A player in Europa Universalis 5 completed a legendary achievement of the entire franchise and conquered the whole world as Ryukyu

Developers of grand strategy games love to insist that conquering the entire map in their titles is impossible – the mechanics won't allow it, the economy will collapse, control will tank. That claim usually holds up right until someone takes on the challenge with an island kingdom the size of a few villages on Okinawa.

Streamer Florryworry, also known as John Universalis, pulled off a full world conquest in Europa Universalis 5, starting as Chuzan, one of Okinawa three small principalities. Over the course of the campaign, the state transformed into Ryukyu, and the last unconquered provinces fell around 1820, right near the edge of the game timeline.

The choice of Ryukyu isn't random and traces back through the series history. EU4 features an achievement called "The Three Mountains," which requires conquering the entire world as this tiny nation, with the name referencing the three Okinawan principalities: Hokuzan, Chuzan, and Nanzan. EU5 kept the achievement under the same name, but now it only requires forming Ryukyu, meaning this particular world tour was a purely voluntary challenge.

The tradition dates back to EU3, where a world conquest as Ryukyu was considered the peak of madness – a single province, a pagan faith, and neighboring Japan ready to swallow the island whole within the first few decades. The format gained fame through runs by DDRJake, a former content creator and Paradox developer, whose "Three Mountains" report on EU4 version 1.0 became a genre classic. Since then, Ryukyu has turned into a cultural symbol of world conquest runs rather than just a difficult starting position.

There's a certain irony in Paradox talking up its new control systems, court costs, and governance mechanics as barriers against endless snowballing. The barrier didn't hold for long. World conquests in EU5 had already been documented before, including a run by ThePlaymaker shortly after launch and a version 1.3 speedrun involving tag-switching that pushed average global control up to 96%.

Some players openly admit it's less about skill and more about sheer patience, since the road from "I'm stronger than every great power combined" to the last province buried in the jungle takes dozens of hours of clicking.

Paradox keeps building walls against snowballing with every patch, and Florry keeps methodically finding the door.