I Ranked Every Lifestyle in CK3

[@stevenkusuma2089]

average martial enjoyer hatin on learning, that is a classic 💯

[@Soul_Tomato]

Why think when we can unga?

[@giantsdudeful]

@@Soul_Tomatomore think is more money. I like money to hand more spend my ooga booga caveman brain

[@Basileus1453]

S. Stewardship, Learning A. Diplomacy B. Martial C. Intrigue D. The sheer amount of money (and by extension soldiers) you get from stewardship is absolutely cracked. Learning lets you blaze through the tech tree, boost your dev ridiculously high, living to the ripe old age of 100, educate your kids and grand kids to be gods among men, get a shit ton of stat boosts from Learn on the Job (which is a fucking cracked perk btw), all while buying tons of claims.

[@Soul_Tomato]

Interesting. I agree with no D tier. Idt any of them deserve that

[@Basileus1453]

@@Soul_Tomato Yeah the thing is is that they are all good, it just depends on the player. If you like war, martial is the best. If you like scheming, intrigue is the best. For me stewardship and learning are the best cause I like making so much money that when I decide to start conquering everyone will crumple and fall apart like wet tissue paper.

[@melkormorgothbauglir.4848]

@@Soul_Tomato I'm your average Martial enjoyer but even I think Learnings the best tree hands down.

[@Mooregames13]

yep in an achievement run I have 90% of my characters go steward with the odd learning to help catch up in tech (you can always form a hybrid culture to do this as well)

[@PerfectAlibi1]

Yeah, Diplomacy you generally just want for a few specific things. Martial you don't need yourself, but you want on your generals, remember your character doesn't need to lead their own army. Intrigue just allows you do be a bit better at intrigue, which unless you want to kidnap people for some reason, you get through other means.

[@duncanbeilke1388]

Scholar is so good. Cultural fascination gain is great and so is the dev. Learn on the job can boost your stats by like 3-5 if you have good councilors across the board and the personal and hostile scheme succes chance is also fantastic. Overall great tree

[@Soul_Tomato]

A fair defense!

[@kylehollenbeck9585]

Yeah scholar is solid. I would say that the other two learning trees are situational. Whole of body is only good for situations where you know you need to live long on that specific character in order to accomplish something (good for the Duke to King tier transition or the king to empire). Theologian is really only good for the first reformation of a unreformed religion or if you need to change your religion to accomplish something

[@chrisrubin6445]

boost your stats by 3-5? you gotta breed yourself some genetic super cousins as councillors my friend! I get like 7-12!

[@Xelarious360]

August is incredibly good for tribal, because you pay for Men at arms with prestige. Uniting west slavia goes crazy with true ruler and 2500 men at arms.

[@Soul_Tomato]

That’s a good point. For tribal it seems very useful.

[@pacmansays]

Yeah August is super strong as tribal but not very useful elsewhere

[@TVBenSifka]

Yeah I pretty much always go with diplomacy for tribal because of extra prestige and offer vassalisation it’s actually insane

[@peterfeuerbach5231]

I get what u mean however I raid so much and then found lots of duchies so prestige is never an issue for me. Besides raiding always earns me lots of money

[@nathler]

Playing a female ruler instantly makes Seducer such a good perk. 40+ opinion from every male and not just rulers, sooooo strong.

[@bangchanswebbrowsinghistor5145]

Good to know I wanted to try but I was scared to get overwhelmed

[@mylesj4380]

Learning in C tier and stewardship in B is nuts, learning on the job alone gives you like a +2-4 to all your stats and stewardship is just always a great stat to have

[@Soul_Tomato]

Stewardship I can agree putting higher but for my play style I just have no use for learning

[@mylesj4380]

@@Soul_Tomato that’s fair, I’m a diehard tall player so learning and stewardship are always my go to, but I recognize why they otherwise wouldn’t be as useful to different playstyles

[@chrisrubin6445]

the steward tree is enhanced so much by the learning tree!

[@TVBenSifka]

You’re fully underestimating the 20% of councilor skills, it makes it so that basically the lowest any skill you’ll have ever is 15, and usually more than 20 if you’re playing to keep your councilors good. It’s also such a substantial dev and fascination boost. Scholar is pretty much always my 1st or 2nd tree when playing tall

[@PerfectAlibi1]

Stewardship is best lifestyle, followed by Learning. When you have money, more personal holdings and knowledge. You can buy loyalty, build up your holdings, buy stronger armies, research tech faster, live longer and create your own faith to best serve your needs! Just a small MaA can stackwipe much larger armies, with just a small amount of army buffing buildings!

[@bigk24]

Agreed. Money solves all problems in ck3 except development and random skill check events. Learning fits into solving those development and event problems. I can tell you are another Ironman player who isint risking his whole playthrough on a martial build

[@PerfectAlibi1]

@@bigk24 Yeah, I play ironman. Tier 5 Stewardship, Golden Sovereign, also gives +25% Learning lifestyle xp ^^

[@chrisrubin6445]

agreed about the money, but I rush scholar and whole of body first. Scholar for more domain size from "learn on the job". Whole of body for longer life. Then architect for even more domain size, and I survive to finish the steward trees because of whole of body.

[@PerfectAlibi1]

@@chrisrubin6445 Whole of body I just do as my ruler gets older. At most just going for "know thy self". Scholar tree gives domain? Maybe a little bit from "learning on the job" if you have a good Steward, but not that much. Theologian and Administrator trees I take the least often. The former if I need more piety or want a new faith, with the latter if I need my vassals to like me more.

[@vaclavskarda4415]

Gallant is an absolute must if you are a small realm or an adventurer now, it makes you be able to punch way over your weight class

[@shashumgadimbo6857]

martial characters when I hold thrice as many holdings as them and drown them in a mercenary swarm

[@Soul_Tomato]

Huge brain

[@njames69]

Learning (if culture head) is ridiculously overpowered, the stat boost from getting 20% of councilor skills is INSANE and pedagogy almost guarantees you don’t have a single D-tier heir. I’m a martial enjoyer mainly but learning is very OP.

[@Soul_Tomato]

I refuse to learn >:(

[@coogerlion]

If you go overseer, then you get like +1 control per month, and when you combine that with the counciler task you can get 100 control pretty easily

[@Soul_Tomato]

That’s true

[@McHobotheBobo]

Overseer is critical for integrating large areas (so super useful for small expanding rulers) and the perk that prevents control loss from hostile siege is also critical for small rulers or highly centralized realms. The finisher is super weak, but the tree itself is incredibly strong as a whole. I generally go a few perks in on each tree for the optimal build in a given situation (usually that's rushing Never Back Down, then Sappers, possibly defensive prep or conscription) and then lock down strategist and overseer. I often skipped the marriage side of gallant before legitimacy but it is stronger now, but if I'm marrying a good inheritable traits wife and don't care about acceptance I may go Whole of Body to keep my unifier alive as I tend to do many campaigns as smaller realms like Cumbria or Zunbils. Also do not sleep on dread it is the easiest way to secure slightly unruly vassels with minimal investment. Dread is effective as a deterrent at as little as 10-15 dread

[@asenhore]

For me intrigue was always a way to go - I can never resist abduction and war declaration on same day (or press claims). The cheesiest way to win any war same day, without even lifting a finger + you don't really need to stick with Intrigue lifestyle as soon as you get abduction perk.

[@Soul_Tomato]

Yeah the cheese is real for sure but I hate playing that way

[@StillOnFire]

It's always interesting what people see as the best/worst lifestyle routes. I like to try to mix it up with my different rulers, depending on their stats. I think we all have certain trees we may rate higher than others, though. For example, I find learning (especially scholar) to be one of my favourites to work with. When I have a ruler I'm having a good run with, then whole of body becomes a must have when they hit 60-65. I've never been one for schemer, but I do try and go down them trees with high intrigue rulers (although, I don't know.... I always sigh when my heir has good intrigue, to be honest. Stewardship is pretty OP imo, who doesn't love the architect tree. When I first started playing CK, I would always go down the martial trees, but unless I'm playing as a ruler with high martial, I will hardly ever touch it anymore. I will say, I think there is no terrible lifestyle choice, even seducer can be solid... if you're playing as a female ruler with high intrigue stats.

[@Felipe-yv4bc]

overseer tree is critical when you conquer new territory you plan to keep for yourself, getting that control up quicker is very important

[@zenmastakilla]

You never need diplomacy though, appeasing your vassals, liege, and other rulers is super easy. If the game was harder you'd be onto something.

[@Soul_Tomato]

Idk man I’ve played a ton of games where my vassals all HATE me lol

[@Archaeologyhat]

The August tree can be pretty great if you're a tribal character early on and want to punch a bit above your weight, given prestige = men at arms. It's fairly niche but combined with some martial stuff can help an early character really carve out a realm.

[@Soul_Tomato]

Yeah a couple people have mentioned this. I think it’s nicheness dropped it down for my own playstyle

[@riseagainstthemachine6079]

Buying claims is really good imo. I often when I play tall, i get claims on 4 different empire titles before i start conquering

[@0Demiyah0]

In my playstyle I love stewardship and learning. I like to play relatively tall. I try to maximize my development, upgrade all my buildings for more income, live long life, educate children to be OP, and unlock cultural innovations early on.

[@TheJinnobi]

Gallant is absolutely cracked if you go Kinship as one of your Dynasty focuses. No Prowess loss due to age? Yes. Plus, you get that special Accolade knight (perk 4) that makes family never die in combat when combined with the Warfare Dynasty (perk 3) and high Prowess.

[@chrisrubin6445]

I love these teir lists becuase theyre so subjective. It puts into focus how we all have unique playstyles for this strange strange game we love.

[@Soul_Tomato]

Exactly! You get it. I ruffled a lot of feathers for some reason but it’s literally just made in good fun haha

[@antilad5584]

L learning good for tall

[@Soul_Tomato]

Tall is chill but I’d rather go stewardship for it.

[@sjmcmichael]

@@Soul_Tomato Porque no los dos?

[@antilad5584]

@@Soul_Tomato stewardship for the buildings but you need learning for the dev growth bonuses plus the research/ cultural acceptance bonuses help alot (basically the scholar tree the other ones are mid - 20% counciler skill to urs is peak perk)

[@sirnetflix7162]

This video really just highlights how each player approaches the game. In my opinion, the worst tree is easily Intrigue as literally all three trees are for hyper specific-playstyles. Just FYI, everything I'm saying is in good faith and I mean no offense by it. But I feel you overhyped administrator pretty hard, but I'm a min/max player, I don't care at all for roleplaying (except select religious playthroughs). The "Claim Liege Throne" scheme is never needed in my opinion to overthrow your liege. You can do SO many things to cause your liege to fail. Hell, I always just change my contract to force Council Rights, become spymaster, and then just murder them. It's that easy. Then, keep murdering away until a kid takes the throne or the kingdom is weak enough, then bam, independence faction and you win. If you really want to take it far, you can use the Abduction cheese to just kidnap your liege, declare war, and just instantly win (as you mentioned). Moreover, I think the Learning Tree slander is particularly egregious. One could easily argue that Martial is TECHNICALLY useless (aside from the Dread middle tree). Why even bother leading your own armies when you can just train commanders with your marshal on the council (a task I think many people neglect to use)? Plus, once you know the game, it's pretty easy to just become OP with MAA, so the bonuses Martial gives you is just overkill. You could invest into Learning (or stewardship) to build up your realm while your strong commanders can lead the armies for you. You kill two birds with one stone.

[@iniudan]

I rarely go all out on learning, but still one of my favorite lifestyle, usually take it for 5 years and go all out on pilgrimage during those years, as you earn bonus lifestyle point from pilgrimage while on one of them (once you maxed the pilgrim trait you get 300 just going to a site). Do it mostly to get pedagogy and scholarly circle.

[@Awesomewithaz]

August for tribal is probably B

[@Soul_Tomato]

That’s probably fair. I just never use it for tribal.

[@alexkzy5210]

The way I play: Learning > Martial > Steward > Diplomacy > Intrigue

[@scottbeatty8533]

Given a lot of what you can do in CK3 is predicated by having income, I think Avaricious is of much greater value than Admin. Also on a side note, I find intrigue in general does better in a more developed game though even then I've never found much use for it beyond killing rivals and fracturing larger powers.

[@sjmcmichael]

One thing I don't see talked about much with the Avaricious trait, is that you get stress gain from the same actions that give you stress as a greedy ruler. You can obviously play into that, since Golden Aplomb gives you monthly income per stress level, but I hardly ever take it since it then becomes a stress management game, and I have enough of that in my real life. I might take it if I'm generous, but if I'm greedy, forget about it.

[@Soul_Tomato]

That’s an excellent point actually

[@Cruxador]

Learning (in general, and scholar in particular) is goated for long play, because it mostly increases things that you can stack long-term across all characters. It's low tier for you because you play short games only.

[@bru5142]

Learning is op u can easily get high stats on everything with "Learn on the job" and being alive till 100 is good

[@Killerkwoi13]

I feel the same way about intrigue like I just do not play the game in that way to enjoy those skill trees however learning is absolutely great, particularly if you’re doing religious stuff or trying to get cultural innovations quicker. Also extending your characters lives is just never a bad option because succession is the biggest challenge in the game so putting that off is always ideal

[@kirjoittajajoni]

Almost all games when you don't start as a feudal government I try to go learning right away to try and get the realm feudalized asap

[@PSYCHOSCION]

if you start out with a Martial character and want to conquer everything I would say overseer (Authority focus for the focus) is the better option of the three. I would start with Bellum Justum to quickly declare wars but overseer is most definitely the best way to go for a martial character. With raiding cultures, you can use the money you get to buy mercs which you get for a significant discount. With the control gain you quickly can get control back of your lands and the lands of the vassals you have after wars and if you put the correct vassals under you they will love you because you get a good bonus from dread. I've had vassals befriend me because my dread gave me that big of a positive on the like and dislike ratio. Overseer is also nice with stewardship and martial so it's a nice perk to get.

[@daedalusdreamjournal5925]

Gallant is actually useful. It's more useful not just when you're young, but also at the early stage of the game, especially in the 800's and even more if you're tribal. The thing is, the right side of the track is the only one that matters. Specifically more knights and 75% more knight effectiveness at the early game is powerful.

[@vitaminc2161]

This is obviously coming from someone who plays ck2 a lot and still plays the same way in ck3

[@davidcoquelle3081]

Every campaign you take whole of body you live so Much longer

[@melange78]

Yeah, wrong again. Scholar is not C tier. 20% boost to cultural fascination is not C tier unless you have passed the maximum cap. When you get to the point where Scholar is C tier you have probably already done most of what you want to do in the game.

[@mementomori771]

Stewardship+learning is crazy especially with 5 star education Stewardship

[@bigk24]

Best combo

[@nairicin]

diplomacy can be so overpowered sometimes- you can "take over" aka vassalize whole kingdoms without going to war if people like you enough. learn language scheme can be useful since it gives you a +5 opinion modifier but it takes so long it's not even worth it half the time

[@Soul_Tomato]

Yeah vassalize power is crazy

[@nanasolo6936]

imo the only good trait in the august skill tree is true ruler. The prestige gain isn't even that detectable when ur tribal since all the prestige get from raids and battles

[@VinzBuff]

Learning is the GOAT

[@yandespar3490]

Diplomacy is the most useless one for me. If i have problems with vassal opinion, I'll just buy them with gold and feasts i can afford with my gold that i have thanks to high learning and stewardship

[@davidcoquelle3081]

Learning ranking is crazy

[@martymcfly6289]

Gallant is great. The knights man, the knights

[@rusael333]

Overseer + Torturer are very fun for bullying your vassals

[@Agent-smith21]

Never in my wildest imagination i thought I'd see diplomacy on s tier, but i guess i never gave it shot

[@Soul_Tomato]

Give it a go!

[@RoleCrow1]

I´m probably just bad at the game, but i never find a useful way to use diplomacy in my playthroughs, beyond that one perk that gives your kids extra skills

[@Soul_Tomato]

That’s alright. Everyone plays different!

[@neogenesis0038]

I always start out as the lowest possible rank in one of the most fractured kingdoms, so my brain is hardwired to go Martial. Diplomacy becomes much more useful for me when I'm a King or Emperor. However, there is something to be said for swaying a very powerful ruler then negotiating a treaty, and having them conquer for you, or potentially marrying into a powerful family so that your children inherit titles later. Think of diplomacy as a way of peacefully getting people to burn down everything in your way for you. You're not bad at the game, it's just the way you play. If it works for you, it's the right way. If I can make one suggestion, try a diplomacy build, and use nothing but diplomacy. If you force yourself to only use it, you'll be able to find out just how truly useful it can be.

[@totallynotmiku]

This tier list is close to how I would rank it. With a few differences.

[@Soul_Tomato]

Nice! How would it differ?

[@Mooregames13]

bro lives through 3 generations while my immortal learning character is 118 (actual oldest age I've gotten to)

[@Akiraspin]

Stewardship is broken. If you get everything in a single lifetime you are potentially increasing your income by up to 40% just raw. Throw in the Fear Tax perk from intrigue and Torturer to give yourself 50+ dread and your terrified vassals will be *doubling the amount of taxes you are collecting passively* not including getting money for hooks and even selling titles you don't want for 200+ gold. I have had games where entire kingdoms make less than 1/3rd the amount of money I do as a single duchy.

[@bigk24]

The absolute disrespect for learning can not be tolerated. Unga bunga martial elsewhere good sir!

[@Tero133]

Legend of Dragoon music... amazing!

[@showbeaut]

Seems like you don’t play this game at all? Cover it, maybe, but play extensively, I can’t see based on these picks. Learning and stewardship are functionally the best trees in the game. Martial/Diplomacy a clear tier below but useful in the right contexts. (Could’ve mentioned the prestige boosts for the august tree being a huge boon for tribal gameplay specifically) Intrigue is bad always.

[@iamkrohn]

Scholar is so good for playing tall

[@melange78]

If you put whole of body at D tier I have to question if you have played the game. You don't have to get the entire tree to get some of the major health benefits and having a ruler that is paranoid without mental resilience is totally useless even if it is a total Chad as you won't be able to do anything with him.

[@Soul_Tomato]

my entire channel would tell you otherwise random person in my comments (it ain’t that deep my dude)

[@bigk24]

​@@Soul_Tomato admit you play entirely different. 1-3 generations for a video. Compared to the 5-8 us achievement hunters and globe painters. Obviously you overrated martial and insulted learning

[@DanielleTinkov]

The more and more I watch these videos the more I’m convinced that based on your play style they are all good. Even the malignant Seducer can be extremely powerful, especially for a female ruler in vanilla rules because it can basically eliminate rebellious vassals, allow you to invite to court the best characters in the game and can give you tonnes of children. I guess if you play as a guy in a hetero world it seems pretty useless because it doesn’t add much except role play, but try to go for a Cleopatra type character and it can shine.

[@Soul_Tomato]

Yeah I guess it just doesn’t align with how I play. I try to also stress that I don’t think any tree is actually bad. Besides maybe learning since it’s not useful for me for my own runs since they don’t typically go past a generation or two

[@Youbeentagged]

Honestly thought this video was an April 1st upload.

[@chukita374]

Dark cloud soundtrack? Based

[@cub-square]

Vassalising everyone of my faith created my first county to empire in one life playthrou. High Kingdom of Siberia fuckin rules! Vassalization acceptence and level of fame impact are esesntial for that kind of playthrou. And I love learning it's good when you need tech and it helps in develpment and of course longer life when you have a good character.

[@jorikrouwenhorst7220]

As they say: Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

[@Soul_Tomato]

And I realized after that she wasn’t even the first to do it haha but whatever

[@TheRadexl]

Ranking lifestyle in ck3 it's like ranking flavor of ice cream. Everyone is good if you like them.

[@martimsousa2601]

Fr

[@Soul_Tomato]

Exactly. Some flavors appeal to me more than others

[@TheRadexl]

@@Soul_Tomato I'm martial guy as well. but is alvays fun to change sometiching and find out new thinks.

[@Soul_Tomato]

Of course. I mean I rank Diplomacy over martial even if I use martial more

[@TheRadexl]

@@Soul_Tomato I like to mix martial with learnig. Going like philosopher warrior. Making best warriors and commander becouse steel is cheap and human life is priceless.

[@ubershrimp69]

Intrigues is S tier if you’re role playing a villain

[@Soul_Tomato]

That’s…not wrong

[@melange78]

Only if you play like a Count or a Duke. It is never S tier if you play a King or Emperor.

[@eshsavage6784]

The only True S tier imo is Stewardship becuz you can never have enough gold. All the others are strong or weak depending on what state of the game your in and the realm you hold. -Martial isn’t really needed if you have a great commander or marshal plus marrying a martial spouse. -Intrigue can be great to kill of anyone vassals who hate you or a claim war you know you will lose so you assassinate the claiment but useless if you have loyal vassals -Learning is broken to tech rush or just stay alive but thats pretty much it -Diplomacy is great if your an Emperor or King but thats about it

[@ultrauncanny4328]

The disrespect for Learning 😢

[@hamddanahmed3451]

I barely use diplomacy, I always go for others before diplo

[@Soul_Tomato]

I barely use Intrigue or Learning. Hence their ratings.

[@hamddanahmed3451]

Understandable, I would rate diplo as the same way as you do the others since I barely use it, im tempted to try it out more with your video

[@Soul_Tomato]

Give it a whirl. Everyone plays different. Really I find them all fairly balanced.

[@TheAdrinachrome1]

Lets say you go down the gallant tree. Lets also say you've also learned how to stack knight modifiers really well. I mean really well. I've been at 800%. (75% of that from the gallant tree). so lets do some math. 1 knight prowess is what? .8 of a levi? so a 10 knight is worth 6400 levies? something like that. But to get to 800 you have to take only the strong which means that the minimum prowess a knight can have is 12... so 7680? Lets say you're a count and you've gone down the gallant tree but have not significantly advanced your level of fame. thats 12 knights? so... 91k worth of levies? so lets say you go down the august path. you get to level of fame impact and that coincides with reaching your highest level of fame (or at the very least the august tree makes it much easier to achieve) so now you have 16 knights... which is 122k levies? And thats bare minimmum prowess knights. it's more likely your knights avg prowess would be 20 which means... 200k levies? idk man. edit: to be sure you aint getting an 800 modifier as a count. impossible I think.

[@Soul_Tomato]

This sounds wild but this also sounds fundamentally like cheesing, which I am vehemently opposed to

[@TheAdrinachrome1]

​@@Soul_Tomato Most of it is just basic - some cultural traditions, 1 martial perk, 1 legacy perk, a royal court, and a councilor task. black smiths in all counties. Some luck with items. maybe a good special building or 2 excluding the items and buildings you have like 350% right there with little to no cheese. Now the cheese (but it's like muenster cheese so it cant be that bad) multiple duchies, multiple military academies. end game military academies are giving you 75% each so you can see easily how absurd your knights will eventually become - but end game ck3 is such a slog to get to honestly, however even with just 350% and very little (maybe even no?) cheese you have the edge in every battle you find yourself in

[@Swagger-Boy]

Lol love your videos mate but you don't play like a pro 😂

[@Soul_Tomato]

@@Swagger-Boy but I am a pro, therefore I play like one *head tap*

[@bigk24]

He plays like he is making a 15 minute video and can throw the campaign away after the video. Because he literally does😅

[@ily-u3w]

Probably the most contreversial ranking I've ever seen

[@WorcomSxpro-oy1di]

Kalpli altın yorumları 🎉🎉❤❤😊😊

[@Lilyclu]

I have so much fun being intrigue focused and murdering my way through other courts to position good marriages for my family members. Like objectively is it the best thing ever? Probably not, but having two murders going at once and just knifing everyone who is a mild inconvenience is a blast. tbh I like quite a lot of trees for the very bottom. It's neat that you can get some lifestyle experience by travelling around if you play it right cause it usually lets me grab the likes of befriend and scientific while not having to jump lifestyle if I don't want to.

[@Soul_Tomato]

A fair point about grabbing extra skills at the bottom of other trees

[@melange78]

Learning is capped in the game due to the development and the cap on discoveries but it is still A tier minimum due to its synergic effects on everything else like health and being able to learn other stuff like Stewardship and Martial.

[@Soul_Tomato]

I can see its merit as a bystander, just not for me

[@TheDudeWithEmpathy19473]

Yeeeeah diplomacy is super boring though :/

[@Soul_Tomato]

Yeah it can be but so can constant war so I guess it depends how I’m feeling