How to Make Gold in Civ 5: Buy Your Way Out of Everything

Trade routes and luxuries. Most of my gold in Civ 5 comes from trade routes, then from selling spare luxuries to the AI, and every bit that comes in goes straight back into something that should make more gold. I've always believed you can buy your way out of anything in these games. Too slow to research something? It doesn't matter if you've got the gold to buy what you need.

Here's how the gold actually comes in, what I spend it on, and the settings I change , from a player who'd rather buy than wait. If you're still deciding which Civ to play, I've also written about why we went back to Civ 5 from Civ 6.

How Do You Make Gold in Civ 5?

Mostly through trade routes. Since the Brave New World expansion, trade routes have replaced gold from river tiles and Trading Posts as the main way to earn gold, per Carl's Civ 5 trade routes guide. You send Caravans over land or Cargo Ships by sea, and international routes to other civilizations pay gold every turn.

How much a route pays depends on the two cities involved:

• You earn 0.5 gold for each different resource the cities can share
• Both cities contribute 5% of their gold output to the route
• Markets and Banks add further bonuses on top
• A land route from a city on a river earns 25% more
• Your own cities also earn gold just by being connected to your capital by road or harbour , roughly one gold per citizen

When picking what to prioritize, it's all about extra trade routes. The more routes you can run simultaneously, the more gold flows in each turn.

Related guide·Sid Meier's Civilization VII

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Should You Sell Luxuries to the AI in Civ 5?

Yes , it's the other half of how I make money. Each type of luxury only gives you happiness once, so a second copy of the same luxury does nothing for you, per Carl's resources guide. Those spare copies are worth far more to the AI than they are to you.

The approach I use:

1. Sell spare luxuries to the AI for gold
2. Use trade route income to buy back luxuries from the AI , specifically the ones that give a bonus to happiness, income, or both
3. Reinvest everything that generates gold into something that should generate more

What Should You Spend Gold On in Civ 5?

Buildings, mostly. I don't build many units early on. I spend gold on whatever I need right now, and with my typical starts, that means buildings first.

It matters most when I settle a new city. I boost new cities at the start by purchasing a batch of the basic buildings they'll need. Whatever the game suggests as the first building three times in a row, I just buy it. Carl's city guide follows the same logic , he buys food and production buildings in new or freshly conquered cities so they grow and build faster from the start.

What's the Best Gold Civ in Civ 5?

I couldn't tell you, because I always play on random. I never pick a civilization , I just hope whatever I land on is strong for gold. If it gives me extra gold, great. If it leans toward faith, that works too, because faith is the other resource I can spend like currency.

If I land on something else, I adapt. Whatever that civilization's strength is, I play for it. If it's cultural, I run the same general pattern but chase culture points instead of gold.

Does the AI Cheat in Civ 5?

Domination civs are the hardest for me, because I have to shift my whole approach toward battle , and I'm fairly confident the AI cheats, given the sheer number of units it fields and how quickly it gets them.

The game's own numbers suggest that's half true. On higher difficulties the AI doesn't get smarter, it gets cheaper, per Carl's difficulty settings guide, which reads directly from the game's files. Here's what the AI gets on Deity:

That's a lot of units, and they come cheap.

How Do You Change the Turn Limit in Civ 5?

I always turn it up, because the default limit is too small for everything I want to see happen , for me and for the AI. The default turn limits by game speed are:

You have two ways to get more turns:

• Choose a slower game pace when setting up the game
• Turn off Time Victory in the advanced options, which lets the game continue past the default limit

Note that the Max Turns option is off by default. Switching it on stops you from playing past the limit even with Time Victory disabled.

Which Civ Is Best for Beginners in Civ 5?

Because I play random, I genuinely don't know. If a civilization ever felt easy, it was probably the rest of the game making it easy, not the civ itself.

My suggestion: look for a civilization with bonuses in the earlier eras, so you get the benefit before the game demands too much growth and management from you. And if you're weighing up the newest entry in the series, games.gg has a rundown of Civilization VII's latest update.

FAQ

What's the fastest way to make gold in Civ 5? International trade routes, plus selling spare luxuries to the AI. Since Brave New World, trade routes are the primary source of gold, and spare copies of a luxury provide no additional happiness.

What should you buy with gold in Civ 5? Buildings in new cities , especially basic food and production buildings , so the city grows and builds faster from the start.

Does the AI get bonuses in Civ 5? Yes, on higher difficulties. On Deity the AI pays half the normal cost for units and buildings and starts with extra units, but it doesn't play any smarter.

How do you play past turn 500 in Civ 5? Turn off Time Victory in the advanced setup options, or choose Epic or Marathon game pace for a 750 or 1,500 turn game.