Reference: Formulas

Complete formula reference for A House Divided. All values are sourced directly from game code. Formulas marked with (*) use diminishing-return normalization curves: see the NPI normalization section below.

Primary score formulas

State-level primary score

Used for: US House, US Senate, US Governor, US State Senate, UK Commons, UK Regional Council, DE Bundestag, JP Shūgiin, JP Sangiin.

Maximum: 100 points (raw), then multiplied by an infamy penalty.

Component	Range	Formula
Alignment (state)	0 to 25	`max(0, 25 − (
Alignment (party)	0 to 15	`max(0, 15 − (
Favorability	0 to 35	`(favorability / 100) × 35`
Political Influence	0 to 25	`normalizeNPI(politicalInfluence) × 25` (*)

Alignment splits into two: 25 pts on the state's cached economic/social lean, 15 pts on party platform.
When the state has no cached lean, scoring falls back to a single 40-pt party-only alignment: max(0, 40 − (|econDiff_party| + |socialDiff_party|) × 2.0).
Final score = raw × (1 − 0.05 × min(100, max(0, infamy))/100), a 5% reduction at infamy=100.

Quick alignment reference (state-vs-state-lean OR state-vs-party):

Manhattan distance	State alignment (0 to 25)	Party alignment (0 to 15)	Fallback (0 to 40)
0	25	15	40
2	22.5	13.5	36
5	18.75	11.25	30
10	12.5	7.5	20
20	0	0	0

NPP primary score penalty: When at least one player is in the same party's primary, all NPP candidates in that primary receive a ×0.5 multiplier on their total score. An NPP with a raw score of 70 competes at an effective 35 against you. NPPs aren't subject to the infamy penalty.

Presidential primary score

Used for: US President only.

Maximum: 100 points

Component	Range	Formula
Policy alignment (party only)	0 to 40	`max(0, 40 − (
Party Organization (home state)	0 to 25	`(min(100, max(0, partyOrganization)) / 100) × 25`
National Political Influence	0 to 25	`normalizeNationalReachPresidentialPrimary(NPI) × 25` (*)
Favorability	0 to 10	`(favorability / 100) × 10`

Same infamy penalty applies on the final score. Key differences from the state formula:

No state-position alignment: presidential primaries are national, only the party platform matters.
Favorability is only worth 10 points (vs 35 in state races).
Party org is a major factor: maxes out at 25 pts when home-state org = 100.
NPI normalization curve is different: uses a diminishing-returns curve 1 − exp(−NPI/45) (normalizeNationalReachPresidentialPrimary), not the sqrt curve that state PI uses. The diminishing shape keeps Support, Favorability, and Org meaningful against a moderate NPI gap.

Canvassing formula

Cost: ₳100 + 1 action. Home state / region only.

baseBoost        = 0.05 (percentage points)
distance         = |charEcon − demoEcon| + |charSocial − demoSocial|
alignmentMult    = max(0.1, 1.0 − distance × 0.15)
seasonMult       = isCampaignSeason ? 2.0 : 1.0
rawBoost         = baseBoost × alignmentMult × seasonMult
adjustedBoost    = rawBoost × (1 − |currentModifier| / 20)   // diminishing returns
newModifier      = clamp(currentModifier + adjustedBoost, −20, +20)

Campaign season = election active with endTime within 4 hours (4 turns)
Cap: ±20 percentage points turnout modifier
Decay: 2% of current value per turn toward zero

Alignment multiplier table:

Manhattan distance	Alignment multiplier
0	1.0 ×
3	0.55 ×
5	0.25 ×
6.6+	0.1 × (floor)

Campaign upgrade costs and effects

Fundraising (10 levels, no maintenance)

Level	Upgrade cost	Actions	Income/turn
0 (base)	n/a	n/a	₳20,000
1	₳50,000	10	₳35,000
2	₳120,000	15	₳60,000
3	₳250,000	20	₳100,000
4	₳500,000	25	₳150,000
5	₳900,000	30	₳200,000
6	₳1,500,000	40	₳350,000
7	₳2,500,000	50	₳600,000
8	₳4,000,000	60	₳1,000,000
9	₳6,500,000	75	₳2,500,000
10	₳10,000,000	90	₳5,000,000

Ground game (5 levels, ongoing maintenance)

Passive effect applies to presidential general elections only. Maintenance is cumulative across all purchased levels.

Level	Upgrade cost	Actions	Effect	Maintenance/turn
1	₳55,000	10	+3% swing states	₳5,500
2	₳110,000	15	+6% swing states	₳16,500
3	₳220,000	20	+9% swing states	₳38,500
4	₳440,000	25	+12% swing states	₳82,500
5	₳880,000	30	+15% swing states	₳170,500

Media spending (5 levels, ongoing maintenance)

Passive effect: +0.5% favorability per level per turn (presidential races only). Doubles during final 4 turns (season multiplier 2×).

Level	Upgrade cost	Actions	Effect	Maintenance/turn
1	₳60,000	12	+0.5%/turn favorability	₳6,000
2	₳120,000	16	+1.0%/turn favorability	₳18,000
3	₳240,000	20	+1.5%/turn favorability	₳42,000
4	₳480,000	24	+2.0%/turn favorability	₳90,000
5	₳960,000	28	+2.5%/turn favorability	₳186,000

Opposition research (5 levels, no maintenance)

Passive effect: Debuffs target candidate favorability by level × 0.5% per turn. Presidential races only.

Level	Upgrade cost	Actions	Effect
1	₳40,000	8	−0.5%/turn to target
2	₳80,000	12	−1.0%/turn to target
3	₳160,000	16	−1.5%/turn to target
4	₳320,000	20	−2.0%/turn to target
5	₳640,000	24	−2.5%/turn to target

Campaign season multiplier: All campaign passive effects (Media Spending, Opposition Research, Travel Presence, Primary Campaign bonus) double during the final 4 turns of an election.

Vote accumulation (general elections)

Per-turn vote pool weighting

Early turns (all turns except final 4):
  turnPool = 0.75 × totalPool / (totalTurns − 4)

Final 4 turns:
  turnPool = 0.25 × totalPool / 4

The final 4 turns collectively deliver 25% of all votes cast in an election.

Total appeal pipeline (per demographic group, per candidate, per turn)

reach        = normalizeNPI(influence)         // sqrt curve, capped at 1.0 (PI/NPI ≥ 100)
appeal       = (50 − |econDiff|×5 − |socialDiff|×5)² / 100 + normalizeNPI(influence) × 25
approval     = favorability / 100
partyOrg     = 0.5 + (statePartyOrg / 100) × 0.5      // 0.5× to 1.0×
infamyMult   = 1 − 0.05 × (min(100, max(0, infamy))/100)   // 0.95× at infamy=100; 1.0× for NPPs
weight       = appeal × reach × approval × partyOrg × infamyMult

Office strength multipliers

Office	Strength weight
Governor	1.0
President	1.0
House / State Senate	0.9 / 0.85
Senate	0.8

NPI normalization (*)

Political Influence (PI) and National Political Influence (NPI) pass through normalizing curves before use in formulas. normalizeNPI is a sqrt curve clamped to [0, 100]: meaningful spread at the high end, hard-capped at 1.0:

PI value	normalizeNPI output
0	0.00
25	0.50
50	~0.71
85	~0.92
99	~0.995
100	1.00 (cap)
200+	1.00 (clamped)

normalizeNPI is used by state-level primary scoring AND by general-election reach (state and presidential).

Presidential primaries use a separate curve (normalizeNationalReachPresidentialPrimary): diminishing returns via 1 − exp(−NPI/45). NPI=25 → 0.426, NPI=55 → 0.706, NPI=80 → 0.831, NPI=100 → 0.892, NPI=200 → 0.988. Above the high end the curve continues to creep toward 1.0 but never reaches it, so the celebrity-bonus regime is naturally bounded.

Party organization scalars

Party org (0 to 100) affects:

Effect	Formula
General election vote scalar	`0.5 + (statePartyOrg / 100) × 0.5` (range 0.5× to 1.0×)
Presidential primary score	`(statePartyOrg / 100) × 25` (range 0 to 25 pts)

A state party org of 0 cuts your general vote total in half compared to a fully organized state.

Turnout modifier decay

Each turn: newModifier = currentModifier × 0.98

Effect accumulates over turns:

Turns since canvassing	Modifier remaining
0	100%
4	~92%
10	~82%
20	~67%

Reference: Turn Order: phase execution order.
Election Mechanics: full election structure and vote accumulation.
Primaries: declaration rules and NPP dynamics.
Canvassing: turnout boost formula in detail.
Campaign Strategy: upgrade tables and action allocation.