Like all Paradox games, there’s a ton of potential in Victoria 3 for modding and messing with the game. The engine also has a ton of built-in debug commands to help with this. If you want to unlock a certain technology or customize the world state to test out a playthrough or mod idea, then the console commands in this guide will help with that.
It’s still very early days, so using these Victoria 3 Console Commands can be a bit of a hit-or-miss endeavor. Some commands are easier than others. Commands like annex are pretty straightforward. You just need the country tag, which can be found on the V3 wiki page, and then you just use the annex or tag command along with the desired country tag. but first, you need to enable the use of these cheats.
You will want to experiment a bit until you figure out how certain cheats work, as their consequences can be a bit predictable if misused. Also, using these codes will not be possible in ironman games, so you can’t cheat to earn achievements.
how to use Victoria 3 Console Commands
To use codes in Victoria 3, you must first activate debug mode. There are two ways to get this done:
- Add “-debug_mode” command to launch options of the game
- There’s also an option in the settings of the official launcher for “open game in debug mode” that does this as well.
Once you are in the debug mode, press the ~ key to open up the console and then type in any of the cheats from the list below, then press Enter to activate a command. Some commands require variables or tags to work, so pay attention to that.
All Console Commands and Cheats in Victoria 3
- add_approval (interest group) (amount) – increases your approval rating with a specific interest group
- add_clout (interest group) (amount) – increases your clout rating with a specific interest group
- add_loyalists (culture) (amount) – increases loyalist population in your country
- add_radicals (culture) (amount) – increases radical population in your country
- add_relations (county) (amount) – increases your relations with a specific country
- add_war_support (country) (amount) – increases war support with a specific country
- annex (country tag) – annexes a specific country
- changestatepop (state ID) (population type) – changes a specific state’s population
- change_law (law) (country) – changed the law in a specific country
- disable_ai – disables the AI
- enable_ai – enables the AI
- help – shows available commands
- ignore_government_support – allows you to disable the government support function
- kill_character (name) – allows you to kill a specific character
- money (amount) – adds a specific amount of money to your treasury
- norevolution – disables future revolutions
- nosecession – disables future secessions
- observe – enables observe mode
- own (province or state region tag) (country) – gives ownership of a specific province or state region to a specific country
- popstat – displays your total active population
- portait editor – allows you to edit your portrait
- province borders (true/false) – allows you to either enable or disable province borders
- research (technology key) – gives your country a specific technology
- screenshot – captures your screen
- settings – pulls up your in-game settings
- set_devestation_level (state) (amount) – changes the devastation level for a specific state
- set_pollution_level (state or region) (amount) – sets a specific pollution level to a specific state or region
- skip_migration – skips migration
- switchlanguage (desired language) – changed your game language
- tag (country) – allows you to play as a specific country
- test event (event name) (x) (y) (state) – spawns a specific event at location coordinates
- test objectives (subgoal key) – allows you to test an objective
- treaty port (state) – gives treaty port to a specific state
- version – displays the current game version
- wagerate (building) (rate) – allows you to change a building’s wage to a specific rate
- yeomen – makes the game’s AI agree to all proposals and offers
There are a few other commands that can change the way the game behaves. By default, it will take some amount of in-game time for things like new laws and revolutions to complete. That’s where the fast mode commands come in. You can enter these commands to have the entire game speed up the process for the given command. Be careful, as this will work for the AI as well.
- fastenact – fast enact mode
- fasthire – fast hire mode
- fastinstitutions – fast institutions mode
- fastinterests – fast interests mode
- fastmoblize – fast mobilize mode
- fastravels – fast travel mode
- fastrevoultion – fast revolution mode
- fastsearch – fast search mode
It’s also worth noting that there are already cheat command and console enabling mods in the Steam Workshop. If you don’t want to mess with figuring out how the console works, these are a much simpler approach to cheating and modding in Victoria 3.