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Difficulty settings are a touchy subject in a lot of games, andCivilization 7is no exception. As opposed to Civ 6, which had eight difficulties, now, Civ 7 is down to six overall. This means there’s a lot less nuance between each difficulty.
So now it’s more important than ever that you select the right difficulty setting for you. But how do you know which one is right for you, especially if you’ve never played a Civ game before? Here’s everything you need to know to choose the best difficulty settings for yourself as you embark on your journey in Civilization 7.
How Does Difficulty Work?
Just like previous games in the series,difficulty in Civilization 7 does not necessarily increase the AI’s intelligencefor other Civs. Rather,difficulty toggles which advantages or disadvantages your opponents receive.
Effect
Combat Strength
This affects the overall strength of the units you fight against.
Independent powers may have stronger military prowess.
Yields
Changes how high enemy Civs yields are for resources and more.
Production
Production costs for buildings and units can go down for enemy Civs.
Difficulty can alsoalter two very important stats in the game:
In previous games in the series,Tech Cost and Civic cost changes affected both the player and the AI,and this is likely the case for Civ 7as well, though unconfirmed.
Which Difficulty Should You Choose?
All in all,there are six different difficulties to choose fromin Civilization 7.
By default,your first campaign will be set at Governor, which is one above the lowest difficulty. While you can certainly lower the difficulty for your first go-around,we recommend giving Governor a try first.
However, if you’re looking to customize your experience, or are abeginner to the franchise,here’s a breakdown of each difficulty.
Details
Scribe
This is thelowest possible difficulty setting. Most enemy Civs and Independent powers will likely have nerfs to their yields and overall aggression.
This difficulty is best if you’ve never played a Civ or hex-based strategy game beforeor are new to strategy games in general.
Governor
This is the default setting for the game.We recommend starting hereand tailoring your experience afterward.
Governor difficulty involves some enemy aggression and isbest for those who are new to Civ 7 but not new to Civilization as a franchise.
Viceroy
Based on data-mined info available online, Viceroy appears to bethe first level of difficulty in which the enemy AI’s combat prowess goes up.
If you are a highly skilled Civ 6 player, starting on Viceroy might work for youas a good intro to Civ 7’s different mechanics. Just start with the tutorials switched on.
Sovereign
Beyond Viceory is where the difficulty scales pretty sharply.Enemies start to have significantly higher buffs availableto them and are super aggressive.
If this is your first time in Civ 7, you definitely don’t want to start here, even if you’ve played a lot of Civ games before.
Immortal
Immortal will see enemies granted extremely high handicapsand buffs to stats. At this point, Tech and Civic cost increases also start to get pretty intense.
This difficulty can feel intensely grindy, and we don’t recommend it unless you’ve handily won several campaigns on Sovereign.
Deity
Like most top-tier Civ difficulty levels,the jump to Deity is pretty intense. In some ways, it’s almost meant to be comically hard.
Select Deity if you’re feeling lucky, or if you’re truly bored with all other difficulty settingsfor a fun extra challenge.
Civilization 7 is a complicated game, andit may take a few campaigns to find the difficulty that’s best for you.
If you want to experiment with a lot of different difficulties,start with shorter campaigns before going onto longer ones.
