Many Civilization 7 players will sooner or later feel the urge to use cheats to test some mechanics, simplify the game for themselves, or just experiment. That's why it's important to know what cheats exist for Civilization 7 and how to enable the debug menu to activate them.

What are cheats for Civilization 7

Cheats in Civilization 7 are special commands or third-party software that allow you to unlock necessary functions in the game, grant yourself more in-game currency and resources, reveal the entire map, upgrade various structures, and so on.

It should be understood that the game does not have a basic concept of cheats (a typical set of letters/numbers that results in the desired functionality or material). However, there is a built-in debug menu that allows you to unlock and enable some cheat functions. For more functionality, you need third-party software that will allow you to increase currency or gain other unfair advantages.

How to enable the debug console in Civilization 7

Before activating the debug console, it's recommended to back up the AppOptions.txt file so you can restore the original settings if needed. After that, follow these steps to activate the debug menu:

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder:

C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Local\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier’s Civilization VII

2. Find the file AppOptions.txt and open it with a text editor, such as Notepad++.

3. Find the following line:

;EnableDebugPanels -1

4. Remove the semicolon (;) at the beginning and replace -1 with 1 to make it look like this:

EnableDebugPanels 1

5. Save the file and close the text editor.

6. Launch Civilization 7 and press the tilde (~) (or apostrophe ('), depending on your keyboard layout) to open the debug console.

After this, the debug menu will become available, and you can change various game parameters without needing to enter additional commands.

How to use cheats in Civilization 7

Once you open the debug console, a panel with various parameters and tabs will appear on the screen. Instead of entering traditional cheat codes, Civilization 7 offers built-in buttons and checkboxes that allow you to customize certain aspects of the game.

Main cheats and commands in the debug console

These options are particularly useful for players who want to explore territory faster, quickly find resources and enemies, or just experiment with different civilizations and strategies.

Additional ways to use cheats in Civilization 7

While the debug console provides access to several useful tools, game modification (mods) and trainers open up even more possibilities for customizing the gameplay. The popular mod Ea-Nasir’s Cheat Tablet adds additional cheat functions, including:

• Unlocking all leader abilities.
• Access to all Memento Bonuses.
• Enabling unique political bonuses.
• Activating unique civilization abilities.

To use this mod, it needs to be installed by copying the files to the Mods folder in the game. After installation, activate the mod in the Additional Content > Mods menu, ensuring it is enabled. Future updates are expected to add even more features, including unique units and buildings.

You can also use third-party programs, such as Cheat Engine to speed up the gameplay and increase in-game currency or resources. Trainers work similarly to the debug menu. Simply download the desired cheat, run it and the game. After that, activate the necessary cheats by checking them in the program or pressing the required activation buttons (usually NUM 0 — NUM 9 numbers on the keyboard).

These cheats provide the following functions:

• Infinite health
• Infinite speed
• Infinite attack power
• Lots of experience
• Fast construction
• Instant research
• Sets the required influence size
• Sets the required gold size