Difficulty level (Civ6)

The difficulty level is a game setting in Civilization VI that allows players to compete against AI opponents matched to their skills and desire for challenge. In order from lowest to highest, the difficulty levels are as follows:

• Settler
• Chieftain
• Warlord
• Prince
• King
• Emperor
• Immortal
• Deity

Since the computer players are not controlled by advanced AI, but instead behave based on a very long list of if-then statements (i.e. cannot learn from and react to the player's strategies by changing their own accordingly), the game makes the AI leaders more challenging opponents by giving them advantages on higher difficulty levels. The bonuses conferred to both human and AI players on each difficulty level are listed in the table below.

All of the information presented here comes from the articles cited below and the game's XML files.

Element	Settler	Chieftain	Warlord	Prince	King	Emperor	Immortal	Deity
AI Science/ Culture/ Faith Bonuses	+0%	+0%	+0%	+0%	+8%	+16%	+24%	+32%
AI Production/ Gold Bonuses	+0%	+0%	+0%	+0%	+20%	+40%	+60%	+80%
AI Combat Bonus	-1	-1	-1	0	+1	+2	+3	+4
Player Combat Bonus	+3	+2	+1	0	0	0	0	0
AI Combat XP	+0%	+0%	+0%	+0%	+10%	+20%	+30%	+40%
Player Combat XP	+45%	+30%	+15%	+0%	+0%	+0%	+0%	+0%
AI Free Tech/Civics Boosts	0	0	0	0	1	2	3	4
AI Starting Settlers	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	3
AI Starting Warriors	1	1	1	1	2	3	4	5
AI Starting Builders	0	0	0	0	1*	1	2	2
Barbarian Camp Gold	45	40	35	30	30	30	30	30

^* The AI receives this Builder after completing its first district.

Related achievements

Game, Settler, Match Win a regular game at Settler difficulty or harder. A pun on the phrase used at the conclusion of a tennis match or another competition.

Irish Heartbeat Win a regular game at Chieftain difficulty or harder. Irish Heartbeat is the name of an album by Van Morrison in collaboration with The Chieftains.

Warlording Over Others Win a regular game at Warlord difficulty or harder. The phrase 'lording over others' refers to being in a dominant position over others.

Machiavelli's Great Work Win a regular game at Prince difficulty or harder. The Prince is the name of Machiavelli's most famous work of writing.

The Divine Right of Kings Win a regular game at King difficulty or harder. The divine right of kings is the idea that kings are not subject to earthly authority because they rule by the will of God.

Emperor's New Groove Win a regular game at Emperor difficulty or harder. A reference to The Emperor's New Groove, a 2000 Disney animated film.

12 Labors of Hercules Win a regular game at Immortal difficulty or harder. Hercules notoriously had to accomplish 12 seemingly impossible feats to regain his immortality, such as slaying the Hydra and capturing Cerberus alive.

God-Like Win a regular game at Deity difficulty. In the FPS game Unreal Tournament, 'God-like' was one of the largest killstreak ranks. The ranking names were popular, and set a precedent for many multiplayer video games to follow.