When going the Religious route in Civilization 6, one of the first big decisions you must make is to choose your pantheon. Working as a sort of pre-religion, your pantheon will give you specific bonuses that are usually linked with terrain or fixed buffs. These have the theme of being connected to nature and deities, much like ancient mythologies around the world.
While pantheons may not be your strongest tool when it comes to religion, some can give you a slight edge over others and choosing the right one for your situation is very important. Always remember that religion is not exclusive for a Religious Victory, and can help out in any goal you may have if planned correctly. For this reason, we have compiled the generally best pantheons so you can pick out what is perfect for your personal strategy.
Here are the top 5 best pantheons to have in Civilization 6:
5. City Patron Goddess
- +25% production for Ancient and Classical wonders
The City Patron Goddess is a builder’s dream, providing you with a flat production buff for building Ancient and Classical wonders. If you manage to choose this pantheon in the first couple of rounds, you can absolutely rush through the early game’s wonders and get permanent strong bonuses that can turn the tide of the rest of the game. This is especially useful when playing against a Civ that likes building wonders, such as China or Egypt.
Being able to build wonders like the Colosseum or the Petra is extremely strong, since the game’s AI usually builds it before the player. These can give you immense bonuses, like the Petra which makes all desert tiles give food and production for the rest of the game. No matter what type of victory you are going for, being able to get those early Wonders down will give you bonuses you will not regret.
The only downside to this Pantheon is that when the Classical era is over you won’t be affected by this pantheon for the rest of the game, but by then you should already have bigger and better priorities.
4. God of the Forge
- +25% production for Ancient and Classical era units.
Similar to City Patron Goddess, the God of the Forge will give you a limited time buff, but an extremely strong one. During the Ancient and Classical era, all military units will require 25% LESS production to train. This is genuinely absurd for Domination Victory, since it makes spamming troops and attacking unprepared opponents much more efficient and worth it. It means that you will spend 25% less time training your army and instead actually attacking your foes. After building your first couple of cities you can then turn all your efforts into quickly amassing an army, much faster than anyone else.
This is not that useful for non Domination victories, but can still have its uses when defending yourself from warmongers or barbarians. Although this bonus does only last until after the Ancient era, it is more than enough time for you to even wipe out some other civilization if played aggressively and strategically. Rush your unprepared neighbors and conquer their cities faster than ever!
3. Fertility Rites
- Receive builder in capital when chosen, +10% city growth from excess food.
Moving on from era specific bonuses, Fertility Rites can help you out all throughout the game, but especially in the early stages of city building. By receiving a free builder when choosing it, you can skip training an early builder and can focus on getting more districts and troops down. It may not seem like much, but being able to improve your tiles for free is a major win when it comes to your resource output.
However, the main benefit from this pantheon comes from a +10% bonus to city growth from excess food. This is exceptionally useful when playing next to flooded rivers or high food yield tiles and can boost your population without you even doing anything. Since this bonus lasts for the rest of the game, it also benefits you with late game cities, which take a long time to earn extra population.
2. Divine Spark
- +1 Great Person Points from Holy Sites, Campuses with Library, and Theater Square with Amphitheaters.
As one of the strongest pantheons in the game, Divine Spark can help you out with almost any type of victory. It provides you with +1 Great Person Points depending on your districts and their upgrade, giving you an objective advantage when competing for Great People. The Holy Site will instantly gain the bonus, while Campuses and Theater Squares require their first upgrade, Library and Amphitheater, respectively. Great Scientists are especially useful since they give free eurekas and can make you run through the tech tree, leaving your enemies in the stone age. While a +1 may not seem like much later in the game, it can almost guarantee you will be choosing your Great People in the early game where most foes are focusing on settling cities, early wars and building districts. Some of the bonuses from early Great People can put you two steps ahead of your enemies, especially those that grant permanent bonuses and important Eurekas/Inspiration. Although you may not feel the bonuses from it in the late game, it will still be there providing you with a simple and good advantage for the rest of the game.
1. Religious Settlements
- Receive a settler in capital when chosen, +15% border expansion rate
Lastly, the strongest Pantheon in the game that will give you a visible advantage for the rest of the game, is Religious Settlements. Firstly it provides a free settler when chosen, which is completely absurd for an early game benefit, since settling as many cities before your enemies can be what makes or breaks a game. Secondly, every city you own expands their borders a whooping 15% faster for the rest of the entire game. Every. Single. City.
This bonus is completely absurd when you take into account that there are very few abilities in the game that increase border expansion rate, making your cities objectively stronger than that of your enemies. You will be able to take resources first, have more tiles, negate your enemies attempts at expansion and much more. Not only that but for the rest of the game any city you settle, no matter how puny, will become self-sustained much quicker since you will be able to work tiles faster.
