Heart of Iron 4 is a relatively hard game to understand and master. Even after hundreds of hours, you will still learn new ways to beat the AI and players alike, as the game gets new updates and DLCs every couple of months.
Since most players want to sometimes skip some of the annoying steps that would normally take hours of their lives, console commands are a god-send that will help you get whatever you want whenever you want.
Recommended Read: Hearts of Iron 4 – Beginner’s Guide
As long as you aren’t playing an Ironman Mode game, the command console is available at all times with just the simple push of a button.
To open the console in Hearts of Iron 4, press the “~” or “`” button on your keyboard, the one to the left of “1”. To use the commands, to type them into the console and press Enter.
Table of Contents
How to Open the Command Console
To open the command console in HOI4 to start using cheats, you will have to be inside the game, using a normal save file, not Ironman Mode, and press the ~ button on your keyboard.
Different keyboards have different buttons, depending on your region, so just press the button to the left of the “1” key, above your WASD, or right under the Esc key.
If your keyboard doesn’t have that button there due to regional layouts or just due to modern design choices, you can also use the following key combinations to open the command console:
- Shift + 2
- Shift + 3
- Alt + 2 + 1
As long as you aren’t in an Ironman Mode game, the console will open on the left side of the screen, with a little dog with goggles standing above it.
You can also close the command console by pressing the same key or button combination.
How to Use Commands/Cheats in HOI4
To use any simple command in the HOI4 console, all you have to do is write it or paste it from a list and press Enter. If you wrote a command that is valid, you will instantly see the result of the cheat you used.
Most commands are relatively simple to use and are very intuitive.
For example, if you just wrote down “research_on_icon_click” and pressed Enter, you would gain the ability to instantly research anything in the tree just by clicking on the tech itself.
However, many commands have arguments you would have to write to make it work. For example, if you want to instantly conquer a country, you can’t just write “annex France”. You would have to use the Country Tag for France, which is FRA.
Other commands, like the one that allows you to make a state a core, will require more than one argument. You will need to know the ID of the state as well as your country’s Country Tag.
Country Tags
One of the most common arguments you will use for commands in HOI4 is Country Tags.
Usually, these are relatively easy to guess since countries like Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have the SWE, DEN, and NOR Country Tags.
However, there are some cases where countries have arbitrary Country Tags, like the United Kingdom for example, which has the ENG tag, or Iran, which has the PER tag.
The easiest way to find out a country’s tag without having to look into the game files is to use the “debug” command. This will allow you to see hidden values, one of which being the Country Tag.
Just hover over a country and you will see a line that says “Owner: Country (Country Tag)”. Here is exactly what you would see hovering over Finland: “Owner: Finland (FIN #28)”.
If you just want to know your own tag, you can hover over your flag in the upper left corner of the screen.
To remove all the extra information and fluff from your screen, just open the console again and use the debug command again to disable it.
Other Important Arguments
Besides the most very important Country Tags, players will also need to use for their commands a lot of other arguments that are relatively easy to guess.
For example, you will often have to write an amount for the item or resource you want to receive.
However, there are some arguments that aren’t so easy to understand, so here are some quick explanations for them:
- equipment name – the special code for the equipment type you want to spawn. We have a full list of the most important equipment names here.
- event id – you can find the id’s of various events you might want to play out early by looking in the /Hearts of Iron IV/events/ folder wherever you installed the game.
- ideology – you only have four options here: fascism, communism, democratic, or neutrality
- ideology group – if you see this argument, it means that you only have to write the first letter of the ideology: f, c, d, or n.
- state id/province id – the same as the country tag. You can find these two by using the debug command and hovering over a province/state.
List of All Console Commands
Here is a list of all the console commands/cheats in HOI4:
- 3dstats
- add_core [state id] [country tag]
- add_diplo
- add_equipment [amount] [equipment name]
- add_autonomy [country tag] [amount]
- add_ideas [idea name]
- add_interest [country tag]
- add_latest_equipment [amount]
- add_opinion [source country tag] [target country tag]
- add_party_popularity [ideology group] [amount]
- ai
- ai_accept
- ai_invasion
- aidump
- aircombat [scenario] [result] [province id] [airbase state id] [airbase state id] [equipment] [equipment] [equipment creator] [equipment creator]
- airealism
- aiview
- allowdiplo
- allowtraits
- analyzetheatres
- annex [country tag / ‘all’]
- bloom
- browser [url]
- browser_base_url [url]
- building_health [building type] [state id / province id] [level] [amount]
- cameraclamp
- cityreload
- civilwar [ideology] [country tag]
- collision
- combatsound [frequency]
- cp [amount]
- createlean
- debug_achievements_clear
- debug_ai_budget [country tag]
- debug_air_vs_land
- debug_assert
- debug_borders
- debug_cities
- debug_commands
- debug_crash
- debug_diploactions
- debug_dumpdiploactions
- debug_dumpevents
- debug_entities
- debug_events
- debug_fronts
- debug_info
- debug_lines
- debug_lockcamera
- debug_nogui
- debug_nomouse
- debug_nuking
- debug_off_front_snap
- debug_particle
- debug_postfx
- debug_rivers
- debug_show_event_id
- debug_sky
- debug_smooth
- debug_tactics
- debug_terrain
- debug_texture
- debug_textures
- debug_tooltip
- debug_trees
- debug_types
- debug_volume [volume]
- debug_water
- debug_wireframe
- debug_zoom
- decision.nochecks
- deleteallunits [country tag]
- deltat [speed multiplier]
- error
- event [event id] [country tag]
- filewatcher
- flagsoutput [path]
- focus.autocomplete
- focus.ignoreprerequisites
- focus.nochecks
- fow [province id]
- fronts
- fullscreen
- gain_xp [amount]
- goto_province [province id]
- goto_state [state id]
- guibounds
- hdr
- hdr_debug
- help [command]
- helplog
- hsv
- human_ai
- instant_prepare
- instant_wargoal
- instantconstruction
- ip
- manpower [amount]
- mapmode [mapmode id]
- mapnames
- massconquer
- morehumans [amount]
- moveunit [unit id] [province id]
- nextsong
- night
- nomapicons
- nopausetext
- nu [amount]
- nudge
- nuke [amount]
- observe
- occupationpaint [country tag]
- oos
- particle_editor
- pause_in_hours [hours]
- poll
- posteffectvolumes.default [post effect]
- pp [amount]
- prices
- printsynchstuff
- profilelog
- provtooltipdebug
- reload [file name]
- reloadfx [map / .fx file]
- reloadinterface
- reloadoob [country tag]
- reloadsupply
- reloadtechnologies
- reloadweather [seed]
- remove_core [state id] [country tag]
- remove_interest [country tag]
- rendertype
- requestgamestate
- research [slot id / ‘all’]
- research_on_icon_click
- resign
- run [file name]
- savecheck
- savegame
- set_cosmetic_tag [country tag] [country tag]
- set_country_flag [country tag]
- set_ruling_party [ideology group]
- setcontroller [country tag] [province id]
- setowner [country tag] [state id]
- setrandomcount [count]
- sleep [duration]
- spawn [unit name/id] [province id] [amount]
- spawnactor [name] [province id] [animation]
- srgb
- st [amount]
- tag [country tag]
- tag_color [rgb]
- tdebug
- teleport [province id]
- testevent [event id] [character id]
- testtool
- theatersrebuild
- time
- traderoutes
- trigger_docs
- tweakergui
- update_loc [localisation key]
- updateequipments
- updatesubunits
- version
- weather
- whitepeace [country tag] [country tag]
- window [open / close] [gui name]
- winwars
- ws [amount]
- xp [amount]
- yesman
That’s everything you need to know about how to open the console and use commands in Hearts of Iron 4!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
