Amassing a diverse community of sources is a vital a part of Civilization 7. That stated, the sport’s tutorials go away some massive gaps in how sources truly work. Buying sources in your settlements is one factor, although Civilization 7 throws up a number of cases the place you possibly can’t slot them – and doesn’t let you know why.
Under, we’ve damaged down every little thing it’s essential to learn about sources in Civilization 7, together with recommendations on how they work, easy methods to get them, the circumstances beneath which they work appropriately, and easy methods to repair points the place the sport received’t allow you to slot objects to cities and cities.
The best way to get sources in Civilization 7
It’s a must to truly receive sources earlier than you possibly can slot them, and Civilization 7 offers you just a few strategies to get them:
- Set up a settlement in the most effective location
- Create commerce routes
- Conquer different settlements
Let’s break these down a bit.

Picture: Firaxis/2K through gamexplore
The primary method is establishing a settlement close to sufficient to a useful resource node in order that the city or metropolis limits embody it. Doing so robotically provides the sources to your community, and as your settlement grows, any further sources that get caught up in your settlement’s space of affect can even grow to be out there.
The opposite methodology includes creating commerce routes with the service provider unit. Every service provider can set up one route to a different civilization’s metropolis, and also you get any sources that metropolis has close by for a small sum of Gold every flip – however solely close by sources. Something that metropolis imports for itself is out of your attain. The quantity of gold you pay is determined by what number of sources the goal metropolis has, however you possibly can count on between eight and 12 Gold per route, per flip normally. Civilization 7 doesn’t allow you to cancel commerce routes, so these transactions are everlasting.
Constructing a powerful and diverse provide of your individual sources attracts retailers from different civilizations as properly and helps stability the movement of gold leaving and coming into your coffers.
The ultimate method is conquering different settlements, which provides their items to your pool of obtainable metropolis and bonus sources. If you happen to hold town, it’s a good suggestion to go away any happiness sources the place they’re till unrest dies down and you’ll assemble happiness buildings there. In any other case, the extent of unhappiness may trigger the settlement to defect or drag your surplus happiness down throughout the empire.
All sorts of sources in Civilization 7
Sources are objects that supply bonuses, both for particular yields within the settlement the place you allocate them or in your civilization extra broadly. Civilization 7 makes use of little footage of the supply to indicate which tile they’re on, like a bit of horse image or a jar of spices, and you’ll hover over it to see what advantages it presents.
Some improve Meals manufacturing, which helps settlements develop extra rapidly. Others improve Manufacturing or add a small Gold multiplier to a settlement’s output, and some present bonus Happiness, which is a wonderful solution to offset unrest in newly acquired settlements or if issues simply go bitter unexpectedly.
[civilization-7-resources-3]
Civilization 7 divides its sources into three varieties — metropolis, bonus, and empire — with a fourth, manufacturing facility, that emerges in the course of the Trendy Age. Because the title suggests, metropolis sources are just for cities, so you possibly can’t slot them into cities. You may allocate bonus sources to any metropolis or city linked to your commerce community, although. That’s obscure Civilization 7-speak for a settlement on a continent the place you’ve gotten at the least one commerce route or a coastal settlement with a port.
Empire sources are issues reminiscent of marble, gold, or tea. Their advantages apply throughout your civilization, perks reminiscent of further harm for cavalry troops or additional gold, and also you don’t must allocate them.
Most bonus sources from the exploration age flip into manufacturing facility sources within the fashionable age, together with chocolate, fruit, and cotton. You may solely allocate manufacturing facility sources in a metropolis that has a manufacturing facility, which is a course of in itself. Civilization 7 helps you to construct factories solely in settlements with a rail station which can be additionally linked to your capital. Most cities and cities in your civilization robotically have roads connecting them after you’ve gotten a commerce route established, but when your community has gaps, create a service provider unit and use their “construct street” command to put a rail line between two settlements with a rail station.

Picture: Firaxis/2K through gamexplore
You may solely slot one manufacturing facility useful resource right into a metropolis with a manufacturing facility, no matter the place it’s or how massive town is. Manufacturing facility sources are useful to have, whether or not you’re pursuing an Financial victory or not, since they supply extra specialised bonuses — citrus contributes to naval manufacturing, for instance — or perks that sources didn’t supply in earlier ages, together with elevated science yields.
For extra, see our full record of all sources in Civilization 7.
The best way to slot sources on a metropolis in Civilization 7
Choose the icon with the leaf image to open the useful resource menu. There, choose which useful resource you need, and resolve which settlement you suppose ought to have it. The useful resource display screen reveals every settlement’s present yield outputs, so use these numbers to tell your resolution. In case your capital already has 80 manufacturing however you’re struggling to make gold, for instance, it may be value slotting bonus manufacturing sources right into a city with the expansion specialization as a substitute, since manufacturing converts to gold in these settlements.
Civilization 7 all the time throws up a leaf icon notification within the backside proper whenever you receive a brand new useful resource, so there’s no probability of unintentionally lacking it.
The best way to improve useful resource slots in Civilization 7
Civilization 7 is a bit murky about which settlements get what number of slots and what you are able to do to spice up their variety of out there useful resource slots. The one surefire solution to do it’s so as to add camels as a useful resource, which will increase the variety of slots by two within the settlement the place the camel is – or one, technically, because the camel takes up a slot. Camels are a metropolis useful resource, so this methodology received’t work for cities. It’s additionally not out there within the fashionable age, when camels cease current as a useful resource.
Apart out of your capital metropolis, which finally ends up with a number of useful resource slots as the sport progresses, most cities can have between one and three slots, whereas cities get three to 5. Progress capability appears to be how Civilization 7 determines the variety of slots, moderately than commerce routes or out there sources. For instance, in a number of video games, our cities with populations over 40 that generated meals over 80 had 4 or 5 useful resource slots, whereas these with populations of 30 or so had fewer.
Why received’t it let me slot sources?

Picture: Firaxis/2K through gamexplore
If Civilization 7 received’t allow you to slot a metropolis or bonus useful resource to a settlement, and also you’re not making an attempt to stuff a metropolis useful resource right into a city, the difficulty is nearly all the time the results of that settlement having no connection to an current commerce route. It may be on an island, surrounded by rival civilizations, or simply additional out than the place your retailers at present journey.
The best solution to repair that’s to buy or create a service provider unit and set up a commerce path to the settlement closest to the city or metropolis the place you’re having the difficulty. If the settlement has entry to navigable water, you must have the ability to bypass the service provider resolution by simply constructing a port.
Empire sources present up as useful resource nodes on the map like another, however they apply to your complete civilization and require no administration. You may hover over them on the prime of the useful resource display screen to see what they do, however you possibly can’t transfer them round. Manufacturing facility sources are just for settlements with a manufacturing facility, however in the event you can’t slot these in a metropolis with a manufacturing facility, examine your rail community. There’s probability a settlement between the manufacturing facility metropolis and your capital doesn’t have a rail station, or the sport forgot to construct a street between it and your capital.
For extra Civilization 7 guides, see easy methods to arrange commerce routes, easy methods to attain distant lands, and easy methods to use treasure fleets. Plus, right here’s our leaders tier record and an inventory of all sources.