Civilization 7 Victory Types Complete Guide to All Win Conditions

In Civilization 7, victory is never one-dimensional-whether you prefer the cunning of economic dominance, the might of military conquest, the brilliance of scientific innovation, or the charm of cultural influence, there’s a path for every strategist. Master the four Legacy Path victories-Economic, Military, Science, and Culture-by progressing through distinct ages and completing unique objectives, or aim for the Domination or Points victories to claim ultimate supremacy. Ready to lead your civilization to glory across Nintendo, PC, PlayStation, or Xbox? Here’s your essential guide to every victory type and how to achieve them.

There are three victory types in Civilization 7: Legacy Path (winning via traditional economic, military, science, or cultural means), Domination (winning by eliminating opponents), and Points (scoring the most Legacy Points in a game that times out).

In this Civilization 7 guide, we’ll give you an overview of all victory types, including details on how to get all victories.

Legacy Path Victories

Legacy Path Victories in Civilization 7 represent the traditional win conditions centered around four main categories: Economic, Military, Science, and Culture. Throughout the game’s ages-Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern-players work on completing specific objectives within these Legacy Paths to earn Legacy Points and unlock powerful bonuses that carry over to subsequent ages. While early achievements in these paths provide advantages, the actual victory is secured by completing a designated Legacy Path objective in the Modern Age, which instantly ends the game. If no player completes a Legacy Path victory by the end of the Modern Age, the player with the most accumulated Legacy Points wins via a Points Victory. This system encourages strategic planning across multiple eras to build towards a decisive triumph in the final age.

Legacy Path Victories are likely the victories you’ll be going for each game, and are the ones you’ll see most often. These are the “traditional” Civilization victories, and consist of four legacy branches: Economic, Military, Science, and Culture. To win using one of these paths, you’ll need to complete a specific Legacy Path in the Modern Age and complete their special objective, which instantly ends the game. Completing the same Legacy Path in previous ages will help you advance more quickly in the Modern Age.

Below, we’ll break down the general idea for each Legacy Path victory type.

Culture Victory

A Culture Victory is all about wowing the world with your civilization, and leaving a lasting legacy – think the impact that the ancient Greeks and Romans have had on pop culture.

In the Antiquity Age, you’ll build massive Wonders that will stand the test of time and provide your civilization with powerful boons. In the Exploration Age, you’ll leverage religious control to gather and display relics in temples around your kingdom. In the Modern Age, you’ll create and send explorers around the globe to dig up ancient artifacts to display in your museums. With enough artifacts on display, you’ll be able to create the World’s Fair Wonder to cement your global legacy.

For more information on how to win this way, check out our Culture Victory walkthrough.

Economic Victory

An Economic Victory is all about flouting your wealth and success, and leads to your civilization eventually establishing the World Bank.

In the Antiquity Age, you’ll establish trade routes with other civs to improve your wealth. In the Exploration Age, you’ll settle towns in other lands and create treasure fleets to ship back resources to the motherland. And in the Modern Age, you’ll create rail lines around the world, connecting other civilizations – and enriching yourself in the process.

For more information on how to win this way, check out our Economic Victory walkthrough.

Military Victory

A Military Victory is not all about slaughtering other civilizations and destroying their cities – although you can advance much more quickly if you spend a lot of time doing that. Instead, a Military Victory in Civilization is more of the dark, modern version of what that might mean: control and fear. This victory eventually culminates in the Manhattan Project.

In the Antiquity Age, you’ll earn Legacy Points by finding and capturing settlements. In the Exploration Age, you’ll settle or conquer new cities across the sea. In the Modern Age, you’ll craft an ideology and impose it on other settlements, converting them to your way of thinking before eventually capturing the world’s attention by building the ultimate form of deterrence.

For more information on how to win this way, check out our Military Victory walkthrough.

Science Victory

A Science Victory is about out-researching your allies, creating more powerful tech earlier in the game and steamrolling your opponents with extremely high yields in all of your cities.

In the Antiquity Age, you’ll earn Legacy Points by collecting Codices and displaying them in your palace and in academies around your kingdom. In the Exploration Age, you’ll utilize Specialists in your districts to increase your yield on individual tiles. In this Modern Age, you’ll research powerful flight projects, eventually leading to the launch of a satellite.

For more information on how to win this way, check out our Science Victory walkthrough.

Domination Victory

To achieve a Domination Victory in Civilization 7, you must conquer the capital city of every other civilization, effectively erasing all rivals from the map. This requires a powerful and expansive military force capable of overtaking all enemy settlements across multiple ages, starting realistically from the Exploration Age onward, as Domination Victory is not possible in the Antiquity Age without special settings. Success demands careful management of your military, technology, and civics to maintain a large enough settlement limit and happiness to support continuous warfare. Unlike Military Victory, which focuses on completing specific projects, Domination Victory is about total conquest and domination of the entire world, making it a challenging but rewarding path to claim ultimate supremacy.

A Domination Victory is exactly what it sounds like. To win in the Domination Victory style, you need toeffectively eliminate every other civilization on the face of the earth. This involves overtaking all of their settlements – both towns and cities – but it doesn’t include city-states or independent powers. This is going to involve a lot of Influence and raw military might, as you’ll be constantly at war.

It’s worth noting that the Domination Victory is not actually possible in the Antiquity Age – unless you’re doing a single-age game (as in not a full game that spans all three ages). However, once you can cross the ocean in the Exploration Age, you’ll be able to achieve this victory at any time, making it unique from any other victory.

Points Victory

In Civilization 7, a Points Victory is achieved by having the highest number of Legacy Points at the end of the Modern Age if no other victory condition has been met. Unlike other victory types that require completing specific objectives, the Points Victory rewards consistent progress across all ages by accumulating Legacy Points through various achievements. This victory type encourages players to focus on steady development and collecting Legacy Points from all Legacy Paths, making it a viable fallback strategy if other victory conditions seem out of reach. The game automatically ends at the conclusion of the Modern Age, so maintaining a lead in Legacy Points throughout the game is crucial to securing this win.

Typically in a game of Civilization 7, you or one of the other civilizations on the board will reach one of the other five victories described above – all of which stop the game immediately. If nobody reached that goal, however, the game will end when the third and final age, the Modern Age, times out. When this happens, the game will tally up how many Legacy Points each player has earned by completing Legacy Paths throughout the entire game. The player who has earned the most Legacy Points will be awarded a victory for the match.

What are the key strategies to unlock each victory type in Civ 7

Key Strategies to Unlock Each Victory Type in Civilization 7

1. Economic Victory

• Progress through the Economic Legacy Path by accumulating Railroad Tycoon Points across ages.

• In the Modern Age, accumulate 500 Railroad Tycoon Points and build the World Bank Wonder to secure victory.

• Focus on acquiring and managing factory resources efficiently, ensuring you have multiple copies of key resources in your cities to maximize economic output.

2. Military Victory

• Advance along the Military Legacy Path by conquering settlements to earn Ideology Points.

• Before unlocking Ideology, each conquered settlement grants 1 Ideology Point; after unlocking, it grants 2, and conquering settlements of different Ideology leaders grants 3 points.

• Reach 20 Ideology Points to unlock special rewards and progress the age.

• In the Modern Age, build the Manhattan Project Wonder and complete the Operation Ivy city project to end the game with a Military Victory.

• Alternatively, achieve a Domination Victory by eliminating all other civilizations from the game, which can be done as early as the Exploration Age by conquering all rival settlements.

3. Science Victory

• Follow the Science Legacy Path by researching key technologies and completing Masteries.

• Progress through the ages unlocking scientific advancements, culminating in the Modern Age with the launch of the first Staffed Space Flight.

• Completing this project secures a Science Victory.

4. Culture Victory

• Pursue the Cultural Legacy Path by building Wonders and collecting Artifacts through exploration.

• Research the Natural History Civic to train Explorers who can uncover Antiquity and Exploration Age Artifacts.

• Build Museums in your cities to display Artifacts (each can hold three Great Works), requiring at least five cities to display 15 Artifacts total.

• Use Explorers to reveal more Artifacts by standing on Museums or University tiles and using the Research Artifacts action.

• In the Modern Age, build the World’s Fair Wonder after displaying 15 Artifacts to instantly win a Cultural Victory.

5. Points Victory

• Accumulate the highest number of Legacy Points by the end of the Modern Age if no other victory condition is met.

• Gather Legacy Points by completing objectives in all Legacy Paths across the Antiquity and Exploration Ages, such as building Wonders and Codices.

• This victory rewards a well-rounded strategy that balances progress in multiple Legacy Paths.

Summary:
Victory in Civilization 7 requires strategic focus on one of the Legacy Paths-Economic, Military, Science, or Culture-each with unique objectives and rewards through the ages, culminating in a decisive project or Wonder in the Modern Age. Alternatively, players can pursue Domination by military conquest or aim for a Points victory by accumulating the most Legacy Points if other conditions are unmet.

What are the most effective ways to complete each Legacy Path in Civ 7

Most Effective Ways to Complete Each Legacy Path in Civilization 7

1. Economic Legacy Path (Silk Roads in Antiquity Age, Treasure Fleets in Exploration Age)

• Antiquity Age (Silk Roads):

  • Build a strong trade network by founding many cities and settlements, ideally near 3 or more resource tiles.

  • Assign at least 20 resources across your empire’s settlements to complete the path.

  • Unlock the Code of Laws civic to train merchants and create trade routes with foreign civilizations.

  • Improve diplomatic relations to establish multiple trade routes and slot resources efficiently in your cities.

• Exploration Age (Treasure Fleets):

  • Focus on venturing across deep ocean terrain to discover new continents and establish Treasure Fleets on valuable resources.

  • Manage trade routes and resource assignments to boost economic output and Legacy Points.

2. Military Legacy Path (Pax Imperatoria in Antiquity Age, Non Sufficit Orbis in Exploration Age)

• Antiquity Age:

  • Unlock the Discipline Civic to enhance military capabilities.

  • Train at least four military units and form a complete army with a commander.

  • Train siege units and actively capture enemy settlements to earn Ideology Points.

  • Each settlement founded grants 1 Legacy Point; each captured grants 2, and capturing settlements from different Ideology leaders grants 3 points.

  • Reach milestones by accumulating 6, 9, and 12 Legacy Points through conquest and military expansion.

• Exploration Age:

  • Continue military expansion by conquering new settlements and maintaining a strong army.

  • Use the Non Sufficit Orbis path to further military dominance and gain Golden Age bonuses.

3. Science Legacy Path (Great Library in Antiquity Age, Enlightenment in Exploration Age)

• Antiquity Age:

  • Research key technologies such as Writing and Mathematics early.

  • Build libraries and academies to display codices, which are scientific artifacts collected through research and city-state suzerainty.

  • Collect and display at least 6 to 10 codices across your cities to meet milestones.

  • Focus on research and mastery to progress efficiently through the Science Legacy Path.

• Exploration Age (Enlightenment):

  • Increase tile yields by building two buildings on tiles with adjacency bonuses and stacking specialists to exceed 40 total yield per tile.

  • Complete this on five separate tiles to fulfill the Enlightenment Legacy Path requirements.

4. Culture Legacy Path (Wonders of the Ancient World in Antiquity Age, Toshakhana in Exploration Age)

• Antiquity Age:

  • Construct Wonders progressively: build 1, then 2, then 4, and finally 7 Wonders to complete the path.

  • Wonders boost Culture and Happiness, and completing this path grants Golden Age bonuses like enhanced Amphitheaters.

  • Manage production efficiently to prioritize Wonder construction without stalling city growth.

• Exploration Age:

  • Focus on exploring and collecting Artifacts through trained Explorers.

  • Build Museums to display Artifacts, requiring at least five cities to hold 15 Artifacts total.

  • Use Explorers to reveal and research Artifacts, increasing cultural output.

  • Build the World’s Fair Wonder in the Modern Age after displaying 15 Artifacts to secure Cultural Victory.

Summary Table of Effective Completion Strategies

Following these focused strategies for each Legacy Path will maximize Legacy Points and set up your civilization for a strong position in the Modern Age and eventual victory.