If you’ve ever spent 10 extra seconds per turn fumbling to click the end turn button, or accidentally selected the wrong unit when you’re racing against a multiplayer turn timer, you know how much small inefficiencies add up over a full Civ game. Mastering civilization 7 keyboard shortcuts is one of the easiest, lowest-effort ways to shave hours off your playtime while making every session feel far less frustrating. I’ve put over 120 hours into Civ 7 since launch, and I still find new shortcuts every few weeks that make me wonder how I ever played without them. This guide covers all the shortcuts you actually need, no obscure, rarely used commands to waste your time memorizing.
Core Civilization 7 Keyboard Shortcuts for Every Play Session
These are the commands you’ll use every single turn, no matter what victory type you’re chasing or what skill level you’re at. Even if you only learn these 6 shortcuts, you’ll cut your average turn time by 50% or more, especially in the late game when you’re managing a dozen cities and dozens of units. I recommend starting with these before moving on to more niche shortcuts, since they deliver the biggest time savings for the least effort.
- End Turn: Enter / Return (hold Shift + Enter to skip unread action warnings if you’re sure you’ve completed all tasks)
- Open City View: C (opens your capital if no city is selected, or the currently highlighted city on the map)
- Toggle Production Menu: Q (works in city view or with a city selected, so you don’t have to click the production tab manually)
- Cycle Idle Units: Tab (hold Shift to cycle backwards through idle units, perfect for early game builder and warrior management)
- Toggle Research Menu: R (pulls up the full tech tree from any screen, no need to click the top menu bar)
- Toggle Civics Menu: G (opens the civic tree instantly, so you can queue new policies without navigating menus)
That means you can go from finishing a tech to queueing a new one, checking your city production, and ending your turn in 3 keystrokes, instead of 7+ clicks. I used to spend almost a minute per turn in the late game scrolling through menus, and switching to these core shortcuts cut that down to 10 seconds max for most turns. But make sure you don’t get too reliant on Shift + Enter early on, it’s easy to skip a warning that your builder is idle or your city has no production queued, which can set you back multiple turns if you don’t notice.
Combat and Unit Control Shortcuts to Win More Fights
If you play a lot of domination victory runs, or you’re constantly fending off barbarian raids in the early game, these shortcuts will help you pull off moves faster than your opponent can react. They’re especially useful in multiplayer, where turn timers often leave you scrambling to get all your attacks in before time runs out. I’ve won more than one close multiplayer battle because I could queue three attacks in the time my opponent took to click one attack button.
First, Move Unit to Selected Tile (M) – instead of clicking and dragging or clicking the tile twice, select your unit, hit M, then click the tile you want to move to, and it will take the fastest path automatically. This is way more precise than dragging, especially when you’re moving units through tight mountain passes or forests where misclicks are common. Next, Attack Target (A) – select your military unit, hit A, then click the enemy unit or city you want to attack, no need to click the tiny attack icon that pops up. Fortify Unit (F) – hit F to make your unit fortify in place, gaining the defensive bonus immediately instead of waiting for the next turn if you end your turn with them idle. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve saved a wounded warrior from a barbarian raid by hitting F right after moving them into position, instead of fumbling to click the fortify button. If you want to skip a unit’s action for the turn without fortifying, hit Spacebar to mark them as done, so they don’t pop up in your idle unit cycle later that turn.
UI and Quality of Life Shortcuts for Less Menu Navigation
A lot of players skip learning these, but they make the difference between a game that feels clunky and one that feels totally intuitive. These shortcuts are designed to cut out the small, annoying parts of playing Civ, like scrolling through map filters or zooming all the way out to check where enemy units are. You won’t use these every turn, but when you need them, they’ll save you a ton of frustration.
First, Toggle Full Map View (Z) – hold Z to zoom out to the full map view, then let go to jump back to your previous zoom level. This is perfect for checking where enemy units are or scouting out unclaimed resources without having to scroll all the way out manually. Then Toggle Resource Overlay (Y) – hit Y to show all luxury and strategic resources on the map, no need to click through the map filter menu every time you’re looking for a new iron deposit or a source of silk for your amenities. Undo Last Action (Ctrl + Z) – this one only works if you haven’t already confirmed the action, but it’s perfect if you accidentally moved a builder to the wrong tile or queued the wrong building in your city. Just make sure you don’t try to use it after you’ve attacked a unit or ended your turn, it won’t work for those irreversible actions. Quick Save (F5) / Quick Load (F9) – even if you play on ironman mode, quick save before a big battle or a major diplomatic decision, just in case things go sideways. I once forgot to quick save before declaring war on a neighboring civ, and they had three hidden catapults near my capital that I didn’t see, so I lost 4 turns of progress loading a manual save. Now I quick save every 5 turns no matter what.
Tips to Memorize Shortcuts Without Wasting Playtime
You don’t have to sit down and memorize every single shortcut on this list in one go, that’s a surefire way to forget half of them by your next game. Start with 2 or 3 core shortcuts first, like the end turn shortcut and the idle unit cycle shortcut, and use them every turn until they feel like second nature. Once you’re comfortable with those, add one or two more each play session. You’ll be using all of the shortcuts on this list without thinking about it in 3 or 4 full games, no rote memorization required.
It also helps to stick a small note next to your monitor with the shortcuts you’re currently learning, so you can glance at it if you forget without pausing the game for 5 minutes to look them up. If you’re playing on PC, you can also customize all of these shortcuts in the game’s settings menu if the default binds don’t feel natural for your keyboard layout. For example, I switched the civics menu shortcut from G to F1, since it’s closer to the R key I use for the research menu, so I can open both menus with one hand without moving my wrist. Just make sure you don’t rebind keys to ones you already use for other in-game actions, that will lead to way more misclicks than it solves. If you’re playing multiplayer, don’t be afraid to take an extra turn or two to practice using the shortcuts before you get into a competitive match, you don’t want to accidentally end your turn early because you hit Enter by mistake when you’re still managing your cities.
At the end of the day, you don’t need to learn every single civilization 7 keyboard shortcuts to be a good player, but even mastering 5 or 6 of the most common ones will make every play session feel smoother and less stressful. I still run into players with thousands of hours of Civ experience who don’t use any shortcuts, and they’re always shocked at how much faster they can get through turns once they start using them. You don’t have to make big changes all at once, just pick one shortcut to try in your next game, and you’ll probably wonder how you ever played without it.