In this guide we’ll take a look at the technology screen and identify important technologies to focus on for each era to help you prioritise how you spend your science. It is far better not to research a useless technology compared to boosting science yields and then wasting it on meaningless technologies. I usually find myself picking certain good technologies and ignoring many others that have little impact on the game.

Starting with the ancient era, calendar unlocks the artisan quarter which allows you to improve luxury tiles providing important boosts to yields and stability across your empire. The fishing technology unlocks the harbor which is the best stand-alone quarter in humankind giving you the food yields on coast and lake tiles within a radius of 2 tiles often providing a big food and population boost which is the main way you will get science and money in the early game. Organised warfare unlocks the ability to reinforce armies with other nearby armies as well as the battering ram which is required to tear down walls.

Moving on to the classical era, philosophy increases the city cap by one so you can take more cities from your enemies or turn another outpost into a city as well as unlocking the research quarter, which is the main way to get science in Humankind, and the school which boosts the research quarter. Craftsmanship unlocks the charcoal kilt which is an important boost to makers quarters. Standing army unlocks the swordsmen which is a strong early game unit for both defence and offence. Imperial power unlocks the commons quarter which you can use to build as many quarters in a city as you want without stability issues.

In the medieval era, theology increases the city cap and feudalism adds an additional food yield to your tiles which helps grow population boosting yields in your cities. Seafaring mastery unlocks the Cog which is an early unit that can spend at least a few turns in deep water which is quite helpful for meeting empires on other continents. Furnace steel unlocks the high furnace which is an important industry infrastructure boosting makers quarters. Guilds unlocks planting trees which increase the industry on makers quarters as well as absorbing pollution later in the game.

In the early modern era, patronage is very important to unlock quickly to be able to build the luxury manufactory which provide some of the best percentage based yield boosts in the game. Only one of each luxury manufactory can be built in the world which means it is important to unlock patronage quickly and prioritise building them. Supply lines provides an additional city cap and moveable typeface unlocks the university which is another important science infrastructure boosting the research quarters.

Once you get into the industrial era, encyclopaedia unlocks the best science infrastructure in the game which is the academy which provides significant boosts to research quarters. The scientific methods technology provides the fertiliser plant which is a good food boost as well as reducing the industry cost of research quarters. Electricity boosts all kinds of quarters based on the number of coal you have access to, although I don’t recommend building the coal plant due to the pollution makers quarters will start to produce. Microbiology provides stability per population which lets you build many more quarters whilst keeping your cities stable.

Finally, in the contemporary era, the fusion reactor technology significantly reduces the pollution you produce unlocking the ability to start building infrastructure that adds pollution to your quarters without causing stability problems. Rocket science unlocks the mission to mars as well as enabling nuclear missiles together with nuclear fusion and uranium enrichment. Renewable energy further reduces the pollution of makers quarters and the endgame technologies provide quite a bit of fame which can give you the fame boost required to win the game.

So, there you go. We have discussed important technologies in each era. You will also want to check which technologies unlock unique units. Overall, early on focus on technologies that give you city cap increases and boost science, industry and food yields. Later on, stability technologies become important as well as the luxury manufactories. In the end game, the late technologies provide quite a bit of fame to help you win the game.