Civilization – Are strategic resources secretively revealed before the required technology

civilization-6civilization-6-gathering-storm

I am trying to place an industrial zone when some tiles show "+1 production from the adjacent strategic resource". I do not see any strategic resources in that area, and my scientific progress has only gone so far as niter.

The tiles with and without the bonus seem to point to a tile with a completed commercial hub already on it. Does this mean this commercial hub is sitting on a later-era strategic resource? So does it mean we can use industrial zones to prospect for future strategic resources? I thought districts would remove resources. Is that not so? If this is indeed a hidden resource, am I correct in thinking the adjacency bonus will stay despite the tile being appropriated already.

Best Answer

To answer in short, 'future/undiscovered' strategic resources are not revealed earlier by bonuses.

Industrial Zones receive a:

  • (+ 1) Production yield for each adjacent mine or quarry.
  • (+ 1/2) Production yield for each adjacent district tile (this "Minor Bonus" rounds down).

As of Gathering Storm, this changes to:

  • (+ 1/2) bonus for each adjacent district, mine or lumber mill (again rounding down).
  • (+ 1) yield for each adjacent strategic resource, government plaza, and quarry.
  • (+ 2) for each adjacent aqueduct, dam, canal or bath.

Civ 6 Resource Wiki Page

The reason you may be seeing that '+ 1 for strategic resource' is because your commercial hub is actually providing you an unseen strategic resource. If you have only discovered niter, it's likely that or iron or some other early resource. Hover over the commercial hub and you can see if there is a hidden resource underneath.

You can place district, wonders, and cities on tiles that contain strategic resources, even unrevealed ones, and upon discovering the resource, you will gain use of it as if it was improved. Note, this only applies to those tile enhancements. Ex: if you have a farm and discover niter underneath, you need to remove it and replace it with the appropriate improvement.