Hearts of Iron 4 (HOI4) – How to Use Paratroopers

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Hearts of Iron 4 involves a lot of strategic thinking and planning to allow you to win the Second World War. However, there are a couple of tactics that players can employ to instantly win wars against countries with no air force.

Paratroops allow players to instantly send their troops over enemy lines right on top of their ports, victory points, and strategic locations.

Recommended Read: How to Get Queen Elizabeth in Hearts of Iron 4

Though many players would consider Paratroopers a cheat, it takes some skill to actually use these very powerful troops right.

In this guide, we will show you exactly how to use Paratroopers in HOI4 to drop them right behind enemy lines and make a country surrender in less than a week.


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How to Use Paratroopers in HOI4

To actually use these troops, you will first need to unlock them.

To unlock Paratroopers in HOI4, go to the Infantry tab and select to research them. Just scroll down to locate them under the Special Forces section and click to learn about them in at least 140 days.

Once you have them, HOI4 will generate a Paratrooper template for you to use in the Recruit & Deploy tab.

Generally, you will need to make sure that you don’t have too many Special Forces already deployed if you want to use Paratroopers. Otherwise, just increase the cap limit and pump some out.

After you’ve recruited and deployed a few Paratrooper divisions, choose them and combine them to form an army (press the man silhouette with the green + at the bottom of the screen).

Here is exactly how you can prepare and use the Paratroopers to launch an aerial invasion in HOI4:

  1. Click on the army with Paratroopers.
  2. In the missions tab, click the parachute icon to choose the beginning and landing points for the Paratroop Order.
  3. To begin carrying out the plan, press the green arrow hanging above the general of the army’s head.

If you don’t have at least 50 Transport planes, you actually can’t even choose a starting place for the Paradrop mission.

Your Paratrooper divisions must also be built up entirely of Paratroopers. If you include tanks or artillery in the battalion, they will be unable to participate in Paradrop operations.


What To Do If Paratroopers Don’t Work?

Even though we’ve given you these detailed instructions on how to use Paratroopers in HOI4, you might still experience problems sending the troops on these missions.

There are quite a lot of reasons why your Paratroopers might not be starting their mission. The most recurring one is that you need at least 70% Air Superiority in the region you want to land to actually start the operation.

Otherwise, we have a whole guide showing players how to fix Paratroopers that won’t launch in HOI4.


That’s everything you need to know about how to use Paratroopers in Hearts of Iron 4!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Adrian Oprea

Based in London, United Kingdom, Adrian Oprea is a Guides Writer. As a professional single-player RPG player, Adrian has often been stigmatized. He has decided to pour his frustration into writing guides!

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