Hey Civ fans! We've got a new Dev Diary covering a brand new system coming to Sid Meier's Civilization VII – Legends and Mementos! Over the last few weeks, eagle-eyed viewers and sharp listeners may have picked up on a few things about this all-new system; Firaxis' Matt Owens is here to take you through all the juicy details. As always, we look forward to hearing from you across Civilization VII community forums and our social channels!
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Heya folks! My name is Matt Owens, Senior Game Designer at Firaxis Games, and I'm super excited to talk to you about Legends and Mementos! Compared to a lot of our homegrown heroes at the studio, I'm a fresh face – so it's with some serious excitement that I get to introduce a pretty unique new addition to not just Civilization VII, but the franchise overall.
The Legends System, which we refer to as Legends in the shorthand, is what we call a "meta progression" system. The "meta" part comes into play because unlike standard progression systems, which are usually tied to the immediate mechanics and goals of the game, meta progression systems are a means of tracking and rewarding progress across multiple playthroughs for the overall game.
Before we get too far into how this system works, let's first cover the history of these systems in Civ and talk about why we created Legends in the first place!
Why Does Civ Need Meta Progression?
Technically speaking, there have been hints of a meta progression system in past Civ games. For example, we added the Hall of Fame as part of the Gathering Storm expansion for Civilization VI, which included trackers for things like basic stats, what leaders you have and haven't played as, and what victories you've won. For completionists, it was a nice little checklist to ensure you've marked off all the major boxes – but for most players, the Hall of Fame may have been something you completely missed or never felt the need to pay attention to.
As Ed shared in the very first Dev Diary, many of the big changes coming to Civilization VII are designed to solve the issue that many players don't finish their campaigns. Ages, our biggest new feature, helps solve this issue by dividing what used to be a very lengthy continuous campaign into a more digestible three-part act, resulting in improved game pace and providing solutions for things like snowballing. Legends take this idea one step further; our goal with meta progression is to naturally reward you for playing the game how you want to play it. With Legends, we have three big objectives:
- Make Losing Fun. For newcomers especially, Civ can be tough! A few errant choices and 100 turns later, you might be faced with crushing defeat that no amount of save-scumming can undo. We absolutely want to celebrate and track your every victory, but we also want to offer some level of reward and encouragement for all the cool things you did even during a rough loss – to make it just a little bit more fun to play out a losing hand, tell that story, and still want to come back for more.
- One More Age. By providing interesting new unlocks at the end of a game, we're hoping players not only feel better rewarded for the effort of closing things out – but also have a compelling reasoning to explore and experiment with exciting new options.
- Encourage Broader Play. With more than 30 civs, dozens of leaders, and a metric ton of strategies to employ, it can feel intimidating to know where to start, keep track of where you've been, or shuffle too far outside your comfort zone. By offering just a little extra encouragement for people to explore the full breadth of what Civ has on offer this time around, there's a chance they'll find exciting new ways to play that they might not have otherwise stumbled upon.
With all that at the full forefront of our frontal lobes, we started to plan out the core of the Legends System, in the form of Paths & Challenges.
Legend Paths and Challenges
To start things off, we have Paths. Like an RPG character, you level up Paths over the course of your Civilization VII games. They're used to track each Path's Legend Level, check how close you are to the next, see what kind of unlocks you've already received, plus preview what's to come. There are two types of Paths:
- Foundation Path, leveled up by playing Civilization VII with any leader you like, maxing out at level 50
- Leader Path, leveled up by playing as individual leaders, with each leader having their own distinct 10-level track
To level up each Path, you need to earn Legend XP through Challenges. Just like Paths, there are Foundation Challenges and Leader Challenges – quests and objectives for completion. By accessing the Challenges Log, you'll be able to see a breakdown of all the different leaders, categories, and accomplishments you've achieved, or still have on the docket. Of note, completing Challenges is the only way to earn Legend XP and contribute to each Path.
Rewards and Mementos
So what do you actually get for leveling up across the Foundation Path and Leader Paths? As I mentioned earlier, our goal with Legends is to naturally reward you for playing the game how you want to play it. We wanted to strike a balance of providing rewards that feel meaningful, but aren't so essential that you may feel forced to engage in the system. Thus, we have two main categories of rewards that you can earn: Cosmetic Collectibles and Mementos.
For Cosmetic Collectibles – no, we aren't talking about letting your leaders wear a variety of funny hats. These are light-touch rewards within the Customize screen, allowing you to modify a neat Player Card with a few unique elements. Those elements include Badges, Banners, and Titles, as well as Borders and Background Colors for your most recently played leader.
Your Player Card will appear on the main menu and will be shown off to other players in places like the Multiplayer lobby. Plus, the Customize screen itself serves as a nice trophy case of your shiny achievements, letting you know exactly how and where to unlock each and every one of the collectibles not fully yet within your grasp.
Mementos, on the other hand, are probably the biggest addition earned through Legends. Essentially, Mementos are equipment that you can attach to your leader's open Memento Slots during game setup. Like a piece of gear on an RPG character, Mementos provide a broad array of bonus effects when equipped.
Every leader has a maximum of two Memento slots, and with nearly 100 unique Mementos you can earn, Civilization VII is ripe with opportunities to experiment between leader, civ, and Memento combinations. Here's a few examples of what you might find:
- Unlocked at level 2 of the Foundation Path, the Complaint to Ea-nāṣir provides a straightforward +1 Economic Attribute point for you to spend right at game start.
- Unlocked at level 2 of Harriet Tubman's Leader Path, the Lantern provides a free Migrant Unit in your Capital for every successful undetected Espionage action you complete.
- Unlocked at level 5 of the Foundation Path, the Sword of Brennus grants you bonus Gold per Age for every Settlement you mercifully return to the vanquished in a Peace Deal. Vae victis!
One thing to keep in mind: while Mementos earned by leveling up a particular Leader Path might have natural synergies with their historical owner's core abilities, you can actually assign any Memento with any leader. This means that after earning the Joyeuse Memento with Charlemagne, you could start up a new game as Ashoka with the Frankish Emperor's legendary gold-hilted sword at your side. This allows the Joyeuse's 'Increased Happiness per Cavalry Unit' effect to synergize nicely with Ashoka's inherent Dhammaraja Leader Ability which grants bonus Food by way of excess Happiness!
A last note on Mementos – yes, you can use them during Multiplayer matches, and yes, you can disable the use of Mementos for all players during Multiplayer!
What the Legends System is Not
Some natural questions that Civ fans might ask is whether Legends are similar to something like a Battle Pass, whether you can purchase Mementos, if you can speed up Path progress by paying real money, or if you can buy any type of virtual currency.
The answer to all those questions is NO. With exception to certain cosmetic items that come bundled with different Editions of the game (like those found in Founders Edition), Legend Paths and Mementos are an inherent part of Civilization VII. All the rewards will be earned purely and only by playing the game – doing things that come natural to most players anyway.
Build the Pyramids as Egypt? That's progress. Fulfill the Military Legacy Path in Antiquity as Rome? Easy progress. The Paths themselves are always there with no time limit, no expiration date, or FOMO; just tracking the cool things you do with different leaders across your playthroughs, and giving you cool stuff along the way.
Final Words
Legends is our attempt to recognize, in a comparatively miniscule fashion, the tremendous time, effort, and care so many Civ fans have already shown these games over the course of a truly unfathomable number of campaigns. It's our way of saying thanks for playing the heck out of Civ.
As we get ever closer to the launch of Civilization VII, fans should know that this is a game we plan to support well beyond the February 11, 2025 launch. As the game grows, so too will Legends, as new Paths, new Challenges, and new Rewards open up for every new leader we add post-launch – plus new Challenges where it makes sense for new civs and more.
We'll be taking a close outlook at exactly how you end up using all of your Mementos, and we have plans to introduce some new elements to keep that space fresh. Like we mentioned before – this is a new space for Civ, and we want to build this system along with the Civ community to make it feel yours.
But for now, that's the long and short of the Legends System. Not too much longer until Civilization VII thunders down into your hands – can't wait to see you all in the game!
