The Civilization 7 development team at Firaxis Games has shared valuable insights about why they recommend completing the tutorial - even for series veterans - during your first full campaign playthrough.

Creative Director Ed Beach detailed these recommendations in Steam community post. "Civilization 7 introduces numerous new gameplay systems that fundamentally change how players experience our historical strategy series," Beach explained. "We strongly suggest all players complete the tutorial-filled initial campaign to properly understand these mechanics."

The tutorial recommendation relates specifically to Civilization 7's groundbreaking Ages system, representing the most significant evolution in the franchise's history. Unlike previous entries, a complete Civilization 7 campaign spans three distinct historical periods: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern.

The game features synchronized Age Transitions where all players simultaneously experience three critical gameplay shifts: selecting a new civilization aligned with the next era, choosing which cultural legacies to preserve, and seeing the game world itself evolve dynamically.

Beach addressed why Civilization 7 defaults to Small map size rather than accommodating veteran players' preference for sprawling battlefields: "While we understand series veterans enjoy massive maps with numerous civilizations, we specifically designed Small maps with three neighboring empires to ease players into mastering Civilization 7's refined systems."

The development team particularly recommends pairing Small maps with Continents Plus terrain during initial playthroughs. "The included archipelago islands provide natural introductions to naval exploration mechanics that become crucial during the Exploration Age," Beach noted.

Regarding tutorial guidance, Beach confirmed Civilization 7 automatically enables tutorial systems during first playthroughs. Even seasoned players benefit from keeping tutorial advisors active during their initial three-Age campaign.

"Our advisory system features four specialized guides that deliver contextual explanations exactly when encountering new mechanics," Beach described. "Players can customize their guidance by activating individual advisors sequentially rather than receiving all instruction simultaneously."

The creative director recommends permanently switching to Only Warnings mode after completing the tutorial campaign. "This balanced approach provides critical notifications about potential empire setbacks without intrusive hand-holding - even our development team plays with warnings enabled!"

Firaxis recently revealed Civilization 7's post-launch roadmap during a special livestream event (notably confirming Great Britain's status as DLC content). The game launches February 11 across PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, and Xbox One/Series X|S platforms, with Deluxe Edition owners receiving five-day early access starting February 6.