Humankind is a strategy game set in ancient times, where the goal of the game is to grow your civilization from humble beginnings into an empire that can challenge all others.
Of course, as you increase in power, so will your opponents, so you will need to keep expanding while at the same time keeping at bay any forces that threaten your own growing nation.
The game of Humankind can be hard to understand and even harder to win, especially when you don’t have much experience with it, which is why we’re here to help.
Knowing how to win a game of Humankind requires you to understand the Humankind win conditions.
In order to do that properly, players will need to know when the game ends in Humankind and what to do before it happens to ensure you come out victorious.
How to Win at Humankind
Generally speaking, there is a simple way to win a game of Humankind. Players win by following the game’s win condition — having more Fame than the adversary.
All you need to do is end up with more Fame than any other player when the game ends, regardless of anything else that has happened.
Think of Fame as a measure of success. While expanding your empire, you have to keep in mind that the winner is the one with more of this resource.
What is Fame?
Fame is a key resource in Humankind that serves to define who is the winner at the end of the game. Players gather Fame from accomplishments. All accomplishments of all kinds in Humankind build Fame.
One of the best ways to earn Fame is by completing Competitive Deeds. They are challenges that only reward the first empire that accomplished them, leaving the other without the reward.
Doing these challenges before the competition grants you Fame and leaves the other empire without the amount that you earned even if they do the same thing. That is a significant advantage.
There are competitive deeds for all the affinities of the game, so you don’t have to worry about which is the best to gather Fame.
There is yet another way to reliably earn Fame in Humankind: Era Stars.
The accomplished named Era Stars are objectives related to your culture. They are set objectives within an era. Era Stars are distributed throughout the many affinities of the game.
Each era has three Era Stars per category to unlock. These quests reward twice as much Fame to empires that have a matching cultural affinity.
When Does the Game End in Humankind?
Fame is a Victory condition, but Humankind also has a few different End conditions.
Once any of them are met, the game is over, and whoever has more fame wins.
The interesting thing is that it’s not about being the first person to hit the win condition, it’s about whoever has the most Fame when any of the win conditions are met.
Default Settings
- Earning all Contemporary Stars for a total of 7
- Getting to the 300th turn
- Completing the Technology tree
- Turning all other Empires into Vassals
- Eliminating all other Players/Empires
- Completing the Mars Colony National Project
The game also has other settings that change the End conditions.
Last Human Standing
- Getting to the 300th turn
- Eliminating all the other Players/Empires
- Turning all other Empires into Vassals
- Making the world unfit for humans
Time Limit
- Getting to the 300th turn
- Making the world unfit for humans
Space Race
- Getting to the 300th turn
- Completing the Mars Colony National Project
- Making the world unfit for humans
Please note that changing the games setting before the start of a match might change the End conditions. For instance, the Blitz mode makes the game end on the 75th turn.
Final Thoughts
Humankind can be a bit intimidating at first. There are many details, affinities, objectives, and nuances in the game. However, this is exactly what makes it an excellent Historical Strategy Game.
Now that you know the Win condition and the End condition, you can set your mind to collecting that Fame while paying attention to when the game will end. Once you have those two things in mind, it will be much easier to win at Humankind.
Make sure that you know the game mode so you can be aware of the End condition. Also, don’t forget to go for the Competitive Deeds and the Era Stars that are related to your Empire’s affinities for that extra Fame.
Will your Empire be the one to leave the most profound mark in the world?
