How does Diplomacy work in Victoria 3? Answered

Learn how to make friends and influence people.

Image via Paradox Studios

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In grand strategy games, how you handle diplomacy can make or break your playthrough. Victoria 3 is no exception. If you don’t handle many of the moving cogs right, you might just find yourself in a World War with no allies on your side. And since nobody wants that, you will need to learn exactly how diplomacy works in Victoria 3.

Related: How diplomatic plays work in Victoria 3

Diplomacy working in Victoria 3, explained

Screenshot by Gamepur

The first thing most players think about when talking about Diplomacy is the relationship between countries. Many countries can have many different interests when it comes to your country and your territories. Depending on the circumstances, three big factors will decide how successful your diplomacy will be with your neighbors:

Attitude is the one that can help the most. Attitude is an indication of how a specific country thinks of you. Even if your relations with a country were bad, you could still get a positive Attitude from a country. This stat will mostly depend on your position geographically and your current allies and rivals.

Relations are the bread and butter of Diplomacy. There are two extremes one might find themselves with their neighbors when it comes to Relations: -100 or +100. Depending on the situation, you might even want bad Relations with a country, as having them surpass +20 will usually result in being unable to attack that state.

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Infamy is the threshold that keeps countries from going crazy and conquering the whole map in a single day. It can also destroy your diplomatic relations with all the countries in Victoria 3 if you let it go too far.

Screenshot by Gamepur

All of the diplomatic actions you can take in Victoria 3 can be easily accessed by pressing the Diplomatic Lens button at the bottom of the screen. Here you can see everything, from declarations of interest (needed to declare war) to diplomatic plays and actions. There are many diplomatic actions a country can take, which can result in alliances, trade agreements, and even rivalries.