Civilization 7: Best Legacy To Pick In Every Age
Civilization 7 is a game made up of decisions. From deciding where to send your units to picking a new civic to research, you're constantly making decisions at every turn. One of the earliest choices you have to make at the start of every new age in Civilization VII is picking between one of the four Legacies. This is done through choosing a specific advisor.
Legacies are essentially ways for you to track how you're performing in every age. The four Legacies are: Militaristic, Cultural, economic, and Scientific. Every Legacy carries with it different attributes and objectives per age and you can advance them by building specific structures and performing actions throughout the entirety of Civilization 7. However, when you start a new age, it can be a little daunting to pick a new Legacy, as you don't know what lies in front of you.
Fortunately, we've played enough Civ 7 to know what Legacies work best for all three ages. Below, you can see our advice for what Legacy to pick for the Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern Ages.
Best Legacy for the Antiquity Age
The Legacy you start with in Civ 7 is arguably the most important, as it can determine how your playthrough pans out across all three ages. While you can, of course, choose a Legacy to start and then go on a different path after that, sticking with the main Legacy you pick will offer the most cohesive process.
In the Antiquity Age, our Legacy recommendation is to focus on the Scientific Legacy. Picking the Science Advisor and opting to build structures focused around this Legacy will get your civilization off to the best start possible. You'll be able to hone in on specific Technologies and Civics that allow your empire to become more advanced than others around you. The Science Legacy offers the Greay Library to start in the Antiquity Age, which allows you to place more Codexes that uplift your civilization in the next ages.
One other major factor in choosing the Science Legacy is a higher Science number in your civilization allows you to produce units much quicker. In cities, the turns it takes to produce units is mostly dependent on its Science, so having a higher number cuts down on the number of turns dramatically. This makes it so your cities can get off the ground much faster, which is highly important in the early going during the Antiquity Age.
Best Legacy for the Exploration Age
Next up we have the Exploration Age, which is all about setting sail into the open ocean and exploring the other continents of the world. You can start to construct naval units, meet new leaders from distant lands, and start to experience other cultural elements, such as religion.
While there are two solid Legacies to choose from during the Exploration Age, we're picking the Economic Legacy. There's a case to be made for the Military Legacy, as you want to dominate other settlements on distant lands so you can take some control. However, the Economic Legacy allows you to set up your civilization for the third and final age. Using the Economic Advisor's recommendations, you can start bringing in more gold than you ever have before. This is done primarily through constructing specific buildings and establishing trade routes to settlements all across the map.
The Economic Legacy will also allow you to expand and build more settlements without engaging in war with other leaders, which you may or may not be ready for. Basically, since the Exploration Age is about exploring the map, you want to ensure your civilization can sustain itself and expand before trying to dominate every tile.
Best Legacy for the Modern Age
And finally, we arrive at the Modern Age in Civilization VII. This age will likely start with the map mostly uncovered and feature more civilization names that you recognize. You'll presumably have met all possible leaders in your playthrough, have set relationships with them, and are looking at an empire that features close to or over 10-15 settlements. Through the course of two ages, you should have a fairly large military complete with Army Commanders and units as well plenty of naval units to navigate the seas with.
All that said, the best Legacy for the Modern Age is the Military Legacy. The Modern Age is your last gasp before the end of the playthrough, so you want to make it count. Trying to take over the entire map is a realistic goal if you have the forces and defenses for it, so going with the Military Advisor's recommendations will help make that happen. There's also no real point in keeping friendly relationships with more than one or two other leaders, so you might as well invade their lands to take as many settlements as you can.
In the Modern Age, your military units are the strongest they've ever been, your towns and cities are well-fortified, and you have a flowing supply of gold, Influence, and other resources to rely on. There's nothing else to do besides trying to totally dominate the map and establish as many footholds as possible. The Military Advisor will also lead you on the path to flight, which opens up entirely new doors in combat.
Lastly, the Military Legacy offers some of the best endings possible in Civ 7. From researching the Manhattan Project to producing a Nuclear Weapon, there are plenty of fun and explosive ways to end the game if you follow the Military Legacy.
There's so much to learn and discover when you're exploring the massive world of Civ 7. Be sure to use our Civilization 7 guides hub to find all of our guides on the game in one spot.
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