The Palace is an Ageless building inCivilization 7that is automatically established in a player’s capital city when it is founded. While players can find some information about the Palace in the Civilopedia, one very important detail about the building does not seem to appear anywhere in-game. Indeed,Civilization 7’s Palace has a hidden adjacency bonus, and it is critical that players who want to maximize their yields and improve their play know about it.
The Civilopedia indicates that the Palace generates +0.5 Science for each adjacent Vegetated Feature. However, this is not the building’s hidden adjacency bonus, as its existence is noted in-game, and it is actually only applicable to one civilization: theMayans.
Civilization 7’s Palace’s Hidden Adjacency Bonus
Despite not being mentioned in any of the game’s tutorials or text, the capital’s Palacegenerates+1 Science and +1 Culturefor everyadjacent Quarter. For full clarity,Quarters inCiv 7are tiles that have “two non-Wall buildings from the same Age, two Civ Unique Buildings, or a full-tile building,” and players should definitely attempt to establish them around their Palace. Indeed, the extra Science and Culture that adjacent Quarters provide can be a huge boon, particularly in the early-game, and players who spend a little time planning the layout of their capital cities should be able to establish them next to their Palaces without much trouble.
Ageless buildings, essentially, function as buildings from every Age. As such, a tile with two Ageless buildings will always act as a Quarter and provide an adjacency bonus to the Palace. However, tiles that contain buildings from a past Age cannot ever be classified as a Quarter, and players will need to useCivilization 7’s overbuild featureto replace those buildings if they want to restore the associated adjacency bonus.
How the Palace Adjanency Bonus Affects Settling in Civilization 7
Not only should the Palace’s hidden adjaceny bonus inform the layout of a player’s capital city, it should also be considered when deciding exactly where to settle. Indeed, a player should look to place the center of their capital on a tile that allows them to surround their Palace with Quarters (and encourages them to do so). For those players who would like to incorporate this idea into their games, here are some things to consider:
To put this all together, the ideal Palace is typically on a title that is surrounded by land tiles that do not have Resources and are not Mountains. The next ring of tiles would then have a smattering of Resources, Mountains, andCoastal tiles, as those features provide adjaceny bonuses to many of the buildings that players will use to establish Quarters around their Palaces. For example, the Monument generates bonus Culture for adjacent Mountainous Terrain, which means that it is ideally placed between the Palace and a row of Mountain tiles.
This basic configuration allows players to benefit in two directions. More specifically, the buildings that are placed next to the Palace help to unlock its hidden adjacency bonus, while the features on the second ring increase the yields of the buildings themselves. Players can also look to put a couple ofCiv 7’s best Wonderson empty spaces in the second ring, as those constructions further improve the yields generated by many of the buildings that will be established in the first ring.
