Civilization 6 Save Editor — Edit Gold, Science, Turns & Score

Last verified: 2026-09-30

Save file to edit

Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\Single\<name>.Civ6Save

Civ 6 saves are NOT plain text. A <name>.Civ6Save file in Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\Single is a compressed container: a readable header (game version, map, ruleset, player list) followed by a zlib-compressed body holding the full turn-by-turn game state. To change gold, science or turn limits you either run a dedicated tool — civ6-cheat (iqqmuT) takes the .Civ6Save as an argument and patches values — or you follow the civ6save-editing (lucienmaloney) workflow: decompress.js inflates the body into a .Civ6Save.bin, you edit that with a hex editor, then recompress.js merges it back into a valid .Civ6Save. Always quit to the main menu or close the game and back up the file first — a mis-sized edit makes the save fail to load. Values in the readable header (like game name) are easy; deep game-state values (per-city yields) are where hand edits go wrong.

A Civ 6 save is a .Civ6Save file in Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\Single (or \Multi). It looks binary because it's a compressed container wrapping the game state — you can't just open it in Notepad and type a new gold value. Editing it means either a purpose-built tool (civ6-cheat) or the decompress → edit → recompress workflow from the civ6save-editing project.

What you can edit and which tag to change

What it changes	XML tag	Example value	Notes
Treasury (gold)	`player → gold`	`Gold = 99999`	The most common edit. civ6-cheat targets the active player's gold directly. Hand-hex editing gold works but you must not change the byte length of surrounding data.
Science / Culture rate	`player → yields`	`boost per-turn science`	Per-turn yields are computed from cities, so a raw stored value may be recalculated next turn. Editing base gold is stickier than editing derived yields.
Turn / round limit	`game config → max turns`	`Max turns = 1000`	CivFanatics documents editing the round limit and score-victory settings in the save. Useful to extend a game that's about to hit a time victory.
Era score / score victory	`game → score settings`	`score threshold`	Score-victory parameters can be edited to avoid or trigger a score win; documented in the civ6save-editing threads.
Player / civ metadata	`header → players`	`leader, difficulty`	The header lists players, leaders and ruleset. It's the readable part of the file — safest region to inspect, but changing ruleset can desync from installed DLC.
Map & game setup	`header → map / config`	`map size, speed`	Setup values live in the header. Changing them mid-game rarely helps — the body already assumes the original setup.

How to edit your Civilization VI save by hand

Quit Civ 6 to desktop (or at least to the main menu) so the save file isn't locked, and turn off Steam Cloud for Civ 6 if you use it, so it doesn't restore the old file.
Open Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\Single (or \Multi for multiplayer) and find your <name>.Civ6Save.
Copy the .Civ6Save to a backup folder before touching anything.
Easiest path: run civ6-cheat and pass your .Civ6Save as the argument to patch gold. Advanced path: use civ6save-editing's decompress.js to make a .Civ6Save.bin, edit it in a hex editor, then recompress.js to rebuild the .Civ6Save.
Keep hex edits length-neutral — overwrite digits in place rather than inserting/removing bytes, or the compressed container won't rebuild correctly.
Save/rebuild over a copy, then load it in Civ 6. If it loads with your changes, keep it; if it says the save is corrupt, restore your backup.
Re-enable Steam Cloud only after the edited save loads correctly.

Prefer a save editor instead of raw XML?

There's no polished GUI editor for Civ 6 like there is for RPG saves — the community tools are command-line (civ6-cheat) or a scripted decompress/recompress workflow (civ6save-editing). That makes gold the reliable edit and deep game-state changes hit-or-miss; expect to iterate on a backup.

Mistakes that corrupt the save

The body is zlib-compressed — you must decompress before editing and recompress after, or the game can't read it. You cannot hex-edit the raw .Civ6Save body in place.
Keep edits length-neutral. Inserting or deleting bytes shifts offsets and breaks the container; overwrite existing digits instead.
Derived yields (science/culture per turn) are recalculated from your cities next turn, so editing the treasury gold is far more reliable than editing rates.
Multiplayer saves live in \Multi and cloud/host sync can overwrite local edits; edit single-player saves for predictable results, and always keep a backup .Civ6Save.

Not sure where the file is? See the full Civilization VI save file location guide (every platform path), or the corrupted-save recovery guide if an edit broke your file.

FAQ

Where are Civ 6 save files to edit on PC?

In Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\Single for single-player (and \Multi for multiplayer). Each save is a <name>.Civ6Save file.

Can I edit a .Civ6Save in Notepad?

No. It's a compressed container. You must decompress it first (civ6save-editing's decompress.js) or use a tool like civ6-cheat that handles the compression, then recompress before loading.

How do I add gold to my Civ 6 save?

Run civ6-cheat and pass your .Civ6Save as the argument, or decompress the file, overwrite the stored gold value in a hex editor (keeping the byte length the same), and recompress. Back up first.

Is there a GUI Civ 6 save editor?

Not a maintained one. The reliable tools are command-line: civ6-cheat for gold and the civ6save-editing scripts for the decompress/hex/recompress workflow. Gold is the dependable edit.

Other games

Need another game or a quick backup? Use the Save Location Finder — pick any game to get its exact save path plus a ready-to-run backup command.