Players have the abilities to choose the difficulty in the initial game set-up. A wide variety of factors from opponent's artificial intelligence to the amount of rewards received is controlled by the difficulty.
List of difficulties[ | ]
This is a list of difficulties from easiest to hardest:
Settler - Easiest
Chieftain
Warlord
Prince - Default- King
- Emperor
- Immortal
- Deity - Hardest
Difficulty bonuses[ | ]
At higher difficulty settings, the AI begins to receive bonuses to help give them advantage over the player. The tables below detail these bonuses.
Resource production[ | ]
| Resource Production | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Difficulty |  Science AI Bonus |
 Culture AI Bonus |
 Production AI Bonus |
 Gold AI Bonus |
 Faith AI Bonus
|
 Settler |
+0% | +0% | +0% | +0% | +0% |
 Chieftain |
+0% | +0% | +0% | +0% | +0% |
 Warlord |
+0% | +0% | +0% | +0% | +0% |
 Prince |
+0% | +0% | +0% | +0% | +0% |
 King |
+8% | +8% | +20% | +20% | +8% |
 Emperor |
+16% | +16% | +40% | +40% | +16% |
 Immortal |
+24% | +24% | +60% | +60% | +24% |
 Deity |
+32% | +32% | +80% | +80% | +32% |
Combat and XP scaling[ | ]
| Combat and XP Scaling | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Difficulty | Combat AI Bonus | Combat Player Bonus | Unit XP AI Bonus | Unit XP Player Bonus |
| Settler |
-1 | +3 | +0% | +45% |
| Chieftain |
-1 | +2 | +0% | +30% |
| Warlord |
-1 | +1 | +0% | +15% |
| Prince |
0 | 0 | +0% | +0% |
| King |
+1 | 0 | +10% | +0% |
| Emperor |
+2 | 0 | +20% | +0% |
| Immortal |
+3 | 0 | +30% | +0% |
| Deity |
+4 | 0 | +40% | +0% |
Research boosts[ | ]
| Research Boosts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Difficulty | Free Tech Boosts AI Bonus | Free Civics Boosts AI Bonus |
| Settler |
0 | 0 |
| Chieftain |
0 | 0 |
| Warlord |
0 | 0 |
| Prince |
0 | 0 |
| King |
1 | 1 |
| Emperor |
2 | 2 |
| Immortal |
3 | 3 |
| Deity |
4 | 4 |
Starting units[ | ]
| AI Starting Units | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Difficulty | Settlers | Warriors | Builders |
| Settler |
1 | 1 | 0 |
| Chieftain |
1 | 1 | 0 |
| Warlord |
1 | 1 | 0 |
| Prince |
1 | 1 | 0 |
| King |
1 | 2 | 1 (When a district is built) |
| Emperor |
2 | 3 | 1 |
| Immortal |
2 | 4 | 2 |
| Deity |
3 | 5 | 2 |
Note: City States always only get 1 Settler and 2 Warriors
Barbarian camp gold[ | ]
| Barbarian Camp Gold | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | Gold Received
|
| Settler |
45 |
| Chieftain |
40 |
| Warlord |
35 |
| Prince |
30 |
| King |
30 |
| Emperor |
30 |
| Immortal |
30 |
| Deity |
25 |