How does Infamy work in Victoria 3? Answered

Every Victoria 2 player knows that Infamy is what keeps you from reaching complete world conquest. The dreaded mechanic is back in Victoria 3, and it is as much of a problem as it was in the past. Infamy is supposed to keep every country in the world of Victoria 3 from aggressive expansion and from diplomatic plays that would change the power dynamics of the era. So, to answer your question, we will now explain exactly how Infamy works in Victoria 3.

Infamy working in Victoria 3, explained

Infamy is a counter that tells the player how much he has angered countries around the world. The higher your Infamy, the harder it will be to make friends anywhere on the map.

Every country starts the game with Infamy 0, which the game states make your country “Reputable.” You can check your Infamy at any moment in the game by clicking on your flag in the top right corner and scrolling down the “Information” page. You can see the menu in the image above.

How to increase Infamy in Victoria 3

You can increase Infamy in many ways, and most of them will involve you getting territories and power. Most diplomatic plays will have some kind of Infamy impact, which you can see before actually starting the diplomatic play. As you can see in the screenshot below, you will be informed, for each diplomatic play that you decide to use, the exact repercussions and Infamy penalties received.

If you manage to get over 100 Infamy, you will be now known in the world of Victoria 3 as a Pariah, and all great powers will have gained a diplomatic play to “Cut” you “Down to Size.” This is the game’s way of handling aggressive players (or AI countries) that are causing diplomatic incidents left and right.

Related: All Trade Goods and their categories in Victoria 3

A World War might be the worst-case scenario when you get a lot of Infamy. However, there are other negative repercussions as well. If you have high Infamy, the Influence cost for most diplomatic pacts will also decrease the likelihood that countries would even want to enter a pact with you. Countries around the world will also start hating you, which is likely to cause many diplomatic plays against you.

The only way to lower Infamy fast is to wait. Since it decreases at an extremely low rate, you should always keep an eye on your Infamy and make sure that you don’t pass that 100 Pariah mark that will destroy your country. If you do, the only thing that could save you are cheats.