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Every holding inCrusader Kings 3can support a number of regular buildings. The number and variety of these buildings depends on a few factors, like innovations, cultures, and the local climate. Each de jure duchy capital also comes witha slot for a duchy building, which are unusually powerful and provide unique benefits.
However, a few rare holdings come with an even rarer building slot, in which you’re able to buildspecial buildings. Special buildings are completely unique. Many of them only have one building level that never upgrades (and never needs to upgrade) throughout an entire game ofCrusader Kings 3. Read on to learn how to find these buildings, how to build them, and how to benefit from them.
How to Find Special Buildings
The easiest way to find the many special buildings ofCrusader Kings 3is to check theEconomy map mode.This mode doesn’t have its own icon, so click the plus sign in the lower-right corner and then choose “Economy” from the drop-down menu. You can also switch to it directly by using the shortcut Ctrl-S, at least on Windows computers.
While the Economy view is active, and you’re on the medium zoom level, you can see an icon appear for every special building slot in the game. These icons come in four colors, and each one represents something different:
Dark Blue
The building doesn’t exist, and your character can’t build it or benefit from it.
The building doesn’t exist, and your character can build it.
The building exists, but your character can’t benefit from it.
Light Yellow
The building exists, and your character can benefit from it.
Bear in mind that these colors only check for basic information like, “Does your ruler follow the right Faith to activate a Great Temple?” A special building may have other requirements, like a high Development Level or a specific Innovation. If you don’t have them, the building will appear as light blue, but you won’t be able to fund its construction. This is why all the universities in the image above are light blue. Also, even if a building is light yellow, you won’t get its benefits unless you own the county that it’s in.
The Economy map view also displaysthe relative gold income each county makes. High-income counties are yellow, medium-income counties are orange, and low-income counties are red. This value comes from the combined income of all the holding buildings in the county, the Development Level, and the county owner’s Stewardship level, among other factors.
How to Benefit from Special Buildings
Whether your ruler is Tribal, Feudal, or Clan, you’ll have to deal with vassals and indirect income from taxes and levies. Even counts get a baron-level vassal or two. This meansyou don’t benefit directly from buildings in holdings you don’t own yourself.This applies to normal buildings, and it also applies to special buildings.
In other words, special buildings have few benefits outside of the holdings your character owns directly. Fortunately, most special building slots are in county capitals, making it easy to enjoy these direct benefits (assuming you own the right counties and duchies). But even if you don’t control every special building yourself, there are a few ways they can benefit your ruler:
Every Special Building’s Location and Benefits
The list of special buildings inCrusader Kings 3is long, and no single ruler can benefit (even indirectly) from all of them. Many are only available to specific Religions or Faiths, and listing every possible holy site in the game would produce a pointlessly long list. However, there’s some value in knowing what each building type can do, and where all the unique monuments and natural wonders are.
Grand Holy Buildings
Keep in mind thatmany Holy Sites are holy to multiple Religions. If that’s the case, and the site’s special building isn’t unique, the grand holy building will usually use the more “mainstream” religion’s design.
Universities
You (and other rulers) can build universities in just about every location where a university existed in the real Middle Ages. A few already exist during the 867 or 1066 starting dates, but most are only potential locations. Some universities have unique rules, requirements, and benefits (see the unique building list below), but most of them use the following generic rules:
Mines
All the mines inCrusader Kings 3use the same icon, but most have a few differences that set them apart from one another. For instance, the Forest of Dean Mining Settlementprovides a bonus to stationed Men-at-Arms Toughness, while the Taghaza Mining Pits provide a Supply Limit bonus to the county’s holder. Still, most mines follow the same general rules:
You can find mine special buildings in the following baronies:
Unique Buildings and Landmarks
Some special buildings are completely unique. A few represent major holy sites, like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, while others are remarkable landmarks or feats of engineering. The landmarks are static and always exist on the map, and many unique buildings are present for both starting dates, but others can only appear during the course of the game.
Some unique buildings have special upgrade levels, while others don’t. A building on this list with multiple upgrades has slashes between each upgrade’s requirements and benefits, or the upgrade level is listed in parentheses if a benefit is unique.
The requirements listed include both what you need to construct the special building (if it doesn’t exist yet), and what you need to keep the building active. You don’t need money or cultural innovations to benefit from a pre-built special building, but you must meet a building’s Faith requirement for as long as you own it.
Owner is Muslim or Zoroastrian
Owner is Muslim or Christian
1,000 gold
Slesvig (two baronies)
Owner is a Republic
+1 Tax income
Gurgan (two baronies)
Cumberland, Northumberland (two baronies each)
-10% Building Construction cost
400/800 gold
Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire (one or two baronies each)
Baghdad (An-Nahrawan barony)
+30% Dread gain
None
With the release ofRoads to Powerand the Basileus 1.13 Patch,19 new Special Buildingshave been added to the game, specifically in the Byzantine Empire.
Crusader Kings 3generally doesn’t want rulers to own more than two duchies, so most players won’t get to own a lot of special buildings all at once. Still, by identifying all the best special buildings in your home kingdom, you can ensure the best duchies fall into your hands, and thus make ruling a growing empire that much easier.
