Victoria III has now reached a level of content that might've been expected at launch, and has changed significantly since then. So many older guides may no longer be helpful.

This guide was originally written for v. 1.5.9. It has been updated for 1.8.3.

This guide is meant to help newer players learn how to play Victoria III - but only after they've played the tutorials in-game to learn the bare basics. This guide will focus on Japan but a lot of what's here can be used for other countries as well. We won't be going too far into the game. Just far enough to give a basic template for opening moves.

The original guide was written before the release of several updates that radically altered the flow and mechanics of Victoria 3. For example, Peasant Levies no longer give a boost to the Shogunate's Political Strength. As a result, some parts of the guide are being rewritten.


Historically, Victoria III covers a major period of Japanese development - the rapid industrialization of the Meiji Restoration, the Russo-Japanese War, and Japan firmly becoming a major player in the East.

Japan is a great nation to learn how to play the game with, as you can learn how to build an industry without major outside interference for some time due to having the Isolationism Trade Policy law and your starting states have the raw resources to build an industry with.

Victoria III is an open-ended game without an objective end-goal in mind. But the game does nudge Japan towards trying to replicate its real world accomplishments with its Journal Entries.

Because of that, the goal for anyone learning how to play with Japan should be:

• Build a functioning industrial base.
  
• Expand the industry to start handling population needs.
  
• Modernize.
  
• Activate the Honorable Restoration.

At game start, Japan is an agrarian society with the Shogunate (Landowner) Interest Group as being firmly in charge. While you have some factories to handle goods production, you have no Tooling Workshops and a mere two Construction Sectors - meaning if you do nothing, you'll never industrialize.

Your starting laws and leaders firmly keep the Shogunate in charge - having Local Police Force boosts Shogunate Political Strength by 5% due to starting with a level of Institution, and Serfdom by a staggering 50%. That doesn't count your generals or your leader - which combined boost it by another 25%. That is a combined 80% boost!

But there is one law here that isn't typical - Frontier Colonization. This is a colonization law that allows your nation to colonize - but only if you're adjacent to your target by land (or in Japan's case, by strait). You might recognize this if you played a tutorial with the United States.

Japan starts the game colonizing the island of Hokkaido, slowly taking bites out of Ainu Mosir. The benefit of Frontier Colonization is that it gives unincorporated states a 50% boost to Migration Attraction. In older versions of the game, you could also colonize Sakhalin. However, the game now blocks you from doing so until you have completed the Honorable Restoration.

Your colonization is also slowed down by the Ezo Contract-Fishery System, a modifier that cuts Assimilation and Colony Growth Speed by a whopping 70%. It expires in 19 years, meaning it'll last until about 1860 on its own.

Technologically, Japan starts with the basics. Other than Colonization, Japan does not have any technologies past the third row in Production, Military or Society research - and in some cases still has technologies outstanding in the second row (Mandatory Service for Military, Cotton Gin for Production). And because you start with no Universities, you are capped at 50 Innovation per week, despite having a hypothetical maximum that is twice that.

Your starting military is actually quite large, though it's purely infantry and it's Irregular aka the lowest rank. While you have the technology to recruit Cannon Artillery and Hussars, you lack the manufacturing base to support any artillery units and it would take some time to recruit the cavalry - time you need elsewhere at the start of the game.

You start the game as an Unrecognized Major Power, meaning that Europe can and will eventually target you with hostile Diplomatic Plays - either to force your to open up your Market (force you to switch Trade Policy to Free Trade) or to make you a Puppet through other means. Patches have made France and Britain more aggressive against you, meaning you'll need to improve your military slightly to avoid being forced to open in the 1840s. This will be RNG dependent, but we want to get opened in the 1850s or 1860s.

Becoming a Recognized Nation has been changed significantly since the guide was originally written and is beyond its scope.

With all that in mind, to really hit the ground running we've got several things to do. First, check the Shogunate Interest Group. We need to see what character Ideology their leader has. In the current version, he will either be a Jingoist, a Traditionalist, a Moderate, or a Pacifist.

A Jingoist means you've got the best possible start, Pacifist means the worst start, and the others are neutral. You can opt to restart the game until you get Jingoist (or not Pacifist), but we won't be making any assumptions for this guide. Keep the Ideology in mind for your next move - initiating reforms.

That 80% bonus to Shogunate power needs to be your top priority. Anything you can reasonably do to reduce that bonus, to reduce Shogunate cloud - do it.

Your first Law reform will depend on your Leader's Ideology. If your leader is a Jingoist, start enacting the Professional Army law under Army Model - you'll have no real chance of neutral or negative (Debate/Stall) outcomes at checkpoints. If you have a Pacifist, swap your Policing law to Dedicated Police Force. The Samurai will support the change, but it will take longer.

This is why Jingoist is the best outcome - you need to get off of Peasant Levies anyway. It severely limits the size of your standing army, gives you a 10% penalty to your army's morale, and boosts the Political Strength of your Aristocrats (who are roughly 60% part of the Shogunate).

In older versions of the game, you could Suppress or Bolster Interest Groups. You can no longer do that, instead doing so for Political Movements. Political Movements can enable you to pass some new Laws (as can Agitators) and can pressure your Interest Groups to hire leaders who have their Core Movement Ideology. At the start of the game you have three - Absolutist Movement (Absolutist), Japanese Supremacist (Ethno-Nationalist), and Mahayana Traditionalist (Traditionalist).

None of these three Movements help or hurt us in the short-term, but keep an eye out.

Next, your research. Patches added the ability to queue technologies. Your goal should be to beeline to Lathe, then Line Infantry, then to Atmospheric Engine.
Why these technologies?

• Cotton Gin doesn't provide an immediate advantage - you have no Cotton Plantations at the start of the game. But it's the prerequisite for what you really want and some Cotton Plantations will help make Construction Sectors cheaper.
  
• Lathe unlocks advanced production methods for your Textile Mills, Furniture Manufacturies, and Glassworks - these will help create the starting demand for Lead and more demand for Tools.
  
• Prioritizing getting to Line Infantry will help you improve your military enough to prevent Europe from opening your Market too early, and waiting a few years will give you time to build the supply chain you need to sustain an Arms Industry.
  
• Atmospheric Engine unlocks a new production method for the Mines you'll be building, increasing production and creating more Coal demand. This technology is crucial for helping change your Construction Sector's building methods off of Wooden Buildings and onto Iron-Frame Buildings. It also unlocks the Motor Industries building, which you'll need for Railways down the line.

Next, your budget. You need to industrialize as fast as possible.

We're not going to touch the Taxation Level yet. While increasing the level will create a penalty to Interest Group attraction to any groups currently in government (the Shogunate), the game in its current version penalizes it heavily. You'll move it to High as your Construction Sectors build.

We'll also introduce Consumption Taxes that will target people with money. Services and Transportation are a good start, as is Tobacco and Porcelain. That should leave you with 675 Authority remaining. We'll use 300 to activate Promote Social Mobility on Kansai, Kanto, and Tohoku to help shift them into your new industries, 200 on Road Maintenance for Kansai and Kanto, and 100 for Encourage Manufacturing Industry in Kanto.

If you've done this correctly, you should have income of roughly 18.2K and 75 remaining Authority.

You only have two Construction Sectors at the start of the game, which will never get you what you need. With the introduction of Market Access Influence Price (MAPI), you are heavily incentivized to keep the supply chain of goods within the same state if you can. For Construction Sectors, that looks like this:

• Wooden Buildings: Fabric and Wood
  
• Iron-Frame Buildings: Tools, Fabric (but less), Wood (but less), Iron
  
• Steel-Frame Buildings: Tools, Glass, Steel, Explosives
  
• Arc-Welded Buildings: Tools, Glass, Steel, Explosives, Electricity
  
  We need to prioritize our Construction Sectors in provinces that can support Wooden Buildings or will make the switch to Iron-Frame. Your two starting Sectors are in Chubu and Kansai. You start with three Logging Camp locations at the start of the game (Tohoku, Chugoku, and Chubu), though almost all your States can support them. Your Fabric is almost entirely from Subsistence Farming, which will go away as you build. Kanto, Tohoku, and Hokkaido have Iron Mines available, while Kyushu and Hokkaido are your only sources of Coal.
  
  Normally this means Hokkaido is your best source of Steel, but with its low population and your colonization penalties that's decades off. Kanto and Tohoku are the best picks for early Construction Sectors, though investing in your current ones is also prudent.
  
  That means one Sector in Kansai, and five in both Kanto and Tohoku.
  
  After your Construction Sectors, you need to queue up Tooling Workshops. Two levels in Kansai will be good enough to start - you don't have any demand yet.
  
  After those, Logging Camps. You start with three locations at the start of the game (Tohoku, Chugoku, and Chubu), but two of the provinces you're building Construction Sectors in don't have them (Kyoto and Kanto). 5 levels in Kanto, 3 in Kansai, and 5 in Tohoku will help supply your new sectors.
  
  Next, Cotton Plantations. One level in each of your Construction Sector provinces (Kyoto, Kansai, Tohoku) will give you local production to affect MAPI.
  
  After that, I highly suggest building up Iron Mines in Tohoku and Kanto, and Coal Mines in Kyushu. This is to get you in position for when you're researching Atmospheric Engine to immediately increase your Iron supply. At least two levels of Iron Mine in Tohoku and Kanto, and at least two in Kyushu.
  
  Then, an Arms Industry in Kanto. You may be close to getting Line Infantry depending on how Technology Spread affects you and you'll need something to delay the inevitable European intervention. The Iron Mines you've built will affect MAPI.
  
  To review, you're going to build as many Construction Sectors as your increased tax rates allow, make buildings that feed your Construction Sectors that will reduce costs, and create the buildings you need to support the next tier of industrialization. You're not trying to make anything dirt cheap - yet - you're making sure you have enough supply for the demand you're about to create. And you're also trying to ensure you don't suffer an early opening.
  
  
  Before You Unpause: Diplomacy
  While Japan is Isolationist, there are still things you can do. You can still declare an Interest in two Strategic Regions (your third is locked out due to Isolationism), and you can still increase relations with anyone that's declared an Interest in Japan.
  
  The Interests don't really matter at this stage - in earlier patches it made sense to rush Colonization and get a Colonization Institution that let you colonize Africa, and that's where you'd plant the Interest.
  
  What does matter is the Improve Relations Diplomatic Action - you'll have four choices at the start of the game, and there's two correct answers: Great Britain and Russia. You can add Great Qing and Joseon if you want, but I like to keep my points open in case any other European powers get interested.
  
  You want to increase relations with the British and Russians to avoid an early war with them. While this can be a good thing if they're seeking to open your markets, the AI is unpredictable and might make other demands (especially Russia on Sakhalin), and you don't have an army that can go toe to toe with them yet.
  
  
  Before You Unpause: Production Methods
  We don't have any way of producing or importing Tools yet, so changing Production Methods for all our buildings isn't a great idea right now. But we do have capacity we can maximize.
  
  We start the game with a Shipyard in Kyushu, so we can build Clippers. We even start with it fully staffed, but it's losing money since the supply is greater than demand.
  
  The quickest way to fix this is to upgrade the production method for all of your Fishing Wharves to Fishing Trawlers - you already have the production capacity to support it. This is the kind of thing you'll need to do in order to manage the economy as you modernize - create production capacity to support your modernizing economy, then implement the new method when you can afford it.
  
  There are two more Production Methods that are worth swapping onto - Market Squares and Free Churches for Urban Centers and Secular Administration for Government Administration. This creates job openings for Interest Groups that you'll need (Clerks, Shopkeepers and Bureaucrats).

While you could unpause the game right now, take a moment to look at the Journal. Patches added a new Journal Entry: The Terakoya System.

While this is active, you have a -10% malus to research speed and a 25% bonus to Education Access and completing it swaps out the -10% malus for a 15% bonus and a -5% to your Bureaucracy for 9 years.

It will require a Level 3 Institution for Education, which your current Laws (Serfdom) won't allow. Since Serfdom is also the largest source of the bonus to Shogunate Power, it's just another reason to get rid of Serfdom at the earliest opportunity.

Speaking of the Shogunate, it's time to talk about the Honorable Restoration. This has changed dramatically since earlier versions It states it will only activate once the Shogunate is out of power, you haven't declared bankruptcy, and either:

• You're in a Revolution.
  
• The Shogunate is Marginalized - meaning their Clout is below 5%
  
• Your government's Legitimacy is 50 without the Shogunate

There are two ways to do it:

To do the Restoration peacefully:

• The Shogunate Interest Group cannot be Powerful - meaning their Clout can't be above 20%. At the start of the game it's close to 50%.
  
• The Shogunate can't be part of the government, so have some other groups in charge that can create Legitimacy.
  
• There's no insurrectionary Interest Groups, and Japan is at peace.
  
• Japan owns all of Kanto - one of your starting states.
  
• All of the above have to be true for 10 total years - progress does not reset if something goes wrong.

To do the Restoration quickly:

• Defeat the Shogunate in a Revolution.

Getting the Honorable Restoration by beating the Shogunate means the Shogunate has to radicalize enough to launch a Revolution and then you have to beat them. While you can hypothetically beat the Shogunate as the group launching the Revolution, you fail the National Agenda if you don't have the Monarchy as a Governance Principle for your Laws.

You will also fail the National Agenda if the Shogunate reenters the government. So once you kick them out, you need to ensure whatever government emerges can be recognized as Legitimate.

European intervention can make the Honorable Restoration much easier. If a foreign power submits a Demand that insists on 'Investment Rights', it means they are trying to force your Trade Laws onto Free Trade. If Japan is forced onto Free Trade - and only if they are forced - the Shogunate suffers a 75% penalty to their Political Strength. That makes the Honorable Restoration easier, though depending on how your country has been built it may lead to a very powerful Buddhist Monks (Religious) Interest Group for a while.

We want to delay this so we can create enough of an industrial base to survive the expenses we'll incur by going Free Trade- that's typically 10K in income.

Victoria III may not hardcode a 'win' state, but it certainly has certain expectations of Japan. Let's look again at what we want to do as Japan again - but this time, with what we're going to do to further each step. Some of these we've already started taking steps towards.

• Build a functioning industrial base. Maximize the Construction Sectors and pay for them with Goods, create a Tooling Workshop, create demand for those Tools, and lay the foundations of a functioning internal market.
  
• Expand the industry to start handling population needs. Stabilize the budget, eventually increase supply for goods our Pops need.
  
• Modernize. Activate more productive Production Methods, build Railroads, and eventually build Government Administration. Get rid of Serfdom at the earliest opportunity to get the Education Institution to Level 3.
  
• Activate the Honorable Restoration. Reform laws to reduce the Shogunate's bonus to Clout. Build up support for the Intelligentsia and Industrialists. Be ready to take advantage of a Revolution if the Shogunate is ready to go to war.
  
• Avoid going into debt at all costs - your Laws and economy can't survive a debt spiral, especially if Europe opens you up.

You are now ready to unpause the game.

There is no accounting for every scenario the AI will pursue. But there are several general tips and things to be aware of that can help you modernize.

It's possible the Ainu Mosir will declare war over your colonization of Hokkaido. They cannot field an army to resist you and you're early enough in the game that Europe will not care to intervene. Don't mobilize your entire army - create a second army with 5 Infantry and a general.

A feature that was patched in is a distinction between Government Construction and Private Construction. Both rely off your Construction Sector pool, with a percentage of it being dedicated to Private Construction.

Government Construction is what you directly ordered built, and should focus on expanding things you'll know you need in the days ahead. Construction Sectors, things to feed Construction Sectors, Resources, Factories, etc.

Private Construction is the game's way of trying to replicate private actors' investment into your market. It will occasionally expand buildings on its own.

You should focus solely on supporting and expanding your Construction Sector in the early goings - Private Construction will handle a lot of what else happens.

Within the first few year sof the game, you may see Agitators appear in your country. These are Characters who will push to create Political Movements independent of your political parties, and the earliest way to get some reforms passed when your more liberal/industrial oriented parties are still weak.

While you can invite Agitators in some countries, Japan does not have that option due to Isolationism. So whatever the game hands you is what you get access to.

You will typically also see the emergence of the Peasant Movement (Land Reformer). Once their Activism is high enough, they will start pressuring your Interest Groups to change the Law off of Serfdom and onto literally anything else. As you build up, the Peasant Movement will grow and agitate.

Take advantage of your Political Movements and Agitators whenever you can while balancing the Shogunate's approval. Your top priorities should be Land Reform to either Tenant Farmers or Homesteading, Economic System to Interventionism, Taxation to Per-Capita, and Bureaucracy to Appointed.

• Traditionalism is objectively a terrible law, only beat out by Extraction Economy. -15% MAPI, doubling Nationalization Compensation, cutting Investment Pool contributions by half! Its 25% penalty to Taxation Capacity is cancelled by the -25% Bureaucracy Population Cost Modifier. You won't be able to switch off it any time soon - it's locked behind Serfdom and unless you're exploiting Corn Laws to get a Market Liberal in charge of the Shogunate you'll need the Industrialists to gain strength first. But it will greatly help your budget when you switch in the long-term.
  
• Appointed Bureaucrats increases your Taxation Capacity, gives 25% Political Strength bonus to your Bureaucrats, and the Intelligentsia will attracted fewer Aristocrats employed in Urban buildings. It's helpful countering penalties to Taxation Capacity with your starting laws, but doesn't immediately help you chisel away at the Shogunate. It will affect your Bureaucracy balance though.
  
• Tenant Farming and Homesteading are Land Reform Laws that replace Serfdom, and if an Agitator or Political Movement arises demanding one of these that's great! At a minimum, you're cutting the Shogunate's largest bonus to Political Strength in half and you're forcing your Subsistence buildings off of the Serfdom Production method. Homesteading replaces Aristocrats with Farmers as well. If you aren't able to quickly get Professional Army or Dedicated Police passed and a movement for either of these comes up, consider letting it build strength for a bit before switching onto it if enacting your first Reform still doesn't go well.
  
• Only switch to Per-Capita Taxation if it doesn't lose money. The game will surface this for you if you hover over it in the Laws screen.

While you may unlock new Production Methods or build new factories, be careful not to create too much demand too quickly. Nevermind introducing penalties to production, the game doesn't seem to like it much.

That's why it's helpful to slowly roll out your starting demand for new Goods, like swapping Rice Farms onto Harvesting tools or Livestock Ranches onto Butchering Tools once you have a Tooling Workshop online before putting the Logging Camps onto Saw Mills, or introducing Gas Streetlights and Public Trams into your Urban Centers when you have Coal and Engines (with Railways researched).

Once you have the ability to produce Steel, you have a free-ish hand to build according to your preferences. Start looking at your market prices and building Goods to compensate, decrease the cost of goods your Pops need, and reduce the price of intermediate goods that your more advanced factories will use - such as Iron and Coal once you have stable Steel production.

Not anytime soon. While Japan starts with hilarious penalties to Tax Collection due to a low Taxation Capacity (which these buildings can fix), some of that penalty is due to the Traditionalism Economic System Law (-25%) and you still have enough money in the early game to power through the penalties. Your Bureaucracy balance will dwindle as you build and as you switch off of Traditionalism and Hereditary Bureaucrats. Try to pace your Government Administration construction so you can absorb the Bureaucracy cost of these laws before and as you pass them.

Universities in your first years are a trap, even though they'll boost your piddling research speed. They cost money and time that your economy needs to build basic industry. At a bare minimum, have your Iron and Coal Mines built.

A full modernization of the army - meaning Artillery - should wait until you've started building Railroads. Your economy needs time to be able to support the factories you'll need to support the Goods necessary (Arms Industries, Artillery Foundries). I recommend building these in Kansai and then do not start upgrading your units yet. Build enough production capacity to eventually support your army, but don't create the demand just yet.

Japan the future naval power, has a fleet only on paper. You don't have the industrial capacity to support building a navy right now (Military Shipyards) or an advanced military capable of say, beating up Joseon or Great Qing. This can wait until you're close to figuring out whether you're going to achieve the Honorable Restoration peacefully or by force.

Check your production for Construction Sectors and Tooling Workshops; do you have enough Wood to supply them? Do you need to increase production capacity? Is it time to switch Production Methods for Tools to increase your production and create that starting Iron demand? Do you need to start building Cotton Plantations to feed your Sectors?

Get used to checking your Market Prices with the Market screen (F4 shortcut). It'll tell you what your most pressing needs are for production and eventually import.

As a last resort, you can destroy some Construction Sectors to balance the budget. I don't recommend doing this until you have anindustrial base.

By 1840 you should have some Tooling Workshops online, you're on your way to Line Infantry, you're building the your first Iron Mines, you're still colonizing Hokkaido, and depending on RNG you've got at least one new Law enacted. You'll also probably unlock some other technologies through Technology Spread this year as well. If you're lucky it'll include Stock Exchange to improve MAPI.

You probably have enough of a handle to start on your own from this point forward, but let's go over a few more things.

By 1840 you should start to figure out whether or not you feel comfortable trying to achieve the Honorable Restoration as quick as possible.

In older patches (and maybe newer ones made after this guide is written), you could destroy Barracks in every state that wasn't your capitol and cheese the Revolution. It is still possible to do this, but it's quite tedious in this patch and risks Europe deciding you can be opened.

A less gamey version is to not instigate the Revolution until after you've built up your Arms Industry. Then, once the Revolution starts being staged (but before the war begins) start upgrading your army to Line Infantry - which you should have by this point if not through Technology Spread then you dedicated time to it. The AI will not have upgraded their troops, giving you a serious advantage. As long as you manage your fronts effectively, they will not be able to win despite having ostensibly a 2:1 advantage on you.

You can achieve the Restoration peacefully as well, by continuing to pass laws that remove the Shogunate's bonuses to Clout and building out your industry to create more opportunities for Industrialist and Intelligentsia aligned pops - increasing their Clout.

Reset the game. You don't have an economic base that can survive opening yet. Consider building your military more next run.

No it will not. You have to submit to an Investment Rights demand. Any other demand either needs to be fought against (especially if it's a Regime Change) or you have to reset your run.

Victoria III is, in my opinion a mixed bag over Victoria II. The diplomacy system is less tedious in my opinion, and while building out the economy was horrendous at launch compared to Victoria II, it's at least manageable now. The military system meanwhile.... less said about it at launch, the better.

I hope this guide helps you learn the ropes and feel more confident in your efforts.