What are Civilization 7 specialists? As you lead your civilization into war, scientific advancements, or cultural excellence, your population is busy working away under the surface, building a steady flow of resources. Just like in real life, you’re going to need highly trained individuals to improve yield. In Civilization 7, this is where specialists come in.
To reach any of the Civ 7 victories in the 4X game, you must excel in every area. Your civilians need to be happy, fed, and your armies should be strong enough to prevent invasion from other Civ 7 leaders – or strong enough to invade others. While you’ll spend most of your time in Civilization 7 commanding military units, you shouldn’t forget those working civilians grafting away behind the scenes, and Civ 7 specialists are another type of citizen who can boost your income.
What are Civ 7 specialists?
Specialists in Civilization 7 are civilians who can be placed on urban tiles to increase science and culture yields, with up to four specialists allowed on each. However, they negatively impact food yield and, sometimes, happiness.
Specialists have featured in all Civilization games so far, but have a greater impact in Civ 7, as demonstrated by the Science Legacy Path quest which asks you to place a set number of specialists to achieve a science victory. Even if you’re not, it helps to progress through multiple Legacy Paths, so you should still look ahead to placing specialists when you can. They also increase adjacent yields in some cases, so can be a considerable support to increasing your output, regardless of your chosen path.
Specialists are passive, meaning you don’t need to do anything once they’re placed, besides let them gradually impact your flow of goods.
How do you place Civ 7 specialists?
The opportunity to place specialists occurs on urban tiles with a high enough population. When it comes to ‘growing’ your town, you may see a blue tile alongside the green ones. Green tiles add population to your town by adding a new industry, like a woodcutter or mine. With a high enough population, blue tiles will automatically appear as an option to grow your town further. Blue tiles already have buildings and a working population, but can have an additional specialist to increase yield.
Before selecting the tile, you can see how much it will impact your income, including food, happiness, science, and culture. Earlier in the game, it might be better to prioritize expansion over specialists, due to the negative impact they can have. Use the town summary on the left-hand side to assess your needs.
As an example, you may see that adding a specialist will increase your science and culture by two, but reduce your food and happiness by two as well. Looking at your town summary, you may see that your happiness is high, and your science low, so you can afford to hire the specialist. If, on the contrary, your food and happiness are struggling, use an expansion tile to increase these stats first.
Now you know how to place Civilization 7 specialists and why you might want to, it’s up to you how, when, and where to bring them into your plan in the strategy game. Of course, this might depend on which Civ 7 Legacy Path you’re focused on, and which of the Civ 7 civilizations you’re currently leading.