A Traditional Product is a product one of your cultures has adopted, and every settlement in your county makes it faster. On its own that bonus is only 2%, so it’s easy to shrug off. The value is in pairs: when two of a culture’s Traditional Products are linked the way one of its culture traits describes, both get 10% to 25% instead. In regions where that culture makes up at least 75% of the population, the bonus doubles on top of that.
How Cultures Earn Slots
Every immigrant brings a culture, and the culture with the largest share of a settlement’s residents becomes its dominant culture. Each culture also builds up its own renown. Every renown level gives that culture two Traditional Product slots and one culture trait, so one culture can hold up to eight Traditional Products and four traits.
To reach a level, you need a settlement of that level somewhere in your county, plus one of the conditions in the last column.
| Renown | Your county needs a | And the culture dominates |
|---|---|---|
| Humble | Hamlet | – |
| Established | Village | a Village, or any 6 settlements |
| Prominent | Town | a Town, or any 12 settlements |
| Influential | City | a City, or any 24 settlements |
Humble has no extra condition, so every culture gets its first two slots almost straight away. That’s when the tutorial asks you to assign one. From Established on, a culture needs either its own settlement of the new level or a wide spread of smaller ones. A culture that dominates six Hamlets reaches Established as soon as you have a Village anywhere in the county, even one where another culture is dominant.
The two slots open the moment the culture reaches a new level. The trait follows a little later through an event with two answers, and each answer grants a different trait. Hover an answer to see which one. There are ten of these events, one for every possible pair of the five traits, so the two you’re offered depend on which event comes up. Traits also add extra answers to some settlement events, and the game marks those answers as available because of the settlement’s culture.
Claiming a Product
Three rules decide which products a culture can claim:
- Any product works, from Cabbage to Pocket Astrolabes. Meals can’t be claimed, but their ingredients can.
- The culture must have been the product’s largest producer over the last twelve months.
- Each product belongs to one culture at most. Once one culture claims Flour, no other culture can.
To fill a slot, open the Cultures window, pick the culture and click the yellow plus button on an empty slot. Tick Show only valid options so the list only shows products the culture can claim right now. The Bonus column shows what the product would get, and Trait synergies counts how many of the culture’s current Traditional Products it would pair with. Hover a product to see how much of it the culture made last year. The game posts a notification whenever a culture has a free slot, and you can replace a Traditional Product later from the same window.
The largest-producer rule means you plan claims ahead. If you want a culture to claim Flour, run the Water Mill in a settlement that culture dominates. When another culture already makes more Flour, the new mill has to outproduce it over a twelve-month window before the claim opens up.
How Big the Bonus Gets
A Traditional Product gets the 2% base bonus, or the bonus of its best trait pair if it has one. Bonuses don’t add together: a product that pairs under two traits takes the larger bonus, and the base bonus stops counting once a pair applies.
That bonus is then scaled by the culture’s share of each region’s population. Every settlement in every region gets at least the unscaled bonus, so a culture’s products speed up even in regions where hardly anyone belongs to it.
| Culture’s share of the region | Multiplier | Base bonus (2%) | Strongest pair (25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 50% | ×1 | 2% | 25% |
| 50% or more | ×1.5 | 3% | 37.5% |
| 75% or more | ×2 | 4% | 50% |
The same pair of products can be worth twice as much in one region as in the next, so build each culture’s Traditional Products in the region where that culture is strongest. The Cultures window shows each region’s culture shares.
The Five Culture Traits
A pair only counts when both products are Traditional Products of the same culture and that culture has the trait. One product can sit in several pairs, which stretches your slots. With A Chain of Traditions, Grain, Flour and Bread form two pairs, Grain with Flour and Flour with Bread, so all three get 15%.
| Trait | Pair bonus | Pairs it rewards | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Many Hands, One Craft | 25% | Two inputs of the same building | Potash and Sand, which both go into Glass |
| From Land to Home | 20% | An Equipment item and a raw material from anywhere in its chain | Wool and Wool Tunics |
| Taste of Home | 20% | Two ingredients of the same meal | Bean and Bread, for Baked beans with bread |
| A Chain of Traditions | 15% | A product and an input used directly to make it | Grain and Flour, ground at the Water Mill |
| A Way of Life | 10% | Two Equipment items used by the same social class | Wooden Chests and Wool Tunics, both Peasant Equipment |
Raw materials are the products of buildings that need no inputs, such as farms, pits, mines and the Logging Camp.
Best First Picks
Your first two slots arrive while you mostly make Peasant goods, and that limits your options. Peasant meals use a single ingredient and no Peasant workshop takes two inputs, so Taste of Home and Many Hands, One Craft have nothing to pair yet. The other three traits all work with the two Peasant Equipment chains:
- From Land to Home: claim Wool and Wool Tunics, or Logs and Wooden Chests, for 20% each.
- A Chain of Traditions: the same pairs give 15%.
- A Way of Life: Wooden Chests and Wool Tunics give 10%.
If the first event offers From Land to Home, take it. If a culture ends up with Taste of Home or Many Hands, One Craft, claim two of its biggest products for the 2% base and swap them for a pair once it makes Commoner goods. Bean and Bread (Baked beans with bread) and Potash and Sand (Glass) are two of the earliest pairs for those traits.
Every Pair by Trait
The selection window counts synergies for you. These lists let you plan further ahead, so you know which buildings a culture should run before its next slots open.
Many Hands, One Craft (25%)
Any two inputs in the same row pair up.
| Product | Made at | Workers | Inputs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toys | Toy Workshop | Commoners | Logs, Leather |
| Soap | Soap Workshop | Commoners | Tallow, Potash |
| Musical Instruments | Musical Instrument Workshop | Commoners | Hide, Logs |
| Glass | Glassworks | Commoners | Potash, Sand |
| Tempera Paint | Paintworks | Commoners | Eggs, Celadonite |
| Writing Supplies | Writing Supplies Workshop | Commoners | Feathers, Charcoal, Salt |
| Leather Cases | Leather Case Workshop | Commoners | Tallow, Leather |
| Sausages | Smokehouse | Artisans | Lamb, Beef |
| Lamps | Lamp Workshop | Artisans | Iron, Glass |
| Medicine | Apothecary | Artisans | Lavender, Wool, Alcohol |
| Painted Cabinets | Painted Cabinet Workshop | Artisans | Planks, Tempera Paint |
| Leather Surcoats | Leather Surcoat Workshop | Artisans | Leather, Textile Dye |
| Steel | Steelworks | Artisans | Charcoal, Iron |
| Fine Pigments | Fine Pigmentworks | Artisans | Safflower, Celadonite |
| Aromatic Oil | Lavender Oil Distillery | Artisans | Lavender, Alcohol |
| Precision Components | Precision Component Workshop | Artisans | Lard, Iron |
| Blue Cheese | Blue Cheesery | Patricians | Milk, Salt |
| Cured Ham | Curing House | Patricians | Pork, Salt |
| Lavender Paste | Lavender Paste Workshop | Patricians | Lavender, Lard |
| Grape Syrup | Grape Syrup Workshop | Patricians | Grape, Honey |
| Ceremonial Armors | Armorer’s Workshop | Patricians | Textile Dye, Linen, Steel |
| Commissioned Paintings | Painter’s Studio | Patricians | Planks, Varnish, Fine Pigments |
| Illuminated Codex | Scriptorium | Patricians | Writing Supplies, Paper |
| Lavender Perfumes | Perfumery | Patricians | Glass, Aromatic Oil |
| Pocket Astrolabes | Astrolabe Workshop | Patricians | Leather Cases, Precision Components |
Taste of Home (20%)
Any two ingredients in the same row pair up. Meals with a single ingredient are left out. Each class’s meals are listed on the settlement levels page.
| Meal | Eaten by | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|
| Fish pie | Commoners | Fish, Flour |
| Baked beans with bread | Commoners | Bean, Bread |
| Cheese filled pastries | Commoners | Flour, Cheese |
| Cabbage pottage with bread | Commoners | Cabbage, Bread |
| Chickpeas soup with bread | Commoners | Chickpea, Bread |
| Beef soup with cheese | Commoners | Beef, Cheese |
| Lamb with verjuice sauce | Artisans | Lamb, Cheese, Verjuice |
| Fish on butter | Artisans | Fish, Pickled Onion, Butter |
| Chicken on mustard | Artisans | Chicken, Bread, Mustard |
| Sausages meat pie | Artisans | Honey, Flour, Sausages |
| Beef on chestnuts oil | Artisans | Beef, Bread, Chestnut Oil |
| Pie of the high pastures | Patricians | Eggs, Pickled Onion, Sausages, Blue Cheese |
| Pork of the dark orchards | Patricians | Chestnut, Powidl, Mustard, Cured Ham |
| Lamb of a thousand gardens | Patricians | Lamb, Powidl, Verjuice, Lavender Paste |
| Chicken in the shade of the vineyards | Patricians | Chicken, Bread, Butter, Grape Syrup |
From Land to Home (20%) and A Way of Life (10%)
From Land to Home pairs an Equipment item with any raw material in its row. A Way of Life pairs any two Equipment items that share a class in the Used by column.
| Equipment | Used by | Raw materials in its chain |
|---|---|---|
| Wooden Chests | Peasants | Logs |
| Wool Tunics | Peasants, Commoners | Wool |
| Candles | Commoners | Wax |
| Ceramic Tableware | Commoners | Clay |
| Musical Instruments | Commoners | Hide, Logs |
| Soap | Commoners, Artisans | Tallow, Potash |
| Toys | Commoners | Hide, Logs |
| Glass Tableware | Artisans | Potash, Sand |
| Lamps | Artisans | Potash, Sand, Iron Ore |
| Leather Surcoats | Artisans, Patricians | Safflower, Hide |
| Medicine | Artisans | Grain, Lavender, Wool |
| Painted Cabinets | Artisans | Eggs, Logs, Celadonite |
| Ceremonial Armors | Patricians | Safflower, Flax, Charcoal, Iron Ore |
| Commissioned Paintings | Patricians | Safflower, Wax, Logs, Celadonite |
| Illuminated Codex | Patricians | Flax, Feathers, Charcoal, Salt |
| Lavender Perfumes | Patricians | Grain, Lavender, Potash, Sand |
| Pocket Astrolabes | Patricians | Tallow, Hide, Lard, Iron Ore |
A Chain of Traditions (15%)
Every input pairs with the product it’s made into, 77 pairs in all. The Uses and Makes columns on the production chains page list every one.
Spreading a Culture
Higher renown levels need settlements the culture dominates, and the region multiplier needs a large share of the region’s people. Both come from spreading the culture, and cultures spread through Taverns. A Tavern is staffed by Commoners, so it needs a Village, and it serves Beer to workers from nearby settlements. While it has Beer, visitors get up to a 10% efficiency bonus, and they slowly convert to the dominant culture of the Tavern’s settlement.
- Build the Tavern in a settlement dominated by the culture you want to grow, close to the settlements you want to convert.
- Keep it supplied. It goes through 67 Beer a month, brewed from Grain at a Brewery.
- Give that settlement a Generous mayor, the strongest conversion trait, or a Just one. Greedy and Arbitrary mayors slow conversion down.
Some event answers also convert residents or change how fast a culture spreads, and their tooltips say so before you choose. For the buildings behind every product, see the production chains page, or plan a chain across your settlements with the production chain planner.