Hearts of Iron 4 (HOI4) Update 1.16.5 Patch Notes – April 28, 2025

A new Hearts of Iron IV update 1.16.5 is available on PC (Steam). According to the official HOI4 patch notes, the latest update refines Graveyard of Empires with bug fixes and revamped focus trees. The Saadabad Pact tree expands alliances, India’s communist path gets a major overhaul, and a loyalist branch lets India stay a British dominion. Kurdistan gains strength, and Iran receives new characters and content, including a Qajar restoration. Apart from this, HOI4 update 1.16.5 also enhance stability.

Recently, a big Hearts of Iron IV update 1.12.10 was released that added adds Operation Sabre comes plenty of new bug fixes and some attention towards Bulgaria and Romania. Unfortunately, since the last update, many players were experiencing a number of issues when trying to play. Today’s Hearts of Iron 4 update 1.16.5 will fix a few of these issues.

HOI4 Update Patch Notes – April 28, 2025

Shareable Equipment Designs
Tank, Plane and Ship designs can now be saved between playthroughs
Tank, Plane and Ship designs can now be exported to and imported from clipboard

Balance
Afghanistan
There are now more ways of increasing democracy support, making it easier to avoid the civil war in the democratic path
Germany
Added more places in the alt-history branches for Germany to lower the Consumer Goods Factory Factors if they have either the MEFO Bills or Economy of Conquest
Reduced chance of AI Lithuania and Poland giving up territory to Germany in the Brest-Litovsk Path
India
Reduced special forces cap gained from Kingmaker from 30% to 4%
Reduced volunteer size from Kingmaker from 6 to 5
Reduced cost of Reserve Bank of India from 150pp to 100pp
Reduced several focuses in the India focus tree to 35 days
Heavy Industry now gives 6 tungsten in capital state
Seek Financial Aid from the USSR now gives 5 oil, 4 Tungsten and 6 steel in capital state
Increased Resistance gained from Violence against the British to 60% (from 50%)
Princely Subjugation now increases resistance target by 60% (from 20%) and reduces damage to garrison by -10% (from +50%)
The “Anti-Imperialist Zeal” national spirit granted by the focus “The Sun Sets” now also gives attack and defense bonuses against France and the USA, matching the bonuses targeting the UK
Reduced the “Father of Pakistan” trait from 50% surrender limit to 25%
“Rally the Indian Left” now takes 35 days (down from 70)
Rebalanced national spirit “Growing Hindu Nationalism” to give +0.7% weekly war support rather than +1%
Iran
Added +75 Political Power and +5% Communist Party Popularity to the Iranian focus “Soviet Alignment”
Adjusted several Iranian focuses from 70 to 35 days, with minor tweaks to some of them as a result of the time being lowered
Iraq
now unlocks a decision to intentionally overflow its irrigation systems and dams for a limited time
Added a focus for Iraq to trade resource rights for oil to Germany in exchange for significant military aid
Soviet Union
AI will now make use of Heavy Tanks
Fixed bug where more equipment got recovered than lost due to reliability
Lowered the chances of the more obscure paths being taken by GoE countries if the game rules are set to non-historical or the country is set to random

Gameplay
Afghanistan
Added a country leader to the communist path, as well as a Field Marshal and German General to the fascist path
The Turkmen and Tajik states in Afghanistan are now cores of their respective tags
Added a new focus for the Afghan Democratic branch to gain more democratic support as well as unlock two new advisors
Reworked the tooltip for the focus “Retire the Uncles” to be more readable
Added a focus for Afghanistan to gain the support of former Basmachi Movement members in the fascist branch, enabling for easier conquest of Soviet Central Asia
India
Added a new ‘Loyalty to the UK’ branch to the Raj
Kingmaker now unlocks anti democratic/unaligned raids
Kingmaker now allows joining opposite factions
AI will now be more friendly towards Kingmaker India, being more likely to want to be in an alliance with them and accept volunteers
Added new communist branches for India
Added North-Central and Western-Central India as areas targeted during the Mughal Uprising, giving the Mughal side more options for conquests during the civil war
The focus “Revolt of the Princes” now gives a spirit that makes it easier to annex the princely states
Improved descriptions of several Indian focuses
the focus “Royal Navy Mutiny” now removes the Marginalized Muslim Community spirit
the Communist party will now be renamed to Communist Party of India when completing either of the focuses “Indian Socialism” or “Soviet Influence”
The Princely Breakaway State can now get more territorial concessions during the Mughal uprising, subdivided into Southern, Eastern, Northern, Central and Western India. Controlling all states in an area will let the Mughal side keep them at the end, instantly coring them.
Added bypass to Revolt of the Princes if you already control all of India. Bypass gives the manpower and War Support you would normally get
Added a way to core the princely states with the Akhand Bharat decisions
Subhas Chandra Bose can now become an advisor for Communist India if he is swayed
Reworked how to flip communist as India. Now unlocks infiltration decisions to undermine the independence movement and the British, which reduces threshold to flip communist and boost communist support, instead of using the Autonomy system
Renamed Train Robberies to the Peoples Railways, it no longer gives Train Robberies spirit, instead adds an optional decision and alters the railway focuses
Iran
Added a focus under the Fight For Iran path that allows Iran to reinstate the Qajar dynasty if they are a British puppet
Added historical Generals Haj Ali Razmara and Assadollah Hosseinpoor to Iran
Focus “Clash of The Titans” is now visible from game start, and is available even if Greece hasn’t formed Byzantium yet, but doing so while Greek Byzantine exists will offer a healthy attack bonus
Added new focuses to the Iranian Communist Path to make the Soviet & Iranian Socialism branches stand out
Added an extra event as part of the Fight For Iran branch where allies of the faction leader will peace out if the leader chooses to accept the peace negotiations

Added political advisors Abdolsamad Kambakhsh, Rokneddin Mokhtari and Karim Buzarjomehri to Iran
Added two new focuses to give democratic Iran the chance to get scientists, facilities and breakthrough progress
Added new focuses to the Iranian Communist Path to make the Soviet & Iranian Socialism branches stand out
Iraq
Added Ma’ruf al-Rusafi as an advisor
Added four focuses to the Kurdistan path for Iraq, allowing Kurdistan to go communist and join the comintern
Soviet Union
Added an event that fires off if the Soviet Union are in control of Iranian Kurdish territory, which will release Kurdistan as the Republic of Mahabad
Turkey
Focus “Expand the Saadabad Pact” will now invite other signatories automatically with GOE enabled, but only if they share an ideology with Turkey
Added more resource variety in GoE nations, such as Chromium, Steel, etc.
Added the United Maghreb as a new formable nation
Added custom agency icons for British Raj, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Added formable “Mesopotamia” for Kurdistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, to allow for the restoration of the Cradle of Civilization
Added the Saadabad Pact shared focus branch to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Turkey

Stability & Performance
Improved AI performance for diplomacy
Improve performance of French and Russian localization

Bugfix
Afghanistan
Kabul conference decisions are no longer missing certain regions from claimable state decisions
Decisions “Exploit Turko-Persian Heritage” now show up on the map as they should
Fixed an issue in the 1939 start where Afghanistan started with some focuses completed despite missing their parent focuses
Fixed an issue where the focus “Defender of Central Asia” would sometimes change the capital hub
The focus “Approach Foreign Intelligence Services” no longer attempts to create two separate agencies when playing as communist
The decision “Exploit Turko-Persian Heritage” no longer gets soft-locked if a country gets annexed during a pending invitation
The decision “Alliance with the Turkic People” will no longer be locked saying “Establishing a Resistance cell in progress” after a decision is aborted
The focus “Purchase Aircraft” no longer gives unusable British planes
Adds fitting focus filters
The focus “The Red Threat” no longer forcibly puts Afghanistan into the Axis
Austria
Fixed cancel trigger being visible on anti fascist raids for everyone when it just targeted Austria
India
The Raj can now join the Allies via the focus “Pledge for the Allies”
Focus “Jugantar” now bypasses if you are at war with Pakistan
Fixes missing country name in focus description of Raj’s focus “Seek Financial Aid from the Soviet Union”
Removed RAJ_jim_corbett from focus.
The doctrine cost reduction from the Raj’s focus “Special Operations Executive” now shares its name with the focus
Fixed Bose not getting his trait when flipping fascist
Fixed Princely subjugation and independent rule icons
National spirit “The Pakistan Movement” no longer grants a non-functioning weekly war support gain
You can no longer start the indian focus “Hegemony of the Subcontinent” that requires you to own pakistan right before india splits
Fixed broken implementation of icon for Raj’s National Spirit “Army Cargo Prioritization”
Generals loyal to Pakistan or Britain will now be removed from the Raj upon completion of “Royal Indian Navy Mutiny”
Fixed an instance where democratic India could not join factions
Fixed an issue where fascist UK decolonizing would attempt to turn India into a Dominion rather than a Satellite
You now need to complete one of the two first railway focuses to complete “The People’s Railway”
Fixed an issue where Bhoodan movement would give random states shared building slots
Fixed an issue where you could take the focus “Hegemony of the Subcontinent” before Pakistan spawned
The “Mughal Influence” state modifier is now removed if the Mughals lose access to the state
The decision to integrate the Princely States can now be taken even if the Princely states are puppets of the Raj
Adds a National Spirit that slowly erodes the autonomy of the Princely states if Raj takes the focus “Mughal Court”
Makes sure the icon for “Gun And Shell Factory” shows up rather than the generic icon
Removed War Support modifier, reduced Party Popularity and added 60 Political Power to the focus “All Indian Kishan Sabha”
Fixed issue with political branches in British Raj that could potentially hide them even when the custom rule option was set to NOT HIDE.
Subhas Chandra Bose no longer loses his country leader traits if India turns communist
After taking the focus “The Enemy of My Enemy” Japan will only come to help and invade the Andamans for India if the two are not at war with each other
Iran
Focus “Soviet-Iranian Oil Collaboration” will no longer add the oil to a hardcoded state that doesn’t correlate with the tooltip
Focus branch “The Fight for Iran” will no longer partially disappear when wars end even when you already completed the focuses
You can now get cores on South Baluchistan via the focus “The Memphis Initiative”
Iranian kurdish uprising is no longer always triggered as communist even if Iran has a different ideology
Focus “Diversify Industry” now gives “Fuel Storage” as well, if not already unlocked, to prevent getting “Synthetic Oil Experiments” before that
Focus “Swear Fealty to the Invaders” will no longer sometimes send several events to the same country
AI will no longer take the focus “Push for Negotiations” when it is winning
No longer donates resource rights to Germany for states they do not control in focus “Donate Oil Fields to the German Reich”
Focus “Persian Gulf Hegemony” no longer says it gives you an annex war goal even though it gives you a puppet war goal
Democratic Iran now has a way to remove the Kurdish and Azerbaijani resistance National Spirits
Fixed a bug that was hiding the last two focuses in the Swear Fealty branch, that appear if a joint Anglo-Soviet invasion happened. These focuses will now appear as intended.
Fixed an issue where Soviets would steal states from Kurdistan when Iran selected Swear Fealty to the Invaders
Decision “Soviet-Iranian Oil Collaboration” no longer only adds oil to Azerbaijan, despite mentioning two states
Focus “Soviet Alignment” now bypasses if Iran is already in a faction
The focus “One for All, All for One” no longer uses an unfitting icon
Adds the “Passive Defense” agency upgrade as a fallback reward for the focus “Fund State Intelligence”
Adjusted focus branch offsets for the Iranian focus tree and how the Saadabad Pact branch accounts for collapsing focus branches
Fixed generic portraits not showing in the pool of Iranian Officers
The decision “Destabilize Northern Iraq” now correctly removes 10% stability rather than adds it
Demand Afghan Territory and Demand Iraqi Territory no longer have broken tooltip names
Changed the bypass requirements for Soviet Alignment to prevent blocking if player joins faction manually
Makes sure the right leader is assigned to Iran if they go down the route of the Islamic Revolution
Iraq
Iraqi focus “Propose Syrian Unification” will no longer create a nonsensical tooltip
State modifier “Kurdish Resistance” will no longer remain in the state if Kurdistan owns it
The Constitutional Monarchy path no longer uses the country name “Iraqi Republic”
The focus “Propose Syrian Unification” can now be taken even if Syria is a puppet of Vichy France rather than Free France
Assures that none of the four members of the Golden Square join the Kurdish side when the focus “Launch a Revolt” is completed
Renamed the army national spirit from “Army” to “National Army”
National spirits for Army, Navy and Air force now update their name based on whether Iraq is Iraq, or has become Kurdistan
Soviet Union
Can no longer take the focus “Preemptive Invasion of Iran” if they are in a faction with Iran
Turkey
Focus “Expanding the Saadabad Pact” can now be taken with GOE if you are not in a faction
Focus “Reinstate the Darülfünûn-u Şahâne” no longer bypasses when you are not in a faction, locking you out of a research slot permanently
United Kingdom
Expand the Secret Intelligence Service typo fix (it’s no-longer the Greta War).
British focus “Ceylon Forward Operating Base” now bypasses correctly
Fixed an error causing the EIC buying states to become locked out
Fixed bug with MIO window showing connection lines for non-existent traits
Declaring war on another member of the Saadabad Pact will no longer display a tooltip so large it goes off the screen
Forming Mesopotamia did not give you a core on Alexandria, despite it being a required state
Adds a tooltip clarifying that weapons granted from “Secure Weapons” Will be given upon completion of focus “Mughal Uprising”
The decisions to change the direction of “Azad Hind Radio” propaganda can no longer be taken at the same time
Fixed issue with subunit modifiers for marines on attack, defense, organization and speed not being applied properly.
Fixed broken event picture in Norwegian investment event.
Makes sure Atatürk dies even though very few focuses have been completed
Annexing or puppeting Afghanistan as Iran will now remove the “Afghan Helmand River Projects” spirit(s)
The Achievement “Cradle of Civilization” now only requires level 5 infrastructure in all core states that are not impassable, preventing potential softlocking
Syria & Lebanon will no longer be able to choose to support vichy france or free france if they are occupied/owned by an unrelated country such as Iraq
Subjects can no longer have collaboration puppets
Fixed broken tooltip for collaboration government
Fixes an issue where decisions with the default cost of Political Power did not display the text icon
Added AI strategy to have the UK always let a loyal Raj back into the allies if it completed “Tryst with Destiny”
The state modifier “Resistant to Occupation” given to states conquered from India is no longer permanently reapplied in states if India gets capitulated, modifier also doesn’t reapply if it was previously removed or the state was given willingly
The “Anglo-Iraqi Treaty” is now removed if Iraq and the United Kingdom are at war with each other
Decisions in “The Kabul Conference” now can be taken even decision is cancelled
Removed controlling Maltya from the requirements of “United Kurdistan”, adds Deir-Az-Zur as requirement instead
Kurdistans formed from focus trees are now valid for the “House of Kurds” achievement
Ensured that the player cannot take ‘Expand the Imperial Guard’ when not non-aligned or have the monarchy in power.