Knowing how to increase amenities in Civ VI is key to keeping your citizens productive and happy. One of the more frustrating aspects of the game first occurs early or mid game: those little carnival tents appear next to your city’s name, informing you that your citizens require more amenities to remain productive.
There are many building types that can help satisfy those requirements, but most of them cost money to maintain and aren’t yet options in early game.
What Are Amenities in Civ VI?
If you’ve played older versions of Civ, you’re familiar with the happiness mechanic: if your citizens aren’t happy, your cities become “lazy” and you will lose growth from your unhappy citizens. Amenities replace this mechanic, and they’re a little more natural to understand. If people have cool stuff, they’re happy. If they don’t, they’re not. Just like in real life, people don’t want to grow their families in a place that doesn’t inspire them.
So what constitutes all the cool stuff that makes people happy in your civ’s cities?
Once you hit population 3, your people will require at least one amenity for every two population. It’s kind of like Maslow’s Pyramid: once they’ve survived, they want to thrive, and as their leader, it’s up to you to figure out how to provide them with resources to keep them happy.
Mine and Acquire Luxury Resources
Luxury resource tiles are your best bet for acquiring amenities. Resources like amber and sugar make people quite happy, and when you get more than you need (each provides up to four amenities), you can trade them for other things you need.
Trade for Luxury Resources
If you don’t have luxury resource tiles but you do have money or strategic resources (like horses or iron) you’re willing to trade, you can ask another civ for a trade by proposing one. In this way, you might be able to require amenities from another civilization.
Tip: Don’t trade your last copy of a resource, especially if it could result in the unhappiness of your citizens. Mine, acquire, and trade multiples. Trades last for 30 turns, so this mistake could really set you back if your citizens still want more amenities.
Pantheon Qualities
As you found your religion and enhance it, there are a variety of beliefs and qualities you can include. Some of them increase amenities. If you find yourself having problems maintaining enough amenities in your empire, consider this when it comes time to select a belief or enhancement for your religion.
Build Wonders With Amenity Bonuses in Civ VI
Some wonders come with boons to amenities. They are:
- Alhambra
- Colosseum
- Huey Teocalli
- Estadio do Maracana
Of these choices, the colosseum is your best bet for a nascent empire if you build tightly, as it provides +1 amenity and another amenity to every city within 6 tiles. It appears early. Estadio is also a phenomenal wonder for amenities: with it, every city gets +2 amenities.
Policy Cards
Certain policy cards will also provide amenity bonuses. While I don’t generally recommend depending on them to provide your citizens with the amenities they need, it’s good in a pinch if you have multiple cities struggling with amenities. Just remember to compensate for amenities in another way so you can soon free up that card slot.
Avoid Amenity Detractors
Certain things do make citizens unhappy and detract from your hard earned amenities. If you’re in the negative when it comes to gold for upkeep, that’ll do it. If you lose lots of units or engage in too many wars, your citizens will not appreciate it either.
If your city goes into the negatives with amenities, it produces less and you will eventually have a revolt on your hands. To avoid this, it’s best to keep your citizens happy with many amenities, especially if you’re possibly facing a dark age that could affect the loyalty of your secondary cities.
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