🌾 Resources & Yields
Every decision in Civilization VII eventually flows through seven yields and a layered resource system that evolves across the three Ages. This is the foundation everything else in this guide sits on.
The seven yields
Every yield below feeds the others; the loop they form is mapped in The Yield Wheel.
🌾 Food – Drives population growth and keeps citizens fed. Surplus Food above the maintenance threshold accelerates growth; a deficit causes Starvation and population loss. Primary sources: Farms, Pastures, Fishing Boats, Granaries, and Food Resources like Fish, Cotton, and Dates. Prioritize Food early to grow quickly, then pivot once your cities are large enough to staff all their buildings.
⚒️ Production – Determines how fast you build units, buildings, Wonders, and districts. Primary sources: Mines, Quarries, Lumber Mills, Workshops, and Hills. Production is what converts every other advantage into something on the map; a city with strong Production can pivot to any strategy on demand.
💰 Gold – The universal flex yield. Gold purchases units and buildings instantly, funds trade agreements, and fuels diplomatic actions. Primary sources: Trade Routes, Markets, Commercial Quarters, and Gold Resources. Gold cannot win the game by itself, but insufficient Gold constrains everything else.
🔬 Science – Advances you through the technology tree, unlocking units, buildings, and abilities. Falling behind means fighting with obsolete units and missing critical infrastructure. Primary sources: Libraries, Universities, Research Labs, Lecture Halls, and Specialist Scholars. Science compounds: each technology unlocks more efficient ways to generate more of it.
🎭 Culture – Propels you through the civic tree, unlocking governments, policies, traditions, and social institutions, and contributes to Tourism throughout the game. Primary sources: Monuments, Amphitheaters, Museums, Great Works, and Cultural Specialists. Culture and Science run on parallel tracks; neglecting either leaves you lopsided.
😊 Happiness – A settlement-level yield that decides whether cities thrive or stagnate. High Happiness triggers Celebrations; low Happiness causes Unrest, yield penalties, and eventually Revolt. Primary sources: Luxury Resources, Entertainment buildings, certain Wonders, and government policies. Happiness is the silent yield – easy to ignore until it collapses your empire. Full mechanics in Happiness, Governments & Celebrations.
🕊️ Influence – The currency of diplomacy. Like Gold, it accumulates each turn rather than being worked from tiles, which is why it sits slightly apart from the other six. Primary sources: Chancery, Embassy, and Foreign Ministry, Social Policies, and the Diplomatic Attribute Tree. Without it you cannot propose Endeavors, establish Treaties, or contest City-State suzerainty. Full mechanics in Diplomacy, Influence & Trade.
Think in three tiers. Base tier: Food and Production – you need both to exist. Middle tier: Science and Culture – you need both to advance. Flex tier: Gold and Happiness – you need both to stay stable. Neglecting any tier creates a vulnerability that skilled opponents or crises will find.
Resources
Harvestable map resources come in five classes, defined by where they can be slotted and who benefits. A Resource is not fixed to one class for the whole game. Horses is the clearest case: an Empire Resource in Antiquity, a Treasure Resource in Exploration, and a Bonus Resource worth +8 Happiness in Modern. Cotton, Kaolin, Cocoa, and Tea are workable early and become Factory Resources once the Modern Age gives you somewhere to process them, and Gold and Silver double as Treasure Resources when worked in Distant Lands. The same deposit can therefore be worth very different things depending on where it sits and which Age you are in – so it is worth re-reading a Resource you think you know when an Age turns over.
🌱 Bonus Resources – flat yields, any Settlement
Workable by any Settlement, Town or City alike, providing flat yield boosts to the tile they occupy.
| Resource | Yield |
|---|---|
| 🐟 Fish | +6 Food with a Port; +3 Food otherwise |
| 🦌 Hides | +3 Production |
| 🧵 Cotton | +2 Food, +2 Production |
| 🌴 Dates | +2 Food, +2 Happiness |
| 🎨 Dyes | +4 Happiness |
| 🐑 Wool | +2 Production, +2 Happiness |
| 💎 Rubies | +4 Gold |
| 🦀 Crabs | +1 Food on tile; +1 / +2 / +3 Food on Warehouse Buildings by Age |
| 🐚 Cowrie | +1 Happiness on tile; +4 / +5 / +6 Gold in Cities, +2 / +3 / +4 Science in Towns by Age |
| 🐢 Turtles | +1 Culture on tile; +1 / +2 Culture on Warehouse Buildings in Antiquity / Exploration |
| ⚫ Pitch | +1 Production, +1 Gold on tile; +1 Gold on Water Buildings in Exploration; +1 Production on Factories and +10% toward Factories in Modern |
| 🟫 Clay | +1 Production on Warehouse Buildings |
| 🌿 Flax | +2 Science, +2 Culture |
| 🦙 Llamas | +1 Production, +3 Happiness |
| 🦬 Wild Game | +2 Food in Cities, +4 Food in Towns |
| 🐋 Whales | +5 Production |
| 🐎 Horses | +8 Happiness. Modern only |
Bonus Resources are your bread-and-butter economic foundation. Settle near clusters of them in Antiquity, when raw yields matter more than multipliers.
🏙️ City Resources – require a City and a Resource Slot
Require a City (not a Town) and must be slotted into a Resource Slot to activate. They provide percentage-based bonuses or scaling yields that reward larger, more developed cities.
| Resource | Effect |
|---|---|
| 💚 Jade | +15% Gold in this city |
| 🕯️ Incense | +10% Science in this city |
| 🧶 Silk | +10% Culture in this city |
| 🏺 Kaolin | Antiquity +2 Food in Capital, +4 Food in any other City; Exploration +3 Food in Homeland Cities, +6 Food in Distant Lands Cities |
| 🧱 Gypsum | +2 Production in the Capital, +4 in other Cities |
| 🧂 Salt | +20% unit Production in this city |
| 🦪 Pearls | +8 Happiness in the Capital, +4 in other Cities |
| 🥭 Mangoes | +2 Food, +2 Culture |
| 🍄 Truffles | +20% Production toward training Units |
| 🍂 Tobacco | +8 Production with a Rail Station, +4 otherwise. Modern only |
| 🐫 Camels | +2 Resource capacity in this City, without consuming a slot |
City Resources are the reason you upgrade Towns to Cities. A Town sitting on Jade and Incense gains nothing from them until it becomes a City with open Resource Slots.
🌍 Empire Resources – apply empire-wide, no slot needed
Benefit your entire empire without being slotted – they activate simply by being inside your borders.
| Resource | Empire-Wide Effect |
|---|---|
| 🐎 Horses | +1 Combat Strength to all Cavalry. Antiquity only |
| ⚙️ Iron | +1 Combat Strength to all Infantry |
| 🪙 Gold | +20% discount when purchasing Buildings with Gold |
| 🥈 Silver | +20% discount when purchasing Units with Gold |
| 🐘 Ivory | +10% Wonder Production – Tropical, Plains, or Desert biomes |
| 🏛️ Marble | +10% Production toward constructing Wonders |
| 🍷 Wine | +2 Happiness in the Capital; +10% Culture during Celebrations |
| 💥 Niter | +1 Combat Strength to Siege, Ranged, and Heavy Naval Units. Exploration onward |
| ⬜ Limestone | +5% Production toward all Wonders |
| 🪵 Hardwood | +10% Production toward Naval Units |
| ⬛ Coal | +1 Combat Strength to Light Naval Units; +10% Production toward Rail Stations and Ports. Modern only |
| 🛞 Rubber | +1 Combat Strength to Air and Infantry Units. Modern only |
Empire Resources are strategic prizes. Horses and Iron directly affect military power, so securing them – or denying them to a rival – can decide an early war. Gold and Silver make your treasury stretch further. Ivory and Marble are Wonder-rushing accelerators wherever you find them.
💎 Treasure Resources – Exploration Age
Any Settlement working a Treasure Resource automatically spawns Treasure Convoys. In practice that usually means Distant Lands, though Inca and Songhai can generate Convoys in the Homelands through their own abilities. Each Convoy generates one Cargo every 10 turns – Gold and Silver are worth two.
No partner is required and no route is negotiated: the Cargo appears because you are working the Resource, and the only obstacle between it and your treasury is the sea.
All nine also pay an ongoing yield in the Settlement working them, on top of the Cargo they spawn. There is no single shape to these: most reward Towns, Cities or every Settlement with a doubling in your Homelands, but Horses pays in combat and Furs pays in the Capital and during Celebrations. Read the row rather than the pattern.
💎 Rubies 🍫 Cocoa 🦫 Furs 🪙 Gold 🐎 Horses 🥈 Silver 🌶️ Spices 🍬 Sugar 🍵 Tea
| Resource | Yield where worked |
|---|---|
| 💎 Rubies | +1 Gold in Towns, doubled in the Homelands |
| 🍫 Cocoa | +1 Happiness in Towns, doubled in the Homelands |
| 🦫 Furs | +3 Happiness in the Capital; +10 Gold during a Celebration |
| 🪙 Gold | +1 Gold and +1 Happiness in all Settlements |
| 🐎 Horses | +1 Combat Strength for Cavalry Units |
| 🥈 Silver | +1 Gold and +1 Food in all Settlements |
| 🌶️ Spices | +1 Culture and +1 Influence in Cities, doubled in the Homelands |
| 🍬 Sugar | +1 Food and +1 Happiness in Cities, doubled in the Homelands |
| 🍵 Tea | +1 Science and +1 Production in Cities, doubled in the Homelands |
To cash in, escort the Convoy back to any Homeland Settlement and unload it. Each Cargo delivers 100 Gold plus 20 GDP – an injection large enough to fund expansion, military buildup, or a Wonder. Convoys have only 25 Defense Strength, making them tempting targets for rival navies and Privateers. A single intercepted Convoy can swing an Age.
Returning a Convoy also earns GDP – Economic Victory Points – so every delivery is simultaneously an economic windfall and progress toward an Economic Victory. See Victory, Triumphs & Dedications.
If you intend to play an economic game, settle Distant Lands near clusters of Treasure Resources, build escort fleets before the first Cargo spawns, and time departures around hostile naval patrols. Two or three successful deliveries per Age can fund your entire Homeland development – and each one moves your GDP score.
🏭 Factory Resources – Modern Age, require a Factory
The Modern Age introduces Factory Resources, a tier that requires Factories to process. The unlock chain is: research Industrialization → build Rail Stations to connect your cities → research Mass Production → construct Factories. Each Factory can then slot Factory Resources found nearby.
The connection requirement is the part that catches people out. A Settlement can only build a Factory – and only earns from the Resources slotted in it – if it is connected to your Capital. Rail Stations do that over land, chaining settlement to settlement, which sometimes means putting one in a Town between two Cities just to close the gap. Water breaks the chain entirely: roads and railroads cannot cross it. The fix is a Port at both ends – one in the Settlement and one in your Capital – which carries the connection over the sea and lets island and Distant Lands cities run Factories like any other. On an Archipelago map that is not an optimization; it is the only way the system works at all.
| Resource | Effect |
|---|---|
| ☕ Coffee | +5% Production toward Buildings and Wonders |
| 🧵 Cotton | +5% Production toward Land Units |
| 🍋 Citrus | +5% Production toward Naval Units |
| 🍵 Tea | +3% Science |
| 🏺 Kaolin | +3% Culture |
| 🍫 Cocoa | +3% Happiness |
| 🪨 Tin | +3% Growth Rate |
| 💊 Quinine | +1 HP recovery per turn for units |
The infrastructure chain is significant, but the payoff compounds across your entire late game: a city with Coffee, Tea, and Kaolin slotted gains +5% Production, +3% Science, and +3% Culture simultaneously.
Slotting Factory Resources earns GDP every turn on top of the yield bonuses, alongside your slotted Resources and Gold Buildings. If you came out of an economic Exploration Age you are building Factories anyway – so the industrial build-out that powers your late game is also quietly running your Economic Victory score. Factories also feed the Railroad Tycoon Minor Triumph, which spawns the Great Banker – a Great Person who opens World Bank branches in rival Capitals for a large GDP injection each.
See Victory, Triumphs & Dedications.
Resource slots and capacity
Every Settlement has a limited number of Resource Slots governing how many City Resources it can activate at once. Defaults: Towns 1, Cities 2, Capital 4. Camels grants 2 extra slots to the City that slots it and does not spend one to do so, making it a net gain of two; a Market adds 1, and the Colossus adds 3. Buildings, Wonders, policies, and Attributes provide further capacity.
These raise the ceiling:
| Source | Slots Gained |
|---|---|
| Market | +1 |
| Lighthouse | +2 |
| Port | +2 |
| Wharf | +2 |
| Factory | +1 |
| Department Store | +1 |
| Lecture Hall | +1 |
| Monk's Mound (Wonder) | +4 |
| Colossus (Wonder) | +3 |
| Grand Bazaar (Wonder) | +2 |
| Tomb of Askia (Wonder) | +2 |
| Camels (Resource) | +2 in the City that slots it, without consuming a slot |
| Commodities Policy | +1 per City |
| Economic Attribute | +1 Cities (+2 if you have 3 or fewer Cities), +1 Towns |
| Chartered Companies (with Port) | +1 |
Reallocation rules: you can only reassign slotted Resources when you acquire a new Resource or gain new slots. Plan your slot economy before committing – swapping mid-game requires either new infrastructure or new deposits.
Slots also decide what you are worth to a trading partner. A Trade Route copies the destination's slotted Resources, so what a rival has slotted – not how close they are – is what makes them worth trading with. Merchants, route limits, Gold yields, and disruption are in Diplomacy, Influence & Trade.
For which yields and resources to chase in each Age, see Yield Priorities by Age.
👑 Leaders & civilizations that bend the rules of resources
| Pick | What changes |
|---|---|
| 🏭 Mughal | +100% Gold from all sources, −25% to every other yield except Food – the most distorted yield profile in the game |
| ⛵ Chola | +3 Gold and +2 Influence per active Trade Route, plus an extra route from Improve Trade Relations and +1 Gold per turn for imported Resources assigned to Cities |
| 🏺 Carthage | A free second Merchant or Colonist every time you train or purchase one |
| ⛵ Hawai'i | Works Ocean tiles, opening yields no other civilization can reach |
| 👑 Isabella | Built around Distant Lands Treasure – the Exploration Age's highest-value cargo |
| 👑 Edward Teach | Plunders non-Allied rivals' Trade Routes without declaring war, captures the defeated ship, and pays 50% of its Combat Strength in Gold – but costs +1 Gold maintenance per Naval Unit |
| 🏭 Prussia | Trades with civilizations it is at war with |
| 👑 Pachacuti | All Buildings gain +1 Food adjacency for Mountains, Specialists next to Mountains cost −2 maintenance (+1 away from them), and every City converts 10% of its Food into Production |
| 👑 Amina | +1 Resource Capacity in Cities and +1 Gold per Age for every Resource assigned to a City – more slots and more pay per slot at once |
| 👑 Elizabeth I | Trade Route Range is unlimited – every civilization you have met is a partner regardless of distance – and founding a Settlement on a different Continent than your Capital pays a Great Work each time |
| 🏭 England | +4 Culture on Gold Buildings and +4 Gold on Culture Buildings, doubled in Settlements on Islands or in Distant Lands – the two economies feed each other rather than competing for build slots |