High Science, Production, and good adjacencies are necessary for a Science Victory in Civilization VII (Civ 7). Learn how to win the Science Legacy Paths in the Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern Ages in this guide!

Civ 7 Science Guides
Science Victory Guide	Best Science Mementos
Best Science Leaders	Best Science Civs

Antiquity Age Science Victory Guide

Legacy Path Goal
Collect and display 10 Codices
Tips for the Science Legacy Path
Settle your first cities fast Choose Despotism as your Government Spend Influence on Research Collaboration Build Libraries and Academies on each Settlement Focus on getting the Techs you need first Collect Codices through Masteries

Settle Your First Cities Fast

Like in any strategy, you'd want to place a couple of Settlements after founding your Capital to help develop your empire. Train Scouts to reveal the surrounding area and immediately have two Settlers found Towns near your Capital.

These three Settlements should be enough during the first turns to grab Resources, place necessary Buildings, and overall speed up development.

Best Build Order

Choose Despotism as Your Government

Studying the Chiefdom Civic unlocks the Governments for the Antiquity Age. Despotism is almost always the right choice here as it gives access to a Celebration that temporarily increases Science output.

Science is very important, especially in the early game, as it expands the available units and buildings you can use.

List of All Governments

Spend Influence on Research Collaboration

Eventually, you will meet other Civs and will want to spend your Influence. If it's taking a while to find an opponent Civ and you have a lot of Influence to spare, try befriending nearby Independent Powers to keep their army off your yard.

When you do find another Civ, immediately start the Research Collaboration Endeavor to increase your Science per turn. You can also spend Influence on the Local Festival Endeavor to trigger the next Celebration early.

Diplomacy Guide

Build Libraries and Academies on Each Settlement

A Library and an Academy are the two buildings that you are required to build to complete the Antiquity Science Legacy Path. These don't just give Science but also slots for the Codices that you earn in Narrative Events and Tech Tree Masteries.

Since the ultimate goal of the Antiquity Science Legacy Path is to display 10 Codices across your empire, you'll want to build a Library and an Academy in each Settlement. Two Academies and two Libraries will suffice but having more definitely speeds up your victory.

Building	Effect
Library	+2 Science +1 Science for each adjacent Resource +1 Science for each adjacent Wonder Has 2 Codex slots Antiquity Science Building
Academy	+4 Science +1 Science for each adjacent Resource +1 Science for each adjacent Wonder Has 3 Codex slots Antiquity Science Building

Buildings and Improvements

Focus on Getting the Techs You Need First

Instead of researching Masteries everytime you can, focus on completing the majority of the Technology Tree first to get more effective buildings and stronger units. These can increase your total yields per turn and put you on equal footing with your invaders.

Future Tech should be researched last as it makes the next Age come earlier. You'd want to spend your Science on Future Tech when all the Techs and their Masteries are already unlocked.

Technologies and Tech Tree

Collect Codices Through Masteries

Onto the main objective now! The goal of the Antiquity Science Legacy Path is to collect and display 10 Codices. These can be obtained through Narrative Events and Civ-exclusive Great People but most of these can be earned by researching Tech Masteries.

You can get a total of 7 Codices from Tech Masteries and 1 Codex by studying the Literacy Civic. The Nalanda Wonder also gives 1 Codex, but if another Civ beat you to it, the remaining 2 Codices must be obtained through Narrative Events.

How to Get Codex/Codices

Exploration Age Science Victory Guide

Legacy Path Goal
Achieve a total of 40 yields in 5 non-city center tiles
Tips for the Science Legacy Path
Settle on areas with terrain adjacencies Have at least 50 Food per city Build over outdated buildings Get the highest adjacency bonus available Build Wonders for more adjacency bonuses Count an Urban District's total yields

Settle on Areas with Terrain Adjacencies

The Exploration Science Legacy Path is all about increasing the yields of Urban Districts through any means. You'll notice that most buildings gain increased yield if they are placed adjacent to certain tiles.

Since most of these adjacency bonuses come from mountains, rivers, coasts, and Resources, look for areas abundant in these tiles so you have many options on where to place your Urban Districts. Take note that there are also buildings with adjacencies to other infrastructures!

Adjacency Bonuses

Have at Least 50 Food per City

The amount of Food a Settlement generates determines how fast it expands and trigger a Growth Event. This is important in a Science Victory as it also allows you to place Specialists on Urban Districts to increase its yields.

Having as much Food as possible will keep your cities growing, but try getting at least 50 Food in your cities to maintain their growth at a decent speed.

Specialists Have Maintenance Costs!

Specialists consume Gold and Happiness per turn and placing them without minding their maintenance costs could lead to negative Gold and Happiness yields! Make sure you have enough of these before placing another Specialist on an Urban District.

What are Specialists?

Build Over Outdated Buildings

Unless they are tagged as "Ageless", buildings placed in the Antiquity Age will have lower yields than their Exploration Age counterpart. Since you're aiming for high total yields on Urban Districts, you'll want to Overbuild on previous Age buildings to make the most of the district slots.

Overbuilding Explained

Get the Highest Adjacency Bonus Available

The yields shown in the production tab (or purchase tab) in City Centers are the current highest yields that the building can give through adjacency bonuses across all the available tiles in the Settlement. This is especially true for buildings that get mostly terrain adjacency bonuses rather than infrastructure adjacencies.

Click on the building that you want to place and look for the tile that matches the yields shown in the production tab to increase that districts total yield!

Build Wonders for More Adjacency Bonuses

Some buildings also get adjacency bonuses from Natural Wonders and man-made Wonders, which also comes with their own useful effects. If you have high Production in your Settlement, try placing man-made Wonders next to buildings that gain adjacency from Wonders!

List of Wonders

Count an Urban District's Total Yields

You only need 5 non-city center tiles with at least 40 total yields for the Golden Age Milestone of the Exploration Science Legacy Path. Keep track of the total yield of an Urban District before placing another Specialist until you reach this goal!

Only Non-City Center Tiles Count Towards the Milestone

Despite being an Urban District itself, City Centers do not count towards the main objective of the Science Legacy Path. Be careful not to place Specialists here while you're still working towards the Golden Age Milestone.

Modern Age Science Victory Guide

Legacy Path Goal
Complete the First Staffed Space Flight project
Tips for the Science Legacy Path
Focus on Science and Production Have a high Production city Choose the Communism Ideology Utilize Endeavors and Sanctions Attack competitors if necessary

Focus on Science and Production

The entire Modern Science Legacy Path revolves around specific Techs and projects which require Science and Production, respectively. Since Victory Conditions happen in this Age, you need to focus on these currencies to make sure you get your victory first.

For increasing Science, try placing your Science buildings on tiles with high adjacency bonuses and place Specialists until you hit the limit. The same goes with Production buildings, but instead of Specialists, you can improve tiles with high Production yield.

Have a High Production City

The projects needed for the Science Victory—Trans-Oceanic Flight, Break the Sound Barrier, Launch Sattelite, and finally, First Staffed Space Flight—can only be done with an Aerodome and a Launch Pad.

These buildings can be placed on any of your cities, but it is advisable to build them on your city with the highest Production, preferably a well defended one in case you become a target of a war declaration.

You can build multiple Aerodomes for your aircrafts but there's almost no point in building multiple Launch Pads (at least in the current ruleset) as doing the Science Victory projects on multiple cities at once won't speed them up.

Choose the Communism Ideology

Studying the Political Theory Civic unlocks the Ideology Trees. Each additional tree has their own positives and negatives, which include making friends with the same Ideology as you and enemies that think otherwise.

If you're not afraid to make enemies and badly want bonuses that can speed up your Science Victory, you'd want to pick the Communism Ideology and get the Socialism Civic at the end. This Civic unlocks the Public Works policy that increase Production towards projects.

Utilize Endeavors and Sanctions

When you're done befriending the Independent Powers that match your attribute, make use of your Influence to start or support Endeavors, especially the Research Collaboration for the temporary Science boost!

If you still have a lot of Influence remaining, you can also try hitting your unfriendly competitors with the Hinder Research Sanction to reduce their Science output and slow down their overall Tech progress.

Attack Competitors If Necessary

Remember: this is the Age where the victor will be decided and you should spare no effort in achieving your Legacy Path's Victory Condition, even if it means going to war.

Be sure to check the Rankings under the Age Progress menu regularly to see if anyone else is close to winning and assemble an army to halt their progress!

Best Science Leader and Civ Combinations

Confucius

Leader		Civilizations
Confucius		Han Ming Qing
Mementos
The Analects Brush & Scroll	+1 Science per Specialist +5% Growth Rate in Cities for every Specialist in that City (Max 25%)
Great Imperial Crown	Cities gain +5% Science per Great Work on Display (Max 25%)

Confucius' strategy revolves on rapidly growing cities to gain Specialists and more Science. Because of this, you'll want to use the Chinese Civilizations, whose Traditions help increase Science and Growth gains.

Another upside of this combination is that it's very easy to use due to Confucius' Unique Ability is simple and straightforward, as well as having both the Ming and Qing Civilizations unlocked by default.

For the Mementos, The Analects and Great Imperial Crown stack upon Confucius and the Chinese Civilizations' Science boosts. However, you can also go with Brush & Scroll over The Analects if you want extra Growth Rate instead.

Benjamin Franklin

Leader		Civilizations
Benjamin Franklin		Maya Inca America
Mementos
The Analects Brush & Scroll	+1 Science per Specialist +5% Growth Rate in Cities for every Specialist in that City (Max 25%)
Kite & Key	+10% Science towards researching Tech Masteries

Benjamin Franklin's ability to get Production buildings up faster and get Science from them work well with Maya's unique quarter that gives Production every time a Technology is researched.

Playing as Maya in the Antiquity Age also unlocks Inca in the Exploration Age, which can gather more Food and Production from Mountain tiles and speed up the placement of Specialists needed for the Legacy Path.

In the Modern Age, Benjamin Franklin will amplify America's advantage in Production to place the necessary buildings and complete the Legacy Path projects faster.

Civilization VII (Civ 7) Related Guides

Civilization VII Wiki

All Recommended Guides

Recommended Guides
How to Play Civ 7	Early Game Strategy Guide
The New Ages	Diplomacy Guide
Best Science Mementos	Best Military Mementos
Best Culture Mementos	Ground Combat Guide
Naval Exploration and Combat Guide	What Does Happiness Do
How to Win Wars	-
Leader and Civ Guides
Best Leaders and Civilizations Tier Lists	Best Science Leaders
Best Military Leaders	Best Culture Leaders
Best Economic Leaders and Civs	Best Science Civs
Best Culture Civs	Best Culture Civs
Best Economic Mementos	-
List Pages
List of Mementos	List of All Governments
List of Policies	List of Pantheons
All Unique Units	-