Victoria 3 Tips

You will need our Victoria 3 tips if you want to get ahead with your nation and climb the prestige ranks to become a Great Power. Victoria 3 is a complex grand strategy that focuses on economic management and political manoeuvring, allowing you to carve out your nation's future and make a name on the world stage. With a plethora of interconnecting systems and mechanics, you may need help taking advantage of them to prosper and grow, so check out our Victoria 3 tips. 

• Make sure you also learn how to pass laws in Victoria 3, as this is vital to changing the core aspects of your nation and modernising it. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Use The Market Quick Menu

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You'll likely spend a lot of your time in Victoria 3 poring over the market screen, where you can take a look at the buy and sell orders of your goods, along with their balance and overall market price. It's a vital screen for analysing your economy and seeing what goods need more production, but by right-clicking any good it becomes even more useful. This will bring up a menu of actions you can take, such as establishing trade routes, setting market policies, expanding production, and expanding consumption, saving you from navigating to the various other menus to perform the same tasks. 

• We also have a primer on how to increase Influence in Victoria 3, which is a Capacity used for diplomacy with other nations. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Check Your Ruler's Traits And Ideologies

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On the politics screen, you can take a look at the current ruler of your country, which can be a king, president, dictator, and much more, but each of them have their own unique traits and ideologies. These can give massively useful bonuses that are worth taking into account when making decisions about your country. For example, you could receive discounts to any decrees you use, or increased power projection. However, when you lose these benefits, they can have the effect of reducing your Capacities or prestige, so make sure you're ready for a new ruler to takeover. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Collect Obligations

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Obligations are incredibly powerful tools to be used for diplomacy, and you should try to get as many as you can from other countries during your game. They can be gained as a result of agreements made during Diplomatic Plays or by buying out a country's loans. When a country has an obligation toward you, they cannot start Diplomatic Plays against you, or join sides opposing you, and you can use the obligation to sway them toward your side during a Diplomatic Play, giving you an advantage or gaining you an ally if war breaks out.

• We also have a list of the best countries to play in Victoria 3, which covers nations with different levels of challenge that are worth controlling. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Build Up Your Gold Reserves

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Like any Paradox grand strategy game, money is incredibly important, and it's used for a variety of functions, such as paying wages or constructing buildings. Whenever you have a positive income, you will begin to build up gold reserves as a safety net, and while letting this fill can have adverse effects on your economy, it's important to have a surplus of money when making lots of buildings. Constructing buildings costs a lot of money, and will often bring you into the negative, but having gold reserves will stop you from going bankrupt or having to take loans to stay afloat while the building is being made. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Exploit Your Natural Resources

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All countries have natural resources and benefits that are exclusive to its states, so every time you start a game, take a moment to check out all of the state traits. These vary massively by country, and they give you bonuses for your buildings and goods produced in them. For example, several states in Sweden have the Scandinavian Forests trait, which increases the logging industry throughput, meaning you should focus these industries in those states to earn the benefits and maximise your economic output. 

• We also have a breakdown for how to increase Legitimacy in Victoria 3, which allows you to pass laws much quicker. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Unproductive Trade Routes Can Still Be Useful

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A sad reality of Victoria 3 is that you won't be able to produce all the goods you need in your own country, so sometimes you will need to import goods from other countries. This will bring more of that good into your country for pops to buy or buildings to consume during production. 

Sometimes these trade routes can become unproductive and lose you money due to the tariffs involved, however, this doesn't always mean you should cancel them. If you can take the monetary hit and there are no other good trade routes to use, keeping the trade route to ensure the good is available in your country can be worth it, especially when it's vital in the production of other important goods. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Unify Nations To Expand

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The nations available during 1836 aren't the only nations that can exist in your game, and during the 100-year period that Victoria 3 takes place in, other nations may rise up due to unification. If you click the 'Cultures' button and select the 'Nation Formation' tab, it will list any potential nations you can form based on shared cultural heritage. This will allow you to expand your land, and consequently, gives you more states to build in and increase your GDP. Beware, you will take a Bureaucracy hit due to the new states you will be running, but you'll make up for this in the long if you manage your new nation correctly. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Don't Research Techs You Are Getting Tech Spread For 

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An important part of progression in Victoria 3 is the technology tree, which allows you to research new technologies in the Production, Military, and Society tabs. This will allow your nation to advance forward with more efficient production methods, military units, and laws, but you'll want to manage how you discover new tech. While you can choose a technology to research, you will also get technology spread from other nations that have technologies unlocked. So, if you're close to unlocking a technology due to technology spread, it may be worth researching another technology and getting them both at similar times. 

• Make sure you also know how to increase Bureaucracy in Victoria 3, which is the Capacity used for running the day-to-day aspects of your nation. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Focus On Building Basic Goods First

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The goods you build in Victoria 3 are split into four categories: staple goods, industrial goods, luxury goods, and military goods. While luxury goods can get you a lot of money - especially if other countries set up trade routes for access to them - you should focus on making sure your population's needs are met with staple goods to begin with. Goods like wood, basic clothes, grain, and much more are vital for running your country, and you won't get very far if these aren't plentiful for your population. After these basic needs are met, you can begin to specialise more with luxury goods and turn into a powerhouse producer of wine. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Use Consumption Taxes On Luxury Goods

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Consumption taxes are taxes collected on goods purchased by a population, increasing your revenue, while also raising the market price of the good. These cost Authority to establish, but if you have tonnes to spend, it may be worth enacting it on some of the more luxurious goods. Apart from the obvious monetary increase this can provide to your economy, the increase to the good's market price can also improve your GDP marginally, which comes with a tonne of useful effects. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Don't Just Pass Laws Because You Can

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In Victoria 3, laws make up the structure of your nation, concerning how it's run and governed. Changing laws can make sweeping changes to your nation and upset the population if they don't like the law. This means you should be careful about what laws you pass and when you pass them, as large portions of the population can turn to radicalism if they aren't onboard. 

Victoria 3 Tips: Keep Infamy Low

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Infamy is a diplomacy mechanic that measures what countries think of your nation. All nations start with zero infamy to begin, but if you take actions that other nations don't like or agree with, your infamy can increase. This causes your relationships to worsen, sanctions to be placed against you, and other countries to start ostracising you. Sometimes you may need to make decisions that will increase your infamy, but only do it if you think the outcome is worth it. 

That's all for our Victoria 3 starter tips, and now you should know some basic ways to benefit your nation and improve your Victoria experience. 

Make sure you know how to increase your Authority in Victoria 3 if you want to enforce consumption taxes on luxury goods.