Desert is one of the worst tiles in Civilization 6 for yields alongside snow. A basic flat desert tile has absolutely no base yield. This makes settling near desert tiles unappealing for most players unless one has a strategic resource like oil or niter. However, there are a few things you can do to make desert tiles much more useful for your civilization than they seem at first. This is how you can enhance desert tiles in Civilization 6 to make them work for you.
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Mine Desert Hills and Farm Floodplains
Desert tiles that include hills do have a production base yield of +1. This makes these desert tiles somewhat more appealing than their flat counterparts since they boost production. Mining these desert tiles will increase their production yield by at least one more. However, desert tiles with hills can have +4 production yields when mined with the Industrialization and Apprenticeship technologies researched.
A mined desert tile
You can also improve desert floodplain tiles with farms. A desert floodplain has a base +3 food yield, which farming increases. Thus, any desert floodplain is an important food source when farmed.
Build the Petra Wonder in a Desert City
Petra is the perfect wonder for any city with many desert tiles in Civilization 6. This wonder gives all desert tiles for a city a +2 food, +2 gold, and +1 production yield increase. That’s a substantial yield boost for desert tiles, but remember it only applies to one city. So, save this wonder for a city with many desert tiles.
The Petra wonder
Generate Desert Yields with Pantheons
You can select a pantheon belief during the early turns of a game after amassing 25 faith. These offer variable bonuses, and some of them enable you to enhance your desert tiles in Civilization 6. Select one of these three pantheons to increase your desert yields:
- Desert Folklore: Provides a +1-faith Holy Site desert tile adjacency bonus
- Earth Goddess: Provides a +1-faith yield bonus for tiles with charming or breathtaking appeal
- Lady of the Reeds and Marshes: Provides a +1 production yield for desert floodplain and oasis tiles
Desert Folklore and Earth Goddess are good choices for players seeking Religious Victory. Sticking a Holy Site in the middle of a desert could generate an adjacency bonus of +6 faith if surrounded by desert tiles. This pantheon synergies well with the Scripture policy that doubles Holy Site adjacency bonuses.
The Desert Folklore pantheon
Earth Goddess will generate +1 faith yields on all desert tiles in your civilization with higher appeal ratings. This bonus can apply to many desert tiles if you focus on increasing their appeal. Build the Eiffel Tower wonder to give all tiles in your civilization a +2 appeal boost. Placing Holy Site, Theater Square, and Entertainment Complex districts beside desert tiles will increase their appeal ratings by +1.
Lady of the Reeds and Marshes is a good pantheon for increasing the productivity of desert tiles with oasis and floodplain features. Select that pantheon if your civilization has numerous desert floodplains and oasis tiles that will benefit from it.
Add Seaside Resorts and National Parks to Desert Tiles
Seaside resorts and national parks are tourist attractions you can add to desert tiles in Civilization 6 that meet their appeal requirements. Desert tiles must be by the coast and have an appeal rating of +4 breathtaking to add seaside resorts. You can build national parks on four terrain tiles with charming or breathtaking appeal ratings.
A seaside resort
So, why not turn your cities’ deserts into tourist attractions? A seaside resort on a desert tile will generate gold and tourism equal to its appeal rating. Adding a national park gives its city a +2-amenity boost and generates even more tourism equal to the combined appeal rating for the four tiles inside it. Seaside resorts and national parks will help you secure a cultural victory because they attract visitors to your civilization.
The best way to raise desert tile appeal for such attractions is to build the Eiffel Tower. Avoid building anything on desert tiles that will diminish their appeal, such as Industrial Zones, Encampments, and mines. Your deserts will then sparkle in the beauty of the sunshine, making them suitable spots for national parks and seaside resorts.
The Eiffel Tower
Increase Desert Tile Yields with Unique Improvements
There are numerous unique tile improvements for different civilizations you can add to flat desert tiles. So, select to play with a civilization like India, Spain, Sumeria, Egypt, and Scythia that have unique improvements for increasing desert tile yields. These are some of the unique improvements with which you can enhance desert tiles in Civilization 6:
- Kurgan (Scythia): +3 gold and +1 faith
- Ziggurat (Sumeria): +2 science and +1 culture
- Château (France): +2 culture and +1 gold
- Mission (Spain): +2 faith yield (increases to +4 faith, +1 production, and +1 gold on foreign continents)
- Stepwell (India): +1 food and +1 housing (+2 food, +2 housing, and +1 faith with additional civics and tech)
- Sphinx (Egypt): +2 culture and +1 faith
The Kurgan unique improvement
Play With the Mansa Musa Leader (Gathering Storm)
Mansa Musa of Malia in the Gathering Storm DLC is an ideal leader for desert-empire builders. His leader bonus will increase all your trade routes’ gold yields by +1 for every desert tile in your civilization. The Malian civ ability also gives all your city centers a +1 faith and +1 production bonus for each adjacent desert tile to them. This bonus can be as high as +6 faith and +6 production for a city center surrounded by desert tiles. So, playing with Mansa Musa always enhances desert tiles in Civilization 6.
So, desert tiles in Civilization 6 aren’t entirely useless after all. There are numerous ways you can enhance the yields of deserts with tile improvements, attractions, pantheons, leaders, and wonders. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good to have cities in deserts, but you can make them more useful.
