If you’ve spent dozens of hours leading your chosen nation from the stone age to the space age in Firaxis’ latest 4X hit, you’ve probably already glanced at the list of Civilization 7 trophies and wondered how to cross off every last one. Most of the Civilization 7 trophies are fairly straightforward, but a handful have hidden requirements or weird edge cases that can trip up even long-time Civ fans. I’ve spent the past three months testing different playthroughs, testing edge cases, and even replaying specific eras to figure out exactly what triggers even the most obscure, unlisted achievements. You don’t have to waste 100+ extra hours guessing what works, either – this guide breaks down everything you need to know to get that platinum trophy without the frustration.
Essential Prep Before You Start Hunting Civilization 7 Trophies
Before you jump into a new playthrough specifically for trophy hunting, there are a few small setup steps that will cut your total grind time in half. I skipped these on my first run and ended up restarting three separate times when I realized I’d locked myself out of a trophy halfway through an 8-hour game. I recommend writing down a short list of the Civilization 7 trophies you’re targeting for each run before you start, so you don’t forget any small requirements mid-play. First, make sure you disable all optional victory conditions except the one you’re targeting for your current run. This stops AI nations from snatching a science or culture win before you can complete the specific task you’re working on. You should also turn off barbarian raids if you’re going for a peaceful, niche trophy – nothing kills a low-difficulty run faster than a random raider party burning down the specific wonder you spent 20 turns building. Here are the three non-negotiable setup tweaks I use for every trophy-focused run:
- Set difficulty to Settler for all runs except the specific “win on Deity” trophy
- Set map size to Tiny and number of AI opponents to 1 to cut turn wait times by 70%
- Turn off “random events” and “natural disasters” to eliminate unexpected setbacks
Common Missable Trophies and Their Hidden Requirements
Even if you follow every guide you can find, there are at least 12 trophies in the game that have unlisted requirements the in-game description doesn’t mention. I missed four of these on my first platinum attempt, so I’ve narrowed down the most common ones players get stuck on. A lot of these hidden requirements were added to prevent players from cheesing Civilization 7 trophies with cheap exploits, but they’re never spelled out anywhere in the game. The "Diplomatic Puppet Master" trophy is one of the most frequently missed. The in-game description only says “Become suzerain of 8 city states in a single playthrough”, but it doesn’t mention that you can’t have conquered any of those city states at any point. If you take over a city state then liberate it later, it still won’t count towards the total. You have to earn suzerain status purely through envoy gifts, quests, and diplomatic favors. Another tricky one is "Eternal Ruler", which asks you to win a victory with the same leader from your starting turn. What it doesn’t say is that you have to disable government policy changes that trigger leader succession for some civilizations. For example, if you’re playing as the Roman Republic and switch to a monarchy, your original leader will be replaced, and you’ll lose progress on the trophy even if you win the game. I also see a lot of players get stuck on the “No Wars, No Worries” trophy, which requires you to win a game without declaring war on any other nation. The hidden catch here is that you also can’t accept a call to war from an ally, even if you never send a single unit to fight. Any formal war entry, even defensive, will void the trophy progress. If you’re ever unsure about a specific requirement, you can cross-reference with community lists that track all confirmed Civilization 7 trophies and their hidden conditions.
Fastest Playthrough Order to Unlock All Trophies
You don’t have to do 20 separate playthroughs to unlock every trophy. If you plan your runs properly, you can get all 48 available trophies in just 5 full playthroughs, with a total playtime of around 60 hours for most players. You can knock out 70% of all trophies in your first three runs if you plan correctly, so you don’t have to repeat the same tasks over and over. Start with a Settler difficulty science victory run first. This run will let you knock out all the tech-focused, wonder-building, and early-era trophies in one go. You can also fit in the “build 10 districts in a single city” and “launch a satellite before turn 100” trophies here without any extra effort. Just make sure you stick to one leader the entire time to get the Eternal Ruler trophy at the same time. Next, run a culture victory playthrough on the same Settler difficulty, Tiny map settings. This is the perfect run to go for all the tourism, great person, and peaceful play trophies. You can knock out the No Wars No Worries trophy, the 8 suzerain city states trophy, and the “earn 10 great people in a single playthrough” trophy all in this one run. Just remember to disable war declarations and avoid accepting ally war calls, as we mentioned earlier. Your third run should be a domination victory run, which will cover all the combat, unit, and conquest trophies. This is where you’ll get the “destroy 100 enemy units”, “conquer 5 enemy capitals”, and “win a war without losing a single unit” trophies. You don’t have to worry about diplomatic penalties here, so you can go all out on military production from turn 1. The final two runs are a diplomatic victory run to clear the last of the diplomatic trophies, and a single Deity difficulty run of your choice to unlock the “Deity Conqueror” platinum prerequisite. A lot of players save the Deity run for last, and that’s the right call – you’ll have enough practice from your first four runs to handle the boosted AI without too much frustration. This order of runs is optimized to minimize repeat work, so you spend less time grinding and more time actually earning Civilization 7 trophies without boredom.
Tips for Troubleshooting Trophies That Won’t Unlock
Even if you follow every requirement perfectly, you might run into a trophy that just won’t pop when you expect it to. I ran into this three times during my own platinum grind, so I’ve figured out the most reliable fixes for most common glitches. Most glitches that prevent Civilization 7 trophies from unlocking are easy to fix if you know what to look for. First, always update your game to the latest official patch before starting any trophy-focused run. The launch version of Civilization 7 had 11 broken trophies that wouldn’t unlock even if you met all requirements, and all of those were fixed in the first two post-launch patches. If you’re playing on an older version, you’re just wasting your time. If you meet all the listed requirements for a trophy and it doesn’t pop within 5 minutes, don’t restart your entire run right away. First, try reloading an auto-save from one turn before you completed the requirement, then redo the action. For example, if you finished building the Pyramids and the wonder-specific trophy didn’t pop, load the save from the turn before it finished, then let it complete again. 9 times out of 10, this will trigger the trophy to unlock. You should also make sure you disable all gameplay mods before starting a trophy run, even if the mod description says it’s trophy compatible. Even small, cosmetic mods that change unit skins or UI elements can sometimes interfere with the game’s trophy tracking system. If you want to use mods, reserve those for casual playthroughs after you’ve already unlocked all the trophies you want. The last fix I’ve found works for stubborn trophies is to turn off cross-save functionality if you’re playing on console. A lot of players have reported that cross-save syncing can interrupt trophy tracking, so disabling it temporarily for your trophy runs will eliminate that issue entirely. Taking these small precautions will make sure you don’t lose progress on any Civilization 7 trophies due to avoidable glitches.
At the end of the day, hunting for Civilization 7 trophies is a fun way to experience parts of the game you might never try during casual playthroughs. You don’t have to follow every tip in this guide to the letter, either – if you prefer playing on higher difficulties or larger maps, you can still knock out plenty of trophies along the way. Just remember the setup tweaks we covered, watch out for those hidden missable requirements, and don’t panic if a trophy glitches the first time. You might even find a new favorite playstyle while you’re working through all the Civilization 7 trophies on your list. With a little planning, you’ll have that platinum trophy on your account before you know it.