CivMD's Leader Guide: Pachacuti + Introduction to Terrain and Urban Planning (Civ 7)

Pachacuti is not the easiest Civilization 7 leader to play as—a thorough understanding of terrain and urban planning is essential to make the most out of his unique abilities. In this guide, we will discuss Pachacuti's unique bonuses, key gameplay elements, Civ synergies, and counterplay options. This guide applies to any difficulty level.

Introduction

Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, ninth Sapa Inca of the Cusco Empire—you represent your peoples’ ingenuity and excellence. Your actions are shrouded in mystery, passed down by oral traditions, but you are remembered as a powerful leader who vanquished historical enemies and integrated new allies into your sprawling empire. An advanced civilization was born on rock and quipu, rather than iron or feathered pens, with methods that the rest of the world has not seen before. From extensive mountain roads to prosperous terrace farms, the largest empire in South America stood firm on strong fundamentals. It is of cruel irony that those same roads allowed those accursed Spaniards to conquer your empire so quickly.

Oh “Honorable Lord Who Turns the World,” will you lead your people to build an empire once again as masters of the highlands? Will your armies’ hearts beat again as one with the mountains? Will you build a Civilization you believe in?

At a Glance

Starting Bias: Mountain
Attributes: Economic, Expansionist

NOTE- While playing as Pachacuti, you can initiate the Open Markets and Farmer's Market Endeavors with other players thanks to the Economic and Expansionist Attributes.

Unique Ability (1): All buildings gain +1 food adjacency for all mountains.
Unique Ability (2): Specialists next to mountains do not cost any happiness maintenance.


AI agenda: “Mountain King”- Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount for the player with the least Mountains in their territory. Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount for the player with the most Mountains in their territory.

Playing as Pachacuti unlocks the following civilizations: Incan

Victory Path Bias*:

Cultural	Military	Economic	Scientific
7/10	5/10	7/10	9/10

(*Note that these scores are subjective and based on personal experiences with the leader in singleplayer mode. 10= leader/civ has an insurmountable advantage over other leader/civs in a particular victory path, 5= leader/civ does not provide any bonuses to a particular victory path, 0= victory path is essentially disabled by choosing leader/civ)

Culture 7/10- Pachacuti has a remarkably similar playstyle as Ashoka, World Renouncer where he utilizes his food and happiness bonuses to grow cities quickly and thus, to allow more buildings and specialists for maximum culture yields. There are some noticeable differences, however—first, Pachacuti’s happiness bonus only makes an impact once you have gathered many specialists in cities, so he tends to like having more of a balanced number of towns and cities so that his core cities can continuously grow (instead of opting for an “ultra-wide” approach like Ashoka, World Renouncer). Pachacuti’s food bonuses are also highly dependent on terrain; you will need at least 2-3 mountain tiles to make the most out of his bonuses. Even with Pachacuti’s mountain terrain starting bias, you will often find many amazing city settlement locations that are lacking in mountain tiles. Overall, Pachacuti’s growth potential is somewhat weaker and more inconsistent compared to Ashoka, World Renouncer’s.

The minor advantage of Pachacuti over Ashoka is that the natural tendency to place buildings near mountains means you will have additional culture and happiness adjacencies to each type of building. Furthermore, all district adjacencies are amplified with specialists (each adds +0.5 to each adjacency), so if you place most of your specialists into a few high-yield districts, your food, culture, and happiness adjacencies will start to pile up. Pachacuti may not provide you with noticeable yield boosts in the earlier ages, but by the Modern Age, you will start to notice a difference. In a sense, Pachacuti likes to play the long game; a good player with strong discipline and patience can utilize his seemingly small benefits to make a big difference, potentially outperforming leaders dedicated to a particular victory path.

Military 5/10- Pachacuti’s playstyle conflicts with following the Military Victory Path in the earlier ages. It is typically better to settle your own cities to grow them in the way you’d like, rather than rely on other players’ or AI’s haphazardly growth cities. It is in the Modern Age when all hell breaks loose. If you gathered as many specialists as possible in the earlier ages, Ideologies in the Modern Age lets you derive huge yields from them. With either Fascism or Communism, you can amass large numbers of advanced units rather quickly and start taking over the other peoples’ cities. By this time, even poorly built AI cities start to produce a decent amount of production, gold, science, and culture, and will help you snowball towards a Military Victory. The Ideology Rush approach can be taken by any other leader and is not unique to Pachacuti (even if he is marginally better at it), so I will not rate any more than 5/10.

Economic 7/10- Pachacuti will provide you with a number of well-developed cities that can build Rail Stations, Ports, and Factories quickly. There are 8 different factory resources in the game (as of Version 1.1.1), so as long you have 8 strong cities, either in your home continent or in distant lands, you are all set. Pachacuti tends to prefer a peaceful expansionist playstyle, so you should not have issues with amassing different types of resources by settling your own cities or trading with other players. However, Pachacuti notably lacks mechanisms to supplement Gold, Science, and Culture to either unlock key technologies or ideologies quickly, or to outright purchase buildings.

Science 9/10- Similar to previous Civilization games (i.e. Civ 5 and Civ 6), Science victories tend to be Pachacuti’s most reliable victory method. In the Exploration Age, the high adjacency bonuses of Pachacuti’s districts (further amplified by specialists) will help you get high yields to finish the Science Legacy Path quickly. In the Modern Age, Pachacuti has an amazing synergy with the Communism Ideology, the kind that’s not seen with any other leader. He is likely to be the leader with the most number of specialists in the empire by the late game, and the food bonuses to specialists offered by Communism leads to even more population growth and specialists in the late game, without happiness drawbacks thanks to Pachacuti’s unique ability. Your only job is to develop cities well in the earlier ages to gather a “critical mass” of specialists—after that you can sit back and relax as Pachacuti’s servants bring a perfectly cooked Science Victory to your table.

A Review on Terrain

Before we get further into Pachacuti’s specific strategies, we need to discuss how Terrain works in Civ 7.

Maps in Civ 7 typically span the “entire globe” representing all types of climates—the northmost and southernmost tiles will be tundra and ice caps, whereas the center parts near the “equator” will have deserts and tropical biomes. Each land biome (Tundra, Grassland, Plains, Desert, and Tropical) is further modified by terrain morphology (Flat, Rough, Mountainous, and Navigable River). Flat tiles are further subdivided into Dry, Wet, and Vegetated. The distribution of various terrains aren’t equal in all directions—mountains and rough tiles are found mostly towards the center of a large landmass, while flat tiles and navigable rivers are typically near the coast.

Pachacuti is one of the few leaders whose bonuses are tied to a specific terrain—mountains. To help with maximizing his abilities, the game grants a mountain “starting bias” for Pachacuti—an increased likelihood that Pachacuti’s starting location will have mountain tiles. Here is a list of starting biases as of Version 1.1.1 based on game data (the numbers in parentheses indicates the priority that each player will be assigned to a particular location of the map):

<Civilizations>

• Aksum: Rough (5), Coast (150)
  
• Egypt: Desert (5), Navigable River (20)
  
• Greece: Grassland (5), Rough (5)
  
• Han: Grassland (5)
  
• Khmer: Tropical (5), Floodplain (15)
  
• Maurya: Vegetated (5)
  
• Maya: Vegetated (15)
  
• Mississippi: Flat (15), River (5)
  
• Persia: Desert (5)
  
• Rome: Grassland (5)

<Leaders>

• Amina: Plains (20), Desert (20)
  
• Catherine: Tundra (10)
  
• Charlemagne: River (10)
  
• Confucius: Grassland (10)
  
• Hatshepsut: Desert (10), Navigable River (20)
  
• Ibn Battuta: Flat (10)
  
• Isabella: Coast (200), Natural Wonder (1000)
  
• Jose Rizal: Tropical (10)
  
• Lafayette: Coast (200)
  
• Pachacuti: Mountain (20)
  
• Trung Trac: Tropical (10), Vegetated (20)
  
• Tubman: Vegetated (20)
  
• Xerxes: Desert (10)

Having a high mountain starting bias does not guarantee that you will start the game with plenty of mountains, though. Here’s how the game decides where each player is assigned to as a starting location on a map (footnote 1):

• The game first generates a randomized map with different altitudes for each tile, and whatever is above a threshold altitude (typically 90 out of 100) is designated as a “Mountain” tile. Hills and other terrains are assigned afterwards.
  
• After all the terrains and biomes are determined, the game divides the homeland continent into “sectors”. On a Standard Map, the sectors will have roughly equal “fertility” yields. On a Balanced Map, it is based on a grid-like coordinate system so that players are guaranteed to spread out evenly.
  
• Then the game will assign each player into a sector based on the starting biases. The first player on the player list gets “first dibs.”
  
• The exact starting location (within the sector) is whichever tile has the most number of terrain/biome features in a 3-tile radius, based on each leader and civilization’s biases. Features on the map are weighed heavier if the starting bias value is higher. Features on the map are also weighed heavier the closer it is to the starting coordinate.
  
• Ultimately, whichever 3-tile plot has the highest total “plot scores” is chosen for the player. Due to the way how plot scores are calculated, all starting biases essentially compete against one another. For example, if you play as Egypt (whose bias is Desert 5) but choose Confucius (bias = Grassland 10) as your leader, you have a higher likelihood that you will be placed on grasslands, rather than desert. There is no guarantee that there are regions with a good mix of grasslands and deserts when the map is generated, so you will often see the game picking one or the other.

As Pachacuti, the best way to ensure you have plenty of Mountain tiles is to play as a civilization that has the least amount of starting bias (Han, Maurya, Persia, and Rome). Alternatively, civilizations with a tropical or desert bias can help as well, since they tend to show up more towards the center of a continent, where mountains typically are.

Unique Ability (1)- Food Adjacency from Mountains

Exact Effect

All buildings gain +1 food adjacency for all mountains. Because every quarter can have two buildings, each quarter essentially receives a +2 food bonus for each adjacent mountain. In addition, every specialist further increases happiness adjacencies for each surrounding improvement: +0.5 food for every building that is not obsolete, and therefore +1 food for complete quarters. This bonus applies to all buildings, including those in towns. Note that obsolete buildings (for example, a library in the Modern Age) do not receive the food adjacency bonuses (or any adjacencies, for that matter).


Any mountain tile you get near your starting location provides a small amount of food. To make the most out of this adjacency bonus, careful urban planning is a must. As discussed in the Ashoka, World Renouncer guide, there are three major “normal” adjacencies:

• Science Buildings (Libraries, Universities) and Production/Military Buildings (Barracks, Blacksmith) get +1 of their respective yields for every resource tile next to it.
  
• Culture Buildings (Monument, Amphitheater) and Happiness Buildings (Arena, Temple) get +1 of their respective yields for every mountain tile next to it.
  
• Gold Buildings (Market, Lighthouse) and Food Buildings (Garden, Bath) get +1 of their respective yields for every coast or navigable river tile next to it.

A few other minor rules:

• Wonder tiles (either man-made or natural) provide +1 adjacency to all buildings, except warehouse buildings.
  
• The Palace (Capital) will receive +1 culture and +1 science for every complete quarter next to it.
  
• Warehouse buildings and the Altar (Antiquity Age) do not receive any adjacency bonuses. The best use of these buildings is to be used as a “stepping stone” to claim better tiles.

Let’s analyze a few examples of city planning as Pachacuti.

Urban Planning- Example 1

^Here is a decent start as Pachacuti with multiple mountain tiles nearby. We can start thinking about which tiles would be best to place particular buildings.

^Science buildings and Production buildings get adjacency bonuses from resource tiles, getting +1 science and +1 production respectively for every adjacent resource tile. I marked some of the best places in blue. The second and third locations (from left to right) are adjacent to mountain tiles as well, so as Pachacuti you will get extra food in each building.

^Culture buildings and Happiness buildings get adjacency bonuses from mountain tiles, getting +1 culture and +1 happiness respectively for every adjacent mountain. As Pachacuti, you will also get a +1 food bonus as well. I marked some of the best places in pink.

^Gold buildings and Food buildings (things like baths and gardens, not warehouse buildings like the granary or fishing quay) get adjacency bonuses from nearby coast or navigable river tiles. I marked some of the best places in yellow.

^Putting them all together, you get something like this. You only have to choose 1-2 locations for buildings for each category (Science/Production, Culture/Happiness, Gold/Food); each era usually provides four buildings of each category, so two urban quarter locations are needed. I chose these particular locations as Pachacuti so that I can make sure all of my buildings are next to mountains.

^It is important to remember that urbanization happens in a contiguous fashion, starting from the city center. For the Science/Production and Culture/Happiness spots above, there needs to be another urban quarter for the city to reach those tiles and turn them into urban quarters. This is where warehouse buildings come in. Because warehouse buildings do not get “adjacencies”, you can place them as a “stepping stone” towards good tiles where you want to put your high-adjacency buildings. I marked the location for the warehouse buildings with a Brown circle with the text “WH.” (NOTE: It is best to group warehouse buildings together in the same quarter, so that you can place the high adjacency buildings on the better tiles instead of wasting on the warehouse ones.)

^The end result by the end of the Antiquity Age looks something like this.

Urban Planning- Example 2

^The above start was not very good, because what would be good urban quarter spots as Pachacuti has been already taken up by resources (see the iron and silver tiles next to the mountains?). In Civ 7, you cannot remove resources from resource tiles to "clear them".

I still tried to make the best out of the situation. The Science/Production tiles (blue) are next to two resources. One of the blue tiles (the bottom one) is next to a mountain tile, so it will get food bonuses as well. I used whatever mountain-adjacent tiles that are left for culture buildings (pink). Because the pink tile to the far east is not immediately reachable, I placed a Fishing Quay in between the two pink locations as a “stepping stone.”

Note that there is no optimal number of mountain tiles that is best for Pachacuti’s cities. Any mountain tile helps in theory. In fact, having too many mountain tiles may not allow you to build many quarters.

Urban Planning- Example 3

^Above is an example of a poorly settled city. The pink dot is where I would put my culture/happiness buildings, but it’s also a good science/production spot. The tile marked with the red X would have been the best place for culture/happiness buildings, but reaching that tile with urban expansion is near impossible. I will have to follow the long path marked with the red arrow—because the incense tile next to the city center blocking the way.


So what matters more than the number of mountain tiles is the distance and relative location of the mountain tile from the city center. For example, for single isolated mountain tiles, it is best if it is 2 hexes removement the city center (so that you can surround it with buildings completely). On the other hand, for mountain ranges (multiple mountain tiles next to one another), it is best if they are 3-4 hexes removed from the city center, so that there is room for your cities to grow.

Summary

Critically assess where a good settling location is, based on the location of nearby mountains and resource tiles. The more buildings you build around mountains, the more you will benefit from Pachacuti’s ability. Use warehouse buildings (which do not get adjacencies) to build urban districts/quarters to reach locations for buildings that does receive adjacency bonuses. Be careful about settling too close to too many mountain tiles.

Unique Ability (2)- Happiness from Specialists next to Mountains

Exact Effect

Specialists that are assigned to urban districts next to mountains do not decrease the local happiness of a settlement. These specialists still require food and will decrease local food yields.


Each Specialist, when assigned in a settlement, requires 2 food and 2 happiness. One or two specialists barely makes a difference in yields, but >10 specialists will. Especially at the beginning of the Exploration and Modern Age where all of your happiness buildings lose their adjacency bonsuses, you will typically find your settlements being very unhappy, and the main reason is too many specialists. This matters even more for global happiness, which grants you celebrations. For example, the Exploration Age has relatively high happiness thresholds for celebrations, while the individual happiness buildings have not become much more powerful than the Antiquity Age. The Modern age has very strong happiness buildings, but the increased happiness burden from hosting so many specialists over the ages will start to make a difference.


Pachacuti has none of the above problems. In fact, you will often experience a net positive happiness from each specialist, if you place them in quarters with happiness buildings. You still have to pay the food maintenance cost—you can opt for a discount by using the following social policies:

• Kambu-Mera (Khmer Tradition): Half specialist food and happiness maintenance
  
• Constitution (Social Policy): Half specialist food and happiness maintenance
  
• Al-Jabr (Abbasid Civic): Reduce specialist happiness cost by 25%.
  
• Negarakertagama (Majapahit Tradition): Reduce specialist food maintenance by 33%.

Unfortunately the Modern Age does not offer ways to reduce specialist food or happiness maintenance. Instead, they have ideologies that grants powerful bonuses to each specialist. Democracy is notable for granting policies that add +3 happiness and +3 culture per specialist. But the ideology that gives you the most synergy is Communism, which provides +3 science and +6 food per specialist. Now every specialist is a guaranteed food surplus, without happiness penalties. What’s even better: if your previous Exploration Age cities turned back into being towns at the beginning of the Modern Age, the specialist assignments will still stay and provide extra food. Essentially you’ll have supercharged ex-city towns that send all the extra food into settlements that stayed as cities.

^Megido was an Exploration Age city that was turned into a town with the start of the Modern Age. It still has the 5 specialists that was assigned in previous ages.

^The 5 specialists are supplying +30 food to Megido. Megido, in turn, sends all of this extra food to the nearest cities for even faster growth.

Summary

Pachacuti provides a small happiness reward for having many specialists. This helps you stay “Forever Golden,” chaining celebration after celebration, while also making the most out of ideologies (see more in the the Ashoka, World Renouncer guide for info about the “Forever Golden” strategy).

Civ Synergies (1)- Antiquity Age

*NOTE: general strategies for each Civilization will be covered in separate Steam Guides. This section details the Civilization’s unique bonuses as it relates to the Leader’s Ability.

**SPOILER ALERT: if you wish to discover powerful Civ synergies and overall strategies on your own, please skip this section.


Reminder—The goal to satisfy all Legacy Path requirements in the Antiquity Age is toamass 10 codices (Science), build 7 wonders (Culture), house 25 resources (Economic), and score 12 settlement points (Military; 1 point for your own settlements, 2 points for conquered settlements).

In the Antiquity Age, Pachacuti struggles to provide enough science and culture to unlock powerful buildings and social policies at a reasonable pace. The specialist bonuses haven’t piled up enough yet. Civilizations that provide direct science and culture yields are most beneficial. In addition, civilizations with unique buildings (to maximize food bonuses) and civilizations without much starting biases (such that you can maximize the number of mountains nearby) are good fits.


The Mayans have amazing synergy with Pachacuti because of their strong science and production game.

• The Mayans start the game with a small science bonus—0.5 science for the palace for each adjacent Vegetated tile. Starting the game with 12 or 13 science instead of the default 10 helps you with unlocking key technologies early. The faster you unlock techs, the earlier you are able to start constructing buildings. The Pet Kot tradition further adds +1 science on all vegetated terrain in cities.
  
  
• The Mayan unique quarter, Uwaybil K'uh was nerfed from providing production equal to 15% of the science cost when a new technology is researched, to only 5% with Version 1.1.1. This is still a very helpful bonus when technologies in the late Antiquity age require 430-738 science. Even a 20-30 production bonus is helpful, when you are trying to construct as many buildings as possible. Because unique quarters are ageless, this effect continues in the Modern Age—technologies like Rocketry cost ~10k science. This is a 500 production boost, which can help you instantly finish some of the Modern Age buildings.
  
  
• The Calendar Round civic essentially gives you a +10% boost in both Science and Culture (you just receive them in bulk every time you unlock a civic or technology). The Caldendar Round II civic mastery provides you with the Tzolk'in and Haab’ traditions that provide +2 science and +2 culture on happiness buildings, respectively.
  
  
• The Hulche unit is also an excellent defensive as well as offensive unit. Many times you will be able to use a few Spearmen and Tier 2 Hulche to snag a few cities from nearby opponents. This is useful especially when there isn’t much room in the continent for you.

The Han civilization takes a balanced approach to yields, providing culture, science, happiness, as well as influence. Pachacuti appreciates the specialist bonuses as well.

• At this time of writing (Version 1.1.1), the Han Great Wall is considered one of the best unique improvements in the game. This improvement is truly unique in that when built, it does not require a population to work the tile—it simply adds the tile yield to the city. Essentially it decreases[/i] a population from the city while providing the yield it is supposed to give. Why is this good? It’s because now the threshold for population growth is lowered, because you are considered to have 1 less population. This hidden effect makes Han cities grow fast, while enjoying the culture and happiness bonuses of the Great Wall improvement.
  
  
• The Great Wall improvements provide culture and happiness, which helps with Pachacuti’s weak early game.
  
  
• The Zhi civic provides science buildings with adjacencies to quarters. Since you will have a concentrated block of quarters next to mountains, this civic will especially be helpful.
  
  
• Furthermore, the Tianxia tradition provides +1 science on specialists. Since this is a tradition, it can be used in the Exploration and Modern Ages. This tradition is even more powerful in the later ages because you will have far more specialists in your empire.

Greece is also an excellent strategic choice with an unparalleled ability to generate culture and influence.

• The Parthenon unique building (+4 culture, +2 influence if built on hills) and Odeon unique building (+3 happiness, +1 culture adjacency from adjacent quarters) do not compete with the adjacencies of any other buildings. These fit well with Pachacuti because 1) there are typically lot of hill tiles near mountain tiles and 2) it can fit nicely inside a cluster of quarters and produce lots of culture.
  
  
• The Acropolis quarter is created when the Parthenon and Odeon buildings are built together. This gives you +2 gold for each city-state you are Suzerain of. This can help in the Antiquity Age and in the early Exploration Age as your money income slows down as you turn many of your best towns into cities.
  
  
• The strong influence gain from the Parthenon building, combined with the Xenia, Polepnnesian League, and Delian League traditions that give you discounts to influence cost, lets you have plenty of leftover influence. You should be able to support any endeavor that your neighbors offer. This is a great way to boost your early game science and culture further—because as an Economic and Expansionist leader, you cannot initiate endeavors that give you science and culture. Alternatively, the Code of Laws II civic mastery unlocks the Steal Government Secrets espionage action, which can net you a lot of culture for a small influence price.
  
  
• The Hoplite unit is the strongest Ancient Era infantry unit in the game, which helps you with defense as well as offense. They not only get a +2 combat strength bonus when next to each other, but also get +1 combat strength with every city-state you are suzerain of once you unlock the Agoge II civic mastery.
  
  
  
  

Civ Synergies (2)- Exploration Age

Reminder—The goal to satisfy all Legacy Path requirements in the Exploration Age is tohave 5 districts with total 40 or higher yields each (Science), house 12 relics (Culture), score 30 treasure fleet points (Economic), and score 12 settlement points from distant lands (Military; 1 point for your own settlement not following your religion, 2 points for conquered settlements or settlements converted to your religion, 4 points if both apply).

By the Exploration Age, Pachacuti starts to lead in the number of specialists. It is now time to maximize yields from those specialists. Civilizations that provide specialist-related bonuses tend to synergize the most. Civilizations that provide science and culture yields directly also tend to help.


The Abbasids synergize incredibly well with Pachacuti’s playstyle. The Abbasids provide direct science yields as well as specialist bonuses, while Pachacuti brings the population growth for more specialists.

• With the City of Peace tradition, all buildings get a +1 science adjacency bonus next to the palace or city hall. Just like every other adjacency bonuses, these are amplified by specialists. Essentially each specialist placed in a quarter next to the city hall is now worth +1 more science.
  
  
• This is further boosted by finishing the Ulema unique quarter, which provides +1 science to all specialists in a city, without needing to spend a precious social policy spot. As Pachacuti, it is also very easy to get the maximum adjacencies on the Mosque building given that he will likely have a concentrated block of culture and happiness buildings near mountains.
  
  
• The Civilization unique ability, Madina, also provides 30 gold for each rural population for the city when you create a specialist. This has great synergy with Pachucuti’s playstyle where you will often try to reassign most of your rural population to become specialists. Then, the Round City and Al-Jabr civics provide a 33% production discount for all buildings and a 15% science boost in total science yield in any city with more than 8 urban population. The Sales and Trade tradition further provides +3 gold and +3 science for every resource in those cities. All of this goes along well with a hyper-urban playstyle.
  
  
• The ‘Alim unique Great Person units are exceptional at boosting the yields from urban quarters. The most notable ones are Al-Khawarizmi who adds +6 science in an Ulema (thus adding +3 science for every specialist in that particular Ulema) and Al-Jazari who can add a specialist slot in any quarter, up to two times.
  
  
• The +4 food in science buildings offered by the Round City II civic mastery is a small but welcome bonus.

You will automatically unlock the Abbasids if you started the Antiquity Age with the Egypt or Persia civilizations. You can also unlock them by improving 3 camel resources (note- importing them doesn’t count).



The Majapahit civilization also works amazingly well with Pachacuti, providing many bonuses specifically geared towards specialists.

• The Wayang II civic mastery provides a +25% production towards overbuilding. Between this civic and the Plutocracy government type (+30% production towards overbuilding during celebrations) and the Commune social policy (+20% production towards overbuilding) unlocked with the Piety civic, building production costs are essentially decreased to half cost. Quite an amazing boost for Pachacuti who wants to construct new buildings quickly such that he can receive adjacency bonuses (instead of keeping old, obsolete buildings that are stripped of adjacencies).
  
  
• Once you have built all those buildings, the Gamelan civic adds +2 culture for quarters with multiple buildings from this age. If you finished all Exploration buildings in the city, that is a +18-19 culture bonus per city. This will also add +1 culture per each specialist assigned to each quarter.
  
  
• The Gamelan civic also unlocks Borobudur, a very powerful wonder with empire-wide food and happiness bonuses for specialists. In addition, the Negarakertagama tradition decreases specialist food and happiness maintenance costs by 33%. Furthermore, the Negara unique civilization ability provides +1 specialist slot in non-capital cities, which is further boosted by the Panji tradition that adds +1 culture to non-capital specialists.
  
  
• The Pura unique quarter also provides +1 relic when completed, as a minor bonus.

The Majapahit civilization is relatively easy—you will need to improve 3 pearl resources or have at least 3 naval trade routes. The challenge will be that Pachacuti tends to prefer in-land settling for more mountain tiles. Alternatively, you can also start the game as the Khmer or Maurya in the Antiquity Age.

Exploration, cont'd

Lastly, The Hawaii civilization combines food and culture yield bonuses together in one neat package.

• The Lo’I Kalo improvement can be build en masse in all grassland and tropical tiles (in fact, you should probably replace all of your rural improvements with this one) and it will provide +3 food and +2 production. With the Ohana II civic mastery, it will also provide +2 culture as well.
  
  
• The Ahupuaʻa tradition adds +4 food for culture buildings, a small but welcome bonus.
  
  
• Hawaii also starts off with gaining 25 culture each time a Settlement expands to a marine tile. As your settlements grow, you will have high amounts of passive culture income. The Ho'okupu tradition adds +2 culture onto these marine tiles you have expanded on. This may be a relatively smaller bonus if you mostly settled inland, but it is a good bonus nonetheless.

To unlock Hawaii, you will have to start the game as the Mississippians or Maya, or you will have to settle 2 settlements on the same island (a landmass with a maximum of 15 tiles)—the latter of which is not possible unless you play on a naval map such as Archipelago.



Of note, Pachacuti unlocks the Inca civilization by default. Their unique abilities tend to be a "hit-or-miss".

• The Quipu tradition will provide a decent amount of bonus yields if you've done well with growing your cities—a “Population 40” city by the end of the Antiquity Age tends to have >30 Urban population (building + specialists). A bonus of +15 production per city is quite good.
  
  
• The Tirakuna unique tradition is good on paper since it can provide +15% food, but it requires you to settle your cities directly next to a mountain, or work three mountain tiles. As discussed in the Unique Ability -1 section, you typically want some distance between the city hall and mountains, in order to maximize the number of quarters you can build around mountain tiles.
  
  
• Working mountain tiles as the Incans also poses a bit of a quandary—first of all, the tile is only worth 2 food and 1 production. Warehouse building effects do not apply on these tiles (unlike the Nepalese), so there are far better rural tiles you could be working. Second, once you assign a citizen to a mountain tile, there is no possible way to reassign them, since you cannot construct buildings on top of mountains. So that citizen is essentially locked in until the rest of the game. As Pachacuti, you are far better off assigning citizens to work as specialists, rather than assigning to mountain tiles.
  
  
• The Terrace Farm improvement is powerful on paper, providing +6 food on the tile it is built on, but the terrain requirements are too restrictive—they can only be built on hill tiles next to mountains. As Pachacuti, you should be constructing buildings next to mountains, so this improvement essentially competes with urban quarters. If you so wish to use Terrace Farms, you will have to plan out your city development with them in mind starting in the Antiquity Age, so that you don’t accidentally block off good terrace farm locations.

Civ Synergies (3)- Modern Age

Reminder—the Modern Age is where you typically choose a single victory path to pursue, unless you wish to have a try at multiple paths simultaneously. The Legacy Path requirements in this age are: research the Flight, Aerodynamics, and Rocketry technologies and finish their respective space projects (Science), obtain the Natural History and Hegemony civics and obtain 15 artifacts (Culture), score 500 Railroad Tycoon Points by building Rail Stations and Factories (Economic), and gain 20 Ideology Points (Military; more points with ideologies).

Pachacuti synergizes incredibly well with the Nepalese civilization due to their mountain-related bonuses complementing each other.

• Pachacuti’s mountain bias ensures that you will have plenty of mountain tiles near your cities. As Nepal, all warehouse effects apply to these mountain tiles. If you have built all of them so far, you will have a minimum of +2 food, +6 production, and +4 happiness on of each tiles. Unlike Incan mountain tiles, Nepalese mountain tiles are good investments, even if the citizens assigned to it cannot be relocated.
  
  
• The Sagarmatha unique civic provides food and science buildings receive an additional +1 adjacency from each Mountain tile. A science building with two resources nearby and two mountains nearby will now receive +4 adjacencies. If you build two science buildings in the same quarter, then each specialist will also add +4 adjacency, on top of what it already provides.
  
  
• This leads to the Sagarmatha II civic mastery, which allows your Sherpas to install Highland Power Stations to any mountainous tile outside your empire’s borders, but within the 5 tile radius from your capital. This adds +3 production and +3 culture to the already strong mountain tiles as Nepal. The best part is that these Mountain tiles claimed by the Shepa unit does not require a population to work the tile—it simply adds the tile yield to the city. Oftentimes a cleverly settled new city can have higher production than your capital, if that city manages to “absorb” as many mountain tiles as possible. This helps with space projects as well as explorer-spamming.
  
  
  ^This is a new Nepalese city (not the capital—notice the lack of the star symbol next to the city name) that has 11 Highland Power Stations connected to it. With all other production buildings, resources, and other bonuses, Kathmandu provides 180 production per turn.
  
  
• These powerful Nepalese cities will be well-defended thanks to Nepal’s other abilities. The Gurkha unit Is the strongest Modern Age infantry unit of the same tier, with an automatic +5 combat strength and +1 movement bonus. It is especially excellent at defending against city state aggression, but you can use them for offensive purposes as well. Note that dispersing a military “village” will provide an extra one-time boost in production your cities.
  
  
• The Jyumdo Bagha civic also instantaneously adds fortifications to all districts next to mountains. As you run away with science, culture, gold, and influence, the AI civilizations will try to declare war to stop you—as Nepal, you will be able to defend against them easily.

You can unlock the Nepalese civilization by having 3 cities with 5 mountain tiles each in their borders, which is not very difficult with Pachacuti. Alternatively, you can start the Antiquity Age as the Mauryan civilization, or choose the Chola as your Exploration Age civilization.



Meiji Japan provides bonuses to Modern Age building production and also provide minor bonuses to specialists.

• When you overbuild a building, you will receive science equal to 50% of the new building's production cost. The entire sum of building production costs in the Modern Age (excluding Unique Buildings) is around ~13800. This will give you around 3-4 technologies worth of science.
  
  
• With the Fu-koku Kyōhei tradition, you will also receive science equal to 25% of the production cost when you build a naval or air unit. Rather leaving your city on the “Research Initiative” project to convert 25% of the production to science, you can get the same amount of science from the Fu-koku Kyōhei tradition but gain new units in the process.
  
  
• The O-yatoi Gaikokujin tradition also provides +1 production and +1 science from specialists. A minor bonus, but a welcome one nonetheless. The Bunmei Kaika and Oath in Five Articles civics also give a production boost to buildings.

You can unlock the Japanese civilization by improving 3 tea tiles. Alternatively, you can play as the Hawaiian or Majapahit civilization in the Exploration Age, which is recommended for Pachacuti anyway.

Leader Attributes

You will gain many attribute points if you dutifully finish all your Legacy Path missions. Typically, the choice you will have to make is between spending your Military Legacy Path points for Military vs Expansionist Attributes, and your Culture Legacy Path pointer for Cultural vs Diplomatic Attributes.


Pachacuti makes the most use out of the Expansionist, Scientific, and Cultural attributes. All of these help with gaining as many specialists, and increasing their yields.

Expansionist Attribute Tree—The left side of the tree focuses on big cities with many specialists, whereas the right side of the tree focuses on creating many productive towns. Pachacuti benefits from the left side of the tree. Some of the notable Attributes:

• Expansionist Attribute Tier 1: +25% production in settlers. This is a mild bonus that can help save a few turns in the Exploration era where you are settling many faraway towns for resources. Note that the production reduction does not affect purchasing costs.
  
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 2, Option 1: +5% Growth Rate in Cities.
  
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 3, Option 1: 25% food refund when city adds a specialist. Essentially, another +25% growth boost for the next growth event if you placed a specialist for the current one. Your hard-earned population growth will not go to waste. The best growth-related boost combinations tend to be those that combine a flat food bonus (from Pachacuti providing food adjacencies to builidngs) together with a percentage growth bonus (which lowers the threshold for the next population growth).
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 4, Option 1: +15% food and +15% happiness towards maintaining specialists, or +30% if you have 3 or fewer cities. Even with the free happiness cost with Pachacuti, the food cost discount is always welcome.
  
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 5, Option 2: +1 food in cities per Town. Repeatable. As long as you are not going excessively wide, this attribute can potentially give you a gargantuan boost in your population growth.

Scientific Attribute Tree—The left side of the tree focuses on infrastructure, while the right side of the tree focuses on increasing science yields directly. Pachacuti benefits from the left side of the tree.

• Scientific Attribute Tier 2, Option 1: +15% production towards constructing buildings.
  
• Scientific Attribute Tier 3, Option 1: +20% gold and happiness towards maintaining buildings.
  
• Scientific Attribute Tier 4, Option 1: +1 Science on Specialists, +2 if you have 3 or fewer cities. It is often best to try to rush this attribute to make the most out of Pachacuti’s abilities. This attribute also supports the “Wide-into-Tall” strategy—the idea is to play very wide in the Exploration Age with as many cities as possible, and then switch to tall with the beginning of the Modern Age, only choosing three of your best cities to remain as cities but leaving everything else as towns.

Culture Attribute Tree—The left side of the tree focuses on wonders, while the right side of the tree focuses on increasing culture yields directly. Here Pachacuti benefits from the left side of the tree, with notable exceptions.

• Cultural Attribute Tier 2, Option 2: +25% culture towards studying civic masteries. Some of the best bonuses for Pachacuti are unlocked with civic masteries—notable examples are the Wayang II (Majapahit) and Sagarmatha II (Nepalese) civics.
  
• Cultural Attribute Tier 3, Option 1: +10% culture in cities with at least 1 wonder. Not a very good power in the early game, but as your culture income increases this percentage boost becomes more valuable.
  
• Cultural Attribute Tier 3, Option 2: +1 culture for every resource in a settlement. This is a more powerful bonus in the early game. If you are attempting to rush towards Cultural Attribute Tier 4 in the early ages, this option may prove more useful than Option 1.
  
• Cultural Attribute Tier 4, Option 1: +1 Science on Specialists, +2 if you have 3 or fewer cities. Again, this attribute also supports the “Wide-into-Tall” strategy, as explained in the Scientific Attribute section.

Mementos

Pachacuti unlocks the following three Mementos:

• Topayauria (Pachacuti Level 2): +1 Food per Age on Districts adjacent to Mountains.
  
• All-T’oqapu Tunic (Pachacuti Level 5): +1 Sight for Scouts adjacent to Mountains.
  
• Mascapaycha (Pachacuti Level 9): +1 Gold and Food from Specialists in tiles adjacent to Mountains.

All three Mementos work quite well with Pachacuti. Alternatively, some of the other Mementos that provide good synergy with Pachacuti include:

• Altar Set (Confucius Level 5): +1 Culture from Specialists
  
• Brush and Scroll (Confucius Level 2): +5% Growth Rate in Cities for every Specialist in that City (max +25%).
  
• Chakra (Ashoka, World Renouncer Level 2): +1 Food in the Capital for every 5 excess Happiness.
  
• Diamond Throne (Ashoka, World Renouncer Level 9): +1 Happiness per Age in Quarters during a Celebration.
  
• Eagle Banner (Catherine Level 2): +2% Science in Cities for each Great Work they contain (max +20%).
  
• Gold Snuff Box (Simón Bolivar Level 2): +20% food when in only one alliance
  
• Kusanagi no Tsurugi (Himiko, High Shaman Level 9): +3 Culture per Age on Happiness Building, but -1 Science per Age on Happiness Buildings.
  
• Lantern (Harriet Tubman Level 20: Receive a free Migrant Unit at your Capital for every successful undetected Espionage action
  
• Note G (Ada Lovelace Level 9): Every time you research a Technology or Civic Mastery, the Capital gains Production equal to 15% of its cost.
  
• The Analects (Confucius Level 9): +1 Science per Specialist
  
• Wampum Belit (Tecumseh Level 5): +1 Production per Age in Settlements for each City-state you are Suzerain of.

If you are trying to unlock Leader Attributes quickly, mementos like Antikythera Mechanism (+1 Scientific Attribute Point), Groma (+1 Expansionist Attribute Point), and Shakōkidogū (+1 Cultural Attribute Point) can be helpful.

When in doubt, the Corpus Juris Civilis memento is always versatile and helpful—start with 1 extra social policy slot.

Wonders

Civilization 7 encourages wonder-building, and any wonder can provide a great beneficial effect to your empire. Ashoka tends to appreciate wonders that provide further bonuses to buildings, quarters, and specialists.


Hanging Gardens

• Effect: +1 food to all farms in this settlement. +10% growth in all cities. +1 Expansionist Attribute point.
  
• Terrain requirement: Next to a river tile
  
• Unlocked by the Irrigation Technology.

An early-game wonder with decent synergy with Pachacuti. The real bonus is the +1 Expansionist Attribute point to rush towards the power Tier 3, 4, and 5 Expansionist Attributes.


Angkor Wat

• Effect: +3 Happiness Happiness. +1 Specialist limit in this City.
  
• Terrain requirement: Next to river
  
• Unlocked by the Philosophy civic, or by playing as Khmer and unlocking the Amnach Civic.

This is a great civic for Pachacuti, especially in the earlier Ages where your specialist list in each quarter is limited to 1-2. This is a decently high prority wonder that deity AI civs are eager to prioritize, so rushing towards the Philosophy civic ASAP can prove quite helpful.


Colosseum

• Effect: +3 culture. +2 happpiness on Quarters in this city
  
• Terrain requirement: Adjacent to District
  
• Unlocked by the Entertainment Civic or by playing as Rome and unlocking the Senatus Populusque Romanus Civic.

Any wonder that has bonuses to Urban Quarters (which Pachacuti encourages to build) is highly beneficial. The Entertainment Civic also unlocks +1 settlement capacity.


Pyramid of The Sun

• Effect: +3 Culture. +2 culture on Quarters in this city.
  
• Terrain requirement: on Flat terrain adjacent to a District.
  
• Unlocked by the Mathematics Technology.

Another high-priority wonder. Mathematics also unlocks the Academy building, so the AI naturally prioritizes this technology. If you manage to snag this, the benefits are immense combined with the Colosseum wonder.

Exploration Age

Borobudur

• Effect: +3 happiness. +2 food and +2 happiness on Quarters in the entire empire
  
• Terrain requirement: Adjacent to Coast
  
• Unlocked by the Bureaucracy Civic or by playing as the Majapahit and unlocking the Gamelan Civic.

The most high-priority wonder as Pachacuti. The food bonus to quarters is very welcome to negative specialist food costs, and the bonus applies to the entire empire. Also does not matter if the individual buildings went obsolete; you still get bonuses to quarters themselves. If you played as the Majapahit, the Gamelan Civic is already providing +2 culture to all quarters. The only issue is the terrain requirement; inland cities might not be able to build this wonder. It is a good idea to consider this wonder early in your empire-building plans.


Notre Dame

• Effect: +4 happiness. All specialists in your empire provide +3 culture during celebrations. Start a celebration immediately.
  
• Terrain requirement: Adjacent to a River and a District
  
• Unlocked by the Social Class II civic.

An extremely powerful late Exploration Age wonder. With the large number of specialists Pachacuti likes to have, this essentially adds a huge amount culture per turn to your empire. Once you have unlocked key civic for your religion and for your civilization, it is worthwhile to dive straight towards Social Class II, just to snag this wonder before anyone else.


Machu PIkchu

• Effect: +4 gold, +1 resource capacity in this settlement. +4 culture and +4 gold on every building adjacent to this wonder.
  
• Terrain requirement: Built on a Tropical Mountain
  
• Unlocked by the Urban Planning technology or by playing as the Inca and unlocking the Mit’a II civic mastery.

An amazing wonder for Pachacuti that truly synergizes with his unique abilities. Due to the difficult terrain requirements, there is a good chance that your opponents will not be able to have access to building this wonder in the first place. Plan for this wonder early—if you notice a tropical mountain tile, make sure to surround the tile with as many quarters as possible. Note that because the culture and gold bonus applies to every building, it’s actually a +8 culture and +8 gold per quarter.

Modern Age

Dogo Onsen

• Effect: +4 Happiness, this city gains 1 Population upon entering a celebration.
  
• Terrain requirement: Next to Coast tile
  
• Unlocked by the Social Question Civic, or by playing as Japan and adopting the Bunmei Kaika Civic.

A great wonder to have as Pachacuti. Arrives quite early, and any population boost is welcome since Pachacuti doesn’t have to worry about happiness costs for specialists.


Eiffel Tower

• Effect: +5 Culture. +2 Culture and +2 Happiness on Quarters in this settlement.
  
• Terrain requirement: Next to a district
  
• Unlocked by the Radio technology, or by playing as France and unlocking the Code Civil des Français civic

Essentially, Colosseum + Pyramid of the Sun. A good wonder for any city that is decently well-developed.


Chengde Mountain Resort

• Effect: +6 Gold. +5% Culture for every other civilization with which you have a Trade Route with.
  
• Terrain requirement: Next to Mountain
  
• Unlocked by the Hegemony II Civic Mastery, or by playing as the Qing and adopting the Stabilizing Frontier Civic.

If you are playing as the Qing, you can get this wonder decently fast and use this to rush through the civics tree. Percentage boosts for culture in the late game can be quite powerful. Also the building requirements is any tile next to a mountain, so Pachacuti will find plenty of places to build this wonder. Unfortunately, it is not worth building as other civilizations, because the Hegemony II civic arrives far too late. By this time you would have already acquired all necessary civics for most victory types.

Narrative Events (1)- Antiquity

Pachacuti unlocks the following Narrative Events (attribute point rewards will be underlined due to their high value):

Event ID	Title	Unlock Condition	Prompt	Options	Rewards
#1160	The Shaking of the Earth	Finish Mysticism civic	Suddenly the earth trembles, sending powder drifting down from high places, and the rumble of a distant landslide hangs in the air. Pachacuti's people glance up, and then continue their journey without fear. But where does such bravery come from?	They are the kin of the stone. (starts "train a merchant" quest) They are the chosen of the sun. (starts "train 3 infantry units" quest) They simply know that life is short.	+50 happiness (Path A) +50 culture (Path B) +50 science
#1161	People of the Stone	Build an Altar + Path A	Pachacuti holds a handful of coca leaves towards the shadow of the mountain peak. A brisk wind blows down from the heights, reddening his face even as it invigorates his body. His people wait for his revelation.	"The ancestors call you to worship." (starts "build 3 altars" quest) "Your land calls you to fight."	+1 economic attribute point (Path A) +1 slinger in capital
#1162	A Celestial Message	Train an army commander + Path B	A star falls across the heavens, its momentary green fire lighting everything beneath in the blaze of day. The soldiers cry out, wondering how to interpret this sight.	A symbol of dawning glory. (starts "conquer a city" quest) A stone slung in rage.	+1 expansionist attribute point (Path B) +50 culture

Narrative Events (2)- Exploration

Event ID	Title	Unlock Condition	Prompt	Options	Rewards
#1163	Endless Paths	Find a distant land tile	The roads of Pachacuti's empire do not stop at the shore. They extend across the ocean, currents carrying his ships to future provinces and new wealth.	Consult local sources. Claim these lands.	Mark as Path A Mark as Path B
#1164	Rumors of Riches	Have at least 1 trade route + adopt Path A at least once	Pachacuti's citizens delight in the rich offerings of local marketplaces. Yet news of more marvelous products soon reach their ears.	They deserve the finest goods. (starts "have 4 trade routes" quest) Artistry is more important than material.	+1 economic attribute point (Path A) +1 culture to all settlements
#1165	Sweat of the Sun	Have at least 2 distant land resources + adopt Path A at least once	Pachacuti's palace shines golden: a golden mask, a golden seal. When all of the torches are lit, the sun itself has a rival for brilliance.	(if at least total 50 population in your empire) Even in the lowlands, the people know the warmth of the sun. As their population grows, so too does their reverence for Pachacuti.	+1 gold to all settlements (Path A)
#1166	Sacred Hymns	Created religion + adopt Path B at least once	Belief spreads rapidly through the populace, although beyond Pachacuti's borders, many are reluctant to hear the sermons of his priests. Their lands will soon be his nonetheless.	They are free to practice what they wish. (starts "conquer a city following a different religion" quest) All must follow the same beliefs.	+1 expansionist attribute point (Path B) +250 culture
#1167	The Endless Empire	Build a settler + adopt Path B at least once	As the settlers embark for new lands, crowds gather to send them off. The expansion of Pachacuti's empire never fails to excite his people.	(if settled 4 distant land settlements) Neither land nor sea are a match for Pachacuti's ambition. His people spread across the earth and rejoice.	+150 influence (Path B)

Narrative Events (3)- Modern

Event ID	Title	Unlock Condition	Prompt	Options	Rewards
#1168	Wisdom of the Future	Unlock Steam Engine tech + chose Path A at least 3 times	Though the tides of humanity swell among its foothills, the mountainside remains unmoved. People change their names and take up tools of iron and steel, but stone is still stone, speaking with ancient knowledge beyond any human tongue.	(if built at least 3 factories)Factories never sleep. They consume raw materials and spit out finished products… and profits. Thus Pachacuti keeps his coffers full, and his people satisfied.	+1 economic attribute point
#1169	Son of the Sun	Unlock Military Science tech + chose Path B at least 3 times	Under the condor, surrounding the puma, Pachacuti's people live on and thrive. The empire holds strong, even as the earth shakes.	(if constructed airfield + have 2 squadron commanders) Once, the earth shook. Now even the sky quakes beneath Pachacuti's might.	+1 expansionist attribute point

Government and Ideologies

Antiquity Age- Classical Republic’s culture boost is very welcome, since Pachacuti struggles with early culture yields. However, Oligarchy’s 30% production for buildings can be very useful when Pachacuti benefits from constructing all buildings available in an era as quickly as possible.

Exploration Age- Plutocracy is typically the best choice that provides +30% production towards Overbuilding. In the later game you can choose +20% gold, since you probably finished constructing all buildings. Alternatively, Feudal Monarchy is a reasonable choice if you are trying to maximize growth with whatever means necessary.

Modern Age- You probably have plenty of strong cities with lots of specialists by this point, now is time to maximize your yields. Elective Republic is best for its +20% culture and +20% science bonus—tailor it to suit whatever victory condition you are aiming for.


Ideologies-
Communism’s synergy with Pachacuti is very strong. With +3 science and +6 food per specialist, now every specialist is a guaranteed food surplus but without happiness penalties (due to Pachacuti’s leader ability). What’s even better: if your previous Exploration Age cities turned back into being towns at the beginning of the Modern Age, the specialist assignments will still stay and provide extra food. Essentially you’ll have supercharged ex-city towns that send all the extra food into your major cities. I would argue that even for Military victories Communism is preferred over Fascism—given how quickly you can unlock advanced technologies with the Pachacuti-Communism combination.

Alternatively, if you are seeking a peaceful cultural victory, No ideology (neutral) is a valid strategy to avoid having your relationship statuses degraded. Democracy can be a good option as Pachacuti, if you are still having issues with culture yields in the early Modern Age. The general rule of thumb is that Democracy is worth it for cultural victories when you have less then 500 culture per turn, or culture less than 13 times the total number of specialists in your entire empire, by the time you unlock ideologies. (See Augustus guide for calculations).

Other Leaders with Similar Playstyles

Ashoka, World Renouncer has a remarkably similar bonus to food and happiness, but their playstyle is quite different. Ashoka’s bonuses are the strongest in cities with a good mix of urban tiles and rural tiles, because his buildings get adjacency bonuses for tile improvements. In contrast, Pachacuti does not care as much about rural tiles in his cities. He prefers a playstyle with lots of quarters near mountains and moving all of his population into those quarters. Pachacuti thus thrives in both Wide (more cities, less towns) and Tall (less cities, more towns) strategies.

Confucius is also very similar due to his focus on specialists. In a game with both Pachacuti and Confucius, the Confucius player will likely dominate in science yields, due to Confucius’ +2 science to all specialists bonus. Pachacuti can potentially catch up to Confucius in the late game with a higher number of specialists and other bonuses to maximize specialist yields. Patience is key while playing as Pachacuti—your city-building efforts will be rewarded in the Modern Age.

Counter-strategies

Pachacuti’s AI agenda is “Mountain King,” which increases relationship by a medium amount for the player with the least Mountains in their territory, while decreasing relationship by a medium amount for the player with the most mountains in their territory. This should not stop you from settling near mountains, since they provide culture and happiness adjacencies, which are very valuable. My advice is that you should settle where you want to, even if you risk drawing AI Pachacuti’s ire. Even if he were to declare war on you, mountain cities are easy to defend from enemy attacks, as long as you are careful with the city’s positioning.

Footnotes

1You can find more information on this from the js scripts in “Contents/Resources/Base/modules/base-standard/maps/” in the game data folder

Other Guides

Builders Series

• Confucius and Introduction to Specialists
  
• Augustus and Introduction to Towns
  
• Ashoka, World Renouncer and Introduction to Happiness
  
• Pachacuti and Introduction to Urban Planning

Warlords Series

• Napoleon, Revolutionary and Introduction to Infantry Warfare
  
• Ashoka, World Conqueror and Introduction to Siege Warfare
  
• Charlemagne and Introduction to Cavalry Warfare

Tacticians Series

• Trung Trắc and Introduction to Commanders
  
• Simon Bolivar and Introduction to War Support
  
• Xerxes, King of Kings and Introduction to Empire Management

Negotiators Series

• Benjamin Franklin and Introduction to Endeavors
  
• Himiko, Queen of Wa and Introduction to Endeavors (2)
  
• Tecumseh and Introduction to City States

Traders Series

• Amina and Introduction to Resources
  
• Xerxes, the Achaemenid and Introduction to Trade Routes

Strategists Series

• Machiavelli and Introduction to Levies
  
• Harriet Tubman and Introduction to Espionage
  
• Napoleon, Emperor and Introduction to Sanctions

Explorers Series

• Ibn Battuta and Introduction to Leader Attributes
  
• Isabella and Introduction to Natural Wonders
  
• Jose Rizal and Introduction to Narrative Events

Polymaths Series

• Lafayette and Introduction to Traditions
  
• Friedrich, Oblique and Introduction to Military Planning
  
• Friedrich, Baroque and Introduction to Military Planning (2)

Patrons Series

• Hatshepsut and Introduction to Wonders
  
• Catherine and Introduction to Great Works
  
• Himiko, High Shaman and Introduction to Celebrations
  
• Ada Lovelace and Introduction to Masteries

Special Thanks

This guide is an homage to Zigzagzigal’s Guides to Civilization 5 and Civilization 6. Thank you Z for guiding all of us.

[CivMD]

Thank you for reading!
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