Civilization 6 June 2020 Update Out Now, Here's What It Does

Last week, developer Firaxis Games detailed some of the changes and new content that would be included in Civilization 6's June 2020 update. Now, that update has gone live, and indeed it features a host of balance changes, fixes, and more. For players that would like a better understanding of exactly what Civ 6's June update does, full details are as follows.

To start, Religion gets a lot of attention in this new Civilization 6 update, as a myriad of beliefs have been changed and two new ones have even been added. One of the immediate standouts among all of this appears to be a change that was made to the Work Ethic belief, which now causes a Holy Site's Faith adjacency bonus to provide Production as well. This certainly has the potential to be extremely powerful, and fans can find all of the belief changes in the patch notes at the bottom of this article.

Additionally, three Natural Wonders have been improved in Civ 6's June 2020 update, which should definitely make settling near them more desirable. Specifically, the Eye of Sahara now has a +2 Production, +1 Science base yield, Yosemite now has +1 Food, and the Cliffs of Dover now give adjacent tiles +4 Appeal. Time will tell if these buffs are enough to make the Eye of Sahara and Cliffs of Dover more than bottom-of-the-barrel Natural Wonders, but they are certainly steps in the right direction.

Finally, the Civilization 6 June update marks the beginning of Red Death Season 2 for PC players. This new season adds two new playable factions, Aliens and Zombies, to the game mode and also grants unique abilities to all factions. Again players can find all of the details on Red Death Season 2 in the Civ 6 June 2020 patch notes below.

To note, in last week's update overview Firaxis did indicate that a number of changes were going to be made to the Diplomatic Victory condition, which was added in Civilization 6's Gathering Storm expansion. However, those changes are not to be found in the June patch notes, and thus it seems that players will need to wait for a future update to address that sixth victory type.

Civilization 6 June 2020 Patch Notes

NEW FEATURES

Red Death - Season 2 (PC Only)

New Playable Factions

Aliens – They’ve always been here… watching from the shadows - The Alien faction specializes in camouflage technology allowing them to turn invisible and ambush their enemies or escape dangerous situations. They also have health regeneration upping their survivability in any given skirmish.
Zombies – Civilization’s undead rise for humanity’s final moments - The Zombie faction replaces all combat units with Zombie Hordes. These units can’t heal normally and take damage over time. Zombie Hordes instead will heal and gain additional Zombie units when an enemy unit is defeated or by exploring City Ruins, Raider Camps, and Supply Drops.

Faction Unique Abilities - Every faction, both old and new, has been outfitted with a unique ability.

Aliens – Xenological Camouflage: All units can use Xenological Camouflage to become invisible to most units. Adjacent enemy units can see Camouflaged units. Initiating an attack deactivates Camouflage.
Cultists – The Undying Eye: Cultists start the game with a crippled GDR. The GDR starts damaged and does not heal or gain experience normally. The GDR instead earns promotions when units sacrifice themselves to it. These promotions can then be used to return the GDR to full operation status.
Borderlords – Grieving Gift: Deploy a fake supply drop to a given location on the next turn. If another player pops the supply drop, it triggers an explosion at that location.
Jocks – Hail Mary: Small tactical nuke that can be launched from any combat unit. Has a smaller blast radius of 1 hex.
Mutants – Radiant Personalities: Mutants that start their turn in the Red Death absorb 8 Radiation Charges per turn. They spread Red Death to non-Red Death hexes automatically for 1 Radiation Charge per hex. Mutant units do not take fallout damage from mutant spread Red Death.
Preppers – Improvised Traps: Units can build the Improvised Trap that causes damage and the loss of a movement point to any unit that moves onto it. Preppers get 5 Improvised Traps per visit to an unexplored City Ruins, Raider Camp, and Supply Crate. Improvised Traps are invisible to non-Prepper factions.
Pirates – Buried Treasure: Pirates start the game with a Treasure Map to a buried treasure location indicated on their minimap. When a pirate unit of that player reaches the treasure location, the pirate is granted a unit and a new treasure map.
Mad Scientists – Defensive Inertial Shielding: All units can deploy shielding that provides a +10 combat strength while defending. While shielded, the unit has immunity to WMD Blast, Red Death, and Water Poisoning Damage
Wanderers – Road Vision: Grants active visibility on all previously revealed terrain.
Zombies - Barely Weaponized Zombies (Passive): Killing a non-zombie enemy unit creates more Zombie Hordes. Zombie Hordes do not suffer combat penalties when damaged. City Ruins, Raider Camps, and Supply Drops grant additional Zombie Hordes instead of traditional units.

Observer Mode – Upon defeat, players can now activate Observer Mode to watch the remainder of the match. Chat from players using Observer Mode will be hidden to remaining players.

You hear that? That’s the wasteland wind. Civilization VI’s narrator joins the Red Death as game commentator!

Additional quality of life and AI improvements implemented.

Kick Voting

Players now have the option to boot uncivilized players from their multiplayer games. A vote can be initiated through the in-game chat panel.

BALANCE/POLISH

Items in the list below apply to the Gathering Storm ruleset only.

Natural Wonders

Eye of Sahara: +2 Production and +1 Science base yield while still providing +3 Science and +1 Production once the game reaches the Atomic Era.
Yosemite: Additional +1 Food while still providing +1 Gold, +1 Science, and +2 Appeal to adjacent tiles.
Cliffs of Dover: +4 Appeal to adjacent tiles and still provides +3 Culture and +2 Gold for land tiles. (Before just+2 Appeal.)

Religion/Beliefs

(NEW) Sacred Places – Founder: +2 Science, Culture, Gold and Faith for each city following this Religion that has a World Wonder.
(NEW) Holy Waters – Enhancer: Increases Healing of your religious units by +10 in Holy Site districts belonging to cities with your majority religion, or any adjacent tiles.
Lady of the Reed and Marshes – Pantheon: +2 Production from Marsh, Oasis, and Desert Floodplains. (Before just +1 Production from Marsh, Oasis, and Desert Floodplains.)
Dar-e Mehr – Worship: This building is no longer pillaged by Environmental Effects. Still provides +3 Faith and +1 additional Faith for each Era since constructed or last repaired.
Gurdwara – Worship: Grants +1 Housing, +3 Faith, and +2 Food. (Before just +3 Faith and +2 Food.)
Pagoda – Worship: +3 Faith and +1 Favor (Before +3 Faith and +1 Housing)
Feed the World – Follower: Shrines and Temple provide +3 Food and +2 Housing each. (Before Shrines and Temples provided Food equal to their Faith output.)
Religious Community – Follower: International Trade Routes provide +1 Gold for every Temple and Shrine in the origin city. (Before Shrines and Temples each provided +1 Housing.)
Warrior Monks – Follower: Spending Faith to train Warrior Monks. Also, Culture Bomb adjacent tiles when completing a Holy Site. (Before only allowed spending to train Warrior Monks.)
Work Ethic – Follower: Holy Site district’s Faith adjacency bonus provides production as well. (Before just +1% Production for each follower up to 15%)
Church Property – Founder: Removed
Cross-Cultural Dialogue - Founder: +1 Science for every 4 followers. (Before +1 Science for every 5 followers of this Religion in other civilizations.)
Pilgrimage – Founder: +2 Faith for each city following this Religion. (Before +2 Faith for every city following this religion in other civilizations and City-States.)
Tithe – Founder: +3 Gold for each city following the Religion. (Before +1 Gold for every 4 followers of this Religion.)
World Church – Founder: +1 Culture for every 4 followers of this Religion. (Before +1 Culture for every 5 followers of this Religion in other civilizations.)
Burial Grounds – Enhancer: Removed