Every Religious Belief in Civilization 7, Ranked

The new system for religion in Civilization 7 is a lot more streamlined than in previous games in the franchise. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to be careful when it comes to selecting a religion’s beliefs, as these will be key to making sure you can achieve a Cultural Victory by the end of the Modern Age.

Whether going for a Cultural Victory or just trying to dominate the Exploration Age, you’ll need to select the best reliquary, founder, and enhancer beliefs possible for your faith. We’ve broken down every religious belief you can use in Civilization 7 by tier.

Civilization 7 Religious Beliefs Tier List

This tier list encompasses every religious belief currently available in the game that you can ascribe to your faith. There are three different types of beliefs, Reliquary, Founder, and Enhancer.

However, for this tier list, we’ve combined these into one uniform table. Further below, we’ll label each of these by type of belief as well.

In each tiered list, we’ve organized beliefs in this order: Reliquary, Founder, and then Enhancer for ease of use.

Remember that while you can have two Founder Beliefs, you can only have one Enhancer and Reliquary Belief each, so choose carefully!

S-Tier Religious Beliefs

Icons

Because a huge portion of the legacy path for the Exploration Age involves collecting reliquaries, your Reliquary Belief is going to be extremely important.

At the start of each age, Independent Powers reset and respawn across the map. If you can quickly found a religion and set Icons as your reliquary belief, you’ll be well-poised at the top of the age for befriending Independent Powers and then subsequently converting them.

This will get you to the 12 reliquaries needed to secure a Cultural Golden Age at the top of the Modern Age in no time flat.

Reliquaries

Most Civs are bound to have a decent amount of Temples or Altars in their society by the time the Exploration Age rolls around. This makes this Reliquary Belief top-tier in our books, as you’ll want to make sure your Reliquary Belief favors quantity over quality.

Since the goal of the age is to try to make your faith as dominant as possible, this Reliquary Belief is relatively straightforward to use throughout the second phase of your campaign.

Interfaith Dialogue

Science is always going to be a powerful resource and yield for you to collect in Civilization 7, regardless of whether you’re going for a Scientific Victory. Science obviously helps boost your Tech Tree, which is always a plus.

In addition, since you’re bound to be converting foreign settlements pretty consistently during the Exploration Age, this belief synergizes well with Scientific output across the board. It’s easy to capitalize on.

Tithe

Simple, yet effective, Tithe will help you expand your treasury at a rapid-fire pace. This belief synergizes well with either a Cultural or Economic Victory path during the Exploration Age.

Plus, Gold has so much added power in Civilization 7, given its ability to help improve towns quickly with buildings and other tile upgrades. More than ever before, having a large, healthy treasury is imperative for a successful campaign.

Conversion

So much of the Exploration Age is marked by an expansionist mindset. If you’re looking to make your empire as wide as possible in terms of settlement location, this Enhancer belief is a must-have, and highly effective.

If your other beliefs grant you bonuses for having more of your own settlements converted to your religion, then select Conversion so that you don’t have to waste Missionaries converting your own settlements.

Stella Maris

This belief is well worth having, but make sure you’re using it on the right map. If you’re playing on a small or even tiny map, this S-tier belief is considerably worse.

However, if you’re playing on a rather large map with fewer Civs or Independent Powers, Stella Maris quickly becomes an extra powerful belief. The movement boost is nothing to sneeze at during the Exploration Age, especially if your Missionaries have to cross oceans to reach foreign settlements in Distant Lands.

A-Tier Religious Beliefs

Apostolism

Any Reliquary belief that gets you +2 relics is super helpful to achieve the Legacy Path for a Cultural Victory during the Exploration Age. This belief only gets knocked down to A-tier by virtue of its specificity and circumstantial nature.

While gaining two relics for every conversion is great, of course, you’ll have to be careful to make sure you’re near Civs that have a lot of Wonders for this one to work well for you.

Lay Followers

Though the Lay Followers belief is also somewhat circumstantial, so many settlements have a decently sized rural population, that this Reliquary Belief is usually a super solid option depending on the type of victory you’re trying to achieve.

The only catch here is that you may not be able to benefit all that much from this belief early on in the Exploration Age. Toward the end of the age, more settlements are likely to have larger populations, at which point you should quickly capitalize upon this belief.

Ecclesiasticism

Similar to Lay Followers, Ecclesiasticism suffers from the same issue early on in the Exploration Age: many settlements don’t always have such a big population. However, by the end of the age, you can definitely mine this belief for all it’s worth.

Plus, unlike Lay Followers, this belief gives you a +2 Relic score, solidifying its place in A-tier. Just be sure to keep an eye on settlements’ growth throughout your campaign.

Holy Ecumene

For those players specifically going for a Cultural Victory, Holy Ecumene is another all-around great option for a founder belief. Culture helps you run through your Civics Tree faster, which is always a great boon.

The only downside to this belief is that you may have already spent most of the Antiquity Age selecting Social Policies and other constructions that boost your Culture, particularly if you’re already going for a Cultural Victory. This belief, ultimately, may prove redundant depending on how much Culture you’re already generating.

Vipassana

Happiness is a severely underrated resource in Civilization 7, particularly as you work your way further into the Exploration Age. During this age, you’re bound to gain more Specialists, which chip away at your settlement’s happiness rating.

This Founder Belief can offset happiness costs nicely, and help keep your empire more balanced during the second phase of your campaign. Plus, since you can select up to two Founder Beliefs, you can still pick another belief that’s more about optimization rather than just offsetting resource costs.

Defenders Of The Faith

The Defenders of the Faith belief works great for players trying to achieve a Cultural or Military Victory, or are at least prioritizing military enhancement as they play. If you play your cards right, you can use this ability to dominate wars against certain opponents, and is really useful for keeping your borders intact.

The only downside to this belief is that it only works in friendly settlements, so you can’t use this combat bonus to act aggressively within another Civ’s borders.

Dawah

Dawah is another belief that synergizes well with Economic Victory conditions. If you’d rather spend time producing Merchants as opposed to Missionaries, this belief is a nice compromise, as you can use Merchants to convert settlements instead.

The only downside is that, since you can only pick one Enhancer Belief, you’ll have to be ready to commit to this strategy of using Merchants as proselytizers. Otherwise, choosing this belief will be a total waste.

Zeal

Zeal is incredibly straightforward, but extra powerful, as you can sometimes enact other policies that can stack extra belief charges on top of this one. Since Missionaries eventually run out of charges and disappear off the map, this belief will make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

Plus, you never know when having that one extra charge might convert one last settlement you need to earn a reliquary. Sometimes, one charge is the difference between victory and defeat.

B-Tier Religious Beliefs

Charoen

Treasure Fleets are often misunderstood or underappreciated in Civ 7, however, this Reliquary Belief allows you to capitalize on Treasure Fleets just as much as the enemy Civ. Gaining two relics is, of course, fantastic, but there are some downsides to this belief overall.

First off, Treasure Fleets that are being produced are often developed and sent away quickly, so you’ll need to capitalize on this one fast. However, if you know that another Civ is going for an Economic Legacy Path, you can easily optimize your playstyle to reap what they sow each time they produce a Treasure Fleet.

Stewardship

To be frank, this Founder Belief has one of the best buffs to resources available in all of Civilization 7. The downside to this belief, and ultimately what puts it in B-Tier, is that it’s so circumstantial and specific that you might not get to benefit from it all that much.

Some Natural Wonders don’t take up that many tiles, to begin with, and additionally, focusing all of your efforts on one particular settlement next to a Natural Wonder can be a waste of turns and time. However, if you can make this one work, the rewards are well worth it.

Shrines of the Kami

Shrines of the Kami features another excellent buff to certain yields and is a little more workable than Stewardship thanks to the prevalence of man-made Wonders over Natural Wonders. Once again, though, this one is highly circumstantial.

But, if you’re neighboring a Civ that is going for a Cultural Victory as well, and they have a lot of Wonders, this is a good way to make sure that their gain is also yours.

Sky Gods

Sky Gods is the first of many beliefs focused on tile type. Plains tiles are often pretty common throughout Civ 7, depending on your starting position and map type.

This makes this belief an all-around super solid option for a Founder Belief. Ultimately though, this one ends up in B-Tier just because the boons aren’t that great overall.

Millenarianism

If you’re attempting to synergize a Military Victory with a Cultural one, Millenarianism is a great option for your Enhancer Belief. The only downside here is that conquering settlements is so difficult, particularly later in the Exploration Age when many settlements have district defenses.

This means that you’ll rarely (if ever) benefit from this perk​​​​​​, and while it can be extremely powerful if you have confidence in your military prowess, overall, you’ll want to think twice before selecting this one.

Scripture

Scripture works great if you’re specifically going for the Cultural Victory Legacy Path during the Exploration Age. A bonus to production is always super solid as well.

The only issue with this belief, and why it ends up in B-Tier, is that you won’t really start to feel any synergy with this belief until later in the age when you’ve begun to actually collect relics. However, by the end of the age, depending on how many you’ve collected, you’ll really start to feel the power of your Missionaries.

Sanctum

Simple and straightforward, this belief merely cuts down on any production you might need to spend building structures that can house relics. It’s easy to forget that a condition of the Cultural Legacy Path is being able to actually store the relics you earn throughout the age.

This can help cut down on some extra time constructing more temples in your cities, but ultimately it’s not that effective. However, if you’re out of cities and don’t want to convert more towns, this one can help, particularly late in the Exploration Age when it comes to relic storage.

C-Tier Religious Beliefs

Brahmanism

This belief sounds really good on paper, and, of course, having a +2 to Relics is fantastic for achieving the Cultural Legacy Path. But, there’s a huge caveat to this belief that can render it almost useless.

In Civilization 7, you cannot convert another Civ’s Holy City, which can often be their capital. This obviously poses a huge problem for this belief, making it largely not worth it.

Evangelism

Similar to Brahmanism, this belief suffers from the fact that it’s so specific and sometimes nearly unattainable depending on your positioning on the board. Plus, you’ll need to wait until other Civs start establishing Distant Lands settlements.

This means you’re relying on other Civ’s progress before you can actually start making moves with your Reliquary Belief. Depending on the length of your campaign, this may prove costly to your own progression.

Sacred Herbs

Sacred Herbs is plagued by the same issue as many Founders Beliefs, once again being a bit too circumstantial to always be useful. However, Grassland tiles are much more prevalent than others at times, especially depending on the type of map you’re playing.

Plus, Science is a great all-around yield. It’s always helpful when going for a Cultural Legacy path by way of religion can help you out in another department, namely, Science.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation is another belief that is contingent on tile placements. Tropical tiles are not nearly as common as some others, meaning capitalizing on this belief is really only valuable if you’re near a Civ with a heavy Tropical tile spread.

Of course, if this is the case for your empire, then by all means, Reincarnation can work. However, don’t just pick this one randomly. It’s only worth it in super-specific cases.

Shamanism

Just as is the case with Reincarnation, Shamanism suffers from a need for hyper-specific tile placement to be useful. Of course, having a bonus to Culture does synergize well with religion in the Exploration Age, so this belief isn’t entirely useless.

However, once again, plan ahead before selecting this Founder Belief. You’ll also want to make sure your second Founder Belief is a little more broad since this one is so niche.

Desert Faith

This Founder Belief is another option that’s tile-specific. Desert tiles can be more prevalent depending on the type of map you’re playing, but once again, you’ll want to make sure this one can actually work for you before selecting it.

One bonus to Desert Faith is that Gold is, of course, a super valuable resource during the Exploration Age, and can synergize well with using Treasure Fleets. But, all in all, this one is a bit too difficult to pull off well.

Holy Waters

By now, you might be sensing a trend. Tile-specific Founder Beliefs are just not that helpful, however, if you’re playing on an archipelago map, Holy Waters can be more useful than some.

Happiness is also a great yield, but not nearly as valuable as Culture or Gold during the Exploration Age. Holy Waters can prove a good supplement if you’re low on happiness in other aspects of your empire though.