Become a VIP in the Borderlands Vault Insider Program!
As a VIP, you can score some sweet rewards for Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Obtain Gold Keys to earn rare loot, or even unlock some of the most elusive Legendary weapons, including the Dahl Torrent, Maliwan Norfleet, or Vladof Mongol! And that’s just a taste of all the awesome loot available to VIPs!



WHAT IS THE VAULT INSIDER PROGRAM?
Simply put, the Vault Insider Program, built in partnership by Gearbox and 2K, is a way for us to celebrate Borderlands fans like you. As a Vault Insider you’ll earn points and rewards for doing a lot of the fun stuff that you’d probably be doing anyway, like watching videos, reading articles, checking social media for the latest Borderlands updates, and of course, signing up for the program in the first place. Points can then be redeemed to claim rewards such as Gold Keys, wallpapers, and more in-game and out-of-game rewards!

I WANT IN! HOW DO I JOIN?
Before you can become a Vault Insider, you need a SHiFT account. If you don’t already have one, you’ll have an opportunity to create one during the VIP sign-up process.

Note that you must be at least 18 years of age to join. Be sure to review the Vault Insider Program Terms so you know all the important details.

Join at VIP.Borderlands.com

HANG ON, WHY DO I NEED A SHIFT ACCOUNT?
SHiFT is the platform that powers all in-game promotions and rewards in Gearbox games. Without SHiFT there’d be no way for you to receive all of the awesome in-game rewards that are coming your way.

OK I SIGNED UP. NOW WHAT DO I DO?
Be a Borderlands fan! You’re probably doing some of this stuff already, but in case you’re not, be sure to follow us on social media, make sure you’ve signed up for promotional updates, and check out articles and videos at borderlands.com. You can start earning points right away by referring friends and creating a 2K account to stay up-to-date on 2K’s other games. Check the hit list on your profile for up-to-date info on which activities are available for you right now.

Additional ways to earn points will be rolling out over time, including some that won’t appear on your hit list because they’re super-secret and designed to reward super-fans with super-rewards.

REMIND ME, WHAT DO I GET?
Rewards available right now include wallpapers and Gold Keys that are redeemable in current Borderlands games. With the legacy Gold Keys, there’s no need to wait – you can jump right back in to revisit your favorite Borderlands games!

Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary is an all-new Borderlands 2 campaign DLC that’s FREE until July 8. Requires Borderlands 2 or Borderlands: The Handsome Collection to play.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/872280/Borderlands_2_Commander_Lilith__the_Fight_for_Sanctuary/
Announced during today’s Microsoft Xbox E3 2019 Briefing, Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary is the fifth campaign DLC for Borderlands 2. This all-new adventure not only sets the stage for Borderlands 3 but also introduces some exciting new features along the way. We’re talking new areas to explore, new enemies and bosses to battle, a new level cap to hit, new aesthetic options for your Vault Hunters and vehicles, two new endgame OP levels, and a new better-than-Legendary Effervescent tier of weapons and equipment to loot. And it’s free until July 8!
https://youtu.be/VjRp1BkP1ZI
Led by the legendary Firehawk Lilith, The Crimson Raiders are in possession of the Vault Map and are preparing to leave Sanctuary in search of its secrets. But when Dahl-branded ships full of soldiers arrive and deploy a chemical weapon, the team is forced to change plans, and a hasty escape leaves Lilith and the Vault Hunters scattered across the Pandoran desert. Enemies infected by Dahl’s toxic gas pose a new threat to Pandora, and only you and your friends can stop it.

If you want to start the new Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary with one of your existing Vault Hunters, you need to visit the new “Fight for Sanctuary” location, which is accessible via Fast Travel stations. Note that attempting to play the new DLC content is not recommended unless your Vault Hunter is at least level 30.

Want to jump right into the DLC without delay, regardless of how much Borderlands 2 you’ve played? You also have the option to create a new level 30 Vault Hunter already loaded into the start of Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary. Go to the Select Character screen, create your level 30 character, and then start the game to automatically be transported to the new content.

Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary will be available for free to all owners of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection until July 8 at 06:59:59 UTC (11:59:59 PDT). Requires Borderlands 2 or Borderlands: The Handsome Collection to play.

Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced OUT NOW!

If you already own the original Borderlands on Steam, you’re all set! Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced should already be in your Steam library absolutely free!

What’s New

• Visually Remastered: The improved lighting, textures, and character models shine on PC. Enhancements apply to the base game, as well as all add-on content.
  
• Quality of Life Improvements: Significant updates to the game’s supporting systems allow for a smoother overall experience. For example:
  
• -- A Borderlands 2-style mini-map, which you can toggle on and off, has been added to complement the original compass
  
• -- Substantial improvements to the inventory system—such as allowing you to “lock” weapons or mark them as “junk”—simplify item management
  
• -- Items like ammo, money, and health now auto-pick up from the ground
  
• Rewards Ready: With the addition of the SHiFT player rewards program, you can now use Golden Keys to unlock special in-game items and rewards. Returning SHiFT users who’ve played Borderlands 2 or The Pre-Sequel on PC will receive 75 free Golden Keys, as well as two randomly selected all-new weapons, for their first newly-created Vault Hunter.
  
• Added Firepower: A new set of six named, custom-skinned Legendary weapons make the base game’s arsenal even deeper. Beat bosses or gather Golden Keys for a chance to collect ‘em all.
  
• Badder Boss Battle: In direct response to fan feedback, the campaign’s final boss encounter has been adjusted to be more engaging, challenging, and rewarding.
  
• Cosmetic Customization: For the first time, you will be able to customize your Vault Hunter beyond simply selecting a color scheme. Each of the four available characters has five brand new cosmetic heads unlocked and equippable right from the start of the game.
  
• ALL DLC: Didn’t own any Borderlands DLC? Now you got it all! On BOTH the original game and in Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced!

The Handsome Collection Ultra HD Texture Pack is out now!!

Watch the trailer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWGP4p8u3Ig
Get it here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/941170/Borderlands_2_Ultra_HD_Texture_Pack/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/941180/Borderlands_The_PreSequel_Ultra_HD_Texture_Pack/
What’s New?
The Ultra HD Texture Pack is a free visual upgrade available to both new and existing product owners. On PC, players will have the option to download the texture pack for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 2 separately.

The Ultra HD Texture Pack includes:

• Remastered 4K environment textures, including geometry and skyboxes
  
• Remastered 4K characters and vehicles
  
• Remastered 4K weapon meshes and textures
  
• Improved Anti-Aliasing, including improved edge line implementation
  
• -- This includes improved ink line definition and framing/outline around character models
  
• Higher Resolution Dynamic Shadows
  
• -- Improved quality and smoothness of shadows, especially during movement
  
• Improved Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
  
• --An improved SSAO method for more realistic ambient lighting

Please note that some of the above visual improvements are automatically enabled when the Texture Pack is installed. There is no need to manually enable them in the in-game Video settings menu.

We have released a new update for the 2K Launcher today. The update should download automatically; if you are having trouble, restart your Steam client and it should download automatically.

Patch notes:

• Added fix for launcher preventing Civilization V SDK - World Builder from working properly
  
• Added fix for launcher not scaling properly on high resolution displays

Hello, Civilization fans! If you booted up Civilization V or Civilization VI today, you may have noticed that both now include new and improved launchers. These launchers are in a new update that should automatically download when you start your Steam client; please restart Steam to trigger the download if you are having issues.

This new launcher keeps the same core functionality of the older launcher: You can easily choose your DirectX version and quickly jump into the game, but we’ve also added sections to keep you up to date on the latest Civilization news, content and special offers. We want you to have the best experience possible with our games and it is our hope that these new launchers better connect you to the Civilization community. Stay civilized!

The world around you is more alive than ever in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, the second expansion to the award-winning grand strategy game, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.

https://youtu.be/trNUE32O-do

Launching for Windows PC on February 14, 2019, Civilization VI: Gathering Storm adds new advanced technologies, engineering projects, the fan-favorite World Congress, and introduces a living world ecosystem that showcases natural events that could enrich or challenge your growing empire. Civilization VI: Gathering Storm also adds eight new civilizations and nine new leaders, seven new World Wonders, and a variety of new units, districts, buildings, improvements and more.


I’m Ed Beach, Franchise Lead Designer for Civilization VI, and I’m going to take you through some of the exciting changes that you can expect with the upcoming expansion for Civilization VI.

History is full of rich stories of great empires, exploration, survival, and the human spirit. While we have always managed to capture a lot of this in the Civilization series, our story of human history was missing something without the impact that a changing planet has had on our settlements, and the imprints that we have left behind on Earth. This was the primary theme that we wanted to explore with Civilization VI: Gathering Storm.



With this expansion we’re unleashing the forces of nature to bring the world to life in a way that you’ve never seen before. We’ve always had Floodplains in the game, but I always found it disappointing that they were completely static. No longer! We’ve enlarged the floodable areas to include flat Grasslands and Plains tiles next to Rivers so these valleys can offer the potential of incredibly high yields. So you’ll still want to settle there -- but now doing so comes with real risk. Periodically each of these rivers will flood, damaging structures throughout the floodable tiles. But don’t worry, there’s an upside!  First, you can mitigate the effects with our new Dam district. And once you’ve rebuilt, the flood will have enhanced a number of those tiles with rich, fertile soil. I love the way this works out: throughout history civilizations have risen and flourished in dangerous places, like near volcanoes and in river valleys. Now you’ll experience those same high risk/high reward decisions as you plot out where to settle in your next Civilization campaign.

Another exciting new environmental effect is the addition of volcanoes. They offer some of the same risk/reward decisions as floods, with eruptions occurring periodically.  When you see the magma spilling down the side of one of these you know there’s going to be damage to adjacent tiles. However, the long term benefits are there with the yields provided by the volcanic soil left behind. We have also been able to use volcanoes to add a level of realism to our map generation. We’ve always had continents in Civilization VI, but the geology didn’t necessarily correspond to continental boundaries as you might expect. We’ve updated all that so you’ll find the Mountain ranges you expect along these continental divides, as well as Volcanoes and Geothermal Fissures. We’ve also taken the Volcanoes we already had in our Natural Wonder system and made them really powerful.

As we added more significance to these geographic features, we thought there should be a way to identify them. This inspired the addition of named features. So every time a new feature – river, volcano, mountain range, or desert – is discovered, it is named after the discovering civ. Now if Egypt starts on a River, that waterway will officially be designated as the Nile River. Of course, this gets tricky when a civ like the Netherlands discovers a Volcano – in that case, it will be named for a civ that isn’t in the current game. It ends up becoming an interesting geographic trivia game while you play. And the better you are with river and mountain names the more clues you get about which other civs may be present in this particular Civilization world.

During Gathering Storm development, we had floods and volcanoes working but we decided the world wouldn’t truly be alive without adding in some sort of weather system. So we added droughts and four different kinds of storms to spread the risk of succumbing to a natural disaster across the map. And we had fun adding in some of the historical impacts you might imagine storms would entail. So we now have hurricanes that can sink ships at sea, dust storms sweeping across the deserts and choking nearby cities, and blizzards in Russian terrain being particularly dangerous for invading armies. Though all storms can cause damage, Dust Storms and Hurricanes can be valuable in adding fertility to affected tiles.


But although the earth has thrown many challenges our way, mankind continues to adapt. The Dam district I mentioned above is one of the earliest historical examples of our work to harness the power and unpredictability of nature. Finishing a Dam in a city is great: it provides the city with a nice reservoir that boosts your Housing and Amenities. (Later in the game you can add a hydroelectric station to your Dam to generate clean electricity as part of the Power system added with Gathering Storm.)

Which brings us to something we know many fans are excited about - the addition of the Canal district. This is something we’ve seen asked for again and again, and we are excited to bring it to fruition in this expansion. There are actually three parts to this. First, we have taken our player’s existing use of cities on one-tile wide isthmuses (what our fans call “canal cities”) and officially recognized these features with the art on the map (which shows a navigable channel through these cities). The second part is the introduction of the Canal district. It’s another tile that provides navigation and since it can connect into cities you can actually use two of them around a city center to create a 3-tile wide path between bodies of water. But why stop there? Here on the Civilization VI team we have heard about “a man, a plan, a canal, Panama” so we felt it was pretty imperative to have a Panama Canal wonder. There’s an achievement in Gathering Storm for creating a full 7-tile navigable path using Canal districts, cities, and this wonder together.

And our civil engineering upgrades didn’t stop there.  You’ll find that with Gathering Storm you can also create both Mountain Tunnels and Railroads. Even more ways to bend the map to your will and make sure there are really efficient ways to get units and trade goods across your empires!


Of course things are not always that easy and there are some conflicts between mankind and our planet.  So introducing global warming and climate change made sense in an expansion focused on interactions with the planet. It is also mapped well to our goal to add depth to the second half of the game. We felt that a player shouldn’t be able to exist in a vacuum alongside the game world; rather we wanted a relationship between the two where every turn and every decision can have lasting – and global – impacts.

In Gathering Storm, you can use the Power system to improve the effectiveness of some of your late game buildings. There are strategic resources that can be burned for fuel – Coal, Uranium, Oil – but doing so will have an adverse effect on CO2 levels in the world and impact the Global Temperature of the planet. This increases the chances of flooding and storms, sea levels can rise, and may melt the polar ice caps. As you settle coastal cities, it’s important to keep an eye on their level of risk with rising sea levels, just in case you or your neighbors become reliant on Strategic resources for Power. But additional Research will provide alternative options – Geothermal energy, Wind Farms, Solar Farms, and more.



Many fans have asked for a Diplomatic Victory, and we couldn’t add that without adding some form of a World Congress, so we’ve added both. In Gathering Storm, Favor is a new form of currency to track your diplomatic goodwill. It serves as voting power in the World Congress so you can get the world community to adopt your ideas. On the other side, we’ve replaced the Warmonger score with Grievances. This acts as a tug-of-war between a pair of players – if you’ve ever been at the receiving end of a surprise attack and retaliated by taking a few cities, I think you’ll appreciate how this system has been updated. The other leaders are now likely to feel that such a countermove was entirely appropriate.

In the World Congress, you’ll be able to vote using Favor on Resolutions – congress-mandated rules that last until the next meeting of the World Congress. These are choices between positive and negative effects, and have specific targets. For example, you may vote to ban Furs or chopping Rainforests, or all players may choose to ban further building construction in a certain District. Favor is also useful to get the world community to sponsor global competitions – such as World Fairs, World Games, Disaster Relief, and Emergencies – and each of these competitions has a unique set of rewards.

So, how does it tie into the new Diplomatic Victory? Besides periodic votes for this role as world leader, granting points towards the victory condition, you can also receive points towards this victory from winning Disaster Relief competitions or Nobel Peace Prizes. You really will have to become the darling of the other leaders to win the game through this victory.



The design team was able to do something a little bit different in Gathering Storm, and added a new era of techs and civics including some speculative technologies. As we cannot predict the future, we decided that there would be no single path through this era, but instead these new branches of the trees would have a bit of randomization to them. I’m not ready to provide specifics just yet, but I can confirm that yes, we do have some new items unlocking in these late eras that spice up the present Science, Culture, and Domination Victories in fun new directions.


Clearly I can go on and on talking about the new systems in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention that we have a number of exciting new leaders and civilizations that we’ll be revealing over the coming months. We’re bringing back some fan favorites – with brand new twists that you may not expect – and of course we are introducing a few civs that are brand new to the series. As with every expansion, we wanted to make sure we had civs that tied into our new systems, so there will definitely be a couple that have interesting interactions with the new environmental mechanics, as well as with the World Congress.

This is just some of what’s to come in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm. We have a lot more to share before the expansion launches on February 14, 2019, so be sure to tune in to our livestreams and social channels to learn more.



Thanks, Ed! As you can see, Civilization VI: Gathering Storm is the largest expansion Firaxis Games has ever created for a Civilization game. We can’t wait to see what you all think when you get your hands on it. See below for the full features list:

• ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS: Volcanoes, storms (blizzards, sand storms, tornados, hurricanes), climate change, floods, and droughts.
• POWER AND CONSUMABLE RESOURCES: Strategic resources play an additional role in Gathering Storm. These resources are now consumed in power plants to generate electricity for your cities. Initially you’ll be powering your most advanced buildings by burning carbon-based resources like Coal and Oil, but renewable energy sources also unlock as you progress to current-day technologies. Your choices about resource usage will directly affect the world’s temperature and can cause melting ice caps and rising sea levels.
• ENGINEERING PROJECTS: Shape the world around your empire to overcome unfavorable land conditions by making improvements like canals, dams, tunnels and railroads. When settling cities, consider the flood risk to coastal lowland areas, but keep in mind that in the late-game, new technologies like Flood Barriers can be used to protect these tiles.
• WORLD CONGRESS: Make your voice heard among the other leaders of the world. Earn Diplomatic Favor through Alliances, influencing city-states, competing in World Games, and more. Use Diplomatic Favor to extract promises from other leaders, vote on Resolutions, call a Special Session to address an emergency, and increase the weight of your votes in your quest to achieve the new Diplomatic Victory.
• 21^st CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES & CIVICS:  A new era has been added to the Technology and Civics trees. Combat new environmental effects with speculative ideas such as relocating your population out to seasteads and developing technologies to recapture carbon emissions.
• NEW LEADERS AND CIVS:  Nine new leaders from eight new civilizations are introduced. Each brings unique bonuses and gameplay, as well as a total of nine unique units, four unique buildings, three unique improvements, two unique districts and one unique governor.
• NEW SCENARIOS:
  • The Black Death: The Black Death ravaged Europe and western Asia in the mid-14th century, killing a greater share of the population than any other event in world history. The pandemic killed millions, ruined economies, upended political dynasties and transformed the face of the Western world. Your task is to lead your nation through the calamity: keep your population alive, your economy strong, and your faith unshaken amidst a world of terror and desperation.
  • War Machine: At the outset of WWI, the German Imperial Army had a daring plan: invade neutral Belgium and then rush the French heartland before they could mobilize to resist. If successful, the German forces would capture Paris within a month and end their resistance forever. In counter, the French command prepared Plan 17, an all-out onslaught designed to meet and stop a German offensive. When war was declared, both armies swung into motion and set up one of the most incredible and shocking military campaigns in world history. In this scenario, players take the side of one of these two great powers at this same precipice. As Germany, your task is to capture Paris. As France, your task is to prevent its capture. The clock is ticking, and the enemy is moving. Advance!

• MORE NEW CONTENT: Seven new world wonders, seven natural wonders, 18 new units, 15 new improvements, 9 new buildings, 5 new districts, 2 new city sets, 9 new techs and 10 new civics have been added.
• IMPROVED GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS: The Espionage system has been enhanced with new options, the Culture and Science Victories have been updated, new Historic Moments have been added, and additional improvements have been made to other existing systems.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/947510/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_VI_Gathering_Storm/
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm will launch for Windows PC on February 14, 2019. Follow the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #OneMoreTurn, and be sure to follow the Civilization franchise on social media to keep up to date with the latest news and information on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.

           

XCOM: Enemy Unknown turns six years old on October 9. In the weeks leading up to its birthday, we'll be celebrating XCOM with a series of livestreams. Join us this week on Thursday, September 27 at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 7pm GMT, as Jake and Garth pull back the curtain for a behind-the-scenes look at XCOM, with Firaxis employees who have given years to our beloved series. If you're an XCOM fan, you don't want to miss this!


Be sure to follow XCOM on social media to keep up to date with the latest information. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for Inside Looks at new characters and enemies, features and insights from the development team!

           

https://store.steampowered.com/app/200510/XCOM_Enemy_Unknown/

XCOM: Enemy Unknown turns six years old on October 9. We're kicking off the celebration this Thursday at 8pm CET / 3pm ET / 12pm ET with the first in a series of XCOM retrospectives. Join Jake Solomon and other devs at twitch.tv/firaxisgames! We may even have a few surprises to come.


Be sure to follow XCOM on social media to keep up to date with the latest information. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for Inside Looks at new characters and enemies, features and insights from the development team!

           

Civilizations are not set in stone. You can’t just do all the hard work in the beginning then expect your culture to stand the test of time, unchallenged. It’s not like that in the real world – or in Civilization games. The expansion we’re announcing today, Civilization VI: Rise and Fall, adds new dynamic layers onto the game you’ve already been enjoying. On February 8th 2018, you will lead nations to golden ages. You will watch others buckle under their own weight. You will earn – or lose – the loyalty of your people. The question is, “How will you be remembered?”

http://store.steampowered.com/app/645402/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_VI_Rise_and_Fall/

I’m Anton Strenger, Lead Designer for Civilization VI: Rise and Fall, and today we’re revealing some of the big changes coming with this huge Civilization VI expansion. The biggest, over-arching goal: dynamic empires. Civilizations will rise and fall through the course of the game (as you probably figured out from the title). Borders will ebb and flow. Cities will change their loyalties.

As a secondary goal, Civilization VI: Rise and Fall includes more storytelling elements – Historic Moments – that highlight the interesting turning points in your civilizations. These events happen every time you play, making playthroughs unique, while also giving them meaning in the mechanics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOT9T15mkX0
SUBSCRIBE ➜ HTTP:/2KGAM.ES/CIVILIZATIONYT

Golden and Dark Ages are among the new events that can shift the course of your game’s history. They are significant, but temporary, changes to a civilization that last for an Era. They will open up new opportunities for players to change their strategies, and change the state of the game between the player and their rivals. Having a Golden Age affords huge bonuses to Loyalty and other game systems, but makes earning future Golden Ages slightly more difficult.

Having a Dark Age hurts Loyalty in your cities and makes you vulnerable, but gives you an opportunity to earn a future Golden Age more easily. It also allows the use of special Dark Age policies and opens the door for an even more powerful Heroic Age. Think of it this way: While a Golden Age provides one Dedication bonus (a powerful Golden Age effect), being in a Heroic Age lets the player earn three Dedication bonuses (making it sort of a “triple” Golden Age).

In the Civilization VI base game, we have the idea of a “player era” – how far a player has advanced on their tech or civics tree. In this expansion, systems are very much tied to the idea of the “game era,” which is determined by individual player advancement and a few other behind-the-scenes adjustments. Think of these game eras like chapters in a book. Each has its own arc, and its own small ending, but leaves you wanting to discover the rest of the story by continuing to the next chapter. When you enter a new game era you may earn a Golden Age or a Dark Age. Which one you get is determined by your Era Score in the previous game era, a score that is increased by fulfilling certain objectives.

So while your neighbor may have been in a Golden Age last era, they may enter a Dark Age this era, opening up an opportunity for you to change your strategy. The key effect of Golden and Dark Ages: they change the Loyalty of a player’s cities. As Ages change and weak spots are exposed in empires, cities can declare independence and even change hands to new owners.



The stakes of the new Loyalty system are huge because, at the extremes, it can flip control of entire cities to different players without military force. Low Loyalty in a city puts it at risk of rebelling and becoming a Free City. That, in turn, makes it a juicy target for other players looking to expand their own empire. Keeping your cities loyal not only keeps it on your side, but also emanates its Loyalty as a kind of “peer pressure” to other cities nearby. You could even sway cities from other civilizations to join you.

In previous Civilization games, there were ways to “Culture Flip” another player’s city without military intervention. We felt it was time to reexamine this non-militaristic way to change borders, and expand territory.

Loyalty also changes the landscape and strategy around the map as the game continues. What could have been an unchanging border between two civilizations in the base game becomes a contentious battleground of loyalties in the expansion, especially when Golden Ages or Dark Ages are involved.

Golden Ages and Dark Ages are a kind of loyalty bomb. In the best-case scenarios, triggering a Golden Age makes all of your citizens a little bit more loyal. Also, other cities nearby see the appeal of that civilization and may waver in their Loyalty to their current owner. The quickest and most direct way to boost Loyalty, though, is to send a Governor to the city.

In previous versions of Civilization, “governor” often referred to the AI behavior you could set for a city to act on your behalf. In this expansion, though, they are the opposite. Sending a Governor to a city is a way for the player to make an active decision about the development of one of their cities, and grow in a specific direction. Much like how districts operate in the base game, Governors are a way to specialize your cities. The difference: Governors have their own set of unique powerful bonuses and can move between controlled cities.

During a game, players can earn up to seven Governors. Each Governor has a different skill tree of promotions. We bent a lot of existing game rules to give them the power to make a difference in your cities.

Here’s how it works: You earn points (Governor Titles) through gameplay. Then you must choose whether to spend those points on appointing a new Governor or promoting an existing one. How you choose to manage your Governors will impact your overall strategy. Go wide by covering more cities, or go tall by promoting only a few powerful governors.

As for the Governors themselves, they have unique personalities – even before you start choosing which ones to upgrade. Some thrive in taking an already established city to the next level, building Wonders and powering up trade routes. Others are more suited to new cities that are constructing their first districts and claiming their first bits of land. One can be a savior during a city siege, and can make or break a city’s defense against a powerful attacking army. Though normally Governors can only work in your own cities, there is one that can be assigned to city-states, affecting the Envoys you have there. That said, none of the Governors are easily distilled into a single function.



Alliances within Civilization VI already offered a lot, but this expansion adds more nuance. Alliances in the base game often boiled down to a sort of guarantee that the other player would not interfere with your strategy by attacking you, but only rarely did it offer tangible benefits. So for Civilization: Rise and Fall we added more tangible incentives to Alliances. We’re encouraging players to band together for mutual benefit rather than merely non-interference. We’re also giving players more active and flavorful choices to make. Alliances now have a type – Research, Military, Economic, Cultural, or Religious – that determines their benefits. Moreover, as the Alliance continues, the Alliance itself levels up and unlocks more powerful bonuses. This encourages players to think in the long term and to invest in diplomacy.

Let me give you an example of how an Alliance can evolve over time, specifically a Research Alliance. At Level 1, both allies receive Science bonuses to their Trade Routes. But as the Alliance develops, powerful and unique effects come into play. At Level 2, both allies still receive their Science bonuses, but also receive 1 Tech Boost at a regular interval. Level 3 is all of the above, plus bonus Science when researching the same Technology, or a Technology your ally had already researched. These alliances are powerful enough that players are restricted to just one Alliance of each type at a time. But you and your Alliance partner can agree to change the type of your Alliance later in the game.

Emergencies are new with Civilization VI: Rise and Fall. Most Emergencies get triggered when one player gets a significant lead or advantage in an area. Converting a Holy City to a different religion, or using a nuclear weapon, for example. When triggered, the game determines which other players can join in an Emergency against the target and each player can choose to join or pass. Joining can give permanent benefits, but only if the players are able to complete an Emergency-specific objective against the target in time, otherwise the target gets a benefit instead.

They are a sort of checks-and-balances system. You see, there is a delicate balance to strike – making the game more dynamic and also ensuring it stays fair for players who have developed a strong lead. We’re adding challenges to players who’d get so far ahead of others that the game stagnated towards victory for them. We also did not want to artificially rubberband them down. Emergencies become a great way to attack this game-pacing problem. It also reveals the dynamic world stage for players that have more isolationist play styles. As Emergencies come up, they can be involved with them one way or another.

Fans of Civilization know that each game plays out in its own way, with its own unique story. With Civilization VI: Rise and Fall, we are bringing that story into the spotlight by adding more ways to track the progress of a player’s civilization than ever before.

So as players progress in Civilization: Rise and Fall, they earn Historic Moments. These are mini-achievements for doing cool things in the world (and there are over 100 of them in the game right now). They include things like circumnavigating the world, training your unique unit, founding a religion, and building districts with high adjacency bonuses. Many grant an even bigger bonus if you’re the “world’s first” civilization to make the achievement. These Historic Moments, taken together, form a story for your game with unique details tailored to your empire.

Historic Moments are represented two ways. First, they increase your Era Score, helping you achieve a Golden Age. Second, they are added to your Timeline, which is a place in the UI that displays all your accomplishments in a game. This Timeline has tons of custom illustrations for each different moment, and is a very cool representation of your empire’s history during your unique game. On a more practical note, it is also a useful way to remind yourself of what you have been up to if you return to a saved game after a few days away. Ultimately, the Timeline is a way to illustrate your story.



People often ask how we select new leaders and civilizations to include in expansions – and we have nine new leaders and eight new civilizations which will be revealed over the coming weeks with Civilization: Rise and Fall. Well, it is a collaborative process that involves the whole team from art and design to production and even our legal department. We also ask ourselves some core questions as we select potential leaders:

“Is this region of the world represented?”
“Is this time in history represented?”
“Is this represented/revered in previous Civilization games or totally new?”

We strive to have a diverse and varied selection of leaders, and it is also very important to us to include female leaders. Women are often underrepresented in traditional historical accounts, and recent scholarship has revealed more and more the fascinating and powerful women that lived between the lines of history textbooks. We also look for leaders whose history makes them particularly well-suited for a bonus related to new expansion systems.

As for balancing and trying to minimize power creep among those new leaders, we take a holistic look at the state of the game and how our leaders, new and old, stack up in it. Our QA department regularly gives us their evaluations of who is on top and who is on bottom, in their estimations of strength. We look at fan evaluations and rankings in this process, as well. We are not afraid to go back to leaders we have already finalized and rework their bonus entirely – so keep telling us what you think about leaders. We are always listening.

This is just the start of what’s coming in Civilization VI: Rise and Fall. We have lots more to share before this expansion releases on February 8, 2018 that we can’t wait to tell you about – starting with all the new leaders and civilizations you’ll get to rule.

Follow the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #OneMoreTurn, and be sure to follow the Civilization franchise on social media to keep up to date with the latest news and information on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.

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