The Game Loop

A House Divided is a real-time game that rewards steady play over burst play. This page sketches a typical player's rhythm at three cadences: every turn, every day, and every election cycle. If you're trying to figure out "how much do I need to log in," this is the page.

The Shortest Engagement Loop

You don't have to log in every hour. The minimum viable cadence is once or twice a day. Actions carry over up to a cap of 200 (with a hoarding penalty above 100, so don't sit on 150+ for days), which means you can bank a morning's worth, come back at night, and spend everything in one session.

A solid once-a-day routine in ~10 minutes:

1. Skim the notifications panel — someone may have endorsed you, attacked you, or a race may have advanced.
2. If you're mid-campaign, spend enough Campaign actions to maintain or grow Political Influence in your race's state.
3. Run ads if your Favorability is below your target (60 is the stable floor; most candidates target 60–75).
4. Fundraise once if your donor base can sustain it.
5. Check your current bill vote queue (if in office) — late-turn votes can swing bills.

Per-Turn Rhythm (Optional, For Active Players)

Every hour when the turn processor fires, several things happen to you automatically:

• Actions refresh (+4 base + office + party bonus).
• Campaign Funds generate passively from donor base and office.
• Political Influence decays 0.75%.
• NPI accrues +state PI / 100.
• Infamy decays 5%.
• Favorability decays if above 60.

Then the rest of the world advances: elections tick toward resolution, bills age, NPPs may act, markets settle. If you're logged in, refresh your dashboard to see new state; if not, the world just keeps running.

When it's worth logging in hourly:

• The final ~4 turns of a competitive general election (each turn in the final window weighs heavily in the vote pool).
• Immediately after a cabinet nomination drops and you're a senator with a 24-hour window to vote.
• A confidence vote is live in your parliament.
• A bill is about to close and you want the last-second campaigning / whipping / vote switching to land.

Per-Day Rhythm

Most of the game's structural events tick over at day-scale. Each real day = 24 game weeks = roughly half a game year.

Every day:

• A full set of House seats moves closer to their term end (terms are measured in real days).
• Any race in its general phase is either resolving or continuing to accumulate votes.
• Bills in committee and on the floor advance or close.
• Party organisation momentum updates.
• Corporation production and financial markets process.

A typical active player's daily to-do:

1. Morning (5 min) — Scan notifications, campaign 2–4 actions to refresh PI, fundraise once.
2. Midday (3 min) — Run one ad if Favorability is under target; check if any bill needs your vote.
3. Evening (10 min) — Do the week's heaviest spend (Build Donor Network, Full Demographic Poll, NPP endorsement request, or a string of Barnstorms for an ally).

Per-Week (24 hours) Rhythm

Once a day-scale, think positional:

• Are my stats trending right? (PI over 60, Favorability over 65, donor level sufficient for next fundraise.)
• Is my party still aligned with my policy positions? (If I've drifted through votes, my bonus-action share is smaller.)
• Are any of my allies running in primaries I should help them win? (Barnstorms and NPP endorsements are cheap force-multipliers when you're not yet a candidate.)
• Do I need to file for an upcoming race? (Primary declaration windows are limited; miss one and you wait a full cycle.)

The Election Cycle (The Real Game Loop)

The satisfying, compounding layer of gameplay is the election cycle. It's the rhythm that most players organise their week around:

1. Build Phase (between cycles)

Neither a primary nor a general election is open for your target office. You're accumulating: PI, Favorability, donor base, party influence, and maybe NPI if you have presidential ambitions. This is your longest phase — usually several days to weeks real-time depending on the office.

2. Primary Phase

Primary declarations open. Your primary score is a mix of policy alignment to your party + Favorability + Political Influence (or NPI for president). Highest primary score per party advances to the general.

Key moves this phase:

• Commission a Quick Poll before declaring — know what you're walking into.
• Ask allied NPPs for endorsements; each one lifts your primary score and demographic appeal.
• Spend Campaign actions in-state to squeeze out the last PI.
• Attack competitors within your party only if you're confident (their Infamy gain counts against you, not them).

3. General Phase

You're the party nominee. The vote accumulates each turn from each demographic group. The final ~4 turns account for roughly 25% of the total pool — sustained campaigning wins elections; bursty campaigning that fades at the end loses them.

Key moves this phase:

• Sustain PI in the race's state through the final turns (don't let it decay to 50 the morning of resolution).
• Keep Favorability above 65 via ads. Above 70 gets expensive.
• Targeted demographic action: if a Full Demographic Poll shows you're 12 points behind with a specific group, run ads or campaign actions that lift their segment.
• Cultivate NPP endorsements for the general — they matter more than in primaries.
• Pay attention to what opponents are doing. Attack damage from a determined rival is the hardest to recover from if you ignore it.

4. Resolution

At the configured turn, the election resolves. Winner takes office, earns their office action and fund bonuses, and enters the legislating workflow (if elected to a legislature). A new cycle of the same office immediately spawns — no vacant seats.

5. In-Office Phase

If elected:

• Write bills (House/Senate/MP/MdB/Sangiin members).
• Vote on bills — each vote shifts your policy position ±0.25 in the bill's direction.
• Collect office fund and action bonuses.
• Manage cabinet appointments if you're Executive.
• Face re-election at the end of your term.

If you lost the general, you go back to the Build Phase — same state, same party, lower starting PI (it'll have decayed through the cycle). Come back stronger.

The Long Loop: Career Arc

Beyond any single cycle, your long-term loop is moving up the office ladder:

• Start as an independent, build a base.
• Join a party, build Party Influence.
• Win a low-tier race (State Senate, House, MP) to unlock legislating and office bonuses.
• Defend your seat while running for higher office (only one office at a time — advancement requires winning the next race before your current term locks you in).
• Aim for executive office (Governor, President, PM, Chancellor) — the peak of the career arc.

See Player Progression for the full arc and each office's strategic value.

What You Can Safely Ignore

• Small day-to-day Favorability drift — decay is slow and easily reversed.
• Infamy under 20 — no penalty.
• NPP opponents in uncompetitive primaries — they're predictable; save your actions for real fights.
• Most news posts unless you're building a public profile.

What You Cannot Ignore

• Missed primary declarations. Miss the window, wait a full cycle.
• Last-turn general elections. A 2% Favorability dip the morning of resolution can lose you the seat.
• Cabinet confirmation votes if you're a Senator. They close in 24 hours.
• Confidence votes in parliamentary systems. A PM losing confidence triggers government formation.
• Drifting too far from your party. You'll lose primary viability and party-pool bonus actions.

Related

• Core Systems — Turn structure, timing.
• Stats & Actions — Full action catalogue.
• Campaign Strategy — Tactical decision-making during campaigns.
• Player Progression — Multi-cycle career arc.
• First Campaign Walkthrough — Concrete week-by-week example.