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Tyranny decays over time, and most of your options will decrease the speed at which you lose Tyranny, or decrease how much you gain.
The base rate of decay is -0.25 per month.
How To Speed Up Tyranny Decay & Reduce Tyranny Gain
#1 Personality Traits
Only the Callous trait has any impact on Tyranny. This lowers Tyranny gain by -20%.
A vassal with the Callous trait
#2 Buildings
The Palace of Aachen, a special building found in the county of Aachen, also lowers tyranny gain by -20%. This is typically within the Holy Roman Empire, towards the north.
(Click for full-size)Buffs provided by the Palace of Aachen special building
The Shwedagon Pagoda is another option here with -10% Tyranny gain.
This can be found in the county of Dagon, on the far east of the map.
(Click for full-size)Buffs provided by the Shwedagon Pagoda special building
#3 Perks And Lifestyle Traits
The Soon Forgiven perk from the Administrator tree lowers Tyranny by -0.15 per month. This is the largest active decrease of Tyranny available in the game.
The Soon Forgiven perk from the Administrator tree, under Stewardship
In the Theologian lifestyle, Defender of the Faith is another helpful perk that reduces Tyranny gain by -25%. This bonus is only available for religions with the Righteous doctrine.
The Defender of the Faith tooltip from the Theologian tree, under Learning
#4 Dynasty Legacies
In the Guile Dynasty Legacy, the Venial perk reduces Tyranny by -0.05 per month. This is the lowest active reduction available.
(Click for full-size)Venial, the 4th-stage dynasty perk from the Guile tree
#5 Religions
With the Pursuit of Power tenet, tyranny gain is lowered by -50%. You can add this tenet during a religious reformation.
Pursuit of Power, a religious tenet that favors war and force
The Donyi-Poloism and Sedism religions that are also holding the holy site Pemako lower Tyranny gain by -20% as well.
Various buffs from Donyi-Poloism holy sites, including -20% Tyranny gain from Pemako
The Bidaism and Siguism religions offer both types of benefits, as long as they have the holy site Niani. They lower Tyranny by -0.1 per month and reduce Tyranny gain by -20%.
Various buffs from Bidaism holy sites, including -20% Tyranny gain and -0.1 monthly Tyranny from Niani
#6 Difficulty Levels
The difficulty level you choose can have the largest impact on Tyranny.
On Easy difficulty, Tyranny gain is lowered by -25%, and on Very Easy difficulty it’s lowered by -75%. This only applies to the player character, unlike earlier examples.
The difficulty setting is highlighted during game setup
What Happens When Tyranny Is Too High?
Tyranny gives a scaling debuff to vassal opinion, so you might end up with plots, factions, or other attacks at high Tyranny levels.
A vassal whose negative opinion is mostly caused by the -108 Tyrant debuff
Tip: high individual opinions and high dread can help to mitigate high Tyranny, since characters will either still like you or be too scared to do anything.
Since the chance of factions forming is increased, multiple factions may form at once at high Tyranny levels.
Angry vassals have formed factions and declared war due to high Tyranny
There is no maximum limit for Tyranny, and it can exceed 100, so be careful when taking multiple tyrannical actions and assuming you won’t face the consequences.
The Tyrant debuff has exceeded -100, and is currently at -116
While Tyranny-gaining actions are often useful for dealing with annoying characters, avoid using them too frequently to avoid mass revolts across your realm.
Samantha is a Scottish writer, editor, and lifelong gamer living in Czechia. She loves to travel around Europe and enjoy the outdoors, as long as it's not too hot! She can usually be found constructing her next CK3 dynasty, carving some tails in Monster Hunter, or enjoying a horror show or two.
