Civilization Revolution has six different types of Great People that provide special abilities upon their appearance. The six types are Great Artist/Thinker, Great Builder, Great Humanitarian, Great Explorer/Industrialist, Great Leader, and Great Scientist.
Every type of great people can do two things. The first is a one-time immediate bonus, which will consume the great person. Some examples of one time bonuses are instant completion of a wonder and increase population of all your cities. The second use is settlement bonus, which provides the host city benefits such as reduced building cost, experience for newly created units, and culture/science bonus. Note that only the great people settled in cities count toward cultural victory.
You can earn Great People in following ways:
- Accumulation of Culture: You will receive great person as your civilization accumulates culture. Each successive great person costs more culture points.
- Economic Milestones: The 500 gold and 10,000 gold milestones both give you a great person.
- First to Discover Benefit: Discovering Invention or Monarchy tech first will give you a great person.
- Spies: You can kidnap great people from enemy cities using spies.
- School of Confucius: Discovering the School of Confucius relic will instantly give you a few great people.
- Conquest: You will gain control of any great people in the city when you capture a city.
Below is a complete list of all 46 Great People categorized by type. The associated tech for each great person is also included.
| Great Person Name | Associated Technology |
| Great Artists/Thinkers Use them to convert enemy city, or settle them in city for +50% culture production |
|
| Aesop | Writing |
| Aristotle | University |
| Charles Babbage | Networking |
| J.S. Bach | Religion |
| Fyodor Dostoevsky | Industrialization |
| Homer | Alphabet |
| Karl Marx | Communism |
| Plato | Pottery |
| Great Builders Use them to instantly complete production of any unit/building/or wonder, or settle them in city to halve the cost of all buildings in the city for future constructions. |
|
| Cheops | Masonry |
| Leonardo da Vinci | Invention |
| Henry Ford | The Automobile |
| Gilgamesh | Horseback Riding |
| Imhotep | Ceremonial Burial |
| Nebuchadnezzar | Construction |
| George Stephenson | Steel |
| James Watt | Steam Power |
| Sophocles | Democracy |
| Leopold Stokowski | Superconductor |
| Great Explorer/Industrialist Use them to get a large one-time gold bonus, or settle them in city to receive +50% gold production. |
|
| Roald Amundsen | Combustion |
| Christopher Columbus | Banking |
| Vasco Da Gama | Navigation |
| W.R. Hearst | Mass Media |
| Marco Polo | Currency |
| Sargon | Bronze Working |
| Tippu Sultan | Space Flight |
| Wilbur Wright | Advanced Flight |
| Great Humanitarian Use them to add +1 population to all your cities, or settle them in city for +50% population growth rate. |
|
| Thomas Becket | Feudalism |
| Frederick Douglass | Railroad |
| Johannes Gutenberg | Printing Press |
| Lao Tzu | Irrigation |
| Florence Nightingale | Gunpowder |
| Albert Schweitzer | Globalization |
| Eli Whitney | Mass Production |
| Great Leader Use them to upgrade all your units to veteran, or settle them in city so your newly created units receive +3 experience points (free upgrade if the city also has barracks). |
|
| Agamemnon | Iron Working |
| David | Monarchy |
| Great Scientist Use them to instantly finish research of current technology, or settle them in city for +50% science. |
|
| Archimedes | Engineering |
| Alexander G. Bell | The Corporation |
| Confucius | Literacy |
| Marie Curie | Metallurgy |
| Thomas Edison | Electricity |
| Albert Einstein | Atomic Theory |
| Enrico Fermi | Nuclear Power |
| Otto Lilienthal | Flight |
| Guglielmo Marconi | Electronics |
| Pythagoras | Mathematics |
| Solomon | Code of Laws |