Civ 7: Should You Complete More Than One Legacy Path In Each Age?

Civilization 7 presents players with multiple Legacy Paths to complete during each Age, but how many need to be completed is up for debate. Completing each one can offer some serious benefits, but it could also cause some unforeseen consequences later in the game. Additionally, there may be some times when it is more strategic to intentionally not complete a Legacy Path because the effect of not finishing it could end up being a bigger boost. This could leave players wondering how many Legacy Paths they should complete during each age.

Legacy Paths are new additions in Civ 7 that give players several milestones to meet. By completing these milestones, players will earn Legacy Points and help advance the game’s Age. Completing a Legacy Path will lead to a Golden Age in that area while failing to complete any of the milestones on a given path will lead to one of Civ 7’s new Dark Ages. These paths are also tied to Civ 7’s multiple victory conditions, like Science, Culture, or Domination. Players need to complete at least one to win, but how many others they want to do will depend.

Pros Of Completing Multiple Legacy Paths

More Legacy Paths Means More Bonuses In The Next Age

One of the biggest reasons to complete multiple Legacy Paths in Civ 7 is that they will give players a leg up going into the next age of the game. Having more Legacy Points to spend during an Age transition, and having more Golden Age bonuses are the closest one can get in Civ 7 to snowballing the power of their civilization. Keeping yields from old buildings by completing the Antiquity Age Culture Legacy Path, or keeping your cities from reverting into towns with the Economic Legacy Path can stop age transitions from feeling like a step backward.

Keeping up a civilization’s momentum across several areas in the game can help when it comes time to pick a victory condition. If opposing civilizations are getting more bonuses in certain areas throughout the different Ages, it may be hard to catch up when it comes time for an endgame strategy in the Modern Age. Completing multiple Legacy Paths in the prior two ages could help keep multiple options for winning open by providing meaningful benefits in those areas of the game.

Aside from keeping the momentum going across Ages, completing Legacy Paths can also help by advancing the current Age. If other civilizations are falling behind, speeding up an age can put even more pressure on them to perform. If players focus on just completing a single Legacy Path, they are allowing other civilizations time to complete their own Legacy Paths, and possibly earn more advantages going into the next age. By completing multiple Legacy Paths, players could potentially lock opponents out of certain bonuses by ending the Age earlier.

Cons Of Completing More Than One Path In Each Age

Players Shouldn’t Spread Themselves Too Thin

While completing multiple Legacy Paths can offer some advantages, there are also some drawbacks to trying to complete too many. Focusing on every aspect of one’s civilization might make it somewhat good at everything, but it risks preventing it from becoming the best in any one area of the game. In the end, it doesn’t matter how many Legacy Paths were completed if another civilization gets to their victory condition first. It could be better to lock in on one, maybe two, areas of the game and work on being the best at it.

That isn’t to say doing other Legacy Paths is always going to hurt one’s chance of winning, just that it shouldn’t be the priority over dominating a specific area of the game. This is especially true in the Modern Age where the first civilization to complete a given Legacy Path is likely going to win that type of victory. Being a jack of all trades, master of none may be good in some contexts, but not so much in the Modern Age of Civ 7.

Pursuing too many Legacy Paths at once could also mean risking getting locked out of finishing any of them. There are multiple milestones before the end of a Legacy Path that will advance the Age. Completing too many milestones, especially on one of Civ 7’s shorter game modes, could mean an Age transition happens before any given Legacy Path is fully finished. Even when pursuing multiple Legacy Paths, players might want to focus on finishing the one that fits their strategy first instead of working on too many at once.

Not only can completing multiple Legacy Paths spread a civilization too thin, but it could also mean missing out on some good bonuses. Despite coming with some downsides, Civ 7’s Dark Age effects can be advantageous in certain situations. It’s worth reading each Dark Age effect and deciding if they might be worth getting before completing a Legacy Path. For example, the Cultural Dark Age in the Exploration Era has a bit of a Happiness penalty, but its bonus for Missionaries can make completing the Exploration Era Culture Legacy Path a lot easier.

Why You Should Complete Multiple Legacy Paths

Completing Multiple Legacy Paths Gives More Options For Winning

Although there are some risks of pursuing multiple Legacy Paths in Civ 7, ultimately the good outweighs the bad. While it may not be the best idea to try and finish every single one in each Age, especially the Modern Age, completing a few is doable. The game’s civilizations and leaders explicitly describe two aspects of the game that they specialize in, so focusing on those two Legacy Paths could be a good way to go about things. That way, there are still multiple paths to victory later on.

That said, it’s hard to say there is ever truly one right answer in a strategy game like Civilization 7. There will likely be players who find it easier to win the game by focusing more heavily on one Legacy Path, or by taking advantage of certain Dark Age bonuses. The right answer is always going to be, whatever works best for a given strategy. That said, more often than not, completing more than one Legacy Path in the earlier Ages of the game will likely be the right move.