Gaining Influence in Stellaris

Influence is a foundational resource when it comes to your empire’s expansion. All empires start out with a base production of 3 influence points per month. Here are the most important ways to increase Influence income.

Power Projection

Power Projection is a simple way, and probably the most effective, to Increase Influence since the 3.3 update. It’s pretty simple really, just build ships until you’ve used enough naval capacity to equal ½ your empire size. If your naval capacity usage is one-half the size of your empire size, you get the maximum benefit of +2.0 influence per month.

For example, if your empire size is 800 and you have a naval capacity usage of 400 then you get the maximum of 2.0 influence per month.

An Imperial Government Authority gives a bonus of 1 Power Projection to Influence, meaning you can gain 3 Influence per month based on your fleet size instead of the base number of 2. If your used naval capacity is equal to one-half of your empire size or more, you will get 3 Influence from Power Projection instead of the base number of 2.

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Edicts

The Will to Power ambition, when available,gives 5 additional Influence points per month until cancelled and costs Unity to enact. It also takes a monthly investment of Unity to keep it active.

Rivals

You can have up to 3 Rivals which will give you a total of 1.5 additional Influence income per month. You must have either Terrible or Tense relations with them and their power, when compared to yours, cannot be Overwhelming or Pathetic. Declaring a Rivalry is considered a Diplomatic Action.

Ethics

Ethics can give you Influence boosts. It’s best to decide on these during game setup since switching Ethics during the game can be very costly.

• Fanatic Authoritarian Ethic adds 1 Influence per month
• Authoritarian Ethic adds .5 Influence per month
• Gestalt Consciousness provides a monthly Influence gain of 1. It also reduces War Exhaustion by 20% and gives you a +2 Encryption bonus.

Traditions

The Domination Tradition, Colonial Viceroys, gives a monthly Influence gain of .5 per month.

Federations

Becoming the President of a Federation can give you additional Influence income, depending on the type of Federation it is. For example, becoming the President of a Galactic Alliance will give you 1 additional Influence per month at level 3.

Relics

The Galatron. Diplomatic weight is doubled, and you receive 3 additional Influence points per month. The relic also generates random resources for your empire.