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 |
Wheat Wheat,
Rice Rice |
+1 Food
+0.5 Housing Housing |
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 Production +1 Production (Apprenticeship) |
Gold |
Quarry | Mining | Only on resource | Stone Stone, | +1 Production +2 Gold (Banking) |
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 |
Faith |
Camp | Animal Husbandry | Only on resource | Deer Deer, Furs Furs, Ivory Ivory, Truffles Truffles |
+1 Gold +0.5 Housing Housing |
Faith |
Pasture | Animal Husbandry | Only on resource | Sheep Sheep, Cattle Cattle, Horses Horses |
+1 Production +0.5 Housing Housing |
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 |
Healing |
Lumber Mill | Machinery | Only on Woods feature | +1 Production +1 Production if adjacent to River |
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 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 | Gold |
Offshore Oil Rig | Plastics | Only on sea tiles with Oil resource | Oil Oil | +2 Production | Gold |
Missile Silo | Rocketry | Only on flat land | +1 Missile Capacity Acts as launch site for Nuclear and Thermonuclear Devices. |
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. |
Faith |
Cahokia Mounds | Cahokia | +3 Gold. +1 Amenity Amenity from the first Cahokia Mounds in the city. |
Healing | |
Colossal Heads | La Venta | +2 Faith +1 Faith for every 2 adjacent Woods or Rainforest (Vanilla & ) |
Faith | |
Moai | Rapa Nui | +1 Culture +1 Culture for every 2 adjacent Moai |
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. |
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. |
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.
Name | Civilization/
Leader |
Technology/
Civic |
Restrictions | Base Yield Modifier & Notes | Plunder |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Château | France | Humanism | Must be next to River | Vanilla and
+2 Culture
+1 Appeal to adjacent tiles +2 Culture +1 Appeal +1 Culture for each adjacent Wonder, doubling to +2 with Flight. +1 Gold for each adjacent luxury resource |
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.) |
None | |
Golf Course | Scotland | Reformed Church | Cannot be built on Desert or Desert Hills Limited to 1 per city |
+1 Amenities Amenity
+2 Gold |
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 +1 Culture for every adjacent Great Wall (Castles) Occupying unit receives +4 Defense Strength. +2 Gold +2 Gold for every adjacent Great Wall |
Gold |
Ice Hockey Rink | Canada | Colonialism | Must be built on Tundra, Tundra Hills, Snow, or Snow Hills Limited to 1 per city |
+1 Amenities Amenity
+2 Appeal |
Healing |
Kampung[1] | Indonesia | Shipbuilding | Must be adjacent to a coastal resource | +1 Production
+1 Housing Housing |
Healing |
Kurgan | Scythia | Animal Husbandry | Cannot be built on Hills | +1 Faith
+1 Gold |
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 |
Healing |
Mission | Spain | Exploration | Vanilla and +2 Faith
+2 Faith when built on a foreign continent +2 Faith +2 Faith additionally, 1 Food, 1 Production if on a different continent than your Capital Capital. +1 Science for every adjacent Campus and Holy Site. +2 Science (requires Cultural Heritage) |
Faith | |
Nubian Pyramid[1] | Nubia | Masonry | Must be built on Desert or Floodplains | +1 Faith
+1 Food if adjacent to a City Center |
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[1] | Australia | Guilds | Cannot be built on Snow, Tundra, Grassland Hills, or Plains Hills | +1 Food
+1 Production |
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. |
None |
Pairidaeza[1] | Persia | Early Empire | Cannot be built on Snow or Tundra and cannot be adjacent to another Pairidaeza | +1 Culture
+2 Gold |
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 |
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 +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 |
Healing |
Terrace Farm | Inca | Must be built on Grassland Hills, Plains Hills, or Desert Hills | +1 Food
+0.5 Housing Housing |
Healing | |
Ziggurat | Sumeria | Cannot be built on Hills | +2 Science
+1 Culture (Natural History) |
Gold |
Added in the Rise and Fall expansion pack.
Added in the Gathering Storm expansion pack.
Roads
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 |
Fishery | Aquaculture | Must be built on coast | +1 Food
+1 additional Food for each adjacent sea resource |
National Parks
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.
Civilization VI [edit] | |
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Rise and Fall • Gathering Storm • New Frontier Pass • Leader Pass | |
Lists | |
Concepts
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Miscellaneous | |
Added in the Rise and Fall expansion pack. Added in the Gathering Storm expansion pack. |