Civilization 6 opens options for players looking to conquer the world however they imagine. They could create a sprawling military empire, win the Space Race, or even achieve a Diplomatic Victory to win the game. But a key factor to the Cultural Victory, making your culture and nation the envy of the world, is generating Amenities and Tourism. You can achieve these means through numerous methods, but one commonly misunderstood mechanic is how to build the National Park in Civilization 6.
How Do You Build a National Park in Civilization 6?
To build the National Park in Civilization 6, you’ll need the Conservation civic learned, gained during the Modern Era. This typically means you won’t be able to use it until the mid-to-late game. Once you’ve got this, you’ll need to take the following steps
- Select a city, and select the option to purchase a unit or item with Faith
- Buy a Naturalist (base cost 1600 Faith, ascending as you advance)
- Bring the Naturalist to an area within your borders that has a combination of the following:
- Four connected land tiles in a vertical diamond shape.
- The four tiles must be a combination of mountains, and natural wonders, or have an Appeal of Charming or greater (found by hovering over the tile with your cursor, so aim for Charming or Breathtaking)
- None of the tiles can already have an improvement or district or be on a body of water. Try to build a National Park near a less-developed city of yours.
- If you met the conditions above, you’ll see the 4-tile highlighted area when your Naturalist is selected, and you can build a National Park as their action for free, using up your Naturalist.
What Do National Parks Do?
The National Park, while tricky to execute if the geography in your playthrough is less generous, gives huge Tourism benefits based on the Appeal of the tiles in the area. Natural wonders and mountains have naturally higher appeal, but you might find yourself settling for less as you can sometimes have bad draws.
Additionally, you’ll get 2 Amenities for the city controlling the park, and 1 Amenity for each of the 4 closest cities. This translates essentially to happiness for your citizens. So it’s never a bad idea to push for a National Park, even if it means aggressively expanding into potentially hostile territory.
Just don’t make the same mistakes we made and settle near the Galapagos Islands, only to find out that it’s cut off by water and dashing your Naturalist’s hopes. In that instance, all that occurred was an unhappy neighboring Brazil annoyed by us settling far too close to their borders.
