Henry of Skalitz is a mess. When you first start Kingdom Come: Deliverance (KCD), you can’t fight, you can’t read, and you certainly can’t pick a lock to save your life. That’s the charm. But sometimes, usually after your twentieth death to a group of peasants with pitchforks, the charm wears off. You just want to fix a bug or experiment with the world. That is exactly why players start looking into kingdom come: deliverance -devmode. It's not just a "cheat code" in the traditional sense; it’s basically handing you the keys to the engine room of 15th-century Bohemia.
Warhorse Studios built a simulation. Simulations are fragile.
If you’ve spent any time on the forums or Reddit, you know the frustration of a quest NPC getting stuck in a wall or a save file corrupting after 80 hours of progress. Using the developer mode is often the only way to bypass these technical hiccups without losing your entire journey. It’s powerful stuff. You can fly. You can spawn items. You can make Henry a god. But if you do it wrong, you’ll turn your save game into a digital paperweight.
Setting Up Kingdom Come: Deliverance -devmode the Right Way
Getting it to work is surprisingly simple, yet many people stumble because they expect an in-game menu. Nope. You have to tell the game to launch with these permissions before you even see the Deep Silver logo.
If you are on Steam, you’ve gotta right-click the game in your library, hit "Properties," and find that "Launch Options" box at the bottom. Type in -devmode exactly like that. No spaces before the dash. If you’re on GOG or using a desktop shortcut, you’ll need to right-click the shortcut, go to "Target," and add a space followed by -devmode at the very end of the string, outside the quotation marks.
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Once you’ve done that, the tilde key (~) becomes your best friend.
Pressing it opens the console. This is the command line where the magic—and the potential disasters—happens. Unlike some other RPGs, KCD doesn't have a massive list of friendly, readable commands by default. It's raw. It's crunchy. It expects you to know what you're doing, or at least be willing to fail spectacularly.
Why Most Players Fail with Console Commands
The biggest mistake? Assuming every "cheat" is built-in. Honestly, the vanilla developer mode is actually kinda limited in terms of "fun" cheats like infinite money or instant level-ups. Warhorse kept those tucked away. Most people who use kingdom come: deliverance -devmode eventually realize they also need the "Cheat" mod from Nexus Mods.
Think of -devmode as the door and the Cheat mod as the furniture inside. Without the mod, you're mostly looking at technical commands like wh_pl_showfirecursor 1 (which gives you a reticle for bows—highly recommended) or r_MotionBlur 0 to kill that nauseating camera smear.
The Essential Commands You’ll Actually Use
Let’s talk about the stuff that actually improves the experience.
You’ve probably noticed that Henry’s bow aiming is a nightmare because the reticle disappears. It’s realistic, sure. It’s also incredibly annoying when a rabbit is mocking you from five feet away. Opening the console and typing wh_pl_showfirecursor 1 fixes this instantly. It’s the most popular use for the mode, hands down.
Then there’s the "Free Camera."
Sometimes you just want to see Bohemia from the clouds or take a screenshot without Henry’s dirt-covered face in the way. Use p_draw_helpers 1 to see some behind-the-scenes triggers, or wh_cheat_freecamera 1 if you have the right plugins. It changes how you see the world. Suddenly, the dense forests of Sasau don't seem so intimidating when you can see over the treeline.
wh_pl_showfirecursor 1: Adds the yellow dot back for archery.g_showHUD 0: Hides the HUD for those cinematic moments.r_vsync 0: Disables vertical sync if your frame rate is acting funky.sys_MaxFPS 60: Caps your frames to prevent your GPU from sounding like a jet engine.
There is a catch. Using kingdom come: deliverance -devmode can occasionally disable Steam Achievements. It's inconsistent. Some players report they still get them, others find their progress locked. If you're a trophy hunter, maybe keep a "clean" save file before you start messing with the fabric of reality.
Dealing with the Infamous Save System
Kingdom Come’s saving mechanic is... controversial. "Saviour Schnapps" adds tension, but it also adds a lot of wasted time if you have a life outside of gaming. While -devmode doesn't give you a "Save Game" command directly, it enables the environment where save-anywhere mods can function.
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Honestly, the game is better when you aren't terrified of a random crash.
I remember losing two hours of progress because my horse got stuck on a fence near Rattay. If I had been using the dev console commands to teleport or even just save manually, I wouldn't have had to replay the same three conversations with Sir Radzig. It’s about respecting your own time.
Advanced Tweaks and Performance Gains
If you’re running KCD on an older rig, -devmode is basically a requirement for survival. The CryEngine is beautiful but heavy. You can use the console to turn off specific lighting effects or shadows that aren't available in the standard settings menu.
Try r_ssdo 0. This disables Screen Space Directional Occlusion. The game will look a bit flatter, but you might gain 5-10 frames per second in crowded areas like the Rattay markets. For many, that's the difference between "playable" and "slideshow."
Another one is e_MergedMeshes 0. It can help with pop-in issues, though it might tax your CPU a bit more. It’s a balancing act. You’re essentially acting as your own QA tester, sliding variables back and forth to see what makes the game stable.
The Risk of Quest Breaking
Let’s get serious for a second. Kingdom come: deliverance -devmode allows you to do things the developers never intended. If you use a command to "no-clip" through a door that’s supposed to be locked for a quest, you can break the entire script logic.
NPCs in this game have very specific schedules. They need to walk from point A to point B to trigger the next part of a story. If you teleport Henry to point C too early, the NPC might just stand in a field forever, waiting for a trigger that will never happen. Always keep multiple backups. One at the start of a quest, one in the middle, and one before you touch the console.
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Practical Next Steps for Your Game
If you're ready to dive in, don't just start typing random strings into the console. Start small.
First, enable the mode in your launch options. Then, go into the game and try the bow reticle command. It’s a safe, non-game-breaking tweak that proves the mode is working. If you want more power, head over to Nexus Mods and grab the "Cheat" mod by user gonzo. It translates the complex dev-mode language into simple commands like cheat_add_money amount:1000.
Once you have the console open, remember that it's case-sensitive. If a command isn't working, check your underscores. Most of the commands start with wh_ (for Warhorse) or g_ (for general).
If you find that the dev console isn't appearing when you hit the tilde key, check your keyboard layout. Sometimes Windows defaults to a different region where the tilde isn't in the usual spot. Switch to US English and it should pop right up.
Final word of advice: use it to enhance the story, not to skip it. Henry’s journey from a useless blacksmith’s son to a knight is the whole point. If you give yourself the best armor and max stats in the first hour, you’re just playing a medieval walking simulator. Use the mode to fix the bugs and smooth out the edges, but keep the struggle alive. That's where the real fun is.