Age of Wonders 4 Cheats & Console Commands

Complete list of all cheat codes and console commands for Age of Wonders 4, including how to activate them, what each cheat does, and important limitations for multiplayer.

Home » Guides » Age of Wonders 4 Cheats & Console Commands

April 1, 2026

14 minutes

By Jonny Gamer

Guides

Age of Wonders 4 Cheats & Console Commands

Age of Wonders 4 includes a built-in cheat console accessible on PC via Ctrl+Alt+C. Type any command and press Enter to activate it. Cheats are single-player only — the console won’t appear in multiplayer games — and using them disables Pantheon experience for that run. Every tactical cheat resets after each combat, so you’ll need to re-enter them before each battle. Below is a complete categorized reference with effects and usage notes for every known command, verified as of January 2025.

The commands themselves are Dutch words and names of historical Dutch figures — a nod to Triumph Studios, the Amsterdam-based developer behind the series.

How to Activate Cheats in Age of Wonders 4

On PC, hold Ctrl+Alt+C during any single-player session. A text field labeled “Cheat” will appear at the bottom of the screen. Type your command and press Enter to execute it. If you want to chain multiple cheats without closing the console, use Shift+Enter between each one.

The console has built-in autocomplete. As you type, it surfaces matching command names alongside descriptions of what each one does — so you don’t need to memorize the full list. If you open the console by accident, press Esc to close it cleanly, with no Pantheon experience penalty incurred.

Console/Xbox players don’t have access to the cheat console at all. This is a PC-exclusive feature.

Two restrictions apply regardless of which cheat you use:

No Pantheon XP — Any scenario completed after entering a cheat awards zero Pantheon experience. If you’ve already earned what you need from a run, this is a non-issue.
No multiplayer — The console simply doesn’t appear in games with other human players. You can only cheat against AI.

Tactical cheats (used inside combat) all reset automatically when the battle ends, so they need to be re-entered each fight. World map cheats like CRUIJFF and IAMGOD stay active until you toggle them off.

Quick Reference: Combo & Bundle Commands

Several commands bundle multiple cheats at once. These are worth knowing upfront since they’re the fastest way to set up a no-limits sandbox.

Command	What It Bundles
DEMO	MASTERSKILLS + REMBRANDT + PHILIPS + OPTIMALPRIME (the last one does nothing in AoW4)
FLYINGDUTCHMAN	CRUIJFF + BARENTZ + REMBRANDT — infinite movement, full map reveal, 100,000 of every resource
STAFFHORST	BARENTZ + CRUIJFF + VANNOORT + REUVENS — full reveal, infinite movement, Basic Seafaring, fully excavated Underground
FORGEMASTER	UNLOCKFORGE + UNLOCKFORGEUPGRADES + GAINFORGERESOURCES + INSTANTFORGE
KONINGS	REFRESH + WAKEUP — fully revitalizes a selected unit’s cooldowns and action points

World Map & Exploration Cheats

These commands affect visibility, movement, and map discovery on the strategic layer. BARENTZ and CRUIJFF are among the most-used in the game — BARENTZ strips the fog of war entirely, while CRUIJFF lets any army move anywhere in a single turn regardless of movement range.

Command	Effect	Notes
TASMAN	Reveals terrain and cities across the whole map	Fog of war still applies. You still need to physically encounter units or territories to initiate diplomacy.
BARENTZ	Full map reveal including fog of war removal	Everything visible immediately. Diplomacy still requires physical contact with factions.
MOLENGRAAFF	Reveals one unknown realm trait	Does nothing if all traits are already revealed.
CRUIJFF	Toggles infinite movement for all owned armies	Movement range display stays normal, but armies can move to any hex on the map. Toggle off to restore standard movement.
UNEXPLORE	Resets fog of war for the current player	Only the hexes immediately around your units remain visible.
VANNOORT	Unlocks Basic Seafaring	Lets landlocked empires navigate water immediately.
REUVENS	Fully excavates the Underground layer	No Excavation skills or shovels required.
FLYINGDUTCHMAN	CRUIJFF + BARENTZ + REMBRANDT combined	The fastest single command to open up the entire map with full resources.
STAFFHORST	BARENTZ + CRUIJFF + VANNOORT + REUVENS combined	Full exploration bundle minus the resource injection.

Resources & Research Cheats

This is where a struggling campaign turns into a sandbox. REMBRANDT grants 100,000 Gold, Mana, and Imperium in one command. MASTERSKILLS unlocks and fully researches every Tome and topic — including every tier-5 Tome — though you’ll still need to manually research “Bind Gold Ancient Wonder” separately. DEMO does MASTERSKILLS plus REMBRANDT plus instant production simultaneously, which is the fastest path to an unrestricted empire.

One detail worth flagging on COMPLETECHAPTER: it finishes the current research topic and resets your research cycle timer to 4, which can affect how quickly you’d normally progress through chapters.

Command	Effect	Notes
REMBRANDT	+100,000 Gold, Mana, and Imperium	Stacks. Use it multiple times to accumulate more.
OLDENBARNEVELT	+100,000 Gold	Gold only, no Mana or Imperium.
PHILIPS	Toggles instant production	You still pay the Gold cost; only the turn timer is eliminated.
INSTANTSKILLS	Toggles instant research	Effectively infinite Research points — topics resolve immediately.
LEEUWENHOEK	Instantly completes the current research topic	Tomes unlock after the normal number of topics in the branch.
MASTERSKILLS	Unlocks and fully researches all Tomes and topics	Includes every tier-5 Tome. “Bind Gold Ancient Wonder” still needs manual research.
COMPLETECHAPTER	Completes the current research chapter	Resets research cycle timer to 4.
FREEPOP	+1 population to selected city	Works on any city, including enemy cities.
HUYGENS	+1 affinity level in all affinities, unlocks empire progression tree before turn 10	Allows purchasing the next Empire Skill in every branch regardless of current turn.
SPAARGAREN	Unlocks the empire progression tree before turn 10	The tree unlock portion of HUYGENS without the affinity bonus.
INSPIRATIE	All spells gain 1 inspiration	Applies to your current spellbook.
DEMO	MASTERSKILLS + REMBRANDT + PHILIPS + OPTIMALPRIME	OPTIMALPRIME does nothing in AoW4 (it’s a Planetfall command). The other three make this the single most powerful cheat in the game.

Heroes & Combat Cheats

VOORHEES is the standout here — it gives heroes access to every skill from every Tome and category, with infinite skill points regardless of level. Pair it with IAMGOD (instant autocombat win with no damage taken, experience still earned) and you essentially remove all combat difficulty while keeping the progression loop intact.

HAUER works on both allied and enemy stacks, which creates some interesting possibilities — you can level up an enemy hero before a fight if you want a tougher challenge.

Command	Effect	Notes
HAUER	Levels up the selected stack by one	Heroes gain one level; units gain one rank. You may need to click away and back to see the update. Works on enemies too.
VOORHEES	Unlocks all non-signature hero skills with infinite skill points	Every hero skill from every category and Tome becomes available, at any level.
IAMGOD	Toggles instant autocombat victory with no damage	Units still gain experience. Only applies when you use the Auto Combat button.
MEDIC	Fully heals the selected unit	Works during tactical combat. Unreliable on the world map.
COEHOORN	Instantly completes siege on selected structure	Works for both attackers and defenders. Can be used on any faction’s structure.
GENPRISONHERO	Generates a random hero in prison	The hero appears assigned to the city nearest your capital.
GENCRYPTHERO	Generates a random hero in a crypt	Same assignment logic as GENPRISONHERO.
GENHERO	Generates a random off-map hero	Has no visible effect unless used alongside ALLHEROES.
ALLHEROES	Adds all off-map heroes to your recruitment pool	Best used after GENHERO if you want generated heroes to appear.
INCREASEHEROCAP	Increases max hero cap by 1	Use repeatedly to raise the cap incrementally.
MARTIN	Sets max hero cap to 999	Effectively removes the hero limit.

Diplomacy Cheats

Most diplomacy commands require you to click on a city or army belonging to the target faction before entering the command — otherwise the game has no target to act on. MAKEHAPPY and MAKEANGRY each apply a ±100 relations modifier lasting 20 turns, and they stack, so multiple uses compound the effect.

Fair warning on MAKEALLY: if you target the last remaining enemy faction, it can trigger a military victory immediately. WARLORD has the opposite problem — it declares war on everyone at once, which can be useful for testing late-game scenarios but will destabilize any ongoing diplomatic situation.

Command	Effect	Notes
MAKEHAPPY	+100 relations with targeted faction for 20 turns	Stackable. Works on free cities and player factions.
MAKEANGRY	-100 relations with targeted faction for 20 turns	Same stacking rules as MAKEHAPPY.
MAKEALLY	Forms an alliance with the target	Can trigger military victory if target is the last enemy. Brings free cities to Pact of Loyalty.
MAKENEUTRAL	Sets diplomatic state to neutral	Ends wars or alliances with the selected party.
MAKEWAR	Declares war on the targeted city or player	Immediate declaration, no diplomatic warning.
MAKEVASSAL	Makes target your vassal	Won’t work on individual cities belonging to a player faction. Doesn’t function on existing allies.
MAKECOOP	Starts a Pact of Cooperation	Appears to function only with free cities.
MAKELOYAL	Starts a Pact of Loyalty	Free cities only.
MAKEINTEGRATED	Starts a Pact of Integration	Free cities only.
IMPROVERELATION	Increases pact level of selected free city by one	Steps up through cooperation, loyalty, integration tiers.
DECREASERELATION	Decreases pact level of selected free city by one	Also drops vassal allegiance to zero.
WARLORD	Declares war on all other players simultaneously	Use carefully — no undo.
ENGELEN	+20 alignment in all channels	Shifts your empire toward Order/Nature/Astral affinities.
DEMONEN	-20 alignment in all channels	Shifts toward Chaos/Shadow/Materium.
RALLYTHELIEGES	Moves the Rally of the Lieges timer to the current turn	Triggers the event immediately rather than waiting.
REVEALPERSONALITY	Reveals personality traits of the selected AI player	Information you’d typically earn through play anyway.

Items & Forge Cheats

RUIJTER populates your hero item store with one copy of every base game item — not Item Forge creations, just the discoverable loot pool. It also disables transportation, preventing heroes from immediately swapping items to each other. FORGEALLCHANNELS is the most expansive item cheat: it generates a tier-4 weapon of every style for every damage combination, which makes it the fastest way to test hero builds without a live campaign.

Command	Effect	Notes
RUIJTER	Adds one of every base hero item to your store, disables transportation	Does not include custom Item Forge creations.
FORGE	Generates one random equipment item	No notification appears, but the item is in your storage.
FORGEALL	Generates one random item of each equipment type	Covers all slot categories in one command.
FORGEALLCHANNELS	Generates a tier-4 weapon of every style for every damage channel	Most comprehensive item generation command available.
UNLOCKFORGE	Unlocks the Item Forge	Accessible even without the required city structure built.
UNLOCKFORGEUPGRADES	Unlocks all Item Forge upgrade tiers	All infusion slots and enhancements become available.
GAINFORGERESOURCES	+100,000 Binding Essence	The forge-specific resource, separate from Gold and Mana.
INSTANTFORGE	Item Forge crafting is instant	No turn wait on any recipe.
FORGEMASTER	UNLOCKFORGE + UNLOCKFORGEUPGRADES + GAINFORGERESOURCES + INSTANTFORGE	Complete Item Forge unlock in one command.
CLEARINVENTORY	Removes all items from your hero item store	Items currently equipped on heroes are unaffected.
REFRESHAITRADEITEMS	All AI factions generate new items for trade	Resets the magic items available to purchase in the Negotiate menu.

Victory, Defeat & Turn-Skip Cheats

The victory and defeat commands are mostly self-explanatory, but the “fake beacon” and “fake sector” cheats — EENDRACHT and EENHEID — are worth understanding. They tick off Expansion Victory requirements without those things actually existing on the map, which means you can hit the victory condition without having genuinely controlled the territory. Useful for testing scenarios, odd in a real playthrough.

The DOKTERWIE series skips turns without affecting the Score Victory timer or autosave naming, so they’re genuinely useful for fast-forwarding slow early games or testing late-game conditions.

Command	Effect	Notes
HEIN	Instant victory	Generic victory regardless of scenario conditions.
VICTORY1	Instant military victory	—
VICTORY2	Instant expansion victory	—
VICTORY3	Instant magic victory	—
VICTORY4	Instant score victory	—
VICTORY6	Instant seals victory	Has a unique icon; no in-console description provided.
VERDOEMENIS	Adds a fake bound Gold Ancient Wonder	Counts toward the Magic Victory requirement without existing on the map.
EENDRACHT	Adds a fake Beacon of Unity	Ticks off one required beacon for Expansion Victory.
EENHEID	Adds max fake sectors for Expansion Victory	Satisfies the “occupy provinces” requirement without controlling them.
WILLEM / DEFEAT5	Instant score defeat	Two commands with the same effect.
DEFEAT1	Leader killed defeat	—
DEFEAT2	Throne city lost defeat	—
DEFEAT3	Expansion defeat	—
DEFEAT4	Magic defeat	—
DEFEAT6	Seals defeat	—
DOKTERWIE	Skip 1 turn	Turn counter advances; Score Victory timer and autosave names unaffected.
DOKTERWIE10	Skip 10 turns	Same behavior as DOKTERWIE.
DOKTERWIE25	Skip 25 turns	—
DOKTERWIE50	Skip 50 turns	—
DOKTERWIE100	Skip 100 turns	—
SWITCH_TM	Swaps between simultaneous and classic turns mid-game	May cause instability if toggled more than once.

Tactical Combat Cheats

All of these reset when the battle ends. Every single one. That’s the critical thing to remember before you assume ALWAYSCRIT is still running in your next fight.

The ALWAYSXXX series is mutually exclusive — only one can be active at a time. NORMALHITS cancels whichever one is running and restores standard attack odds. CRUIJFF (tactical version) removes action point costs for movement, separate from its world-map behavior. LEVELUP in combat actually awards enough XP to cover several levels for heroes, not just one — the description undersells it.

Command	Effect	Notes
WINNOW	Win combat immediately	—
RUNAWAY	All friendly units instantly retreat	Treated as a voluntary retreat; no units lost.
RESTART	Restarts current combat	Same function as the in-game restart button.
GETOUT	Kills selected unit	Nothing happens if no unit is selected.
WEAKEN	Sets selected unit’s HP to 1	Works on both allied and enemy units.
MEDIC	Fully restores selected unit’s HP	Tactical version — reliable in combat, unreliable on the world map.
EXHAUST	Removes all action points from selected unit	Effectively ends that unit’s turn.
WAKEUP	Restores all action points to selected unit	—
REFRESH	Refreshes all ability cooldowns on selected unit	—
KONINGS	REFRESH + WAKEUP combined	Fully revitalizes a unit — all cooldowns cleared, full AP restored.
LEVELUP	Awards significant XP to selected unit	Equates to several hero levels or unit ranks, not just one despite the name.
CRUIJFF	Infinite movement for all owned units in combat	No AP spent on movement. Separate from the world map version of the same command.
HAPPY	+20 morale to selected unit	—
SAD	-20 morale to selected unit	—
KILLERBUNNY	Forces selected unit to rout immediately	—
ALWAYSHIT	All attacks from your units always hit; status effects always proc	Applies to every unit you control, not just the selected one.
ALWAYSGRAZE	All attacks always graze	Mutually exclusive with other ALWAYS commands.
ALWAYSMISS	All attacks always miss	Useful for testing enemy AI behavior without taking damage.
ALWAYSCRIT	All attacks are critical hits; status effects always proc	Mutually exclusive with other ALWAYS commands.
ALWAYSFUMBLE	All attacks are fumbles	—
NORMALHITS	Cancels whichever ALWAYSXXX cheat is active	Restores standard attack probability.
RESEED	Randomizes the RNG seed	Swaps in a new set of pre-generated random numbers for hit chances and rolls.
NOLIMIT	Toggles turn limits in combat on/off	Rarely needed since most fights resolve well under the limit.
OOS	Fakes an out-of-sync error, exits combat	Combat screen shows “Defeat” but no units are lost from either side.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Age of Wonders 4 cheats work on console?

No. The cheat console is PC-exclusive. There is no equivalent on Xbox or PlayStation versions of the game.

Will using cheats disable achievements?

Steam and platform achievements are not permanently disabled, but Pantheon experience is blocked for any scenario where a cheat was entered. Close and press Esc without typing anything to avoid triggering the penalty if you opened the console by accident.

Why doesn’t the cheat console appear when I press Ctrl+Alt+C?

The most common reason is that you’re in a multiplayer session. The console is completely suppressed in any game with more than one human player. If you’re in single-player and it still won’t open, check whether a keyboard shortcut conflict is intercepting the input.

Do tactical cheats carry over between battles?

No. Every tactical combat cheat — ALWAYSCRIT, CRUIJFF, WINNOW, and all others — resets automatically when the battle ends. You need to re-enter them at the start of each new combat.

What does OPTIMALPRIME do in Age of Wonders 4?

Nothing. It toggles instant operation priming, which is a mechanic from Age of Wonders: Planetfall. The command exists in AoW4’s console but has no effect. The same applies to LELY, IKBEDOELALLES, and the OPALWAYS/OPNEVER series.

Can I use MAKEVASSAL on enemy player cities?

Not on individual cities that belong to a player faction — only on independent free cities or entire factions. The command also won’t function on existing allies.