One of the foundations of the Civilization franchise has always been learning the tips and tricks for how to engage with the other Leaders. Whether they are players or NPCs, relations between the other major players are unavoidable. You still have the choice to be friendly or hostile, but Civilization 7 introduces a new system that adds even more strategies and options to how you interact called Influence. There are a lot of similarities to Influence as other resources you need to manage, such as Gold and Food, but what you need and use it for is vastly different. We’ll help you be the best leader you can be by explaining everything you need to know about Influence in Civilization 7.
How Influence works
Influence is a new form of currency you can accumulate in Civilization 7 each turn based on what structures you build, social policies you research, Wonders you make, and more. Anything you see the Influence icon for, which looks like a circle with a grid, will impact your Influence. But, there are ways to lose Influence besides spending it as well. If you do things like surprise attack another civ or razing settlements will cost you Influence. You can see how much Influence you are earning per tern on the top of the screen next to your gold total and income.
As you build Influence, you will need to decide how you want to spend it. Your first opportunities will be when you first meet a new civ and are given the option to give them a friendly, neutral, or hostile greeting. Either of the extremes will cost 20 Influence and impact your relationship with them right off the bat.
After you meet a civ, you can use your Influence in many ways to benefit both parties or negatively impact them. These include Treaties, Endeavors, Sanctions, Treaties, and Espionage. Each one will last a set number of turns and give a chance to improve (or reduce) your relationship with that Leader plus another temporary bonus. For example, improving trade relations can give one or both Leaders bonus gold for a number of turns. The specific outcome is dependent on whether or not the other Leader supports your proposal, which grants you both the bonus, accepts it, which will only benefit one, or reject it and the proposal doesn’t happen.
Besides selecting a Leader and choosing to spend Influence on these actions, other Leaders can come to you with the same proposals. When this happens, you have the same three options of support, accept, and reject, but support and reject will cost you a small amount of Influence too.
Another use for Influence relates to Independant Powers, which are the new name for the smaller NPC settlements on the map. By default, they are neutral towards you but you can use your Influence to befriend and even incorporate them into your civ. Once you make contact with one (so long as they are not hostile) you can use your influence to begin befriending them. With enough influence, you can become their suzerain and incorporate them as a new town for your civ.
