In fact, don’t worry so much about my exact rankings – just read through each pantheon’s description to figure out which one could prove to be more useful for your civ. A pantheon’s usefulness is completely subjective, and you might find one better than the other depending what you’re going for in your game. Pantheons have different uses. Which means that you might opt to get certain ones in domination playthroughs, and others in diplomatic playthroughs. But whatever you you’re going for, these are the best pantheons to look out for in the game!
Best Overall Pantheons
God of the Open Sky
Picture this: you get a start in an open part of the map. Pastures are everywhere and they surround you; jungles are nowhere to be seen. The God of the Open Sky pantheon will give you +1 culture for each pasture in your territory, turning your civilization into a source of tourism like no other in the game. The God of the Open Sky pantheon is one of the most situational ones out there. But it definitely does a wonderful job if you’re going for a cultural victory, and if you happen to spawn in an open part of the map with plenty of pastures.
God of the Sea
The sky might be the limit when it comes to new inventions. But the sea is the final frontier in Civilization 6 when it comes to boosting resource production. God of the Sea will give you the chance to get +1 production for every fishing boat that you own, making this pantheon the best one you can get if you have a coastal civilization. I’d argue that God of the Sea is the most solid choice if you play with the Maori, for example. You can turn your empire’s cities into massive sources of production from the get-go.
Stone Circles
This is another extremely situational pantheon to get, but one that will massively boost your faith output if you happen to have spawned near a rocky area. Build as many quarries as possible and watch them get a boost of +2 faith each. This could turn your rocky start into a fantastic one. You might want to go for a religious win with this one, though. Or use those extra faith points to get yourself some new units or academies with the proper belief instilled.
Sacred Path
I’ll be honest, and I know it’s kind of cheating to do it, but try starting a new game with Brazil with the real-world map and use the Sacred Path pantheon to convert your rainforest holy sites into massive sources of faith. They will all get a boost of +1 per each rainforest tile around it, meaning that you could basically turn South America into the holiest place on Earth. No time to be colonizing anything – just get down to business and conquer South America with Brazil. Whichever religion you pick will be the one that rules the world.
Lady of the Reeds and Marshes
Started out in a swampy area and feeling lost? Tempted to quit the game because getting that production up is almost impossible? Fear no more, my lost child. With the Lady of the Reeds and Marshes pantheon, your production will grow by +1 (+2 if you have GS installed) per each marsh, oasis, or desert floodplains that you have within your territory. Convert those useless tiles into the best in the game. And save yourself the trouble of cleaning them out with your workers. You’ll want to keep them around this time!
Goddess of the Harvest
I know that many players love to clear tiles. And if you’re one of those, you’re going to want to give this pantheon a try. Goddess of the Harvest allows you to get an amount of faith equal to the yield of the tiles that you’ve cleared, which could prove to be crucial in the early game.
Goddess of the Hunt
Goddess of the Hunt gives you an extra +1 food for camps if you have the base game. If you’ve decided to go all-in for nature and installed the Gathering Storm DLC, you’ll also get a +1 boost in production per each camp that you own. Nice!
Best Diplomacy and Domination Pantheons
Religious Settlements
This insane pantheon is one of my favorite ones out there. Border Growth increases by 15%, turning your empire into a quickly-growing nation in a matter of minutes. It also gives you one extra settler in your capital as well, should you have the GS DLC installed.
God of the Forge
God of the Forge is a great pantheon to get in the early to mid-game, as it will give you a 25% production boost towards Ancient and Classic military units. Get a head start on your rivals and eliminate them before they get a chance to react by praying to the God of the Forge.
City Patron Goddess
If you still haven’t built any specialty districts, this is arguably the best pantheon in the game. It’ll give you a 25% extra production boost in every single one of your cities without them. And you don’t need to build them to make the effect come into play. They work with all of the buildings and constructions within the city, so you’ll be getting a pretty decent bonus out of it. You could keep your cities with no specialty districts and get the 25% boost for as long as you like. I mean, you’ll eventually need to build some of those districts if you want to win… but in the meantime, might as well make the best of that sick boost.
Fertility Rites
Looking to expand your empire beyond the wildest realms of your imagination? Get those Fertility Rites going and increase the growth rate of all of your cities by 10%! I’m putting this pantheon under the “Diplomacy and Domination” category because you will need those cities to grow a lot if you want to win. And there’s no better way to do it than praying to the gods for it to happen. This is one of the best overall rites, though, as it basically serves a useful purpose regardless of where you started, or what your final objective is. It might as well be placed in my “general rites” category, but this is actually a pretty good pantheon for a Domination Victory.
Best Culture Pantheons
Goddess of Festivals
Pray to the Goddess of Festivals and welcome her into your civilization to bolster your food yields by +1 per each plantation that you’ve built on top of wine, incense, cocoa, tobacco, coffee, and tea. She’ll truly bless you with extra food on each of these plantations, allowing you to create a rich empire that will grow quicker than all your rivals.
Oral Tradition
Should you happen to get access to luxury resources where you can build plantations, then this pantheon is also right for you. It provides you with one extra culture point per each plantation that you’ve built on top of bananas, citrus, sugar, cotton, dyes, silk, and spices. This allows you to make your civilization more appealing to tourists, moreso than any other in Civ 6.
Best Religious Victory Pantheons
Earth Goddess
Earth is beautiful. And there are plenty of places where humans would love to live. If you were lucky enough to get your first few settlements near regions that are appealing to people, then you’ll want to get this pantheon ready. It allows you to get +1 Faith from tiles with Breathtaking or Charming appeal, which means that the Earth will favor you for choosing its coolest locations to inhabit. How awesome is that, really?
Desert Folklore
Desert Folklore will give you one extra faith point per each holy site that you construct near a desert tile. If you’ve started off a game and you found yourself in front of an arid wasteland, not all is lost: you could go for this pantheon to boost your faith output. And then, probably, go for a religious win, as you’ll be dry on resources unless you move further away. I mean, it would make no sense to build your first settlement in the middle of a damn desert. But if there’s nowhere else to go, you might as well get this pantheon ready.
Dance of Aurora
Feeling chilly out there? You might want to invoke the Dance of Aurora, as it provides you with +1 faith per each Tundra tile adjacent to your city. As you can see, this is another one of those region-specific pantheons that becomes extremely useful if you happen to be located in a cold region… while it becomes completely useless if you spawn in a desert or a jungle. Regardless, if you want to collect more faith and you’re near tundra tiles, using the Dance of Aurora pantheon is a no-brainer. You do need a Holy Site district to activate the effect, though.
Religious Idols
If you’re near a ton of bonus resources, Religious Idol will give you +2 per each mine that you happen to place upon any of them. That, of course, means you’ll want to get resources that can actually have a mine built upon them. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to build mines on top of foxes… so keep that in mind if you’re going for this pantheon.
Initiation Rites
Initiation Rites is arguably the best pantheon you can get in the early game. You’ll be getting an extra 50 points of faith per each Barbarian Outpost that you clear. If there’s one thing Civ 6 has taught me, it’s that Barbarian Outposts are damn everywhere. Back when I first started playing Civ 6, I was completely overwhelmed by these damn things. I had to start over so much because Barbarians kept spawning everywhere around me… which eventually led me to pick the Maori and settle near a coast to prevent these imbeciles from exterminating me in the early game. Good times.
God of War
This one is pretty situational, but one that you’ll want to get if you’re going for a military victory with a decent faith input to go alongside it. God of War allows you to get extra faith for each unit you kill near any holy site that you own. To make this pantheon useful, as you can imagine, you’ll be needing a decent number of holy sites all around your land. Each unit that you kill will give you the bonus, though. So going to war might not be as much of an unholy thing as we thought!
Best Science Victory Pantheon
Divine Spark
Divine Spark is the pantheon to get if you’re going for a science victory. It gives you additional Great Person Points for each Holy Site, Campus, and Theatre Square that you have under your control. That means you could end up with a ton of extra great people under your belt. And we all know how useful these guys are for a science win. Use them to turn otherwise normal tiles into spaces that yield science, or keep them around until you find them a better use. Regardless, Divine Spark is arguably the best pantheon in the game. Definitely worth trying on your next playthrough.
