The Best Science Civs, Ranked

Science-focused civilizations are abundant in Civ 7, with different nations giving the player a different kind of edge in the technology sector. Throughout the different ages, players will want to complete the Science legacy paths, and getting the right civilizations for the job is extremely important.

The science legacy paths aren’t particularly difficult if the player has an idea of what to do, but it can be a treacherous road for the uninitiated. The exploration age legacy path in particular can be quite difficult to achieve.

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6

Maya

The Sun Goes Round and Round

The Mayan empire is one of the best civilizations in the age of antiquity that the player can choose. Its unique civic, Calendar Round, lets the players gain culture equal to 10% of the cost of a technology after it is researched, and vice versa. Essentially, it reduces the cost of researching both Civics and Technologies by 10%, on average.

All vegetated terrain tiles around the palace get extra science, and players get a boost towards building the Mundo Perdido wonder, which gives extra science and happiness for tropical terrain in the settlement. This becomes relevant in the exploration age when players need to increase the output of each tile. Its unique buildings and quarters also synergize quite well, giving additional science boosts and production costs every time a technology is researched.

5

Khmer

A City of Specialists

The Khmer civilization has an expansionist scientific play style, and its unique abilities reflect that. Players with this civilization have a production bonus towards constructing the Angkor Wat, a natural wonder that gives the player a +1 specialist limit in the settlement it is built in, and +3 happiness. Additionally, the policy Verna gives the player +1 gold from specialists, while the policy Kambu-Mera essentially removes the cost of maintaining specialists.

The Baray unique building gives the player +3 food and +1 food on all floodplains in the settlement it is built in. Only one can be built per settlement, but if the player has a few floodplains within their borders, they won’t need to worry about their food for quite a while.

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4

Abbasid

The Union of Religion and Science

During the exploration age, the main goal of the player is to increase the output of their tiles as much as they can to go through the scientific legacy path. This includes slotting specialists into urban tiles, getting adjacency bonuses, and expanding the empire. The Abbasid civilization is uniquely suited to this task because of the many bonuses it has.

The Ulema quarter gives +1 science to all specialists. The unique buildings, the Mosque and the Madrasa, give additional happiness and science adjacency bonuses for quarters, science buildings, and wonders respectively. One helps increase tile output, while the other helps afford more specialists. The Sales and Trade policy gives +3 gold and science for each resource assigned to cities with at least 8 Urban population, and different unique civics increase production and science in settlements with urban populations.

3

Inca

The Adjacent Scientist

Although the Inca civ doesn’t have a scientific play style according to the game, the facts beg to differ. Firstly, it grants the player additional production when creating the Machu Pickchu wonder. This wonder is extremely powerful when attempting to go through the scientific legacy path as it gives an adjacency bonus of +4 gold and culture to all adjacent buildings.

Players will have plenty of food to maintain specialists because of the terrace farm unique improvement. It is a civilization that thrives within rough terrain, and it has units that can ignore movement penalties from rough terrain as well, making it an interesting civilization to play as.

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2

Meiji Japan

Keep Building, Above and Beyond

Overbuilding is an essential mechanic that players need to understand if they want to stand a chance in the higher difficulties. Meiji Japan takes advantage of this mechanic and gives the player science equal to 50% of a building’s production cost when you overbuild on it.

The wonder, Dogo Onsen, gives the player an additional population every time you enter a celebration. In the late game, this is very powerful as increasing the population beyond a certain number becomes extremely difficult. Additionally, its unique civics give the player additional production towards constructing science buildings, while its unique quarter gives the player additional gold and production on buildings in adjacent districts.

1

Russia

Decent Overall Pick

Russia is a great civ overall that has many ways to increase food production and can fend for itself in a pinch. It also has some decent bonuses towards science, making it suitable for all kinds of victory conditions. Its Westernization policy gives a 15% boost to science while decreasing culture.

It is important to have a robust scientific tradition to win the game through a science victory, but as the player gets closer to launching a space mission, their fellow players will start to declare wars to prevent that from happening. That’s why it’s important to have a well-rounded civ that can take punches without collapsing.

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Grand Strategy

Turn-Based Strategy

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Released

February 11, 2025