Victory (Civ6)

Back to Civilization VI
There are five different victory conditions in Civilization VI: Science, Culture, Domination, Religion, and Score (with a sixth, Diplomacy, added in Gathering Storm). In order to win, you must reach one of these victory conditions (apart from Score Victory) before any other player.

Each player's ranking towards the different victory conditions can be tracked using the "World Rankings" panel on the top right. Unlike Civilization V, the game will not produce a notification of when other players have achieved major milestones towards a certain victory condition.

Science

CIVILIZATION VI - Science Win (Victory Movies)

To achieve a Science Victory, you must accomplish these major milestones, depending on the ruleset with which you're playing:

Civilization VI Science Victory steps [edit]
All game versions
	1. Launch a satellite Research Rocketry Build a Spaceport Finish the Launch Earth Satellite project
	2. Land a human on the Moon Research Satellites Finish the Launch Moon Landing project
Vanilla Civilization VI and Rise and Fall		Gathering Storm
	3. Establish a Martian Colony Research Nuclear Fusion Finish the Launch Mars Reactor project Research Nanotechnology Finish the Launch Mars Hydroponics project Research Robotics Finish the Launch Mars Habitation project		3. Establish a Martian Colony Research Nanotechnology Finish the Launch Mars Colony project
			4. Launch an Exoplanet Expedition Research Smart Materials Finish the Exoplanet Expedition project
			5. Help the Exoplanet Expedition travel 50 light years Optional: Finish the Terrestrial Laser Station project Optional: Finish the Lagrange Laser Station project

All of the associated projects are accessed through the Spaceport district. Launch Earth Satellite must be completed before work on Launch Moon Landing can begin, and Launch Moon Landing must be completed before Launch Mars Habitation/Hydroponics/Reactor (collectively known as the Mars modules) can begin. These last three projects, however, may be completed in any order. Once you have produced all three Mars modules, you win the game.

In Gathering Storm, the conditions for winning a Science Victory change. The first two steps (completing Launch Earth Satellite and Launch Moon Landing) are the same, but the Mars modules are consolidated into a single project and followed by two new steps: launching an expedition to an exoplanet and reaching the exoplanet. Completing Exoplanet Expedition automatically initiates the fifth and final step as the spacecraft takes flight and begins its journey to the exoplanet. Its destination is 50 Light-Years away on Standard speed, and it travels at a base speed of 1 Light-Year per turn, though it can be expedited by completing the Lagrange Laser Station and Terrestrial Laser Station projects. Each of these projects becomes available after researching Offworld Mission, can be undertaken in multiple cities, and increases the spacecraft's speed by 1 Light-Year per turn when completed.

Much like in vanilla Civilization VI and Rise and Fall, each of the required projects must be undertaken in a city with a Spaceport. Once the spacecraft reaches its destination, the player wins the game.

While it obviously requires a lot of Science to obtain the necessary tech, the amount of Production required for the Science Victory projects can be massive, so it's advisable to have two or three cities with Spaceports and high Production potential. Furthermore, it is a very good idea to have Spies protecting your Spaceports, and perhaps your Industrial Zones, from sabotage.

Useful bonuses to look out for when accomplishing this goal:

• Being the Suzerain of Hong Kong provides a 20% Production bonus towards city projects.
• The Great Engineers Robert Goddard, Sergei Korolev and Wernher von Braun all provide bonuses to Space Race projects.
• The Great Scientists Carl Sagan and Stephanie Kwolek provide bonuses to Space Race projects.
• There are quite a lot of bonuses to be found towards Science accumulation, too numerous to list.
• Pingala's Space Initiative title provides a 30% Production bonus towards Space Race projects.
• The Royal Society allows Builders to use all their build charges to provide bonus Production to a District Project once per turn.
• Researching Future Tech provides a cumulative 5% Production bonus towards city projects.
• Adopting the Synthetic Technocracy government provides +3 Power in all cities and a 30% Production bonus towards city projects.
• The Aerospace Contractors policy card provides +3 Power and +3 Aluminum per turn to every city that has a Spaceport.
• Placing on the Gold Tier (i.e., earning the highest score) in an International Space Station competition increases the speed of the exoplanet spacecraft by 3 Light-Years per turn and awards a 40% Production bonus towards city projects. Placing on the Silver or Bronze Tier awards a 40% or 20% Production bonus (respectively) towards city projects.

Culture

CIVILIZATION VI - Culture Win (Victory Movies)

To achieve a Cultural Victory, you must attract visiting tourists by generating high amounts of Culture and Tourism. Victory is achieved when the combined total of visiting tourists in your civilization is greater than any other single civ's domestic tourists.

Your domestic tourists represent the tourists from your civilization that are currently happily vacationing within your borders, and function as your "defense" against Cultural Victories, raising the total number of visiting tourists other civilizations have to attract from you to become culturally dominant over you. They're calculated as the total amount of Culture you've generated over the entire game (including "bonus" Culture generated by cultural inspirations) divided by 100.

Your visiting tourists represent the number of citizens you've attracted from other civilizations, and function as your "offense" in Cultural Victories; when the combined total of your visiting tourists from all civilizations is higher than an opponent's domestic tourists, you become "culturally dominant" over them, and you win when you're culturally dominant over all opponents. The visiting tourists from each opponent are calculated as the total amount of Tourism you've sent to them over the entire game, divided by (150 * number of civs) in vanilla or (200 * number of civs) in the expansions. For example, in an 8-civ game with the vanilla ruleset, you earn 1 foreign tourist from a civ for each 1200 Tourism you send to them. This means that winning a Cultural Victory becomes easier when there are fewer civilizations in the game.

Note that domestic and visiting tourists are thus calculated completely separately; there's not a shared "pool" of tourists split between them, and despite the game text's misleading wording, you don't actually "take" visiting tourists from another civilization's domestic tourist count.

Notable ways to increase Tourism:

• All Great Works your civilization owns will contribute to Tourism. There are three primary types of Great People that can create Great Works, namely Great Writers, Great Artists and Great Musicians. Occasionally, other types of Great People can also create Great Works, such as the Great General Sun Tzu. Great Works can also be obtained from other civilizations through trade or theft (if a Spy successfully completes the Great Work Heist espionage mission).
• When an Apostle with the Martyr Promotion dies in theological combat, your civilization earns a Relic, provided there is an empty Relic slot available. This promotion is random by default, but can be made more reliable in two ways: have the Mont St. Michel wonder, or be the Suzerain of Yerevan. The amount of Tourism decreases once other civilizations obtain The Enlightenment civic, unless you have the Cristo Redentor wonder. If you are the Suzerain of Kandy, you will obtain a Relic whenever you discover a Natural Wonder.
• By building a Theater Square with an Archaeological Museum and researching Natural History, you will be able to train Archaeologists that can dig up Antiquity Sites and Shipwrecks (which requires Cultural Heritage) to obtain Artifacts that provide Tourism. Placing three Artifacts of the same era and from different civilizations in a single Archaeological Museum earns you a bonus to the Tourism output and theming the museum.
• After researching Conservation, you will be able to recruit a Naturalist, which can create a National Park. This directly increases Tourism by a significant margin. It's also one of the few ways to directly use Mountain tiles for something other than adjacency bonuses.
• After researching Flight, all improvements that provide Culture (and a few others, such as the Kampung and the Rock-Hewn Church) provide Tourism based on their yield.
• After researching Radio, a Builder can create a Seaside Resort on a tile adjacent to a Coast, which provides bonus Tourism based on the tile's Appeal. Possessing Cristo Redentor doubles the bonus.
• Researching Computers provides a 100% bonus to all Tourism yields (reduced to 25% in Gathering Storm).
• Wonders produce Tourism.
• City walls produce Tourism after researching Conservation: 1 for Ancient Walls, 2 for Medieval Walls, and 3 for Renaissance Walls.
• These policy cards increase Tourism: Heritage Tourism, Satellite Broadcasts, and Online Communities.
• After researching Professional Sports, a Builder can create a Ski Resort on a Mountain tile, which provides Tourism equal to the tile's Appeal.
• After researching Cold War, Rock Bands can be purchased with Faith. They can travel into other civilizations' lands and perform concerts at specific venues for directed bursts of Tourism.
• Researching Environmentalism provides a 25% bonus to all Tourism yields.
• Placing on the Gold Tier (i.e., earning the highest score) in a World Games competition awards a +2 Tourism bonus for each Campus, Stadium, or Aquatics Center. Placing on the Silver or Bronze Tier awards a +2 or +1 Tourism bonus (respectively) for each Stadium or Aquatics Center.

There are also ways to increase your Tourism output towards specific civilizations, such as having Trade Routes with them or sharing the same government type.

Note that if you save the game on the turn just before winning a Cultural Victory, the victory won't trigger and you'll have to load a prior save.

In Gathering Storm, cultural dominance also provides various benefits to the dominant civilization:

• Trade Routes to foreign cities you culturally dominate provide +4 Gold.
• Spy missions in foreign cities you culturally dominate are completed 50% faster.
• Your Citizens exert 25% more Loyalty pressure on foreign cities you culturally dominate.

Domination

CIVILIZATION VI - Domination Win (Victory Movies)

To achieve a Domination Victory, you must conquer the original Capital of every other civilization, whether or not they are still in play. A strong military is obviously highly recommended, as are the necessary technologies to have up-to-date units.

It is advisable to use the appropriate Casus Belli to avoid the worst warmongering penalties (or Grievances in Gathering Storm). Additionally, conquering the last city of any civilization will result in a very large warmongering penalty, practically ensuring that every other civilization will hate you for the rest of the game.

Since waging war also carries a cumulative penalty to Amenities, it is useful to build Entertainment Complexes, gain access to more Luxury Resources or simply take a break in the fighting every now and then; otherwise your cities will sooner or later revolt and start mass-producing barbarians.

There is a sixth, related form of victory, identified simply as "Victory." This occurs when all other players have been defeated. This is usually only the case when a game is started without the Domination Victory condition and the player defeats all other players. In this case, the Domination Victory is shown.

Religion

CIVILIZATION VI - Religion Win (Victory Movies)

To achieve a Religious Victory, your Religion must become the predominant Religion in every civilization in the game. A Religion is considered predominant in a civilization if it is followed by more than 50% of the cities in that civilization.

There are three ways to convert a city to your religion:

• A city will naturally spread its religions towards cities within 10 tiles. This applies both to minority and majority religions, dependent on the size of the religious population. If two cities have different religions, they will both attempt to spread it to each other, often building up a minority religion in the other city. In general, it is not possible to solely rely on this method to win a Religious Victory.
• Missionaries and Apostles can move adjacent to a city and spread its religion. This is much more effective if there is still a decent amount of the population that is not religious.
• Whenever a religious unit is killed, any cities nearby will lose pressure from the "dead" unit's religion. If the unit was killed in theological combat, the pressure of the winning unit's religion will increase. If the unit was killed in regular combat, there will be no increased pressure.

In order to kill a religious unit in regular combat, you need to be at war with the enemy civilization and move any military unit into the same tile as the religious unit, then use the Condemn Heretic action. Much like plundering a Trade Route, this kills the religious unit and inflicts no damage on the military unit. For this reason, it is important to escort your religious units whenever you are at war with a nearby civilization.

Barbarians can also kill religious units, but unlike enemy civilizations they never intentionally target those units. They will only kill them if they happen to move into the same tile for other reasons. In fact, most of the time it is perfectly safe to walk past a barbarian outpost with a religious unit, without being bothered.

After being converted, other civilizations may undertake Holy Wars against you, particularly if they no longer have a single city predominant with their own religion.

There is an alternate way to convert a civilization, if everything else fails: conquer and raze their heathen cities to the ground. Since you need at least half of any civilization's cities converted to your religion, by definition if you remove one of their non-converted cities, the converted cities now account for more of their total number of cities.

It is also possible to lose converted civilizations in the same way. If, for example, another civilization has only a single city (converted) and founds another (which by default is not religious), you no longer have the majority (> 50%) of their cities converted. Still, a minority of your religion will stay, making it easy to "reconvert" cities. You can avoid being quickly reconverted and losing your religion by using an Apostle's "Launch Inquisition" ability as early as possible, which will allow you to purchase Inquisitors.

Other important tips for a Religious Victory:

• Pick the best Beliefs depending on your civilization of choice and your situation. The positives, negatives, and ideal use cases of each one is detailed in that page's Strategy section.
• Build Wonders that help with a Religious Victory, like the Hagia Sophia.
• Prioritize Apostles for cities that already have a Religion, while using Missionaries for cities that do not. Apostles may be more expensive, but their increased conversion power, powerful promotions, and ability to engage in theological combat ultimately makes them more efficient at converting your opponents. For cities that have not had a Religion yet, Missionaries are enough for conversion.
• Pay attention to your military. If you have to break a lot of promises not to convert cities, you will probably make a lot of enemies, and you will likely have to defend yourself. Also, conquest is also a commonly used method to keep your Religion spreading, especially against other religious civilizations.
• Start strong. A Religious Victory grows exponentially harder as the game progresses, since cities will grow in size and number and it will be easier for enemies to fight your religion. The earlier you can begin your push, the better.

Diplomacy

Civilization VI- Gathering Storm - Diplomacy Win (Victory Movies)

Exclusive to the Gathering Storm expansion, Diplomatic Victory is achieved by earning 20 Diplomatic Victory points. There are multiple ways to gain and lose Diplomatic Victory points:

• Voting for the winning Outcome/Target combo of a World Congress Resolution awards 1 Diplomatic Victory point.
• Building the Mahabodhi Temple awards 2 Diplomatic Victory points.
• Building the Potala Palace awards 1 Diplomatic Victory point.
• Building the Statue of Liberty awards 4 Diplomatic Victory points.
• Researching Seasteads, a technology of the Future Era, awards 1 Diplomatic Victory point.
• Discovering Global Warming Mitigation, a civic of the Future Era, awards 1 Diplomatic Victory point.
• Earning the highest score in an Aid Request (or Military Aid Request) competition awards 2 Diplomatic Victory points.
• Winning the first place in a non-Emergency Scored Competition awards 1 Diplomatic Victory point.
• Late in the game, World Leader elections will be held during regular sessions of the World Congress. Each player can spend Diplomatic Favor to vote for one player to either gain or lose 2 Diplomatic Victory points.

The first player to reach or surpass the threshold of Diplomatic Victory points becomes the World Leader and wins the game. In team games, the entire team wins if one member becomes World Leader, so wise teams will pool their votes for one member and try to help them win every World Leader election.

The Diplomatic Victory movie is the only one that is not narrated by Sean Bean - it is narrated by Natasha Loring instead.

On occasion, a bug will prevent a Diplomatic Victory from triggering, which can be resolved by loading an older save.

Score/Time

Time Win (Victory Movies)

A Score Victory occurs when no civilization has achieved any other victory when the turn counter runs out (2050 AD on Standard speed). In this case, the civilization with the highest overall score will win.

In a standard game with the vanilla ruleset, each player's score is calculated as follows:

• 5 points for each city owned.
• 5 points for each wonder owned.
• 3 points for each district owned.
• 3 points for each Great Person earned.
• 2 points for each belief after founding a religion.
• 2 points for each civic researched.
• 2 points for each technology researched.
• 1 point for each Citizen in the player's empire.

In a standard game with the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm ruleset, each player's score is calculated as follows:

• Civics
  • 3 points for each civic researched.
• Empire
  • 5 points for each city owned.
  • 2 points for each district owned (4 points if it is a unique district).
  • 1 point for each building (including the Palace).
  • 1 point for each Citizen in the player's empire.
• Great People
  • 5 points for each Great Person earned.
• Religion
  • 10 points for founding a religion.
  • 2 points for each foreign city following the player's religion.
• Technology
  • 2 points for each technology researched.
• Wonders
  • 15 points for each wonder owned.
• Era Score
  • Era Score points.

If two or more players have the same score, civics are the highest-priority tiebreaker, followed by cities, districts, Population, Great People, religion, technologies, and wonders.

If this type of victory is not desirable, it may be turned off in the settings under Advanced Setup when starting a game.

Defeat

CIVILIZATION VI - Defeat

A defeat occurs either when you have no cities and no Settlers, when a player who is not on your team achieves one of the victory conditions, or when the turn counter runs out in a game with the Score Victory deactivated (in which case the game ends in defeat for all players). Retiring from any game also counts as a defeat.

Ranking

Scores are also used to determine each player's Ranking, which compares them to one of the following historical figures at the end of the game:

Rank	Leader	Quote	Score
1	Augustus Caesar	I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.	2,500+
2	Hammurabi	The first duty of government is to protect the powerless from the powerful.	2,250-2,499
3	Abraham Lincoln	Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.	2,000-2,249
4	Winston Churchill	Where there is great power there is great responsibility; where there is less power there is less responsibility; and where there is no power there can, I think, be no responsibility.	1,900-1,999
5	Nelson Mandela	Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.	1,800-1,899
6	Catherine the Great	Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.	1,700-1,799
7	Ashoka	It is forbidden to decry other sects; the true believer gives honor to whatever in them is worthy of honor.	1,600-1,699
8	Marcus Aurelius	The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.	1,500-1,599
9	Lech Wałęsa	As a nation, we have the right to decide our own affairs, to mold our own future.	1,400-1,499
10	Hatshepsut	Hear ye, all persons! Ye people as many as ye are! I have done things according to the design of my heart.	1,300-1,399
11	Charles de Gaulle	Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.	1,200-1,299
12	Eleanor of Aquitaine (Vanilla and )	Pitiful and pitied by no one, why have I come to the ignominy of this detestable old age, who was ruler of two kingdoms, mother of two kings? My guts are torn from me, my family is carried off and removed from me.	1,100-1,199
	Louis XV ()	After me, the flood.
13	Ivan the Terrible	To shave the beard is a sin that the blood of all martyrs cannot cleanse. It is to deface the image of God.	1,000-1,099
14	Herbert Hoover	What the country needs is a good big laugh … if someone could get off a good joke every ten days, I think our troubles would be over.	900-999
15	Louis XVI	Every time that I fill a high office, I create a hundred discontented men and an ingrate.	800-899
16	Neville Chamberlain	Peace in our time.	700-799
17	Nero	A man who is always ready to believe what is told him will never do well.	600-699
18	Warren G. Harding	Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government, and at the same time do for it too little.	500-599
19	Ethelred the Unready	In the name of the Holy Trinity, three things do I promise to this Christian people, my subjects: first, that I will hold God's Church and all the Christian people of my realm in true peace; secondly, that I will forbid all rapine and injustice to men of all conditions; thirdly, that I promise and enjoin justice and mercy in all judgments.	400-499
20	Mary Tudor I	In thee, O Lord, is my trust; let me never be confounded: if God be for us, who can be against us?	300-399
21	Dan Quayle	We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.	< 300

Recommended civilizations for each victory

This section is intended for new players who look to improve their experience with all victory conditions. All civilizations recommended here all have significant bonuses towards their preferred victory paths, and these bonuses are focused, synergized, and can be easily leveraged by new players.

However, it is also recommended to be aware that the lists below are a few examples, not the whole, because many civilizations have synergies to more than two kinds of victories. Germany, for instance, is listed in Science Victory due to their unique district's Production boost, but this yield is also crucial when aiming for a Domination Victory. America is mentioned in the Diplomatic Victory below, but thanks to their unique building, a Cultural Victory can also be easily attained. In conclusion, you can refer to the lists below, but you’re not required to follow them.

Science Victory

• Arabia has strong Science output from their unique abilities and the Madrasa.
• Australia can have consistently high Science and Production from their districts.
• Korea and the Maya have excellent replacements for the Campus which can help them get ahead.
• Scotland has an impressive output of Science and Production and can earn many Great Scientists and Great Engineers.
• Germany has access to the Hansa, which can provide major amounts of the Production needed for the projects with well-built city planning.

Cultural Victory

• Greece under both of its leaders can produce a lot of Culture, helping them research civics that help with Tourism output.
• China, especially under Qin Shi Huang, can earn lots of Tourism from Wonders and the Great Wall.
• Brazil has an easier time earning Great People, and their Carnival gives them an easy source of Tourism.
• Sweden has exceptional bonuses to Great Works which can boost their Tourism.
• Ethiopia can buy Tourism-focused units and Archaeological Museums with Faith, as well as use the Rock-Hewn Church for Tourism.

Religious Victory

• Russia has phenomenal Faith output from Tundra, and can rapidly spread their religion.
• India's powerful Missionaries let them spread their religion fast without spending much Faith.
• Spain gains bonus Faith from their Missions, and their religious units are stronger.
• Poland is able to spread their religion through Culture Bombing, and they have many paths to getting extra Faith.
• Byzantium can found their religion quickly and spread it via conquest.

Domination Victory

• Mongolia receives massive bonuses to cavalry, especially when led by Genghis Khan, along with bonus Combat Strength from Diplomatic Visibility.
• Macedon has amazing military bonuses as well as two good unique units.
• The Zulus can increase their units' Combat Strength with formations and hold on to captured cities very well.
• The Ottomans can siege down cities quickly, keep them happy with Amenities, and use their unique Governor to great effect.
• Gran Colombia has faster units at the baseline and two great unique units.

Diplomatic Victory

• America can generate a lot of Diplomatic Favor from their government choices, and compete well in city-state allegiance as well.
• The Cree are heavily incentivized to make Alliances with everyone they can, and have high Gold output for Emergencies.
• Portugal also likes to make Alliances, and their relationships with city-states are by default incredibly strong.
• Mali, similar to Portugal, earns a lot of Gold and is better at levelling up their Alliances.
• Canada earns plenty of Diplomatic Favor from Tourism and completing Emergencies and Scored Competitions.

Gallery

Domination Victory movie screenshot

Domination Victory movie screenshot

Domination Victory movie screenshot

Domination Victory movie screenshot

Domination Victory movie screenshot

Related achievements

Just by victory type

Buying Your Blue Jeans and Listening to Your Pop Music Win a regular game with a Culture victory on any difficulty with any leader. Part of a quote used by AI leaders in Civilization V: Brave New World when the player achieved cultural dominance over their civilization.

Mission to Mars Win a regular game with a Science victory on any difficulty with any leader. The Science Victory is achieved after establishing a base on Mars. Possibly a reference to the 2000 film Mission to Mars.

Nirvana Win a regular game with a Religious victory on any difficulty with any leader. In Hinduism and Buddhism, Nirvana is the highest spiritual state that anyone can attain.

Veni, vidi, vici Win a regular game with a Domination victory on any difficulty with any leader. "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came; I saw; I conquered") is a Latin phrase popularly attributed to Julius Caesar.

The Art of Telling Plain Truths Win a Diplomatic Victory A Winston Churchill quote: "Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths."

By victory type with a twist

Buying your Deels and Listening to Your Throat Singing As Genghis, win a Cultural Victory A reference to 'Buying Your Blue Jeans and Listening to Your Pop Music' (q.v.), with deels and throat singing being traditional parts of Mongolian culture. This could also be a reference to 'Unique Cultural Influence', a popular mod for Civilization V which, rather than the generic 'blue jeans and pop music' line, gave every civilization in the game a unique response line upon becoming culturally influential with an AI.

Island Hopping Win a regular game with a Domination victory on any difficulty with any leader on a Huge Island Plates map. Tactic used by Douglas MacArthur against the Japanese during World War II.

Man on the Moon Win a regular game with a Science victory on any difficulty with any leader with a captured Egyptian city -- having also activated Newton and Darwin The R.E.M. song 'Man on the Moon' mentions Egypt, Newton, and Darwin in one verse.

Selfie Win a regular game with a Culture victory with your leader in the game as your opponent as well. Selfies are when you take a picture of yourself, typically with a smart phone.

We Are The Champions Win a regular game with a Religious victory with your dominant religion being Zoroastrianism and at the time of victory you are the Suzerain of Zanzibar A reference to Freddie Mercury from the band Queen, who was born and raised in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and practised the Zoroastrian religion.

See also

• Victory in other games