Civilization 7: All Difficulty Levels Explained

Civilization 7 has a multitude of difficulty levels to choose from that allow you to better tailor your game to your liking. Whether you’re a beginner or you’ve been with the franchise from the beginning, there’s a difficulty level for you.

Before you begin a game of Civilization 7, you will be faced with various settings to tamper with that customize your experience. This includes the map type you’ll play on, the size of the map, and your difficulty level. It’s worth noting that the difficulty level can only be adjusted during this start up segment and can’t be changed later on in your playthrough.

More Civilization 7 guides

Civilization 7: Biggest Changes From Civilization 6 | Civilization 7: What is Influence and How to Use it | Civilization 7: Best Leaders for Beginners |

The bigger they are, the harder they fall

Civilization 7 has less difficulty levels compared to its predecessor, and some have adopted slightly different names. A raised difficulty level doesn’t change the way the AI behaves, but establishes the advantages AI Civs will receive.

The higher the difficulty level, the greater the bonuses the opposing AI will get in terms of Production, Gold, Science, and Culture, along with their starting units and overall Combat Strength.

The difficulty options available in Civilization 7 are:

• Scribe
• Governor
• Viceroy
• Sovereign
• Immortal
• Deity

Scribe is the easiest difficulty. If you’re new to the Civilization series or you want to solely focus on learning the new mechanics without any challenges, Scribe may be the right way to start your journey. Expect to enjoy a head-start over the AI and begin the game with bigger bonuses than your opponents.

As for the standard experience, Governor is the most balanced mode, granting a level playing field for both you and the AI you’ll go against. Governor can be compared to Prince difficulty in previous Civilization titles.

Deity is the most challenging difficulty level and it’s recommended for those who have mastered the game in its entirety. Selecting Deity will give the AI huge bonuses over the player, making finding your feet in the early game in particular a much harder task.

Practise makes perfect and the same can be said for Civilization 7. The more you play, the better equipped you’ll be to meet a victory condition at even the highest difficulty level.