District Adjacency Guide: Maximizing Yields

District adjacency is the single highest-leverage mechanic in Civ VII's economy. A well-placed district can out-produce a poorly placed one by multiples, so learning the adjacency rules pays off in every city, every game. This guide explains the core bonuses and how to chase them.

Core adjacency rules

Each district type rewards different neighbors. Learn the pattern once and apply it everywhere.

• Campus gains from adjacent mountains and rainforests.
• Theater Square gains from adjacent wonders and water.
• Commercial Hub gains from adjacent rivers and harbor districts.
• Holy Site gains from adjacent natural wonders and woods.
• Industrial Zone gains from adjacent resources and aqueducts.

Planning the city layout

Adjacency is decided when you place the first district, so think a few moves ahead.

• Reserve mountain rings for Campuses before placing anything else.
• Keep wonder tiles free so Theater Squares can use them later.
• Cluster districts so they boost each other where rules allow.
• Avoid wasting a high-adjacency tile on a low-value district.

Adjacency and the Age transition

Adjacency carries across Ages, so a good layout keeps paying after you swap civs.

• Keep your best-adjacency city as a specialist city every Age.
• Re-point its specialists to the new era's highest value.
• Add a late-game wonder on a free adjacency tile for a bonus.

Common adjacency mistakes

Most players leave yield on the table by misplacing districts early.

• Do not place a Campus with no mountain nearby.
• Do not block a Theater Square's wonder adjacency with a farm.
• Do not scatter districts so none can boost another.

Quick reference: adjacency order

Find the mountain ring, place Campuses there, ring them with science buildings, then place Theater Squares on wonder-adjacent tiles. That simple order doubles your science and culture without a single extra city.

Adjacency and specialists

A high-adjacency district is wasted without specialists working it, so pair placement with population policy.

• Fill specialist slots in your best-adjacency districts first.
• Grow the city until those slots are all worked.
• Protect the population with amenities so specialists stay on.
• Reallocate specialists by era as bonuses shift.

Fixing a bad placement

If you misplace a district early, recover without sinking more production.

• Leave the bad district and build the next one on a good tile.
• Use a later wonder to salvage some adjacency value.
• Avoid demolishing unless the tile is truly needed.
• Learn the preview rule so it rarely happens twice.

Adjacency for production

Industrial Zones reward a different pattern, and getting it right fuels everything else.

• Place Industrial Zones next to resources and aqueducts.
• Stack them so their bonuses overlap friendly districts.
• Use factories to spread production to nearby cities.
• Reserve a resource cluster for your main production city.

Reading the preview

The adjacency preview is the most underused tool in the game; use it every time.

• Hover the tile and read the exact bonus before placing.
• Compare two candidate tiles to pick the higher one.
• Cancel and re-place if the preview disappoints.
• Teach yourself the rules so the preview becomes a glance.

Adjacency and trade

Commercial Hubs reward rivers and harbors, and getting it right funds your whole empire.

• Place Commercial Hubs on river tiles for the adjacency bonus.
• Pair them with a Harbor in coastal cities for a double boost.
• Use the gold to fund more districts and more wonders.
• Reserve river tiles for economy before farms claim them.