Civilization VII Update 1.3.1 - December 9, 2025

[FXS_Sar]

Update 1.3.1 is rolling out now to all platforms!​

Note for Switch players: If you're encountering issues seeing the new Tides of Power DLC in-game, try ejecting and reloading the virtual game card to access the new content.

This update’s a bit lighter as we head into the holidays, though there’s still more than enough here to kick off a new game, including:

• The second half of Tides of Power, including Sayyida al Hurra, Iceland, the Ottomans
• A brand new map type, Shattered Seas
• Improvements to biome generation
• MORE civ balance!
• A new (but familiar) Wonder, the Great Library
• and more in the full patch notes!

Claim the Tides of Power Collection for free before Jan 5 (don't forget!): https://2kgam.es/TidesOfPower

Full update notes here: https://civilization.2k.com/civ-vii/game-update-notes/ (please give these a moment to populate! In the meantime, check out the full notes on Steam here.)

Before you play: Some mods might not play nice with the update. If you run into issues, try disabling them first. Steam players can use the legacy branch to wrap up any ongoing games on the previous version.

Happy building and happy holidays from the entire Firaxis team!

 

[Nikolai II]

Hooray, finally!

 

[pjotroos]

Ah, so the minor river bonus for Egypt is gone completely. Shame, makes the civ more volatile again, given how hard it is to guarantee a decent number of navigable river. Was hoping the bonuses just get tuned down a bit across the board.

Pretty sizable nerfs to America, too (-80% on Lend Lease is wild), though somewhat understandable. They are definitely the economic/generalist outlier, and should still be strong after the changes.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Why did they nerf Russia?

Also I did not expect them to nerf America that hard. One of their Traditions is only one-fifth as strong as before

 

[pjotroos]

Rome looks good.

Buganda looks borderline irrelevant - nice, sure, but very situational.

Russia is mixed bag of nerfs and buffs that is somewhat hard to judge, but on the surface just turns them into less flavourful, more generalist civ.

Carthage update is wild. The civ strugggles with the new building & economy meta, and the one change they get is taking the range bonus away, in exchange for bonus damage? The damage bonus isn't necessarily making them better or worse, though I think it's net nerf - Carthage's big cannons is the cavalry, and this makes naval support far more situational. But either way, it doesn't really tackle any of their actual issues. And - just like Russia - it makes the civ less flavourful.

 

[Leucarum]

Did that also fix the Shawnee Bug?

• The effect of Wiyehi Simekofi Mastery can no longer be stacked on Mawaskawe Skote when a player builds multiple Mawaskawe Skote Improvements in one Settlement.

 

[MutilationWave]

Russia is being used by some top players to absolutely dominate in modern by ignoring the settlement cap in previous ages. To me, this is more of an issue with settlement cap than with Russia. Nerf to America is silly. Why do companies always go so hard with nerfs?

 

[bbbt]

Ah, so the minor river bonus for Egypt is gone completely. Shame, makes the civ more volatile again, given how hard it is to guarantee a decent number of navigable river. Was hoping the bonuses just get tuned down a bit across the board.

Yeah, that's really an unfortunate change, and makes Egypt unappealing to play for me. Any cities settled without navigable rivers are essentially 'blank' now. And as you said, navigable rivers are very much a crapshoot. Starting a game and seeing no where to place a second or third city that can even use their abilities makes them not interesting. They could have just nerfed the prod and food bonues ons minor rivers to be +1 instead of +2 (and removed the cultural one), so you still felt you were getting something placing cities.

 

[Menocchio]

Removing the influence adjacency from the Roman Basilica is really sad, it made it unique. The changes to traditions overall also don't really address the key problem with some, which is that they scale poorly past their original age. Also missing the range bonus for Carthaginian naval units—not sure why this couldn't have been split into two bonuses, one for Heavy and one for Light.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Still a nice one for this being a "smaller" update; some good new stuff (changes to biomes/rainfall patterns, new map script, Great Library, improved minimap) and I appreciate especially those two fixes:

Salt and Truffles now properly give +20% Production towards training any Unit when slotted into a City. (...)

Army Commanders no longer fail to gain XP when a Unit damages an enemy in the Army Commander's upgraded Command Radius.

 

[Krikkit1]

Removing the influence adjacency from the Roman Basilica is really sad, it made it unique. The changes to traditions overall also don't really address the key problem with some, which is that they scale poorly past their original age. Also missing the range bonus for Carthaginian naval units—not sure why this couldn't have been split into two bonuses, one for Heavy and one for Light.

Well Silla and Qajar still have an influence adjacency…but that does make it rarer.

 

[disjointaccount]

Nerfs are a little rougher than I was expecting, but don't think anyone's been rendered non-viable. America's influence generation was some of the most broken in the game so while its nerf definitely is a nuking, I think it's a somewhat warranted nuking.

On another note, is anyone currently in-game able to see what civs Sayyida al Hurra unlocks?

 

[Liksomkatt]

Nice! Crossing my fingers for hotseat being in the next update, then

 

[Leucarum]

Yeah, I think the nerfs to America still leave it pretty good. It's more ths state of snowballing in modern that means modern civs have to be bonkers to have any real relevance.

I'm fine with all the balance changes. Nothing seems egregious. I think it's mostly gonna be about the new map - and curious to try out Sayyida.

 

[Krikkit1]

I guess they decided not to balance Mughal yet.

 

[pjotroos]

On another note, is anyone currently in-game able to see what civs Sayyida al Hurra unlocks?

 

[Daigotsu Max]

Thanks to Firaxis, there really is plenty of fish in the sea now

 

[uppi]

Carthage update is wild. The civ strugggles with the new building & economy meta, and the one change they get is taking the range bonus away, in exchange for bonus damage? The damage bonus isn't necessarily making them better or worse, though I think it's net nerf - Carthage's big cannons is the cavalry, and this makes naval support far more situational. But either way, it doesn't really tackle any of their actual issues. And - just like Russia - it makes the civ less flavourful.

In my opinion it is a huge nerf. The +1 range went a very long way in making naval units useful in Antiquity, because most of the time naval combat happens in very constrained space and ships are constantly threatened by 2-range land units. +5 combat strength could never make that up, even if it was applied all the time. I think this change has made Carthage one of the weakest civ in the roster.

Also: I generally do not like the direction of Modern age civs at all. Most civ balance already feel quite samey in that it is hardly worth the time getting into their civics. And instead buffing those civs so that they are worth playing, they nerf the few standouts into that gray mass of not-worth-the-detour civs.

Memento balance is all over the place. But did they really need to nerf Brace of Pistols? When freaking War Club still exists? (I am kidding, please don't take away my War Club)

 

[UWHabs]

Still a nice one for this being a "smaller" update; some good new stuff (changes to biomes/rainfall patterns, new map script, Great Library, improved minimap) and I appreciate especially those two fixes:

Salt and Truffles now properly give +20% Production towards training any Unit when slotted into a City. (...)

Army Commanders no longer fail to gain XP when a Unit damages an enemy in the Army Commander's upgraded Command Radius.

I was always curious on whether commanders should have received XP for the expanded radius. That makes the radius promotion WAY more valuable.

 

[pjotroos]

Full list of unlocks for Iceland:
- Edward Teach
- Isabella
- Jose Rizal
* Rome

Full list of unlocks for Ottomans:
- Ibn Battuta
- Sayyida al Hurra
* Egypt
* Rome
* Abbasid

Iceland only unlocks America.

Rome is now pre-requisite for eight different civilizations, continuing to prove antiquity Europe is fine and requires no urgent attention.