This article is accurate for the latest versions of EU3, Napoleon’s Ambition, In Nomine, Heir to the Throne and Divine Wind.

Reputation is a measure of a state's aggressive or immoral actions in the eyes of both other states and the world public, including one's own people. A higher score represents more perceived aggression/immorality, while a reputation of 0 represents a perfectly peaceful and honorable reputation. It is not to be confused with prestige or legitimacy, which could also be interpreted as matters of reputation - it was renamed Infamy in-game with HTTT and is often referred to as Badboy (BB) on the Paradoxplaza forums as well as in the game's script files.

A bad reputation (i.e. high badboy) has a very wide range of negative effects, from lowering the chances of success in diplomacy, merchant activity, and bribing cardinals to creating a permanent casus belli toward you for every other nation. This is unrelated to Prestige and Legitimacy although they all affect some of the same values - one can be hated throughout the world (high badboy) and still command respect (high prestige) with unimpeachable authority (high legitimacy), much as Machiavelli contended.

An important concept is that of the badboy "threshold", which, once reached, grants every single country the "Dishonorable Scum" casus belli toward you and greatly enhances badboy's other ill effects. There is a base threshold (25-30 depending on game version), but the actual threshold is usually heavily modified by other factors such as the ruler's diplomatic abilities and the active form of government. Since you don't lose stability when others declare war on you and the only penalty for annexing/vassalizing them in return is more badboy, the threshold can actually work in your favor if you aim for rapid expansion; this strategy does not work in DW, where the events triggered by being over the threshold are catastrophic.

Over the course of a year, badboy scores are reduced by 10% of a ruler's diplomatic ability (ex.: a ruler with a diplomacy rating of 4 decreases the state's badboy by 0.4 every year). The Diplomat advisor can add to this decrease. Other options include the Cabinet National idea, glorious monuments () and cardinals (-0.1 infamy per year per controlled cardinal, /), Embassies () and being the Papal Controller.

Divine Wind

• Being a member of the Holy Roman Empire and owning a province inside the Empire for which you do not have a core (-0.25 per year). This means that every province in the Empire you take, you will suffer 12.5 infamy for it (50 years until you get the core x 0.25) - uncored provinces you own that are not part of the Empire do not accrue infamy
• An Embassy founded in a non-core province will reduce infamy by 0.40 per year
• Seizing a colony costs 0.2 BB per province
• 4 BB per province taken in peace deals, subject to reductions by appropriate casus belli.

Heir To The Throne

In this expansion, badboy was renamed Infamy and an icon (shown left) was placed in the top bar of the screen to allow the player to track it.

Also in Heir to the Throne, the amount of infamy gained in a war depends heavily on the type of Casus Belli used - while all CBs lower infamy gain to various degrees, each only removes or eliminates the infamy of certain tributes for peace. For example, the Reconquest CB only removes the infamy for demanding those enemy provinces that you have a core on, and the Dishonored Call CB will only eliminate infamy from forcing payments, core revocation, and concession of defeat.

In Nomine

These things have changed since Napoleon's Ambition:

• Gaining a province that you have a core on never accrues BB.
• Gaining a province made up of your religion AND NOT the current owner's never accrues BB.
• Gaining a province from a heathen country only accrues 0.5 BB per province.
• When an entire country is annexed, each province adds to the total infamy gain differently, according to the formula: 1 + (Religion Modifier) * (Core Modifier).
  • Religion Modifier = 0.5 for heathen, 1.25 for heretic, 2.5 for true faith. Unam Sanctum does NOT reduce this penalty.
  • Core Modifier = 1 if you own a core on that province, 2 if you do not.
• Annexing a pagan country never accrues BB.

EU3 v1.3

Badboy

The following is a list of the actions that increase your badboy points:

• Break a truce : 4 BB
• Declare war with a casus belli : 1 BB
• Declare war without a casus belli : 2 BB
• Turbo-annexing a province you do not have a core on: 2 BB per province
• Take a province in a peace negotiation 1 BB per province
• Annex a country with a core on their capital in a peace negotiation : 3 BB
• Annex a country without a core on their capital in a peace negotiation : 6 BB
• Seize a colony : 0.1 BB for every colony level (can also be used on pagan provinces for 1 BB). Colony levels are: Population 1-100 = level 1, 101-200 = level 2, etc. This means a colony with 901+ population is worth 1 full BB point. Also, any at 901+ (or 900 exactly?) will have to use Assimilate Colony if you wish to convert them to your own Culture.
• Burn a colony : 0.1 BB for every colony level
• Diplo-annex a country : 1 BB per province
• Claim another country's throne : 1 BB
• Force-annex a pagan country without a core on its capital : 5 BB (flat value, regardless of the number of provinces you take - see Note below)
• Force-annex a pagan country with a core on its capital : 2 BB
• Your spy caught trying to assassinate advisor : 1 BB
• Your spy caught trying to sabotage reputation : 1 BB
• Your spy caught trying to Counterfeit Currency : 1 BB
• Your spy caught trying to sow discontent : 1 BB
• Your spy caught trying to fabricate Claims : 1 BB

These actions have no effect:

• Turbo-annexing a province you have a core on : 0 BB per province
• Inherit a country : 0 BB per province
• Force-vassalise a country in a peace negotiation : 0 BB
• Declare war on a pagan country which has no allies when you have a casus belli : 0 BB
• When a rebel province joins your nation : 0 BB per province
• Having war declared on you, including responding to a Call To Arms from an ally in a defensive war : 0 BB

These actions decrease your badboy points:

• Release a vassal : -1 BB/province (once you have totally annexed them, putting them on the "Create Vassals" button on your Overview pane) (in NB you do not get BB reduction from releasing a pagan nation)
• Be the Papal Controller : -0.25 BB/year

A Note About Pagan Nations To make sure you understand: You should not Seize individual provinces of a pagan nation, if you plan to annex the whole nation. There is a flat BB fee for the entire pagan nation, regardless of how many provinces they have (2 BB with a Core on their capital, 5 if not). So annex their whole nation at once in a peace negotiation, to avoid the 1 BB/province if you also Seized their provinces individually. This also applies to any of your unfinished colonies that the pagans may have snuck around and Seized from you during the war - take them back with the peace negotiation, to avoid the BB charge of Seizing it back.

Badboy effects

Having a high Badboy score brings several penalties.

For each BB point, you get:

• -1% to your merchant's compete chances
• +1% to your stability cost
• -1% to your success rate of bribing cardinals
• -1 to diplomatic relations

Badboy limit

The badboy limit is how far a nation can go before other nations get a 'Dishonorable Scum' CB on you () and start to declare war on you very frequently. This can be an excellent way to get wars with lots of little nations without stability hits, but it can also exhaust and destroy an overambitious empire.

The badboy limit is has a base value of 30, which is primarily determined by the following conditions:

• +1 for each DIP point of your ruler
• +10 if your government is a despotic monarchy.
• +25 on Very Easy difficulty
• +10 on Easy difficulty
• -5 on Hard difficulty
• -10 on Very Hard difficulty

Additionally, there are some decisions and triggered modifiers that modify a country's badboy limit

• -3 for enacting Licensing of the press act
• -2 for enacting Witchcraft act
• -2 for enacting Education act
• -2 for enacting Revoke restraint of appeals
• -3 for enacting Colonial expansion
• -3 for enacting Enlist privateers
• -3 for enacting Anti piracy act
• -20 for Large Tribes with a ruler with insufficient military skills
• -10 to +10 for the country's Legitimacy (50 Legitimacy has no effect, every step away from that causes a change of 0.2 to the infamy limit)

Approximate values for some of the infamy descriptions with a limit of ?? are as follows:

• reputation < .30 = honorable
• reputation < 3.1 = respectable
• reputation < 6.3 = slightly tarnished
• reputation < 11.6 = tarnished
• reputation > 11.6 = very bad reputation

Badboy scripting in events

Badboy triggers and modifiers are stated as percentages. For example: "badboy = 0.20". This example in a trigger will be true if the country's badboy score is at least 20% or more of its badboy limit. The NOT command can also be used in triggers to reverse the meaning, so "NOT = { badboy = 0.20 }" would evaluate to true if the country's badboy score is less than 20% of the limit.

Badboy effects on the other hand, are not in percentages, but the real value of the BB. Example: "badboy = 5". This effect will increase the country's badboy by 5 points. The negative sign (-) is used to reduce BB.