Infamy (called "badboy" in the game files) is a value that represents a country's overall threat to other nations. When the infamy of any nation becomes 25 or higher, all other nations of the world will take notice and may declare a punitive war to maintain the global balance of power.
Infamy Costs
These costs only occur outside of the Casus belli system, which determine infamy gains from the justify war action.
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Add to Sphere | +4 |
| Release Puppet | +0.5 |
| Make Puppet | +5 |
| Disarmament | +11 |
| Demand State | +10 |
| Annexation | +22 |
| Break a Truce | +2 |
| Debt Collection | 0 |
There are also several events and decisions that increase or decrease infamy.
Modifiers
- POP Consciousness: When above 1.0 in the nation, this creates a modifier of +0.01 consciousness. (This can be modified in the static_modifers.txt file)
- Great War: While in a great war, infamy costs for the "justify war" function are reduced to 33%
Reducing Infamy
The following actions reduce infamy:
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Monthly reduction (at Peace) | -0.10 |
| Monthly reduction (at War) | -0.033 |
| Release a nation | -5 |
| Monthly reduction for being disarmed | -0.10 |
Gamey Options
There are several "gamey" ways to reduce infamy:
- A great power can sphere
Colombia, build The Panama Canal which annexes a single province, and release 
Panama as a vassal - A formable country can release a nation in the same culture group just before it forms the nation and annexing it again. E.g.
Sweden can release 
Norway and 
Jan Mayen just before it forms 
Scandinavia; 
Prussia can release 
Danzig before forming the 
North German Federation; NGF can remove an insane amount of infamy while forming Germany. It is however at the cost of 5 prestige per nation released. - Germany and Italy can release puppets to reduce the infamy. If their puppets are in their own sphere(for example, Lucca in Italian sphere) than the event will make the formable countries annex them free. This is unlimited, but at the cost of 5 prestige.
- Since demand concession casus belli will cost less than 5 infamy，it is beneficial to annex a province with foreign cores and release said nation as a puppet For example, Annexing provinces from
Oman and releasing 
Zanzibar, 
Zulu can release two puppets including 
Natalia, 
Panjab's 
Kashmir can release two countries. - If one gets an event that gives a free casus belli, one can take a province with a releasable nation and release it.