The world is full of natural wonders, and it’s much the same in Sid Meier’s Civilization 6. The Civilization 6 natural wonders are unique landscapes on the map with breathtaking appeal. Aside from their high tile appeal ratings, natural wonders provide valuable bonus yields for settlements close to them. Thus, natural wonders are something you should keep an eye out for when playing Civ 6. So, let’s take a closer look at what are the different natural wonders and how you can exploit them.
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What are the Civilization 6 Natural Wonders?
The vanilla Civilization 6 game includes 12 natural wonders all players can discover. Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm have more, but here we’ll look at those in the vanilla game only. The alternative natural wonders randomly spawn on maps and have one to four passable or impassible tiles. They provide bonus yields for either their own tiles or those adjacent them to. These are the Civilization 6 natural wonders and their variable bonuses:
- Cliffs of Dover: +3 culture, +3 gold, and +2 food yields on Dover’s two passable wonder tiles
- Crater Lake: +1 science and +5 faith yields on Crater Lake’s one passable wonder tile
- Great Barrier Reef: +3 food and +2 science yields on Great Barrier Reef’s two passable tiles
- Galapagos Islands: +2 science yields on all tiles adjacent to its two impassable wonder tiles
- Dead Sea: +2 culture and +2 faith yields on Dead Sea’s two passable wonder tiles
- Mount Everest: +1 faith yields on all tiles adjacent to Everest’s three impassable tiles
- Pantanal: +2 culture and +2 food on Pantanal’s four passable tiles
- Mount Kilimanjaro: +2 food yields from tiles adjacent to Kilimanjaro’s one impassable tile
- Plopiotahl: +1 gold and +1 culture yields from tiles adjacent to Plopiotahl’s three impassable tiles
- Torres del Paine: Doubles the base terrain yields for all tiles adjacent to Torres del Paine’s two impassible tiles
- Tsingy de Bemaraha: +1 culture and +1 science yields from all tiles adjacent to Bemaraha’s one impassable tile
- Yosemite: +1 science and +1 gold yields from tiles adjacent to Yosemite’s two impassable tiles
Those Civilization 6 natural wonders with passable tiles offer yield bonuses for their tiles. The wonders with impassable tiles offer adjacency bonuses. Although tile adjacency bonuses are typically lower, you can benefit from more of them. One tile has six adjacent ones in Civilization 6 and two or three tiles have more. The screenshot below shows the tile adjacency bonuses for the Plopiotahl.
The Plopiotahl natural wonder
How to Benefit From the Civilization 6 Natural Wonders
You can only benefit from the Civilization 6 natural wonders by establishing settlements close enough to them. You’ll receive the natural wonder bonus yields for all their tiles or adjacent ones within your civilization’s borders. The settlement that owns the natural wonder tiles reaps the bonuses from them.
First, you must find some Civilization 6 natural wonders to absorb into your nation. The best way to do this is to set aside more units to explore the map, especially during the early game. Recruit some fast-moving cavalry units with which to explore the map quicker. You’ll see a natural wonder cutscene when one of your units discovers a wonder tile.
Civilization 6 natural wonders like the Cliffs of Dover, Barrier Reef, Piopiotahi, and Galapagos Islands usually appear along coastlines. So, send your units to scout coastlines to find those natural wonders.
The Barrier Reef natural wonder
When you’ve discovered a natural wonder, you must establish a settlement close to it. You don’t necessarily need to establish a settlement right beside a natural wonder. However, establish settlements within at least three tiles of natural wonders. The closer your city is, the more you’ll benefit from a natural wonder’s tile adjacency bonus. If the wonder has passible tiles, establish a settlement close enough for it to absorb all its tiles.
The other way to obtain more natural wonders is to take them from other civilizations. Declare war with other civilizations that include natural wonders within their borders. You can then capture the cities closest to the natural wonders to make them your own. Enter natural wonders in the map’s search tool to find the locations of wonders outside your civilization.
A natural wonder found with the search tool
The Civilization 6 natural wonders are also good spots to establish national parks near. This is because nearby tiles surrounding natural wonders will usually have high appeal ratings. Thus, national parks set up beside or over passable natural wonders will generate more tourism from the breathtakingly appealing tiles within them. So, consider setting up a national park beside a natural wonder if you’re going for the Culture Victory.
A national park
How to Exclude Certain Civilization 6 Natural Wonders From Maps
Civilization 6 has a natural wonder picker option that enables players to exclude certain wonders from a map. A map won’t include all 12 Civilization 6 wonders for a game because numbers range from two to a maximum of seven, depending on map size. So, excluding certain wonders will make it more likely for others to appear during a game. This enables you to increase the chances of your favorite natural wonders appearing. You can exclude Civilization 6 natural wonders like this.
- Click Single Player > Create Game in Civilization 6.
- Select the Advanced Setup option.
- Click the Select Natural Wonders option.
The Select Natural Wonders option
- Next, deselect the wonders you want to exclude by clicking their selected checkboxes.
The natural wonders picker
- Press OK to apply the Civilization 6 natural wonder settings.
Securing the Civilization 6 natural wonders isn’t essential for winning Civ 6 games. However, the best ones offer strong bonuses for increasing cultural, food, gold, or science yields that are undeniably valuable. They’re more important for players seeking cultural victories because of the greater possibilities they offer for establishing more and better national parks and seaside resorts.
