Religion is an interesting thing in Civilization 7. You can use it to really boost your influence in the game. It is also one of the several indirect ways to win so spreading your religion can be used to make things easier when dealing with enemy nations.
Spreading your religion would make things difficulty for them when dealing with their population. Religion can be a powerful tool to create unrest in their settlements.
To start things off you need to build a temple in a city.
Temples are unlocked by studying the Piety Civic in the Exploration Age. Temples provide +4 Happiness and adjacency bonuses near Wonders/Natural Wonders.
After building a Temple, select Founder Beliefs (e.g., bonuses for converted settlements) and Enhancer Beliefs (e.g., faster spread). Your Holy City is determined by the location of your first Temple and is immune to foreign conversion.
When a Temple built a Missionary unit (Exploration Age) will show up in the production tab. You can train or spend 600 Gold to create a unit.
When the missionary unit is ready it will start preaching your religion.
Note: Converting settlements grants Relics, which boost Culture and Happiness when displayed in Temples.
Each settlement you want to convert has two types of population: rural and urban. You should convert both types so they can fully adopt your religion. First-time conversions require only one charge, but subsequent efforts need two (one per population.
Researching the Theology Civic grants:
- +1 charge to Missionary units (max 4 charges total).
- +1 movement for civilian units, improving their mobility
Missionaries are trained in the temples, or you can spend 600 gold to get one from the production tab, as I said earlier. When they trained, they will start preaching and can sent off to different settlements.
Unique Missionary Units
| Civilization | Unique Unit | Perks |
|---|---|---|
| Hawai’i | Kahuna | Heals adjacent units and grants 25 Gold per conversion. |
| Shawnee | Hoceepkileni | +1 Movement and ignores river movement penalties. |
| Majapahit | Pedanda | Grants 25 Gold and 25 Culture per first-time conversion |
How to Easily Convert a Settlement’s Religion in Civilization 7
Tip: Focus on settlements without religions to conserve charges.
To start converting settlements controlled by other leaders, order the missionaries to go there. Once they reach the location you can select the option to “Spread Religion” from the bottom right of the UI.
How many Missionaries you send depends on the population, whether or not there is rural population, and if they have an existing religion. If they don’t have a religion already you only need one Missionary charge to successfully convert them.
But settlements with an established religion would need to have two Missionary charges.
If your goal is to spread religion start doing it as early as possible. Civilization that starts to research Missionaries, Piety, and builds temples first can spread its religion faster, thus gaining influence over other settlements.
Here are some things that help spread your religion faster:
- Rush Theology because the extra charge and movement from this Civic boost conversion.
- Convert settlements before rivals have an opportunity establish their religion.
- Use Hawai’i’s Kahuna to heal armies while spreading faith during sieges.
