Influence In Stellaris is very important. You will need to spend this resource to get your empire growing. For each system you wish to claim, you need to spend some amount of it. You have to constantly expend it to maintain your territory and gain powerful upgrades. So with that in mind, here’s what you need to do to keep it flowing. Here are the basics of Influence in this 4X game and what you can do with it.
Hovering over your Influence marker in the top of the UI will reveal how much you have stored, and you can hold up to 1,000 Influence. You will also see how much you gain per in-game month. As you gain more sources of the resource, you can see this number change as you play. And no, you cannot increase the amount of Influence you can store, unless you mod the game.
How to get more influence
Influence can be gained through a few different means. Stellaris gives players plenty of ways to play the game.
Technology
The best way to get more influence in this game is to get technologies and push them up. There may be mods or DLC that add more, but in the base game you’re looking for a few specific sources. Planetary Unification, Colonial Centralization, and Galactic Administration are all the most common ways of getting more. These four technology choices are chained together, meaning you need to research them in order, ending with Galactic Administration.
Each of the four tech choices adds either a direct buff to Influence or a building option to get more. The Galactic Administration technology grants a bit more as well. This unlocks the Empire Capital that can be built to add more Influence generation to your empire.
Rivalry
Having Rivals in the galaxy are the most common way people use to constantly get more Influence for their war effort. Since you need to spend it constantly, and can only hold so much, you need to constantly get more. The more Rivalries you have, the more you gain each month. You need to be aware of your limit to Rivalries, as most empires can only handle so many Rivalries. Certain Ascension Perks and other choices can increase this limit.
It’s also important to manage your aggressive posturing. if you’re too expansionist, you’re going to make too many enemies to be able to handle. You want to make sure you have both an economic and military advantage over any enemies that you try to Rival, at least by a little bit. Be careful though, as you cannot rival empires that are too weak compared to you.
Some other sources that work similarly to Rivalries can also be used to get more Influence. The Will to Power edict can be triggered to add a bit of extra monthly income, a massive amount of five extra per month. Certain civic and ethic choices can help too. Developing the Egalitarian and Fanatic Egalitarian principles grants a 25% and 50% influence gain, respectively. The Parliamentary System civic principle produces a 25% increase too.
Other Options
If the war footing isn’t fitting for you, there are other options. Factions can be a good source if you’re going the diplomatic route. For each faction you are a part of, you’ll receive 2 influence, and this amount can increase, or decrease, based on the faction’s approval of your empire. If you’ve been good about building up your military power, you will sometimes find that a weaker friendly empire will ask to be a protectorate. This will help you get them an increasing tech level, as well as add a buffer state between your enemies and you. You can gain 0.25 Influence In Stellaris for each Protectorate you have active.
