Humankind – How to Upgrade Units

It’s important to have a strong military in strategy games like Humankind so you don’t get rolled over by aggressive empires. This is why you should know how to upgrade units as you continue advancing in technology. You don’t want to be fighting against modern-day soldiers when you still only have warriors.

That’s why I’ve put together this guide detailing how to easily upgrade units and how Veterancy levels work too. This is another way to continue improving the strength of your military.

How to Upgrade Units in Humankind

For those of you that aren’t quite sure how upgrading works, it’s important to explain it real quick. While you can’t say improve the weapons or armor of a unit, you can convert it to the next tier when you’ve reached the technology required.

For example, Warriors are unlocked with the early City Defense technology. Once you’ve made a small dent in the tech tree reaching the Classical Era, you’ll come across Standing Army. This is the first upgrade for Warriors as they become Swordsmen next. Keep in mind, with stronger units you’ll also get ones that have higher upkeep.

Alongside higher upkeep with more advanced armies, you may also need to expend two population instead of just one. With that said, the upgrading process is relatively simple. Once you have the technology required to upgrade a unit, click the regiment/group they’re in. The unit should now have a yellow arrow above its portrait on the right side.

This yellow arrow is just there to point out they can be upgraded with some gold. You can click anywhere on the unit’s portrait to reveal four buttons below it. The second button from left to right shows a person with an up arrow inside it. Hovering your mouse cursor over this upgrade button shows what the unit will convert to.

You can also see how much it costs to upgrade them below the button. For example, upgrading a Warrior to a Swordsmen can cost 45 gold. However, this may change based on your culture and current infrastructure. The main requirement aside from having the right technology is that the unit is inside your territory.

How to Level Up Units With Veterancy

While I did say you can’t upgrade the weapons or armor of a unit, this is the closest way you can. If you fight with a unit often enough without letting it die, it’ll continue gaining experience. Eventually, it will essentially level up on its own and gain a Veterancy level. This provides a flat Combat Strength increase of 1 per level.

A useful tip to know about Veterancy levels is that they follow through with upgrades. So if you manage to get a level 3 Veterancy Warrior, don’t throw them away. You’ll want to keep them alive to continue upgrading with each new technology. This is a solid way to keep an advantage over enemies in war or even pesky mercenaries.

If you have any other Humankind questions for me, feel free to comment below the guide. I’m currently working on more guides for this 4X strategy game. Such as How to Disband Units and How to Increase City Cap.