Summary
- Roleplay as your character in Crusader Kings 3 to avoid incurring stress and mental breakdowns. Make decisions based on their personality traits to reduce stress levels.
- Choose the Learning Lifestyle and unlock the Whole of Body trait to gain a -25% stress gain reduction. This will also improve character health and longevity.
- Befriend other characters and unlock the Confidants perk to reduce stress gained by 5% for each friend. Take part in activities and choose the Recreation intent to relax and lose stress.
The Stress mechanic is one of the best things about Crusader Kings 3 as it encourages players to roleplay as their character, rewarding them for making decisions that align with their Personality Traits. Going against one's nature will incur Stress, the accumulation of which can result in mental breakdowns and the development of coping mechanisms. This can be followed by severe health defects and perhaps death if Stress levels are left unchecked.
Crusader Kings 3: 13 Rarest Formable Empires
The following empires are exceptionally hard to form in Crusader Kings 3.
Often, Stress can be unavoidable in Crusader Kings 3, for example when beloved family members die. Therefore, players need to know how to avoid, manage, and reduce Stress in CK3.
6 Play To The Character's Personality
What Would Your Ruler Do?
The easiest way to avoid piling on Stress and also losing it is to simply make decisions based on the character's personality and wishes, rather than what is best for the state of the realm and the game. This will be factored into every small decision that is presented to the player, but they can also go out of their way to do specific actions that will reduce Stress.
For example, if the player has the Forgiving Trait they could forgive a few vassals or courtiers for crimes and lose Stress. On the other side of the coin, characters with the Sadistic Trait lose stress from executing prisoners. Naturally, players should also avoid actions that cause Stress for a particular Trait.
5 Get The Whole Of Body Lifestyle Trait
Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy Habits
By choosing the Learning Lifestyle and eventually unlocking the Whole of Body Trait, players will not only get the -25% Stress gain reduction, but they will also unlock other great Learning Perks that help with managing Stress. For example, Carefree lowers stress gain as well, and Mental Resilience adds another +3 years between mental breakdowns.
Crusader Kings 3: 7 Tips For Keeping Vassals Happy
Keeping vassals happy (or terrified) in Crusader Kings 3 is essential for a stable realm. These tips should do the trick.
The Whole of Body Trait and Perk tree are not only great for reducing Stress, but also for keeping characters healthy and having long reigns in Crusader Kings 3. The Medicine Lifestyle Focus, which players usually take with Whole of Body, also allows characters to gain some hugely beneficial Traits such as Athletic and Journaller, which reduce Stress.
4 Get The Confidants Perk And Make Lots Of Friends
With Friends Like These, Who Needs to Worry?
One of the best Diplomacy Perks for CK3, Befriend, enables players to use personal schemes to befriend other characters. The next Perk to be unlocked after that is Confidants, which reduces stress gained by 5% for every friend that the character has.
Therefore, by making more friends either through schemes or at activities, players can rack up quite the modifier, meaning that anytime they happen to gain Stress, it will be significantly reduced. The only downside to having lots of friends is that when they die, the player's character will gain stress.
Having lots of friends increases the chance that you will get the Confider event during a mental break. Confider is a positive stress trait that gives you the decision to talk it out with a friend, at the cost of your other vassals' and courtiers' opinion of you. More on "Coping Mechanisms" below.
3 Take The Recreation Intent For Any Activity
Forget Duty or Ambition; Do It for Fun
For most activities in CK3, players can choose an intent that determines what they want their character to accomplish during the feast, Grand Tour, or Tournament. By selecting the Recreation Intent, which is usually the default anyway, characters will focus on relaxing and should hopefully lose more stress.
Players can also attend activities hosted by other rulers, and thus lose stress for free outside of the gold spent on traveling. During activities, players will often be confronted with events that give them other opportunities to lose Stress, although some events will also come with unavoidable Stress.
2 Take On Coping Mechanisms That Aren't Too Bad
Everyone Has a Breaking Point
When characters reach a breaking point in terms of Stress, they will have a mental breakdown and have to choose between a few coping mechanisms or bearing the pain and hoping that by the time another mental breakdown is due to trigger, their Stress levels have been significantly reduced.
Crusader Kings 3: Best Personality Traits
In Crusader Kings 3, personality traits play a huge role in how a character operates. These examples are some of the best.
While certain coping mechanisms should mostly be avoided due to their adverse effects, others aren't too bad. Drunkard, for example, is one coping mechanism that should be avoided, as the -2 Stewardship and Prowess on top of the health loss, are not worth the +20% Stress loss. Characters with Comfort Eater, however, only lose 1 Stewardship, and if players already have a thriving economy in CK3, then the Profligate coping mechanism is pretty much a buff. Some rare coping mechanisms that are only positive, such as Athletic and Journaller, can either be picked up by chance or by taking the Medicine Lifestyle Focus and hoping that certain events will trigger.
1 Go on Hunting Expeditions
It's Not the Destination, But the Journey
For most characters, hunting is the number one way to lose stress in Crusader Kings 3, and with the added ability to attend other rulers' hunts, players can keep on relaxing in the wild. Even if the hunt isn't successful and players don't gain the Prestige they would want, every character who doesn't have one of the worst Personality Traits, Lazy, will lose Stress.
On the menu where players initiate hunts, they can select an option to be notified when hunts are available as there is a cooldown period between hunts. Both the Avid and Prolific Hunter Cultural Traditions lower the downtime between hunts, and the first Dynasty Legacy in the Law track reduces the cost of hosting hunts as well as feasts by 30%. By having more access to cheaper hunts, players should be able to easily keep their Stress levels in check.
Crusader Kings 3 is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Crusader Kings 3: 13 Fun Playthrough Ideas
A playthrough of Crusader Kings 3 is never the same as the next. These interesting ideas can help spice up your next medieval adventure.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
- Released
- September 1, 2020
- ESRB
- T for Teens: Drug Reference, Language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Paradox Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Paradox Interactive
WHERE TO PLAY
Your legacy awaits. Choose your noble house and lead your dynasty to greatness in a Middle Ages epic that spans generations. War is but one of many tools to establish your reign, as real strategy requires expert diplomatic skill, mastery of your realm, and true cunning. Crusader Kings III continues the popular series made by Paradox Development Studio, featuring the widely acclaimed marriage of immersive grand strategy and deep, dramatic medieval roleplaying.
Take command of your house and expand your dynasty through a meticulously researched Middle Ages. Begin in 867 or 1066 and claim lands, titles, and vassals to secure a realm worthy of your royal blood. Your death is only a footnote as your lineage continues with new playable heirs, either planned… or not.
Discover a sprawling simulated world teeming with peasants and knights, courtiers, spies, knaves and jesters, and secret love affairs. An extensive cast of historical characters can be romanced, betrayed, executed, or subtly influenced.
Explore a vast medieval map stretching from the snowswept Nordic lands to the Horn of Africa, and the British Isles in the west to the exotic riches of Burma in the east. Claim, conquer, and rule thousands of unique counties, duchies, kingdoms, and empires.
- Engine
- Clausewitz Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Franchise
- Crusader Kings
- Platform(s)
- PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Grand Strategy
- How Long To Beat
- 70 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
- File Size Xbox Series
- 11 GB (November 2023)
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
