Thanks to the popular Switch port, gamers are finding Civilization 6 to be a phenomenal game with a lot of complexity and depth on even the standard difficulty settings. This is what makes Deity difficulty such a herculean feat if you’re unprepared for it. The AI is smarter, faster, and comes with bonuses that give it an edge over your empire.
While your strategy will largely depend on the map, your civilization, and your enemies’ goals, there are some general things you can do to get started on the right foot and increase your odds of winning.
Updated on October 8, 2021 by Ben Baker: It’s tempting to utilize exploits, mods, or to tweak the map in order to make Deity more manageable. The result can be a victory that feels cheap as you didn’t play the difficulty in the way it was intended. Fortunately, there are a number of players sharing their tips on how to beat Civ 6 on deity legitimately. Some of the best of these tips have been added to this article to help give you a fighting chance with your next Deity run. It can involve clever strategies for interacting with the AI, important units to focus on, and how to achieve various victory conditions. Here are the best tips from fans on how to win on Deity Civ 6.
15 Get The AI To Fight With You
The opposing players are a persistent and constant threat in Deity mode. War declarations come at the worst times, nations unite together against you, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by superior nations with superior numbers.
One way you can mitigate this is to turn the enemy on each other or even help you take down certain nations. With a few resources, you can form a temporary peace with a nation and then declare war on another. It’s an effective way of eliminating a threat while hindering another nation that could pose a threat once peacetime is over.
14 Don’t Give Others A Peek At Your Capital
When first encountering another nation, many players immediately accept any and all information in exchange for information of their own. You definitely don’t want to do this on Deity mode. Once a nation becomes aware of where you’re located, they’ll eventually come knocking on your door with a horde of soldiers.
Denying their request to look at your nation will keep them in the dark about where your cities are. Sure, they will eventually find it the hard way, but it buys you enough time to get set up and have a response to their armies.
13 Archers Are The Core Of Your Armies
Throughout the game, you’ll want to utilize just about every unit at your disposal at one point or another. Naval units in particular are really handy towards the mid to end game. But honestly, the most valuable unit you can be producing, in the beginning, are the archers.
These ranged fighters can serve well offensively and defensively for a number of scenarios. There’s a reason Genghis Khan nearly conquered the world. A great way to build them is to upgrade them from Slingers. It’s cheap, efficient, and gives you a solid fighting force to accomplish whatever you need to.
12 Trade With The Loser
Amassing and spending resources is important for any Civ 6 Deity strategy. In normal modes, an effective way to accomplish this was through trade. But given how trade is mutually beneficial for those involved it can give your enemies even more of an edge even if it benefits you.
One way to mitigate this is to make trades with the losing AI. These are often the weakest empires and a bit of trade shouldn’t nudge them up the hierarchy too much. Oftentimes you can synergize this with the strategy of temporary alliances to eliminate other threats. Just don’t make the mistake of getting them too strong or you’ll have a deadly rival of your own making.
11 Science/Diplomacy Victories Are Also Viable
It’s generally accepted that to win on Deity Civ 6 you should go for the Domination victory. You’ll need a large army and to go on the offensive just to survive anyway so committing to Domination makes sense. But it’s also viable to go for either the Science of Diplomacy victories as well.
With that large army, you can hunker back and start churning out the requirements for either victory. Many players prefer this defensive style of play, but you’ll need to hustle as the enemy will gradually get stronger and wear your position down. Culture is incredibly difficult and Religious is next to impossible without a specific nation or even possibly exploits.
10 Defense First
The very first thing you need to do when the match begins is to establish a defense. Nearby Barbarians and neighboring civilizations are a major threat and you want some units in place to fend off the initial attacks. Odds are you’ll have to handle at least one declaration of war.
Have a mix of slingers, warriors, and archers to hold off whatever is thrown at you. It might be tempting to focus on production, but it’s better to sacrifice a little growth for that extra security right away.
9 Take Advantage Of Early Fights
Once you’re confident in your initial defenses it’s a great idea to get aggressive with whoever is near you. Take a small army and invade any vulnerable neighbors or conquer a City-State. Ideally, you’ll secure another position for yourself and take out a potential threat right out of the gate.
At the very least you’ll be providing your soldiers with some experience that will make them better equipped to handle future battles and provide greater defense. Just don’t stretch yourself too thin when doing this and make sure you have proper defenses while some of your fighters are away.
8 Get 5 Cities Quickly
After winning a few fights or if for some reason you don’t have anything to attack then start focusing on expanding to five or six cities as quickly as you can. Buy or steal the settlers you need and make the cities you create in a cluster near each other.
This allows you to keep your defense costs low as you aren’t having to spread you army across the map. Having these cities closer together will also provide some benefits when you focus on getting your production and industry going later.
7 Ignore Religion
There are a lot of benefits to establishing your own religion and is even part of a victory condition, but honestly, in Deity mode, you should completely ignore it. Part of this is because Deity Mode makes getting a Religion an annoying and difficult process in the first place.
The other reason is that your resources and time are better spent expanding your military and working on establishing stability and solid growth to try and keep up with the AI. Unless you have a very specific, tried and true strategy for obtaining and using a religion in Deity Mode, just ignore it.
6 Early Game Is The Main Hurdle
The early parts of the game are by far the most dangerous making it your biggest challenge to winning Deity Mode. You can obviously lose in later parts of the game but getting through the early game gives you a fighting chance.
It’s important to establish a solid foundation, deal with any immediate threats, and start growing as quickly as possible. If you can survive the initial slog you’ll find the game gets a tad easier and you can start getting things done to progress towards victory.
5 Play To Your Strengths
It’s important to understand the ins and outs of your civilization and play to its strengths. If your civilization is strongest in the early game then obviously do whatever you can to take advantage of that fact.
If your civilization doesn’t get its legs until late game then be prepared to hunker down and grind your way to that point. Any civilization can win Deity Mode, but you’ll have an easier time with those strong in the early game like Scythia or one that caters best to your style of play.
4 The Big Three
As you start entering the mid-game and for the rest of the match it's important to focus on three aspects of your civilization; gold, science, and production. Focus on exploiting the resources in your immediate vicinity and start building your commercial and industrial empire.
Traders are a huge help, harbors are great if you can build them, and having a few campuses and theater districts are all ideal for expanding your efforts. Most victory conditions need one of the three and focusing on all of them will give you options.
3 Domination Victory Is Easiest
Most victory conditions are viable in Deity Mode, but Domination is by far the easiest to achieve. Part of this is because the AI is going to outpace you in growth and research while their military efforts won’t be as strong.
Considering you also will need a strong military to survive and conquer the Wonders and resources you need it only makes sense to synergize these efforts with a Domination victory. Get a variety of units built, establish powerful armies, and start progressing towards nuclear submarines and nuclear weapons.
2 Be Aggressive
Whether you’re going for Domination Victory or not it’s important for you to be aggressive. Part of this is because you’ll want to scoop up anything useful before the enemy does and if you wait too long you’ll be fighting stronger civilizations.
The other reason is that sitting at the top of domination rankings makes you seem like a greater threat and the AI will hesitate to attack you. Even if you aren’t going for the military win at least consider getting in enough scuffles to make yourself more intimidating. If you need practice being aggressive consider playing The Red Death mode a few times.
1 Sabotage The Enemy
Finally, the main thing to keep in mind is that the AI is a lot faster and more efficient than you are thanks to their bonuses and you need to even the playing field. Making active and continual efforts to sabotage the plans of other civilizations is critical to your victory.
Pillaging, espionage, invasions, anything you can think of to disrupt expansion, cut off resources, delay research, or discourage religious conversion. In this race, you start out behind and the only way to catch up is to hamstring everyone in front of you so get busy doing whatever you can think of to delay the enemies’ progress.