Hardest Achievements in Civilization 6

The Sid Meier’s Civilization games have been packed full of hundreds of achievements since the fifth installment, with a whole host of challenges for determined players to seek out. In Civilization 6 these difficult tasks are even trickier. While there are some that players might unlock accidentally through normal play, others require specific routes through the game or gunning for strange circumstances from the beginning and potentially throwing a spanner in the works of long-term success in the intricate strategy game

Whether because of the sheer difficulty of a task or because of an over-reliance on random chance, some achievements are much harder than others. Here are the most difficult achievements to obtain in Sid Meier’s Civilization 6, not including any of the DLC achievements.

8 Pizza Party!

Assemble the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Get Very Lucky

• Requirements: Activate Leonardo da Vinci in New York with Great Works from Michelangelo and Donatello — and a sewer — all in that city
• Percentage Of Players: 0.4%

Fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will get a kick out of the reference to the classic comic book characters in this achievement. Players will have to own New York and unlock Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Donatello as Great People which will require them to remain in the Renaissance period.

Choosing to pour the majority of their resources into Faith and production will help, but after Michelangelo and Donatello, either by attracting them with Great People Points or by ‘Patronizing’ them by buying them with Gold or Faith, the Great Engineer Leonardo da Vinci may not appear when players need him to. Players might have to resort to reloading previous saves until luck is on their side to unlock this frustrating achievement.

7 Claim The Fourth Cataract

Form a Rapid Assault on Your Neighbor

• Requirements: Playing as Egypt in a regular game, conquer the original Nubian capital within 10 turns of declaring a formal war on Nubia
• Percentage Of Players: 0.4%

Another achievement that often depends on start location and how quickly a player can mobilize against Nubia is the ‘Claim The Fourth Cataract’ Achievement. Players have to choose the Egyptian civilization and should immediately begin expanding to be as close to Nubia as possible.

Players might need to reload saves to ensure that they are in a good position to confront Nubia as soon as they can.

Fans will have to ensure that they formally declare war on Nubia first, and then quickly take the capital. They should build catapults before they attack while keeping in mind that the earlier they go for Nubia the lower its defenses will be.

6 Missed That Day in History Class

Stockpile an Ancient Unit

• Requirements: Clear nuclear contamination with a Roman Legion
• Percentage Of Players: 0.5%

On the surface, ‘Missed That Day In History Class’ is a relatively easy achievement to unlock. A player running the Roman empire in Civ 6 only has to build a Legion unit and then keep it until there is nuclear waste to clear up. The obstacle comes from how short the window in which players can get legionaries is, keeping them alive and not upgrading them or losing them in battle.

After this, players will likely have to be targeted by nuclear warheads by an enemy to give them radioactive tiles to clear. Using a Legion will complete the achievement, but many have to set up unique scenarios to ensure that they can get this achievement with minimal complications.

5 Huey Tlatoani

A Quest to Find All of the Luxuries

• Requirements: As Aztecs on a standard-sized map, attack an opponent while receiving a +16 Combat Strength bonus for having all of the luxuries
• Percentage Of Players: 0.8%

Players will need to hunt down all of the luxuries that are usually spread out across the map to encourage trading with far-off civilizations. As the Aztecs, players will want to expand quickly regardless, but fans who are working towards this achievement will find that is only feasible if they can push very far or even conquer most of their neighbors to manage to acquire every single luxury.

Some maps will make this nearly impossible, so many completionists who are working toward this task will restart the game as much as they need until the luxuries are obtainable.

4 Seven Wonders of the Post-Apocalyptic World

Targeted Strikes to Do Maximum Damage

• Requirements: Launch a weapon of mass destruction and have it pillage seven wonders
• Percentage Of Players: 1.0%

For the ‘Seven Wonders Of The Post-Apocalyptic World’ achievement, players will need to rush their technology progress ahead to get hold of nuclear warheads. For many players online, the easiest way to do this is by bombing their own cities – players must ensure from the very start that they build wonders within a two-tile radius of a center point so that one nuke will pillage everything at once

Although using weapons of mass destruction on their own civilization seems counter-intuitive, trying to carry out this highly specific task on an enemy will require even more careful planning and knowledge of what they have built within their borders.

3 Trans-Siberian Railroad

Building an Intercontinental Trade Route

• Requirements: Playing as Russia, have a city that is at least 60 tiles away from your capital, connected by a Trade Route and road at the start of the turn.
• Percentage Of Players: 0.4%

One of the rarest achievements in the game, the ‘Trans-Siberian Railroad’ is a major feat for any leader to undertake. The 60 tiles required does not include the tiles that roads are built on, but rather the tiles on the most direct route to their capital.

Trading posts have to be built up and down the route to allow the route to reach far enough, and so the amount of land that players have to have control of is astounding. While for some leaders like Trajan, who is gifted with automatic trade routes, this would be an easy task, players are forced to play as Russia for this achievement making for an arduous task that requires patience and proper planning.

2 You Are a Terrible Person

Steal Glory From an Opponent

• Requirements: Playing as Poland, destroy another civilization’s incomplete wonder by initiating a Culture Bomb
• Percentage Of Players: 0.4%

Fans and completionists will have to cause a major upset in a nearby civilization to get this tricky achievement. Playing as the Polish civilization, gamers should push towards the closest opponent as soon as possible. Poland has a special effect that triggers a culture bomb, claiming all adjacent tiles, whenever they build an encampment or fort on a tile.

Players should set up embassies in neighboring lands so that they can keep an eye on the tiles of the opposition. As soon as a wonder is being built, they must rush to build an encampment nearby. However, it becomes a difficult feat because all of this requires a measured strategy to ensure they have the resources, room, and knowledge.

1 God-Like

Become a True Leader

• Requirements: Win a regular game at Deity difficulty
• Percentage Of Players: 6.6%

Despite being acquired by the highest percentage of players on this list, the ‘God-Like’ achievement is one of the only challenges that cannot be manipulated by save-scumming or by engineering a game mode to make victory easy. Players will have to actually become masters of the grand strategy game and tactically reach a victory on the hardest difficulty in Civilization 6 despite the AI being given massive bonuses to overall production and getting a head start when it matters most in the early game.

While many of the other achievements on this list are hard to get because they require the player to go out of their way to perform strange actions, ‘God-Like’ tasks fans with practicing and learning how to beat back the AI opponents and achieve any kind of victory ahead of them.