It’s been customary since near the start of the Civilization series for nuclear weapons to pop up right at the tail end of your adventure. Civilization 7, with its three-ages system, prevents players from getting too ahead of the competition with them – though a more scientifically-inclined player can get there more rapidly than the rest.
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But how do nukes actually work in Civ 7? And what will you need in order to reach them? Indeed, even if you don’t plan to use them – good on you for not destroying the world – you may well wish to unlock them for another purpose altogether. Here’s what you’ll need to know.
How To Unlock Nuclear Weapons In Civ 7
In order to wield the awesome and awful power of nukes in Civilization 7, you must do something rather surprising: fulfill the Military Legacy Path in the Modern Age. That’s right – you don’t unlock nukes through a tech. This is a radical departure from conventional Civilization wisdom.
We do have a guide on the Domination Victory Path (or Military Victory Path, as they’re really one and the same), so chart your full course through there, but the long and short of it is that you will need 20 Ideology Points in the Modern Age before the Manhattan Project can be initiated.
Via the Manhattan Project, a Wonder, you will be able to create nukes. The thing is, you will immediately unlock a project, Operation Ivy, which – upon completion – wins you the game.
How To Use Nuclear Weapons In Civ 7
With that in mind, you have a limited window within which to actually use those nuclear weapons, unless you’d prefer to wipe your foes off the map and win by “default”.
In that case, you’re doing more of the classic Civ “Domination” Victory, so while there’s no “real” reason to go this course, there’s nothing stopping you, either.
It’s worth noting that datamining has revealed plans for a fourth age, the Atomic Age. If Firaxis does go through with this big shakeup, nukes may play a more integral role once this presumably enormous post-launch update goes live.
In any case, the following conditions must be met in order to launch nukes:
- Build an Aerodrome. Preferably, one that’s in a city reasonably close to your rivals.
- Use the Nuclear Weapon Construction in the build screen.
- Deploy a nuke via Bomber aircraft – hence why you want your Aerodrome close to the enemy. Alternatively, though, you can take Bombers further abroad with Aircraft Carriers.
That’s it! You have to construct nukes one at a time, but they’ll do enough damage to make up for it. Just note that the Modern Age, like every age, does have a built-in timer, so you’ll want to get these conditions in place ASAP if global horror is your endgame strat.
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