The common modifiers available to all nations are:
+5 from the Empire rank +5 from being a Great Power 0 to +5 relative to your religious unity +5 during your Golden Age +20 after resolving the “Court and Country” disaster
Further modifiers are based on your government type and your estates’ privileges and land ownership. For your actual absolutism, you can immediately increase or decrease it by using these actions: You can also get yearly absolutism from these modifiers: You can check your absolutism in the Government tab. The two icons in the middle will show you these values. Hover over these numbers to see the modifiers that are affecting them.
Modifiers to Maximum Absolutism
Government
Monarchies are better positioned for absolute power, because their legitimacy attribute grants a scalable +10 to -10 max absolutism. Certain nations have access to special power structures that have major absolutism modifiers. You can get further modifiers from these two generic reforms: Republics are complicated as they have a -40 max by default. However, they have the most number of reforms to offset that malus. You’ll also have access to these generic reforms: Theocracies have fewer reforms, but two of those can contribute to your yearly absolutism growth. Tribes only have two reforms, but both add up to +35 max.
Estates
Privileges can reduce your max absolutism by -5 or -10. Their bonuses are useful in the early game. However, they usually become irrelevant in the Age of Absolutism. For example, the burgher’s “Patronage of the Arts” gives you +0.5% annual prestige but incurs a -5 max absolutism. There are plenty of ways to max out your prestige later in the game, which makes this burgher privilege unnecessary. To revoke a privilege, the estate it’s attached to must have their loyalty higher than their influence. Doing so will make their loyalty drop by 20%. You’ll likely need to wait for their loyalty to normalize again before you can revoke another privilege. Alternatively, completing an estate’s agenda boosts their loyalty by 10–20%. You can also grant them monopolies. These special privileges add 10% to an estate’s loyalty equilibrium but won’t increase their influence. This makes it easier to revoke other privileges. Note: Monopolies also reduce your max absolutism by -5 and have a 10-year duration. You can’t revoke them until that period has passed. The percent of crown land you own will influence your absolutism values. The exact numbers are: Pressing the “Seize Land” button in the Estates tab will give you 5% crown land. However, you can only do that every 5 years. All of your estates will lose 20% loyalty too. If you’re also revoking privileges, do that first before seizing land. The loyalty loss may prevent you from doing the former. You can also get 0.2% crown land every time you develop a province. Tip: Like with privileges, you should start seizing land around 1550. By the time the Age of Absolutism begins in 1610, you’ll already have a significant amount of crown land.
Age of Absolutism
The Age of Absolutism comes with three abilities that are useful for raising absolutism:
Efficient Autonomy -50% cooldown for decreasing/increasing autonomy Harsher Treatment -50% harsh treatment cost Absolute Government +1 yearly absolutism
Age abilities cost 800 splendor to unlock. You can gain +2 monthly splendor for each Age objective fulfilled. Five of them can be met before the Age of Absolutism, giving you a strong head start.
Have at least 3 trade companies Have a land force limit of at least 200 Have at least 5 accepted cultures Be the Emperor of China with at least 50 mandate Has won the Religious League War
Note: The League War will only break out in Germany. Though difficult, it’s not impossible to be part of it while also trying to become the Emperor of China. Surviving this disaster for 10 years can potentially give you a permanent +20 max absolutism. To trigger it, you must meet these conditions:
Must not have an ongoing disaster At least 1 national unrest Less than 3 stability Must be at war At least 50 absolutism
If you already have 50 absolutism, then the safest way to meet the other requirements are to: During the disaster, you’ll get:
-20% national goods produced modifier -20% national tax modifier -20 max absolutism
You’ll also receive monthly events which let you choose between:
Fighting rebels and gaining +5 absolutism Losing -5 absolutism and increasing a random province’s autonomy
You must take care not to get overwhelmed by rebels. If they force you to accept their demands, the disaster ends and you won’t get the permanent modifier. “Court and Country” will end after these are met:
No provinces are occupied by rebels At least 0 stability Less than 2 war exhaustion 10 years have passed since the disaster began
The permanent modifier depends on how much absolutism you hold at the end of the disaster. Tip: Make sure you’ve completely taken care of your estate privileges and crown land before attempting this. You’ll need at least 85 maximum absolutism to counter the -20 malus and get the most out of this disaster.
Raising Absolutism
This is much more straightforward than setting up your max absolutism. Aside from events like those in the “Court and Country” disaster, you can manually gain absolutism from these actions:
+2 from Strengthen Government +1 from Decrease Autonomy (scales with province development) +1 from Harsh Treatment +1 from Boost Stability
Strengthen Government
You’ll spend 100 Military mana to restore 10 points of your main government attribute:
Legitimacy for monarchies Republican tradition for republics Horde unity for horde nomads Devotion for theocracies
Decrease Autonomy
This is the most efficient way to raise absolutism, because it doesn’t cost anything. The province/s only need to have at least 10% autonomy. This reduces a province’s autonomy by -25%. A province can only have its autonomy changed every 30 years. It’s half that number if you have the “Efficient Autonomy” age ability.
Harsh Treatment
This costs 50–200 Military mana depending on the size of the target rebel faction. The cost is halved if you have the “Harsher Treatment” age ability. Using this on a rebel faction reduces their uprising progress by -30%.
Boost Stability
The base cost for boosting stability is 100 Admin mana. This gets +50% more expensive for each positive point of stability. Stability is capped at 3. Note: Stability gained from events won’t add to your absolutism.
Benefits of Absolutism
Each point of absolutism gives bonuses to your army discipline, your administrative efficiency, and your provinces’ retention of foreign cores. At 100 absolutism, you’ll get:
+5% Discipline +30% Administrative Efficiency -50% Foreign Core Duration
Admin efficiency reduces the mana cost for creating cores and annexing vassals. Modifiers that increase admin efficiency are rare, and absolutism is one of the earliest ones.
