Historically, a dark age is never a good time for a civilization. Like in real life, a dark age in Civ 6 means that people will feel less loyalty to their civilization. Being downtrodden in a society less technologically advanced than others, they may be prone to less productivity. During times of emergency, even as we see in our current landscape, leaders and governments must enact sweeping legislation to create change, recover, and move forward.
So it is in Civ 6.
What is a Dark Age in Civ 6?
Entering a dark age in Civ 6 is triggered by the era points mechanic in Civ 6: Rise & Fall (you must have this expansion enabled to obtain a dark age, or any other type of age). You begin in a “normal” (standard) age, but through your accumulation of era points (or lack thereof), you can achieve a dark, normal, golden, or heroic age when your society advances to the next era.
You can obtain a heroic age by earning enough points for a golden age while you are still in your dark age.
Each type of age provides you with different type of “dedication” opportunity. The dedication helps you decide the direction of your civ’s future — but mechanically, you should pick what you feel will help you earn the most era points in this age.
Why is a Dark Age Bad?
Dark ages negatively impact several things in Civ 6, and you’ll most immediately notice that your civ’s loyalty is impacted. This means some of your cities, especially those on the edge of your empire, might revolt. You can reclaim your cities with force, or by immediately increasing the amount of cultural pressure on a city.
However, during a time of revolt, the city will actively rebel against you, and it provides an opportunity for another civ to sweep in and take your former city without incurring penalties or invoking war. (You’re welcome to still get mad about it, though!)
If you’re working towards a domination victory and you’re capturing enemy cities, a dark age can be very damaging to your war campaign. That’s because it’s much harder to retain the loyalty of your new cities, and they might be inclined to immediately revolt after you capture them.
This is a result of your loyalty falling to 0.5 per citizen.
If you’re in peacetime, and are focusing on building your own infrastructure, you’ll really only have to worry about any of your existing cities flipping. If they don’t, you’re fine — maybe even at an advantage. Having a dark age in Civ 6 isn’t necessarily bad for your progress.
Going for an Early Dark Age — Deliberately
One popular strategy involves going for a dark age intentionally, especially as you build infrastructure in early game, in the first age. If you go for a dark age when you end the ancient era (going into classical age), which it’s easy to do since you’re just getting started, you can easily spring for a heroic age. Found cities, explore the world, do whatever it takes to move forward and get that heroic age for medieval. Your civ will bound ahead at a critical point in its development.
This strategy plays especially well with leaders who excel in the medieval era.
Dark Age Policies
Dark ages are desirable to some due to the policies they unlock. Dark age policies have a positive and negative effect on each of them. For example, the Monasticism policy affords you double science in all cities with a holy site but -25% culture in all cities.
Dark Age Achievements
You can get some achievements related to dark ages. The easiest is “Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures,” which you get by using a dark age policy.
Additionally, if you end your game in a dark age, you can get the “Dark Horse” achievement.
How to Avoid a Dark Age in Civ 6
The only way to avoid a dark age at any point in your game is to achieve the necessary era score. To determine the needed era score, check the bottom right of your screen. Some easy ways to get era points involve:
- Build easy wonders (even old ones)
- Circumnavigate the globe
- Build a unique unit or building
- If it’s still early game, meet more civs!
- Discover the entire world map (and keep finding goody huts)
- Grow your cities — huge cities, etc. give you era points
- Construct your first spy
- Clear barbarian camps
- Create your first trade route
- Build certain sea or air units
- Form a corps with a military unit
- Build your first district of its type
Sometimes you’ll find yourself just shy of a couple era points — check out what’s achievable and shoot for a few of these. You’ll usually be able to achieve one.
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