

If multiple nations have made investments, each suffers a penalty equal to -50%*(1 - Nation'sInvestment/TotalForeignInvestment). Other Foreign Investors: If a nation has invested in the target nation, a -50% penalty will be applied to all other influencers, unless they reduce the penalty by investing in the target nation themselves.Note that it is possible to have both the Neighbor bonus and Other Continent penalty. Other Continent: A nation on a different continent than the nation attempting to influence it gives a -50% penalty.

Neighbor: A nation that shares a border with the nation attempting to influence it grants a +50% bonus.Relations: A nation's relations with the target nation is divided by ten and applied as a bonus or penalty (allowing for a maximum +20% bonus, or a minimum -20% penalty).Vassals: A nation gets +100% bonus to influence with its puppets and dominions.This has a maximum +100% bonus, against nations with a score of zero, but can become a penalty in the rare case that a great power has a lower score than a non-great power. Power: The percentage of the influencing nation's total score that it is higher than the target nation's total score is given as a bonus to the influencing nation.If all other great powers are at 0 influence and does not prioritize the nation in question, the influence is wasted. Once a great power has 100 influence with another nation, any further influence investments will be spent on reducing the influence reserves of competing great powers. These modifiers are added, so a -50% modifier and a +75% modifier would work out to a +25% adjustment to daily influence gain being applied. You get a base of 0.25 influence per day which is then altered by percentage modifiers on each nation. So the influence is not wasted, but merely spend on other prioritized nations.

You cannot increase influence in a nation if your embassy has been banned by a competing power(see diplomatic actions bellow), you are at war with said nation, or you have a truce with the country, but in these cases that nation is ignored for purposes of influence. Influence is spent on nations automatically, based on priorities set on the Diplomacy screen. Prussia starts the game with a Cordial status in Saxony while it is in Austria's Sphere Influence are generated on a daily basis, and if no country is prioritized, the influence is lost so great powers should always be influencing at least one nation. Similarly, setting two nations to high priority, and setting the same to medium will give the same result. Note that if only one nation has a priority set, it will receive all influence regardless of how high the priority is. The influence you accumulate can then be used for different diplomatic actions with the ultimate goal being the ability to add the nation to your sphere of influence. Influence will be divided among all nations with a priority set, with one share going to nations with Low priority, two shares to nations with Middle priority, and three shares to nations with High priority. Influence is spent on nations automatically over time, based on priorities set on the Diplomacy screen. These nations can influence nation which are not great powers.

Influence is a mechanic unique to the eight great powers in the world. This article is considered accurate for the current version of the game.
