8 essential keyboard shortcuts for faster civilization 6 gameplay

8 Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Faster Civilization 6 Gameplay

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In the world of Civilization 6, where empires are built and destroyed over thousands of years, every single second you save matters. While big-picture strategy is key, the simple act of playing the game—clicking through menus and units—can slow you down and pull you out of the zone. This is where mastering keyboard shortcuts stops being a minor convenience and becomes a real weapon.

I’m going to walk you through eight essential keyboard shortcuts that will completely change how you play Civilization 6. We’re going beyond the basics to see how these hotkeys can speed up your turns, streamline your management, and free up your brain to focus on what’s important: outsmarting your rivals. It’s time to break free from the mouse and take command.

Unlocking Your Empire’s Potential: The Foundational Shortcuts

Before we get into the more advanced hotkeys, you need to master the fundamentals. These are the shortcuts you’ll use every single turn, and getting them into your muscle memory is the first step to becoming a faster, more efficient player.

Our journey starts with the two most common actions in the game: managing cities and handling units. Clicking on each city or unit one by one is fine at the start, but it becomes a massive time-sink as your empire and armies grow. These first two shortcuts give you a much faster way to cycle through everything you own.

Being able to quickly check and manage your cities is vital for keeping your empire running smoothly. The city screen is where you’ll set production, manage citizens, and more. At the same time, moving your units with purpose is the key to both a strong defense and a winning offense. These shortcuts will let you do all of that with speed and precision.

1. The City Cycler: Instant Urban Management with ‘[’ and ‘]’

The heart of your empire is its cities. As you expand from one settlement to a sprawling network, managing each one can become a real chore. Clicking on every city banner to change production or manage citizens slows your turns to a crawl. That’s why the city cycling shortcuts, the left and right square brackets ([ and ]), are so essential.

These keys are your ticket to instant city management. Pressing ] jumps you to the next city in your empire, and [ cycles to the previous one. This simple function means you no longer have to scan the map or hunt for city banners. The ‘N’ key is also useful, as it cycles to the next city that needs a production order.

Example: Mid-Game Production Pivot

Imagine you’ve just unlocked Apprenticeship, giving you access to Industrial Zones. Your empire is spread out, and you want to build them everywhere to boost your production.

Without shortcuts, you’d have to:

  1. Zoom out and find your first city.
  2. Click the city banner.
  3. Select the Industrial Zone.
  4. Close the city view.
  5. Pan across the map to the next city.
  6. Repeat for every single city.

With the city cycler, the process is a breeze:

  1. Select any city and open the city view.
  2. Choose the Industrial Zone for production.
  3. Press ] to instantly snap to the next city. The city view stays open.
  4. Select the Industrial Zone there.
  5. Keep pressing ] to cycle through all your cities, queuing up Industrial Zones in seconds.

This doesn’t just save a huge amount of time; it keeps you focused on your strategy. You can quickly check on every city and make decisions without getting bogged down by the interface.

Strategic Implications:

The benefits go way beyond production. In a war, you can cycle through cities to quickly buy walls or queue up defensive units. When you unlock a new tech, you can instantly see which cities can build the new district. Mastering the city cycler is the first real step toward a faster, more commanding playstyle.

2. The Unit Navigator: Command Your Forces with ‘.’ and ‘,’

Just as the brackets streamline city management, the unit navigator keys—period (.) and comma (,)—give you a fast and efficient way to command your armies. As your empire grows, so does your unit count. Manually selecting every warrior, settler, and builder is tedious and can lead to mistakes, especially in the middle of a war.

These keys let you cycle through any unit that hasn’t been given an order yet this turn. Pressing . selects the next unit, while , selects the previous one. This ensures no unit is left idle and your entire force is working together.

Example: A Coordinated Multi-Front Assault

You’re in a critical war and have armies on two fronts, ready to attack. Your plan is to have your melee units capture a city while your archers provide covering fire.

Trying to manage this with clicks is a recipe for disaster:

  1. Find and click a melee unit on the first front.
  2. Give it an attack order.
  3. Pan the map to the next unit.
  4. Repeat for all melee units.
  5. Pan to the other front to find your archers.
  6. Click each one and give it a bombard order.

This chaotic process makes it easy to forget a unit or mess up the timing. The unit navigator turns that chaos into a symphony of destruction:

  1. Press . to select your first available unit, a warrior.
  2. Give its attack order.
  3. Press . again. The game jumps to the next unit needing a command, maybe an archer.
  4. Give its bombard order.
  5. Keep pressing . to seamlessly cycle through all your units on both fronts, issuing orders with a quick, decisive rhythm.

This method ensures every unit is accounted for and your attack is perfectly coordinated. You can maintain a view of the whole battlefield and make tactical adjustments on the fly.

Strategic Implications:

This is useful for everything. In the early game, quickly cycle through scouts to explore the map. Later, efficiently direct settlers to new city spots and tell your builders where to improve tiles. In the late game, when you have dozens of units, this becomes essential for managing complex naval invasions or multi-pronged attacks with a level of control you just can’t get with a mouse.

3. The Lens System: X-Ray Vision for Strategic Planning (1-0 Keys)

Civilization 6 has layers of strategic information hidden beneath the map, from city loyalty to tile appeal. The lens system lets you peel back those layers to see what’s really going on. While you can access them through the minimap, using the number keys (1-0) unlocks their true power.

Each number key toggles a specific information overlay, giving you a kind of “x-ray vision” to make smarter decisions about where to settle, where to place districts, and how to manage resources.

Here are the default lens hotkeys:

  • 1: Settler Lens: Shows the best spots for new cities (based on water, resources, etc.).
  • 2: Appeal Lens: Shows tile appeal, crucial for National Parks and some wonders.
  • 3: Political Lens: Shows who owns what and who is allied with whom.
  • 4. Loyalty Lens: Highlights city loyalty, essential for preventing rebellions.
  • 5. Government Lens: Shows every civilization’s current government.
  • 6. Religion Lens: Shows the religious pressure on every tile.
  • 7. Continent Lens: Differentiates the continents, important for era score.
  • 8. Tourism Lens: Shows your tourism flow for a Cultural Victory.
  • 9. Empire Lens: Gives a clear overview of your empire’s borders.
  • 0: Water/Sewerage Lens: Shows which cities have fresh water access.

Example: The Perfect National Park Placement

You’re going for a Cultural Victory and need to build a National Park. This requires a diamond of four tiles owned by the same city, all with “Breathtaking” appeal. Checking each tile’s appeal manually would be a nightmare.

This is where the Appeal Lens (2) is your best friend:

  1. Press the 2 key.
  2. The map instantly changes, color-coding every tile by its appeal. Bright green is high, red is low.
  3. You can now scan your land for a diamond-shaped cluster of four green tiles.

This lets you find the perfect spot in seconds, a task that could take minutes of tedious clicking.

Strategic Implications:

The lens system is useful for any victory type. For a Domination Victory, use the Loyalty Lens (4) to find weakly-held enemy cities ripe for flipping. For a Religious Victory, the Religion Lens (6) is indispensable for tracking the spread of your faith. The Settler Lens (1) is incredibly powerful in the early game for picking the best city locations. By using these hotkeys, you’ll start to see the hidden opportunities all over the map.

4. The Action Bar: Instant Access to Unit Abilities (A, F, H, etc.)

Every unit has special actions, from a builder building a farm to a Giant Death Robot firing its laser. These actions are usually accessed by clicking small icons in the unit’s action panel. This is functional, but slow, especially when you need to give a series of commands quickly. Action bar hotkeys are a much more direct way to command your units.

While not every action has a hotkey, many of the most common ones do. Learning them lets you manage your units with a speed the mouse can’t match.

Some of the most useful hotkeys include:

  • A: Alert: Fortifies a unit until it spots an enemy.
  • F: Fortify: Fortifies a unit, increasing its defense.
  • H: Heal: Fortifies a unit until it’s fully healed.
  • R: Ranged Attack: Initiates a ranged attack.
  • B: Build: Opens the build menu for a builder.
  • S: Sleep: Puts a unit to sleep so it isn’t auto-selected.

Example: A Desperate Defensive Stand

Your capital is under siege. Your front line is a mix of wounded melee units and a few archers. Every action is critical.

The click-heavy way to handle this is a frantic scramble:

  1. Click a wounded warrior.
  2. Click the “Fortify until Healed” button.
  3. Click an archer.
  4. Click the “Ranged Attack” button.
  5. Select a target.
  6. Repeat for all units while your city’s health plummets.

Action bar hotkeys let you respond with calm efficiency:

  1. Select a wounded warrior.
  2. Press H to instantly set it to heal.
  3. Press . to cycle to your archer.
  4. Press R to initiate a ranged attack and click the target.
  5. Continue cycling through units with . and issuing commands with hotkeys (F for fortify, A for alert).

This streamlined workflow can be the difference between holding the line and losing the city.

Strategic Implications:

These hotkeys are especially great for managing builders. Instead of clicking the “Build” icon every time, just press B. For military units, mastering these is key for tactical combat. The ability to quickly fortify, heal, and fire gives you a huge edge. Combine these with the unit navigator keys (. and ,) and you have a powerful system for commanding your armies.

5. The Production Queue: Master Multi-Turn Planning with Shift + Click

As your cities grow, managing their build queues becomes more complex. Just selecting one item at a time is inefficient and can leave a city idle for a turn. The production queue, accessed by holding Shift while selecting items, is a game-changer that lets you plan your city’s development turns in advance.

By holding Shift and clicking on multiple items, you create a queue that your city will work through automatically. This lets you set up a long-term plan and then focus on other things.

Example: The New City Development Plan

You’ve just founded a new city. You want it to build a monument, a granary, and a builder to get it up and running.

Without the queue, you’d have to go back to the city screen every few turns to select the next item. With the production queue, you can set it all up at once:

  1. Open the new city’s view.
  2. Hold down the Shift key.
  3. Click on the Monument.
  4. Click on the Granary.
  5. Click on the Builder.

The city will now build those three items in order. You can leave it alone for the next dozen turns and focus on more pressing matters.

Strategic Implications:

The production queue is incredibly versatile. You can use it to create a steady stream of military units during a war or to queue up all the buildings needed to integrate a conquered city. For a Science Victory, you can queue up all the spaceport projects in order, ensuring a smooth path to victory. Using the production queue elevates your city management from a turn-by-turn task to a long-term strategic endeavor.

6. Force End Turn: Seize the Initiative with Shift + Enter

Sometimes, you’ve made all your important moves, but the game won’t let you end the turn. A scout has one movement point left, or a city needs a production choice you want to put off. These are frustrating little roadblocks. The “Force End Turn” shortcut, Shift + Enter, is your way to break through them.

While Enter only works after all actions are taken, Shift + Enter immediately ends your turn, no matter what. This has a huge impact on gameplay, letting you maintain momentum and even gain a tactical advantage.

Example: The Preemptive Strike

You’re at war, and your spies reveal an enemy is a few turns from finishing a wonder that will give them a military boost. You want to attack at the very start of their turn, before they can react.

You’ve moved your main army, but a scout across the map still has movement points. If you press Enter, the game will jump to that scout, giving your opponent time to see your army and prepare.

By using Shift + Enter, you bypass that and end your turn immediately. Your attack will be the first thing that happens on their turn, catching them completely off guard.

Strategic Implications:

This shortcut is a powerful tool for any player who values speed. In the late game, when you have dozens of units, being able to quickly end your turn after making critical moves saves a lot of time. It’s also great for saving Great People for the perfect moment.

Use it with caution, though. By bypassing the game’s reminders, you might forget to move a critical unit. It’s a tool for when you’re sure you’ve done everything important and speed is what matters most.

7. The Civilopedia Search: Instant Knowledge at Your Fingertips with F9

Civilization 6 is a massively complex game. The Civilopedia is your in-game encyclopedia, but navigating its menus to find what you need is a pain. The Civilopedia search hotkey, F9, is your direct line to this knowledge.

Pressing F9 instantly opens the Civilopedia with the cursor already in the search bar. You can immediately type what you’re looking for and get an answer in seconds.

Example: Evaluating a New Unique Unit

You’re playing as Rome and just unlocked the Legion. You want to know its exact stats and abilities.

The old way:

  1. Click the Civilopedia icon.
  2. Click the “Units” tab.
  3. Scroll through the long list to find the Legion.
  4. Click it to see the details.

With the hotkey:

  1. Press F9.
  2. Type “Legion” and press Enter.

The Civilopedia instantly shows you the entry for the Legion, giving you all the info you need.

Strategic Implications:

This is essential for players of all skill levels. New players can quickly learn the game’s mechanics. Experienced players can use it for theory-crafting. Unsure about a policy card? F9. Facing a new enemy unit? F9 to find its weaknesses. In a game as complex as Civ 6, knowledge is power, and F9 is how you unlock it.

8. Quick Save/Load: Your Safety Net and Experimental Sandbox with F5 and F6

In a high-stakes game like Civilization 6, one misclick can spell disaster. The quick save (F5) and quick load (F6) hotkeys are your best friends, letting you instantly save your progress and revert to it just as fast.

This isn’t just a safety net for mistakes; it’s a powerful tool for experimentation. I use it constantly to test battle strategies. If an attack plan fails, I just hit F6, and it’s like it never happened. I can try a different approach without any consequences.

This is especially useful when you’re about to make a big, risky decision, like declaring a surprise war or attempting to capture a heavily defended city. Hit F5 before you commit. If it goes badly, a quick F6 gives you a do-over.

By using quick save and quick load, you can play more boldly and learn the game’s mechanics faster. It encourages you to experiment and find creative solutions without the fear of ruining a 10-hour game. It’s your personal time machine and one of the most powerful tools you have.