Tech and Civic Shuffle (Civ6)

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Tech and Civic Shuffle game mode icon

Tech and Civic Shuffle is the third game mode in Civilization VI, introduced in the August 2020 Update. It provides extra replayability to the game by hiding and randomizing positions of all technologies and civics. It is available to all players, regardless of their ownership status of the expansions and the New Frontier Pass.

Mechanics

This is maybe the most straightforward mode in the game. Simply put, the tech and civics trees get randomized, similarly to the Future Era techs and civics in Rise and Fall. Here are the details:

• Technologies and civics will be shuffled within their respective eras (e.g. you will not find Rocketry in the Medieval Era or Irrigation in the Renaissance Era).
• The layouts of the two trees (e.g. the number of branches, the number of leaf technologies and civics) change every game.
• Identities and positions of every technology and civic in the game will be hidden (except for Code of Laws and the three opening technologies: Animal Husbandry, Mining, and Pottery). Prerequisites and costs of them will also be randomized according to their new positions within their eras of research.
• The randomized trees will be identical for all players in the game.
• Unlockables will not be changed.
• Technologies and civics can be revealed by researching all of their prerequisites, or when they are boosted by Eurekas and Inspirations.

Strategy

This mode is deceptively simple - randomizing the trees may sound as just a slight change, without many gameplay repercussions. This is far from true, however, because players will be forced to adjust their progression strategy on the fly! Not being able to even see exactly where a core technology or civic is in the tree may cause a number of difficulties for every player, from the inability to build certain units or districts at the moment when you need them most, to simply delaying general progression. Although there is no definitive solution, one simple method that you can try to do every game is to trigger the Eurekas and Inspirations of whichever techs and civics you are searching for. After successfully locating their positions, you still have to figure out what techs/civics are the prerequisites for what you need, so put at least 1 turn of research into these prerequisites for them to reveal themselves, and then consider whether or not you can trigger the boost conditions of those techs/civics as well.

Some wonders become more inconvenient to build under a shuffled technology tree. For example, Oxford University requires an adjacent University. In the usual technology tree, Oxford University is unlocked by Scientific Theory, which requires Education, which unlocks Universities. Under a shuffled technology tree, however, it is possible for Scientific Theory and Education to be on separate branches of the technology tree. Another example is the Venetian Arsenal.

Overall, this mode is for people who would really like strategy-disrupting changes. Civilizations with power spikes that rely a lot on precise timing (like Poland, Indonesia, or Vietnam) may find this mode extra challenging, while civilizations who love triggering boost conditions regardless (like China or Babylon) may have a leg up.