How do I get unity?

[°Soul°]

I always fall into a deficit of Unity right at the beginning of the game. I watched tutorials on YouTube and learned what it is used for. Even without recruiting leaders, using government decisions and edicts I lose unity. Can someone pls tell me why and how to counteract it?

[Elitewrecker PT]

Why - because that's what PDx decided is the payment for those things.
How to counteract - increase your unity production, by building temples/admin bureaus

[echoes222]

also civics, like citizen service. And don't go over edict fund.

[Elitewrecker PT]

If you don't go over edict fund you won't have anything active later on. It's just there for the early game.

[echoes222]

well yeah, but he is talking about early game. Which is weird, because if I do not hire leaders, I have always been on net positive unity at the beginning, Then again, I tend to use citizen service and build unity building early to rush scientists and exploration, so maybe that's the case.

[HappySack]

Unity is a resource, if you're having a deficit of it it's because you're spending more than what you can produce so come to the logical conclusion of what you should do.

[mister_lobos]

if you hold the mouse cursor over your total unity at the top of the screen what pops up? it should say how much you are generating and how much you are spending.....
if you have no edicts and only a few leaders you should be gaining unity, granted not a lot initially, but some.

[Oakshadow]

Ruler class jobs, as well as bureaucrats, priests, and culture workers all convert consumer goods into unity.

The second source is going to be empire factions. Depending on the number of pops associated with the faction, as well as how happy they are, will determine how much unity the factions generate for you.

Keep in mind factions don't populate until a few decades into the game. So your primary early game source of unity is going to be jobs.

Best advice I can give is not to overbuy leaders or run too many edicts until you've built up your unity income. Leaders can cost 25 unity in upkeep each (modified by empire size). Early game you'll have enough income to afford an additional scientist and run 1 maybe 2 edicts depending on your ethics.

Basically don't run head first into research building spam. Unity production is important too. Fortunately there are a ton of civics and traditions that provide alternative and additional sources of unity. Just have to browse through them and pick out those alternatives that suit your preferred play style.