A great guide to religions: how to raise faith, spread it to other territories, a list of all religious principles and the selection of the best
As you progress through the Humankind story campaign, you will eventually understand the value of religion. If you focus on faith and various dogmas, you can get many followers. In turn, they will provide you with a huge number of different bonuses.
Better Principles and Increasing Followers
Religion in Humankind appears after your population increases to 10 people. You will receive a message with information on the basics of religion. You have two options:
- Polytheism– +5 Faith per the number of annexed territories.
- Shamanism– +1 Faith for each inhabitant of the empire.
Benefits can be derived from any option, although the final choice should depend on how you expand your empire. For example, if you select Harappans during the Ancient Era, then the bonus food will lead to an increase in the population, that is, in this case, the choice of “Shamanism” will be relevant.
Eventually, as you build faith from various sources (such as holy sites, civil society, or cultural miracles), your citizens will begin to follow the state religion. This has a snowball effect, as more people following your religion will help it spread faster. At first, these will be cities with holy places (or miracles that act as holy places).
Then religious pressure will spread to all the annexed and adjacent territories. The next thing to know is neighboring empires whose outposts and cities were too distant, or those whose holdings are less densely populated, will complain that your faith extends to their lands. This can give rise to claims and demands leading to military conflict.
The civil movement “Godlessness” offers two options – secularism and state atheism. Both options make it impossible for you to impose a state religion, build holy places, and choose dogmas.
Religious principles
Having high faith and religious followers allows you to unlock various religious tenets. Religious principles or doctrines in Humankind are broken down into levels, and you can only choose one for each. Be careful, as the principles chosen by the AI will no longer be available to you! And vice versa.
The dogmas and principles of the first level of faith:
- Avoid Gluttony – +5 money for depositing luxurious resources
- Be in harmony with nature – +2 to stability on rivers
- Don’t steal – +1 influence in the mountains
- Defeat unbelievers – +25 experience when training units, -1 to the cost of maintaining units
- Eliminate Idleness – +2 food in coastal waters and lakes
- Refrain from intoxicants – +2 to industry in forests and wild lands
- Search for wisdom – +5 to science from deposits of strategic resources
- Tithing to the Rich – +10 to military support when winning a battle or retreating an enemy
Dogmas and principles of the second level of faith:
- Make a pilgrimage – -25% to the cost of activation and revocation of citizenship
- Refusal of luxury – +10 to military support upon presentation of requirements; +1 military support per turn, if there are active requirements
- Exclude Perjury – +5 Science from Research Quarters
- Give alms – +5 to money from market districts
- Increase stability – +5 to stability from garrisons, +1 to combat strength for units adjacent to districts and garrisons
- Observe the Fast – +5 Harbor Food
Dogmas and principles of the third level of faith:
- Develop intelligence – +20 science for the alliance
- Honor of loved ones – +1 to movement by land and sea, -10% to the cost of units
- Challenge Orthodoxy – +15 industry on the main square
- Support of the Faithful – +10 to military support when the empire refuses to demand or breaks an agreement
- Mandate patronage – +2 to money from trade routes
- To be merciful – +2 to influence from the general neighborhoods
Dogmas and principles of the fourth level of faith:
- Beware of False Prophets – +50 Science from Cultural Miracles
- Converting to faith every day – +20 to stability in territories professing a foreign religion
- Generous donation – +25 money for the alliance, +3 to the maximum number of holy places
- Frequent meditations – +2 to the combat power of units
All principles from the first to fourth levels give +1 to the maximum number of holy sites. The only exception is Generous Donation, which increases the number of holy sites by 3. Personally, I would have preferred Tithing the Rich, Abandoning Luxury, and Supporting the Faithful, since all my actions were aimed at destroying opponents. Additional military support will help you by making it easier to declare war as soon as possible. And you will also receive a higher combat score in order to conquer more new territories under the terms of the truce. Among other great options, I recommend paying attention to “Eliminate Perjury”, “Give Alms” and “Challenge Orthodoxy”. In any case, the choice is yours. Religion in Humankind doesn’t seem so necessary
