What are Pax Autocratica policies?
Decrees that reshape society: wages, labor hours, healthcare, comfort/feasts, propaganda, surveillance, and punishment. They move fear, loyalty, and unrest between expeditions.
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At A Glance
Pax Autocratica policies are the State’s decrees — wages, labor hours, healthcare, propaganda, surveillance, punishment, and comfort tools like feasts. This page teaches how those knobs move fear and loyalty so the colony keeps producing between expeditions. Verified August 16, 2026 · Multiverse · Steam.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Platform | Steam PC · Windows · Steam Deck Playable |
| Genre | Satirical colony sim · FPS roguelite |
| Mode | Single-player at launch · co-op planned |
| What policies steer | Fear · loyalty · happiness · hunger pressure · productivity vs unrest |
| Hard tools (confirmed directions) | Fear · propaganda · surveillance · punishment · longer work · restrictions |
| Soft tools (confirmed directions) | Healthcare · comfort · prosperity · feasts / celebrations |
| Named labor policy | Unified Labor — community baseline ~16h; ~18 often draws overwork complaints |
| Verified | August 16, 2026 |
Where do I open Pax Autocratica policies?
Policies live in the colony’s flag / administrative hub — community guides call out the oversized flag building as the place to browse decrees. You are not rewriting the whole economy from a single combat pause screen; you walk the State and edit the board between production cycles.
- Do01Finish enough colony setup that citizens are assigned to work (empty bases hide why a decree “did nothing”)
- Do02Enter the flag / policy hub and locate Unified Labor plus wage controls
- Do03Note which hard tools (fear / propaganda / surveillance / punishment) and soft tools (healthcare / comfort / feasts) are unlocked in your EA build
- Do04Change one cluster at a time — labor hours or wages first — then watch the next social / work cycle
- Do05Cross-check fear, loyalty, and morale on the soldier / citizen management tab before launching an expedition
Exact policy IDs stay TBA
Early Access exposes a large decree surface (Prologue comparisons advertised far fewer policies than full EA). Do not invent a complete named roster or fake percentage effects. Use the categories on this page, then confirm the live tooltip in your build.
Policies only matter if citizens can feel them
A feast decree cannot save a colony with no food hall, and surveillance cannot replace beds. Pair this page with colony and buildings before you treat decrees as a cheat code.
Next: pick the philosophical route — crush with fear, or buy loyalty with comfort.
Fear route or comfort route — which first?
Official and community framing agrees: you are not locked into cartoon cruelty. Pax Autocratica policies can push longer work, harsher punishment, and surveillance — or lean on comfort, healthcare, food, and celebrations to stabilize society. Both paths move loyalty; they tax different meters.
| Route | Typical tools | What you buy | What you spend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fear / control | Propaganda · surveillance · punishment · public example | Obedience under pressure · fewer open protests (when balanced) | Defect risk if fear spikes · trauma chatter · fragile morale |
| Comfort / prosperity | Healthcare · comfort · feasts · better living conditions | Loyalty and gratitude without max fear | Resource cost · slower “crackdown” response if unrest already lit |
| Labor squeeze | Longer Unified Labor hours · restrictions | More production hours on the clock | Overwork complaints · happiness drains · strike pressure |
| Wage buffer | Higher pay for key workers / soldiers | Morale recovery without rewriting every decree | Budget drain if you raise everyone forever |
Start soft if the base is still hungry
New colonies usually fail on hunger and housing before they fail on “not enough fear.” Soft tools and wages keep the first production loops alive; hard tools shine when you have surplus food and need to absorb captive influx or wartime stress.
Hard tools are not free loyalty
Fear can suppress, but community reports mark high fear as a defect path and low fear as a strike / protest path when other needs are ignored. Treat fear as a band to manage, not a score to maximize.
Next: the one labor knob players actually name — Unified Labor hours.
How should I set Unified Labor hours?
Unified Labor is the community-named work-hour decree players adjust early. Runs commonly sit near ~16 hours as a workable default. Pushing toward ~18 is available, but players start hearing overwork complaints and social-hour griping around that band.
| Setting | Community observation | Beginner rule |
|---|---|---|
| ~16 hours | Common “set and forget” baseline while learning the colony | Default until food, beds, and wages are stable |
| Toward ~18 | More clock time; overwork chatter appears more often | Only after surplus food + acceptable morale |
| Below your current baseline | Gives recovery room after a harsh expedition or captive wave | Use as a temporary cool-down, not a permanent under-staffing plan |
| Unverified exact thresholds | Exact happiness deltas stay TBA per patch | Read tooltips; do not copy invented % tables |
When do wages and healthcare matter most?
Pay is a direct morale lever: raise wages when you want happier workers without stacking more propaganda. Healthcare and comfort decrees cover the other half of soft power — recovering bodies and living conditions so hunger and injury do not masquerade as “loyalty problems.”
| Lever | Use when… | Avoid when… |
|---|---|---|
| Raise wages | Morale dips after casualties, long shifts, or captive integration | The food chain is empty — cash cannot eat |
| Cut wages | Budget crisis and loyalty is still high | Fear is already elevated — stacked misery invites defects |
| Healthcare / comfort | Injuries, aging workforce, or happiness sliding while fear is mid-band | You expected medical decrees to replace food halls |
| Feasts / celebrations | You have surplus food and need a loyalty spike | Hunger is already red — parties without meals backfire narratively and mechanically |
Wages are targeted, not theatrical
You can adjust pay from citizen / soldier management as well as from broad decrees. Boost critical researchers or cooks before you blanket-raise the entire roster and drain the State.
Soft route still needs hard logistics
Healthcare without beds, or feasts without kitchens, is flavor text. Confirm buildings coverage, then spend the soft decrees.
Next: a mid-page decision table for the decree you should touch right now.
What decree should I change right now?
Use this as a mid-session checklist. Match the symptom on the left, change one cluster, then re-read fear / loyalty / morale before you stack a second rewrite.
| Situation | Change first | Then watch |
|---|---|---|
| Overwork chatter near ~18h | Drop Unified Labor toward ~16 | Social-hour complaints · happiness |
| Morale low, food OK | Raise wages for key roles | Morale · loyalty |
| Hunger climbing | Pause punishment / labor squeeze; fix food production | Hunger · strike risk |
| Protests / strikes with low fear | Soft comfort or careful fear band — not max everything | Fear band · loyalty |
| Defects after harsh crackdowns | Ease punishment; add healthcare / comfort | Fear ceiling · relationships |
| Captive wave incoming | Ensure prison + soft buffer before mass fear tools | capture backlog · unrest |
| Pre-expedition prep | Lock a stable labor/wage pair; avoid last-second fear spikes | Squad morale on embark |
| Post-expedition casualties | Wages + healthcare before new labor squeeze | Trauma chatter · loyalty |
One cluster per cycle
Changing labor, wages, propaganda, and punishment in the same minute makes the feedback unreadable. The State is a delayed system — give citizens one work cycle to react.
Tie decrees to the citizen page
Policies write the rules; citizens show whether the population obeyed, defected, or walked out. Keep both tabs in the same mental loop.
Next: the failure patterns that waste a good colony.
Next: Read citizen meters before the next decree
Matched by build plan, shared topics, and guide progression — not random related links.
Which policy mistakes spike rebellion?
Most Early Access soft-locks here are self-inflicted: stacking cruelty on a hungry base, or ignoring wages while staring at the fear slider.
| Mistake | Why it bites | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Max fear + empty food halls | Defects and breakdown stories pile up | Feed first, then retune fear band |
| Jumping straight to ~18h labor | Overwork complaints become strike fuel | Hold ~16 until surplus exists |
| Cutting wages during high fear | Double misery with no soft recovery | Restore pay or ease punishment |
| Feasts while hungry | Celebration without calories reads as mockery | Fix kitchens / food hall first |
| Ignoring surveillance / propaganda unlocks | You fight unrest with only labor knobs | Unlock soft+hard tools as research allows — names TBA |
| Rewriting every decree before an expedition | Squad boards with unknown morale | Freeze policies one cycle before launch |
| Treating Prologue policy counts as EA totals | Wrong expectations for roster size | Mark Prologue (App 4107120) separately |
Pax Autocratica policies FAQ
Where do I edit policies?
In the colony flag / administrative hub (community guides highlight the large flag building). Confirm the live menu label in your Early Access build.
What is Unified Labor?
A named work-hour policy. Community runs often sit near ~16 hours; pushing toward ~18 commonly draws overwork complaints.
Should I play fear or comfort?
Both work. Soft routes (healthcare, comfort, feasts) buy loyalty with resources; hard routes (fear, propaganda, surveillance, punishment) buy control but risk defects if fear spikes.
Do wages really matter?
Yes — raising pay is a direct morale tool. Prefer targeting key workers before blanket raises drain the State.
How many policies exist in Early Access?
Exact live counts change with patches. Older Prologue marketing compared a tiny policy set to a much larger EA surface — treat full named lists as TBA until verified in-game.
What should I read after policies?
Open citizens to read meters, then colony if logistics caused the unrest.
Last verified?
August 16, 2026
Related pages
Matched by build plan, shared topics, and guide progression — not random related links.