Beliefs are the practical expressions of the divine powers. Similarly to Pantheons, they take the form of gameplay bonuses and can increase yields of particular gameplay elements (buildings, districts, etc.), allow access to new ones, or modify game mechanics. However, unlike Pantheons, they work only in the cities which currently follow their particular Religion, even inside the empire of the Religion's founder.
Mechanics[]
There are four main types of belief in the game: Follower Belief, Worship Belief, Founder Belief, and Enhancer Belief. Every Religion can only have a maximum of four beliefs, one of each type.
Each Religion is attributed with beliefs, which are in fact gameplay bonuses.
Faith. Only one worship building can be built per Holy Site and cannot be changed even when that Religion is no longer dominant in that city.
When you found your Religion, it starts with two beliefs. Of these two, the first one to choose is a mandatory Follower Belief, and the other may be a Founder Belief, a Worship Belief or an Enhancer Belief. Later, you may add two additional beliefs to your Religion using an Apostle's Evangelize Belief action. This will destroy the Apostle, so you'll need to sacrifice two Apostles to have the maximum number of beliefs allowed. You may add these beliefs whenever you wish - that is, there is no time limit to this possibility, and the limited number of Religions that can be created ensures that you will always have some beliefs to choose from.
All beliefs are unique, chosen from a common pool, and can be assigned to only one Religion. That means that later-founded Religions cannot choose beliefs which have already been assigned to earlier Religions. Thus, the more Religions are founded, the fewer beliefs there will be to choose from and if you are late at founding your Religion, your choice will be more limited.
List of beliefs[]
Follower[]
These benefit any city that follows the religion, regardless of who its Founder was. Players who have not Founded a Religion will mainly benefit from this type of Beliefs.
Belief | Effect |
---|---|
Choral Music | Shrines and Temples provide ![]() ![]() |
Divine Inspiration | Wonders provide +4 ![]() |
Feed the World | Shrines and Temples provide ![]() ![]() |
Jesuit Education | May purchase Campus and Theater Square district buildings with ![]() |
Religious Community | Shrines and Temples each provide +1 ![]()
|
Reliquaries | Triple ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Warrior Monks | Allows spending ![]()
|
Work Ethic | +1% ![]()
|
Zen Meditation | +1 ![]() |
Worship[]
These allow any city that follows the religion to build (or use Faith to purchase) Tier 3 worship buildings in its Holy Site districts. Note that each Holy Site may contain only one worship building, which stays there permanently. If the dominant religion in the city changes later, and the new one has a different Worship Belief, you will not be able to replace the worship building that already exists there.
Belief | Effect |
---|---|
![]() Cathedral |
+3 ![]() ![]() |
![]() Dar-e Mehr |
+3 ![]() ![]()
|
![]() Gurdwara |
+3 ![]() ![]() |
![]() Meeting House |
+3 ![]() ![]() |
![]() Mosque |
+3 ![]() |
![]() Pagoda |
+3 ![]() ![]()
|
![]() Stupa |
+3 ![]() ![]() |
![]() Synagogue |
+5 ![]() |
![]() Wat |
+3 ![]() ![]() |
Founder[]
These benefit only the civilization that founded the religion (or the Kongolese thanks to Mvemba a Nzinga's leader ability). Their starting benefits may be slightly weaker than other belief types, but they will work for each converted city or for each follower, potentially increasing the benefits far beyond other belief types.
Belief | Effect |
---|---|
Church Property[1] | +2 ![]() |
Cross-Cultural Dialogue | +1 ![]()
|
Lay Ministry | Each Holy Site or Theater Square district in a city following this Religion provides +1 ![]() ![]() |
Papal Primacy | Type bonuses from City-States following your Religion are 50% more powerful.
|
Pilgrimage | +2 ![]()
|
Religious Unity | +1 ![]() |
Sacred Places ![]() |
+2 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Stewardship | Each Campus or Commercial Hub district in a city following this Religion provides +1 ![]() ![]() |
Tithe | +1 ![]()
|
World Church | +1 ![]()
|
Enhancer[]
These beliefs aid the spread and defense of the religion. Only the founder of the Religion will benefit from these (or the Kongolese thanks to Mvemba a Nzinga's leader ability).
Belief | Effect |
---|---|
Burial Grounds[1] | Culture Bomb adjacent tiles when completing a Holy Site. |
Crusade | Combat units gain +10 ![]() |
Defender of the Faith | Combat units gain +5 ![]() |
Holy Order | Missionaries and Apostles are 30% cheaper to Purchase. |
Holy Waters ![]() |
Increases Healing of your religious units by +10 in Holy Site districts belonging to cities with your majority religion, or any adjacent tiles. |
Itinerant Preachers | Religion spreads to cities 30% further away. |
Missionary Zeal | Religious units ignore movement costs of terrain and features. |
Monastic Isolation | Your Religion's pressure never drops due to losses in Theological Combat. |
Religious Colonization | Cities start with this religion in place if founded by a player who has this as their majority religion. |
Scripture | Religious spread from adjacent city pressure is 25% stronger. Boosted to 50% once Printing is researched. |
Strategy[]
Good religious beliefs can be the deciding factor in close games. As such, let's review each belief and how useful it is.
Follower Beliefs[]
Belief | Strategy |
---|---|
Choral Music | Incredible belief, though it does not sound like it. ![]() ![]() |
Divine Inspiration | Civilizations that like building wonders can particularly benefit from this belief. Try to get this one if playing as Qin Shi Huang, Egypt, or France. |
Feed the World | This belief is a lot better in Gathering Storm, as its bonus ![]() ![]() |
Jesuit Education | This belief is best used in the hands of a civilization with great ![]() |
Religious Community | Never pick this belief if playing in a version before Gathering Storm. In Gathering Storm, it does not matter which civilization you are playing as, but who your neighbor is. Pick if your neighbors love building Holy Sites and developing them, most notably Arabia and Khmer. Civlizations who focus on trade routes like Egypt, Cree, Mali, and Portugal get the best usage of |
Reliquaries | If you are intending to playing a Cultural game with ![]() |
Warrior Monks | Another belief that is better in the expansions. In the base game, this belief should rarely be picked, as detailed here. On the other hand, Gathering Storm combines Burial Grounds with this belief, making it slightly better, especially for Poland, but only if they are playing a Religious/Domination game, and not a Cultural one. |
Work Ethic | An underwhelming belief before Gathering Storm. On the other hand, Gathering Storm changes it to be much better for civilizations such as Japan, Russia, Mali, Khmer, and Brazil, which can easily get massive adjacency bonuses. |
Zen Meditation | One ![]() |
Worship Beliefs[]
Belief | Strategy |
---|---|
![]() Cathedral |
This worship building is most useful for a player going for a Cultural victory. It can augment a Holy Site's ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Dar-e Mehr |
This worship building provides increasing amounts of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Gurdwara |
This worship building allows the Holy Site to increase city growth, especially if combined with the Feed the World follower belief. Note that the ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In Gathering Storm, this building now also grants 1 extra |
![]() Meeting House |
This worship building also boosts city ![]() It is especially useful if your cities are in areas with lots of grassland tiles (which give no |
![]() Mosque |
The Mosque can help speed up the spread of your religion, making it very useful when pursuing a Religious Victory. The main advantage of it is that you only really need one. That makes it a much cheaper investment than all the other religious buildings (which are frankly expensive for what you get), though later in the game you may want to dot a few more around the globe.
This building has extra synergy with the Hagia Sophia and the Orator promotion, as it can give Apostles an unprecedented seven Spread Religion charges. |
![]() Pagoda |
Similarly to the Gurdwara, the Pagoda also helps city growth, this time by providing additional ![]() ![]() In Gathering Storm, the |
![]() Stupa |
This worship building provides an ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Synagogue |
This worship building simply boosts a Holy Site's ![]() ![]() |
![]() Wat |
This worship building allows the Holy Site to boost your civilization's scientific research - something quite strange for a worship building. It may prove very useful in all situations, though, especially if you don't have any other particular strategy regarding worship buildings, and if you're not pursuing a Religious victory. Arabia will want to take this building if they can, because they are strong in both religion and science. You may also want to take it for some extra ![]() |
Founder Beliefs[]
Belief | Strategy |
---|---|
Church Property | The amount of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Cross-Cultural Dialogue | This belief really comes into play in the late game, where it can bring you massive amounts of ![]() |
Lay Ministry | This belief relies on what your enemies do more than what you do, and the amount of yields you get back are not worth the ![]() |
Papal Primacy | Decent in vanilla, not worth picking up since Rise and Fall unless you are playing as Tamar. |
Pilgrimage | A so-so belief for ones seeking a Religious Victory. The amount of ![]() |
Religious Unity | Free ![]() |
Sacred Places | It is most reliable when you are the one who prioritizes building Wonders and not others. Best for Qin Shi Huang, Egypt and France. |
Stewardship | Similarly to Lay Ministry, very unreliable. |
Tithe | A fairly strong way to make ![]() ![]() |
World Church | Similar to Cross-Cultural Dialogue, but for ![]() |
Enhancer Beliefs[]
Belief | Strategy |
---|---|
Burial Grounds[1] | A pretty bad belief, unless picked up by Poland. |
Crusade | A great choice for any militaristic civilization, especially if they also have a religious skew. Spain, Byzantium, and Poland should all aim for this belief. Despite not having a religious skew, Babylon can potentially found an early religion and pick this belief to help them on their path to a Domination Victory. |
Defender of the Faith | This belief is a good choice for any defensive civilization or ones that anticipate an attack from aggressive neighbors. |
Holy Order | ![]() ![]() |
Holy Waters | Can be useful in a game where you seek a Religious Victory but are playing against a lot of other religious civilizations. Otherwise, this is a wonky belief that is very hard to successfully pull off. |
Itinerant Preachers | The bonus provided by this belief is far too weak to be of any consequence, and it should usually be passed over. |
Missionary Zeal | This belief allows your religious units to reach civilizations far away in less time. Don't pick this belief on a water map, since it does not make embarking and disembarking easier, or shorten the time required to cross oceans. |
Monastic Isolation | This belief can work as a backup for anyone who builds Mont St. Michel, if they care about establishing their religious foothold, as their Missionaries and Apostles are regularly killed in theological combat. Most of the time, however, they collect ![]() |
Religious Colonization | This belief is a lot more useful than it sounds. Normally, civilizations that have been converted to your religion can easily become unconverted if they found enough new cities. By picking this belief, once your religion has taken ahold of a civilization, they will have to take actual steps via Inquisitors in order to remove it. Even under cases where no offensive religious actions are planned, this belief may still be picked to save faith which is otherwise spent on Missionaries and Apostles to spread a religion across one's own empire. |
Scripture | Passive religious pressure is very weak, and this bonus does little to improve it, so there are better beliefs to pick. |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Removed from Gathering Storm in the June 2020 Update.
Civilization VI Religion [edit] | |
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Default Religions | Buddhism • Catholicism • Confucianism • Eastern Orthodoxy • Hindu Dharma1 • Hinduism • Islam • Judaism • Mahayana Buddhism1 • Protestantism • Shaivism1 • Shinto • Sikhism • Taoism • Theravada Buddhism1 • Vajrayana Buddhism1 • Zoroastrianism |
Pantheons | City Patron Goddess • Dance of the Aurora • Desert Folklore • Divine Spark • Earth Goddess • Fertility Rites • Fire Goddess ![]() |
See also | Beliefs |
1 Specific scenarios only
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