Which Innovations to Get First in Crusader Kings 3

While CK2 had technology tied to your ruler's culture, not individual counties, CK3 adopts a much more centralized approach.

The world of Crusader Kings 3 is a rich tapestry with threads of culture intermingling with politics and technological advancement. Innovations, as a ruler, will stand as one of the strong tools at your disposition for shaping the fate of your dynasty. While all Innovations have their effects, some will be much more useful to you compared with others, depending on the situation in which you will find yourself.

Those who rule their own culture have reason to invest in selective Innovations, as this can often yield great benefits. You can maximize the effect of technological advancement on your realm through considering what is likely to happen as a result of each decision. Whether military, economic, or diplomatic, these many Innovations in Crusader Kings 3 provide a sea of different paths to follow.

It can be the realization of which innovations align with your goals far into the future that provides complete success. Each option weighed against its reverse means that one's dynasty can stand at the top within technological advancement and cultural development.

Fast Ways to Get Innovations

To access your culture's innovations, click the candle icon near your ruler's head in the lower-left corner. This opens a menu showing your ruler's culture and its innovations. The menu is controlled by your ruler, providing they have more counties of their culture than any other ruler. It doesn't require independence; your liege counts if they share your culture.

The head of the culture needs to be of age. If a child has the most counties in a culture, then the adult with the next-most will be culture head until the child comes of age.

Researching Innovations

To research innovations, several requirements must be fulfilled to research specific innovations:

Era - Your culture must be in the correct era, in terms of gameplay time, which is Tribal, Early Medieval, High Medieval or Late Medieval.

Tribal Innovations Available for all cultures.

Early Medieval - Requires 900 AD, half of the Tribal Innovations, and a non-tribal government.

• High Medieval: Requires 1050 AD and half of Early Medieval Innovations.

• Late Medieval: Requires 1200 AD and half of High Medieval Innovations.

• Cultural/Regional Innovations: Requires being in the region or promoting your culture in enough regional counties.

Innovation Progress:

• Each innovation has a 5% monthly progress chance.

• Fascination: The culture head can choose an innovation to fascinate, adding 24% + Learning skill points to progress.

• Scientific: The Learning perk "Scientific" adds a 20% bonus.

•    Exposure: If a player shares a realm, border, religion, or other exposure-related factor with a neighboring culture that has dissimilar inventions and innovations, they pick up a 40 percent bonus to a random innovation.

Cultural Development:

•    Innovation progress increases cultural development by 0.3 plus a bonus from average county development

•    It is possible that concentrating your culture in a smaller area can amplify the speed of innovation.

The Best Innovations in CK3

The medieval period encompassed many great innovations. Some of these include, but are not limited to, basic Mottes, planning out cities and barracks, and crop rotation. Mottes allowed for the building of castles, City Planning allowed for cities and religious facilities to be built. The barracks provided the building military units required, and Crop Rotation provided improved productivity in agriculture, further bolstering the income of the domain. The order in which these are researched differs depending on the home province, but finding time to research them is critical to development. Ledger also provides a bonus in the form of additional building slots in every settlement.

Military technologies were not to be behind either. Onager for one was one of the major ones. As the first siege engine, Onager significantly quickened sieges. Mustering Grounds provided the option to build more armies, which was always a need.

To those few nations that had presence in Northern Europe or West Africa, Longships and West African Canoes offered significant advantages. For one, the innovations decreased the cost of embarkation. Secondly, it allowed the movement of troops up and down major rivers. Astonishingly, if a culture could establish itself in both regions, embarkation would become absolutely free.

Early Medieval

Battlements, Manorialism, Burhs, and Bailiffs are innovations that give you some key improvements to the inner structure of your empire: Battlements reinforce your main building; Manorialism improves cities and temples. The first three unlock the level-four upgrade for minor and duchy buildings, while Bailiffs allow an extra building slot.

For Military, Mangonels, and Household Soldiers provide substantial bonuses. The Mangonels are 50% better than onagers, and Household Soldiers increases your men-at-arms, with bonuses as long as Mustering Grounds. 

Hereditary Rule introduces Partition, a succession law which enables dividing titles without creating new ones. Unlike Confederate Partition, Partition maintains the integrity of your realm because it limits the number of counties you have under your control to one kingdom or empire title.

The Royal Prerogative will give you High and Absolute Crown Authority, more levies and powers, but at the expense of poorer vassal opinions.

Lastly, Chronicle Writing allows your expansion by way of marriage or spurious claims to be faster by the fact that multiple claims can now be pursued in a single war.

High Medieval

Innovations provide major new improvements within your kingdom: Hoardings, Windmills, Castle Baileys, and Guilds. Hoardings and Windmills are inordinately good, because it opens upgrades to central buildings-a fact the Windmill description does not actually state. In addition, the innovations give two more building slots and two strong windmill and watermill structures.´

Military innovations include Trebuchets, the next grade of siege engine; and Men-at-Arms, a strong men-at-arms booster. Governmental innovations include Heraldry, providing High Partition and House Seniority succession laws, which may well be an improvement over default options. Divine Right allows a strong use, where you can press all of another character's claims at once, whereas yours is limited in such matters.

Late Medieval

With the Renaissance innovations, you experience a new level of power in Crusader Kings III: machicolations, cranes, and royal armories will be an improvement to building capabilities, while bombards and standing armies will be amazingly destructive on the battlefield. Primogeniture makes succession smooth and uneventful, nobody fights over titles. And finally, there's the Renaissance Thought, which gives you a great boost to development, allowing you to expand rapidly. While other innovations grant temporary advantages, the benefit of Renaissance Thought remains permanent and one of substance. It will be one of the most vital elements for your strategy.

We conclude our What innovations to get first in Crusader Kings 3? guide with that little advice, hoping it has been of the greatest help possible in getting you organized with the innovations.