Desert (Civ6)

Desert
Introduced in Civilization VI
Base Yields	None
Stats
Movement cost	1
Movement cost	1
Improvements
None None
None None

Back to List of terrains
Desert is a base terrain in Civilization VI. It is found in many parts of the world, sometimes as great expanses, sometimes as single tiles.

• Base yields: None
• With Petra: +2 Food, +1 Production, +2 Gold (does not apply to Floodplains)
• +1 Faith Adjacency bonus for Holy Site Districts with Desert Folklore Pantheon

Strategy

Without any oases or floodplains, desert tiles are not suited for settlement (except for the Australians and the Nubians, who can build their unique tile improvements there). For any city within or near a desert, the bare desert tiles should be reserved for districts or wonders unless a resource is found there. Thankfully, there are a few resources - such as Salt, Incense, and the all-important Aluminum (without which there are no modern airplanes!) - that are found mostly or only in deserts.

The Petra wonder can make deserts far more useful: it increases the base yield of desert tiles to be comparable to grassland hills or rainforest plains, and extends the bonus to oases (but not floodplains). An oasis in range of Petra will have the outstanding yield of 5 Food, 1 Production, and 3 Gold!

Deserts can also turn into great Faith boosters for civilizations which adopt the Desert Folklore Pantheon. Build a Holy Site in the middle of a desert for a whopping adjacency bonus of 5 or more!

Desert Names

Gathering Storm introduced a new mechanic in which Deserts can have different names based on the first civilization that finds them. Below is the list of the names and civilization of origin.

Desert	Civilization	Notes
Accona Desert	Rome
Al-Dahna Desert	Arabia
Al-Nafud	Arabia
Arabian Desert	Arabia
Atacama Desert	Inca
Bayuda Desert	Nubia
Bledowska Desert	Poland
Chihuahuan Desert	America
Colorado Plateau Desert	America
Danakil Desert
Dasht-e Kavir	Persia
Dash-e lut	Persia
Dasht-e Margo
El Djouf	Mali
Gibson Desert	Australia
Gobi Desert	China and Mongolia
Great Basin Desert	America
Great Sand Sea	Egypt
Great Sandy Desert	Australia
Great Victoria Desert	Australia
Karakum Desert	Persia
Rangipo Desert	Maori	Not a true desert with regards to rainfall, but frequent strong winds, loose, poor soil and harsh winters mean that only tussock grasses can grow there.
Sahara Desert	Egypt/Nubia
Sechura Desert	Inca
Tanezrouft Basin	Mali/Ottomans/Phoenicia
Tengger Sand Sea	Indonesia

Civilopedia entry

In general, deserts are remarkably useless, except to those creatures and man who have learned to live there. The true deserts of the world – the Sahara, Gobi, Mojave, Great Victoria, and such – have been swallowing men and civilizations since history began.

Gallery

A Desert tile from Gifts of the Nile