Humankind takes a simpler and more thematic approach to its victory conditions compared to its counterparts. Instead of going for a specific victory type, say conquering the world or launching a spaceship, the player’s goal is to be the most famous empire in human history by earning fame through completing certain tiered achievements. This guide should help players get an initial understanding of the available paths to earning fame.
Here are the eleven main ways to earn fame in Humankind:
– Influence
– Technology
– Territory
– Money
– Defeating Units
– Population
– Districts
– Transcendence
– Competitive Deeds
– Wonders
– Events
The first seven ways are directly related to advancing a culture through the eras and, in turn, evolving it into new ones. The latter four aren’t directly related to earning fame stars.
When a player reaches a specific threshold they earn an era star, as well as a set amount of fame. To advance to a new era, players will have to earn at least seven era stars out of a potential 21, as each category has a maximum of three fame stars to earn.
It’s important to note that the following relates to cultures that have reached the Ancient era and beyond, since the Neolithic era has its own system where players simply need to earn one fame star to advance, by growing their population to five, finding ten curiosities, or hunting five wild animals.
Here’s everything you need to know about fame in Humankind.
Influence
There are a few fame-earning paths that directly relate to player resource generation. Influence is one of these resource-specific ways of earning fame, where players will need to earn a target amount of influence (doesn’t need to be stockpiled) to receive a star. In addition, the Aesthete cultural affinity upgrades this path, giving players more fame than normal for working on this particular path.
Technology
This path requires the player to research a set number of technologies to earn fame and a star to progress to a new era. Though the most direct way to research more technologies is to simply improve an empire’s science resource generation, players can also find curiosities that can potentially give lump sums of research points to speed up their own tech discovery. The Scientist cultural affinity upgrades this path to earn more fame for the player’s technological exploits.
Territory
The territorial expansion path is the trickiest and most demanding path, especially in the early game. To earn fame from expansion players will have to not only claim a set number of territories by placing outposts, but also attach said outposts to an active city or convert outposts into cities, which requires an increasing amount of influence per attached territory. The expansionist cultural affinity specializes in this path to earning fame and will provide extra for achieving each of the three fame stars.
Money
The money fame stars, just like influence, requires the player to earn a certain amount of cash (no need to stockpile). Money is generally easy to come by, especially with some luck in resource availability and player culture choice, and like with science, players can find plenty of curiosities that can give healthy amounts of cash. Merchant cultures upgrade this path, giving empires additional fame for obtaining the requisite amount of money.
Defeating Units
For something more belligerent, players can earn fame stars for defeating a certain number of units from other empires or independent peoples (roaming animals don’t count). It may seem initially that this path is more difficult than others, but Humankind approaches diplomacy in the early game more flexibly than some other historical 4X games by allowing players to fight and skirmish outside their borders, but this will get more difficult as time progresses and empires expand across the map. Militarist cultures specialize in this path and will yield more fame to the player for completing these fame achievements.
Population
The third and final resource-specific path to fame, this one requires empires to grow their total population in cities, outposts, and units to a set amount. This is usually done through high food production, which covers the populace’s consumption needs and leaves a surplus for cities and outposts to grow. The Agrarian cultural affinity gives bonus fame to the player for successfully achieving the set thresholds.
Districts
The district path to fame is directly related to production and requires players to build a target number of districts of any kind in their territories. Cities use their industry rating to produce districts, however, players can also spend influence in their unattached outposts to place a few specialized types of districts, like the artisan’s quarter and other resource extractors, that will count towards this goal. Builder cultures specialize in improving production speed of cities and will give bonus fame to the player for completing the necessary districts.
Transcendence
When players advance to a new era when earning the required seven or more fame stars, they will have the choice of evolving into a new culture or keeping their current culture. While choosing a new culture gives players new options and paths to consider, transcendence can be worthwhile if players really like the current culture they have and feel like they can safely trade away new era-specific options for a fame bonus. In essence, transcending a culture means that players will earn an additional fame bonus for every fame star they earn.
Competitive Deeds
Compared to fame stars, which are empire specific, competitive deeds are shared amongst all empires. Deeds also require empires to perform certain actions for a set amount of fame and once an empire unlocks a deed, no other empire is able to achieve it. These deeds usually pertain to discovering landmarks, technologies, or completing certain projects before anyone else.
Wonders
Starting in the Classical era players will have the option to use influence to claim and build world wonders. These monumental structures have various powerful effects that can help with food growth, faith production, military power and everything in between. Regardless of the specific wonder players choose to build, upon completion they will receive a one-time fame bonus.
Events
The least reliable way to earn fame is through events. Throughout any given playthrough, players will have to reckon with random events that beset their empire, many of which can lead to event chains with varied outcomes. Depending on player choice and a bit of luck some events can net players a small amount of fame.
Becoming famous and leaving a mark on history is a never ending quest in Humankind, one with many paths. It may seem like a simple victory point system, but the ways to obtain fame intersect and overlap in unexpected ways, giving players plenty of leeway in forming a creative plan to become an empire immortalized in history. The challenge for players now is to use their knowledge of the fame system and lead their empire to fame or infamy.
Humankind is available on PC and Stadia.
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