There are a lot of settings that players can change before starting a match of Civilization 7, difficulty settings included. In total, there are six difficulties in Civ 7 ranging from beginner-friendly Scribe to this game’s version of an ultra-nightmare mode – Deity.
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Though the normal difficulty is Governor, players are free to change difficulty to their preferred challenge level. But be warned – difficulty in Civ 7 doesn’t necessarily change the way the game works, it just gives the AI opponents enormous artificial bonuses that can be hard to overcome if you don’t know how Civ 7 works.
Civilization 7 Difficulty System, Explained
In Civ 7, Difficulty settings essentially determine how many bonuses the AI players will get in your game. Difficulty in Civ 7 does not change anything else – it doesn’t make the AI make different decisions, it doesn’t reduce your own resources or change the map layout, or change any facet of the actual gameplay.
Instead, as you increase Difficulty, Civ 7 grants flat bonuses to the computer-controlled players. The AI doesn’t get smarter, instead, the game cheats to give them bonus resources.
In Deity Mode, for example, enemy leaders practically begin the game with dozens of important Yields like Culture and Science. But they will still behave exactly the same as in lower difficulties.
At high difficulties, enemy players will be able to use these bonus resources to their advantage, but they won’t be smarter about it. Perhaps they can build or purchase faster, or propel through the Tech tree faster than normal. However, because the behavior remains unchanged, players who know what they are doing can still overtake.
All Civilization 7 Difficulty Levels
|
Difficulty |
Approximate Experience |
|---|---|
|
Scribe |
1 – Beginner |
|
Governor |
2 – Standard |
|
Viceroy |
3 – Intermediate |
|
Sovereign |
4 – Advanced |
|
Immortal |
5 – Expert |
|
Deity |
6 – Maximum Difficulty |
How To Change Difficulty Level
It is only possible to change difficulty in Civ 7 in the game creation screen. After selecting your Leader and Civ, the final game settings menu will appear. The Difficulty Setting is the first option in this settings screen.
It is not known whether there will be additional difficulties added in future content updates, though other game creation tools are in development.
So, Which Civ 7 Difficulty Should You Play?
If you are new to 4x grand strategy games, or haven’t played a Civilization game before, it’s not a bad idea to set the Civ 7 difficulty settings to Scribe. This will actually reduce the bonuses enemy Civs would normally receive at higher difficulties, allowing new players to learn the game without too much stress.
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The default Civ 7 difficulty is Governor, which is about equivalent to the Prince difficulty of previous Civ games. If you have played Civilization games before, or are familiar with the grand strategy genre, Governor is a good starting point.
Enemy players get no bonuses, which creates an evenly-balanced game. If you want to play Civ 7 on Normal difficulty, choose Governor.
When you should choose higher difficulties is more up to your own confidence and skill in Civ 7. Advancing through Viceroy, Sovereign, and Immortal difficulties, Civ 7 players will notice enemy Leaders steadily gaining higher and higher base difficulty bonuses.
At the maximum difficulty, Deity, Civilization 7 players go up against enemy leaders with absolutely enormous bonuses to their base yields and resources. It’s the ultimate challenge, but jumping straight into Deity is not exactly advised.
Even if you consider yourself an advanced Civ player, Civilization 7 is a major evolution of the franchise. Core mechanics and the way that you interact with the game are completely different from previous games.
It’s a good idea to spend some time in lower difficulties to learn all of these new and overhauled mechanics, then start grinding away at Deity once you feel confident in knowing what Civ 7 expects of you to win.
Grand Strategy
Turn-Based Strategy
4X
- Released
-
February 11, 2025
- Franchise
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Sid Meier’s Civilization