Victoria 3: 10 Tips For Reducing Turmoil

Highlights

• Understanding the reasons for Turmoil is crucial for reducing it in Victoria 3.
• Use the tooltip to assess the causes and focus efforts accordingly.
• Employing Violent Suppression can temporarily reduce the effects of Turmoil, but it comes with a risk of increased state Mortality.
• Adjusting policing laws and enacting specific Policies can help decrease Turmoil penalties and address the needs of Radicalized Populations.

Due to Victoria 3 now letting grand strategy fans focus on Populations and Ideologies just as much as expanding their territories, territories whose populace aren’t satisfied with their current conditions can become Populations in Turmoil. When a state suffers this effect, elements such as Taxation, Migration, and even Construction become less efficient due to the ongoing chaos. Unless players manage to quell unrest, Turmoil can significantly dampen their progress as a nation.

With Turmoil being an extremely negative condition for a state, players of Victoria 3 need to understand how to not just to reduce Turmoil in a location, but also how to avoid this situation in the long run.

Hovering Over Turmoil Numbers May Lead To Interesting Statistics

Before players look into ways of suppressing and reducing Turmoil in their Victoria 3 gameplay, it may help to first check the circumstances leading to Turmoil to address the problem directly. Just like any other stat in the grand strategy title, Turmoil also leaves a tooltip when the cursor hovers over its metrics.

Clicking this number opens a new panel that includes relevant statistics such as the change in Turmoil compared to the past year, as well as another panel that enumerates reasons why the Pops have decided to be in Turmoil. Understanding these reasons should give players a more concrete idea as to where they should focus their efforts, such as subsidizing low-productivity Buildings to create more jobs for Pops radicalizing around unemployment.

Use Violent Suppression Decree At A Mortality Risk

When players witness their state in Turmoil, their Victoria 3 gameplay transitions into a view where Turmoil’s immediate effects are made clear: the higher the Turmoil, the nation suffers Tax Waste, less Migration Attraction, and less Construction Efficiency. Minus all the options players can tinker with, however, a panicking nation leader does have an immediate solution: Violent Suppression.

As with other grand strategy games with similarly-named procedures, the Violent Suppression decree will utilize the nation’s Standing Army to intervene in Turmoil caused by Radical Pops. While this reduces the effects of Turmoil by 50%, it comes at a risk of increasing state Mortality by 2% per Turmoil point, potentially dampening progress to an extent.

8 Improve Policing Laws

Certain Policies Decrease Turmoil Penalties, Radicalism

As proven in history, a strict police force can quickly quell civil unrest depending on the intensity of the police force released upon the malcontent. Such an option can also reduce Turmoil in Victoria 3, courtesy of Policing Laws. Classified under Economy Laws, players can create a specific Police Force depending on existing upgrades and benefits they want to achieve.

When it comes to simple Turmoil reduction, players can research Bureaucracy and enact a Local Police Force to reduce the Turmoil’s State Penalties by at least 5%. Players may go further and research Law Enforcement (Dedicated Police Force) or Mass Surveillance (Militarized Police Force) to begin lessening the threat of Radical Pops to begin with, as these reduce Radicals formed from reduced Standard of Living or discrimination, respectively.

7 Take Note Of Standard Of Living

Turmoil Begins With Radicals

Turmoil in any nation in Victoria 3 doesn’t happen out of nowhere, and it always begins when a particular number of Radicals among a Population decide it’s time for harsher actions. Players who want to reduce Turmoil should learn how to avoid it in the long term by assessing which Populations need more attention concerning SOL.

At its core, a Population group leans towards either Radicals or Loyalists. A lower SOL gives +6% Radicals, while a higher SOL gives +4% Loyalists. Should a Pop start at a lower SOL than their projected level, they also get at least +0.2% Radicals every month. All these values are at their base and could be modified by Laws, Institutions, and effects that increase or decrease Standard of Living.

6 Adjust Policies According To Angry Populations

Specific Pops Have Certain Needs

When players start dealing with Turmoil, they need to look into precisely which Pops have Radicalized. This way, they can determine the specific needs of these Radicalized Pops, and slowly address them to transform those Pops into Loyalists. Since Pops are uniquely created based on their Culture, Religion, and Profession, players need to check exactly what may cause them to become more Radical.

Dealing with each problem specifically means looking into each Pop’s characteristics. In terms of Culture, securing Anti-Discrimination Laws and strengthening National Values could increase their satisfaction. Religion can also be more widely accepted with Freedom of Conscience or Total Separation, while their Professions could be improved by subsidizing Buildings that keep firing individuals.

5 Look Into Business Performance

Output Loop Could Create Radicalization

When players encounter Pop in turmoil, it may help to reevaluate their market. Even if a player’s economy is in the green, looking into the stats of underperforming businesses may reveal a potential cause of Radicalization: quick Standard of Living changes. An unproductive business can go through the process of firing and re-hiring workers whenever they don’t meet requirements. This temporarily decreases Standard of Living for the worker, which in turn can increase their Radicalization.

To fix this problem with any unproductive business, players have two options. First, they can downsize the business, subsidize it, or eliminate it entirely to avoid the risk of having to fire workers due to instability. Second, they may be able to raise the demand for the goods they produce, cementing their role in the market flow.

4 Get Interest Groups In Line

Malcontent Interest Groups Can Influence Radical Formation

Being a game that heavily relies on population management, unique Pops in Victoria 3 are made more unique courtesy of Interest Groups. Serving a large group of Pops that have similar ideologies, Interest Groups are classified under core characteristics and have a direct stake in policymaking. In terms of reducing Turmoil, players need to take note of an Interest Group’s Clout, as it determines their level of power, which affects the outcome of player decisions.

When players enact Laws an Interest Group doesn’t approve of, their Approval decreases and may trigger negative traits if they are Unhappy (-9 to -5). However, at Angry (-10 or less), an Interest Group can add their Clout to Radicals of any movement they choose, boosting the chances of unrest.

3 Think Twice About Migration Prep

Migrants Become Radicals When Discriminated Against

Setting up one’s nation to be open for Migration proves a player’s skill in maintaining a country in Victoria 3. However, maintaining a country’s growth to be a Migration-worthy country is different from when Migrants actually arrive, as Migrants become Discriminated Pops if their new home isn’t prepared to welcome them.

For instance, Migrants who have a different Culture than the player’s nation, or who possess a religion not included in the Church and State Laws, immediately become Discriminated Pops. Their lack of access to complex infrastructures and being common targets for SOL-lowering events sets them up for Radicalization. Players who don’t anticipate their arrival and don’t accommodate them through more open policies may have just entered a Radical-generating machine with no inherent benefits.

2 When Conquering, Anticipate High Radicals

Conquest Can Be Another Term For Forced Migration

Regardless of the intent, players should always anticipate that conquests lead to the formation of Radicals, especially when their accustomed traditions aren’t immediately adapted into the player’s nation. This is due to two elements: Infamy that increases when a player’s nation becomes hostile to others, and post-conquest peoples becoming Discriminated Pops if they can’t be accepted into the nation’s Culture immediately.

When conquering other nations, players should work their way towards reintegrating their conquered people into their own, particularly through power structure adjustments pertaining to Citizenship and even Church and State. Players should also consider undergoing State Incorporation despite the risks, especially since Turmoil already poses high penalties anyway.

1 Move Them Out Of The Way

Letting Go Can Be An Option

Considering how Radicals often result from the plights of Discriminated Pops, the safest path of action is to slowly create social infrastructures that help them and improve overall Standard of Living. However, the flexibility of Victoria 3’s gameplay also gives players another option: give Radicals an out.

The way this method works is akin to using Violent Suppression as a last resort. Instead of risking much-needed money and resources adjusting the nation to suit Discriminated Pops, players may encourage them to simply move to a nation better suited to help them. Aside from presenting more lax Migration policies (e.g., No Migration Controls), players may join a Customs Union or have peaceful relations with nations of a similar Culture or Church and State Policy as the Radicals to encourage them to move.