Tile improvement (Civ6)

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Tile improvements are modifications on tiles created by units to improve tile yields, gain resources, improve a civilization's defense, or provide infrastructure.

Basics

Although most improvements are constructed by Builders, there are some which are great engineering challenges, or are considered of particular importance for military purposes, and are thus entrusted to the Military Engineer. The Roman Fort and the Pā are exceptions here - they can only be built by a Roman Legion and a Māori Toa, respectively. Constructing an improvement consumes one build charge in most cases. Improvements may also be removed, which does not consume any charges.

In most cases, tile improvements may only be built within a civilization's territory or in a city-state when the player is its Suzerain. All of the Military Engineer's improvements save the Missile Silo are exceptions to this rule, and may also be constructed on neutral terrain.

All tile improvements except Farms are unlocked by researching technologies (or in rare cases - Civics). The Farm is considered the primordial improvement learned when your tribe developed Agriculture and thus jumped the gap from the life of the hunter-gatherer to civilized life.

Tile improvements may only be constructed on certain types of terrain, or on resources. Improvements may not be constructed on tiles that already contain a city district or wonder. Also, in most cases they cannot be constructed on tiles with removable features (Woods, Rainforest, Marsh, which will have to be removed first), unless there is a resource present which is accessed through this improvement.

Like districts, some improvements gain an adjacency bonus for being built next to certain types of terrain, other improvements, resources, or wonders.

You can always replace Improvements later if you decide you can use their tile in a better way. Remember that, unlike districts and wonders they are non-permanent. It takes a single action of a Builder unit (which doesn't consume a charge) to remove an Improvement.

Like districts, improvements may be pillaged by hostile forces such as Barbarians. A Builder will have to repair them before they can regain their functions; this action doesn't consume a charge.

In Gathering Storm disasters may also pillage Improvements, or even outright remove them from the tile.

Housing from Tile Improvements

There are several tile improvements which also provide Housing Housing, one of the new features in Civilization VI. They are the Farm, the Pasture, the Camp, Fishing Boats, and the Plantation (and the Seastead in Gathering Storm), beside other special improvements. All of them serve as alternatives to city Housing Housing, and besides their yield boosts provide 0.5 Housing Housing each (2 for the Seasted) to the city working them. Thus, a city controlling land suitable for building these improvements has an alternative source of Housing Housing for its farmers, ranchers, hunters, and fishermen, and is able to grow its Population faster.

Power from Tile Improvements

Gathering Storm introduces a new game system: Power, and there are several late game Improvements which can provide it: Wind Farm, Solar Farm, Offshore Wind Farm and Geothermal Plant. They are all sustainable energy alternatives to the traditional Power Plants which burn fossil fuel to power up your cities. The good news is that all save the last one may be constructed on practically all sort of terrains (the first one on flat tiles, the second one on Hill tiles, the last one in Coastal tiles), which makes good use of all these tiles in your territory you can't otherwise take advantage of. For more info, head here.

Special Improvements

There are certain improvements which may only be constructed under special circumstances. Excluding the Governor - specific improvements, they can be divided in two groups:

• City-State specific improvements, which become available to the Suzerain of a particular City-state;
• Civilization specific improvements, available only to specific civilizations.

These Improvements do not replace generic ones - they are available as extra options and may often be built on terrain which can otherwise accept no Standard improvement. Special improvements are not used to connect resources and, unless otherwise noted, cannot be built on tiles that contain woods, rainforest or marsh.

Note, however, that once constructed these improvements will continue functioning even though the necessary conditions for their placement have vanished. For example, if you're no longer the Suzerain of the relevant City-State, if that City-State doesn't exist anymore (has been conquered and thus its special functions - extinguished) or if Liang is removed from the city.

On that note, the Seaside Resort will continue functioning even if the Appeal of its tile falls bellow 4 - the only effect will be the diminished Gold and Tourism yield.

Improvements' Adjacency bonuses

Many Improvements also enjoy Adjacency bonuses: the first and most important one of them is the Farm, which gets additional Food for other nearby Farms; but many Unique improvements also get diverse bonuses from nearby terrain, features, or other Improvements. Read carefully Improvement descriptions and plan accordingly to make the best use of your space!

List of Tile Improvements

Standard Improvements

These improvements are available to all civilizations (after relevant research, of course).

Name	Technology/ Civic	Where can be placed	Resource	Base Yield Modifier & Notes	Plunder
Farm	None	Grassland,  Plains, Desert Floodplains or resource; also on  Grassland (Hills) and  Plains (Hills) with Civil Engineering	Wheat Wheat, Rice Rice	+1 Food +0.5 Housing Housing +1 Food for every adjacent Farm when 3 Farms are adjacent to each other (Feudalism) +1 Food for every adjacent Farm improvement (Replaceable Parts)	Healing
Mine	Mining	Hills or resource	Copper Copper, Diamonds Diamonds, Gold Ore Gold Ore, Iron Iron, Jade Jade, Mercury Mercury, Salt Salt, Niter Niter, Coal Coal, Aluminum Aluminum, Uranium Uranium, Amber Amber	-1 Appeal +1 Production +1 Production (Apprenticeship) +1 Production (Industrialization) +1 Production (Smart Materials)	Gold
Quarry	Mining	Only on resource	Stone Stone, Marble Marble, Gypsum Gypsum	-1 Appeal +1 Production +2 Gold (Banking) (Vanilla and only) +1 Production (Rocketry) +1 Production (Gunpowder) +1 Production (Predictive Systems)	Faith
Plantation	Irrigation	Only on resource	Bananas Bananas, Citrus Citrus, CocoaCocoa, Coffee Coffee, Cotton Cotton, Dyes Dyes, Silk Silk, Sugar Sugar, Tea Tea, Tobacco Tobacco, Wine Wine, Olives Olives	+2 Gold +0.5 Housing Housing +1 Food (Scientific Theory) +2 Gold (Globalization)	Faith
Camp	Animal Husbandry	Only on resource	Deer Deer, Furs Furs, Ivory Ivory, Truffles Truffles	+1 Gold +0.5 Housing Housing +1 Production (Mercantilism) +1 Gold (Synthetic Materials)	Faith
Pasture	Animal Husbandry	Only on resource	Sheep Sheep, Cattle Cattle, Horses Horses	+1 Production +0.5 Housing Housing +1 Food (Exploration) +1 Production (Robotics)	Faith
Fishing Boats	Sailing	Only on resource	Fish Fish, Crabs Crabs, Whales Whales, Pearls Pearls, Amber Amber, Turtles Turtles	+1 Food +0.5 Housing Housing +1 Gold (Cartography) +1 Food (Plastics)	Healing
Lumber Mill	Machinery	Woods  Rainforest ( only) (Mercantilism)		Vanilla and +1 Production +1 Production if adjacent to River +1 Production (Steel) +2 Production +1 additional Production (requires Steel) +1 additional Production (requires Cybernetics)	Gold
Fort	Siege Tactics	Any land		Occupying unit receives +4 Defense Strength and 2 turns of fortification. Built by Military Engineer.	None
Airstrip	Flight	Flat terrain		+3 Aircraft Capacity -1 Appeal Built by Military Engineer.	None
Seaside Resort	Radio	next to Coast on  Grassland,  Plains,  Desert	Minimum Appeal of Breathtaking (4+)	Provides double the tile's Appeal in Tourism. (Double Tourism Output from Cristo Redentor). Also provides the tile's Appeal in Gold.	Gold
Geothermal Plant	Synthetic Materials	Only on  Geothermal Fissure		+2 Production, +1 Science, +4 Power	Gold
Wind Farm	Composites	Hills		+1 Production, +1 Gold, +2 Power	Gold
Solar Farm	Satellites	Flat land		+1 Production, +1 Gold, +2 Power	Gold
Offshore Wind Farm	Predictive Systems	Lake,  Coast,  Ocean		+1 Production, +1 Gold, +2 Power	Gold
Ski Resort	Professional Sports	Mountain		Provides Tourism equal to the tile's Appeal. +1   Amenities Amenity. Cannot be built next to another Ski Resort.	None
Oil Well	Combustion	Only on land tiles with Oil resource	Oil Oil	+2 Production -1 Appeal	Gold
Offshore Oil Rig	Plastics	Only on sea tiles with Oil resource	Oil Oil	+2 Production -1 Appeal	Gold
Missile Silo	Rocketry	Only on flat land		+1 Missile Capacity Acts as launch site for Nuclear and Thermonuclear Devices. Built by Military Engineer.	None
Mountain Tunnel	Chemistry	Mountain		Allows units to move into it and exit through another Mountain Tunnel at the cost of 2  Movement Movement. Built by Military Engineer. Cannot be pillaged or removed.	None
Railroad	Steam Power			0.25 Movement Movement.
Seastead	Seasteads	Lake,  Coast,  Ocean		+2 Food +1 Production from each adjacent Fishing Boat. Fishing Boats receive +1 Production from each adjacent Seastead. +1 Culture and Tourism for each adjacent Reef. +2 Housing Housing.	Healing

City-State Specific Improvements

These improvements can be built by any civilization who is the suzerain of the specified City-State. Thus, whether you can construct these improvements with your Builders will depend on whether that particular City-State is present in your game and whether you are their Suzerain. Once built, these improvements stay there permanently, even if the territory they are built in changes hands, or the relevant City-State gets conquered.

Name	City-State	Restrictions	Base Yield Modifier & Notes	Plunder
Alcázar	Granada	Cannot be adjacent to another Alcázar	+2 Culture Occupying unit receives +4 Defense Strength and 2 turns of fortification. Provides Science equal to 50% of the tile's Appeal.	Faith
Cahokia Mounds	Cahokia		+3 Gold. +1 Amenity Amenity from the first Cahokia Mounds in the city. +1 Amenity Amenity from the second Cahokia Mounds in the city (with Natural History) +1 Food for every 2 adjacent districts (with Feudalism) or for every district (with Replaceable Parts). +1 Housing Housing. +1 additional Housing Housing (with Cultural Heritage)	Healing
Colossal Heads	La Venta		+2 Faith +1 Faith for every 2 adjacent Woods or Rainforest (Vanilla & ) +1 Culture (Humanism) (Vanilla & ) +1 Faith for every 2 adjacent rainforests (or every 2 adjacent woods) or for every adjacent rainforest (or every woods) with Humanism unlocked. Tourism from Faith with Flight unlocked.	Faith
Moai	Rapa Nui		+1 Culture +1 Culture for every 2 adjacent Moai +2 Culture if on or adjacent to a Volcanic Soil tile. +1 Culture if adjacent to a Coast or Lake tile. Additional Culture and Tourism as advanced through Technology and Civics Tree.	Faith
Monastery	Armagh	Cannot be built adjacent to another Monastery	+2 Faith Provides +15 HP healing every turn for friendly religious units. +1 Faith for every 2 adjacent districts. +1 Housing Housing. +1 additional HousingHousing with Colonialism.	Faith
Nazca Line	Nazca	Must be built on flat desert tiles.	+1 Faith to adjacent tiles. +1 additional Faith to adjacent tiles with a resource. +1 Food to adjacent Desert and Desert Hills. +1 Production to adjacent flat tiles (with Mass Production). +1 Appeal. Tiles with a Nazca Line cannot be worked.	Faith

Civilization-Specific Improvements

These tile improvements are tied to a specific civilization and, as such, will only be available to a player who plays with that specific civilization. When areas on the map containing unique civ-specific improvements change hands (i.e. their controlling city gets conquered by another civ) these improvements simply vanish and their tile becomes 'virgin' land.

2 Culture +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles
+2 Culture if adjacent to a Wonder (: +1 Culture, doubling with Flight)
+1 Gold if adjacent to a luxury resource

Name	Civilization/ Leader	Technology/ Civic	Restrictions	Base Yield Modifier & Notes	Plunder
Château	France	Humanism	Must be next to River
Faith
Chemamull	Mapuche	Craftsmanship	Minimum Appeal of Breathtaking (4+)	Provides Culture equal to 75% of its tile's Appeal.	Faith
Roman Fort	Rome	Iron Working		Occupying unit receives +4 Defense Strength and 2 turns of fortification. (Same as standard Fort, but available earlier.) Built by Roman Legion.	None
Golf Course	Scotland	Reformed Church	Cannot be built on Desert or Desert Hills Limited to 1 per city Tiles with Golf Courses cannot be swapped.	+1 Amenities Amenity +2 Gold +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles +1 Culture if adjacent to a City Center +1 Culture if adjacent to an Entertainment Complex +1 Housing Housing (Globalization)	Healing
Great Wall	China	Masonry	Must be on territory border	Vanilla and Occupying unit receives +4 Defense Strength. +1 Gold for every adjacent Great Wall (: +2 Gold and additional +2 Gold for every adjacent Great Wall) +1 Culture (: +2) for every adjacent Great Wall (Castles)	Gold
Ice Hockey Rink	Canada	Colonialism	Must be built on Tundra, Tundra Hills, Snow, or Snow Hills Limited to 1 per city Tiles with Hockey Rinks cannot be swapped.	+1 Amenities Amenity +2 Appeal +1 Culture for each adjacent Tundra, Tundra Hills, Snow, and Snow Hills tile +2 Food and Production (with Professional Sports) +4 Culture if adjacent to a Stadium	Healing
Kampung	Indonesia	Shipbuilding	Must be adjacent to a coastal resource	+1 Production +1 Housing Housing +1 Food for each adjacent Fishing Boat +1 Housing Housing (Mass Production) +1 Production (Civil Engineering) +1 Tourism per bonus Food on tile (Flight)	Healing
Kurgan	Scythia	Animal Husbandry	Cannot be built on Hills	+1 Faith +1 Gold +1 Faith for every adjacent Pasture +1 Gold (Guilds) +1 Gold (Capitalism)	Faith
Mekewap	Cree	Pottery	Must be built adjacent to a Bonus or Luxury Resource and cannot be adjacent to another Mekewap	+1 Production +1 Housing Housing +1 Gold if adjacent to a Luxury Resource +1 Food for every two adjacent Bonus Resources +1 additional Food for every adjacent Bonus Resource (Conservation) +1 additional Gold for every two adjacent Luxury Resources (Cartography) +1 additional Production and Housing Housing (Civil Service)	Healing
Mission	Spain	Exploration		+2 Faith +2 Faith when built on a foreign continent (: +2 Faith, +1 Food, +1 Production) +2 Science if adjacent to a Campus (: +1 Science for every adjacent Campus and Holy Site) +2 Science (Cultural Heritage)	Faith
Nubian Pyramid	Nubia	Masonry	Must be built on Desert or Floodplains	+1 Faith +1 Food if adjacent to a City Center +1 Science if adjacent to a Campus +1 Gold if adjacent to a Commercial Hub +1 Gold if adjacent to a Harbor +1 Faith if adjacent to a Holy Site +1 Production if adjacent to an Industrial Zone +1 Culture if adjacent to a Theater Square	Faith
Open-Air Museum	Sweden	Nationalism	Limited to 1 per city Tiles with an Open-Air Museum cannot be swapped	+2 Loyalty for this city +2 Culture and +2 Tourism (with Flight) for each type of terrain (Grassland, Plains, Snow, Tundra and Desert) in which at least one Swedish city is founded.	Faith
Outback Station	Australia	Guilds	Cannot be built on Snow, Tundra, Grassland Hills, or Plains Hills	+1 Food +1 Production +0.5 Housing Housing +1 Food for every adjacent Pasture +1 Production for every 2 adjacent Outback Stations (Steam Power) +1 Food for every 2 adjacent Outback Stations (Rapid Deployment)	Healing
Pā	Māori	Construction	Can only be built by Toa	Occupying unit receives +4 Defense Strength and automatically gains 2 turns of fortification. A Māori unit occupying a Pā heals even if they just moved or attacked. Built by Māori Toa.	None
Pairidaeza	Persia	Early Empire	Cannot be built on Snow or Tundra and cannot be adjacent to another Pairidaeza	+1 Culture +2 Gold +2 Appeal to adjacent tiles +1 Culture (Diplomatic Service) +1 Culture for every adjacent Theater Square or Holy Site +1 Gold for every adjacent City Center or Commercial Hub	Faith
Polder	Netherlands	Guilds	Must be built on Coast or Lake with at least three adjacent land tiles	+1 Food +1 Food for every adjacent Polder +1 Production +0.5 Housing Housing +4 Gold (Civil Engineering) +2 additional Food and +1 additional Production (Replaceable Parts) Increases Movement Movement cost of tile to 3.	Faith
Qhapaq Ñan	Pachacuti	Foreign Trade	Must be built adjacent to a Mountain	Allows units to move into it and exit through another Qhapaq Ñan at the cost of 2 Movement Movement. Cannot be pillaged or removed.	None
Sphinx	Egypt	Craftsmanship	Can be built on Floodplains Cannot be built adjacent to another Sphinx	+1 Culture, +1 Faith +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles (+2 Appeal in ) +1 Culture (Natural History) +2 Faith if adjacent to a Wonder +1 additional Culture if built on Floodplains	Faith
Stepwell	India	Irrigation	Cannot be built on Hills or adjacent to another Stepwell	+1 Food +1 Housing Housing +1 Food if adjacent to a Farm +1 Faith if adjacent to a Holy Site +1 Faith (Feudalism) +1 Food (Professional Sports) +1 Housing Housing (Sanitation)	Healing
Terrace Farm	Inca		Must be built on Grassland Hills, Plains Hills, or Desert Hills	+1 Food +0.5 Housing Housing +1 Food for each adjacent Mountain +2 Production for each adjacent Aqueduct +1 Production if adjacent to fresh water and not an Aqueduct	Healing
Ziggurat	Sumeria		Cannot be built on Hills	+2 Science +1 Culture (Natural History) +1 Culture when next to a River	Gold

Added in the Rise and Fall expansion pack.
Added in the Gathering Storm expansion pack.

Roads

Main article: Roads (Civ6)

Roads are a special type of improvement connecting cities and districts, and providing faster land travelling. Roads may not be built by Builders; aside from Traders, which build roads as they establish Trade Route Trade Routes, only the Military Engineer unit can build roads. Every district and wonder automatically creates a road on its tile, which remains even if the feature is pillaged or the city is razed.

Roads themselves can be manually pillaged by a marauding combat unit.

In later eras, roads will upgrade with technology reducing movement cost. Roads within city borders will upgrade automatically; those outside must be repaved by Traders.

Name	Era	Speed
Ancient Roads	Ancient	1 Movement Movement. No movement penalties for terrain.
Classical Roads	Classical	1 Movement Movement. Adds bridges over Rivers.
Industrial Roads	Industrial	0.75 Movement Movement.
Modern Roads	Modern	0.5 Movement Movement.

Governor Improvements

Governor improvements are a new type of tile improvement introduced in Rise and Fall. They can be built in any city to which a Surveyor Governor with the requisite title has been assigned.

Name	Title	Restrictions	Base Yield Modifier & Notes
City Park	Parks and Recreation	Cannot be built adjacent to another City Park	+2 Appeal to adjacent tiles +1 Culture +1 Amenities Amenity if adjacent to water + 2 Culture additionally if Liang is in the city
Fishery	Aquaculture	Must be built on coast	+1 Food +1 additional Food for each adjacent sea resource + 1 Production additionally if Liang is in the city

National Parks

Main article: National Park (Civ6)

National Parks are not tile improvements per se. They can only be created by Naturalists by designating the tiles which are to form part of the National Park. The Naturalist is consumed after this action.