Civilization 7 Dev Recommends Even Experts Stick With the Tutorial for Their First Full Campaign — Here’s Why

Firaxis Games' creative director, Ed Beach, urges even veteran Civilization players to utilize the tutorial for their first Civilization 7 campaign. His Steam post highlights the game's significant departures from previous iterations, particularly the new Ages system (Antiquity, Exploration, Modern), which introduces Age Transitions impacting civilization selection, legacy retention, and world evolution. This unprecedented system necessitates a learning curve.

Beach justifies the default "Small" map size, explaining that the reduced number of empires (three on the home continent, plus others discovered later) simplifies mastering Civ 7's mechanics, especially the new Diplomacy system and its influence management. He recommends the "Continents Plus" map type for a gentler introduction to ocean exploration, crucial in the Exploration Age.

The tutorial is automatically enabled for new players and strongly recommended for veterans, even those familiar with previous Civ games. The tutorial provides timely guidance on new features and mechanics. Four Advisors offer quest-based tutorials, and Beach suggests focusing on one at a time to avoid information overload. Even after mastering the core systems, he recommends switching to the "Only Warnings" setting, which alerts players to potential setbacks—a practice even the Firaxis development team employs.

Firaxis also revealed Civilization 7's post-launch roadmap during a livestream, noting that Great Britain will be released as DLC. Civilization 7 launches on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 11th, with early access (February 6th) for the Deluxe Edition.