Ready to elevate your Crusader Kings 3 game? These advanced tips will help you outwit rivals, maximize your resources, and dominate the medieval world. Whether you’re a scheming count or an emperor of empires, there’s something here to sharpen your edge.
1. Optimize Role Checks with Spouse Focus
Before triggering events that rely on skill checks, switch your spouse’s court focus to the relevant attribute. This gives you a critical bonus and improves your chances of success.
2. Boost Opinion Before Sending Gifts
Switch your spouse to a Diplomacy focus right before sending a gift. The higher your diplomacy stat, the more opinion the gift generates.
3. Passive Income with Golden Obligations
Unlock the Golden Obligations perk (Stewardship > Avarice), then have your Spymaster uncover secrets. Demand payments for hooks—especially from nobles in large realms. Strong hooks regenerate after a few years.
4. Manage Extra Heirs in Partition
Too many heirs under Confederate Partition? Imprison and let them perish in the dungeon—or execute them if you’re willing to accept the kinslayer penalty.
5. Only Form Alliances When Necessary
Avoid bloating your diplomacy with unnecessary alliances. Form them only to secure your realm or support offensive wars.
6. Multicultural Beats Multifaith
Multicultural realms are more manageable than multifaith ones. Convert counties to your faith early to reduce revolts and increase control.
7. Stop the Mongols Before They Snowball
When the Mongols spawn, declare war early to disrupt their momentum. Alternatively, assassinate the Khan to throw their empire into chaos.
8. Appease Powerful Faction Leaders
Factions are led by their strongest members. Focus on swaying or placating them first to dismantle dangerous factions before they rebel.
9. Reassign Vassals for Easier Management
As an emperor, delegate vassals to kings. Managing five kings is far easier than handling 20+ dukes and counts directly.
10. Strategic Use of Holy Orders
Found a Holy Order within your territory by granting them a city. They’ll stay loyal and free to use in your holy wars.
11. Farm Prestige Through Opportunistic Raiding
Attack weakened armies or raiding targets during civil wars for easy prestige gains—great for tribal realms or early expansion.
12. Cheese More Allies with Betrothal Loops
Betroth, call the ally into war, break the engagement, and repeat. It’s a prestige sink, but can stack allies in critical wars.
13. Win Wars via Kidnapping
Start a kidnap scheme against a ruler. Just before success, declare war—capturing them instantly ends it in your favor.
14. Double Up Scheme Agents
If a character joins a scheme organically, invite them manually too. They’ll stack bonuses twice (until fixed in patches).
15. Make the Pope Your Kin
As a Catholic emperor, vassalize the Pope, ensure all Papal lands are external, then maneuver your relative into the papacy via inheritance.
16. Break Low-Tier Artifacts for Gold
Destroy gray or green-tier artifacts for 40–80 gold. If your faith includes Aniconism, gain Piety as well.
17. Chain Wars for Efficient Expansion
Declare multiple small wars simultaneously to expand faster and save time on troop rallies, sieges, and truces.
18. Keep Key Characters Off the Battlefield
Regularly check your knights roster to make sure valuable characters (heirs, Spymasters, etc.) aren’t risking death in battle.
19. Recruit Talent via Matrilineal Marriage
Marry high-skill characters (e.g., physicians, stewards) matrilineally to courtiers. They’ll join your court and serve your realm.
20. Cheap Court Positions via Invite
Want a good court physician or tutor? Use the decision menu to invite candidates, then appoint them—cheaper than recruiting nobility.
21. Upgrade Education with a Smarter Spouse
If your spouse shares your education trait at a higher tier, you may passively improve your own education over time.
22. Unlimited Dogs via Pet Events
After your dog dies, select the puppy patronage event chain again. You can cycle loyal canine companions indefinitely.
23. Let the Pope Handle Problem Lands
Grant disputed or rebellious lands to the Pope. Your enemies will have to attack him—not you.
24. Use Stress to “Retire” Rulers
Want a new character fast? Use stress to self-delete a ruler. Greedy? Give away gold. Lustful? Reject advances. Push stress to 100+ and let nature (or madness) take its course.
25. Play for the Story
Don’t fall into min-maxing paralysis. Try weird cultures, unlikely marriages, or ambitious schemes. The best CK3 moments are unscripted.
My Gaming Tutorials 
Leave a comment