Civilization: Beyond Earth created by Firaxis Games.
Images used for educational purposes only.
Civilization: Beyond Earth Walkthrough Listing

Civilization: Beyond Earth managed to bring in a fair number of new mechanics to change up the Civilization V base game, and one of them is Miasma. A poisonous mass that can cause your colony equal parts trouble and joy, Miasma is a surprisingly-strategic element on any map.

What is Miasma?

True to its name, Miasma is pure poison. It appears as a small mass of green clouds on the game’s hexagons, and is noted as Miasma when you hover over the hexagon with your cursor. When you begin a game of Civilization V, stepping on Miasma is a bad thing, as it will cause any unit lingering on it past the end of a turn ten points of damage. Painful, but not that bad… assuming you don’t leave a unit sitting in Miasma for a long time.

A Miasmic Repulsor floating over a city.
Miasmic Repulsors will gradually eliminate Miasma on hexagon tiles.
Clearing Miasma

Miasma is irritating for the first fifty or so turns of a new game of Beyond Earth, but there are a few ways to clear it from the map if you so wish:
  • The primary method of doing so is to order a Worker to clear the Miasma. Workers gain this ability once you research the Alien Biology technology (Tier II) on the Tech Tree. Researching Alien Biology will also give you Worker Miasma Immunity, protecting your Workers from the effects of Miasma.
  • Your secondary method, one that will pop up before your Workers gain the ability to clean Miasma, is to send a Miasmic Repulsor Orbital Unit above your colony. Miasmic Repulsors will, despite not lasting terribly long, clear patches of Miasma from the map. You can build Miasmic Repulsors by researching the Ecology tech (Tier II).
In short, Miasma is kind of a minor inconvenience most of the time. So why bother with an article? Because there’s more to it than just that.

Using Miasma

There are two awesome ways in which you can utilize Miasma to your benefit, both of which involve the very units that might normally by treading on the stuff.
  • First, you can order your Workers to lay Miasma down on hexagons. Research the Alien Ecology tech (Tier III) and your Workers can, thereafter, Add Miasma as an action. (You can also create Miasmic Condenser orbital units to create Miasma at a quicker pace, but you'll have to sacrifice three Petroleum and one Xenomass. Not my favourite.) You can then lay Miasma on contentious ground - typically near borders with adversaries - and use it to weaken your opponents when they send troops to attack your cities. What’s more…
  • … you can use Miasma to heal yourself. If you pursue the Harmony Affinity to Level Three your units will take five less points of damage whenever they linger atop Miasma. What’s more, if you push Harmony to at least Level Six they will, instead, heal five health whenever they sit in Miasma. Harmony-centric units such as Xeno Cavalry appear to heal even more when they sit in Miasma, which can be very useful in giving your units a big step up in battles.
A foreign city of the Harmony Affinity.
Harmony players may react badly if you remove their Miasma.
Diplomatic Relations

Though it’s ostensibly a poison, Miasma can be a point of contention with other nations, namely those with a focus on Harmony. If you clear Miasma near foreign soil it’s entirely possible that the owner, depending on their Affinity, will ask you to stop. Fail to do so - particularly if you promised not to touch the Miasma again - and your relations with that colony will probably take a sizeable hit, potentially leading to war.

Civilization: Beyond Earth Walkthrough Listing