Success in Civilization 7 also relies on the happiness of its population. Happiness is a resource generated by your cities, affecting individual city performance as well as the general state of your civilization. A happy populace causes the celebration, encourages growth and productivity of the cities, and eliminates unrest. In return, unhappiness causes riots and will set back your civilization. This guide outlines key strategies for cultivating happiness in your cities, from strategic city placement and leveraging special buildings to utilizing policies, leaders, and even managing warfare effectively.
How to Increase Happiness
In Civilization 7, Happiness is a resource generated by your cities that affects both individual cities and your entire civilization. At the civilization level, overall Happiness dictates how frequently you hold celebrations. On a city level, each city uses its own Happiness to pay for building and specialist upkeep, and to prevent unrest and riots.
Settlements Near Fresh Water
In Civilization 7, one of the most important things you can do to boost your people’s happiness is to settle your cities near a source of fresh water. This will give your city an immediate +5 happiness bonus.
While settling without fresh water isn’t a game-ender, it will make it much harder to keep your citizens happy. Keep in mind that having multiple sources of fresh water doesn’t increase the bonus; any source of fresh water will give you the base +5 happiness.
Army Commander
In Civ 7, stationing an army commander within your city limits boosts Happiness. While the Civilopedia mentions a 10% reduction in unhappiness (helpful for preventing riots), our testing indicates they also directly increase Happiness even when your city is functioning normally.
However, simply training or purchasing a commander inside the city won’t provide the bonus. They must enter the city from outside its borders. So, if you train one in the city, you’ll need to move them out and then back in to get the Happiness benefit.
Policies and Leader
In Civ 7, some Civic Policies offer Happiness boosts under specific conditions. For example, during the Antiquity Age, the Rites and Rituals policy (from the Entertainment Civics tree) doubles Happiness in all your cities. Whenever you research a new Civic, check your Social Policies to see if any new Happiness-boosting options are available.
Certain Leaders and Civilizations also have unique abilities, units, or buildings that grant Happiness bonuses. The Chola civilization, for instance, can build the unique Manigranam building, which provides +4 Happiness and has a Happiness adjacency bonus.
While you can’t change your Leader mid-game, if your entire empire is struggling with unhappiness, you might consider choosing a Civ with built-in Happiness bonuses when you start a new game, perhaps focusing on Exploration or Modern Era civilizations.
Settlements Near Special Buildings
In Civ 7, each era offers special buildings like Arenas, Altars, and Villas that directly boost Happiness. Building these in your cities immediately adds to their Happiness score. If you need a quick Happiness boost, buying these buildings is the fastest way to improve things.
If one of your cities is particularly unhappy, you can shift resources to it to improve its mood. For example, the Dates resource provides both +3 Food and +3 Happiness, while Dyes offer a significant +5 Happiness boost. You can only reallocate resources when a new resource becomes available to your empire, either through trade or city growth.
Avoid Wars
In Civ 7, war is a major happiness killer. Just being at war makes your people unhappy, and the more wars you’re fighting, the worse it gets. However, using Influence to gain War Support can lessen this negative impact on happiness. Some Leaders, like Harriet Tubman, naturally have higher War Support, which helps maintain happiness during conflicts.
Even better, you can use Influence to generate positive War Support for yourself, while simultaneously tanking your enemy’s happiness. If you do this effectively, they might eventually surrender, and you could even snag a city in the peace deal.
Settlements Near Happiness Tiles
In Civ 7, certain tiles naturally produce Happiness, which boosts your city when worked. When your city is growing, you can see these potential Happiness yields in the Grow City interface. At any other time, you can check the surrounding tiles by opening the Lenses minimap (or pressing ‘Y’ on PC) and selecting “Show Yields.” Look for the tiles with the little smiley face icon – those are your Happiness boosters. If your city is struggling with unhappiness, try to grow towards those tiles. Some tiles, especially those around Natural Wonders, can have multiple Happiness yields, which can be a huge advantage throughout the game.
