Specialists (Civ5)

Back to Game concepts (Civ5)

Specialists are Citizens of your empire who, instead of laboring in the fields and mines around the cities, dedicate themselves to more refined work in certain buildings with appropriate slots. While assigning a Citizen to a specialist slot means they can't work a tile, Specialists are very important for your civilization because they are the main source of Great People Points (GPPs), and thus are central to your Great People generation. For more info on that, see this article.

Specialists are divided into several types, depending on the building to which they're assigned. Besides certain types of GPPs, each type will also produce a yield - Production, Gold, Culture, or Science - which is added to the base output of the city and therefore subject to enhancement bonuses. Culture and Science aren't usually available from tiles, so well-placed Specialists can help supply your empire with these yields.

Despite Unhappiness from Specialists being shown separately from Unhappiness from the rest of the Population, Specialists produce no more Unhappiness than any other Citizens, and can even produce less with the right enhancers (see below).

Specialist Enhancers[]

See also: Great People (Civ5) § How to Earn Great People

Enhancer	Effect
Statue of Liberty	+1 Production from Specialists (including Unemployed) in every city.
International Space Station	+1 Production from Scientists and +1 Science from Engineers
Secularism	+2 Science from each Specialist.
Democracy	Specialists produce half the normal amount of Unhappiness. (Only in vanilla Civilization V and Gods & Kings; Freedom Ideology Tenet in Brave New World.)
Civil Society	Specialists consume only half the normal amount of Food (1 Food instead of 2 Food). (Only in vanilla Civilization V and Gods & Kings; Freedom Ideology Tenet in Brave New World.)

Artist[]

Artist (Vanilla and Gods & Kings)[]

+3 Culture
+3 Great Artist points

Building	Specialist slots
Temple	(only in vanilla)
Mud Pyramid Mosque	(only in vanilla)
Museum	(only in vanilla and Gods & Kings)
Opera House; Ceilidh Hall	(only in vanilla and Gods & Kings)
Cathedral	(only in Gods & Kings)
Amphitheater	(only in Gods & Kings)

Artists, Musicians, and Writers (Brave New World)[]

In the Brave New World expansion pack, the Artist has been split into three new kinds of Specialist: Writer, Artist, and Musician (see below). All of the cultural buildings that provide slots for Artists in vanilla/Gods & Kings have been altered - they now provide Great Work slots instead. Similarly, all wonders that used to provide Great Artist points have now been altered to provide Great Work slots of the three types.

Only the three Guilds now provide slots for Specialists, as well as GPPs towards the specific Great Person.

Artist (Brave New World)[]

+3 Culture
+3 Great Artist points

Building	Specialist slots
Artists' Guild	(Artist)(Artist)

Musician[]

+3 Culture
+3 Great Musician points

Building	Specialist slots
Musicians' Guild	(Musician)(Musician)

Writer[]

+3 Culture
+3 Great Writer points

Building	Specialist slots
Writers' Guild	(Writer)(Writer)

Engineer[]

+2 Production
+3 Great Engineer points

Building	Specialist slots
Workshop; Longhouse
Windmill; Coffee House
Factory

Merchant[]

+2 Gold
+3 Great Merchant points

Building	Specialist slots
Market; Bazaar
Bank; Satrap's Court; Hanse
Stock Exchange

Scientist[]

+3 Science
+3 Great Scientist points

Building	Specialist slots
University; Wat
Public School
Research Lab

Unemployed[]

+1 Production

In a few ways, Unemployed citizens behave like Specialists. They don't work tiles and they receive the bonus from the Statue of Liberty as though they were Specialists, but they receive no other specialist bonuses^{[Verify. True for Secularism.]} and produce little benefit. The number of slots for Unemployed citizens is unlimited.

Notes[]

Added in the Gods & Kings expansion pack.

Added in the Brave New World expansion pack.