You've been there. It's 1939. You are playing as a minor nation, maybe Hungary or Romania, and you’re staring at that decision timer. You need that industrial expansion or that political flip to happen now because Germany is already justifying on your neighbors. Waiting 90 days feels like an eternity when the world is literally on fire. That is exactly why players hunt for the HOI4 command to make decisions instant, but there is a massive catch that most people ignore until their game is ruined.
Hearts of Iron IV is a game of patience, but sometimes you just want to experiment or bypass the grind of a specific mod like Kaiserreich or Millennium Dawn. Honestly, the "instant" commands in Paradox games are powerful, dangerous, and occasionally hilarious.
How the Instant Decision Command Actually Works
The command you are looking for is decision.nochecks.
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Wait. Before you go typing that into the console, you need to understand what it does. It doesn't just make the timer go away; it removes the requirements. If you have zero political power, zero stability, and haven't met any of the prerequisite focuses, the game doesn't care. The decision button becomes clickable.
But that isn't the only one. Usually, when people want things to happen "instantly," they are actually looking for allowdiplo. This lets you do things like declare war without a justification, but it isn't strictly for decisions. For the actual timing of the decision to finish in a single day, the community often groups these under the umbrella of "instant" cheats, though the behavior is subtly different across various game versions.
The Massive Risk of Leaving it On
Here is the thing. If you toggle decision.nochecks and let the clock run, the AI gets the same perks.
The AI in HOI4 is... well, it’s not exactly Einstein, but it is very fast at clicking buttons. If you leave the HOI4 command to make decisions instant active during a 24-hour tick, every country on the planet might suddenly trigger their most powerful decisions. Imagine the Soviet Union instantly completing its entire internal purge or every minor nation suddenly getting free factories because the "checks" are gone.
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I’ve seen games where the entire political map of Europe shifted in three days because the player forgot to turn the command off. It’s chaos. Pure, unadulterated chaos.
Using the Console Correctly
To even start this process, you need to hit the tilde key (~) or Shift+Alt+C depending on your keyboard layout. This opens the developer console.
- Type
decision.nochecks. - Click the decision you want.
- Immediately type
decision.nochecksagain to disable it.
Seriously. Do not unpause the game while it is active. If you want the decision to finish instantly rather than just being able to start it without requirements, you are looking at a different beast entirely. Most decisions in HOI4 are tied to the daily tick.
Some players get confused and try using ic (instant construction) or it (instant training). Those won't help you with the decision tab. Decisions are scripted events. If a decision says "Takes 30 days," and you want it done now, you might actually be looking for event [event ID]. But searching for specific event IDs in the game files is a headache that most people don't want to deal with.
The "Instant" Misconception
There is a weird quirk in the Clausewitz engine. Sometimes, a command doesn't "take" until the next day starts. If you click a decision and it still says "29 days remaining," you might be tempted to keep the cheat on. Resist that urge. Most of the time, the command simply bypasses the cost and the prerequisites.
If you want the actual effects to apply immediately without any timer at all, you are usually looking for the foci command for the national focus tree, or decision.fastremove which some modders use to clear out old decision bloat.
Why People Use This Command Anyway
Let’s be real: HOI4 can be a slog. If you are a content creator trying to test a specific "what if" scenario—like what happens if the US goes fascist in 1936—you don't want to wait through two years of political power accumulation. You use the HOI4 command to make decisions instant to force the game's hand.
It’s also a lifesaver for modders. If you’re building a sub-mod and you need to see if your custom decision for a "Great Emu War 2" actually spawns the units correctly, you aren't going to wait 180 in-game days. You're going to cheat. And that’s fine.
But for a standard Ironman-style run (which you can't use cheats in anyway), this command is the forbidden fruit. It breaks the balance. The game is balanced around the idea that you have to choose between a "Silent Workhorse" advisor or clicking that "Improve Worker Conditions" decision. Taking both instantly for free makes you a superpower by 1937.
Troubleshooting the Console
Sometimes the console just won't open. This usually happens because you are in Ironman mode. Ironman locks the console to prevent exactly what we are discussing. There are third-party tools to "de-ironman" a save, but they are finicky and can corrupt your files.
If you typed the command and nothing happened, check your spelling. The console is picky. It doesn't like typos, and it won't give you a "command not found" error half the time; it just ignores you.
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Also, keep in mind that certain mods like The New Order (TNO) or Millennium Dawn have their own custom GUI systems. These systems are often coded in a way that "instant" commands don't recognize. In those cases, you might click the button, but the scripted effect won't trigger because the mod requires a specific variable to be met that decision.nochecks doesn't bypass.
Impact on Game Performance
Believe it or not, spamming commands can lag your game. When you force a decision to happen that wasn't supposed to happen, the game has to calculate a lot of new modifiers instantly. If you do this for twenty decisions at once, don't be surprised if your FPS drops to single digits for a moment.
The game is a giant spreadsheet with a map on top. When you change the spreadsheet values too fast, the engine groans.
Practical Steps for a Clean Game
If you’re going to mess with the HOI4 command to make decisions instant, follow these steps to ensure you don't end up with a save file that crashes every time you hit the spacebar.
- Create a backup save. Just do it. Name it "Pre-Cheat" or something.
- Pause the game. Never, ever enter these commands while the clock is ticking.
- Enter the command. Click your decision.
- Toggle it off. Verify by typing it again; the console should tell you if the flag is now false.
- Save and reload. This isn't strictly necessary, but it helps the AI "reset" its logic so it doesn't try to pathfind toward a decision that is no longer available.
Using commands is part of the Paradox experience. Whether it's annex all just to see the world turn one color or using research all to see nukes in 1936, it's about having fun with the sandbox. Just remember that with great political power comes the great responsibility of not letting the AI cheat better than you do.
The most effective way to manage your game state is to use these tools sparingly. If you find yourself needing to make decisions instant every single game, you might actually be looking for a "No Cooldown" or "Fast Decisions" mod on the Steam Workshop instead. Those are usually scripted more cleanly than the raw console commands.