s plenty more to recap, so let’s dive in!
Update 1.4.1—our first update since Test of Time—went live last week, and with it came a range of new features and improvements driven by community feedback.
The headliner for this update is the long-awaited Hotseat mode, which lets you play a local multiplayer game with friends on the same device. For those of you who haven’t tried it before, you take your turn, hand over the controls to your friend, and try not to peek as they architect your demise. We know this is a feature that many of you have been waiting a long time for, and we’re thrilled that it’s finally in your hands!
Alongside Hotseat, we launched a rework to the Archipelago map type that uses Voronoi technology to make the map more random and organic, making each game distinct from the last. Governments, Celebrations, and Happiness also received a rework in Update 1.4.1. Your choice of Government is now a central part of your empire across Ages, Celebrations feel more challenging and meaningful, and Happiness now has a more widespread impact across these two systems. There’s a lot more to dig into, so if you want to read about all of the new features coming in this update, check out our Game Update Notes page.
And to top it all off, releasing alongside Update 1.4.1 are some new additions to the roster…
Part 1 of our latest paid content collection, Brush and Blade*, is now available! This collection takes players to historical East Asia, a world of art and literature, warring samurai and bold shinobi, and beauty and ambition.
Part 1 immerses players in the history of Japan with a new leader, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as well as two new civs, Heian Japan and Sengoku Japan. Hideyoshi is a Militaristic and Cultural leader, whose Unique Ability, Great Unifier, increases the damage your Units deal while attacking other civs’ units, but also increases the damage they take while defending! Your units will also heal additional HP while on a Culture Building or Wonder.
Hideyoshi pairs well with the Cultural and Diplomatic Heian Japan civilization, whose Unique Ability, Pure Land, rewards you for each Improvement on a Breathtaking Tile. He’s also great with the Militaristic and Diplomatic Sengoku, whose Unique Ability, Shogunate, grants Culture, Science, and Influence per point of Army Commander XP. And, of course, with Test of Time, you can play as Heian and Sengoku Japan in their Apex ages—Antiquity and Exploration respectively—or pick one civ to lead throughout your campaign. The choice is yours! To learn more about Hideyoshi, Heian Japan, and Sengoku Japan, check out their Game Guide pages!
That’s not all! Brush and Blade Part 1 also includes four new Wonders, the Seongsan Ilchulbong, Nachi Falls, Mireuksa (Antiquity Age), and the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace (Modern Age), plus some extra profile customization goodies: a new badge, banner, and title. If you purchase the collection today, you’ll receive access to Part 1 immediately. Part 2, which shines a spotlight on Korean history and culture, featuring new leader Yi Sun-sin alongside new civs, Goryeo and Joseon, will be playable following an update later this summer!
*Base game required. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
From June 25 to July 9, you can get Civilization VII for 50% off* as part of the Steam Summer Sale! If you haven’t already jumped in to try out Civ VII, there’s no better time than the present! With the recent Test of Time update and DLC releases, it’s a great time to start your Civ journey (or, give a friend the gift of Civ!).
*Discount based on 2K’s SRP. Digital only. Offers end July 9, 2026. Terms apply.
Thank you to the thousands of players who shared their thoughts in our latest Community Survey! We’ve gotten great feedback on your experience with Test of Time, and some equally great insights on what you’re hoping to see next. As just one small teaser, some of your open text responses indicated areas of interest we’re already looking at in the design room, like better Peace Deal negotiations. (Stay tuned!)
We’re always taking a look at your feedback and opinions. If you have a spare minute, dropping a Steam review means the world to us and helps us shape what’s next for Civ VII.
On June 24 and 25, we held an AMA with our Firaxis historians, Andrew, Finn and Emily!
Across Discord, Reddit, Steam and beyond, our community sent in loads of interesting questions about all things history and Civ. Our historians sat down to answer a selection of 35 questions, covering how civs and leaders are selected, our historians’ research process, representation, and much more.
You can read the full Q&A here. A massive thank you to everyone who submitted a question for the team! If you found this interesting, we’d love to do more of these events in the future!
Dioramas by 22 on Steam
Update 1.4.1 is full of exciting features shaped by your feedback, and we’re excited to see what empires you build with the latest modes, maps, systems, and content. But history marches on, and so does the content for Civ VII! We have even more cool stuff on the way before the summer is over, and we can’t wait to share it with you when the time is right.
To stay connected, join us in our Official Discord, where you can keep up with the community and discuss every new update, new and forthcoming content, and all your other Civ favorites! For more info about guides, feature requests, mods, and more, check out our Steam discussions. And to stay up-to-date on all things Civ, be sure to sign up for our newsletter.
See you here next month, Civ fans!
We recently opened the floor for your most pressing history questions about Civilization VII. Over the last couple days, we’ve been sorting through and gathering your questions from Reddit, Discord, Steam, and more.
While we couldn't answer every question - particularly those looking to uncover future content or venturing outside the realm of history - we tackled as many as we could!
To help answer them, our senior historians at Firaxis - Finn, Emily, and Andrew - took a break from researching, writing, and helping shape Civilization VII's leaders and civilizations to sit down for a history-focused Q&A. The result is a collection of 35 questions covering everything from how civilizations and leaders are selected, to the research behind leader attire, unique abilities, historical representation, and more.
We also want to thank everyone who took the time to submit a question! The enthusiasm for history is one of the things that makes the Civ community so special, and seeing the variety of questions come in was a lot of fun for the team. If you enjoy this format, let us know - it's something we'd love to do more of in the future!
Now, grab a cup of coffee, queue up the Civilization VII soundtrack, and dive in.
"How do you choose leaders? How do you do the research for the leaders? How do you make the leaders culturally appropriate?"
Andrew: There are a few different factors for me:
Is there someone fans will know and love? Maybe from a past game, maybe from popular history? Maybe not all fans, but some fans will definitely love them (José Rizal comes to mind!).
If we've been leaning heavily on one leader in the history of Civ, is there another that might have a slightly different take on a similar situation? E.g. Hatshepsut gives a slightly more Egyptian Egypt than Cleopatra; Hideyoshi is the last of the "Three Unifiers" that we had yet to include in the game; Franklin gives a slightly different "Founding Father" persona than Washington; Tubman tells an American story that is vital to American history, but hasn't yet been in Civ.
Is there someone that we've found that we think is cool, and think you might think is cool, too? Amina fits this for me. Rizal as well - showing an Asian leader who isn't a king.
Is there someone that really balances the roster? Battuta and writing/exploration, for instance.
On the research side, we read a lot of biographies of these people, written works by them or about them if we can, and we try to get a sense of their personalities. Sometimes this means altering what is historically accurate to be simple enough to be a character. I'm thinking of Machiavelli here - in reality, he was much more of a humanist philosopher; his evil, scheming Prince isn't him, but it's become associated with him, and is just too much fun to ignore.
"What determines which civilizations make it into the game? Is it their history, achievements, uniqueness or something else? Also, can you detail the process of how the leaders' dialogues get made?"
Emily: For civs, so many factors go into this. What are people asking for? What is interesting that we haven't done before? What could fill in gameplay gaps? Etc.
For scripts, I imagine we all have a slightly different process. For me, I read a lot. I prefer their own writings whenever possible. I try to really dive into them to where I feel like I've gotten to know them and could have a conversation over coffee. It's easier then to try to write lines for them in various gameplay situations. How would they think about this event? How would they interpret a particular situation? When we don't have their own writings, I read a lot of history about their culture and period. What was it like to live in that society? What were their values? How would those translate to dialogue? My goal is to put words in their mouth that could have come out.
Finn: For the script's translation, we hire a consultant, someone who is an expert in the leader in question and regularly works in, or is a native speaker of, the target language. Initially we talk with them to determine the nature of the language. Sometimes this means choosing which language we’re going to use - Trung Trac’s language, Lac, doesn’t exist anymore, so we needed to find an alternative; Gilgamesh was historically Sumerian, but his epic, and the hero we know today, has been preserved in Akkadian. We also review the time period, dialect/accent, and register.
The translation itself is collaborative between the writer and the translator. The original script is written in English, but sometimes the lines don’t translate well into the target language, or the translator recommends a more authentic way of phrasing something, or there is a particularly relevant quote or idiom that is true to the leader and replaces the original line. At the same time, the lines fire in specific gameplay scenarios, so we need to ensure that the final line makes sense in context and communicates the correct sentiment to the player. The translator is also present in the recording session to coach the voice actor on anything from character to pronunciation. This is especially crucial for ancient languages!
"When picking Hideyoshi, was there ever a moment where you considered a non-military alternative? He had many other accomplishments after all."
Andrew: It's true - Hideyoshi had a profound influence on theater as well! He even wrote his own plays and sometimes would leap up and act - something that wasn't very common among high-ranking people at the time. But you cannot ignore Hideyoshi's military conquests - his successful ones and his failed ones. These were also enormous undertakings. This is why his design is sort of both art and war.
"At what point do you consider a historic figure or certain eras too controversial? Especially when it comes to certain figures who are beloved on one side of the spectrum but hated on the other side?"
Andrew: A good rule of thumb is "does the memory of this person still cause harm?" Are there movements in this person's name that actively hurt people today? Genghis Khan may have embarked on a system of mass violence (though his conquest led to an era of peace and prosperity), but I don't know of anyone using his name as a pretext for violence today. We can think of other figures for whom this isn't the case, and who as a result don't appear in the series.
"Filipino here, I'm happy we finally got some representation in Civ VII (Filipino civilization pls, Rizal's kinda homeless). I am curious about Rizal's inclusion in the game. In college we have a subject all about Jose Rizal's life and works. I've recently finished this course and was wondering what made you choose Rizal out of all available Filipinos. I'm also curious on how you landed on his abilities etc. Was it also intentional to not give Rizal his own civilization and assign Hawaii to him just because of proximity?"
Andrew: Rizal had it all, as a figure - political conviction, literature skills, and could highlight a more recent Asian figure than we typically have. He's a figure that I admire, and I wanted to get him out in front of players who might not know much about Southeast Asian history. As for civs, we can’t confirm anything, but we’re excited to keep expanding the roster!
"Why was the choice made to have the Ming dynasty represent Exploration Age China and not the Tang (or even Song) dynasty? I think the jump from Han to Ming in-game is a little sudden, so I'm curious as to how this looked on the development side! More broadly, how do the devs go about selecting the Civs for a 'stack' of Civs that correlate to a modern nation (Maurya/Chola/Mughal, Silla/Goryeo/Joseon and Heian/Sengoku/Meiji)?"
Andrew: Clearly there are a lot of good choices for Exploration China or India. I think with Ming, Ming is just too powerful and significant to ignore. Personally, I'd love to have seen Song as well, with a focus on steel production. As far as Chola, I thought maritime India and South India needed some light, and was really happy to get them in.
The missing link in the Japanese "stack" is Edo. Edo was significant, powerful, stable, prosperous, unique... but we knew players were going to demand samurai, and Edo-era samurai were bureaucrats. Players needed to see samurai wielding katanas, not writing policy.
"What goes into selecting Wonders? Civ VII has featured several new, very original Wonders to the franchise. Similarly to how this game is broadening who can be a leader, is there a similar ethos behind Wonder selection, or what do you look for in a Wonder? Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace is a very cool and unique wonder choice that I wasn't expecting at all, so I'm curious what motivates selections like that!"
Andrew: Sometimes we try to think if we've been hitting the same note again and again, especially within a region. If you find yourself doing Buddhist pagodas over and over, it's time to search for something else. Also, thinking of things that might give Production or another yield can help you think a bit outside of the box. That's the history of the Furnace!
Emily: Another way to think of Wonders is to consider what was wondrous to those people at that time. I’m thinking of something particular in the pipeline, but if we open our minds to what could be wonder-full outside of architectural feats, we find ourselves discovering many more parts of the world worth celebrating.
"Now that the civ and leader have been separated, you can theoretically make content for cultures with little or no written history such as the Dorset or even go pre-agriculture if you want to. Is there any self-imposed limit to what civs you consider, or have you extended your candidates up to the days of Neanderthals?"
Emily: I don't think we have a self-imposed limit, but it becomes incredibly difficult to historically represent “civilizations” at some point. We'd have to consider what benefits to gameplay that would give us in exchange.
Andrew: It becomes useful to separate out what we mean by "civilization" with "culture" or "people." There has to be a sense of unity to make a civilization a civilization - a linguistic group (e.g. "the Bantu" or "the Celts") is a bit too broad. By "a culture," I mean this in the archaeological sense (like Dorset): a way of producing things along a shared aesthetic and functional line. "Mississippian" refers to a culture in this sense, but it fulfills our criteria by also having what appears archaeologically to be a shared political system. This might not have been a unity (so, like Maya or Greece), or it might have, or it might have at some times, and not others.
"Are there any civilizations that you really root for being included in the game but due to a lack of historical record or evidence keeps them out?"
Andrew: Srivijaya.
Finn: The Sea Peoples.
Emily: The Trojans. If I could answer this with Leaders, having Euripides as a Leader would make my heart soar. So many authors. Dante. Virgil. Livia (not an author but so influential).
"Could we expect more leaders from the 20th century in Civ VII? I know it's harder to get more (relatively) recently deceased people into the game for legal reasons, but I know it's been done in older Civ games."
Emily: Yes. 🙊 The 20th century was long, and we haven't fully explored it. Yet.
"You’ve talked a bit about the “themes” of each Age, and how civs are placed by that and not by exact timeline. For some of the outliers like Khmer, Hawaii, Tonga, Ottomans, and the upcoming Joseon; could you talk about how they aligned with the theme? Could you also talk about what civs are “emblematic” of the theme? I imagine Rome is emblematic of Antiquity, but for example, are Normans or Spain closer to the “theme” of Exploration? Or perhaps they bookend it?"
Andrew: For me, the decision to place a civ in Antiquity is based on a couple of things. First of all, the civ's relationship with its territory - is it expanding, does it see itself as a "galactic center"? Secondly, how do local historians divide history? For Khmer and Heian, two "late" civs put into Antiquity, these are definitely early, "Classical"-era civs, distinguished from later "medieval" periods.
For Joseon, the answer is a little more complicated. Joseon is just so stable, and lasts so long. It certainly would have worked for Exploration, but then there simply wasn't a good Modern alternative (looking at something with a peak in the 18th-19th centuries). The Empire of Korea was talked about briefly, but this was a very short-lived outgrowth of Joseon. After this, Korea fell to Japan. It's a similar situation to the Mughals.
For me, Antiquity is a broad range: Egypt and Assyria are in their own time period, with their own things happening; Rome in another. But these would be "classic" Antiquity. Similarly, Chola for me is "classic" Exploration.
"Don't know if this has been ever asked before, but as historians, how challenging was it to frame human history in just 3 macro eras, in which you kind of feel some chunks missing from one Age to the other?"
Andrew: Of course, it's a challenge! So much of history is interconnection. On the other side, there are the technical limitations, and the idea that if you include everything, everything gets a shallow treatment. Three seemed a decent balance point between too much coverage and too little depth, and too much focus and not enough coverage. Emily: I think the positive of a huge era is that we can be creative with how we represent a civ, possibly blending different aspects of their history into a single playable version. This might be less “historical” if you’re thinking linearly, but sometimes games resist linearity!
"Why did you decide to place the Ottomans in the \ Age? Janissaries fighting tanks feels a bit out of place to me. Could you explain the reasoning behind that decision? I'm from the Balkans, and here we mostly associate the Ottoman Empire with the late medieval and early modern periods—things like the wars against the Byzantines, the conquest of Constantinople, and their expansion into Southeastern Europe. Seeing them represented in \ caught me by surprise, so I'd be interested to hear the design logic behind it."
Finn: The decision to put the Ottomans in Modern rather than Exploration was a much-discussed topic behind the scenes. Here are the main points that contributed to the final call:
A lot of where a civilization lands on our timeline comes down to the big picture - how we look at the broader global roster, how regions connect across eras, and the progression paths we want to map out for players over the course of the whole game.
From a specific narrative standpoint, we thought it would be interesting to play the alt-history version of the Ottomans - what if they hadn't fallen? We have a similar theme with Qajar Iran and the Qing Dynasty. These empires held great potential, and still can in the world of Civ VII.
Although the Ottomans were certainly in decline compared to themselves, they were still a major power compared to surrounding states until fairly late in their history. So they were still extremely relevant and influential on the world stage for much of our modern period, even though they were diminished within their own timeline.
As for Janissaries, we used them because they are the iconic Ottoman unit, and they were still in use until 1826. They may have struggled against tanks, but they are fairly in line with other Modern Age unique infantry units.
"Thematically, how do you like to think about playing as a Time-Tested civ? For instance, what does it “mean” to you (in terms of narrative or historical feel) to play as Meiji Japan in antiquity versus as Heian? Thanks devs and historians for hosting this! Looking forward to reading all the responses."
Andrew: For the civs that are eras, moving them out of their "home" time period really changes them. I like to think about boiling down each era into some general themes. Meiji, for instance, is about rapid modernization, opening up to the world, adopting what is good from the outside (and leaving out what is not). This is a very different feel from Heian, so even if the time period has changed, we can take this underlying philosophy and project it backward.
Emily: I love playing Time-Tested. In Civ VII, it can be a bigger challenge. I played Ada/Abbasids and they are just not set up for Antiquity, and that combo doesn't get Mayan syncretism. But it was fun! Maybe I think of a civ like a family or dynasty so taking them from antiquity to modern feels rewarding to me. (I'm also a huge fan of CK3 as you can imagine).
"What are each of the historians' white whales in history, what historic mystery do you wish you had the answer to, such as: where are the remains of Amelia Earhart's plane?"
Andrew: I wish I knew just a fraction of the poetry and stories that have been lost over the years. I saw a temple painting once in Lampang that showed the details of a story that no one remembered anymore, something about a town menaced by a cholera demon and the villagers' revenge. It's gone, now. No one remembers it. More game-related - who are the descendants of the Mississippians?
Finn: What happened to the Norse settlements in Greenland? They were established beginning in the 10th century, but were abandoned during the 15th century. Theories abound, but we still don’t know where their inhabitants went or why. Also - just like today, Iceland’s volcanoes erupted throughout the Viking and Middle Ages. But volcanoes are hardly mentioned in medieval Icelandic literature. Why? These events must have been a big deal, so the lack of written record about them, and volcanic phenomena in general, is bizarre.
Emily: What was Plato thinking about when he used Atlantis as an allegory? Was there something real behind this or was it just imagination? Possibly related, can someone please tell me more about the Sea Peoples?? What made the Mycenaeans fall? My brain works like a Wikipedia rabbit hole - never know where you’ll end up!
"Did video games play a role in your love for history growing up? What were your favorite games (other than Civ, of course!)?"
Andrew: I think I mostly liked RPGs growing up - Ultima, the D&D titles. My absolute favorite game was a dungeon-crawler, rather uncreatively called Dungeon Master. I did play a lot of Age of Empires. And of course Civ was a huge influence! I should mention my other favorites: Master of Orion, Star Control 2, and Thief. I still "play" Thief in the apartment. Especially good when I had a partner and/or a dog and I wanted to see how close I could get without being noticed.
Finn: I didn't really play video games growing up, but at some point I acquired Pharaoh, which I loved. Civ VII's Egypt has a narrative event inspired by a Pharaoh mechanic that I found particularly amusing as a kid - sometimes lions would wander in from the desert and eat your townsfolk. When I started seriously playing video games in high school and college, the Assassin's Creed series was (and still is) my go-to for history games. There have been many others since, but those were foundational.
Emily: I grew up in a very conservative household and was homeschooled so video games were the primary way I learned about forbidden things. For me, that was Greek myth. I played King’s Quest VI, and that game really set me on the path I still walk today. The mix of cultural references and mythologies was so new and interesting to me. It was around this time I also started playing Civilization (the first one!). From the two, I just fell in love with stories and history. In general, I played games with my dad as a kiddo. I remember playing Burger Time on the Intellivision! My brother and I played a lot of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 among so many other great games. Age of Empires 2. Lords of the Realm 2. We loved history and strategy.
My academic interest in games came from two primary titles: Tales of Symphonia and Dragon Age: Origins. I realized how the story structures were so different from the novel but had many similarities to oral storytelling. And voila, my dissertation was born.
These days I still play a lot. Stellaris has been eating my life lately. I played a ton of Against the Storm last quarter. I like playing heavily-modded Sims games, puzzlers like Blue Prince, and various other genres. I just love games!
"What are your most favorite Tech and Civic of each Age? Not just gameplay but historical flavor too."
Andrew: Techs and Civics are a little hard to separate. So much has to do with the organization of society, the creation of "a public" as an audience in dialogue with government. There's so many Civics that are like "the social question" or "society," which seem similar, but are actually pretty different. "The Social Question," for instance, is "whose responsibility are those former peasants that are displaced from traditional farms?" We assume today that states are responsible for their poor, but this wasn't an assumption in the transition from medieval to modern times.
Finn: I enjoy the flavor of the civ-specific Civics. Off the top of my head, as a Persia-war-machine fan, I always look forward to unlocking Spada, and I love Great Britain’s Society of Antiquaries because of the Howard Carter quote and its perfectly named tradition, the hilariously stuffy “Proceedings.” My favorite Civic is completely self-serving - Iceland's Væringjar, because my academic research centers on the Varangian Guard and this was my way of getting them into the game. Its quote, from an Icelandic king's saga, describes the return of Harald Hardrada from Byzantium, arriving on a ship so laden with gold that all who saw it were amazed. The sequence was influential to later saga writers, who mimicked it in their own (often fictional) Varangian stories.
"What's a little detail you're really proud of that no one will notice?"
Andrew: For me, a lot of the narrative events are references to historical events. There is one, "Puputan", that I've never seen trigger. It refers to a tragic and strangely beautiful moment during the Dutch takeover of Bali (where the last of the Majapahit royalty had - centuries earlier - retreated). As the Dutch set up their machine guns, the monarchs came out, dancing, in royal splendor. And with pikes. The Dutch mowed them down, again and again, and again they came out. What I love about this story is that it is about how there are some things (beauty) that are more important than other things (life, control). There is a storylet about it that requires that you be losing badly as Majapahit - probably meaning that a player at this point would have quit the game long ago.
Finn: In the background of Ada Lovelace’s victory painting, there's a blackboard with mathematical equations. The equations are real and from her own work - they're part of the computation diagram from her famous Note G.
"Is being a historian at Firaxis a fulltime job? What does your work look like?"
Emily: I love these questions because they remind me of my students! This is a full-time job for me! It turns out that researching and representing cultures and individuals from the past is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. My days are split with reading (so much reading), concepting (ideas for stories, scripts, etc.), writing actual words, advising (e.g., art reviews), and collaborating. I love to work with my design colleagues so I’m often talking with them about new features, updates, and giving feedback on designs in progress. I also hold an appointment at the University of Chicago where I teach in our Media, Arts, Data, and Design Center. My academic work is something I just couldn't give up. On the research side, I focus primarily on narrative theory, especially transmedia characters, and historical game studies.
Andrew: I have always balanced being a professor and working at Firaxis. For the last two or so years, I've been a full-time academic and part-time on Civ. From 2020-2023 I was full-time at Firaxis and part-time at a few places. In terms of job titles, I’d describe myself as Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, and for Firaxis I'm a consultant. For me (currently on a research trip in Thailand), work looks like a day full of teaching, research and academic writing (today, for instance, I’m spending in interviews in canal communities in Bangkok, submitting final grades to my students, and checking article proofs), and then a night where I'm tackling Civ questions: reading for narrative events, writing them, maybe answering questions from art and design. Does it leave time for, like, a personal life? No, not really. But I signed up for this. I did manage to publish a book while I was working on Civ VI. But I also do not recommend this as a lifestyle path if you are interested in peace and contentment.
Finn: Like Emily, I am a full-time Firaxis historian. The job varies widely day to day, which is part of what makes it so fun. There are the big tasks that require longer stretches of protected time, like initial research phases, writing leader scripts, creating narrative events, recording sessions. Then there are shorter tasks that get sprinkled in between - naming things, finding quotes, reviewing content from other teams. And then there are the pop-up events, when a question comes through that needs historical review or recommendation, which can take five seconds or an hour depending on how much research is needed to answer it with the correct level of certainty.
Being able to balance these different demands on our time is critical, as is knowing when to stop the research process. Working on Civ requires a solid understanding of its historical content, but it doesn’t need the depth of a dissertation. It’s easy to get sucked in when you’re handling all this interesting material, but there is always more to tackle, so we have to keep moving.
Something I really enjoy about the position is how centralized our team has become within the studio. We interface with many different departments on a regular basis - art, design, animation, audio, UI, etc. It’s a wonderful opportunity to work with so many talented people in so many disciplines, and it’s a testament to how thoroughly history permeates Civ VII’s development.
"What did you major in college and how has that impacted your career overall and at Firaxis?"
Andrew: I think we're all PhDs here! My college major was in biology and anthropology, and went on to do anthropology with a sub-focus on Southeast Asian history. I think for me, anthropology focuses on stepping outside of the taken-for-granted way that we see the world. For Civ, I understand the story of world history as world history, meaning not focused around Europe, but what might work elsewhere as well.
Finn: I majored in Medieval Studies as an undergraduate, then did my MA and PhD in Scandinavian and Medieval Studies, focusing on Old Norse and the Viking Age. On career impact: I have always approached history through the lens of literature, reconstructing the past and its inhabitants via sagas, poetry, myths. During grad school, I also started working on Norse representation in video games using a similar methodology - how do we use the Norse world to reflect on today’s world? So the jump to writing history for games was not too big, because I had already spent many years thinking about how we as humans express and experience history through media. On degrees: These smaller humanities fields sometimes get looked down upon - what can you do with a Medieval Studies BA that isn’t grad school? But the value of these degrees isn’t really the specialization (unless you are going into academia). Instead, the topic is a means to developing crucial skills that are useful in so many careers. You learn to write, research, think critically, synthesize complex arguments, articulate independent thinking; you gain a broader understanding of history as context for today’s world, and you often study at least one foreign language. And you get to do all of this via a topic that you really care about, making the learning process more enjoyable and effective. So don’t be afraid to pick a major you love. There is value in every degree.
Emily: I went from Music (piano) to Astrophysics to Medieval Studies to finally Classical Languages and Literature. My PhD is in Classics. I'm someone who loves to learn everything, and my career shows that. I've swapped fields many times, most recently working in behavioral science and machine learning before coming back to my roots. Don't let a major or a focus limit you. It's a way to learn transferable skills like critical thinking, analysis, and communication. Those are applicable in every field, and being open to new ideas and aware of your own ignorance are key to seeing opportunities and seizing them.
"One thing I really appreciate about my experience with the game is it sparked an interest in certain civilizations' history I otherwise knew little about. For example, I would have never started a rabbit hole of exploring Dr. Irving Finkel's research on cuneiform and Mesopotamia had it not been for Civilization VII and wanting to know more about Gilgamesh (a leader I enjoy playing). As a historian what's one civilization or culture that you didn't much about at first, but ended up enjoying learning about the most whilst working on Civilization?"
Finn: I knew very little about Tonga’s long history before working on the Tides of Power DLC, but I became completely hooked. The story of its settlement and the layers of people who lived and thrived there is remarkable, and the Tuʻi Tonga Empire that eventually stretched across the ocean was quite unique among other historic thalassocracies. The field of Tonga scholarship is also fascinating. For most of its history, Tonga didn’t have a written language, so archaeology, post-European narratives, and oral storytelling are critical for reconstructing its history. As a result, there are large gaps in the narrative and significant challenges to filling them, pushing scholars to think outside the box to make the most of the sources.
Emily: I worked on Yi Sun-sin, and it was so rewarding to read his diaries and learn about his period. I am a Classicist so both the time period and the region are outside my speciality, but that's a great part about this job. I'm constantly learning which is really all a historian (or humanist generally) could ask for.
"Who was the most challenging civ or leader to research, due to lack of sources, contradictions, etc?"
Andrew: Himiko. She's referred to in very different ways in different sources, and sometimes conflated with the Empress Jingu. In the first writing, we had her speaking in two different voices (as befits a shaman) - her own, and the goddess Amaterasu. But this didn't work when we tried to animate; it wasn't really coming across correctly. So we moved that idea into the two personas.
But, definitely, Himiko is the most mashed-up of the leaders: a bit Chinese-source Himiko, a bit Japanese-sourced, a bit Jingu, and a bit Amaterasu.
Finn: Sayyida al Hurra. Very few contemporary sources about her have survived, they are quite contradictory, and they are primarily European. She’s also obscured by a lot of modern myth - she is popularly characterized as a pirate queen, but she was actually far more than that. So there was a lot of deep digging on my end to sort things out, and we also relied heavily on the expertise of an external consultant. We had to find the right balance of acknowledging the popular connection between her and the pirates, and celebrating her historical achievements as a sole woman governor of a major city and a bastion against Spanish and Portuguese expansion.
"How do you balance fantasy with history? There are so many larger-than-life, exciting stories / themes behind these figures - I gotta imagine it's so tempting to use those, but striking a clean balance between actual, confirmed history is tough! Does it change by leader/how well they were documented (i.e. Gilgamesh vs. Benjamin Franklin)?"
Andrew: For me, it's a lot easier with fantasy. Machiavelli in this game is fantasy, and was much easier to write as "Machiavelli" than as a historical Machiavelli. Gilgamesh and Blackbeard were a lot of fun to write for this reason. A historically-based, well-documented person can be a lot more fun to make entertaining!
Emily: For narrative events, this is much easier. For attributes, abilities, I try to stay close to what we can confirm. But in narrative, we can be creative and playful. I echo Andrew here that fantastical/legendary characters are far easier to be playful with. Some leaders need to be treated with a lot of gravitas. It really depends on the person/character we are trying to represent.
"Did you have to do a lot of research to come up with all the narrative events for the Heian Shijin, or does a member of the team have a Japanese Literature degree burning a hole in their pocket?"
Andrew: The answer is that I read a lot of Heian poetry in preparation for this. The narrative events are based on the "poetry game," a court game where players would match famous poems with their next line. What I like about these narrative events is how they push you not necessarily to memorize the right answer, but to understand how Heian poetry works - what is a good image for a Heian reader? My tips might be: focus on the cloud-obscured moon, bitterness in love, loss in love, the beauty of temporary moments, a twist of the metaphorical knife in the heart. The "sadness of things" \, how we experience emotion in observing things around us. But a Japanese literature degree? No. My degree is in Southeast Asian anthropology.
"In terms of ancient rulers, who would your historians define as the most underappreciated and who is over-gratified?"
Andrew: Overhyped: Julius Caesar (Augustus kind of deserves his reputation, I think). He's the template for every military dictator that follows. I'm with Cassius on this one. Underhyped: Ashoka. The decision to renounce conquest and embrace peace is far more courageous than the opposite.
Emily: I hesitate on this one just because I tend to think of historical figures as real people, so it feels a little mean to say they’re overhyped. I’m a softie, I guess. Underhyped though, maybe Philip II. Alexander would have had so much more work to do without his dad having laid all the groundwork for both Greece and Persia. I love Alexander, don’t get me wrong, but he did have help like all great people. Everyone builds on (or resists against) what came before.
"I've seen how the generic Civic tree has been trying to be more generic and less Eurocentric than the previous Civ games (with policies that are fully representative of other culture's ideas, like Uposatha or Heqin). So my question is, are there any points where you regretted making something a generic all civ policy when you realized it would work great for a civ specific bonus?"
Emily: When we are making Civics for individual civs, it's a collaborative process with design. We try to find gameplay that supports the fuller kit theme while also fitting their historical experience and values. This is usually much more specific than the general Civic tree, so I haven't run into this issue personally. I imagine that if I did, we could find something else. Cultures and civilizations are so rich to study and try to represent. We do not lack material and often have to make hard choices about which aspects or which period of a civ we want to highlight.
"I’d love to hear more about the making of the soundtrack. Which civs’ music involves the most and least speculation/extrapolation? What do you do for the civs who left behind very little or no evidence for their music? Are there any interesting instruments that have been procured or made for the soundtrack? Are there any real historical songs that have been included or have influenced the soundtrack? Another similar question would be about the leaders’ clothes. Generally it seems like they’re a lot more authentic than in previous installments but it’d be nice to hear some specifics about the research/process behind it all. Any weird anecdotes or underappreciated details too would be nice. Thanks!"
Andrew: I know the Siamese theme is Kangkao Kin Kluay, a popular classical piece. The Shawnee theme was done in close collaboration with the Shawnee. I think Sengoku is "Moonlight over the Ruined Castle," a personal favorite. My personal favorite is Maurya, as there's a Buddhist chant in there that I like a lot.
Finn: As you might imagine, a lot of work and thought goes into the leaders’ clothes. Their appearance is an important tool for communicating their personality and characterization within Civ VII. Many factors go into designing them, requiring close collaboration with art and animation. Things to consider include: Is the outfit historically authentic, in both material and theme? Is the leader visually distinct, in style and color, from other leaders? What are the technological constraints from the animation side? Sometimes we have to sacrifice authenticity because something won't animate correctly, or it's not visually distinct in the way that's needed in our context, in which case we look for a suitable alternative.
On the historical side, we advise on the concept to determine what a leader would wear - not only for their time period, but also for their role within the game. For instance, if we take two militaristic leaders, one expects to see Genghis Khan wearing armor, but Xerxes is more suited to imperial regalia. For each leader, we also hire external consultants, often academics, to translate the script and advise on their appearance, so we typically have a scholar on hand to help us out.
I really love working on leader outfits. You have to consider every detail of their costume, not just the larger pieces, but sometimes down to the placing of buttons or how a sword hangs off a belt. Every piece of the outfit is hand-modeled and animated, so we get a lot of extremely specific questions. I remember coming back from lunch one day to find a message from art: “What kind of shoes did Blackbeard wear?” Cue a dive into footwear of early 18th century sailors. Sometimes you have to get creative to answer these questions. Each leader also gets a prop, and those are fun to recommend, like Ada Lovelace’s book with the punch card bookmark. My favorite leader detail is Blackbeard’s smoking beard. He was the first leader that used VFX in his model, and a lot of hard work went into making it happen. It looks amazing.
"I’d be interested in hearing more about the historical framing of the Exploration Age. Why was a strongly colonial narrative chosen for the game’s second Age, and how did the team approach the risks of presenting colonial expansion primarily through a gameplay lens? Relatedly, what criteria guided the selection of civilizations and leaders, especially regarding whose perspectives, agency, and historical experiences are represented? More broadly, were postcolonial theories or historical approaches considered during development? Given that Civilization’s progression systems can shape players’ historical imagination, did the team discuss ways to move further away from a linear “progress” narrative and toward more plural, contested, or non-European understandings of historical development?"
Andrew: The honest answer is that there's a few competing pulls, and a few limitations. To really get into the breadth of what is possible in alt-history (including not doing colonialism) would require creating alternate systems - not gold, not expansion, not profit, not exploitation, but prestige, coexistence, sustainability, etc. This would have required designers to design whole new games based on non-exploitative worlds, which would have been a huge lift. And this would have been a bit too big of a shock to a player base wanting a 4X experience.
"Civilization VII is no stranger to including and respecting indigenous cultures, however many core staples of the Civilization franchise are anathema to many indigenous groups' ways of life. Some staples such as mandatory industrialisation, urbanism, and cultural hegemony are baked into the identity of the game itself. As it stands, much of the game's progression and victories are still very Eurocentric, but each new iteration appears to be widening its cultural scope. My question here is, has Civilization considered including indigenous ways of life and perspectives of progress and victory into the game? And if so, what ideas have been discussed?"
Andrew: My previous answer kind of fits this one as well. The bullet points would be: I would love this idea, and looking into alternate systems of urbanism (for instance) is what I do in my academic work. But how to do this with a limited design/art team is a question, and how to engage with players for whom a 4X experience is taken for granted is a bit of a challenge (one that I would be excited to take up).
While, yes, the scope in Civ VII is wider than it has been before, it's gone to other imperialisms - Inca or Chola empires, for instance, were still expansive and at times exploitative. What would a game be that focused on those who resisted? That would be really interesting.
Emily: This answer applies to the previous question as well, but there is a strong tension between what players expect to see in a 4X game (and in a Civ game in particular) vs what the historians and other folks would maybe love to see in the game. We have to balance that tension, and we don't always get it right.
Questions like this help to show there is a desire for more innovative gameplay that would depict experiences in the world that Civ has not traditionally engaged with. It's always good food for thought for the team to see what aspects of history resonate with players and the kinds of stories they'd like to see represented.
"What has been the hardest part about staying true to the history and culture of each leader or civ while allowing the game to be so free form in how the player progresses through the ages and changes their nation as time moves forward?"
Finn: When crafting civs, we are providing pieces of history for the player to play with - units, buildings, civics, traditions, narrative events - all of which are united by and designed after a civ’s history and culture. But although they are inspired by the past, they don’t dictate how the story unfolds in the game. That’s for the player to decide. So determining what these pieces are, how they inspire the feel of the culture in question, and how they can empower the player to either recreate history or design alternative narratives is a tricky but exciting part of the job.
Civ VII presents a particularly interesting challenge for leaders - they are not only separated from their time periods, but also their cultural contexts since they can lead any civ. As a result, we have to stay relatively general with historical references to support the experience of all leaders being able to lead all civs. But it’s also crucial that they each have a distinct and authentic character, much of which was shaped by their context. A lot of this process involves digging deep into who they were as people: their values, worldviews, philosophies, and motivations that inspired them to greatness. But there are other ways we can slip in qualities that shaped them historically. For instance, the languages they speak in the game - Napoleon was a proud Corsican and maintained his accent his whole life; Tecumseh purposely spoke almost exclusively in Shawnee, to the extent that many didn’t realize he was fluent in English.
"As someone who used to do a great deal of Mesoamerican history research in the UC system, I have to ask - how do you evaluate the current consensus to build off of in the field? For example, for the Maya there are new discoveries coming to light every day so it’s a moving target. Also, what elements go into making the unique units, buildings, or improvements? Is this driven primarily by gameplay designers, or do you have input? One could easily see a world where, for example, there was a “great person” scribe unit for the Maya (since we have many of their autographs on their vases and murals) instead of an archer UU. Why one and not the other?"
Finn: Much of history is subjective - we have names and dates and events (though sometimes these too are debatable), but the narrative of the past is always shifting, and it is the job of historians, academic or otherwise, to interpret what has survived. When we approach a civ or leader for Civ VII, we immerse ourselves not only in the subject itself, but also in the field of scholarship that surrounds it, both established and emerging. This means finding the prominent voices who have shaped the standing discourse, and also the current voices who are bringing new discoveries and perspectives to the table. We aim to be up to date with our work, and recent scholarship often informs narrative events and Civilopedia entries. At the same time, we try to future-proof our content as well, so more experimental views are unlikely to find their way into the game.
Unique units, buildings, and improvements are usually jointly decided upon by design and narrative. Designers have ideas about what a civ might look like when they start their work, but we recommend choices as well, especially for civs that are more challenging to research. As for why one and not the other, this is usually down to gameplay requirements that we have to meet. Not every civ can have great people, or a unique merchant, or a unique commander, so we have to make decisions about how to distribute different types of uniques while making sure that they suit their respective civs both historically and mechanically.
"Were there any particular civ and leader abilities that didn’t make the cut before the final stage that you wish did?"
Emily: I really wanted to make Bucephalus a unique general for Alex. Alas, that one didn't make it.
"Can I ask about the current implementation of Ideologies in the game? I'm curious why the civic progression has communism unlocked before socialism."
Andrew: For Marx, there's a clear progress (dialectical materialism) - ancient systems, feudalism, capitalism, communism. Socialism isn't clearly defined in Marx. Instead, communism emerges out of revolution sparked by the contradictions of capitalism.
Later communist theory (Lenin, for instance) looked at social democracy or socialism as a way that capitalist systems could stay in power. Giving benefits to people means that the pains of capitalism are eased, without dismantling the system.
In neither case is socialism a path into communism - rather, for Lenin, it's a distraction. Though we might imagine a path where socialism is partially-implemented communism. But when social-democratic parties did not go for the revolution during the early 20th century, they lost Lenin, and he saw them as just more capitalist patsies.
But the real answer about why the path is how it is is more simple - signposting the ideology. Choosing "Communism" means you're headed down that path. It's not really a simulation of how Marx or Lenin would have envisioned that progress (they'd put "social democracy" on the capitalist track).
"What are some historical things you wish you could include but the dev team said no because it would be too strong or mess with too many game mechanics."
Andrew: There is a lot that goes into abstracting historical situations for a game. Prestige, gifts, internal politics, dynasties - all of these things are influential, but Civ doesn't really have the mechanics for this.
"How do you decide Tech and Civic quotes? Especially for civs like Mississippi that we have no contemporary writing from or about."
Andrew: We all have different strategies for the quotes. For me, I have a kind of a checklist:
Do I have something cool about the thing itself from a local source?
Do I have something cool about the thing itself?
Do I have something cool from the civilization that kind of says something about the thing?
Do I have something cool that kind of says something about the thing?
As you see, the harder something is to source, the more abstract I have to be. The Eiffel Tower is easy. Cah-nah-ha is hard. I tend to be a little more abstract than the others, I think, going for vibe and philosophy more than direct relevance.
Now, let's get to the Mississippians. They have no written language, but a few possible descendants - the Caddo, the Osage, the Choctaw, etc. Other non-direct-descendants inherited some of their cultural features (e.g. the Natchez). Some of the civic names come from these languages. For "Earthworks," I used an explorer's account of a mound in the Natchez territory. For "Cah-nah-ha," I was referencing old anthropological work on sacrifice, from Emile Durkheim. There's widespread evidence of sacrifice in the Mississippian period. For Monk's Mound, I used the poet Zitkala-Ša, a Lakota poet. The quote isn't about the mound at all, but you could see how it references age, and the earth, and heritage.
Emily: Like my colleagues, I prioritize texts from the culture whenever possible. My favorites tend to be those that express a way of seeing the world that was specific to that culture. This often means poetry, but sometimes inscriptions or small statements I find in a commentary.
I tend to allow for a broader time period when doing quotes. Cultures don’t necessarily have clear start and end points, and sometimes you find really beautiful things outside the period we focus on. I’m open to including those to help give a sense of the breadth of a culture, ignoring the linearity of time if it makes sense.
Finn: My process is in the same vein. I prioritize quotes that are immediately relevant to the topic when possible, and then work outwards from there. If there’s a suitable quote that sounds good and is about the tech or civic, great. If not, I’ll look for something elsewhere that taps into the theme. For civ-specific civics, I prefer to stay within the civ’s culture for quote sources, but this is not always possible, as with the Mississippians and, in part, Carthage.
For wonders, again, I like quotes that are immediately associated with the wonders when they are available, either about the wonder (Great Lighthouse) or inscribed in the wonder (Sultanahmet Camii) or by someone associated with the wonder (Rila Monastery). But at the end of the day if nothing is hitting the right note, I will broaden my search. Overall, quotes should evoke something when they are heard and read.
As players grow their Steam libraries like grand empires during the Steam Summer Sale, now is the best time yet to pick up Civilization VII with the biggest discount to date!
From June 25 to July 9, get Civ VII's Standard, Deluxe, or Settler's Edition for 50% off.* Whether you've been meaning to start a new campaign following the recent and game-changing Test of Time update, or if the paid Content Collections released so far already massively expanded your roster and you want to try new civs and leaders, this is the moment to start building legacies that will echo through the Ages.
To learn more about how some of Civ VII's core systems were reworked with the Test of Time update, check out this article on the official Civ site. That's also where you can read up on all of the DLC released so far, or scroll through the latest lists of in-game changes on our Game Update Notes page. Then, stay in touch with the community and stay tuned in to all things Civ VII on our official Discord server and Steam discussions.
*Discount based on 2K’s SRP. Digital only. Offers end July 9, 2026. Terms apply.
https://clan.fastly.steamstatic.com/images/45050851/5b629ce88c1e35fff99297abe268cfc2421b9ead.jpg
Ever wondered what goes into bringing history to life in Civilization VII? Now’s your chance to ask!
We’re pulling our Firaxis Senior Historians Finn, Emily, and Andrew away from their research to answer your burning questions. Ask us about our civ and leader rosters, the new Brush & Blade content, our historical inspirations, or anything else narrative- or history-related in Civ VII.
Just a quick reminder to keep things civilized in the comments! We’re keeping future projects under wraps - so while we’d love to chat about what’s next, we’ll have to give you a diplomatic ‘no comment’ on unannounced stuff. Otherwise, we’re all yours.
Drop your questions here over the next couple of days, and we’ll be rounding up our favorites across channels to share in a dedicated post on the 26th!
Civilization VII's Update 1.4.1 is now live, which means that owners of the Brush and Blade Collection* can now experience the first half of this new paid content collection!
Part 1 of the Brush and Blade Collection* includes:
New leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi**
2 new civilizations: Heian Japan** and Sengoku Japan**
4 new Wonders: Mireuksa, Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace, Seongsan Ilchulbong, Nachi Falls
For more details on Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Heian Japan, and Sengoku Japan, check out our website! The Brush and Blade Collection is now available for purchase, which gives you immediate access to its first three packs. It also secures your ownership of its latter three packs, which arrive later this summer, introducing the legendary admiral Yi Sun-sin as a new leader, as well as the new Goryeo and Joseon civs.
To learn more about the additions of Update 1.4.1, check out the full Update 1.4.1 notes!
*Base game required. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
**This content is also included with the Brush and Blade Collection DLC Bundle. If you own the Brush and Blade Collection, then you already own this content. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
With Test of Time now in players’ hands, we wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who’s jumped into Civilization VII recently. We’ve loved seeing the response to the massive changes in Update 1.4.0, but the wheels of development (not unlike the wheels of history) keep on turning. It’s already full steam ahead for Civ VII!
This update brings a mix of features, improvements, and tuning changes we’re excited to get into your hands. To start, we’ve added a brand-new Archipelago map type, introducing another Voronoi-based map generation style built around an island layout. We’re also excited to finally introduce Hotseat multiplayer to Civilization VII, letting players share a single device for local multiplayer sessions.
The other major change in this update is a substantial rework to Governments and Celebrations, aimed at better tuning how these systems shape your empire’s progression across each Age. Alongside that, we’ve included a wide range of resolved reported issues and other improvements to help keep your campaigns running smoothly.
And lastly, this free update launches alongside Part 1 of our newest paid Content Collection: Brush and Blade.* This DLC will release in two parts, with the first of them introducing the new leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi, alongside two brand-new civilizations: Heian Japan and Sengoku Japan. Read on below for more details on their Uniques Abilities, Units, and gameplay styles.
To our incredible Civ community: we’re grateful for the continued support, feedback, and many turns taken since 1.4.0. If you have a spare minute, dropping a Steam review means the world to us and helps us shape what’s next for Civ VII. Also, head over to the Official Civ Discord to hang out and keep the conversation going - we want to hear your thoughts on the new map type, Hotseat, and everything else Civ.
Have fun empire-building!
An important note for PC players regarding mods: We've noticed a lot of players running into stability issues without realizing they have broken or outdated mods active. This update will do a reset to disable all active mods. We highly recommend giving our amazing modding community a little time to update their work before toggling things back on manually.
Using a mod that has been updated and is stable? You can simply re-enable these mods by navigating to "Add-ons" in the Main Menu. Browse your list of installed mods and toggle on the ones you want to play with.
Update drivers: We recommend ensuring your graphics drivers are up-to-date and to double check our Minimum System Requirements for the best experience.
Backwards compatibility: While we aim to maintain backwards compatibility for existing saves as much as possible, some new abilities or effects may not appear until you start a new game. For the best experience, we recommend starting a new game.
Legacy branch: Are you playing on Steam and want to finish your current save under a previous version? You can do so using our legacy Steam beta branch. To join the legacy branch, right-click Sid Meier's Civilization VII in your Steam library, select Properties, then click over to the Betas tab. From there, select the “legacy” option.
We'll continue to keep the 1.3.2 legacy branch (legacy-1-3-2) available for players who want to revisit or finish pre-Test of Time campaigns.
As a reminder, you can visit our tracker to see known issues. If you’re encountering an issue, you can submit a bug report with the team here.
Our improvements to map generation continue, with a brand new map type!
We've done a bit of map-name housekeeping with this update. The previous Archipelago map has been renamed Archipelago Hemispheres, a name that more accurately reflects how it divides major archipelago regions between the eastern and western halves of the world, creating a more balanced experience. Taking its place is an all-new Archipelago map type.
Like Fractal Continents, this map is built from Voronoi technology (if you haven’t read it yet, give this great From the Devs piece on Voronoi Maps a read), which means less repetition, more randomness, and a more organic feel overall. This map type features two regions of archipelagos that are randomly placed, with a smattering of Distant Lands elsewhere on the map. Here are a few examples below, but generate your own in game and see how random these can get!
While we were tinkering with Voronoi generation, we also took a look at lake generation. Previously, lakes were built around a central tile, which often led to them looking a little too same-y from game to game. With this update, lakes can generate in a much wider variety of shapes and sizes, creating more natural-looking inland waters across the map. The total amount of lake coverage has also increased. Maybe it's time for a Buganda campaign?
We’re excited to finally get Hotseat multiplayer into players’ hands!
For anyone who hasn't tried it, Hotseat lets you play a local multiplayer game with friends on the same device. You take your turn, hop out of the hotseat, and try not to watch as your friend sits down and plots your downfall. It’s a staple for many Civ players, and we wanted to make sure it got enough time in the oven before it officially went live.
We know many Hotseat fans have been waiting for this one, and we want to say thank you for all your patience as we worked to get it out the door. Pass the controller and have fun empire-building!
If you’ve been keeping up with our patch notes, you know we've been refining the Happiness system over the last several updates. After changes to Appeal, Settlement Limits, local Happiness effects, and Specialists, this update introduces the next major step in that work: updates to Governments and Celebrations, along with new local Happiness stages that add more depth to how your settlements feel about your rule.
The answer to “is my settlement happy?” is no longer a yes or no question. Each Settlement’s local Happiness can now come in 5 stages: Ecstatic, Joyous, Happy, Unhappy, and Angry. These stages don’t have effects on their own, but will have direct impacts on game elements like the new Government abilities (see below). Here are the values for each stage of Happiness across the Ages:
Ecstatic: 40+ Happiness per Age
Joyous: 20-39 Happiness per Age
Happy: 0 to 19 Happiness per Age
Unhappy: -19 to -1 Happiness (not per Age)
Angry: -20 Happiness or lower (not per Age)
To really reach those higher levels, focus on maximizing your empire's Happiness by settling near fresh water, improving Resources, constructing Happiness Buildings, and stationing experienced Army Commanders in your cities!
Next up, Government choices have more impact now! Previously, your Government choice mainly determined which two Celebration options you could choose from when you earned a Celebration. These Celebrations provided large Yield boosts, but they could also be a little unexciting. Players weren’t getting the flavor of Despotism, just a 20% boost to Science.
Now, every Government comes with a passive ability that takes effect as soon as you adopt it, while still providing two Celebration options when you earn them. We've also reworked Celebrations to better reflect the goals and strengths of each Government type.
Additionally, each Government now adds two exclusive Government Traditions in the Civics tree that are only available if you choose that Government. Like civ Traditions, these can be carried forward into future Ages, allowing your political choices to leave a lasting mark on your empire.
Celebrations, those temporary empire-wide bonuses you earn by keeping your people happy, have also seen some changes. We noticed that many players were spending most of the Age in Celebrations, even when ignoring Happiness gameplay. With no tension about earning and staying in Celebrations, effects that lengthened Celebrations were much less interesting. We want there to be some tension between triggering and staying in Celebrations, so with 1.4.1, you’ll find that Celebrations are slightly harder to earn and have been shortened - from 10 turns on Standard speed to 6.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on how these changes feel, so keep letting us know how it feels to play!
We've heard the feedback that players want deeper and more impactful Crises in Civilization VII, and we want to start by confirming - we do too! That includes the previously teased Collapse Mode, a more challenging alternative to Regroup during Age Transitions. We're not ready to share details or timing just yet, but it's an area we're actively discussing in the design room. In the meantime, we're making a smaller change as we continue to evaluate the future of the Crisis system.
The original goal of Crises was to create an escalating challenge at the end of each Age and help Age Transitions feel like meaningful moments in your empire's story. With major updates like Test of Time and broader system changes such as the Government rework, we've found that some existing Crises no longer fit as cleanly within our current design.
While we generally prefer improving content over removing it, one Crisis in particular was creating more friction than meaningful gameplay: the Revolutions Crisis from the Exploration Age. The Crisis's conclusion required players to select a temporary Government, which no longer aligns with our Governments changes above. As a result, Revolutions will no longer appear in the Exploration Age or be available as a toggleable Crisis in Advanced Setup.
This is not the final word on Crises, but it is a step toward ensuring the system remains compatible with the direction we're taking other core mechanics. We're exploring ways to make Crises more dynamic, thematic, and engaging in the future - so stay tuned!
Alongside Update 1.4.1, we also wanted to introduce some fresh flavor to the roster. Launching right alongside the free update is the first part of a new paid content collection: Brush & Blade*. This collection journeys deep into the history of East Asia, exploring the delicate, beautiful balance between refined high art and legendary warfare.
Part One Includes:
New Leader: Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
New Civilizations: Heian Japan and Sengoku Japan.
More Goodies: Four powerful new Wonders to construct and exclusive profile customization rewards.
How the collection works:
The full Brush & Blade collection will be available for purchase with this update. Buying it gives you immediate access to Part 1. It also secures your copy of Part 2, which will arrive in a free update later this summer, introducing the legendary admiral Yi Sun-sin alongside the Goryeo and Joseon civs. Try out Hideyoshi with these two civs in their Apex Age, or pick one civ to lead throughout your entire campaign - the choice is yours!
The second of Japan’s “Great Unifiers” - Toyotomi Hideyoshi - brought Japan under one rule in the chaos of the Sengoku period. Beginning his career as a lowly footsoldier, Toyotomi rose to become one of Oda Nobunaga’s most trusted retainers and a fearless warrior, as well as a patron of the arts. Upon Nobunaga’s betrayal and death, Toyotomi avenged his former lord and continued the work of conquest, extending his sights out to the Korean peninsula, and beyond.
Attributes: Militaristic, Cultural
Unique Ability - Great Unifier: Land Units deal increased damage when attacking opposing civilizations' Units, but take increased damage from opposing civilizations' Units when defending. Your Units heal additional HP while on a Culture Building or Wonder. Increased Production towards Culture Buildings, increased further in Cities not founded by you.
Agenda - Kampaku: Increase Relationship with civilizations that have a minimum amount of Land Units and overall Culture yield. Decrease Relationship with civilizations that don't meet these minimums.
Check out the full Game Guide for Hideyoshi here.
By the light of the moon, in carefully cultivated gardens and elaborate villas, the poets of Heian Japan wrote their tales. The Heian period begins with the establishment of Heian-kyo (today Kyoto) in 794 CE, and marks the last era of classical Japanese history. It was a time of refinement, when men and especially women of the court cultivated literature into a high art; it was also a time of rural neglect and decay, when the countryside grew increasingly restless, riven with tensions between ambitious clans. This tension was to erupt in a revolt in the early 12th century, and the subsequent rise of the shogunates that were to dominate Japanese history for centuries afterward.
Apex Age: Antiquity
Attributes: Cultural, Diplomatic
Unique Ability - Pure Land:
Tier 1, Antiquity Age (Apex): Increased Culture on Improvements on Breathtaking tiles.
Tier 2, Exploration Age: Further increased Culture on Improvements on Breathtaking tiles.
Tier 3, Modern Age: Further increased Culture on Improvements on Breathtaking tiles. Cities receive a set amount of Tourism per Breathtaking tile once they contain a minimum number of them.
Unique Civilian Unit - Shijin (Great Person): Great Person. Trainable in Settlements with a Jinja (Heian Unique Infrastructure)
Unique Military Unit - Yumi (Unique Ranged Unit): Increased Movement. Increased Combat Strength if this Unit has not moved this turn.
Associated Wonder - Hoo-Do: Wonders provide increased Appeal to adjacent tiles. Breathtaking tiles receive increased Production, increased Culture, and increased Happiness in this Settlement. Must be placed on Flat terrain adjacent to a River. Heian Japan receives increased Production toward constructing this Wonder.
Check out the full Game Guide for Heian Japan here.
The Sengoku period was a war of all against all, when fortunes of samurai and daimyo were made and lost, and the source of many of the classic tales of feudal Japan. Beginning in the late 15th century and as feudal power grew, regional lords and clan leaders fought over control of the imperial throne, using European guns, ninja clans, and temple armies. The period featured such figures as Hattori Hanzo, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa, securing the shogunate in 1603, ended the conflict, and established a centuries-long peace.
Apex Age: Exploration
Attributes: Diplomatic, Militaristic
Unique Ability - Shogunate:
Tier 1, Antiquity Age: Increased Culture and Science per point of Army Commander XP earned. Culture Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Mountains; Science Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Resources.
Tier 2, Exploration Age (Apex): Further increased Culture and Science, and increased Influence per point of Army Commander XP earned. Culture Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Mountains; Science Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Resources.
Tier 3, Modern Age: Even further increased Culture and Science, and further increased Influence per point of Army Commander XP earned. Culture Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Mountains; Science Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Resources.
Unique Civilian Unit - Shinobi: Has a set number of charges to use the Sabotage Action, which forces an Army Commander to respawn. Has the Stealth Ability. Military Units on the same tile can use the Disperse Shinobi Clan Action to remove these Units.
Unique Military Unit - Samurai (Unique Infantry Unit): Has increased Combat Strength. Does not unlock further tiers in the Technology Tree. By defeating set numbers of Units, this Unit automatically upgrades to a second and third tier.
Associated Wonder - Himeji Castle: Increased Culture to Fortified Districts in this Settlement. Increased Combat Strength to Fortified Districts in all Settlements. Acts as a Fortified District that must be Conquered. Must be placed on Rough Terrain. Sengoku Japan receives increased Production toward constructing this Wonder.
Check out the full Game Guide for Sengoku Japan here.
Natural Wonder - Seongsan Ilchulbong: Increased Happiness (scales by Age). Increased Production towards Cavalry Units if Seongsan Ilchulbong is in the territory of at least 1 of your Settlements.
Natural Wonder - Nachi Falls: Increased Culture (scales by Age). Can purchase 2 Happiness Buildings for free each Age if Nachi Falls is in the territory of at least 1 of your Settlements.
Antiquity Age Wonder - Mireuksa: Increased Happiness. Increased Culture and Production to all Districts that have an Antiquity building and at least 1 Happiness in this Settlement.
Modern Age Wonder - Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace: Increased Production. Increased Science on Mines in this Settlement, further increased if the Mines are on Resources in this Settlement.
A note on ensuring DLC appears on console:
Some console players will update Civilization VII with this update, and then may not see the DLC that was already purchased. Rest assured the content is still there, and there's no need to send your scouts out to find them. Instead, we have a simple set of steps for each platform that should bring them right back. Check out the steps here.
*Base game required. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
(★ = Community Influenced Item)
(★) Increased the number of boats kept on Age Transition when using the Regroup setting. In addition to any boats you retain with Fleet Commanders, you will keep 1 additional boat for each Harbor in your empire.
(★) The amount of population buildings in Antiquity and some Exploration civs has been reduced to help reduce noise and be more historically and culturally appropriate (for example, the Inca’s buildings are more spread out than Spain’s in the Exploration Age).
City layouts have been updated to display more progression throughout the Ages; Antiquity layouts are more haphazard, while Exploration and Modern are more structured and gridlike.
Addressed visual issues when blending terrain textures.
Happiness now has stages at the local level, and each stage of Happiness is important for certain Governments, as well as other effects. Values for each stage scale up by Age. The Happiness stages are:
Ecstatic: >40 Happiness
Joyous: 20-40 Happiness
Happy: 0-19 Happiness
Unhappy: -19 to -1 Happiness
Angry: -20 Happiness or lower
Governments have been updated to include a passive effect, two Celebration options, and two new Traditions available via the Civics Tree based on the choice of Government (Previously: two Celebration options only). The passive effect is always active once you choose a Government, and the Traditions must be unlocked to be used and retained in the next Age. Traditions from Governments you have not chosen will not appear on the Civics tree.
No changes have been made to when a Government is selected, or what Governments are available.
Dev Note: We’ve spread some of the power of Governments across their passives, Celebrations, and Traditions. Some Governments might lean heavier into maximizing their passives while others will require getting more Celebrations or Tradition slots. This continues our efforts in enabling asymmetric or highly directional gameplay, and we’re keeping a close eye on your feedback.
Government Details: Anything without a (Previously:...) section is new.
Antiquity:
Classical Republic:
Passive: +1 Culture in Happy or happier Settlements. +4 additional Culture in Joyous or happier Cities.
Celebration Option 1: +100 Influence immediately. Scales by Game Speed. (Previously: +20% Culture during the Celebration)
Celebration Option 2: +10% Production towards Wonders, or +20% in Joyous or happier Cities during the Celebration. (Previously: +15% Production towards Wonders during the Celebration)
Yaxche Tradition: +2 Happiness on Wonders. Unlocked on Citizenship.
Poieisis Tradition: +1 Culture on displayed Great Works in Joyous Settlements, or +2 in Ecstatic Settlements. Unlocked on Philosophy.
Despotism:
Passive: +2 Science for each conquered Settlement. Unhappiness causes -3% reduction in Yields in your Settlements per point of negative Happiness (usually -5%).
Celebration Option 1: +1 Science on Production and Production Warehouse Buildings during the Celebration. (Previously: +20% Science during the Celebration)
Celebration Option 2: +10% Gold towards Producing and Purchasing Military Units during the Celebration. (Previously: +30% Production towards Infantry Units during the Celebration)
Commanderies Tradition: +20% Gold towards upgrading units. Unlocked on Tactics.
Fajia Tradition: +1 War Support on Wars you Declare. Unlocked on Organized Military.
Oligarchy:
Passive: +10% Production towards Buildings. +10% Gold towards purchasing Warehouses in Fishing and Farming Towns.
Celebration Option 1: +1 Food in Towns for each Connected Settlement during the Celebration. (Previously: +20% Food during the Celebration)
Celebration Option 2: +200 Gold immediately. Scales by Game Speed. (Previously: +30% Production towards Buildings during the Celebration)
Annona Tradition: +1 Food on Food Warehouse Buildings in Happy Settlements, or +2 in Joyous or happier Settlements. Unlocked on Public Life.
Hangjiao Tradition: +1 Production on Production Warehouse Buildings in Happy Settlements, or +2 in Joyous or happier Settlements. Unlocked on Skilled Trades.
Exploration:
Feudal Monarchy:
Passive: +10% Production towards training Units and constructing Walls.
Celebration Option 1: +3 Combat Strength for Military Units during the Celebration. (Previously: +20% Food during the Celebration)
Celebration Option 2: Your highest level Commander gets a free Promotion. (Previously: +30% Production towards Cavalry and Naval units during the Celebration)
Marcher Lords Tradition: +2 Culture in Towns without a Growing Focus, or +4 in Joyous or happier Towns without a Growing Focus. Unlocked on Society.
Mahakrung Tradition: Your Capital gets +5 Culture, Production, and Gold, or +15 Culture, Production, and Gold if it's Ecstatic. Unlocked on Sovereignty.
Plutocracy:
Passive: +20% Production towards Overbuilding.
Celebration Option 1: Specialists get -2 Food and Happiness Maintenance during the Celebration. (Previously: +20% Gold during the Celebration)
Celebration Option 2: +600 Gold immediately. Scales by Game Speed. (Previously: +30% Production towards Overbuilding during the Celebration)
Primitive Accumulation Tradition: +2 Science on Gold Buildings. +20% Production towards constructing Gold Buildings. Unlocked on Mercantilism.
Tequitl Tradition 2: +10 Trade Range. +2 Science on Trade Routes you initiate. Unlocked on Imperialism.
Theocracy:
Passive: +20% Production and Gold towards constructing or purchasing Temples and Missionaries.
Celebration Option 1: Receive a free Relic immediately. +1 Culture and Happiness on displayed Relics during the Celebration. (Previously: +20% Culture during the Celebration)
Celebration Option 2: +1 Gold and Influence on displayed Relics during the Celebration. (Previously: +40% Production towards Civilian and Support Units during the Celebration)
Dargah Tradition: Towns following your Religion get +2 Food and Happiness. Unlocked on Theocracy.
Vinaya Tradition: Cities following your Religion get +2 Gold and Influence. Unlocked on Theocracy.
Modern:
Authoritarianism:
Passive: +3 Food and Gold in Settlements you have conquered in this Age. Unhappiness causes -3% reduction in Yields in your Settlements per point of Unhappiness (usually -5%).
Celebration Option 1: +20% Production towards training Military Units during the Celebration. (Previously: +30%)
Celebration Option 2: +2 War Support on Wars you Declare during the Celebration. (Previously: +3 Combat Strength for all Units during the Celebration)
Garrison State Tradition: +25% Influence towards adding War Support. Unlocked on Nationalism.
Jingoism Tradition: +5 Combat Strength for all Military Units when attacking an opponent from a different ideology. Unlocked on Militarism.
Bureaucratic Monarchy:
Passive: +5% Gold towards Purchasing Buildings in Cities, or +10% in Joyous or happier Cities.
Celebration Option 1: +20% Influence towards all Diplomatic Actions during the Celebration. (Previously: +20% Gold during the Celebration)
Celebration Option 2: +1000 Gold immediately. Scales by Game Speed. (Previously: +30% Relationship change from Endeavors and Sanctions during the Celebration)
Evidenzbureau Tradition: +100% Influence towards Counterspy Espionage Actions. Unlocked on Political Theory.
Crown Properties Tradition: +2 Influence on Gold Buildings. Unlocked on Globalism.
Elective Republic:
Passive: Specialists get +1 Science and Culture, and +1 Happiness maintenance.
Celebration Option 1: +1 Culture on Quarters in Happy Settlements, or +2 in Joyous Settlements, or +3 in Ecstatic Settlements during the Celebration. (Previously: +20% Culture during the Celebration)
Celebration Option 2: +1000 Science immediately. Scales by Game Speed. (Previously: +20% Science during the Celebration)
Think-Tanks Tradition: +10% Production towards Projects, or 20% in the Capital. Unlocked on Globalism.
Army Corps of Engineers Tradition: +10% Production towards Wonders, or +20% in the Capital. Unlocked on Nationalism.
Mexico:
Dev Note: We want a powerful Government that rewards strong Happiness gameplay to be Mexico’s gameplay identity. A new shape of Governments means recalibrating to make sure Mexico’s unique gameplay feels rewarding. If we find that this set of changes doesn’t reflect that, we will buff Mexico.
All Ages:
Passive: +2 Happiness (per Age) in the Cities for each Tradition slotted into the Government.
Default Celebration Option: +2 Culture in Happy Settlements, or +6 in Joyous Settlements, or +10 in Ecstatic Settlements during the Celebration. (Previously: +30% Culture during the Celebration)
Antiquity:
Unlocked Celebration Option: +3 Food in every Joyous or happier Settlement during the Celebration. (Previously: +50% Growth Rate in the Capital during the Celebration)
Muralismo I Tradition: +2 Happiness in all Settlements
Exploration:
Unlocked Celebration Option: +100% Production towards training and Gold towards purchasing Missionaries and +2 Charges and Movement for Missionaries during the Celebration. (unchanged)
Muralismo II Tradition: +4 Happiness in all Settlements
Modern:
Unlocked Celebration Option 1: Gain one free Infantry Unit in each City immediately. (Previously: +40% Production towards Military Units during the Celebration)
Unlocked Celebration Option 2: +2 Influence in every Joyous or happier Settlement during the Celebration. (Previously: +50% Influence towards initiating Diplomatic Actions during the Celebration)
Unlocked Celebration Option 3: +3 Science in every Joyous or happier Settlement during the Celebration. (Previously: +30% Science during the Celebration)
Muralismo III Tradition: +6 Happiness in all Settlements
Added a new map type, Archipelago, and renamed the previous Archipelago map to Archipelago Hemispheres.
Celebration length is reduced from 10 turns to 6 turns on Standard speed and their costs have been increased.
Dev Note: We made this change to better pace the gain of Social Policy slots. Permanent celebrations are still possible (and may require Celebration lengthening effects), but are way harder to achieve and largely reserved for Leaders and Civs like Jose Rizal, Charlemagne, Maurya, and Mexico that lean into Celebrations as a core mechanic.
Addressed a reported issue where Hussar/Cossack units were unable to be produced when selected as a Syncretism Choice during the Modern Age.
Addressed a reported issue where Corsairs were unable to be purchased after researching Shipbuilding.
Machu Pikchu now functions correctly in conquered settlements.
The Focus Fire action function should now work correctly against enemy units that were discovered during the same turn.
Library of Ashurbanipal dedication should now properly provide a Relic slot to Science buildings for newly built cities, and apply in Distant Lands.
The Partisan unit from the Military City-State Suzerain bonus is now buildable after researching Industrialization.
Addressed reported issues with unlocked Dedications sometimes missing after Age transition.
Added new Hotseat multiplayer mode.
Improved performance and stability for cross-platform multiplayer games.
Added new DLC leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Added new DLC Antiquity Age civ Heian Japan.
Added new DLC Exploration Age civ Sengoku Japan.
Text and descriptions on Dedication cards are now properly centered on the Triumphs Screen.
Adjusted tile tooltips so they are properly offset and no longer block the view of the tile itself.
Resources in the "Empire" and "Treasure" tabs of the Commerce Screen now properly display a visual selection highlight.
Switching tabs in the Commerce menu now properly exits Settlement edit mode.
Players can now properly close filters in the Commerce menu.
The "Just One More Turn" option no longer appears if you choose to retire or are eliminated.
The controller cursor no longer gets stuck on the filter after closing it in the Commerce menu.
The "Inspect" button prompt now properly appears on tooltips for Unassigned Resources in the Commerce menu.
Addressed a reported issue where tile tooltips could get stuck on the screen after panning away from them.
Pressing right on the D-pad immediately after opening the Tech or Civic chooser no longer causes the game to crash.
The controller cursor now properly returns to the Diplomacy menu after backing out of the "Incite Raid" target menu.
Opening the Syncretism Options menu while viewing a tooltip in the Civic Tree no longer locks the controller cursor.
(★) The City Details panel saw a major revamp, now displaying which settlements a City is connected to. The panel also now displays how much Food would be sent to each listed City if you were to set a Town Focus.
Dev Note: For screens where the height resolution is greater than 768px, the number of connected settlements is also displayed on the Town Focus section.
City-States in the Minor Powers tab will now display which bonus was picked.
Independent Powers in the Minor Powers tab now display which leaders are befriending them, and whether those leaders are ahead of you for Suzerainty.
Unfinished Unique Quarters will now highlight during placement of the second Unique Building.
The "No More Turns" option during "Just One More Turn" mode now appears and functions correctly.
Added a 1600p UI scaling option for Mac displays.
Resource and Yield icons on the map will now scale up when changing the UI Scaling Adjustment setting.
The camera will now pan to your units when taking damage from any source when Auto Pan to Combat is enabled.
Addressed reported issues during the endgame transition where controller or mouse input could break menus, hide the cursor, or accidentally close the Victory screen before choosing "Just One More Turn”.
Addressed a reported issue where a non-functional "Just One More Turn" button could appear during a multiplayer Victory.
Addressed a reported issue where clicking on certain Mementos while playing in German could cause a crash.
Made various stability improvements on systems with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics.
Addressed several reported issues affecting localized text.
The Victory Tier tooltip now properly appears on the Victory summary screen.
Addressed a reported issue where plot tooltips could disappear.
Addressed an issue with the "The End of Hellas" narrative event, among other bug fixes.
Added several storylets for Time-Tested civs,.
Dev Note: With 1.4.1, every civ is now included! We wanted to make sure that each civ had an attribute granting event in every Age.
Added new randomization capabilities in Narrative event options alongside Brush & Blade DLC, and updated a few existing stories to use a basic form of this, with plans to use more in the future. During events with randomization, you will get the same story, but the options will be presented differently. The basic form will randomize the order of the options - no memorizing the location of the good choice! In the more advanced form, options can be grouped together, and only one of them will be presented to the player.
Dev Note for Modders: We’ve got a few technical tips to help out modders with this change:
Setting the flag on the parent story in the NarrativeStories will indicate that the options/links should be randomized. At a base case this randomizes the presentation order.
In the NarrativeStory_Links you can use the Priority field to group options, only one of which will be presented to the player. For example if you have story “TEST_A” with options “TEST_B”, TEST_C”, “TEST_D”, “TEST_E” you could assign priority 0 to b and c, and priority 1 to D and E. This will randomly give the player one of B or C and one of D or E, and they will be presented in a random order.
Added 1 new Antiquity Age ambient peace theme and 1 alternate mix variation.
Made SFX improvements to various Resources.
Improved volume balancing on Wonder voiceovers.
Addressed a reported issue where Leader sound effects could persist when all audio channels are muted.
Addressed several miscellaneous audio bugs.
Updated to Intel XeSS 3.0.
*Base game required. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
**This content is also included with the Brush and Blade Collection DLC Bundle. If you own the Brush and Blade Collection, then you already own this content. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
⬢ Hotseat Multiplayer
⬢ A new Archipelago map type
⬢ An overhaul to Governments, Celebrations, and Happiness
⬢ Part 1 of our latest DLC, Brush and Blade, which includes new Leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and new Civs Heian Japan & Sengoku Japan
⬢ and plenty of other fixes & improvements!
Check out this video with our producer Andrew to learn more, and be sure to hop in when Update 1.4.1 goes live!
Civilization VII's Update 1.4.1 goes live next week on June 23, and launching alongside the free update is the first half of a new paid content collection: the Brush and Blade Collection.* Here's what's going live for owners of the Brush and Blade Collection on June 23:
Part 1 of the Brush and Blade Collection* includes:
New leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi
2 new civilizations: Heian Japan and Sengoku Japan
4 new Wonders: Mireuksa, Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace, Seongsan Ilchulbong, Nachi Falls
The second of Japan’s “Great Unifiers” - Toyotomi Hideyoshi - brought Japan under one rule in the chaos of the Sengoku period. Beginning his career as a lowly footsoldier, Toyotomi rose to become one of Oda Nobunaga’s most trusted retainers and a fearless warrior, as well as a patron of the arts. Upon Nobunaga’s betrayal and death, Toyotomi avenged his former lord and continued the work of conquest, extending his sights out to the Korean peninsula, and beyond.
Attributes: Militaristic, Cultural
Unique Ability - Great Unifier: Land Units deal increased damage when attacking opposing civilizations' Units, but take increased damage from opposing civilizations' Units when defending. Your Units heal additional HP while on a Culture Building or Wonder. Increased Production towards Culture Buildings, increased further in Cities not founded by you.
Agenda - Kampaku: Increase Relationship with civilizations that have a minimum amount of Land Units and overall Culture yield. Decrease Relationship with civilizations that don't meet these minimums.
By the light of the moon, in carefully cultivated gardens and elaborate villas, the poets of Heian Japan wrote their tales. The Heian period begins with the establishment of Heian-kyo (today Kyoto) in 794 CE, and marks the last era of classical Japanese history. It was a time of refinement, when men and especially women of the court cultivated literature into a high art; it was also a time of rural neglect and decay, when the countryside grew increasingly restless, riven with tensions between ambitious clans. This tension was to erupt in a revolt in the early 12th century, and the subsequent rise of the shogunates that were to dominate Japanese history for centuries afterward.
Apex Age: Antiquity
Attributes: Cultural, Diplomatic
Unique Ability - Pure Land:
Tier 1, Antiquity Age (Apex): Increased Culture on Improvements on Breathtaking tiles.
Tier 2, Exploration Age: Further increased Culture on Improvements on Breathtaking tiles.
Tier 3, Modern Age: Further increased Culture on Improvements on Breathtaking tiles. Cities receive a set amount of Tourism per Breathtaking tile once they contain a minimum number of them.
Unique Civilian Unit - Shijin (Great Person): Great Person. Trainable in Settlements with a Jinja (Heian Unique Infrastructure)
Unique Military Unit - Yumi (Unique Ranged Unit): Increased Movement. Increased Combat Strength if this Unit has not moved this turn.
Associated Wonder - Hoo-Do: Wonders provide increased Appeal to adjacent tiles. Breathtaking tiles receive increased Production, increased Culture, and increased Happiness in this Settlement. Must be placed on Flat terrain adjacent to a River. Heian Japan receives increased Production toward constructing this Wonder.
The Sengoku period was a war of all against all, when fortunes of samurai and daimyo were made and lost, and the source of many of the classic tales of feudal Japan. Beginning in the late 15th century and as feudal power grew, regional lords and clan leaders fought over control of the imperial throne, using European guns, ninja clans, and temple armies. The period featured such figures as Hattori Hanzo, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa, securing the shogunate in 1603, ended the conflict, and established a centuries-long peace.
Apex Age: Exploration
Attributes: Diplomatic, Militaristic
Unique Ability - Shogunate:
Tier 1, Antiquity Age: Increased Culture and Science per point of Army Commander XP earned. Culture Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Mountains; Science Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Resources.
Tier 2, Exploration Age (Apex): Further increased Culture and Science, and increased Influence per point of Army Commander XP earned. Culture Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Mountains; Science Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Resources.
Tier 3, Modern Age: Even further increased Culture and Science, and further increased Influence per point of Army Commander XP earned. Culture Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Mountains; Science Buildings no longer receive Adjacencies with Resources.
Unique Civilian Unit - Shinobi: Has a set number of charges to use the Sabotage Action, which forces an Army Commander to respawn. Has the Stealth Ability. Military Units on the same tile can use the Disperse Shinobi Clan Action to remove these Units.
Unique Military Unit - Samurai (Unique Infantry Unit): Has increased Combat Strength. Does not unlock further tiers in the Technology Tree. By defeating set numbers of Units, this Unit automatically upgrades to a second and third tier.
Associated Wonder - Himeji Castle: Increased Culture to Fortified Districts in this Settlement. Increased Combat Strength to Fortified Districts in all Settlements. Acts as a Fortified District that must be Conquered. Must be placed on Rough Terrain. Sengoku Japan receives increased Production toward constructing this Wonder.
The Brush and Blade Collection will be available for purchase the moment that Update 1.4.1 goes live. Purchasing this content collection gives you immediate access to Part 1. It also secures your copy of Part 2, which will arrive later this summer, introducing the legendary admiral Yi Sun-sin as a new leader, as well as the new Goryeo and Joseon civs.
To learn more about the additions of Update 1.4.1, check out this previous post!
*Base game required. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
**This content is also included with the Brush and Blade Collection DLC Bundle. If you own the Brush and Blade Collection, then you already own this content. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
With Test of Time officially in the rearview mirror, we want to give a massive thank you to everyone who has been diving into Civilization VII recently.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that no empire survives by standing still. We’ve been closely monitoring discussions, reading every review, and deep-diving into your comments since the release of Test of Time. 1.4.0 shook up the foundations, but there’s still plenty more we have in store for Civ VII.
As for what’s next, Update 1.4.1 will officially launch the week of June 22, including:
Hotseat Multiplayer: Get ready to pass the controls! Hotseat is officially making its debut in Civ VII, letting you play local games with friends on a single device.
Archipelago map: We’re introducing a completely revamped, highly randomized Archipelago map type built on advanced Voronoi generation.
Governments, Happiness, & Celebrations: We’ve overhauled these systems to give you deeper strategic choices. For the first time, you'll be able to unlock Government Traditions that persist across Ages, leaving a permanent mark on your civilization's history.
...plus a whole suite of bug fixes and other improvements you can expect once the update goes live.
While 1.4.1’s new additions are completely free for all Civ VII players, we also wanted to bring some fresh flavor to the roster. Launching right alongside the free update is the first half of a new paid content collection - Civilization VII: Brush & Blade Collection*. This collection journeys deep into the history of Korea and Japan, exploring the delicate, beautiful balance between refined high art and legendary warfare.
Part One Includes:
New Leader: The legendary Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Two Unique Civilizations: Take control of Heian Japan or Sengoku Japan.
More Goodies: Four powerful new Wonders to construct and exclusive profile customization rewards.
How the collection works:
The full Brush & Blade collection will be available for purchase the moment 1.4.1 goes live. Purchasing this collection gives you immediate access to Part 1. It also secures your copy of Part 2, which will arrive later this summer, introducing the legendary admiral Yi Sun-sin alongside the Goryeo and Joseon civs.
Start prepping your strategies for the week of June 22, and keep an eye out for First Looks and Game Guides dropping soon!
*Base game required. DLC released in two installments through July 2026, each delivered automatically in-game on release. Exact release dates subject to change. Terms apply.
Hey, Civ fans, welcome back to This Month in Civ (and boy, what a month it’s been)! May has been huge for Civilization VII, as well as for our team at Firaxis. We celebrated the studio’s 30th anniversary, launched our long-awaited Test of Time update (the biggest update to Civ VII since launch), released a free new leader*, and much more.
Heading into the summer, we’ve got a whole lot of exciting stuff coming up. But before that, we have lots to recap, so let’s dive in!
Earlier this May, Firaxis celebrated our 30th anniversary! As part of the festivities, we refreshed our brand identity, launched a selection of legacy titles on GeForce Now, hosted a sale and giveaway, and more. To read more about this milestone, check out our anniversary blog.
The passionate feedback, the "one more turn" stories, and the unwavering support from our global community are the reasons we get to keep doing what we love. Our players are at the heart of every hexagonal tile we place and civilization we bring to life. So, before anything else, THANK YOU!
We’re especially glad that we were able to ring in this occasion in a particularly triumphant way….
Test of Time finally arrived on May 19, bringing in a flurry of changes that completely transform the Civ VII experience. This is the biggest update CIv VII has ever seen—it’s of similar scope and size to an entire Civ expansion!
Highlights from Test of Time include:
You can now start and stay as any civ, in any Age! Whether you’re playing as Rome in the Exploration Age or America in the Antiquity Age, this update is all about bringing more freedom to our players, powered by new systems like Syncretism & Affirmation.
In this Dev Diary, Design Lead Matt Owens breaks down everything you should know about Time-Tested Civs and the new mechanics that allow you to start and stay as any Civilization from any Age, throughout as many Ages as you like.
If you dive into a new game of Civilization VII, you’ll find the old Legacy Paths are gone in favor of a totally new system: Triumphs. Triumphs are new challenges that incentivize more sandbox-style gameplay, offering a wide range of goals and rewards tailored to your unique playstyle.
In this Dev Diary, Content Designer Kiera Boyle dives into the brand-new Triumphs system, exploring how it introduces new optional and Age-based goals, and creates more ways to shape your story across every game.
Victories are more dynamic and flexible across every Age. Instead of locking into one path late in the game, you’ll now build toward more varied Military, Cultural, Economic, and Science Victories throughout campaigns, giving you more freedom to adapt your strategy over time.
In this Dev Diary, Game Designer Bill Anderson walks through the completely overhauled Victories system, featuring an entirely new way to win based on our Dominance model.
To properly accompany an update of this scale, we also added tons of new and updated artwork and music across all areas of the game.
In this Dev Diary, Associate Audio Director Kadet Kuhne explores how the team made Civ VII sound authentic, lively, and responsive to your choices, and details the cool new SFX and VFX that arrived with the Test of Time update.
There’s a LOT more to discover than could fit in a single article. The best way to experience everything new in Test of Time is to boot up a new game; the second best way is to read our latest Patch Notes and check out our Developer Update video. Craving some longer lunchtime viewing? You can also watch the VOD of our Test of Time Gameplay Stream, where our devs hop into a Test of Time multiplayer game with creators VanBradley and UrsaRyan.
Last but not least, Test of Time was made possible in large part by our amazing community. Many of the new features and changes that arrived in this update were shaped and refined through the feedback from our Firaxis Feature Workshop participants. Thanks for being in the design room with us, and for shaping the future of Civilization VII.
As we enter a new era of Civ VII, we want to continue hearing from you! We invite you all to fill out this Community Survey, which went live on May 27 and closes on June 2. Your feedback is more important than ever!
Alongside the Test of Time launch, we also added Alexander the Great as a FREE new leader*! Alexander is a Militaristic/Cultural leader whose Unique Ability, King of the World, grants increased Production and Culture to your non-Capital Cities that contain a Wonder (doubled if that City is on another continent), and boosts the Combat Strength of your Land Military Units.
To read more about Alexander, great in both name and deed, check out the Alexander the Great Game Guide.
u/wLiam17 from the r/civ Official Reddit recently won a game on Deity difficulty with just one Settlement throughout their entire campaign, without Continuity nor Mementos!
Now that the Test of Time update is finally in your hands, we can’t wait to see how you shape your empire. This update is a huge milestone for Civ VII, but there’s still plenty more to come. Throughout the next few months, we’ll have even more exciting news to share about where Civilization VII is headed next.
To stay connected, join us in our Official Discord, where you can keep up with the community and discuss every new update, new and forthcoming content, and all your other Civ favorites! For more info about guides, feature requests, mods, and more, check out our Steam discussions. And to stay up-to-date on all things Civ, be sure to sign up for our newsletter.
See you here next month, Civ fans! *Base game required. This content is free for all owners of Civilization VII and will be delivered automatically in-game on release. Terms apply.
Test of Time is our biggest Civilization VII update yet, bringing major additions and changes across the game. Much of this update was shaped directly by community feedback, including the ability to start and stay as any civilization, the new Triumphs system, reworked Victories, and a wide range of other UI and gameplay improvements.
Now that players have had some time with Test of Time, we’d love to hear how it’s landing for you!
Your conversations across Steam, Discord, and reviews continue to help let us know how we’re doing. To gather more detailed feedback, we’ve also opened an official community survey. It should take about 5–8 minutes to complete, and will remain open through June 5.
Take the survey here.
We really appreciate you for taking the time to share your thoughts with the development team. We’re continuing to evolve and refine Civilization VII alongside players like you, and we look forward to sharing more about upcoming updates soon, so stay tuned!
Some mods may not yet be compatible with the latest version of Civilization VII and can cause crashes, loading issues, or other unexpected behavior. Outdated graphics drivers can also impact performance and stability.
To help troubleshoot, we recommend:
Disabling all mods and add-ons in-game
Unsubscribing from any active mods using “Unsubscribe from All” in the Steam Workshop
Ensuring graphics drivers are on the latest version
Restarting Steam before launching the game again
Even if your Mods folder appears empty, Workshop subscriptions can still affect the game. Thanks for your patience while mod creators get everything updated for 1.4.0!
Arriving ready to conquer alongside the game's massive Test of Time update, longtime fan-favorite leader Alexander the Great is joining Civ VII's base-game roster! This is a free addition for all Civ VII players, so once you've downloaded Update 1.4.0, this content will automatically be available in-game with no extra steps.*
Whether he helped you lead Greece or Macedonia to greatness in previous Civ titles, or if this is your introduction to the famed historical leader, Alexander is remembered most as a prolific conqueror of vast territories spanning from Greece to India. In Civ VII, his emphasis on increasing Production and Culture is matched only by his enhanced Military might, as well as a penchant for befriending leaders who have conquered fewer Settlements than his own.
Keep in mind that Leaders with similarly sprawling empires are less likely to get along with Alexander, and fully harnessing his superior combat prowess requires investment in building Wonders that enrich the Culture of his non-Capital Cities. To learn everything about these abilities and more, check out our new Alexander Game Guide.
Read our full Update Notes for everything else included in Update 1.4.0, then catch up on all things related to the Test of Time update here!
*Base game required. This content is free for all owners of Civilization VII and will be delivered automatically in-game on release. Terms apply.
Whether you aspire to be a military-minded conqueror, an economic powerhouse, a creator of cultural wonders, or one of history's great scientific minds, there's never been a better time to build a new empire in Civilization VII.
In celebration of the massive Test of Time update that's free for all players, get Civ VII on Steam for 40% off from May 19 to June 2!* This is the perfect opportunity to experience this game-changing rework, which adds highly requested features like the ability to start and stay as one civilization across every Age, a more flexible Victories system, and much more.
For a fuller picture of how key elements of the game have been fundamentally redesigned or built upon, check out this article on the official Civ site. Or, to read over every single tweak this gigantic update includes, read the full Game Update Notes published for Test of Time (also called Update 1.4.0.).
Whether you're a new ruler ready to experience Civ for the first time, a veteran tactician, or just looking to save on Civ VII's Standard, Deluxe, or Settler's Editions, we can't wait to see your empires stand the test of time as you lead them through the Ages.
*Discount based on 2K’s SRP. Digital only. Offers end June 2, 2026. Terms apply.
The day is finally here, Civ VII players: The Test of Time update is now live in-game!
For those who haven't been following its progress, Test of Time – also called Update 1.4.0 – is magnitudes more than just a patch or even most of our larger, regular Updates. It's over a year's worth of passionate feedback, meaningful iteration, and the Firaxis Feature Workshop's invaluable playtesting synthesized into a huge, free update joining the many other refined features and smaller reworks released since launch.
While there are far more tweaks than we could list here (read about them all in the detailed Game Update Notes published for Update 1.4.0), the most substantial changes arrive in the form of three reworked or entirely new features:
You can now play as one civ throughout an entire campaign! While the option to evolve your empire into a different civilization during Age Transitions remains, being able to play as one civ across the span of history is something many players hold dear as a core element of the Civ experience. When playing as a Time-Tested civilization, the new Syncretism mechanic lets you create new builds by adopting the Unique Units or Infrastructure from another civ currently in its Apex Age – or you can double down on what makes your civ unique with Affirmation. To learn more, check out design lead Matt Owens' recent Dev Diary.
Replacing Legacy Paths entirely is the brand-new Triumphs system: optional, more dynamic objectives that help make campaigns feel unique. Each Triumph is tied to one of the six Attributes: Militaristic, Cultural, Scientific, Economic, Diplomatic, and Expansionist. To learn more, check out designer Kiera Boyle's recent Dev Diary.
Supported by a wider range of activities, Victories have been fully redesigned to reward your dominance across all three Ages. We're committed to ensuring that wins in Civ VII are defined by success in making interesting choices, and giving you as many paths as possible to pursue greatness. To learn more, check out designer Bill Anderson's recent Dev Diary.
Alongside these three main pillars, the Test of Time update brings many other improvements, including:
A new Fractal Continent map**
A new Commerce screen
A new Advisor Council
Updated map generation**
New Narrative Events
Updates to Specialists and Biomes
New audio and music
Numerous balance changes
FREE leader Alexander the Great
And more!
With the Test of Time update finally in players' hands, we'd like to thank our amazing community once again and emphasize that this is not the end of Civ VII development by any means. There's plenty of future Civ VII content in the pipeline.
For now, keep an eye on the official Civilization site for news about future content, updates, and more, then feel free to leave further feedback and connect with your fellow fans on the official Civ Discord!
*Base game required. This content is free for all owners of Civilization VII and will be delivered automatically in-game on release. Terms apply.
Test of Time is live now on all platforms, and it’s our most significant update to Civilization VII yet! We know you’ve been hungry for another update, and we’re ready to finally get it into your hands. Test of Time, free for all Civ VII players, is heavily influenced by our community, from the feedback we’ve seen since launch, to contributions made by Civ fans in the Firaxis Feature Workshop. You’ll find the changes below touch nearly every system in the game.
There’s a lot to go over, but we’ll start with the three big changes that really underscore what Test of Time is all about:
You can now start and stay as any civ, in any Age.
Legacy Paths have been replaced with Triumphs, a more flexible, sandbox-driven system.
Victories have been totally reworked, reshaping how Military, Economic, Cultural, and Scientific strategies play out.
With these changes, this update is all about empowering you to shape your own story and open up the game much wider. But even beyond those big updates, you’ll find many other changes: a massive balance pass (for civs, leaders, yields, and more), improvements to the UI to help with strategic clarity, a brand-new map type, the new leader Alexander the Great, and plenty more. Consider this just the highlights reel – there are hundreds of smaller tweaks and tuning adjustments under the hood that didn't make it into these notes. You’ll find more changes just by firing up the game!
This update creates massive potential for the future of Civ VII. Unlike most of the changes we’ve made (so far) since launch, which added or built upon existing systems, you’ll find these changes to be much more foundational. It gives us a stronger base to build upon and gives you more room to define your own path each time you play.
And of course, if a feature you’ve been waiting for didn’t make it into this update, it’s not off the table. The team is already working on what’s next. (Hotseat players, we’re almost there!).
Now, let's see if your empire can stand the test of time.
Happy patch-reading!
To the 4,000 players who joined us in the test branch over the last few months: thank you! This update wouldn't look like it does today without you. You delivered honest feedback across three rounds of Workshops, thousands of Discord messages, and some very fast-paced dev-led Q&As. Whether you were reporting bugs or debating balance, we hope you see your impact in real-time in this update. Thanks for being in the design room with us.
A warning for mods: If you encounter any new bugs or issues, try disabling any mods, as some may not yet be compatible with the latest update. Since this is a big update, we’re anticipating a high impact on existing mods.
⚠️ If you have mods installed that effect the modding screen-in game, you may need to disabel all mods using the Unsubscribe from All feature in Steam Workshop!
+ A note to modders: Though we've made some improvements aimed to make modding easier this update, we know we have more to do to make modding more accessible with our new UI Framework. We'll have more details on this in a future update, but please keep the feedback coming, we want to hear from you!
Backwards compatibility: While we aim to maintain backwards compatibility for existing saves as much as possible, some new abilities or effects may not appear until you start a new game. For the best experience, we recommend starting a new game.
Legacy branch: Are you playing on Steam and want to finish your current save under a previous version? You can do so using our legacy Steam beta branch. To join the legacy branch, right-click Sid Meier's Civilization VII in your Steam library, select Properties, then click over to the Betas tab. From there, select the option named “legacy”.
Additionally, since 1.4.0 will have an impact on account progression (leader XP, unlocked Mementos, etc.), here’s what you can expect:
Existing players may notice some previously completed challenges now show as uncompleted (which can be completed again for XP). Rewards, Player Foundation Level, and Player Leader Levels are unaffected.
Previous “Legacy” platform achievements will have updated names and descriptions. Players who already completed these will still have those achievements completed.
Previous Challenges that can no longer be completed have been archived and replaced with a matching new Challenge that plugs into our new systems.
As a reminder, you can visit our tracker to see known issues. As always, the team is standing by to pursue follow up patches as needed. Be sure to submit bug reports with the team here.
The ability to lead one civilization across every Age is finally here, realizing the classic Civ fantasy of guiding your civ from the ancient world all the way into the modern era. This new system supports that epic journey while maintaining a major part of what sets Civ VII apart: the unique identity and pacing of the Age structure.
The short version: yes, you can now start and stay as any civilization in any Age!
Choosing to play as Rome in the Exploration Age, or America in Antiquity, means guiding that civ outside its historical Apex Age. The Apex Age is when a civ is at full strength, granting the full set of Unique Units, Unique Infrastructure, and a bespoke Civic Tree built specifically around that civilization.
The choice is yours: you can choose to stay or swap at each Age Transition. This update adds more flexibility to the existing civ-switching system, giving players more ways to shape their journey across the Ages while opening up new strategic opportunities in every campaign. We’re excited to see the different paths players experiment with in 1.4.0!
When you play outside of an Apex Age, we call that civ Time-Tested, and we don’t just strip what makes your civ strong away and call it a day. Instead, the game switches to a supportive framework meant to keep your civ competitive while still preserving its identity. That framework can be broken down into a couple key elements: Civics and Syncretism. Additionally, a civ’s Unique Ability is carried across all Ages, often enhancing over time to keep pace with each era.
Taken together, these systems form the backbone of the “lead one civilization” experience. They’re intended to let you commit to a civ across time while still engaging with Civ VII’s history-built-in-layers philosophy. Here’s what that looks like in play:
Instead of the usual Unique Civic Tree, Time-Tested civs will each receive their own tree made up of the following:
One truly unique Civic, crafted specifically for that civ in that Time-Tested Age, which provides Traditions and other effects that reinforce some of the civ’s feel in a way appropriate for that Age.
One Civic based on the civ’s attributes. These are shared for all Time-Tested civs in that Age for a given Attribute set. For example, America and Inca are both Economic civilizations and therefore receive a Civic in Antiquity that, in part, boosts Economic play.
A brand new kind of Civic that enables “Syncretism.” See below.
Additionally, as part of our update to every civ in the game, we've started to categorize Expansionist civs as either Tall or Wide, and some Diplomatic civs as Influence or Happiness. You'll see that reflected in their unique Time-Tested Civics Trees!
Civilizations evolve by learning from the world around them, and with Syncretism, we’re leaning further into that philosophy. As Gwendoline Christie puts it in-game, “Syncretism is the borrowing, affirmation, or integration of concepts, symbols, or practices of one tradition into another."
In Civilization VII, that idea comes to life by letting you borrow strength from another civilization in its Apex Age, adopting either a Unique Unit or Unique Infrastructure into your own strategy. Mechanically, it creates hybrid playstyles. Narratively, it represents adaptation and your civ growing without losing its identity.
For example, if you’re playing as Rome in the Exploration Age, you might adopt Spain’s Tercio to strengthen your infantry tactics, or the Norman Motte and Bailey to build up Culture while improving your defenses.
To access it, you’ll need to select and finish the new “Syncretism” node from the Civic Tree. Once unlocked, you’ll be prompted to choose between the Unique Unit or Unique Infrastructure of another civ. Your options are limited to civs currently in their Apex Age, and they must have an unlock relationship with either your leader or your current civ. This choice can only be made once per Age, so choose wisely!
To give you even greater depth in the single-civ fantasy, we've also added a third option for Syncretism: Affirmation. Instead of borrowing from another civ, you can choose to reinforce your own identity through unique Traditions tailored specifically to your civilization. This option exists for the players that really want to double down on their current civ.
You may be wondering, “How does the AI navigate all of this?” By default, the AI will follow your lead. If you choose to play Time-Tested civs, then the AI will do the same. If you choose to always stay as an Apex Age civ and change during Age Transitions, the AI will also change.
You’ll have access to Advanced Settings to modify this behavior, and Game Setup now lets you control if you want to see Time-Tested civs in your game, as well as how strongly the game will try to match leaders and civs to their historical pairings. You can tune your games so that the AI will always swap to an Apex Age civ, or always persist as their chosen civ regardless of how you play. Fiddle around here and see what works best for you.
When you start a new game with 1.4.0, you’ll see the difference immediately. Starting from Create Game, you’ll see how wide open the roster is now: every base-game civ – and any DLC civs you own – will be automatically available to you starting on turn one! (If that sounds intimidating, we’ve also updated the Create Game UI to make things a lot easier to navigate.)
Adding Time-Tested civs didn’t stop at systems, either. This update adds new music, narrative events, and artwork to support civs across Ages. We go into some more detail in the notes below, but you’ll feel this most fully when you’re actually in the game.
So with that – pick your civ, see how far you can take it, and challenge yourself to stand the test of time!
Gone are the old Legacy Paths, and in their place are Triumphs. This new system was built to provide a much more open, flexible system as you build your empire.
Triumphs offer a wide range of optional challenges tied to the six core Attributes in Civ VII - Militaristic, Cultural, Scientific, Economic, Diplomatic, and Expansionist. Some will trigger naturally through strong play, like hitting a population milestone. Others challenge you to pursue a riskier or more off-the-beaten-path goal, like maintaining wars on multiple fronts or racing to secure the most Natural Wonders.
These Triumphs come in two flavors. Minor Triumphs are easier to achieve and provide instant benefits like a bonus promotion on all Commanders or War Support. Major Triumphs require more focused investment in their associated systems and grant Dedications for your next Age. You don’t need to complete all Triumphs every game (although no doubt some of you will try!), and instead you can choose which goals and rewards make the most sense for the strategy you’re pursuing.
Since the Legacy Path system was deeply connected to the Legacy Cards you’d previously select at the start of an Age, we’re also modifying how that system works.
After an Age Transition, you can now select three Dedications. Dedications provide unique and powerful bonuses that you can choose in the next Age, similar to the old Legacy Cards. Instead of spending points to select them, though, you simply choose three Dedications from the ones you’ve unlocked. There are always five default Dedications available to choose from. Further Dedications can be unlocked from the following sources:
Completing Major Triumphs
Leveling up a leader
Managing the previous Crisis successfully
For those of you in the Workshop, we’re happy to report that since the last time you’ve played with this system, we’ve buffed several Triumph rewards and Dedications to make them feel even more rewarding. Additionally, gone are the days from the Workshop where changing your Capital cost a Dedication; that one’s free now, which should feel similar to previous live versions of the game.
Lastly, we also added another layer of optional customization with Triumph Sets. This is an Advanced Options feature that lets you pick from curated Triumph lists before starting a campaign. The idea is to give you more control over the tone and goals of a run, whether you want a competitive race or a conquest-heavy experience.
We’re starting with the below sets and plan to expand from here. And for those of you who asked for randomized Triumphs, a randomized option is something we’re actively exploring!
Here are the full sets available to you now:
Default Set: The standard list with 30 Triumphs per Age.
Trailblazer Set: Every Triumph becomes a race – only the first player to complete it earns the reward.
Conqueror Set: Warmongers rejoice! This set includes only Militaristic-focused Triumphs.
Classic Set: For those who liked the original Legacy Paths, these Triumphs represent those same original goals.
Explorer Set: If you’re the type of player who always wants to see what is over the horizon or master the high seas, this brand-new mix of old and new Triumphs is built specifically for you.
Ah, Victory, the culmination of all your hard work in a playthrough. Victories have been reworked to feel more flexible, and more connected to the full arc of a multi-Age game. Previously, progressing toward a win often meant committing to a specific path in the Modern Age, which could narrow your options even as your empire evolved. This also had the side effect of compressing the Modern Age into a shorter, more linear race to the finish.
With this update, Victories are more fully integrated across all Ages, giving each Age more room to develop and making the path to a win feel more cohesive from start to finish. The four Victory types remain (Military, Cultural, Economic, and Scientific), but how you achieve them has been completely reworked.
For all four Victory types, we’ve added a score unique to each Victory’s playstyle. There are many different ways to contribute to these scores, allowing you to choose how you want to arrive at that win. Here’s a breakdown:
Military: Achieve a Victory by being the greatest conqueror. Earn Dominion (Military Victory Points) for each Settlement you control. Earn extra points for original capitals, captured Settlements, Distant Lands Settlements, and more.
Cultural: Achieve a Victory by attracting the most Tourists to a culturally unique and happy empire. You earn Tourism (Cultural Victory Points) for Wonders, Natural Wonders, Relics, Artifacts, Unique Buildings, and Unique Improvements in your Empire. Captured Wonders constructed by other leaders are worth less Tourism. In addition, you earn Tourism each time you earn a Celebration. (Note: While we used the same term, Tourism in Civ VII does not behave the same as in Civ VI).
Economic: Achieve a Victory by earning the most GDP (Economic Victory Points) over the campaign. You earn GDP each turn for slotted Resources and Gold Buildings in your empire’s Cities, as well as by returning Treasure Convoys and slotting Factory Resources.
Scientific: Achieve a Victory by earning Innovation (Scientific Victory Points) and winning the Space Race. You make progress in the Space Race through researching Tech, earning Codices, and completing new Special Projects throughout the Ages.
In all cases, you can make progress toward these victories starting in the Antiquity Age, and additional ways to earn points open up as you continue your campaign.
Military, Cultural, and Economic Victories are all based on dominating in that field (we’ll get to Scientific in a bit). In order to earn the Victory, you need to achieve and maintain a significant lead over all other civilizations. Specifically, you need to reach and remain at a certain score threshold over the second-place player.
Early on, that threshold is extremely high, meaning only players with an overwhelming lead can secure Victory (if you’re finding you’re hitting these early Victories, it may be time to move up a difficulty level!). As the game progresses, the threshold lowers, allowing more attainable wins later, but still rewarding those hardcore players who were able to achieve total dominance early.
To get into the nitty-gritty, that threshold breakdown is below:
Transcendent Victory: Between 50% and 80% Age Progress in Exploration, have 6x the second-place player’s score.
Crushing Victory: Between 80% Age Progress in Exploration and 20% in Modern, have 4x the second-place player’s score.
Decisive Victory: Between 20% and 40% Age Progress in Modern, have 3x the second-place player’s score.
Momentous Victory: Between 40% and 60% Age Progress in Modern, have 2x the second-place player’s score.
Substantive Victory: Between 60% and 80% Age Progress in Modern, have 1.5x the second-place player’s score.
Narrow Victory: Between 80% and 100% Age Progress in Modern, have 1.25x the second-place player’s score.
Once you hit a threshold, get ready: a five-turn countdown begins! This countdown gives your opponents a final window for counterplay – if they narrow the gap and push you below the threshold, your timer pauses until you reclaim the lead. Once the countdown is complete, Victory is yours!
There’s an exception to this focus on dominance, and that's the Scientific Victory. Instead of comparing against other players, it’s a race to 100 points, after which you must maintain an active Launch Pad for five turns. This reflects the urgency of a real-world space race, and ensures Scientific Victories can still conclude before the end of Modern, even when other Victory paths are tightly contested. If you’re pursuing another path, keep an eye on your rivals’ Scientific progress, lest they scoop up the win.
If Modern reaches 100% without anyone winning, Victory goes to the player with the highest score. This final score is determined by a series of tiebreakers that take into account a number of factors: your turns in a Victory countdown, your placement in all the Victories, and how many Major Triumphs you’ve completed. Domination Victory is still available by eliminating all opponents. As before, you can continue with One More Turn after winning. And finally, though it didn’t make it in for this update, we’re also working on adding back the functionality to customize which Victories are enabled before starting your game.
These updates also come with updated UI/UX: a brand-new Victory Screen accessible through the Trophy / Age Progress button in the HUD. It shows where you stand, how players are earning points, and the current status of each Victory path.
Speaking of UI, we’ve also taken a hard look at Civ VII’s UI/UX, refining the look and feel of various areas and introducing completely new screens to help you better navigate your empire. We know there’s more work to do here, but we're ready to share major progress since our last update. Here are some of the bigger changes, with more in the notes further below.
One of the biggest requests coming from players was better clarity around trade and Resources. We rebuilt that experience into a single hub we’re calling the Commerce Screen: a place to manage Resources, trade routes, and empire logistics without bouncing between menus.
The Commerce Screen now gives you clearer previews, better filtering, and fewer “why can’t I do this?” moments when slotting Resources into your empire. Here are the key changes:
Added Yield delta preview when making Resource assignment changes. This means you can now see exactly how Science, Gold, or Culture will change before you commit to a Resource assignment.
You can now see how many Warehouse and Water Buildings a Settlement has, which is relevant information for some Resources.
Improved error messaging for City/Factory Resources and Settlement connections.
Added filtering Resources based on Yield benefit.
Added "imported" indicator to identify which Resources come from other empires.
Added Settlement Type and Location tags.
Improved the visibility and clarity of the “Resource Allocation Unavailable” message.
Resource tooltips now display Resource type, effect, and origin.
Added drag-and-drop functionality for PC.
Added the ability to “remove all” Resources back for reassignment, either from a single Settlement or from all of them at once.
Resolved Camel assignment so slots update correctly without manual reassigning.
Trade information is now grouped into three clear sections so you can quickly understand what’s happening and what’s possible:
Active Trade Routes: Displays your empire’s current trade partners, your relationship with them, and benefits each of you are receiving from a Trade Route.
Available Trade Routes: Presents all of the currently viable Trade Routes with explanations for why they’re unlocked.
Unavailable Trade Routes: Shows all of the Settlements which are currently not meeting the requirement(s) necessary to establish a Trade Route, with an explanation as to why and what you can do to meet those requirements.
We’ve also added a consolidated breakdown of your empire’s Resources. Empire Resources are now presented in a stack to easily see their quantity, gameplay effects, and origin at a glance.
Last but not least for the Commerce Screen, you now have a dedicated view for Treasure Convoys available during the Exploration Age.
Each Settlement will display its associated Treasure Resources, the number of active Treasure Convoys, how much each is worth, how close each Settlement is to generating a new Treasure Convoy, the requirements for generating Treasure Convoys, and an explanation as to what you need to do to meet any unmet requirements.
My liege, your Advisors have been promoted!
Before 1.4.0, Advisors were primarily there to provide "Warnings" when something went wrong (assuming your Tutorial level was set high enough).
With Test of Time, Advisors have been reimagined as a full Council: a dedicated, always-available guidance system that exists independently from tutorial settings. Each Advisor now offers proactive tips and strategic suggestions tailored to the Victory path you’re pursuing, helping you make more informed decisions as your empire evolves.
You’re also in control of how much input you receive. Choose between full guidance, warnings from all Advisors, or only hearing from the ones you actively follow. You can follow or unfollow Advisors – and adjust these settings – at any time.
On the UI side, we’ve introduced a new Advisor Council Screen to bring everything together in one place. Notifications have been reworked for better at-a-glance readability, and warnings now include clearer context about what’s happening, along with actionable advice on how to address it.
With Test of Time, we’ve given the finale a bit more presence.
You’ll now see a multi-part sequence play out when your game ends. It starts with a Victory-type-specific moment, followed by a flyover of your empire with your leader offering their closing thoughts (if you win). You’ll also hear from narrator Gwendoline Christie, who acknowledges your triumph (or defeat) before you land on updated Victory screens with a full breakdown of scores and final standings.
We also can't talk about the Test of Time update without talking about how it sounds. Our audio team has been cooking up a suite of new sounds and music tracks to better match the pace and mood of your empire as it evolves. To give an idea of the scale (no pun intended) of music work being done, we’ve added 175 new tracks, totaling over nine hours of music, with more to come in future updates!
Here's the breakdown of what’s being implemented:
4 new Antiquity Age ambient themes (2 peace, 2 war).
6 new Exploration Age ambient themes (3 peace, 3 war).
2 new Modern Age ambient themes (1 peace, 1 war).
19 new tracks for Antiquity Age versions of Modern Age civs' themes.
19 new tracks from new and previously unreleased recordings.
125 alternate mix variations of existing civ and ambient themes.
As you can see, we've revisited all of the recordings of in-game music and created many alternate variations using a subtractive/additive approach. Outside of a civ’s Apex Age, you’ll hear scaled-down, more intimate variations of their core theme. In the civ’s Apex, you’ll get the full multi-layered version of the theme. This model adds more depth and variety to the musical pacing of the game. Give these new versions a listen, and let us know what you think!
Beyond the sound, the art team has been working hard too. We’ve created new Building variations to give your Time-Tested civilizations a cohesive look through the Ages. All-new environment art sets for the Pacific, North African, Eastern European, and South Asian regions feature familiar color palettes so that your civ can retain its signature architectural style as it evolves. Check out a few examples below:
The screenshot of Modern Egypt above shows new Exploration and Modern Age North African buildings.
The screenshot of Modern Siam above shows new Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern Age Pacific buildings.
With the Test of Time update, this gave the Unit team an opportunity to fill out some of the culture sets that were underrepresented in the base game. From Southeast Asia, India, Pacific Islanders, and beyond, the team has taken great care in creating historically accurate armor, clothing, weapons, and more! This also includes making sure all culture groupings have properly represented assets throughout all Ages.
Here are just a few examples of new assets created for this update. We hope that as you play, you’ll have moments of “Wow, I can’t believe they included that helmet/weapon. That’s awesome!”
With all of the changes to the base game, we took a look at our civs and leaders to see how they fit in a post-Test of Time game. Almost every civ has had its Unique Ability, Unique Civic Tree, and unlocks reevaluated.
Some Unique Abilities were slightly tweaked and given new forms outside that civ’s Apex Age, while others like the Mayan Unique Ability were changed entirely. Our work on Unique Civic Trees involved removing most of the stray passive effects that clogged up the previous trees and replacing them with Traditions. Some of those passive effects are important to civs' identities, so we upgraded some to be part of a Unique Ability instead, or incorporated them into the civ’s Traditions.
Our adjustments to leaders were a little lighter, but we updated several with minor buffs or focused their abilities to better reflect their identity. For specifics, see the details in the notes below.
Time-Tested civs, Triumphs, and Victories are changes to the core of Civilization VII. With such fundamental reworks, we’re revisiting the pace and balance of the whole game. Our goals are to make each Yield relevant through all Ages (looking at you, Happiness), reward long-term strategies, and enable snowballing through smart decision-making over grabbing as many bonuses as you can. We’re leaning into asymmetricality, identity, and interesting trade-offs where possible.
Numerically, some of the changes we’re making are reductions compared to the live version of the game. Many of these are to address Yield bloat, where players were finding they had very high Yields with little investment, hazy knowledge of where those Yields were coming from, and high-enough Yields that we couldn’t offer meaningful tradeoffs. Making these adjustments now leaves us healthy space for more systems and content in the future. We’ve also revisited costs, availability of Buildings and effects, and invisible stacking bonuses to accommodate.
We encourage you to play the game with fresh eyes and build a new baseline for Civilization VII. Many numbers have been tweaked and bonuses sliced to make decisions more meaningful (or harder). Check out these areas of change in the notes below!
New map alert! We’re adding in a new map type called Fractal Continents, and it’s our most randomized map yet, putting emphasis on the eXploration part of 4X. They're only guaranteed to appear in a certain fraction of Distant Lands, but the shapes and number of landmasses are totally randomized. It also supports sea levels like the other Voronoi Maps (What-maps? Check out this From the Devs piece). Eventually, we intend for this map to replace the old Fractal map.
We could explain more, but best to just see what it looks like for yourself. Here are a couple examples (one small, one large) to show the variety. Try them out in-game!*
*Map restrictions may apply to gameplay on Nintendo Switch. See FAQs at https://civilization.2k.com/civ-vii/faq/ for more info.
We’re welcoming a Civ legend back into the roster – Alexander the Great! This leader is available free with Test of Time for every Civ VII player as thanks for all the support, feedback, and playtime since launch.
Great in both name and deed, Alexander conquered a vast territory from Greece to India in his short life, spreading Hellenistic culture across the Near East and into Egypt. He ended the rule of the Persian Achaemenids, spread Greek philosophy to the Indus Valley, and founded the city of Alexandria, famed location of the Great Library. Though his empire fractured after his death, its cultural influence is still felt today.
Attributes: Militaristic, Cultural
Unique Ability - King of the World: Cities other than your Capital with a Wonder get increased Production and Culture; this effect is doubled if they are on a different Continent than your Capital. Increased Combat Strength for Land Military Units. Increased Combat Strength for Unique Military Units for every City with a Wonder other than your Capital, up to a maximum cap. Increased Dominion for every City with a Wonder other than your Capital. Towns converted into Cities are renamed after Alexander.
Agenda - Godlike Basileus: Increase Relationship by a Small Amount with Leaders who have the fewest conquered Settlements. Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount with Leaders who have the most conquered Settlements.
Added a new Civ Selection screen to better present the options of staying as your civ versus swapping.
Civ selection now happens at the end of the current Age, letting you review your empire before committing.
Made various improvements to AI leaders’ ability to pursue Victory.
DLC leaders should now do a better job of selecting their associated civs based on Game Settings.
Added Auto Pan to Combat, meaning the camera will automatically pan to combat events. This can be disabled in the settings, and is enabled by default.
Adjusted values for War Weariness.
Dev note: As iteration continued on the Happiness economy, we found the Unhappiness of War in Exploration and Modern was not as impactful as we would like. Now, Unhappiness increases by +2 per Settlement in Exploration and +4 in Modern, compared to Antiquity. New values (Settlements founded by you/other civs/someone you are at war with):
Antiquity: 3/5/7 (unchanged)
Exploration: 5/7/9
Modern: 7/9/11
Razing is now faster; the Settlement loses 1 District per Age per turn (Previously: 1 District per turn).
Adjusted Diplomatic action scaling.
Dev note: We’ve found a lot of success in using cost-scaling to better pace and balance game content, so we’re bringing it to Diplomatic Actions. While we plan to expand Diplomacy gameplay in the future, these changes will help smooth out the late-game Influence economy for players now. Here are some of the changes:
Improve Trade Relations: Now has a 25% increased Influence cost each time it is performed.
Befriend Independent: Now increases by 20% per active Action and Suzerained City-State.
Itsaraphab (Siam Unique Action): Now has 10% increased Influence cost per number of Suzerained City-States and active Befriend Independent Actions.
Lighting has been upgraded with new Sun Settings and HDR texture to bring out the environment and Units’ colors and shadows better. This change also improves the visuals for leaders and Independent Powers skin tones, shadows, and backlighting.
Implemented regional architecture for each Time-Tested civilization for all Ages.
Implemented Palace and City Hall assignments for Time-Tested civs outside of their Apex Age.
Made several additions to regional architecture, including:
Exploration South Asian Set
Antiquity Pacific Set
Exploration Pacific Set
Modern Pacific Set
Antiquity Eastern European Set
Exploration Eastern European Set
Modern Native American
Exploration North African Set
Modern North African Set
You can now claim unimproved plots from your other nearby Settlements during a Growth event. While this is limited for now, we’re looking into expanding this to placement events in the future.
Civ and leader game effects for "Settlements not founded by you" have been changed to "Captured Settlements from any Age." This allows those Yield bonus effects in captured Settlements to persist across an Age Transition, rather than resetting. Other effects, like Influence penalties and Unrest from conquest are still limited to the Age in which that Settlement is conquered. Affected civs and leaders are: Assyria, Maurya, Persia, Mongolia, Normans, Prussia, and Xerxes, King of Kings.
Specialists no longer have a base Yield (Previously: 2 Science and Culture). Instead, they now give 100% of their tile’s Adjacency Yields as additional Yield. (Previously: 50%). Most generic bonuses to Specialists base Yield have been updated to include an increased Maintenance cost.
Specialist Maintenance costs have been updated (Previously: 2 Food and Happiness). Specialist costs on Current-Age and Unique Ageless Buildings increase by Age (now 2/4/6 Food and Happiness). Specialists placed on Warehouse or Obsolete Buildings cost 1 Food and Happiness per turn (not per Age).
Adjusted the Growth Curve in later Ages to better pace Population growth, particularly Specialist placement.
All Town Focuses have been updated across all Ages. Scaling by Age has been removed from Town passives. Almost all Towns now have the ability to purchase a subset of Buildings when a Town Focus is chosen, and are no longer limited to Tier 1 buildings.
The impact of local Happiness has increased to -5% negative Yields per point of Unhappiness (Previously: -2%), to a maximum of -80% Yields in an Unhappy Settlement. Negative Happiness does not apply to a Settlement’s Food.
The negative Happiness applied to each Settlement for exceeding the Settlement Limit is now uncapped. (Previously: -35 max)
The costs of many Techs and Civics have been adjusted.
Almost all passive Yield increases on the Tech Tree have been removed. Some have been replaced with other bonuses and the Tech Tree has been reorganized to accommodate. A new node in Modern, Computation, has been added to better balance the late-game Tech progression in Modern.
Artilleryman’s Gloves: Now gives +2 Culture for each Army Commander Promotion. (Previously: +1 Culture per Age for every Army Commander Promotion.)
Dev Note: We changed a few of the Mementos that scaled on the number of Commander Promotions to no longer scale per Age. This is part of an overall pass to remove most “double-scaling” effects. Since you naturally have more Commander Promotions, the Age-scaling no longer felt necessary. When choosing which scaling to keep, we prefer to pick the one the player has the most control over.
Bifocals: Now gain +25 Influence per Age after researching a Technology. (Previously: Gain +50 Influence after researching a Technology or Civic Mastery.)
Dev Note: As one of Ben Franklin’s Mementos, we updated it to align more with his abilities when we updated Ben Franklin (see Leaders section below).
Chanda-Mahasena: Now gives +3 Combat Strength against Fortified Districts for all Units during a Celebration. (Previously: +5 Combat Strength.)
Corona Civica: Now gives +1 Settlement Limit each Age, but +50% Convert to City cost. (Previously: +1 Settlement Limit per Age, but +50% Convert to City cost.)
Dev Note: We updated a few effects that worked like this to no longer scale per Age, including Xerxes, King of King’s ability and Alexander’s new Gordian Knot Memento.
Flag of Jhansi: Now gives +2 Influence for each Army Commander Promotion. (Previously: +1 Influence per Age for each Commander Promotion.)
Glass Armonica: Now gives +15 Science and Happiness per Age when in an Alliance for you and your ally. (Previously: +10% Science and Happiness when in an Alliance for you and your Ally.)
Dev Note: This change is part of the continued removal of percentage bonuses in generally available abilities.
Gold Snuff Box: Now gives +20 Food per Age in Cities when in only one Alliance. (Previously: +20% Food when in only one Alliance.)
Joyeuse: Now gives +1 Happiness per Age on Cavalry Units stationed on a Palace or City Hall. (Previously: +2 Happiness for every Cavalry Unit.)
Kiem: Now gives +2 Science for each Army Commander Promotion. (Previously: +1 Science for every Commander Level.)
Mascapaycha: Now gives +1 Gold from Specialists. +1 additional Gold on Specialists in tiles adjacent to Mountains. (Previously: +1 Gold and Food from Specialists in tiles adjacent to Mountains.)
Dev Note: With the Specialist changes in this patch, we are more careful about giving Food and Happiness effects to Specialists. This Memento joins the Analects and Altar Set Mementos in giving players a way to get default Yield on Specialists now.
Noli Me Tangere Memento: Now gives +1 Science, Culture, and Gold per Age for each Major Triumph completed in an Age. (Previously: +10% to Science, Culture, and Gold per Age for each Legacy Path completed.)
Poteskwate: Now gives +1 Food per Age in Towns for each City-State you are Suzerain of. (Previously: +1 Food per Age in Settlements for each City-State you are Suzerain of.)
Dev Note: Since we adjusted Tecumseh’s abilities (see Leader section below), we adjusted his Mementos to match. When Mementos duplicate parts of a Leader’s abilities, we prefer them to either match or be slightly weaker versions of the core ability. This lets the leader stand out while also having the option to double down.
Saddle: Now gives +1 Food per Age on Cavalry Units stationed on a Palace or City Hall. (Previously: +1 Food per Age per Cavalry Unit Stationed on a Town Center.)
Shisa Necklace: Now gain +50 Influence per Age when you become Suzerain of a City-State. (Previously: Gain +100 Influence when you become Suzerain of a City-State.)
Sulde: Now gives +1 Culture per Age on Cavalry Units stationed on a Palace or City Hall. (Previously: +1 Culture per Age for each Commander Promotion.)
This previously overlapped with the Artilleryman’s Gloves Memento, so we redesigned it to match some other Cavalry-focused Mementos.
Uraeus: Now gives +10 Culture per Age in Cities with at least 1 Wonder. (Previously: +10% Culture in Cities with Wonders.)
Wampum Belt: Now gives +1 Production per Age in Cities for each City-State you are Suzerain of. (Previously: +1 Production per Age in Settlements for each City-State you are Suzerain of.)
War Club: Now gives +1 Combat Strength for Infantry Units for each City-State you are Suzerain of. (Previously: +1 Combat Strength for all Units for every City-State you are Suzerain of.)
Added new map type, Fractal Continents.
Tile Yield is now differentiated across Biomes, and no longer scales by Age automatically.
Dev Note: With this change, increasing the value of Rural tiles with Warehouses and other bonuses is an active decision. It also helps address some of the Yield bloat (especially Gold) in later Ages.
Multiple Resources have been updated, mostly buffed.
Adjusted spawning rules for Navigable Rivers. In short, we've lengthened the navigable section of longer rivers while removing really short Navigable Rivers to keep the total number of River tiles roughly equal.
Updated Shattered Seas map so it now has better access to Distant Lands.
Erosion can now erode multiple tiles deep into landmasses and is controlled by rules like avoiding plate boundaries (harder rock) and eroding more where westerlies / trade winds blow large waves into the coastline. This leads to subtle improvements in the shape of landmasses.
We’ve tweaked what counts as an Island for some effects that cared about them. Now, land counts as an Island if it is a maximum of 30 continuous tiles surrounded by water. (Previously: 15 tiles). This affects Hawaii’s unlock condition and the Nan Madol Wonder.
Treasure Convoys now only validate their path on their last move; no more resetting your entire fleet's destination when one ship arrives.
Production Buildings no longer contribute to the increased cost scaling for future Buildings in that Settlement.
Dev note: We love to take opportunities to make Buildings matter beyond just providing Yield. Having Production Buildings not impact Production costs matches Gold and Happiness Buildings not requiring their respective Yields as Maintenance costs.
Food and Production Warehouse Buildings no longer count as Food and Production Buildings, respectively, for effects that care about those types of Buildings. Effects that will affect Food and Production Warehouse Buildings now call them out specifically. This means effects like the City-State Bonus that provides Food to Food Buildings now only applies to Current-Age or Unique Ageless Food Buildings.
Unique Improvements now scale in cost as you build more in the same Settlement. The cost increase for future Unique Improvements of the same type in a Settlement is 50% per previous copy. The Han and Ming Great Walls scale more slowly at 25% per previous copy. Building the same Unique Improvement in separate Settlements, or different Unique Improvements in the same Settlement has no impact on cost.
Game Setup now lets you control if you want to see Time-Tested civs in your game, as well as how strongly we try to match leaders and civs to their historical pairings.
Platform Achievements have been updated to reflect the removal of the Legacy Path system.
Achievements that previously referenced the typed Legacy Paths of the Antiquity and Exploration Ages have been replaced with Achievements that reference the corresponding Major Triumphs instead.
Achievements that referenced the Legacy Paths in Modern have been replaced with Achievements around the Diplomatic and Expansionist Major Triumphs in previous Ages.
Challenges have been updated to reflect the new design.
Foundation Path:
New Tutorial Challenges were added referencing Triumphs, Dedications, and Traditions.
Civ-based Challenges were updated to reference Triumphs instead of Legacy Paths.
Legacy Path-based Challenges were updated to reference Triumphs. New Challenges were added to include Diplomatic and Expansionist Triumphs.
New Challenges were added referencing Victories and Triumphs across Ages.
Leader Paths:
Challenges around completing Ages and Narrative quest chains remain unchanged.
Challenges around completing Legacy Paths have been either updated to reference Triumphs or cut.
New Challenges around the Diplomatic and Expansionist Triumphs, different types of Victories, and difficulty have been added.
Added new free leader, Alexander.
Ada Lovelace: Now gains Culture equal to 100% of your total Science per turn when you complete a Technology Mastery. (Previously: gain Culture equal to 50% of Science.)
Augustus: Now get 15% Gold towards purchasing Buildings in Towns, doubled to 30% if that Building is in your Capital. (Previously: 50% Gold towards purchasing Buildings in Towns.)
Ben Franklin: Now gets +5% Production towards constructing Buildings and +2 Science per Age for each active Endeavor you have started or supported. (Previously: +1 Science per Age for each active Endeavor you have started or supported, and +50% Production towards constructing Production Buildings only.)
Harriet Tubman: Now earns a Migrant in the Capital whenever you complete an Espionage Action without being detected.
Dev note: We’ve left the Memento that previously did this unchanged, so you can double down now.
Himiko (High Shaman): Yields adjusted to +15% Culture and -15% Science; these effects still double during a Celebration. (Previously: +20% Culture but -10% Science.)
Himiko (Queen of Wa): Now has a +100% Influence cost penalty when rejecting Diplomatic Actions.
Ashoka (Renouncer): Unique Buildings now gain a Happiness Adjacency for all tile improvements. (Previously: All Buildings gain a +1 Happiness Adjacency for all tile improvements.)
Dev note: With our Specialist changes being well received, we felt Ashoka had to change. Unfortunately, his abilities negated too much of the Specialist costs. While this is a significant shift in his abilities, we have a buff planned for him soon.
Pachacuti: Specialists adjacent to Mountains keep their Maintenance reduction, but Specialists not adjacent to Mountains now have their Happiness Maintenance increased by +1. (Previously: Specialists adjacent to Mountains have their Happiness maintenance reduced by -2.)
Dev note: While a nerf, this felt like a good opportunity to reinforce identity as we lean more into asymmetry and directional design. It felt appropriate for Pachacuti to require Mountains more than other leaders, and have a reason to fight over them.
Simon Bolivar: Now gains +2 War Support specifically on wars you declare. (Previously: Gain +1 War Support on all your wars.)
Dev note: This is a small tweak for now, but we’ve got our eye on Bolivar. He’ll get a larger update when we add new systems in the future.
Charlemagne: His adjacency bonus has been switched from Quarters to Fortifications.
Tecumseh: Now earns +1 Food per Age in Towns and +1 Production per Age in Cities for every Suzerained City-State. (Previously: Both bonuses applied to all Settlements.) His combat bonus is now specific to Infantry and Ranged Units, and all Independent Powers will now start Friendly with him.
Dev note: Tecumseh is a fun and powerful leader, but the wide application of his bonuses were closing design space around other City-State gameplay, and didn’t reinforce his synergy with civs that cared about City-States like the Shawnee or Greece in a healthy way. We’re hoping this change feels more like a reinforcement of his identity, even though parts of it are technically a nerf.
Friedrich (Oblique): Now gains +2 Science per Age for each Commendation earned by your Commanders.
Xerxes (King of Kings): Adjusted his Settlement Limit bonus to +1 per Age. Previously, this bonus scaled cumulatively (+1 in Antiquity, +2 in Exploration, +3 in Modern, totaling +6), but it now consistently grants +1 in each Age (+3 total).
Dev note: As Settlement Limit can be retained across Ages, effects that provided multiple Settlement Limit increases in later Ages were too valuable. The Corona Civica Memento was updated to match this change as well.
Dev Note: As we mentioned up-top, there was a lot of work that went into updating civs for Test of Time, and many of these changes ripple across multiple systems and Ages in ways that are hard to fully capture in the update notes. We’ve highlighted some of the bigger adjustments below, but the best way to get a feel for the full scope of the changes is to jump into a new game!
Introduced Time-Tested civs, adding the option to start and stay as any civ.
Designed New Unique Abilities for every civilization to ensure they stay competitive and flavorful across all three Ages.
Every civ now has brand-new Traditions tied to the Syncretism system, allowing you to double down on your specific cultural roots with Affirmation if you choose not to hybridize.
Added new Civilopedia entries for Test of Time features.
Updated various Civilopedia entries for accuracy.
Added new Commerce Screen.
Added new Advisor Council Screen.
Refreshed the visuals of the Main Menu.
Reworked the Create Game screens to better support Time-Tested civs and Memento selection.
\ Players can now scale the UI to better fit their screen and preferences with a new “UI Scaling” setting in Options. On lower resolutions (below 1080p), the setting is disabled to keep things readable.
Dev note: Depending on your resolution and scaling value, elements may appear under- or over-sized. If things don’t look right, you can always adjust the setting back at any time!
Advisor Notifications now either include a “Take Me There” button to jump straight to the relevant event, or a “Tell Me More” button to get more insights.
Updated Treasure resource icon to better distinguish regions: filled for Distant Lands, hollow for Homelands.
Changed Empire Resource Type icon from red to orange to reduce confusion with error signals.
Added a Conquest Decoration, showing which Districts need to be captured to conquer a City, including your own. It can be enabled via the Lens Panel above the minimap.
Added the ability to see an enemy Unit's Zone of Control when selected. Entering a Unit's Zone of Control ends their movement, but attacks can still be made. This mechanic is not new, just better visualized!
City-State types are now visible from the "Minor Powers" tab of the Diplomacy Panel.
Tab icons in the Diplomacy Panel are now highlighted when selected.
Selecting a Government choice now more clearly shows the selected Government.
Added an icon representing the current Age to the turn counter in the upper right.
Addressed an issue that can cause issues with Yields not being rounded to the nearest whole number.
Made numerous improvements to the functionality and styling of the Traditions and Policies screen.
Added first pass of enhanced scaling behaviors for new UI screens, supporting higher resolutions and ultra wide.
Made several improvements to plot tooltips including:
Improved formatting and styling.
Added Building descriptions and Resources.
Added tags for quickly identifying key elements.
Added alerts to highlight important statuses.
Added Settlement name for owned plots.
Plot tooltips now support nested tooltips.
Added additional nested tooltips (including plot tooltips) and added the autolock option.
Tooltips are no longer partially covered by mouse cursor.
Made various sizing and layout adjustments to tooltips.
Improved UI for tutorials.
Tutorials have been re-worked to support nested tooltips.
Updated and expanded tutorials for Test of Time features.
Added new narrative events for Time-Tested civs. These events will trigger in the first chronological Age when they are not in their Apex (ex. Antiquity civs will have it in Exploration, Exploration/Modern civs will have it in Antiquity.)
Dev note: There is another one for each civ's second chronological age coming as well!
Added additional narrative events for Jose Rizal meeting Test of Time civilizations.
Reworked Jose Rizal’s ability, so he should get more narrative events on average.
Added several new Discoveries.
Updated visuals for several narrative events.
Added new Antiquity Age versions for every single Modern Age civilization.
Added 4 new Antiquity Age ambient themes (2 peace, 2 war).
Added 6 new Exploration Age ambient themes (3 peace, 3 war).
Added 2 new Modern Age ambient themes (1 peace, 1 war).
Added 19 new tracks for Antiquity Age versions of Modern Age civs' themes.
Added 19 new tracks from new and previously unreleased recordings.
Added 125 alternate mix variations of existing civ and ambient themes.
Updated and added new sound effects for in-game notifications.
Updated and added new sound effects for Map Resources.
Added sound effects for all new Test of Time features: Commerce, Syncretism, Triumphs, Victories, Storylets, and much more!
Added sound effects for building placement.
Added new music and sound effects during end-of-game Victories.
Added new sound effects to support refreshed Create Game screens, including sounds for Age Selection and Random civ and leader selection.
Added sound effects for several buildings.
Added additional Unit character expressions for combat and idle animations.
Addressed many reported audio issues across leaders, VO, UI, Music, and Controller.
Almost release day! Our biggest update to Civilization VII yet, Test of Time, is currently planned to launch tomorrow, May 19 at 12PM ET.
In this video, Firaxis’ Ed Beach and Matt Owens walk through some of the biggest additions and changes coming in Update 1.4.0, including:
The ability to start and stay as any civ across any Age
The new Triumphs system replacing Legacy Paths
A full overhaul of Victories
The new Fractal Continents map type
Several UI/UX improvements across the game
A new free leader: Alexander the Great
And much more beyond that
Before you jump in tomorrow, there are a couple things worth keeping in mind:
Start a new game: Existing saves are not expected to play nicely with 1.4.0 given how many core systems have changed. We highly recommend starting a fresh campaign once the update goes live. If you’d prefer to continue older saves on PC, you’ll be able to access the Steam Legacy branch through Properties → Betas on Steam.
Impact on mods: Mods will likely need some time to adjust to the update as well. If you run into issues after patching, try disabling mods first and give modders a little time to update their projects.
This update has been a massive undertaking, and one we’ve been especially excited to share because so much of it came directly from conversations with Civ players. A lot of the ideas, improvements, and priorities in Test of Time were shaped by community feedback throughout development, including feedback gathered through the Firaxis Feature Workshop (thank you, Workshoppers!).
We know there’s been a lot of anticipation around 1.4.0, and we genuinely can’t wait to see what kinds of campaigns, stories, and strategies players create once everyone gets their hands on it tomorrow. We’ll see you then!
With the scope of changes coming in Test of Time (Update 1.4.0), we want to give modders a heads-up that this update is likely to have a significant impact on existing mods.
A number of core systems, gameplay rules, UI elements, and underlying data structures have been updated as part of the work going into this release. Because of that, some mods may experience compatibility issues, require updates, or stop functioning as intended once 1.4.0 goes live.
We know how important the modding community is to Civilization VII, and we’re hugely grateful for all the creativity, experimentation, and passion our modders bring to the game. We recommend:
Backing up important files and projects before updating
Reviewing logs and dependencies after the update launches
Anticipating that some mods may need time to be updated by their creators
We’ll continue working to improve the modding experience over time, and we appreciate everyone’s patience as you dig into the new update and adapt your projects for Test of Time.
The transition to Solid-JS and Vite has significantly improved our internal UI development workflow. It allows us to build more reactive, performant screens at a much faster pace.
At the same time, we recognize this shift has made UI modding extremely difficult. While the new system benefits internal development, it prevents modders from effectively enhancing or replacing existing screens. Since our goal is to maintain robust support for the modding community, we aim to ensure that most mods remain functional across updates, even as Civ VII’s underlying UI architecture evolves.
Here’s where things currently stand:
(Addressed with 1.4.0!) Vite Bundling and Asset Obfuscation: Vite’s default bundling behavior led to unstable file layouts and export renaming, which made it difficult for modders to reliably import a specific component or utility function.
Status: To address this, we’ve added stable entry points and well-defined, human-readable exports for modders to reference. In other words, files that are relied on for importing should be less likely to disappear from under you, and it should be easier to understand what is being imported/exported between javascript files.
(Addressed with 1.4.0!) Absence of Original Source Code: Our current workflow excludes TypeScript (.ts and .tsx) files from the final game build, as they are not required for runtime execution. This differs from our initial approach at launch where original source files were included alongside the compiled JavaScript.
Status: We will include the latest UI source files within an updated Modding SDK for modders to reference.
(Still In-Progress) Build Configuration and Tooling: We do not currently ship a functional VS Code workspace or the necessary build configurations to compile a Solid-JS mod using Vite. While a dedicated modder could manually reverse-engineer our environment, this creates a significant barrier to entry.
Status: We’re still working on improving the end-to-end modding workflow and currently investigating a tool to generate a VS Code workspace, and updates to our Modding SDK documentation. We’re not quite there yet, but this is on the way!
We appreciate you sticking with us while we work through these changes! The work of our modding community plays a huge role in shaping the long-term experience of Civ, and providing you the resources you need has been a priority for the team.
This build is a step in that direction, with more to come. We’re excited to see what the modding community has in store for Test of Time!
Hello Civ fans! My name is Kadet Kuhne and I'm the Associate Audio Director for Sid Meier's Civilization VII at Firaxis Games, working with our awesome Audio team which currently includes Sound Designers Dylan Escalona-Sandoval and Dmytro Nebesh, in-game Composers Roland Rizzo and Geoff Knorr, Audio Programmers Eric Phister and Joseph Marcus, Producer Emily Walton, and our Studio Audio and Narrative Director, Justin Drust.
I'm thrilled to share this Dev Diary that's all about Audio, where I'll outline key audio design features from launch and post-launch that are directly tied to core gameplay, and give an overview of what's new for Test of Time, a free, upcoming major update to Civilization VII.
In Civilization VII, we've embarked on a journey to bring sound to the forefront of your experience, enhancing not only the gameplay but also immersing you in the world of your chosen civilization like never before. The driving force behind this venture was a desire to make Civilization VII sound authentic, lively, and responsive to your choices.
When planning out the sound design and music direction, our main goal was representing the unique identity of each civilization through sound. This meant paying attention to the details: the sounds of specific Units, Buildings, Wonders, music, and even the natural world. With all of these magnificent details constructing the soundscape, the greatest final challenge as an audio dev team was to maintain clarity in our final sound mix to prioritize key gameplay sounds.
With the upcoming Test of Time update, we've evolved the sound design and music to enhance and reflect the new themes, systems, and mechanics. In case you aren't yet familiar, Test of Time is a huge update to Civilization VII, launching on May 19, 2026. It introduces Time-Tested civilizations so you have the option to start and stay as any civ. It also replaces prescriptive victory checklists and Legacy Paths for Triumphs and a new Victory model. For those of you that have been requesting to play as one civ, this update aims to fulfill that classic Civ fantasy, while also retaining the "layered history" of Civ VII that makes this title unique.
Now, let's take a deep dive into how we approached sound in this new update and for Civ VII as a whole.
When it came to sound effects, our goal was clear: embrace the legacy of past Civilization games while pushing the boundaries of what sound could do in Civ VII. We started by referencing key sounds from previous games – especially Civ V and VI – to maintain the feel of the franchise. We also made a concerted effort to evolve those sounds, making them more dynamic, responsive, and immersive for players.
On a broad level, we've refined how sound interacts with civilizations across the Ages. As you progress through the Ages, you'll hear how the soundscape changes to reflect the evolving technological and cultural advancements of your civilization. The transition from Antiquity to Exploration and finally to Modern is marked by an audible evolution, with voices, sound effects, ambiences, and music adapting and growing in complexity to reflect gameplay progress and the passing of time.
The ambience of Civ VII is made up of a 2D environmental bed and 3D sounds we call static emitters. The 2D environmental bed contains sound for our various Biomes represented across the different tiles in the game: Desert, Tundra, Grassland, Tropical, Ocean, Plains, etc. For Civ VII, we introduced a more refined ambient system where each Biome and height level has its own unique ambient sounds. Imagine rustling leaves and birdsong variations as you traverse a tropical forest, or occasional sandy gusts of wind with tumbleweeds in the desert. Then, as you zoom out on the map, you'll have a sense of airy spaciousness with only the core Unit and other gameplay sounds audible.
Another exciting change we've implemented in Civ VII is the return of Building sounds. Now, each Building has its own unique audio cue, whether it's the hammering of a blacksmith or the bustle of a market, and culturally specific wallas (crowd ambience and background chatter) for some of the unique hero Buildings. For added gameplay immersion and historical accuracy, we've included site-specific sounds from each civilization, such as cathedral bells and mosque adhans, as well as regional birds and other animals.
You'll notice a few other audio improvements with Test of Time's 1.4.0 update, like additional sound design added to some of the map resources to provide sonic cues for key gameplay tactics. These representative layers across resources have an added bonus of varying the landscape ambience as well, which reduces listening fatigue and provides a richer world over hours of playing.
We also did a deep dive into designing historically accurate Unit sounds (e.g. the Katyusha's rockets, the firing of the Xunleichong, and planes such as the Stuka) across all the Units for all civilizations, to enhance your immersive connection to the civilizations you spend turn after turn building.
One of the most exciting features in Civ VII is our revamped combat system, making battles feel more alive and responsive. From the clashing of swords to the blasts of gunfire, combat engages at a faster pace, and the sound reacts accordingly – creating a more gripping experience for players. The military and combat gameplay systems include several new and improved elements, focusing on more detailed sound design and greater clarity to better match the enhanced visuals. Previous iterations of Civ relied on a “slap and run” technique: the Units attack and run back to the place they were. It was simple and efficient, but very unrealistic. Civ VII uses an improved system, which we've dubbed Continuous Combat, meaning when a melee Unit attacks another Unit, it stays in combat until the next turn. This required an approach to design and mixing that supports a dynamic sound experience to keep the battlefield alive, without becoming fatiguing.
For Civ VII's leader voiceovers, we worked closely with historians and language experts to handle the challenge of representing ancient and dead languages in a way that felt authentic. Some languages, like Ancient Greek or Akkadian, have no living speakers, so we relied heavily on historical research and the expertise of linguistic scholars to accurately recreate them. We also made sure that the voice actors we selected could deliver their lines in a way that reflected the tone and gravitas appropriate to their civilization.
Leaders in Civilization VII are the player characters – they are prominent historical figures through whom the player rules their empire. Crafting leaders requires the right balance of authenticity and gameplay engagement. Language is key to this: it reflects how leaders communicated in their time and the cultures they came from, offering players a window into the past as leaders express themselves and their personalities as living characters within the game.
Additionally, we wanted the vocal content in our Units' character expressions to represent cultural variation across our civs, so we worked with our historians on identifying linguistic variation in vocal expressions (e.g. attack yells, hit reacts, efforts/exertions), and then hired a diverse pool of talent with fluency in key world languages to capture these distinctions and bring the civilizations further to life.
For our Test of Time update, we've reworked our system of assigning vocal expressions across animations for Unit combat, idles, and continuous combat. The result is a more expressive and reactive soundscape: Units carry greater personality, respond more vividly to reflect your actions, and bring a stronger sense of presence to the map. Altogether, it makes your world feel more alive, shaped not just by your decisions, but by the character of the Units carrying them out – like active participants in the history you're shaping.
For our UI audio, we carried forward some familiar, iconic sounds with a refresh, but most audio cues were newly created to match the visual style and fidelity of Civ VII. Central to our designs are key sonic themes and palettes, many of which are continued from past Civ games, and some newly developed. The goal was to provide consistent cues that add meaning, clarity, and context. Overall, we aimed for a globally relevant direction – for example, for Religion we avoided a Western organ and instead used layers of chimes, whooshes, and choral sounds.
The iconic Unit Selects sounds were a must as they're a core part of the Civilization experience, and we knew we had to refresh them. Players will immediately notice a snappier, more responsive experience when selecting Units, allowing players to move faster in their decision making.
There were about 70 notifications to design for launch, and since launch we've added in many more. It was a massive undertaking, but we sped up the process by identifying which notifications from past Civ games were relevant to Civ VII, and what new ones were needed for brand new systems (e.g., Crisis Revolt). Our audio team continues to assess where moments need more clarity, and we listen to player suggestions – especially from places like the Civ Discord. For example, feedback led us to bringing back the sound for coming across a Goody Hut, or Discovery as it's now called.
In our immediate post-launch efforts, we focused heavily on establishing sonic palettes to define categories related to Diplomacy to support the new systems in Civ VII: Diplomatic Actions (Endeavors, Sanctions, Treaties, Espionage), Independent Powers, War Support, etc. Also, unique Tech and Civic select sounds are new in Civ VII, such as selecting to research Sailing or Globalism. Bespoke UI sounds were also added to Town Focus, Narrative Rewards, and Leader Attributes UI that center on our sonic themes. For Building placement UI sounds, we included music stems that were pulled from their associated Wonder Reveal compositions to tie in that cultural association.
The UI updates for Test of Time provided an opportunity to introduce even more fun, engaging, and gameplay-driven audio design. We focused on supporting new systems with bespoke sounds that convey personality and clear player feedback, including Syncretism, Commerce interactions like resource slotting, and the expanded Triumph system with both major and minor Triumph sound effects. Custom UI sounds were created for features like Narrative Event popups to enliven the background art, and the new Advisors panel features unique sounds per each category – Scientific, Economic, Military, and Culture – for the follow/unfollow options and other functionality.
Across the board, the goal was to provide more consistent and meaningful feedback, from polishing moment-to-moment interactions like the Celebration panel, to adding key notification sounds such as City Lost, to designing larger beats such as the end-of-game flows for Victories that now feature leader VO and new cinematic ambiences!
Now that we've covered sound effects and voice, let's dive into an aspect of the game every Civ player loves: the music! The music in Civ VII was carefully crafted to elevate the emotional resonance of the game. Each civilization has its own distinct musical theme, reflecting its culture, history, and values (you can check out many of those civ themes here!). Our composers did extensive research and worked with a diverse ensemble of musicians to ensure that every civilization's music is as immersive and authentic as the rest of the game's audio design. From the ancient instrument reconstructions of the early game to the symphonic orchestration of the modern era, we wanted players to feel as though they were truly guiding their civilization through time.
Civilization's extended gameplay and replayability make it a difficult context for music composing. It needs to remain engaging and supportive of player decisions over long periods of time, without becoming repetitive. In the base game, we approached this by introducing unique themes for each civilization alongside Age-specific ambient music for war and peace. The original soundtrack ultimately featured more ensembles and musicians than any previous entry in the series.
Memorable melodies, clear themes, and strong musical forms play an important role in shaping a player's experience – especially during pivotal moments like declaring war, winning a battle, or unlocking something new. When used well, they can elevate those moments in a meaningful way. At the same time, hearing that kind of music too frequently can reduce its impact. With the Test of Time update, we wanted to build more variation around those key moments, creating space between them so they remain effective.
Test of Time's new gameplay options also introduced additional audio opportunities! Players can now choose any civilization in any Age, or carry a single civ across all Ages. This created the potential for musical mismatches – for example, hearing a full modern orchestral theme at the very start of a game in the Antiquity Age didn't quite fit the tone of a newly founded Settlement. Creating entirely new recordings for every civ in every Age wasn't feasible, given the scale of the original soundtrack and the number of musicians involved. Instead, we took a hybrid approach: reuse and adapt existing material wherever possible, and compose and record new music only when necessary.
One of the key advantages we had was how the original themes were recorded. Many of the orchestral civ themes included soloists recorded separately from the main ensemble. Because of that separation, we were able to extract those parts and place them in new contexts. In some cases, this meant isolating a solo performance; in others, it involved combining it with different instruments to create a variation with a very different feel.
Masayo Ishigure recording the koto part for the Meiji Japan civ theme at Pinch Recording, New York City.
The theme for Meiji Japan is a good example. The original Modern Age version features koto and shakuhachi soloists alongside a full orchestra. The orchestra was recorded in Dvořák Hall in Prague, while the solo instruments were recorded separately in New York. By editing and restructuring the solo recordings, we were able to create new versions built around the koto and shakuhachi alone. For a second, more militaristic melody, we introduced taiko drums alongside the koto to form a new variation. From there, removing the koto entirely created yet another version focused just on taiko drums. Applied across the full soundtrack, this additive/subtractive approach allowed us to generate a large number of alternate mixes.
Angel Dobrev overdubbing the gadulka parts for the Bulgarian civ theme after the initial ensemble recording.
We used similar techniques for civilizations in the Antiquity and Exploration Ages. While many themes were recorded with full ensembles, some elements – often added later after an initial ensemble recording – could still be separated and reworked. Bulgaria's theme is a strong example: the core ensemble was recorded together, but instruments like the gadulka and gaida were overdubbed after the initial ensemble recording session. Isolating those parts allowed us to create alternate mixes, including versions without the vocal elements, giving the theme a very different character.
During this process, we also found that in some cases we could separate percussion from the melodic and vocal material. These percussion-only versions became useful for adding more variety and creating space between recognizable themes, helping reduce the sense of repetition over time.
There were also situations – primarily in some Modern Age themes – where extracting usable elements wasn't possible. In those cases, we composed and arranged new versions with instrumentation better suited to earlier Ages. For instance, Mexico's new version features clay flutes and maracas, and the Russian Empire's new version replaces the orchestra with the balalaika and gusli. These necessary additional tracks allow the core identity of a civ's theme to remain consistent, while reserving the full orchestral version for its intended context.
We applied all of these methods to the ambient music as well, creating a wide range of new mixes and variations. Even with that, we felt additional material was needed to provide enough contrast and pacing. As a result, we also composed new ambient tracks for each Age. These new pieces were also designed to support further variation through similar additive/subtractive techniques.
Ensemble I Fedeli recording new Exploration Age ambient music for the Test of Time update.
In total, these new scores, additional recordings, remixes, and variations add more than 9 hours of music to the game, across over 170 new tracks. With this expanded set of material, we've been able to refine how music is used in-game. Earlier stages tend to favor more minimal, restrained variations, while later stages introduce fuller and more developed versions. By the time a civilization reaches its Apex Age (the Age when it's at the height of its power), the complete theme is heard in its original form. For civs that begin in their Apex Age of Antiquity, the game opens with simpler variations, saving the full version for later in the Age.
Overall, the goal was to create a broader and more flexible musical palette – one that better supports the pacing of the game and evolves alongside each player's experience.
Be sure to take a behind-the-scenes look at how Firaxis Games brings history to life in the Civilization series' award-winning music!
Given that Civ is a game that only grows in the amount of content as the turns progress, we were faced with the challenge of ensuring that the mix remains clear, and that you as a player know when you've done something interesting and impactful, all while making that action feel dynamic and fun! For example, moments of engagement when actual damage and Unit deaths occur are a key gameplay focus, so during combat we leaned on sidechaining to lower other elements in the game's soundscape so your actions are clearly in focus.
In comparison to previous titles, Civ VII is busier and much more complex. Audio for Buildings, resources, and character models all have unique sources placed on the map so the player can immerse themselves in the 3D environment of the game. Additionally, most of the Units are now composed of at least 8 characters (up to 14 for some Modern Units), which is at least double the quantity of characters on screen compared to Civ VI.
With thousands of potential audio events triggered in real time, we built scalable systems for dynamic prioritization and real-time mixing, ensuring that the soundscape remains coherent, expressive, and deeply tied to player choice. The challenging part was to figure out how to make the camera transitions feel natural and seamless between the zoomed-in, highly immersive point of view where you hear all the details we poured into our game, and the zoomed-out, strategic point of view where we aim to give you the most important gameplay information.
One of the biggest technical upgrades in Civ VII is the move to Dolby Atmos sound for an immersive, 3D experience across all your map heights, natural disasters, and airplanes as they fly overhead. Whether you're on a mountain peak or in the depths of a jungle, you'll hear the world around you with spatial clarity and presence.
Our core priorities in Civ VII were enhancing the gameplay immersion and player feedback. This encompasses the tangible sense of progress, engagement, and satisfaction you experience through your actions in the game, and sound plays a crucial role here. Whether it's the rewarding chorus of awe when completing a Wonder, the rapid-fire snap of arrows in combat, or the urgent, pounding drums when a neighboring civilization declares war, sound is designed to offer clear and immediate feedback to guide you through your decisions.
The world of Civ VII has an auditory identity as varied and diverse as the civilizations themselves. This level of detail helps bring the world alive and gives the player a deeper sense of place. Civilization VII is a celebration of what makes each civilization unique, and sound is a key part of that. We hope that as you explore the world of Civ VII, you'll not only hear it but feel it too.
For even more information on our process, check out this exclusive interview with the Firaxis audio team hosted by A Sound Effect.
Civilization VII's Test of Time update—the massive, many-months-in-the-works update playtested by Firaxis Feature Workshop participants—arrives May 19, free for all Civ VII players!* To see its game-changing new content in action, check out the video above to watch Firaxis developers play and discuss it in depth. You can also find the video on the Civilization YouTube Channel.
In addition to being joined by surprise guests Ursa Ryan and Van Bradley, the devs also discussed the surprise reveal of Alexander the Great, who joins the base-game roster as part of this huge update. This is a free addition for all Civ VII players, so once you've downloaded Update 1.4.0, this content will automatically be available in-game with no extra steps.* To learn more about his abilities, check out our new Alexander Game Guide.
With May 19 just around the corner, we can't wait for players to experience the entire Test of Time update and share all of their thoughts with us. For now, you can find an overview of everything it includes in this Test of Time article, or dive even deeper with our recent Dev Diaries detailing Time-Tested civs, the new Triumphs system, and the reworked Victories system!
*Base game required. This content is free for all owners of Civilization VII and will be delivered automatically in-game on release. Terms apply.
Hey, Civ fans! I'm Bill Anderson, Game Designer on Civilization VII. Following my colleagues' recent Dev Diaries covering the new Time-Tested civs and Triumphs systems arriving in the Test of Time update, I'm here to break down the new Victories system, and provide some context for how we arrived at these particular changes.
But first, a quick introduction by way of my personal history with Civ: I started at Firaxis as a Systems Engineer on Civ VII before I moved into Design partway through production. I worked on the Diplomacy system, the Advanced Start system, the original Legacies and Victories, and pretty much anything I could get my hands on as development progressed. I've been a Civ player since childhood, starting with Civ III. After college I began following the series closely with Civ V, and each release that followed, along with basically every other 4X game that's come out since. It's certainly my genre!
Following Civ VII's launch, the criticisms surrounding the game's Legacy Paths were quite consistent. Many found the system too "railroady," with overly prescriptive goals that led players to pursue the same handful of optimal paths instead of encouraging experimentation with new strategies. In other words, it made too many campaigns play out the same way.
So, for the Test of Time update, we decided to dismantle Legacy Paths and replace them with two different, more open-ended features. Triumphs—which you can read about in the Dev Diary by my fellow designer Kiera Boyle—replace the old system's in-Age objectives, offering compelling tasks to complete across the Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern Ages without too narrowly feeding into your long-term goals.
Victories have also been completely overhauled. Previously, players essentially had the option to complete the Legacy Paths or not, with the added problem that completing them wasn't impactful enough in the game's final third. You would hit the Modern Age, pick a Victory to try for, and race to accomplish it first, incentivizing you to only focus on a narrower-than-intended slice of the Age instead of all it had to offer.
By contrast, the new Victories are designed to create tighter races between civilizations, pitting you head-to-head in hopes of overtaking each others' scores. The key here is providing many different ways to contribute to one's score, letting players see more of the Modern Age in each game. And if you absolutely dominate early on and begin snowballing toward the win, it's now possible to claim Victory in the Exploration Age.
Victory thresholds become reachable mid-way through the Exploration age and begin high, becoming more achievable over time, so wins are still most likely to occur during the Modern Age. The majority of games will conclude before the "end," but we do still have a score victory to break ties if needed. We also wanted to give these increasingly attainable thresholds some flavor; even if you already have a high enough score to win eventually, we want to encourage players to try to win earlier if they can manage it. Scoring an earlier Victory like the Transcendent Victory should give winners an increased sense of mastery, while inspiring their opponents to achieve the same.
Another key to refining these reworked Victories was making progress feel meaningful in every Age, while still carefully balancing progression across all three. The decisions you make early on can't be so important that they dictate everything that follows, and in many ways, the stakes should feel higher in the final third. We also want players to always be able to grasp what's going on and have a sense of that progression, so it's a bit of a tightrope to walk, especially as you mentally track everyone's Military, Cultural, Economic, and Scientific advancements. For Military, Cultural, and Economic (we'll get to Scientific shortly), the idea is that you'll be regularly gaining points in multiple categories:
Military progress mainly represents control and conquering of Settlements, and settling in Distant Lands.
Cultural score is racked up by building Wonders, Unique Buildings, and Unique Infrastructure, as well as having Celebrations.
Economic is obviously about growing your economy over time, slotting Resources and constructing Gold Buildings, with even more points scored via Treasure Convoys or slotted Factory Resources.
Whichever scores you prioritize pursuing, your overarching goal is straightforward: accrue scores that are certain percentages higher than the second-place player's. If you're in first place, the runner-up sets the benchmark you'll need to beat to keep and secure the lead. In the Exploration Age, the Transcendent Victory's score threshold begins at six times the second-place player's. It drops to four times the second-place score near the end of the Age; in Modern it drops to three, two, one-and-a-half, and one-and-a-quarter times as the game progresses. Once you reach that goal, you have to hold it for five turns to win. If the countdown is interrupted, that's okay - it'll resume once you meet the requirements again.
That just leaves Science Victories. Traditionally, achieving Science Victories in Civ has meant winning a space race, and we wanted to keep that goal consistent. At launch, Civ VII required the completion of three Modern Age Projects to launch the rocket and win. We expanded on that, keeping those Projects and adding more across every Age, like charting the stars or discovering calculus.
Those projects now provide Innovation, which is how you win the Science Victory. Once you have 100 Innovation and a launch pad, the five-turn countdown will start. In addition to completing the Projects, you can also gain Innovation across the Ages by slotting Codices, pursuing Tech Masteries, and even advancing a final Project that can be completed as many times as needed.
Once we had these new and updated systems stood up, our Firaxis Feature Workshop participants were invaluable for helping us properly tune the new Victories. They helped us identify and implement many more unlockable ways to score Victory points, each adaptable to your playstyle regardless of which civ you're leading or which strategies you employ. We want to offer as many ways as possible to win, and even ways to pivot toward different Victories via new late-game Dedications, which you can also read more about in Kiera's Dev Diary.
Of course, the copious playtesting feedback helped us tweak many numbers elsewhere too, but the Workshop's most significant impacts in this area all resulted in making the Modern Age more exciting, with bigger and more dramatic swings that feel like culminations of all your strategic decisions made throughout the campaign.
When the Test of Time update goes live, playtesters may be pleased to find even more new additions inspired by their feedback, specifically in their campaigns' final moments. I'll avoid elaborating for now since some in-progress features may slip to the future updates, but that sort of illustrates the larger point here: the Firaxis Feature Workshop's influence will surely be felt on Civ VII well beyond the Test of Time update!
Once Victory has been decided, the brand-new endgame celebration will really emphasize the journey of your personalized empire. To draw a clearer, more satisfying throughline across your completed campaign, this final moment has been reworked to focus on your chosen leader – rather than only which civs you played or how you won – along with scenic new flyovers of your sprawling territory.
Now that Time-Tested civs allow for maintaining a more consistent identity in a given game, focusing on leaders ensures that every player can experience equally momentous finales. Better yet, you may also notice new leader animations here – their accompanying voiceover lines had already been recorded but ended up unused until now, when this leader-focused shift gave us the perfect reason to add them in. All of these tweaks coalesce into moments of victory that are simply more cinematic and sweeter to achieve.
Whether you win or lose any given game, I can't wait for returning and new players to explore these improved systems and see how they synergize to make for more compelling victories. I think you'll find that Modern Age gameplay feels more varied, that you're more likely to have late-game mechanical discoveries inspire wildly different future runs, and that the game better encourages you to lean into unique strategies you've stumbled upon.
With Test of Time (and much more) just over the horizon, I'd like to thank Civ fans for their continued feedback and collaboration in helping build Civilization VII into the best game it can be, and one we all truly believe in. 1.4.0 is not the end of development by any means - and we’re not afraid to acknowledge there’s always more tweaking to do - so please keep us updated on how these new Victories feel, and keep providing your feedback in spaces like the Civilization Official Discord. For further breakdowns of everything found in this massive update, check out our Game Update Notes page when it releases on May 19!
Hello, Civ fans! I’m Kiera Boyle, Content Designer for Civilization VII. Today I’d like to introduce a new feature coming in the Test of Time update: Triumphs.
Until now, we only offered four key paths to success in every Age via Legacy Paths. We loved the historic flavor each path gave, but found they had a couple of issues. With only four paths active in an Age, players weren’t able to explore everything that Age had to offer, especially deploying Diplomatic or Expansionist strategies. Legacy Paths also felt mandatory to complete in order to keep your momentum; I myself will admit to save-scumming to eke out that final Relic. From a technical perspective, these paths had to finish at the same time and had a bunch of unique code and a unique tutorial questline — phew! That’s not to say this system didn’t have strengths: its historical flavor, intermediary goals, and game-changing rewards all felt great.
With that in mind, our design team has created Triumphs: a new system to provide Age-specific goals while highlighting different ways to play Civilization VII. This system replaces Legacy Paths, and while Workshoppers helped us improve the experience, this update certainly won’t be the end of our iteration on this new feature.
Triumphs are pretty straightforward: complete a challenge, get a reward. They’re decoupled from Victories, so while some Triumphs will reward you with Victory Points or new ways to win, engagement with the system is entirely optional.
Triumphs come in two types: Major and Minor. Major Triumphs typically require long-term commitment to achieve, for example: “Build 7 Modern Wonders” or “Have a Commander with 8 Promotions." You’ll find the final tier of pre-Test of Time Legacy Paths represented in Major Triumphs alongside more ways to play: Espionage, Suzerainty, Trade Routes, Commander Promotions, and so much more are now directly rewarded in this feature. This also allows us as designers to expand viable, fun ways to succeed!
To commemorate your Major Triumph, you will receive a Dedication for the next Age, similar to Legacy Cards. You can only pick three Dedications to activate in the next Age, so go for the Major Triumphs you want without the pressure to achieve them all. Unlike Legacy Cards, which had unique point costs, Dedications are always equal in value.This will hopefully lighten the burden of Age Transitions, which can sometimes feel overwhelming and time consuming.
Minor Triumphs are similar to Civilization VI’s Historic Moments, a favorite of the dev team. These are key achievements in your civilization that deserve some fanfare — especially if you do it first! They will give you an instant reward, such as a free unit, Population, or Production boost. Minor Triumphs include events like “First to Circumnavigate” or “Research all Techs and Masteries." Many Minor Triumphs also require you to be the first to do something, adding an extra layer of strategy: do you study Philosophy for the Minor Triumph, or your Unique Civic for a strategic Tradition?
In the Modern Age, all Triumphs are Minor. We consider these Triumphs accelerants: things to achieve to close out victory, or keep pace with someone and prevent them from winning. Some also reward Victory Points (which have unique names like GDP or Dominion, depending on the Victory) to help diversify your Victory income during the Age. We hope Minor Triumphs add some flavor to your sessions!
Speaking of flavor, every Triumph has a unique name, primarily penned by one of our historians, Emily Bembeneck. Some personal favorites are “We Have Hapsburgs at Home," “Let’s Calicut a Deal," “What a Gaius," and “Beyond the Sword." I’m excited to see people investigate all the historical references buried in there.
Finally, Triumphs can dynamically appear during Crises. Eagle-eyed players may have noticed there were secret Crisis Legacy Cards that could be unlocked in the previous system. Crisis Triumphs are very similar in spirit, but will be visible in the Triumphs Screen when a Crisis occurs!
What is a Civilization feature without customization? This is where Triumph Sets come in. Triumph Sets control which Triumphs are active in your game in the Advanced Settings. Our default Triumph Set has 30 well-rounded Triumphs in every Age; however, we have other sets such as the Classic Set — which has only Triumphs that correlate to the original Legacy Paths — and the Conqueror Set, full of warmongering Triumphs. There’s also a setting to turn off Triumphs for those who want a zen-like, uninterrupted experience. I personally love the multiplayer-friendly Trailblazer Set, which only rewards the first player to achieve any Triumph! We’d love to hear what sets you’d like to see in the future.
For the modding-inclined, Triumphs and Triumph Sets are also pretty simple under the hood to create. This has helped us iterate design quickly, and hopefully it will help bring your whackiest ideas to life!
As you may know, Triumphs were a key feature during our Firaxis Feature Workshop rounds, and Workshoppers gave us great feedback. What started as a light catalog of Triumphs slowly grew, and our ideas for what makes a good Triumph has really been shaped by our Workshop players.
They’ve done a fantastic job identifying overpowered Triumphs, Triumphs that could be more flavorful, or ones that are simply impossible to get. Workshoppers have also given us great long-term feedback on the feel of the system: what works, what doesn’t, and the types of gameplay they want to see featured; plenty of food for thought as we continue to grow this system. We hope the release of Triumphs in the Test of Time update gives you plenty to play with, but we’re continuing to keep our eyes peeled for your feedback.
To those who participated, thank you!
Over 100 Triumphs will drop with Test of Time, but like any good system, continued development will keep it fresh and fun. We got some amazing feedback from our Workshoppers that we’re already discussing in the design room. No promises, but here are some favorites we’re excited to explore:
Further development of the Classic Set to closely replicate the pre-Test of Time Civ VII experience. (For those of you that loved Legacy Paths!)
More Triumph Sets for different playstyles.
More Triumphs that allow you to pivot, similar to Dark Age Legacy Cards.
Further work on the economy of Dedications; this was a big point in our Workshop rounds, and we’re investigating the best course of action.
We’re looking forward to hearing what you think of Triumphs in the Test of Time update. This update is massive, so stay tuned for more Dev Diaries and news coming soon!
Heya folks! Matt Owens here, a design lead at Firaxis Games, back at it after more than a minute with another Dev Diary. Over a year ago now (wow, time flies), I yapped about the fresh, new Legends and Mementos systems. It has been a blast seeing everyone find their favorites there, discussing and uncovering some powerful combinations that left us saying “wow!” and “oh!” But today’s focus is on a very different topic – a much-requested feature set coming very soon, that will give players the option to start and stay as any civilization from any Age, throughout as many Ages as you like.
We call them Time-Tested civilizations. Want to embody the cry of “Roma Invicta” by taking Rome from game start to the Modern Age? Now you can. Want to give America a little extra time to figure itself out, beginning all the way back in Antiquity? Nothing’s stopping you. Do you just frickin’ love mountains, and want to jump in as Inca from Antiquity to Exploration, but then finish out Modern with Nepal? Peak.
It’s a big change-up from how things worked at launch, so we wanted to take a little time to talk through not only the what but also the why of how we got here. Plus, dive into how all of you helped us get to the very best version of it through all your feedback and participation in things like the Firaxis Feature Workshop.
Let’s go!
Civilization VII set out to explore the whole of human history in a different way than Civ games of the past, holding a message deep at its core – that “history is built in layers”. It's the concept of empires not necessarily rising and falling, but of a people and their polity transforming to meet the demands of a new Age, inspired by the shape of our own world’s ebb and flow through the eons. This layered concept unlocked new mechanical possibilities for our players, like the ability to customize bonuses by mixing and matching your leader's capabilities with three unique civs', all of which operated at similarly exciting levels of power and provided ways to pivot to new playstyles in the middle of campaigns, increasing flexibility in how you could pursue victory.
But as we watched launch day and the days after slowly unfold, it became clear that while it worked for some, it hadn’t hit the mark for everyone. There was some piece of authenticity, of Civ, that felt missing for a percentage of fans. So we spent a good long while analyzing and taking to heart all of the critiques we received, eventually boiling it down to a few basics:
The core tradition of Civ, for the entirety of its 30+ years of existence, has centered exclusively on playing as a single civilization from beginning to end. To upend that essential piece so suddenly, without even the option to continue telling that same meta-historical tale, felt like too far a break.
The critical fantasy of Civ is one that empowers through agency. Less of a sim and more of a sandbox, taking the Mayans to the moon, or engaging in nuclear armageddon as Gandhi are these incredibly cathartic, supremely Civ-ish experiences, because you could choose to engage in these reality-defiant histories. By removing a key part of that agency, the ability to produce that familiar fantasy felt missing.
The consistency of play and historicity wasn’t always there, as we asked players to go from leading those once moon-bound Mayans to… the Incans? To… Mexico? Some “historical” pathways felt more than a little off, and not all had a great way to feel “complete." Couple that with the mechanical mental load of learning new identities and capabilities not just for your new civ but new competing civs on each Age Transition, and it began to feel like an overburdening that broke many out of the strategic flow state that Civ is known for.
On top of all that, our reflections made us realize that even the core message of “history is built in layers," wasn’t necessarily being delivered as effectively as we knew it could be. Your transitions felt less like layering and more like replacements; there was too much being lost and not enough memory of who you were in what you’d become. We knew we needed to make a change that addressed the heart of those common criticisms but also enhanced (rather than diminished) the central vision that Ed Beach, Creative Director on Civilization, had laid out for Civ VII and that all of us still believed in.
Easy, right? Normal Tuesday stuff.
But with a clarity of focus on how and why we wanted to grow, plus a few keen solutions already in mind, we set to work. Fast-forward a few months, and here it is: The Test of Time update, an expansion-sized amount of stuff that we feel really excited to deliver to every Civ VII owner for free.
And while it shouldn’t be long before everyone has their hands on it for a fresh (or first-time!) playthrough, let’s get into a bit more detail about a few of the new mechanics at its core.
At their most basic level, the Time-Tested mechanics are pretty easy to describe! Every civ can start and continue through any Age of the game. Cool!
But what’s that mean one level further down?
Each civ will still have an Apex Age, like Spain in the Exploration Age, where they stand at the height of their power with Unique Infrastructure, Unique Units, etc. as per usual. So when a civ is in that Apex Age, it will essentially play just as it did before. Anyone who was a fan of that original experience can still voluntarily transition to an Apex Age civ at each opportunity without missing a beat. But, critically, you can now choose to start or continue on as a civ into a Time-Tested Age.
Say you finish a round in Antiquity as Rome at its Apex, and you want to keep the good times rolling into Exploration. Just click “Continue with your currently selected civilization” and… that’s about it! You key into the next Age and continue to fight for the glory of your empire, with no break in identity and a clear continuation of your current capabilities.
While we tried to make it appear as seamless as possible, there’s a lot happening under the hood to make Rome still feel like Rome even into its Time-Tested Ages. Ensuring we didn’t lose civs' critical essences was one of our highest priorities, all while figuring out how to realistically tackle the daunting task of setting all our civs up to withstand that test of time.
But through some iterations, and a lot of great testing and feedback from places like the Firaxis Feature Workshop, it feels like we’ve struck a decent balance.
So what exactly makes up a Time-Tested civ? It’s probably easiest to grok by breaking it down into a civ’s main pieces:
Your Unique Ability stays at the heart of what defines your Empire throughout the entire campaign, but it does sometimes change and scale in power throughout the Ages. America, for instance, starts in Antiquity by gaining 50 Gold every time they improve a Resource, then 100 Gold in Exploration, then finally 150 in Modern. The goal here is to keep things feeling balanced, and like your civ is really growing into the height of its abilities over time, while maintaining familiarity with the core of what your civ is about.
Your Unique Units, however, like in most iterations of Civ, do become obsolete and no longer trainable, owing to the march of time. So while Roman Legions may still dominate the early Antiquity Age, a Time-Tested Rome in Exploration is smart enough to modernize by trading in their gladii and scuta for pike and shot. Importantly though, you’ll have an opportunity to recapture the spirit of the Legion even for your modernized troops, by grabbing things like the “Limitanei” Tradition, which can reapply a very similar Combat Strength bonus back to your Infantry Units when active, regardless of the Age.
Rome’s knowledge of their Unique Infrastructure, though, continues to stand as a monument to Roman culture – the Forum and its constituent buildings will stay buildable into future Ages at full effect, so long as you persist as Rome. Early-Age Unique Infrastructure may struggle to compete with the high yields of some later-Age buildings, but more than a few civs pack powerful Quarters or Improvements that will always be tempting to keep up.
However, it's important to note here that Unique Infrastructure knowledge can only be carried forward. America won’t be able to construct its modern Steel Mills in ancient times, for instance, while others are still hammering out bronze. But they will have access to a few extra tools, like Syncretism, to make up for that delay. We’ll cover that further down.
Many of those tools come from the Unique Civics Tree that every Time-Tested civ will have access to in the Ages outside of its Apex. Evaluating this specific problem started out as a tall order. In theory, counting base-game and DLC civs, we needed over 100 new Unique Civic Trees to ensure coverage across the complete game. So we decided to approach it systemically, finding a way that didn’t balloon the size of a civ unrealistically, while still giving each its own unique feel. Ultimately, that meant constructing each tree out of a few bespoke parts plus a few common-but-personalized ones:
One Civic on the tree is truly unique, crafted specifically for that civ in that Time-Tested Age, which provides Traditions and other effects reinforcing the civ’s identity in a way appropriate for the Age.
One Civic is based on the civ’s Attributes. These are shared for all Time-Tested civs in that Age for a given Attribute set. For example, America and Inca are both Economic and Expansionist civilizations, and so receive a Civic in Antiquity that boosts both Economic and Expansionist play – though it’s still properly named “American Foundation” or “Incan Foundation,” respectively.
And finally, a brand-new kind of Civic enables a system called Syncretism.
Syncretism is one of the tools unique to Time-Tested civs that gives them a strategic flexibility and power, representing the adaptability of a civ willing to learn from the powerhouses of a new time period in order to maintain their dominance. The way it works is pretty straightforward – research the Syncretism Civic as described above, and you’ll be prompted with a brand-new screen.
There, you have three distinct options:
Adopt another civ’s Unique Infrastructure.
Adopt another civ’s Unique Military Unit.
Forgo both of those options and instead focus inward on an Affirmation, gaining a powerful new Tradition and slot to go with it.
Say I’m the Inca in early Antiquity, and I’ve just been beset on all sides by wars that look a little dicey. I might beeline to Syncretism and pick the Mississippian’s Burning Arrows unit to give myself the defensive edge. Or, maybe I want to supercharge my Science and Production for the long term, and instead adopt the Mayan’s Unique Infrastructure to raise up my own version of the Uwaybil K'uh. Or, I could stay committed to the true-blue Incan way of life and unlock the Huaca Tradition, making my Mountain-adjacent Settlement Population boom via the Affirmation option.
Importantly, I can pick one and only one of the three options, once per Time-Tested Age. The flexibility here is the power behind Syncretism. Adapting to the situation at hand with a piece of a kit rather than a complete package, plus finding powerful synergies with your existing empire’s strengths, is what puts you on more even footing against Apex Age civs wielding their full might.
With this sub-feature, we had a few different goals in mind:
We wanted to give Time-Tested civs some unique gameplay outside of their Apex Age, so they could feel powerful in a different way. The concept of adaptability in the moment seemed right thematically for a civ weathering new Ages, and mechanically it creates a wide new space to find novel and interesting combinations.
We also wanted to honor the idea of “history in layers.” Now players can maintain their core identity by staying as one civ throughout all Ages, while still optionally layering in the impressive pieces of other civs in a meaningful way. This helps build a tapestry that better fits the image of what they believe their empire should look like while withstanding the Test of Time. Again, the power of choice here is as important as ever.
We realized just how important that choice was through our testing in the Firaxis Feature Workshop. Originally, Syncretism was purely a choice amongst pieces of other civs. But from all the feedback and playtesting, we knew the addition of Affirmations as a clear “let me stay completely locked in” option was one of the final missing pieces. Syncretism in particular was a really fun one to introduce and evolve in collaboration with the community, and I’m personally excited to continue that work once it’s out in everyone’s hands!
And that’s the wide-lens capture of Time-Tested civs. There’s a lot of detail to discover here, especially now that every single one of the 40+ civilizations in-game will be able to have their own complete playthroughs, from turn one to victory – and maybe just One More Turn beyond.
We’ve already got some nifty ideas in the pipe for where we might take things next, but I think just about everyone here on the Civ team is looking forward to what players have to say about the 1.4.0 release happening shortly.
So let us know! Once you’ve got a favorite Time-Tested civ or cool Syncretism combination, we’d love to hear more about it.
Civilization is a game that means a lot, to us and to so many other people. We can’t wait to keep building it with all of you!
A quick Test of Time livestream update: Due to some unforeseen livestream technical difficulties, we are going to postpone today’s developer stream and shifting things to a recorded format with our guests instead. We know a lot of you carved out time to join us today, so we really appreciate the patience and flexibility here. We’ll have more to share soon!
In the meantime, please check out the Game Guide and First Look for Alexander, the new free leader added or all Civ VII players!
When Firaxis first conceived of Civilization VII, the ambition was to boldly re-approach the series' classic structure with new mechanics rooted in a more nuanced historical perspective, while honoring and building upon the time-tested strategic gameplay that players love. Since our February 2025 launch, those same players have only helped us better achieve that initial, ambitious vision.
Today, we're thrilled to officially announce the release date for the Test of Time update for Civilization VII, free for all players when it releases on May 19.* This is much more than just another update; it's a direct result of your passion, feedback, and patience. It also wouldn't have been possible without our dedicated and invaluable Firaxis Feature Workshop participants, who were essential to shaping Test of Time's features by putting them through their paces over the past months.
We're so excited for players to get their hands on the update soon! For now, we'll give a brief overview of what's coming, and point you toward where and when you can learn more before Test of Time's May 19 launch.
Beyond simply being Civ VII's next major update, Test of Time is by far the biggest and most fundamentally game-changing. Our intent was to synthesize over a year's worth of listening, iteration, and playtesting into a one massive, free update that exists in tandem with the many smaller-yet-meaningful updates already released since launch.
The most substantial of these changes arrive in the form of three reworked or entirely new features:
Time-Tested Civs: By far the most-requested addition, you'll be able to play as one civ throughout an entire campaign when the Test of Time update goes live. While you'll still have the option to evolve your empire into a different civilization during Age Transitions, the ability to play as one civ across the span of history is something many players hold dear as a core component of the Civ experience. When playing as these Time-Tested civs, the new Syncretism mechanic will allow you to create all-new builds by adopting the Unique Units or Infrastructure from another civilization that's currently in its Apex Age, or double-down on what makes your civ unique with Affirmation.
A new Victories system: Through a wider range of activities, Victories have been completely reworked to reward your dominance throughout an entire game. We're committed to making sure your win in Civ VII is defined by successfully making interesting choices and giving you as many paths as possible to pursue greatness.
Triumphs: Completely replacing Legacy Paths is the new Triumphs system. Triumphs offer a wide range of optional, challenging objectives to help each game feel unique, and are tied to each of the six Attributes: Militaristic, Cultural, Scientific, Economic, Diplomatic, and Expansionist.
Alongside these three main pillars, the update also brings other improvements, including:
A new Fractal Continent map
A new Commerce screen
A new Advisor Council
Updated map generation
New Narrative Events
Updates to Specialists and Biomes
New audio and music
Numerous balance changes
A Great (and FREE) new leader!*
And more!
For a comprehensive breakdown of what Test of Time adds to Civ VII, check out our first-anniversary check-in article from back in February, with in-depth details directly from Ed Beach, creative director of the Civilization franchise.
*Base game required. This content is free for all owners of Civilization VII and will be delivered automatically in-game on release. Terms apply.
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This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for Sid Meier's Civilization VII, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main Sid Meier's Civilization VII statistics page.
Articles link back to Steam for full changelogs. SteamScope refreshes news entries as new posts are published to the game's Steam hub.