Religion in Humankind is relegated to a support role in an empire’s development and ends up being one of the simplest systems available to the player. However, it still plays a useful role in the development of an empire. This guide should help give a primer to the inner workings of religion.
Here are the four main components of religion in Humankind:
– Faith
– Reformation
– Civics
– Irreligion
And here’s everything you need to know about religion in Humankind.
Faith
Faith is the main resource that dictates the power of a religion’s spread and influence on nearby territories. Religion spreads similarly to how spheres of influence spread in that it happens passively with minimal attention from the player. Unlike the influence resource, faith isn’t stockpiled and its power is treated on a per city basis, where cities with more total faith generation exert more religious pressure than those with less.
Empires with followers of other religions in their territory may begin getting benefits from that religion, unless there is some civic rule that blocks such a situation.
Reformation
Once the player’s empire reaches a total of ten population across all outposts, cities, and units, they will be able to found a religion with the initial choices being Polytheism or Shamanism, the former better for wide cities with lots of territory attached, while the latter benefits from tall cities with lots of population. Players will have the option to choose a single tenet from the first tier, which normally gives some kind of resource or unit stat benefit based on the state religion’s performance.
Religion will develop and reform over time, based on the total number of followers the religion has. For it to develop, the player’s religion will need to reach a certain threshold of followers to unlock the next tier of tenets.
At any given moment, all religions are limited to a total of four tiers and four tenets (one per tier). Once an empire’s religion reaches the fourth tier, it will no longer reform.
Civics
As empires begin encountering other cultures and new religions find their way into the hearts and minds of new followers, players will have to reckon with the effects of followers of different religions mixing and creating new strategic challenges.
Players will have an entire civic tree open up progressively with laws covering various concerns, such as tolerance and persecution. With this system, players can utilize their influence to affect religion from an ideological, cultural, and legal standpoint.
Irreligion
The most prominent religious civic players can consider is irreligion. When this civic option unlocks, players can choose between accepting Secularism or Atheism.
Secularism is, in effect, a neutral and tolerant stance on religion where the player’s empire will no longer suffer diplomatic penalties from other empires for intolerance and suppression. Atheism, on the other hand, becomes a kind of anti-religion. Atheism spreads like a normal religion, with some modifications, but its only benefit is helping the empire remove any religious influence altogether.
Religion can be a handy tool if effectively incorporated into an overarching strategy, as it can serve as a system to further specialize a culture’s strengths or make up for some critical weaknesses. Equipped with this knowledge, it’s up to the players how they incorporate religion into their bid to make the most famous empire in history in Humankind.
Humankind is available on PC and Stadia.
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