Civ 7 (Civilization VII) Tier List - Best Characters & Builds

Tier List Overview

In Civilization VII, the most critical decision you make before unpausing the game on turn one is selecting your Leader. Unlike previous entries in the franchise, Civilization VII completely decouples Leaders from Civilizations. This means your Leader provides a specific set of abilities that persist across all three historical ages (Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern), regardless of whether you are playing as Rome, the Ming Dynasty, or the United States. Because this Leader ability serves as the foundational bedrock of your entire 500-turn playthrough, choosing a Leader with a highly scalable, universally powerful toolkit is the secret to consistent victories on Deity difficulty.

This tier list ranks the base game Leaders of Civilization VII based on their overall flexibility, synergy across different ages, and raw power in pursuit of the four primary victory types (Science, Culture, Military, and Economic). A Leader that can seamlessly pivot from a strong Antiquity start into a dominant Modern age strategy will rank higher than a highly specialized Leader who falls off if their specific strategy is disrupted early. Whether you are looking to conquer the globe or launch a global space race, understanding the hierarchy of Leader abilities will give you the edge you need.

S Tier

The S Tier represents the absolute pinnacle of Civilization VII leadership. These Leaders feature abilities that completely break the standard pacing of the game. They offer incredible momentum right out of the gate and scale exponentially as the ages progress. If you want the highest probability of winning a Deity game, pick from this tier.

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin is undeniably the strongest Science and Culture hybrid Leader in the game. His unique ability, Key to the Republic, grants bonus Science and Culture for every building constructed adjacent to a natural wonder or in a Wonders district. Furthermore, he receives amplified yields from Wonders themselves. In a game where Wonders have been fundamentally reworked to be less randomized and more strategically integrated into district planning, Franklin thrives. He can simultaneously rush a Science victory through explosive mid-game tech progression while generating enough Culture to unlock crucial governments and policy cards far ahead of the AI. His flexibility makes him immune to early-game choke points; even if he is cut off from a specific strategic resource, his sheer output in Science ensures he can tech into workarounds.

Ashoka

Ashoka represents the apex of wide-empire play and religious dominance. His ability, Elephant Archers, provides immense bonuses to combat strength when his units are in friendly territory, but more importantly, it grants bonus yields to cities founded near his holy sites. As you push through the Antiquity and Exploration ages, Ashoka can snowball out of control. By aggressively spreading his religion and settling new cities near those foreign holy sites, he creates an interconnected web of high-yield settlements. The AI in Civilization VII struggles immensely to deal with a wide, religiously charged Ashoka empire. By the time you reach the Modern Age, your empire will be so large and produce so much Faith and Science that you can easily pivot from a Religious victory into a Science or Economic victory if needed.

Confucius

Confucius is the ultimate Cultural powerhouse. His ability, The Analects, grants increased Culture output for every adjacent tile that is cultivated or contains an improvement, and his specialists generate significantly more Culture. In the early game, this allows Confucius to blast through the Civics tree, unlocking advanced forms of government, powerful policy cards, and vital district discounts decades before his opponents. In the Modern Age, his culture generation applies directly to generating Tourism, allowing him to flip rival cities passively and secure a Culture victory with almost zero military investment. His ability synergizes perfectly with any civilization that has strong builder or improvement bonuses, making him universally adaptable regardless of which Civ you transition into during the age changes.

A Tier

A Tier Leaders are exceptionally strong and capable of carrying a player to a Deity victory with reliable consistency. They usually excel heavily in one or two victory types and offer incredibly strong early-game momentum. They fall just short of S Tier because their abilities can occasionally be hampered by specific map conditions or require slightly more rigid planning to execute perfectly.

Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut is the queen of the Antiquity Age economy. Her ability, Queen of the Red Sea, provides a massive discount to purchasing districts and buildings with Gold, alongside increased Gold yields from trade routes to other civilizations. In the early game, this allows her to instantly purchase key infrastructure, bypassing the production bottleneck that plagues other Leaders. She can flood her capital with monuments, granaries, and libraries in a matter of turns. While she naturally leans toward an Economic victory, that massive Gold surplus can be seamlessly converted into a military machine—allowing her to buy armies outright—or funneled into Patronage to purchase Great People for a Science or Culture victory. She drops slightly below S Tier only because her ability's raw power diminishes proportionally as inflation increases in the later ages.

Augustus

Augustus is a premier expansionist and military Leader. His ability, Imperator, grants bonus production toward constructing buildings in his capital if he has established a trading post in a foreign city, and he gains increased combat strength for units that have crossed into enemy territory. Augustus allows the player to establish a towering, highly productive capital early on, which then serves as a military pump to produce legions and siege units. He is devastating in the Antiquity and Exploration ages, easily conquering his neighbors and swallowing up their territory. He ranks in A Tier because while his early game is arguably unmatched, wide military empires often suffer from severe bureaucratic and maintenance penalties in the Modern Age, requiring intense micro-management to keep his conquered cities loyal and productive.

Charlemagne

Charlemagne excels at dominating the Exploration Age. His ability, Emperor of the Romans, grants combat experience to all units at an accelerated rate, and his cavalry and melee units receive a combat bonus when fighting in rough terrain. Because Civilization VII’s Exploration Age is heavily focused on navigating rugged, newly discovered continents, Charlemagne’s terrain bonuses are constantly active. He can quickly level up his units, generating powerful generals and highly promoted armies that can sweep through AI settlements on other continents. He is an A Tier pick because his ability heavily spikes during the middle of the game but offers very little utility during the Antiquity Age before rough terrain exploration becomes relevant.

B Tier

B Tier Leaders are solid, reliable choices that offer distinct and enjoyable playstyles. They perform well on Prince, King, and Emperor difficulties, and they can certainly secure victories on Deity in the hands of a skilled player. However, their abilities are more narrowly focused, or they simply lack the explosive, game-breaking snowball potential found in the higher tiers. They require the player to actively compensate for their weaknesses.

Cleopatra

Cleopatra’s ability, Queen of the Nile, revolves around internal trade routes. She receives increased Food and Gold from trade routes originating in her capital, and cities connected to the capital via trade routes gain bonus loyalty. This makes her an excellent choice for players who want to build a tall, stable, and incredibly wealthy empire. However, internal trade routes inherently mean you are missing out on the diplomatic and strategic advantages of sending trade routes outward to foreign powers. In a game where external trade routes are often necessary to gain early visibility, earn favor, and spread influence, Cleopatra’s inward focus can leave her diplomatically isolated and vulnerable to surprise attacks from highly aggressive AI neighbors.

Montezuma

Montezuma is a highly aggressive military Leader whose ability, Spear of Tlaloc, grants his units additional combat strength for every different luxury resource he has access to, and luxury resources provide increased Amenities. On paper, this makes him a rampaging monster. In practice, however, his power is entirely dependent on the map generation. If you spawn in an area with diverse luxury resources, Montezuma easily performs like an S Tier conqueror. If you spawn in a resource-poor region, or if an aggressive neighbor blocks your access to luxuries early on, his ability falls completely flat, leaving you with a generic, slightly weaker military leader. This high variance keeps him firmly in the B Tier.

Jose Rizal

Jose Rizal focuses on city specialization. His ability, The Ilustrado, causes districts to generate an escalating yield of their primary type (Science for Campuses, Culture for Theater Squares) for every adjacent district of a different type. This encourages incredibly beautiful, carefully planned city layouts that reward high-level strategic planning. The issue is that achieving these perfect adjacency bonuses requires an enormous amount of room, which is rarely possible in tightly contested Deity games where AI civilizations settle aggressively. When you cannot achieve perfect district adjacency, Rizal’s ability provides only modest, passive bonuses that fail to keep pace with the explosive output of S and A tier Leaders.

C Tier

C Tier Leaders are highly situational. They possess abilities that are either too niche to be consistently viable, rely on mechanics that are inherently weaker in Civilization VII’s meta, or require such an exorbitant amount of setup that the return on investment is rarely worth it. They are not strictly "unplayable," but they will actively make your path to victory more difficult compared to average, unbuffed gameplay.

Pachacuti

Pachacuti’s ability, Inka, grants massive bonuses to mountain tiles, allowing citizens to work them for high yields, and drastically reducing the cost of constructing terrace farms and mountain tunnels. If you spawn near a massive mountain range, Pachacuti can create an incredibly defensible, high-yield stronghold. However, mountain-heavy starts are notoriously restrictive. They limit your ability to build districts due to lack of flat land, choke your housing growth, and severely restrict your cavalry and siege unit mobility. In a game where flexible expansion and district placement are king, being forced to wedge your entire empire into narrow mountain valleys is a massive handicap that even the increased tile yields cannot fully compensate for.

Trung Trac

Trung Trac is designed as a defensive, guerrilla-warfare Leader. Her ability grants bonus combat strength to units in terrain that provides a combat bonus (like hills or forests) and reduces the cost of purchasing units in cities that are under siege or have recently been captured. While this makes her somewhat annoying for the AI to attack, playing purely defensively is inherently suboptimal in Civilization VII. The game’s pacing heavily rewards the aggressor—taking territory, controlling resources, and denying the enemy strategic ground. Trung Trac’s bonuses only trigger when she is losing ground, meaning she is constantly fighting from a position of weakness. By the time her defensive bonuses kick in, a proactive opponent has already out-scaled her economically.

Sima Qian

Sima Qian is the historian’s Leader. His ability provides increased Science and Culture for every era your civilization has progressed through, and grants bonus yields from ancient and classical era wonders. The fundamental flaw with this design is that it is a "win-more" ability. The bonuses he receives in the late game for surviving the early game are marginal compared to what Leaders like Benjamin Franklin or Confucius are generating. Furthermore, his focus on early Wonders commits him to a risky strategy where he may waste dozens of turns building a Wonder only to have it sniped by an AI civilization one turn before completion, leaving him scientifically and culturally stunted.

How to Use This Tier List

Understanding this tier list requires a bit of context regarding how Civilization VII differs from its predecessors and how the game’s evolving meta interacts with Leader selection.

• The Decoupling Mechanic: Remember that your Leader is permanent, but your Civilization changes every Age. Do not pick a Leader assuming you will play a specific Civilization for the whole game. Pick a Leader whose raw ability synergizes well with a variety of different Civilizations. For example, pairing Confucius (Culture) with an Antiquity Civ that has strong builders, then transitioning into a Modern Civ with high Tourism yields, will yield devastating results.
• Map Dependency: As highlighted in the B and C tiers, certain Leaders are incredibly dependent on the map script. If you are playing on a Continents map with abundant water and luxuries, Montezuma and Hatshepsut will overperform. If you are playing on a Pangea map with dense forests and rough terrain, Charlemagne and Trung Trac will naturally rise in effectiveness. Always adjust your Leader choice slightly based on the map type you intend to play.
• Patch Dynamics: Civilization VII is a living game, and Firaxis is known for aggressive balance patches. Leaders in the S Tier, particularly those whose scaling math allows them to break the game's economic thresholds, are the most likely targets for minor numerical nerfs. However, the fundamental design philosophy behind their abilities—like Franklin’s wonder adjacency or Ashoka’s wide religious spreading—is so sound that they are unlikely to drop out of high viability entirely.
• Playstyle Trumps Tier: Ultimately, the most important factor in Civilization VII is your enjoyment. If you love meticulously planning city layouts and watching specialized districts hum with efficiency, Jose Rizal in B Tier will bring you more joy than mindlessly conquering the map with Ashoka in S Tier. The game features deep mechanical systems that allow lower-tier Leaders to secure victories; it just requires more flawless execution, better foresight, and a deeper understanding of the game’s underlying systems. Use this tier list as a baseline for understanding raw power, but never let it override your personal strategic preferences.

Mastering the Leaders at the top of this list will rapidly accelerate your understanding of Civilization VII’s core mechanics. By observing how effortlessly S Tier Leaders generate yields and translate those yields into victories, you will naturally begin to see the strategic holes in the lower tiers, ultimately making you a more well-rounded and dangerous player regardless of who you choose to lead.