Cards are generated over time in the Academy. Several factors can increase the generation speed, including nearby Libraries and Debate Rooms, higher Merit levels, and optional resource consumption. Players can accelerate the process by supplying resources such as Red Ink, Paper, and Paintings.
Once ready, the Academy produces a card pack that can be opened by the player. Each pack offers a choice between two different cards, allowing for more strategic decisions and city specialization.
Cards are divided into multiple rarity tiers: Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.
Each card type is designed for a specific category of buildings. Buildings now feature dedicated card slots where cards can be equipped to provide powerful bonuses. Additional slots can sometimes be unlocked using Manuscripts.
Card
Name
Effect
House Tax Boost
Increases tax revenue generation by 100–500%.
Range Boost
Increases building range by 3–15 grids.
Production Boost
Increases base productivity by 30–100%.
House Capacity Boost
Increases house capacity by 5–50.
Border Expansion
Increases Outpost range by 5–20 grids.
Religious Building Boost
Increases Faith Points generation in Religious Building by 20–300%.
Input Production Boost
Decreases the amount of input resources in Production Buildings by 15–95%.
Winter Bonus
Winter no longer decreases production in Farm Buildings.
Additional Slot for Blessing
Adds a Blessing slot to the Building of Blessings.
A single card affects only one building, making card placement an important strategic choice.
Special cards can also be obtained through the Gods Relationship Tree, unlocking unique and more powerful effects tied to divine progression.
A new city progression system called Merit is being introduced to Celestial Empire.
Merit represents the growth and prestige of your settlement as it develops into a thriving civilization. As your population reaches new milestones, your settlement advances through multiple city ranks, each granting additional Merit.
City progression stages include:
Settlement, Village, Town, Small City, City, Regional Capital, and Capital.
Merit can be earned in several ways:
Reaching new city tiers
Constructing Monuments
Building the Celestial Tower and adding new floors to it
Constructing Great Decorations
Each civilization tier unlocks a new Great Decoration. If enough citizens live within its influence range, additional Merit is awarded.
For Peasants: Grand Bonzai Tree.
For Craftsman: Grand Stone Statue.
For Scholars: Grand Gazebo.
For Elite: Grand Gold Statue.
New Nüwa tree:
New Ao Guang tree:
New Wukong tree:
Nüwa's Garden:
Ao Guang's Garden:
Wukong's Garden:
Added a new Miracle of Forest – instantly grows a lush forest.
Added a new Miracle of Fertility – instantly turns the targeted area into fertile soil.
Added DLSS 4.5 support.
Added FSR 4 support.
Added difficulty settings available during gameplay.
Improved sub-building placement system.
Improved and fixed force build.
Improved automatic road creation around buildings.
Fixed coal boost
Fixed oxen boost
Fixed building snapping issues along riverbanks.
Fixed Warehouse and Granary bug where delivery workers stop collecting/delivering resources for nearby buildings.
Fixed crash occurring when deleting canals
Fixed crash when moving production buildings with nearby production active.
Fixed crash when adding workforce.
Fixed crash when continuing sub-building construction.
After updating the game, some players may experience crashes when trying to continue their game or load a save file from the save list. As we have not yet found a definitive solution, if you encounter this issue please try the following:
Verify the integrity of the game files through Steam
If verification does not resolve the issue, delete the most recent save file
Contact the developers
If you do not need to continue your current playthrough, start a new game