Hearts of Iron 4 can be a punishingly difficult game, and whether you want to ease into it to learn the ropes or are fed up with a run – we have for you our list of HOI4 cheats with the best console commands and how to use them.

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Developed by Paradox, the Hearts of Iron series goes back to 2002 and it’s been causing players to rip their hair out in frustration ever since with its ever-deepening mechanics, and features that make it one of the best grand strategy titles going. These desperate lows make the highs all the more worth it, however, and pulling off a plan you set into motion many turns ago induces a sense of euphoria, relief and gratification like no other.

Sometimes though, we all need to take off our peaked caps and let our hair down - which is exactly why Paradox have included a thorough spread of cheats and console commands to bend the world to our will for once. Read on to get the commands you’re after!

How to use console commands in HOI4

Depending on your keyboard layout, you can access the console by hitting Shift+2, §, ~, , `, ", ^ or ALT+2+1, or Shift+3. For UK QWERTY layouts, this should be the ` key below the escape key.

From here you can enter a whole range of HOI4 console commands that can do a range of things from innocuously changing the weather to giving yourself an unholy amount of nukes for when enough is enough.

No matter your reasons – you’ll be able to enjoy the game as you like with the console commands listed with a description detailing their function down below.

Best HOI4 console commands

  • add_autonomy [country tag] [amount] – Increase or decrease the specified country’s autonomy level
  • add_core [state id] [country tag] – Make a state the core part of a nation
  • add_equipment [amount] [equipment name] – Add equipment to your stockpiles. Needs to be researched first and doesn’t work for naval stocks
  • add_interest [country tag] – Make a specific country part of your interest
  • add_latest_equipment [amount] – Works in the same as as add_equipment but targets the equipment listed on the logistics screen
  • add_party_popularity [ideology group] [amount] – Give the desired amount of popularity to a specific party with the ideologies ‘fascism’, ‘democratic’, ‘neutrality’, and ‘communism’
  • allowdiplo – Lets you use diplomatic actions without needing a reason
  • allowtraits – Allows you to assign as many traits to generals as you’d like
  • annex [country tag / ‘all’] – Lets you annex a specific country tag, bring their territory into your own
  • civilwar [ideology] [country tag] – Start a civil war within a target country with an ideology of either, ‘fascism’, ‘democratic’, ‘neutrality’, and ‘communism’
  • cp [amount] – This increases your Command Power up to by 100%
  • debug_tactics – Enables or disables the visibility of tactics debug tooltip.
  • decision.nochecks – Lets you bypass decision requirements
  • deleteallunits [country tag] – Gets rid all of the selected countries militaries
  • error – Shows errors from the log file
  • focus.ignoreprerequisites – Lets you bypass focus prerequisites
  • focus.nochecks – Enables you to do away with focus requirements
  • fow – Enable or disable fog of war. You can also do this for specific provinces
  • fronts – Enables or disables the visibility of foreign fronts
  • gain_xp [amount] – Selected general or leader will be given the amount of XP you’d like
  • Instant_wargoal – Lets you a war goal without needing a reason
  • instantconstruction – Toggles on or off the ability for construction to be finished immediately
  • manpower [amount] – Give yourself the desired amount of manpower you’d like
  • morehumans [amount] – Increase or decrease the world population. Use a minus symbol for decreasing it.
  • moveunit [unit id] [province id] – Move a specific unit to a specific province
  • Nomapicons – Enables or disables the visibility of icons in the map.
  • Nopausetext – Enables or disables the visibility of the pause menu.
  • nuke [amount] – Give yourself however many nukes you’d like
  • observe – Lets you just watch everything unfold without needing any user input
  • pp [amount] – Give yourself the desired amount of political power.
  • remove_interest [country tag] – Gets rid of a country from your interest
  • research_on_icon_click – Lets you instantly research a technology when you click on it
  • research [slot id / ‘all’] – Allows you to research all equipment or a specific type
  • savegame – Initiate a save
  • set_ruling_party [ideology group] – Change the ruling party to either ‘fascism’, ‘democratic’, ‘neutrality’, and ‘communism’
  • setcontroller [country tag] [province id] – Change who governs a specific province
  • setowner [country tag] [state id] – Change what countries belong to who
  • st [amount] – Increase or decrease stability by up to 100& or -100%
  • tag_color [rgb] – Change the tag colour of your country
  • tag [country tag] – Lets you change which country you’re playing as midway through the game
  • teleport [province id] – Teleport selected ships to a province ID
  • traderoutes – Enables or disables the visibility of trade routes.
  • Weather – Enable or disable the weather
  • whitepeace [country tag] [country tag] – This create a white peace between two specific countries
  • winwars – Give yourself the max warscore for conflicts you are part of
  • ws [amount] – Increase or decrease War Support by up to 100& or -100%
  • xp [amount] – Give yourself the desired amount of XP to the army, navy and airforce
  • yesman – Makes countries accept whatever diplomatics offer you make them

HOI4 Country Tags

If, for instance, you want to do a console command that affects a particular nation, then you will need that country’s specific Country Tag – a three-character code (such as KOR for Korea).

There are two subsets of these tags, Country Tags and Releasable Country Tags.

Country Tags refer to countries that were independent entities in 1936 when your typical HOI run begins. Releasable Countries are those that are either colonies of Empires such as Algeria, or countries that are part of a union such as Scotland.

Below we have two separate lists for both to help you get the code you need with minimal faffing.

HOI4 Country Tags

  • Afghanistan – AFG
  • Albania – ALB
  • Angola – ANG
  • Argentina – ARG
  • Australia – AST
  • Austria – AUS
  • Belgium – BEL
  • Bhutan – BHU
  • Bolivia – BOL
  • Brazil – BRA
  • British Malaya – MAL
  • British Raj – RAJ
  • Bulgaria – BUL
  • Chile – CHL
  • China – CHI
  • Colombia – COL
  • Communist China – PRC
  • Costa Rica – COS
  • Cuba – CUB
  • Czechoslovakia – CZE
  • Denmark – DEN
  • Dominican Republic – DOM
  • Dominion of Canada – CAN
  • Dutch East Indies – INS
  • Ecuador – ECU
  • El Salvador – ELS
  • Estonia – EST
  • Ethiopia – ETH
  • Finland – FIN
  • France – FRA
  • German Republic – GER
  • Greece – GRE
  • Guangxi Clique – GXC
  • Guatemala – GUA
  • Haiti – HAI
  • Honduras – HON
  • Iceland – ICE
  • Iran – PER
  • Iraq – IRQ
  • Ireland – IRE
  • Italy – ITA
  • Japan – JAP
  • Kingdom of Hungary – HUN
  • Kingdom of Romania – ROM
  • Latvia – LAT
  • Liberia – LIB
  • Lithuania – LIT
  • Luxembourg – LUX
  • Manchukuo – MAN
  • Mengkukuo – MEN
  • Mexico – MEX
  • Mongolia – MON
  • Nepal – NEP
  • Netherlands – HOL
  • New Zealand – NZL
  • Nicaragua – NIC
  • Norway – NOR
  • Oman – OMA
  • Panama – PAN
  • Paraguay – PAR
  • Peru – PRU
  • Philippines – PHI
  • Poland – POL
  • Portugal – POR
  • Saudi Arabia – SAU
  • Shanxi – SHX
  • Siam – SIA
  • Sinkiang – SIK
  • South Africa – SAF
  • Soviet Union – SOV
  • Spain (Republican) – SPR
  • Spain (Nationalist) – D01
  • Sweden – SWE
  • Switzerland – SWI
  • Tannu Tuva – TAN
  • Tibet – TIB
  • Turkey – TUR
  • United Kingdom – ENG
  • United States – USA
  • Uruguay – URG
  • Venezuela – VEN
  • Xibei San Ma – XSM
  • Yemen – YEM
  • Yugoslavia – YUG
  • Yunnan – YUN

HOI4 Releasable Country Tags

  • Algeria – ALG
  • Angola – ANG
  • Azerbaijan – AZR
  • Bahamas – BAH
  • Bangladesh – BAN
  • Belize – BLZ
  • Bosnia-Herzegovina – BOS
  • Botswana – BOT
  • Burma – BRM
  • Burundi – BRD
  • Cameroon – CMR
  • Central Africa – CAR
  • Chad – CHA
  • Confederacy of American States – CSA
  • Congo-Brazzaville – RCG
  • Côte d’Ivoire – IVO
  • Croatia – CRO
  • Dahomey – DAH
  • Djibouti – DJI
  • East Germany – DDR
  • Equatorial Guinea – EQG
  • Eritrea – ERI
  • Gabon – GAB
  • Gambia – GAM
  • Ghana – GHA
  • Guinea – GNA
  • Guinea-Bissau – GNB
  • Guyana – GYA
  • Israel – ISR
  • Jamaica – JAM
  • Kazakhstan – KAZ
  • Kenya – KEN
  • Kingdom of Egypt – EGY
  • Kingdom of Jordan – JOR
  • Kingdom of Libya – LBA
  • Kingdom of Morocco – MOR
  • Korea – KOR
  • Kuwait – KUW
  • Kyrgyzstan – KYR
  • Lebanon – LEB
  • Malawi – MLW
  • Maldives – MLD
  • Mali – MLI
  • Malta – MLT
  • Mauritania – MRT
  • Melanesian Federation – FIJ
  • Moldova – MOL
  • Mozambique – MZB
  • Namibia – NMB
  • Netherlands Antilles – CRC
  • Niger – NGR
  • Nigeria – NGA
  • Northern Ireland – NIR
  • Pakistan – PAK
  • Palestine – PAL
  • Papua New Guinea – PNG
  • Puerto Rico – PUE
  • Republic of Armenia – ARM
  • Republic of Belarus – BLR
  • Republic of Cambodia – CAM
  • Republic of Cayenne – CAY
  • Republic of Cyprus – CYP
  • Republic of Georgia – GEO
  • Republic of Guadeloupe – GDL
  • Republic of Laos – LAO
  • Republic of Macedonia – MAC
  • Republic of Madagascar – MAD
  • Republic of Montenegro – MNT
  • Republic of Qatar – QAT
  • Republic of Slovenia – SLV
  • Republic of Suriname – SUR
  • Republic of Tajikistan – TAJ
  • Republic of The British Antilles – BAS
  • Republic of Trinidad and Tobago – TRI
  • Republic of Turkmenistan – TMS
  • Republic of Ukraine – UKR
  • Republic of Uzbekistan – UZB
  • Republic of Vietnam – VIN
  • Rwanda – RWA
  • Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic – WES
  • Scotland – SCO
  • Senegal – SEN
  • Serbia – SER
  • Sierra Leone – SIE
  • Slovakia – SLO
  • Somali Sultanate – SOM
  • Sudan – SUD
  • Sri Lanka – SRL
  • Syria – SYR
  • Tanzania – TZN
  • Togo – TOG
  • Tunisia – TUN
  • Uganda – UGA
  • Unaligned States of America – USB
  • United Arab Emirates – UAE
  • Upper Volta – VOL
  • Wales – WLS
  • West Germany – WGR
  • Zaire – COG
  • Zambia – ZAM
  • Zimbabwe – ZIM

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Authors

Cole Luke
Cole LukeFreelance Writer

Cole Luke is a freelance journalist and video producer who contributes to RadioTimes.com's Gaming section. He also has bylines for Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, Network N and more.

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