The Virtue Tree in Civilization: Beyond Earth is a critical progression system that allows you to customize your empire's strengths and unlock powerful bonuses. Unlike traditional Civilization games, Virtues are not tied to specific affinities from the outset but can be developed to complement any playstyle. Understanding how to synergize different Virtues is key to creating a dominant and adaptable civilization.
Virtue Categories
The Virtue Tree is divided into three main categories, each offering distinct benefits:
- Supremacy: Focuses on military might, unit production, and combat effectiveness. Virtues in this tree enhance your ability to wage war, defend your territory, and project power.
- Prosperity: Centers on economic growth, city development, and resource generation. Virtues here boost your production, science, and the overall health and happiness of your population.
- Discovery: Emphasizes technological advancement, exploration, and understanding the alien world. Virtues in this branch accelerate research, improve unit capabilities, and unlock new strategic options.
Synergizing Virtues
The true power of the Virtue Tree lies in combining Virtues from different categories to create potent synergies. For example:
- Aggressive Expansion: A player focused on military conquest might combine Supremacy Virtues that increase unit strength with Prosperity Virtues that boost production, allowing for rapid deployment of powerful armies. Adding Discovery Virtues that grant bonuses to unit experience or reveal enemy positions can further enhance this strategy.
- Technological Dominance: A player aiming for a scientific victory could heavily invest in Discovery Virtues to accelerate research and unlock advanced technologies. They might then pair this with Prosperity Virtues that boost science output from cities or provide bonuses to research labs, creating a snowball effect of technological superiority.
- Balanced Growth: A more balanced approach could involve taking key Virtues from each tree. For instance, a Prosperity Virtue that increases Food and Production in cities could be combined with a Supremacy Virtue that reduces unit upkeep costs and a Discovery Virtue that enhances Explorer unit capabilities for faster map exploration.
When making your Virtue choices, consider your current game state, your Sponsor's bonuses, and your long-term victory condition. Don't be afraid to experiment; the flexibility of the Virtue Tree allows for a wide range of effective strategies.