17 November 2025

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

By newsgame

During a Europa Universalis 5 playthrough, players will almost certainly be forced to deal with the bubonic plague, a devastating disease, at least once. This disease has the potential to wipe out huge portions of a country’s population, and players are likely to encounter it for the first time during the Black Death situation that begins in 1346. This guide explains how players should approach that situation when it occurs, and it details the best options for addressing the Black Death in Europa Universalis 5.

Before getting into those options, it is important to emphasize that a country that is infected with the bubonic plague in the early game is guaranteed to lose a lot of population, regardless of a player’s actions. Fortunately, there are actually some benefits associated with the Black Death’s destruction during that time period. For example, it ultimately builds resistance to the disease, reducing its efficacy if it should reappear in later years. This is important because populations are more valuable as years pass, as there will be more Laborers, Burghers, etc. within them, and they could be ravaged if resistance to the bubonic plague is not built early.

Europa Universalis 5 Black Plague Guide

Before Outbreak

There are a couple of options that players can pursue when the Black Death situation begins, but before the disease has started to spread through their country. First, they can look to raise their disease resistance by building Hospitals in their cities and towns. However, these buildings are quite expensive, and they can not be used to protect rural populations, and players may want to forego constructing them while they are trying to establish their economy in EU5.

Players will gain access to more buildings that provide disease resistance in later ages. There are also some advances, like Alchemy, that can be researched to gain additional disease resistance, though most of them are not available during the first ages.

Players can also select the Procure Remedies action, which appears in the menu that is accessed by clicking on the Black Death situation ribbon, when the event triggers. However, it is not recommended that players pursue Procure Remedies at the beginning of the situation, as it will prevent them from using a very useful action during the outbreak.

Beginning of Outbreak

There are several actions that players can take, through the aforementioned Black Death situation menu, once the bubonic plague starts infecting the population of their country in EU5. At the very least, it is recommended that players enact the Move Court into Hiding action, to protect their court, and the Segregate the Infected action, to get 15% disease resistance.

Players could consider enacting Expel the Sick instead of Segregate the Infected in order to earn the ability to construct Pest Houses, buildings that can provide 30% disease resistance. However, Pest Houses only operate at 50% if incense is not available, and that good is not readily accessible in Europe.

The Isolate Cities action can also be worth pursuing, as it reduces the impact of the plague in urban locations by up to 80%, contingent upon how much control is being exerted on those locations. That said, this action costs 40 Stability and can only be enacted if the Burgher estate has greater than 75% satisfaction, which will put it out of reach in some playthroughs.

Finally, players could consider selecting Control the Food Market and Isolate the Country during this phase of the outbreak to give their country a bit of added protection. However, both cost 10 Stability, and they come with some obvious drawbacks, like negatively impacting estate satisfaction and ending import and export. Players should thus feel free to ignore these actions during the preliminary Black Death situation.

End of Outbreak

As the outbreak comes to a close, but before the disease has entirely left the country, players can repeal the Segregate the Infected action and start Procure Remedies to get some easy Stability. Similarly, players can Sponsor Mass Forgiveness for another quick Stability boost.