One of the biggest and most controversial changes brought by Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 is the forced transition between different civilizations when eras end.

This will finally change this spring, with a massive update named “Test of Time.” Specifically, it’s the forced part of it that will be removed. You’ll still be able to change civilizations if you want (and the AI will do the same), but you’ll be able to keep the one you’ve been using, too.

You’ll also be able to play with any civilization in any age, although each civilization will have its Apex Age, in which it’ll have its full kit. In other ages, you’ll be able to customize your civ’s kit via syncretism, acquiring elements from other factions.

Victories are also going to be overhauled to feel less procedural, while legacy paths will be replaced by Triumphs, which are less rigid and won’t dictate your strategic choices.

You can check out the video below for details.

Yet, there’s more news on top of future updates, as the game just got its first big patch in a long time, version 1.3.2.

Most visibly, the update will unlock the ultimate bro as a new leader, Gilgamesh. You can see him in action in the video below.

Another big change comes to the UI with nested tooltips, which will make learning the new concepts introduced in the game quite a bit easier.

There’s plenty more, and you can find the full update notes below.

Gameplay

Coastal Raid

• The Coastal Raid action for Naval Units has been updated to behave more like the Pillage action.
  • Naval Units can still Coastal Raid the tile they are on, as well as adjacent tiles, but they no longer have the option to Pillage. Coastal Raid can still be used to activate discoveries at range and capture Districts.
  • Coastal Raiding now provides Yields based on the tile being raided, matching Yields gained when Pillaging that tile. (Previously: Coastal Raid defaulted to granting Gold and Health.)
  • Coastal Raid now also benefits from abilities that increase Pillage Yields. Effects that are intended to only trigger on Pillaging on land will specify Land Units in their description.
  • Dev Note: We made this change to reduce the redundancy and confusion when Naval Units had access to both Coastal Raid and Pillage. We also took this opportunity to refine how the two actions really worked!
• To support this change, the following content was updated:
  • Iceland’s Drottvaett Tradition and Vikingr were updated.
    • Drottkvaett: Naval Units grant Culture equal to 50% of Pillage Yields and Healing. (Previously: Coastal Raiding grants Culture equal to 50% the Gold gained.)
    • Vikingr: Iceland Unique Heavy Naval Unit. Grants Science equal to 25% of Pillage Yields and Healing. Has 3 Sight. (Previously: Iceland Unique Heavy Naval Unit. Coastal Raiding grants Science equal to 25% the Gold gained. Has 3 Sight.)
• Descriptions of Wonders, Social Policies, Commander Promotions, and Civ Abilities were updated to clarify whether they apply to Naval or Land Units.

Appeal

• Added new Appeal Lens.
• Appeal’s effect on Happiness has been updated. The way a tile’s Appeal is calculated is unchanged.
  • Appeal is no longer binary, and now has levels. Tiles can be Average, Charming, or Breathtaking. Appeal level determines how much Happiness a tile provides, and Happiness from Appealing tiles no longer scales by Age.
    • Average tiles continue to not provide Happiness.
    • Charming tiles provide +1 Happiness when improved.
    • Breathtaking tiles provide +2 Happiness when improved.
  • Abilities that previously referred to tiles with a Happiness Yield or a Natural Happiness Yield have been updated to reference Appeal instead.

AI

• AI behavior around Diplomacy gameplay has been updated.
  • Diplomatic leaders will more properly use the Military Sabotage Action unlocked in the Diplomatic Attribute tree.
  • Militaristic leaders will more properly use the Open the Gates Espionage during War, and put more Influence towards War Support. 
  • All leaders befriend Independents slightly more often.
  • Individual leaders have had specific biases adjusted to better support their gameplay. (Leaders affected include Ben Franklin, Edward Teach, Harriet Tubman, Himiko Queen of Wa, Ibn Battuta, Jose Rizal, Lafayette, Machiavelli, Napoleon Emperor, Sayyida al Hurra, Trung Trac.)
  • Leaders with City-State centered gameplay more properly Suzerain and Incorporate City-States. (Leaders affected include Lakshmibai, Tecumseh.)
  • Leaders with Personas have had their personalities slightly differentiated to vary gameplay. (Leaders affected include Ashoka, Friedrich, Himiko, Xerxes.)
  • Civs have had specific biases adjusted to better support their gameplay. (Civs affected include Greece, Shawnee, Siam, Tonga, Prussia, America, Great Britain, Spain.)

Diplomacy

• Players will now correctly lose the +1 Gold Effect from Pirate Haven when losing a Trade Route by declaring a War.

Economy

• Changed “Rural District” to just “Rural” on various tooltips, effects, descriptions, and Civilopedia articles for better consistency with gameplay logic. These tiles are now simply referred to as “Rural” to avoid confusion with “Districts” or Urban tiles.
  • As part of this change, the effects of both Qajar’s Qullarāqāsi Tradition and Sayyida al Hurra’s leader ability, Hakima Tatwan, now match their descriptions and only apply to Urban Districts. 
  • Dev Note: We wanted effects like these to be impactful and easily understood, while also not creating odd incentives. As we ramp up to bigger changes, expect us to unify language, make things clearer, and occasionally change abilities such as these to better fit. As always, we will be monitoring balance for Qajar and Sayyida al Hurra and make adjustments when necessary.
• Players no longer fail to receive +2 Culture from ongoing Diplomatic projects when the Ekklesia Mastery has been completed and a Diplomatic project has been started.
• Added Production Adjacency from Wonders for Factories in Modern.
• Riches of the Duat will no longer provide a +20% production bonus when constructing a Wonder in a city not located in desert terrain.
• The bonuses from the “Freyfaxahamar” Storylet are no longer given as a Global Yield when selected. The bonus now correctly applies only towards Settlements that are following the player’s Religion.
• The Anjuvannam Unique Building no longer fails to receive Adjacency Bonuses from Coastal tiles when slotting the “Shusei Kokubo” tradition.
• Ageless Fortified Districts no longer lose Health and Wall Defense bonus when transitioning to the following Age.

Military

• Communism no longer spawns Naval Ranged Units instead of Land Ranged Units when completed in the Civic Tree.
• Naval Units with the Pirate ability are no longer able to be attacked through Fortified districts when targeted by neutral units.
• Military Naval Units can now properly capture a Fortified tile when the tile has had all Buildings pillaged.
• The Donjon Unique Quarter no longer gives an extra Chevalier Unit when the Normans reconquer a Settlement with a completed Donjon Unique Quarter.
• Addressed a reported storylet issue causing Army Commanders to disappear after gaining the reward.

Misc

• Improved transition VFX for Naval Units. 
• Addressed a visual issue affecting Shawnee’s Unique Unit “Hoceepkileni” model.

Leaders & Civs

Leaders

• (★ – Community Influence Item) Added new leader Gilgamesh. )

Civs

Mughal

• Unique Ability:
  • Paradise of Nations: +100% to all Gold Yields, -25% to all other Yields. (Previously: Paradise of Nations: +75% to all Gold Yields, -25% to all other Yields.)
  • Dev Note: We’ve been wanting to lean into the asymmetrical nature of the Mughal ability harder and make this a clean 100% bonus for a while, but waited to tweak the whole kit to support this change, as well as get a better sense of how the Modern Age was played by the community. While some abilities technically got debuffed a bit, overall we’ve found this to be a decent boost to making the Mughals feel special.
• Unique Improvement:
  • Stepwell: +2 Food. +2 Food from adjacent Farms. Must be built on a Flat tile. Cannot be built adjacent to another Stepwell. (Previously: +2 Gold. +2 Food from adjacent Farms. Must be built on a Flat tile. Cannot be built adjacent to another Stepwell.)
  • Dev Note: Since we buffed the Unique Ability to carry the majority of the Gold Bonus, we took the opportunity to focus other parts of their kit on the Food and Rural aspects.
• Traditions:
  • Mayūrāsana: +10% Gold towards purchasing anything. (Previously: +25% Gold towards purchasing anything.)
  • Jins-i Kamil: +1 Food on Farms for each adjacent Plantation, and on Plantations for each adjacent Farm. (Previously: +1 Food and Gold on Farms for each adjacent Plantation, and on Plantations for each adjacent Farm.)
    • Dev Note: This is another example of letting this part of the kit guide players to Mughal’s other strengths around Food.
  • Qilachas: +2 Gold on Quarters with Walls. (Previously this ability wasn’t working as intended and counted any District with 2 Buildings, instead of Quarters. Quarters are Districts with 2 Ageless or Current-Age Buildings)
• Civic Tree:
  • Zabt Tier 1: Unlock the Stepwell. +1 Gold on Farms in Towns. Jins-i Kamil Tradition. (Previously: Unlock the Stepwell. +1 Gold on Farms. Jins-i Kamil Tradition.)
  • Gardens of Paradise Tier 1: You can purchase Wonders with Gold, but they are more expensive. (150%) Mayūrāsana Tradition. (Previously: You can purchase Wonders with Gold. Mayūrāsana Tradition).

Dai Viet

• Unique Ability
  • Hịch Tướng Sĩ: When you create a Fortification Constructible receive 25 Culture for every Urban Population in that Settlement. (Scales By Game Speed) (Previously: When you create a Fortification Constructible receive 5 Culture for every Urban Population in that Settlement. (Scales By Game Speed)).
  • Dev Note: Sometimes, we like to just buff stuff. 
• Unique Settler
  • Quận Vương: Unique Settler.  When this Unit Settles receive 25 Culture for every Tropical tile within 3 of the City Center (Scales by Game Speed). (Previously: When this Unit Settles receive 5 Culture for every Tropical tile within 3 of the City Center (Scales by Game Speed)).

French Empire

• Replaced Militaristic Attribute for Cultural.
  • Dev Note: The French Empire’s focus on Happiness and Government made the Diplomatic Attribute clear, but the rest of their bonuses split pretty evenly between combat and cultural focuses. With the other changes to their kit with this update, we felt it was appropriate to adjust their Attribute accordingly. As we ramp up towards releasing some bigger changes and making Attributes matter more in some contexts, we might adjust a few more civs in future updates. We plan to be very judicious about these shifts! 
• Changed the Grand Armee combat strength effect from Per Adjacent Unit to Traditions slotted in the Government.
• Added a Tradition Slot to the French Empire’s final Civic.

UI

Civilopedia

• Added a new entry for the Skirmish ability.
• Added a new entry for the Poison ability.
• Walls now properly state that they can not be built on Rural tiles.
• Added a new entry for Trade Range.
• The entry for Attributes now mentions Wildcard Attributes.

Controller-Specific

• Added support for multi-touch zoom and rotate gestures on Steam Deck.
• Addressed inconsistent highlighting when editing Social Policies.
• The cursor can now properly move to the available Policy cards list in the Government menu when all slots are filled.
• Addressed a reported issue where the Peace Deal Proposal could sometimes overlap with other menus.
• Addressed a reported issue where the controller could lose function after deleting a configuration in the Save/Load Configuration Menu.
• Locked attribute nodes now highlight when the cursor is on them in the Leader Attribute Menu.
• The Player Unlocks menu now correctly appears in the radial menu after unlocking next Age rewards in the Antiquity Age.
• Button prompts for certain tutorials are no longer missing.

General

• Added “Turns until next Celebration” underneath the Government icon in the HUD.
• Added red outline around the Unit flag of hostile City-States (previously this only showed for hostile Independent Powers).
• Addressed a reported issue leading to inconsistent ordering in Civic Trees.
• The Wonder quote for World’s Fair will now properly appear.
• When clicking your leader portrait while in a Diplomacy menu, it will now open your Diplomacy screen to the last opened tab.
• District Health Bar is no longer missing when reloading a save with a destroyed District.
• Promotion options no longer remain selectable when the player views the promotion menu after adding and confirming all available points.
• Addressed a reported issue where the Rewards Menu would appear without unlocking anything new. 
• Made improvements to late game performance and multiplayer stability.

Text Changes

• Added directional help and new text to Diplomacy tabs before other players choose Governments, and before the player meets their first Independent Power.
• The Unit description for Submarines now mentions its unique combat role when viewing it in the Production menu and Civilopedia.
• Light Naval Units now properly present Melee Strength when viewing them on the Production/Purchase menu.
• The Pantheon Menu is no longer mostly empty and missing information related to its unlock requirements when starting a New Game in early Antiquity Age gameplay.
• Updated description for the Shwedagon Zedi Daw Wonder to mention Appeal. 
• Updated loading screen description text for Xerxes Achaemenid’s unique Memento “Gold Fluted Phiale.”
• Made various text improvements.

Tooltips

• Added tooltips to tabs within the Diplomacy panel.
• Unit icons will no longer overlap the tooltips of the Trade Route when viewing possible Trade Routes.

Narrative

• Addressed improper triggers in Narrative Events.

Audio

• Added a new UI audio notification for Cities converting to a new Religion.
• Added Narrator VO after building the World’s Fair Wonder. 
• Havana Harbor music will now play when the Wonder is completed.
• Addressed various UI audio issues.

Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 is available for PS5, PS4, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.