The La Resistance DLC adds many interesting mechanics to Hearts of Iron 4, including spies. These Operatives will spend a lot of time in enemy lands, building up Intel Networks and learning state secrets in their spare time.
However, one of the risks of the job is that they can get captured by the country they are spying on and you will get a notification that asks you to rescue the Operative.
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If you don’t attempt to save them, they will die in around 200 days. However, during this really long time, you won’t be able to recruit a new Operative, and you’ll just waste a slot for the captive.
To rescue an Operative in Hearts of Iron 4, you need to mount an Operation to Rescue Captured Operative using one other Operative and 50 Support Equipment. This Operation is only available if you have at least 30% Intel Network in the country that captured the spy.
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How to Rescue Operative in HOI4
To rescue an Operative in HOI4, players will first need to get at least 30% Intel Network in the country that captured them.
So, first, send an Operative to increase the Intel Network to 30%. If you already meet this requirement, here’s the next steps:
- Open the Intelligence Agency menu.
- Though Operations look for and select Rescue Captured Operative.
- Assign an Operative to the mission, toggle the Commence when ready box, and press Prepare.
Now, in around 35 to 60 days, the Operative will be saved by this mission, if you have a strong enough Intel Network and the assigned Operative is capable enough.
There is also a chance that the Operation will fail or that your other Operative will be captured.
If all your Operatives are captured, there’s nothing you can do to save them. You’ll have to wait until they die to replace them.
The Pills upgrade in the Intelligence Agency is very useful for situations like this since the death on capture chance of an Operative increases by 10%.
Since it only takes 30 days to replace a dead Operative, it is much better for them to die than to rescue them or leave them captured in enemy territories.
Still, if they’re captured, always attempt to rescue them since you would lose out on an Operative slot otherwise.
How to Avoid Operatives Getting Captured
The only thing you can do to lower the chance of your Operatives getting captured is to get the Commando training upgrade and generally hire Operatives with the Seducer trait.
The Commando trait will lower the chance of them getting captured by 10%, and the Seducer trait will lower it by 20%. This means that a Commando Seducer Operative will have a 30% lower chance of getting discovered by the country they are spying on.
Seducer is an innate trait, which means spies cannot learn it. This is why you should generally always keep an eye out for them when recruiting since they can also learn the Commando trait just by doing missions.
Still, most countries that get the Interrogation techniques upgrade have really high chances of capturing enemy spies in their territories, so another thing you can do is to often set Operatives on Quiet Intel Network missions.
These missions will keep the Intel Network at its current level, neither increasing nor decreasing, while also lowering the chance of detection for the Operative.
The last thing you can do is to use cheats. If you select an Operative, open the command console, and type “prevent_operative_detection”, that spy will never be captured by enemy countries.
That’s everything you need to know about how to rescue Operative in Hearts of Iron 4!
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