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Stellaris Influence Tips and Tricks

  • from PLITCH
  • 09.01.2024

We don’t expect anything other than massive and extensive strategy games from Paradox Interactive. In Stellaris, Influence is essential for your empire. However, it’s not easy to increase Influence in the game, especially since there are a few factors that, if you don’t pay attention to them, can cost you a lot of it.

In our Stellaris Influence tips and tricks, we’ll show you the best way to get Influence, what to watch out for, and how to make your life easier with PLITCH in this massive strategy game.

1) Stellaris Influence: Interesting facts at a glance

What can you do with Influence?

With the resource Influence, you can realize many things in Stellaris. Its importance is accordingly high. You need it to recruit researchers, maintain outposts, initiate the construction of buildings, or explore new planets and to enable diplomatic specialties.


Where can I find the influence value?

The amount of influence your empire has can be found in the overview bar at the top of the screen. In addition to the influence, all other important resources and information about your empire are also displayed there.


How much influence can I have in Stellaris?

The limit for influence per empire is 1,000, which cannot be increased.


How much Stellaris influence do you normally earn?

Every month you receive 2 base points of influence. The amount is also influenced by various factors. For example, outposts cost you Influence, while rivalries with other races give you a plus on Influence in Stellaris.


2) Influence in Stellaris

Why do you need influence?

The resource is a crucial factor for your empire. Because you need this for many things in the game. As an example, Stellaris Influence is needed to exert diplomatic influence, make claims, or, as mentioned earlier, run outposts.


What can’t I do without influence and what dangers are there?

If you don’t have enough influence, you will lose important possibilities in the game. For example, it will be difficult to manage your empire, expand it or influence other nations at all. If you have alliance partners, there is also the threat of problems due to a lack of influence.

Hint: In general, your gain rate from influence remains relatively constant in the game. However, some factors can increase it.


3) Increase your Stellaris influence: Here’s how!

Improve buildings

To increase your monthly base value of Stellaris Influence a bit, you should turn your attention to the planetary capital. Here you can help increase this resource by upgrading buildings. However, the influence you received from building upgrades was removed with the Utopia update. Instead, there are now permanent factions.


Research technology

As part of researching technologies, you can provide a +1 bonus to Stellaris Influence with various research.


Mark targets as rivals

For about 2 to 3 more influence, you can choose 3 rivals in space. If you mark them as such, you’ll receive the mentioned bonus monthly to your base value.


Wars and humiliating opponents

You also gain influence in wars. There you have the option to humiliate your opponent. In addition to an influence gain of 100, the inhabitants of the opposing empire become unhappy, which reduces the increase in influence of the attacked empire by about one-third.


Mandate fulfillment after elections

Every 4 years you have the option to gain up to 200 influence by fulfilling a mandate as elections in a democratic empire take place periodically. The winner of these elections will be declaring the mandate.


Protectorates: Protecting empires

Protectorates are another option. If you have more than 50% technological advantage over the part-sovereign territory, then you get +0.25 monthly influence added.


Anomalies and events

As you explore space, you will encounter anomalies and other events. These can give you a decent “influence boost.”


Cutthroat policy

Since the cutthroat policy was introduced, you not only have the possibility to reduce the maintenance costs for edicts by a fifth. Much more you get +1 on the monthly influence. You can either choose the cutthroat policy right at the beginning or add it later as a 3rd variant during research.


Non-aggression pacts

If you enter into non-aggression pacts in Stellaris, the game mechanics grant you a small bonus to influence. It is important to note that this does not apply to defense pacts. For those you have to spend influence.


Factions

Another gain in Stellaris influence is possible if a permanent faction with democracy has a parliamentary system, which makes the inhabitants of a faction happy within the framework of politics. Here the influence is increased by 50% by the respective faction.


Leaders

Apart from the already mentioned options, some leaders give you a +1 bonus to influence each month.

Important: The limit of 1,000 influence is currently permanent. There is no way to increase your Stellaris Influence above this in the regular game.


4) Save influence

Since influence in Stellaris is not only an important resource for your civilization, it’s often very limited. While other resources like minerals can be produced or mined, this is not possible with influence. However, since you depend on influence for your administration and expansion into other star systems, you should save it wherever possible.


Outposts cost influence

One option to expand your sphere of influence and grow your species into a powerful civilization is to expand quickly. This is where outposts help you. Also, if you’ve found interesting or particularly resource-rich systems and want to “secure” them for later colonization, outposts will help you. The catch, however, is that they cost influence.

If your empire grows and you are busy with diplomacy, research, war, or even the influence of other powers, you may lose sight of the outposts. This circumstance can cost a lot of influence! Therefore, it is important to always keep an eye on the outposts and to dismantle those that are no longer needed.

This also applies to those that have been set up to expand, meaning outposts that only served to reach distant planets to colonize them.


Mutual assistance pacts and other treaties

From a diplomatic point of view, however, some factors cost you influence. If a faction is guaranteed independence, you’ll have to stand by that civilization in a military conflict. This declaration will cause you to lose 0.5 influence. The same applies to joining a federation or inviting someone to join your federation.

It gets interesting with the agreements. Some agreements cost you up to 0.25 influence. This includes any research agreement, trade agreement or migration agreement. For a defense pact you even lose 1 influence.


5) More tips on influence in Stellaris

As already mentioned, it is important to keep an eye on your Stellaris influence and especially on its “expenses”. Especially because the game is so deep and extensive, details get lost quickly.

However, you can find extensive information in the information boxes that are displayed to you in the game. This way you can also keep track of exactly what you get influence for and where you lose a lot of the resource.


What to consider regarding outposts and species

We have already gone into some detail about outposts. They always consume influence, and if you’re not careful, you’ll quickly end up with excessive influence expenditures. To minimize this, you can start with the outposts. The more of them you have, the harder it is to increase your Stellaris influence. After all, each one costs a monthly upkeep of the resource.

So, if an outpost is no longer needed, you should tear it down. You can also think about colonizing planets in the star system instead of permanently operating an outpost.

Overall, these are not meant to be long-term solutions. They serve mainly as a short-term “reservation” of systems so that the competition does not settle there. Nevertheless, to be able to use some permanently, the expansion “tradition” should be unlocked. This way the maintenance costs of influence for the outposts can be halved.

Attention: Especially at the beginning of Stellaris, the uncontrolled building of outposts can quickly end in a hopeless situation for your empire.


Choosing the right species

Stellaris offers a huge variety and countless challenges. This is not only true for megastructures such as ring worlds, habitat stations and more, but rather for the definition of the species you choose to play with. You define unique starting elements as well as the form of diplomacy. It’s precisely there that problems can arise with regard to influence.

Spiritual races offer a rather easy start. It can also be worthwhile to start as a slave nation and negotiate a migration agreement with another civilization. Less helpful in terms of influence are purely military empires. In order to keep them happy, you have to expand quickly, build more outposts and wage war.


Gain Stellaris Influence faster with PLITCH!

Stellaris is demanding and rewarding, but also at times quite ruthless. Those who make a lot of mistakes will quickly find themselves facing major problems. Even a collapse of your own cherished civilization is not uncommon. To increase your Influence in Stellaris, we offer you our 40 Stellaris PLITCH codes.

With these cheats, you can add influence to your empire with just one click. The same applies to many other resources, energy credits, exotic goods, and more. Customize the game to your liking and start PLITCHing.

Happy Gaming!