How to Deal with Black Death (Bubonic Plague) in Europa Universalis 5

If you play Europa Universalis V, you’re almost guaranteed to face the bubonic plague at some point. This disease can severely reduce your country’s population, and many players first encounter it during the Black Death event that starts in 1346. This guide will show you how to handle the Black Death in Europa Universalis V and what strategies are most effective.

It’s important to understand that if your country gets the bubonic plague early in the game, you’re likely to lose a significant portion of your population, no matter what you do. However, there are actually some advantages to experiencing the Black Death at that time. Primarily, it helps your population develop resistance to the disease, making it less deadly if it returns later. This is crucial because your population becomes more valuable over time – you’ll have more skilled workers like Laborers and Burghers – and they’ll be much more vulnerable if you haven’t built up that early resistance.

Europa Universalis 5 Black Plague Guide

Before Outbreak

When the Black Death threatens, players have a couple of early options. They can increase their population’s resistance by building Hospitals in cities and towns. However, Hospitals are costly and don’t protect people in the countryside. Players might choose to delay building them if they’re still focused on growing their economy in EU5.

As the game progresses, players will unlock more buildings that help protect against disease. Certain technologies, such as Alchemy, can also be researched to further improve disease resistance, but these options generally become available later in the game.

Players can choose the “Procure Remedies” option, found in the menu that appears when the Black Death event starts. However, we don’t recommend using it right away. Choosing this option early on will block you from taking a more helpful action while the outbreak is happening.

Beginning of Outbreak

Once the bubonic plague begins to spread in EU5, players have several options through the in-game menu. It’s highly recommended to at least use the Move Court into Hiding action to safeguard your royal court, and the Segregate the Infected action, which gives a 15% bonus to disease resistance.

Instead of isolating infected people, players might choose to banish the sick. This allows them to build Pest Houses, which offer 30% protection against disease. However, Pest Houses are only half as effective without incense, and incense is difficult to obtain in Europe.

The ‘Isolate Cities’ action is often a good choice, as it can reduce the plague’s impact in towns and cities by as much as 80%, depending on how much control you have there. However, it costs 40 Stability to implement and requires the Burgher estate to be at least 75% satisfied, which might not always be possible.

During the early stages of the outbreak, players might think about choosing “Control the Food Market” and “Isolate the Country” for extra protection. However, both options cost 10 Stability and have downsides – they’ll make your population unhappy and stop all trade. Because of this, it’s generally best to avoid these actions when the Black Death first appears.

End of Outbreak

Now that the outbreak is winding down, players can stop isolating infected people and begin focusing on finding cures to quickly improve Stability. They can also use mass forgiveness as another fast way to gain Stability.

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2025-11-17 19:37