Victoria 3 How To Increase Influence [Explained]

Victoria 3 features 3 main capacities such as authority, bureaucracy, and influence, all of which combine to run the nation perfectly. Our Victoria 3 How To Increase Influence guide will focus on Influence and go in-depth about it! 

Best Ways To Increase Influence In Victoria 3 

To increase your influence in Victoria 3, you should first understand the different power ranks and where each country stands. Here’s a breakdown:

1. Great Powers (Provide 1000 bonus influence):
   • Great Britain
   • France
   • Russia
   • Austria
   • Prussia
   • USA
2. Major Powers (Provide 750 bonus influence):
   • East India Company
   • Spain
   • Netherlands
   • Ottoman Empire
   • Two Sicilies
3. Minor Powers (Provide 600 bonus influence):
   • Sweden
   • Belgium
   • Brazil
   • Portugal
   • Dutch East Indies
   • Bavaria
   • Sardinia-Piedmont
   • Denmark
   • Bolivia
   • Norway
   • Wurttemberg
   • Saxony
   • Spanish Philippines
   • Mexico
   • Argentina
   • Hanover
   • New Granada
   • Cape Colony
   • Papal States
   • Chile
   • Greece
4. Insignificant Powers (Provide 500 bonus influence):
   • Hesse
   • Switzerland
   • Cuba
   • Paraguay
   • Venezuela
   • Serbia
   • Hudson Bay Company
   • Central America
   • Tuscany
   • Hesse-Kassel
   • Mecklenburg
   • Ecuador
   • Grao-Para
   • Piratini
   • Lower Canada
   • Holstein
   • Upper Canada
   • Luxembourg
   • Saxe-Weimar
   • Oldenburg
   • Moldavia
   • Mecklenburg-Strelitz
   • Modena
   • Wallachia
   • Nassau
   • New Brunswick
   • New South Wales
   • Brunswick
   • Parma
   • Nova Scotia
   • Anhalt
   • Texas
   • Uruguay
   • Columbia District
   • Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
   • Lippe
   • Schleswig
   • Transvaal
   • Western Australia
   • South Australia
   • Van Dieman’s Land
   • Lucca
   • Ionian Islands
   • Montenegro
   • Haiti
   • Saxe-Meiningen
   • Schwarzburg
   • Schaumburg-Lippe
   • Hohenzollern
   • Waldeck
   • Oranje
   • Bremen
   • Frankfurt
   • Hamburg
   • Lubeck
   • Krakow

To increase your influence, aim to climb the ranks from Insignificant Power to Great Power. Focus on expanding your territory, economy, and military strength while maintaining diplomatic relations and alliances to become a dominant force on the world stage.

Technology Tree 

Now, when it comes to further influence increases, there will be the technology tree that can almost instantly boost up your Influence with a certain few branches. All five will fall in the social part of the technology tree. 

Empiricism

Starting with empiricism will essentially entail a viewpoint whereby it will take knowledge from empirical evidence. It will simply focus on knowledge taken from people’s experiences rather than placing its importance on the citizen’s religion or the norms they believe in since it can sometimes be biased. 

Whenever the tree is unlocked and researched upon, it will instantly grant the players an increase in their total Influence by 10%, and depending on the nation that you play, it will further unlock different things. These can be laws like total separation, public schooling, and other technology trees. 

Philosophical Pragmatism

Philosophical Pragmatism allows citizens to share their philosophical thoughts for practical applications in society and politics. Research takes around 10 years and incurs an innovation cost. It unlocks the psychoanalysis technology branch, boosting Influence by 10% upon completion.

Psychiatry

Moving onto the next part of the tree that will increase your influence, known as Psychiatry. It will be directly related to mental disorders and entail how mental disorders can be studied medically. Upon further studying, these mental disorders can then be properly diagnosed, and further treatment can be provided to citizens who have been inflicted with it. 

It will lead to the unlocking of philosophical Pragmatism once it has been researched, which will take approximately 28 months to research and will cost 7.5k innovation (as of the nation of USA). If players want to further research psychiatry, then they will have their Influence increased by 10%. 

Psychoanalysis 

Next up, we have Psychoanalysis, which will be theories that will entail the mental development of a human being; that will then allow doctors to further discuss and research people’s social behavior and how it impacts them. It can then be further studied to analyze how the population thinks things through. 

Researching psychoanalysis will take a whopping 31 years to research, which is already pretty high, and will further unlock technologies like behaviorism and analytical philosophy and cost 103 innovation points (as of USA). Researching it will grant players a solid 10% increase in their Influence. 

Behaviorism 

Utilize Behaviorism for studying behavior, based on the law of effect. It takes 71 years to research, costs 232k innovation, and requires psychoanalysis technology. Upon completion, it boosts Influence by 10%.

Prestige 

Now, let’s take a look at the prestige discussed. Prestige is typically determined by how your economy can hold compared to other countries and nations, which is further determined by your GDP. Apart from that, it is also decided by your power projection abilities, how your military forces can proceed, and the overall ranking of your nation. 

There are a few ways to increase your prestige, which will directly increase your ranks since both prestige and rank go hand in hand with each other. 

Romanticism 

Starting things off with romanticism will entail a form of an art movement that will be able to celebrate people’s emotions as well as imaginations to a certain extent. When it is put into direct comparison with things like rational thinking, it will be put onto another scale completely. Romanticism will typically includes history, drama, nature, and emotional feelings. 

Researching romanticism will unlock arts, academics, and laws like agrarianism in the economic system. The other thing that it will unlock will be the decree known as the greener grass campaign, as well as leading to realism technology. Researching romanticism will increase your prestige by 5%. 

Realism 

Realism, closely linked with Romanticism, represents an artistic movement focused on portraying reality accurately. It avoids romanticizing everyday subjects and emotions, instead emphasizing a realistic examination of real-life issues.

Researching Realism takes 28 months and unlocks realist art as a production method. It also leads to the bourgeoisie patronage and independent artists. Additionally, it advances into camera technology and increases the nation’s prestige by 5%. This approach encourages a genuine and unembellished representation of the world.

Camera

Now, when it comes to the camera, it will be led through realism, as discussed before, and it will be a futuristic chemical process that will be able to “capture reality” and create a painting that is still and held at the moment. 

Researching the camera technology will then further unlock the production method, which will be the photographic art for the art academy. It will then lead to another technology being unlocked which will be the film. It will take 10 years to research and will grant you 5% increased prestige. 

Film 

Leading through from the camera, the film will be a direct part of the camera, in a way where instead of being one single capture, it will capture many photographs, and it will be able to “make the photos move in real-time”, essentially creating a film. 

Researching the film will unlock the production method, which will be the film art for arts academy, and it will then further lead into the mass propaganda technology, and it will take a whopping 31 years to research, all the while increasing your prestige by 5%. 

Organized Sports 

Last but not least, organized sports will be depicted as proper competitions rather than being seen as “child’s play”. They will be displayed as shown were players in a team who can feel at home and can feel like they ultimately belong. 

Researching takes 28 months, and it will require nationalism technology, and it will increase your overall prestige by 10%. 

What Is Influence Used For?

Influence serves several important purposes within a nation:

1. Diplomatic Activities: Influence represents a nation’s ability to engage in diplomatic activities, both domestically and internationally. This includes interactions with neighboring and distant nations, whether for cooperation or conflict.
2. Diplomatic Actions: Influence is used to initiate various diplomatic actions, such as treaties, negotiations, and agreements, between two or more nations. These actions can have instant effects or continue over time, depending on the nature of the agreement.
3. Diplomatic Pacts: Influence is essential for forming and maintaining diplomatic pacts, which can be unilateral (involving one nation) or bilateral (involving two nations). These pacts encompass alliances, subject relationships, and trade agreements. They require Influence for upkeep and can be dissolved if relations deteriorate or other conditions change.
4. Building Relations: Influence is utilized to establish and nurture relations with other nations, fostering cooperation, trade, and strategic alliances. Building positive diplomatic ties can lead to mutual benefits and increased security.

In summary, Influence plays a crucial role in a nation’s diplomacy, allowing it to engage in various diplomatic actions, maintain pacts, and build relations with other nations to further its interests and objectives.

Determining Influence 

A nation’s Influence is primarily determined by its rank compared to other nations, which is further calculated based on its prestige in relation to others. Ranks signify a nation’s international standing and determine the scope of its diplomatic activities and the level of respect it commands.

Here are the key ranks a nation can hold:

1. Great Power: Great powers are the most prestigious and powerful nations, often possessing global empires and significant dominance. They frequently engage in conflicts with other neighboring great powers and seek to assert their supremacy.
2. Major Power: Major powers also wield considerable regional and global influence. While they may not match the global reach of great powers, they are still formidable players on the world stage and can engage in standoffs with minor powers.
3. Minor Power: Minor powers hold substantial influence, but they are often considered pawns compared to major and great powers. They may be used as buffer nations or puppets and aim to establish themselves further on the international stage.
4. Insignificant Power: Insignificant powers are nations that lack the significance to compete with great or major powers. They have not amassed enough influence and have not climbed the social hierarchy to secure a more prominent place.
5. Unrecognized Regional Power: Unrecognized regional powers have the potential to challenge other nations like major and minor powers. However, they lack official recognition and standing.
6. Unrecognized Power: Completely unrecognized powers have no independent standing. They are not even considered exploitable by greater powers and must engage in diplomatic relations with major or greater powers to ascend the social hierarchy.

As a nation’s prestige and international standing improve, it can climb the ranks, gain more benefits, expand its influence, and engage in more significant diplomatic plays. The goal is often to elevate a nation’s rank to wield greater global influence and secure its place on the world stage.

And there we have it, the main ways that you can increase your overall Influence! Some other minor ways will be through diplomat traits or the family ties trait, and other capacities like authority, money, and more are also crucial to maintain. And with that, we will wrap up our Victoria 3 Increase Influence guide!

Up Next: 

• Victoria 3 Wars Start And Win 
• Victoria 3 How To Switch Country
• Victoria 3 Explosives
• Victoria 3 Tips Tricks