Useless Civlization 6 Wonders To Avoid

Key Takeaways

• Some wonders in Civilization 6, like the Biosphere, offer marginal benefits not worth the resources.
• Machu Picchu’s situational requirements and low gold bonus make it lackluster compared to other options.
• Hanging Gardens can have limited usefulness due to its high production cost and housing limitations.

Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 is an impressive turn-based strategy 4X video game about growing civilizations and succeeding through various winning conditions. Wonders are buildings designed as bonuses to complement the player’s choice of victory conditions. They aren’t game-changing, but when placed strategically, can provide great boosts in a variety of ways. However, some wonders are too niche or practically useless by the time their construction is complete, that they aren’t worth building in the first place.

Sometimes wonders can only be built during certain eras, and the expansions players have made by that time are already sustainable. While the following wonders aren’t completely useless, they offer small buffs that aren’t worth the resources to build. Keeping an eye out on the more useless wonders to avoid should help players shed some weight on making decisions.

10 Biosphere

Museum of Earth

• Atomic Era
• Production cost: 1740
• Effects: Receive 100 Science for every Marsh, Rainforest, and Woods in the city upon completion, +1 Appeal to tiles adjacent to Rainforest and Marsh in the empire, and +200% Power for all Offshore Wind Farms, Solar Farms, Wind Farms, Geothermal Plants, and Hydroelectric Dams, providing Tourism equal to Power.

For a Wonder, the Biosphere presents attractive bonuses on the surface but at a marginal benefit. The Appeal bonus to Rainforest and Marsh tiles usually neutralizes the Appeal penalty that Marsh and Rainforest tiles already have. Players can simply remove tiles and plant second-growth Woods using Builders, which is far cheaper than investing in a Wonder.

The one-time 100 Science bonus for unique tiles upon completion is a weak reward when looking at other Atomic Era buildings and strategies. However, in Gathering Storm, the Biosphere’s Power bonuses are incredible when it comes to Cultural or Science Victories.

9 Machu Picchu

Remnants Of The Incan Empire

• Classical Era (from Gathering Storm)
• Production cost: 400
• Effects: +4 Gold and Mountain tiles provide standard adjacency bonus to Commercial Hub, Theater Square, and Industrial Zone districts in all cities.

Machu Picchu’s existence depends on whether or not a city has Mountains in it, making it a fairly situational Wonder. On top of this, the +4 Gold bonus doesn’t really benefit the player, since there are many better ways to generate money for cheaper Production.

Machu Picchu could be effective at giving bonuses to Theater Squares, but since the Mountain requirement is limited, players could just opt to gain high adjacency bonuses by placing Industrial Zones between Dams and Aqueducts. There are better ways to generate Culture or Production even if there are available Mountain tiles.

8 Hanging Gardens

The Greek And Roman Legend Of Babylon

• Medieval Era
• Production cost: 180
• Effects: Increases growth by 15% in all cities, and +2 Housing.

The Hanging Gardens is one of the earliest wonders in the game and can be helpful in kick-starting Population counts. However, even in the early game it’s high cost of Production makes this not the best option. The 15% modifier only applies to excess Food cities have, and not the total, making the actual population growth fractionally better.

The Hanging Gardens’ main weakness lies in the Housing bonus. If it’s placed in a city with minimal housing, the Population cannot grow according to the limited housing and thus nullifies the Wonder’s effects. This wonder shines for a few civilizations that already focus on extra Food and Housing benefits, like the Mayans or the Egyptians, otherwise, it is best to leave the Hanging Gardens alone.

7 Hermitage

Catherine’s Treasure

• Industrial Era
• Production cost: 1450
• Effects: +3 Great Artist points per turn, and +4 Great Works of Art slots.

Without any DLC, the Hermitage is almost never worth building, as it’s way too expensive, and other strategies compensate better. For instance, founding two cities and building Theater Squares with Amphitheaters and Art Museums in both ends up being cheaper and more beneficial than waiting for the Hermitage to finish.

From the DLC Rise and Fall and onward, nothing changes about the Hermitage but the Curator title given to Governors Reyna or Pingala will turn it into a Tourism hub. Overall, the Hermitage doesn’t resemble “wonder-like” qualities. Even players trying to achieve a Cultural Victory won’t find this as useful as other ways to gain Culture or Tourism.

6 Panama Canal

A Massively Man-Made Canal

• Industrial Era (from Gathering Storm)
• Production cost: 920
• Effects: Upon completion, 1 or 2 adjacent Canal districts are automatically created, can be crossed by naval units, and +10 Gold.

The only difference between the Panama Canal Wonder and a regular Canal is its size and +10 Gold bonus. Players should consider whether or not a regular Canal can be built, as the +10 Gold isn’t that big of a deal when compared to how long it takes to construct the Wonder. A Military Engineer can cut the regular Canal building time by a lot, whereas the Panama Canal cannot.

When players enter the Industrial Era, better pieces of infrastructure are unlocked and the Panama Canal pales in comparison. Overall, the Panama Canal is not worth building when cheaper options exist.

5 Sydney Opera House

The Elaborate Structural Engineering Nightmare

• Atomic Era
• Production cost: 1850
• Effects: +8 Culture, +5 Great Musician points per turn, and +3 Great Works of Music slots.

The Sydney Opera House can actually be useful for a Cultural Victory, as it attracts Great Musicians much more quickly in the final stages of the game. If combined with the Satellite Broadcasts policy card, Great Works of Music will yield awesome amounts of Tourism.

However, the amount of Production needed to construct the Sydney Opera House could be better spent elsewhere. Theater Square Performances can be repeatedly run to gain Great Musician points instead of investing a long period of time to construct a Wonder.

4 Great Bath

Ruins Of The Indus In Mohenjo-daro

• Ancient Era (from Gathering Storm)
• Production cost: 180
• Effects: +3 Housing, +1 Amenity from entertainment, Floodplains tiles along the river containing this wonder are immune to Flooding, -50% Production and Food yields from Flood damage, and +1 Faith to the yields of a tile within the city every time it is Flooded.

The Great Bath is available early in the game and is only useful if the game’s Disaster rate is set to moderate or higher, as it becomes an early version of the Dam, ensuring safety from floods on top of benefiting from them. If players seek a Religious Victory, the Faith gain proves useful in the early game.

However, since this is among the first Wonders available, the opportunity cost is also the highest, as there are many ways to gain better bonuses for Food and Production that aren’t Wonders. Later on, the Dam and Aqueduct buildings become available, making this Wonder rather obsolete.

3 Great Lighthouse

Third-Longest Surviving Ancient Wonder

• Classical Era
• Production cost: 290
• Effects: +1 Movement for all naval (and embarked) units, +3 Gold, and +1 Great Admiral point per turn.

The Great Lighthouse is rather niche and provides minor benefits. The best thing it has going for it is the +1 Great Admiral point per turn and the slight boost to naval unit movement speed. Other than that, the Great Lighthouse doesn’t live up to the standards of what makes a Wonder.

There is also a known bug where the Movement bonus does not affect embarked ranged cavalry units, support units, Inquisitors, and Warrior Monks. The only civilization that actually finds the Great Lighthouse useful is the Ottomans, due to their unique naval unit Barbary Corsair, which has no Movement costs to perform coastal raids.

2 Stonehenge

A Southern England Anomaly

• Ancient Era
• Production cost: 180
• Effects: +2 Faith, grants a free Great Prophet (or Apostle if no Great Prophets are available), and Great Prophets may found a religion on Stonehenge instead of a Holy Site.

Stonehenge is one of the first wonders available, after researching one technology. It’s a beneficial Wonder for players seeking a bonus to Faith, but incredibly hard to achieve in higher difficulties against AI opponents due to Stonehenge being high on their priority list. However, this Wonder is practically useless for anyone not prioritizing religion, instead finding better luck in military units or Monuments.

If for whatever reason a player is ineligible to receive a Great Prophet, Stonehenge will spawn an Apostle instead, which isn’t nearly as beneficial as a Great Prophet, making this a potential waste of time.

1 Golden Gate Bridge

A Pop Culture Icon

• Modern Era (from Gathering Storm)
• Production cost: 1620
• Effects: +3 Amenities from entertainment, land units can cross without embarking, works like a modern road and creates roads in the land tiles on each end, all tiles within this city gain 4 Appeal, and +100% Tourism for all tile improvements and National Parks of the city.

The Golden Gate Bridge’s placement requirement is the biggest downfall of its creation. It requires a Coast tile separated by at least two hexes of water, and cannot be built on a Lake. If players are playing on a Pangaea or Continents map, they will find no good location to build.

If the game is played on a map like the Earth where it almost guarantees a suitable location to build the bridge, then players must strategize to settle a city for it early. Overall, despite the effects sounding useful, the Golden Gate Bridge’s length isn’t that impressive for maneuvering land units, and it limits space for other great tile improvements like Seaside Resorts or Ski Resorts.