A Comprehensive Tier Guide to Civilization 6 Buildings

In Civilization 6, players face a plethora of building choices, each with varying impacts on gameplay, victory conditions, and strategic development. Here, we break down the primary buildings across different districts, focusing on when and why they should be built. This tier guide reflects the general consensus on their importance, usefulness, and efficiency when trying to win as fast as possible.

Tier S Buildings – Game-Changing and Essential

1. Monument: Provides early culture and loyalty boosts. A must-build in the early game to gain quick access to early civics.
2. Market & Lighthouse: Crucial for expanding trade routes and growing cities. Boosts economy and enables fast development.
3. Granary: Provides essential housing and food. Excellent for growing early cities efficiently.
4. Ancestral Hall: A critical building for expansion-focused players. It grants settlers and builders essential for rapid territorial development. The production bonus towards settlers and the free builder provided per city are crucial in the early game.
5. Grand Masters’ Chapel: This building allows for faith-based unit purchases, making it invaluable in military or faith-heavy games. The ability to buy military units with faith can shift the tide of wars and help maintain a strong military presence without draining gold.
6. Warlord’s Throne: Best suited for domination-focused games, it grants production bonuses after conquests. This is a powerhouse for players who focus on early military dominance.
7. Foreign Ministry: Reduces the cost to levy city-state units, making it particularly strong in games where city-state military support is crucial, like when playing Hungary or Sumeria.
8. Amphitheater: Essential for a cultural victory, allowing you to store great works early and generate tourism.
9. Museums: Archaeological and Art Museums are both crucial for culture games. Art Museums are useful for doubling tourism with Pingala’s promotions, while Archaeological Museums generate tourism, but artifacts can also be traded away for gold in science games.

Tier A Buildings – Highly Useful, with Specific Applications

1. Temple: Enables Apostles for religious victories and boosts faith production, important but slightly less urgent than the Shrine.
2. Coal Power Plant: An essential part of managing late-game production needs, especially in cities that drive space race projects. It offers the most efficient power generation among other power plants.
3. Arena: A key early-game amenity provider. The arena is a low-cost option to ensure cities remain content and productive, particularly during mid-game expansion.
4. Library & University: Boosts science and provides housing. Essential in any science-driven game.
5. Royal Society: Primarily used for science victories, this building enables cities to rapidly finish space projects using builder charges. A must for achieving quick science victories.
6. Military Academy: Enables purchasing armies outright, which is powerful in domination games and boosts space race projects in science games.
7. National History Museum: Provides additional slots for great works, which is useful for cultural victories but otherwise situational.
8. Zoo & Ferris Wheel: These buildings provide essential amenities to surrounding cities, ensuring cities stay productive and happy. Particularly useful for larger empires where amenities can be stretched thin.
9. Research Lab: Important for increasing science output, but very expensive and comes late in the game. Only necessary for dedicated science games.

Tier B Buildings – Situational, But Can be Worthwhile

1. Walls: Defensive structures, useful in situations where you need to protect against early aggression or in culture games for extra tourism.
2. Industrial Zone Buildings: While industrial zones themselves are not the strongest option, they provide critical Eurekas for scientific advancements. Building them in key cities can enhance production and lead to faster technology unlocks.
3. Diplomatic Quarter: This district improves envoy usage and boosts yields from city-state alliances. It’s a strategic choice for players leveraging diplomacy and suzerainty to enhance their civilization’s performance.
4. Shipyard: Provides essential production for coastal cities, especially useful in games with a strong naval presence.
5. Stadium & Aquatics: Important regional buildings that provide regional amenities
6. Shopping Mall: Offers amenities but is generally overshadowed by other entertainment buildings. The bonus is too little too late for most victory conditions.
7. Armory: Needed for military engineers and strategic resource stockpiling, but not often prioritized unless you need forts or railroads.
8. Broadcast Tower: Provides a single slot for great music and a minor culture boost, but its late-game position and high cost make it an inefficient build.
9. Audience Chamber: While not as universally strong, it suits players focusing on tall empires or governor-heavy strategies. The bonus amenities and housing can stabilize growing cities, although it’s less relevant for large, sprawling empires.
10. War Department: Heals units when they defeat enemies, making it useful in extended wars. However, it comes too late to be impactful for most early wars.

Boost/Utility Tier – Mostly for Civic/Tech Boosts

1. Bank: Generates gold but typically offers too little value for its cost and comes too late.
2. Aquarium: A source of amenities in the late game that extend regionally, but it better serves as a stepping stone to getting Aquatics Center.
3. Seaport: Similar to the Bank, it generates resources but provides little impact on core game objectives.
4. Barracks/Stables: Provides combat experience bonuses but is more of a stepping stone to higher-tier military buildings.
5. Water Mill: Provides minimal yields in terms of food and production, but only in river cities. Often built just for the construction tech boost.
6. Sewer: Adds housing but comes too late in the game to provide much value.
7. Aerodrome & Buildings: Air units can be powerful, but building airports and hangars comes too late in most games. By the time they’re relevant, victory should already be within reach.
8. Flood Barrier: Essential for late-game protection against rising sea levels, but only needed in longer games or map settings where climate change plays a role.
9. Intelligence Agency: Provides an additional spy, which is marginally useful, but spy operations are often inefficient, making this a low-priority building.
10. Hydroelectric Dam: The power it provides is useful but often limited to cities on rivers and requires significant investment compared to other power sources.
11. Stock Exchange: Provides minimal gold late in the game, offers little strategic value in most games.
12. Food Market: It increases food in cities with a Neighborhood district, aiding in city growth but is not as impactful as earlier-game food sources or tile improvements.
13. Preserve & Buildings: Despite the potential for high yields in specific cases, the Preserve’s appeal-based bonuses are too niche and situational. Most players will find it doesn’t provide enough return on investment for the effort involved.