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City-States: Bonuses and Quests

What each type of city-state gives you, and every quest they hand out — from Unciv's data.

01

Conclusion

City-states come in 5 types, and each gives a bonus when you're their friend and a bigger one when you're their ally. Influence comes mainly from quests, gifts and trade missions.

Reading the bonuses side by side, culture and faith city-states roughly double their bonus at ally level and grow it with each era, Maritime ones feed your capital (and all cities as an ally), and Mercantile allies hand you a unique luxury.

An analysis-based guide: this guide is based on our analysis of Unciv's CityStateTypes and Quests data files. It describes what the data shows and is not a guarantee of results.
02

City-State Types and Bonuses

TypeFriend bonusAlly bonus
Cultured
  • +3 Culture (before the Medieval era)
  • +6 Culture (starting from the Medieval era) (before the Industrial era)
  • +13 Culture (starting from the Industrial era)
  • +6 Culture (before the Medieval era)
  • +12 Culture (starting from the Medieval era) (before the Industrial era)
  • +26 Culture (starting from the Industrial era)
Maritime
  • +2 Food in capital
  • +2 Food in capital
  • +1 Food in all cities
Mercantile
  • +2 Happiness (before the Medieval era)
  • +3 Happiness (starting from the Medieval era)
  • +2 Happiness (before the Medieval era)
  • +3 Happiness (starting from the Medieval era)
  • Provides a unique luxury
Militaristic
  • Provides military units every ≈20 turns
  • Provides military units every ≈17 turns
Religious
  • +3 Faith (before the Medieval era)
  • +6 Faith (starting from the Medieval era) (before the Industrial era)
  • +13 Faith (starting from the Industrial era)
  • +6 Faith (before the Medieval era)
  • +12 Faith (starting from the Medieval era) (before the Industrial era)
  • +26 Faith (starting from the Industrial era)
03

Quests

QuestWhat it asksInfluenceTurnsKind
RouteBuild a road to connect your capital to our city.50——
Clear Barbarian CampWe feel threatened by a Barbarian Camp near our city. Please take care of it.50—Contest (best civ wins)
Connect ResourceIn order to make our civilizations stronger, connect tileResource to your trade network.40——
Construct WonderWe recommend you to start building wonder to show the whole world your civilization strength.40——
Acquire Great PersonGreat People can change the course of a Civilization! You will be rewarded for acquiring a new greatPerson.40——
Conquer City StateIt's time to erase the City-State of cityState from the map. You will be greatly rewarded for conquering them!80——
Find PlayerYou have yet to discover where civName set up their cities. You will be rewarded for finding their territories.35——
Find Natural WonderSend your best explorers on a quest to discover Natural Wonders. Nobody knows the location of naturalWonder yet.40——
Give GoldWe are suffering great poverty after being robbed by civName, and unless we receive a sum of Gold, it's only a matter of time before we collapse.2030—
Pledge to ProtectWe need your protection to stop the aggressions of civName. By signing a Pledge of Protection, you'll confirm the bond that ties us.2030—
Contest CultureThe civilization with the largest Culture growth will gain a reward.4030Contest (best civ wins)
Contest FaithThe civilization with the largest Faith growth will gain a reward.4030Contest (best civ wins)
Contest TechnologiesThe civilization with the largest number of new Technologies researched will gain a reward.4030Contest (best civ wins)
InvestOur people are rejoicing thanks to a tourism boom. For a certain amount of time, any Gold donation will yield 50% extra Influence.030Contest (best civ wins)
Bully City StateWe are tired of the pretensions of cityState. If someone were to put them in their place by Demanding Tribute from them, they would be rewarded.4030—
Denounce CivilizationWe have been forced to pay tribute to civName! We need you to tell the world of their ill deeds.4030—
Spread ReligionWe have heard the tenets of religionName and are most curious. Will you send missionaries to teach us about your religion?40——

Influence “40” means the quest uses the default reward. “Contest” quests reward the civilization that does best over the period. Data from the game's own files (Civ V: Gods & Kings ruleset that ships with Unciv), read from the source at the commit of 2026-10-02. Updates and mods can change these numbers.

04

FAQ

Which civs focus on city-states?

Greece, Siam, Austria and Sweden all have city-state abilities; see Civilizations. The Patronage policy branch helps too.

How do I keep influence from dropping?

Influence decays over time; Greece halves the decay and Patronage reduces it by 25%.

Can I take a city-state over?

Austria can buy allied city-states; anyone can conquer them, though some quests reward the opposite.

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