One of the most broken strategies to defeat enemies in Hearts of Iron 4 is to use Paratroopers. If you have everything set in place right, you can drop your troops right in someone’s capital.
Or, that was how everything worked when the game was released. Now, most AI nations have garrison troops in most of their important cities, and multiplayer games don’t allow paratroopers in the sessions.
Recommended Read: What Does Infrastructure Do in Hearts of Iron 4?
Still, Paratroopers aren’t incredibly easy to use, and using them successfully to take over a country can be very satisfying. However, for many people, they often don’t do anything.
In this guide, we will show you exactly how to fix Paratroopers not launching in HOI4 by showing you exactly how to do it right, from start to finish.
Table of Contents
How to Launch Paratroopers in HOI4
To unlock Paratroopers in HOI4, you will have to research them from the Infantry tab. If you scroll down, you will find them in the Special Forces part of the Infantry research category.
Once you have them, the game will create a Paratrooper template for you that you can use to create some divisions.
After you recruit and deploy a few Paratrooper squads, select them and make an army out of them (press the man silhouette at the bottom of the screen with the green +).
Now, here is how to prepare the Paratroopers to launch them in HOI4:
- Select the army with the Paratroopers.
- Press the parachute icon in the missions tab to select the starting point and the landing point of the Paratroop Order operation.
- Press the green arrow hanging above the head of the general of the army to start the execution of the plan.
You cannot select a starting point for a Paradrop mission if you don’t have at least 50 Transport planes in an airport.
You also need your Paratrooper divisions to be only made of Paratroopers. If you also place tanks or artillery in the division (support troops work), they won’t be able to go on Paradrop missions.
How to Fix Paratroopers Not Launching in HOI4
There are a lot of things that can go wrong when you try to send your Paratroopers in HOI4. You need to make sure that all the requirements are properly met for the order to work and for the troops to launch:
- You need 70% Air Superiority in the region where you want to land the Paratroopers. If you don’t have it, the Paratroopers won’t launch. Green air in the area doesn’t necessarily mean that you have 70% Air Superiority, so make sure to check the region by selecting it in the Strategic Air map mode.
- Have enough Transport planes in the airport where you are sending the Paratroopers from. If you hover your mouse over the arrow for the Paradrop Order, you will see a notification where it says if you need extra Transport planes for the mission. You need at least 45 Transport planes per Paratrooper division.
- Without fuel in reserve, you won’t be able to launch the attack.
- Don’t assign an air mission for the Transport planes (for example, Air Supply).
- Make sure that the Paratrooper divisions aren’t assigned to other missions, such as defending a front or garrison.
You should also know that Paratroopers tend to not work properly in the late game, which can be very annoying, but it is a bug that many players have gotten used to.
If you meet all of the proper requirements, then Paratroopers should generally work. If they don’t, you should just give up on them and get used to naval invasions.
That’s everything you need to know about how to fix Paratroopers not launching in Hearts of Iron 4!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
