HOI4 Italy Guide 2026: Every Focus Path (By Blood Alone)

Up to date for the "By Blood Alone" DLC — named explicitly in narration ("every DLC up to Peace in Our Time active, but By Blood Alone is the one that updates Italy") and confirmed by a focus icon of that name in the tree itself. No patch number is spoken or shown. Checked against the video dated 2026-06-17.

How to play Italy in HOI4 is really twelve questions rather than one. Italy's By Blood Alone tree carries one of the widest sets of endings in the game, and deciding which one you are steering toward is most of the work — the first two years are nearly identical either way. So this 2026 guide does the shared half first: the early game, a focus order that fits every branch, the Regia Marina, and the division types Italy's own national spirits actually reward. Then it walks the twelve finished playthroughs the source video runs back to back, and what triggers each one.

🎯 The core idea

This isn't one build — it's a map of Italy's whole 314-focus tree (up from 51 before its rework), played as roughly a dozen branches back to back rather than one "best" build. Below is every path the video shows, what triggers it, and what it turns Italy into.

• free costs nothing
• cheap small cost
• setup needs preparation
• grind pays off slowly
• skip the thing to avoid

Four of the tree's political sub-branches, mixed and matched independently. The bottom-left branch ends in a focus literally named By Blood Alone — on-screen confirmation of the DLC named above.

Two rules that decide almost everything else

1. Capitulate Ethiopia before its emperor flees the country setupThis one timing gate changes outcomes across Axis Victory, Italy First, Stresa Front and Christian Democracy — miss it and Balkan diplomacy fails, Allied terms get worse. 9:03
2. Treat the Italian Civil War as a tree reset, not a disaster grindLosing enough legitimacy (a botched Ethiopian war is the usual trigger) hands you a different tree afterward — it's how the socialist, communist and republican paths below are reached. 0:24

How to play Italy in HOI4: the early game

Every HOI4 Italy strategy below runs through the same 1936, because Italy is the one major that starts the game already at war. Italy's Ethiopia war in HOI4 is live on day one, and almost everything you can reach later is gated on how it goes.

What you are handed:

A lot of that army is decoration. The colonial and irregular formations are lightly equipped and fine against Ethiopia; the handful of light tank divisions behave closer to cavalry than to armour. Against France or Britain this is a starting position, not a force.

And then there is what Italy is handed that actively hurts. Eight national spirits are running on day one, and most of them are bills:

How the Ethiopian war is scored

Italy is given two conquest missions from January 1936, one for northern Ethiopia and one for southern Ethiopia, and the tree resolves the war for you into exactly one of three mutually exclusive focuses:

That fascism swing is the same dial the civil war paths further down are turning. A run that means to stay fascist wants Solid Progress; a run that wants the Italian Civil War does not mind the Fiasco at all.

Whichever fires, Servizio Informazioni Militare follows it and builds Italy's intelligence agency, and then Triumph in Africa pays the war off properly: +5% war support, +5% stability, +50 political power, the Italian Occupation decisions, and the National Balance of Power opening at 35% toward Mussolini. Two follow-ups behind it are worth the political power — Devalue the Lire, which shaves 3% off consumer goods for a year, and Anglo-Italian Agreements, which unblocks the Suez Canal if Britain has closed it, once Ethiopian compliance is over 40%.

One habit worth building during this war specifically: Italy fights in mountains and desert for the rest of the game, so push a general toward Mountaineer and Desert Fox now. Holding both terrain traits is what opens Adaptable, which cuts terrain penalties across the board, and Ethiopia is the cheapest place in the game to farm the experience for it.

The WW1 revanchism question

There is no branch in the tree called anything like a HOI4 Italy WW1 revanchism path — the revanchism is a national spirit you already have, not a choice you make. Vittoria Mutilata is the "mutilated victory" grievance modelled directly, and it never expires on its own. It does two jobs at once: it makes Italy quick to declare war, and it makes the democratic and left-wing paths further down measurably harder to negotiate from, because the same spirit is −10 acceptance for both.

Where the grievance actually gets spent is the claim focuses. Bend the Bars and Subdue the Sentinels in the Greater Italy ladder, Masters of the Aegean and Masters of the Mediterranean behind them, and in Foreign Affairs the Balkan set — Albanian Occupation, War with Greece, Claims on Turkey. If you came looking for an irredentist Italy that takes back what 1919 withheld, that is the list, and Towards a Greater Italy is its branch.

HOI4 Italy focus order: an opening that fits every path

Italy's tree splits into an industrial and military half that every run wants, and a political half that decides the ending. Take the first half in roughly this order and you can still turn into any of the twelve paths below.

1. Italian Highways free+25% infrastructure construction speed for a year and +1 infrastructure in every controlled state. It is also a hard prerequisite for Ministry of Italian Africa later, so opening with it unlocks two branches for the price of one.
2. Steel Industry in Terni, or Power Plants in Terni cheapMutually exclusive. Steel gives 2 building slots and 2 civilian factories in Terni plus +2% military factory construction speed; Power gives 1 slot, 1 civilian factory and +2.5% civilian factory construction speed. Steel is the pick when you intend to fight before 1939.
3. Industria della Gomma Sintetica cheapTwo 50% research bonuses toward synthetic oil, plus a synthetic refinery and the building slot for it. Italy's fuel problem starts here and never really stops.
4. Strengthen Northern Industry, or Modernize the Mezzogiorno setupMutually exclusive again. North is the raw factory answer — twelve building slots and a mix of factories across the northern states. South trades that for infrastructure, naval bases and 12 steel if you hold Tuscany. North for a war economy, South for a Mediterranean naval game.
5. Expand National Universities grind+1 research slot, taking Italy from four to five. Slow to pay off and worth it in every single run, which is exactly the kind of focus people keep postponing.
6. Army Primacy and Naval Power Projection, early, for the doctrine discounts freeArmy Primacy is +25 army experience and a 50% land doctrine cost reduction; Naval Power Projection is +25 navy experience and the same 50% off naval doctrine, with no prerequisite at all. Both partly cancel the +10% doctrine cost the Regio Esercito and Regia Marina spirits charge you.
7. Ministry of Italian Africa, the moment the Ethiopian war ends setupIt cannot be taken while a war is ongoing, and it needs Italian Highways done. It pays +75 political power and unlocks the Colonial Police occupation law — −30% resistance target, −40% garrison damage, −30% required garrisons, at the price of slower compliance.
8. Regional Development, then Prospect for Oil grindDevelop Ethiopia, Libya, Eritrea or Somaliland first — any one of them opens Regional Development, which upgrades Colonial Police with +15% local resources and +15% local factories. Prospect for Oil behind it adds 8 oil production, and Libyan Refineries adds another 4 plus two synthetic refineries. This is the cheapest fuel in the tree.

Two focuses in the African branch are mutually exclusive and easy to click past: Polizia dell'Africa Italiana tunes the Colonial Police law further, while Strengthen Ascari Corps instead hands you free colonial infantry, cavalry and camelry divisions and the Reorganize Ascari decision. Take the Ascari if you intend to garrison Africa with Africa and send Italians north.

Supporting Germany: the Pact of Steel line

How to play Italy to support Germany in HOI4 is one focus and a short branch behind it. In Foreign Affairs you first take Balkan Ambition or Potential Allies in the Balkans, and either one opens Pact of Steel — which is mutually exclusive with both Italy First and Guarantee Austrian Independence, so this is the click that commits the run.

Pact of Steel needs you at peace with Germany, sharing its ideology, outside any faction, and with Germany already leading one. It pays +30 opinion with Germany and +10% factory output for a year. Behind it:

• German Military Cooperation — −5% air and land doctrine cost
• Sea Wolves — +25 navy experience and a submarine research bonus
• Secret Weapons — +5% special project speed
• Treaty with Germany — equipment subsidies running both ways, with the DLC

Supporting Germany and being useful to Germany are different jobs. Italy's real contribution is the Mediterranean: closing Gibraltar and Suez strands the Royal Navy inside a lake, which is worth more to the Axis than any number of divisions sent east. The Axis Victory chapter below is that idea played out.

HOI4 Italy navy guide: the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean

Italy starts with 154 ships and the worst eyes of any major. The Regia Marina spirit is −10% naval detection, −10% spotting speed and −5% fleet coordination against +5% screening efficiency — a fleet that fights well and finds nothing. On top of that, London Naval Treaty Signatory caps what you are allowed to design at all: 11,500 for a heavy ship, 10,250 for a carrier, 5,700 for a cruiser. And there is no carrier in the starting fleet to work around it with.

The Naval Power Projection branch is where that gets fixed:

Two habits the fleet rewards. First, the thing you are actually defending is the convoy route to North Africa: lose it and the Allies raid your supply at will while the army in Libya is still walking. Second, Italy's screens are better value than its capitals early — torpedo destroyers and armoured light cruisers, with heavy cruisers added as steel allows, before anything larger. Contesting the whole Mediterranean against the Royal Navy and the French together is possible and expensive; keeping Libya supplied is neither. For the general version of that argument rather than the Italian one, see the HOI4 navy guide.

Best Italy templates in HOI4: what the Regio Esercito rewards

The callout further up is still true: the video never opens the Division Designer, so nothing in this section comes from it. What follows is read off Italy's own national spirits and army focuses instead, which is the only honest source for a best-templates answer.

Start from the penalty. Regio Esercito is −10% division speed, −10% division organisation and +15% org loss when moving, against +10% max entrenchment. That is a precise description of an army that should dig in and let the enemy come, and a poor fit for anything asked to exploit a breakthrough. Two focuses argue over which half of it you fix:

• Preserve Army Traditions leans in — +5% division organisation, +5% division recovery rate, +5% infantry defence, and mastery toward Grand Battleplan.
• A Bandit's War fights it — −15% org loss when moving, +5% division speed, Alberto Pariani as a Mobile Warfare chief of army, and mastery toward Mobile Warfare.

Take Preserve Army Traditions if your line divisions are going to hold Alps, Balkan mountains and desert, which most Italian runs are. Take A Bandit's War only once you have genuinely committed to tanks. Either way Superesercito is worth reaching: +5% division organisation, −5% org loss when moving, −10% land doctrine cost and +50 army experience.

The four templates the tree actually pays for

Armour is the part to be honest about. Italy's starting mechanisation is close to nothing, and the tree's armour focuses are cost reductions rather than capability: Italian Tankettes is −5% light tank production cost with +5% armoured recon speed and organisation, Self-Propelled Guns is −5% on self-propelled artillery and tank destroyers, and only Ferrea Mole Ferreo Cuore at the end of that line gives +5% armour defence and breakthrough with two 100% armour research bonuses. A real Italian tank arm is a mid-game project funded out of the industry branch, not something the 1936 army is anywhere near.

Vallo Alpino del Littorio is the other half of the defensive answer: land fortifications across the Alpine states, plus decisions to extend them. If Germany is ever going to be the enemy — Stresa Front, Christian Democracy, and every left-wing path below — that border is where the war starts.

Historical — what happens if you touch nothing

The baseline everyone already knows: Italy fights a second Ethiopian war, sends volunteers to Spain, joins the Axis, and gets dragged along behind Germany — losing ground in Africa and needing German/Bulgarian help just to take Greece — before switching sides in an Italian Civil War once the Allies land in Sicily.

The payoff for switching sides: peacetime NATO membership rather than sharing Germany's fate, at the cost of the colonies and some land to Yugoslavia.

1. Take the democratic option when the civil war offers it setupNon-aligned, democratic, or communist are all on the table — democratic is what leads to the NATO ending above. Expect to get pushed out of North Africa once American troops arrive, well before this point. 7:38

Axis Victory — a competent Mussolini

The premise is "what if Mussolini didn't waste time" — rush Ethiopia, join the Pact of Steel on schedule, and move faster than the historical AI ever does.

The result by the time Mussolini ends the monarchy and declares the Italian Social Republic: Corsica, both Mediterranean exits, and puppet states running from France to the Balkans.

1. Trade the Balearic Islands request for a Gibraltar staging ground cheapSpain hands them over as thanks for civil war support; a naval invasion from there into Gibraltar traps most of the British navy inside the Mediterranean. Take Corsica and push out of Libya early, before Germany even invades France, to reach this point on pace. 10:52

Italy First — Mussolini gone, Germany kept at arm's length

If Ethiopia drags on too long, the Grand Council of Fascism ousts Mussolini for aviation hero Italo Balbo — who builds an independent faction, the Italian League, instead of following Germany into the Axis.

The actual fork: Pact of Steel on one side, Italy First on the other. Everything downstream — Spanish-Italian Alliance, Italian Irredentism, the Balkan wars — comes from this single choice.

1. Don't try to flip the Balkans to fascism before Ethiopia is fully capitulated skipThe first attempt fails outright — Yugoslavia, Greece and Romania all go fascist but join the Axis instead of the Italian League while Italy is still at war with Ethiopia's government-in-exile. Selling Turkey the Dodecanese Islands is the other reliable recruit once that's fixed. 16:12

Greater Italy vs Mare Nostrum: the fork the forums argue about

Both fascist runs above end in a Mediterranean empire, and the argument about which one is "right" usually skips the part that decides it: Greater Italy and Mare Nostrum are not the same kind of thing at all.

Towards a Greater Italy and Mare Nostrum are two mutually exclusive sub-branches hanging off the same three prerequisites — Strengthen the Regime, Gain the Blackshirt's Loyalty or Setting Course. You get one per game. Greater Italy is a claims branch: it hands you claims and a conquest casus belli and expects you to go and take the map. Mare Nostrum is a construction-and-diplomacy branch: it builds, it recruits, and it forms the Roman Empire out of whatever you end up holding.

Pick Greater Italy if you are already at war, or intend to be by 1938. The claims are the whole point: each focus in the ladder hands you claims on named states and a conquest casus belli against whoever holds them, as long as they are not at war, not in a faction, not under a non-aggression pact with you and not guaranteed by you. That is an entire diplomacy phase skipped. And A Colonial Empire's +15% non-core manpower is the modifier that makes an African empire fieldable rather than decorative — conquering Egypt and the Horn is the easy half, manning them is not.

Pick Mare Nostrum if you have bought yourself time — a fast Ethiopian war, a Germany busy elsewhere, or a plan that does not involve fighting Britain until 1940. Its payoff compounds instead of arriving: dockyards and building slots first, then +5% division speed and +15% command power from The Italian Legions, then the supply range from All Roads Lead to Rome, and three unique designs behind that — the Aquila Magna strategic bomber, the Cataphract Mortis super-heavy tank and the Neptunus Class capital ship. New Roman Citizens adds +5% compliance and −10% resistance target everywhere you have resistance, which is the quiet reason a Mare Nostrum empire is easier to hold than a Greater Italy one.

The forum version of this argument is usually "which one wins faster", and Greater Italy does. The more useful answer is that they win different games: Greater Italy is a snowball you have to keep pushing, Mare Nostrum is an empire that garrisons itself.

HOI4 Italy Mare Nostrum path: playing the Roman branch out

The HOI4 Italy Mare Nostrum path has one requirement people miss, and then a fixed order. The requirement: Italy has to be fully independent and hold an owned state with at least one naval yard for the focus to complete at all. The order matters because two of the branch's best focuses are gated on research you should already have started.

1. Take Mare Nostrum instead of Towards a Greater Italy setupIrreversible, and the two are mutually exclusive. It turns on faction creation for Italy, drops building slots and dockyards into states you control, and adds research bonuses toward super-heavy tank chassis and heavy aircraft — which are exactly the prerequisites the branch checks later.
2. The Italian Legions before Auxiliaries cheap+5% division speed, +5% defence on core territory and +15% command power — the most direct answer in the whole tree to the Regio Esercito penalties every Italian run carries. Auxiliaries is the militia focus and can wait unless you are leaning on Camicie Nere.
3. All Roads Lead to Rome, with Rome itself fully under control setupThe gate is full control of your own capital state, which is not automatic if a civil war has been through it. It pays +10% infrastructure construction speed, +10% supply range and an annex casus belli against non-allied European neighbours — this is the focus that turns the branch from tall into wide.
4. Start the research for the three unique designs early grindThe King of the Skies wants advanced large airframes and engines, Modern Musculus wants a super-heavy tank chassis, and Caligula's Pride wants the Super Heavy Battleship special project finished. Arrive without them and the focuses sit there greyed out while the branch stalls.
5. New Roman Citizens as soon as you are holding foreign land free+5% compliance and −10% resistance target in every controlled state that has resistance. Free, permanent, and it stacks with the Colonial Police law the African branch already gave you.
6. Iberian Protection while Spain and Portugal are still at peace cheapIt only fires on a target that is at peace, not in a civil war, not already in a faction and not justifying against you — so the Spanish Civil War is a clock running on it. South American Alliances behind it adds +75 opinion with a list of Latin American countries and invites them in.

The branch ends at the Roman Empire formable, which grants cores across the old imperial map once you actually control it — Italy, Greece, the Balkans, North Africa and the Levant. Worth reading next to the Roman Republic chapter further down: that path reaches a comparable map as a democracy, through the European Federation decisions, while Mare Nostrum is the fascist route to the same idea. Running both is the only way to feel how differently they get there.

Stresa Front — joining the Allies instead

A second way to remove Mussolini: diplomat Dino Grandi takes over, explicitly anti-German, and steers Italy toward the historical Allies instead.

1. Pre-build a collaboration government inside Germany before declaring war setupWhoever holds the pre-built collab government inherits the whole defeated country as a puppet — this is how Italy gets all of Germany instead of splitting it with France and the UK. Resolving African territorial disputes with the UK first is a hard requirement for the alliance that gets you here. 22:11

Christian Democracy — sitting the war out on purpose

The king cedes power and allows free elections instead of naming a new strongman. The strategy that follows is deliberately passive: no rush to pick a side, time spent building industry and pacifying Ethiopia instead of steamrolling it.

This is the mechanical moment the fork happens — revoking the Acerbo Law is what hands power to elected government instead of a new dictator.

1. Expect full Ethiopian control to take until late 1941 at this pace grindProperly building compliance instead of rushing the war is slow — Germany is already deep into Barbarossa by the time this path is ready to join the Allies at all. 26:10

This is the one path in the whole video where NOT rushing Ethiopia is the deliberate choice — every other fascist or diplomatic path treats a fast Ethiopian war as close to mandatory.

Papal State — from king to Pope to world conquest

A branch off the same fork as Christian Democracy: instead of restoring elections, the king becomes an absolute monarch (needs 50% support) and then hands all power to the Catholic Church.

The narration rounds this to "about 7 million times" — the tooltip behind it gives the exact multiplier, 7,850,000×, for how much the Pope's domain grows overnight.

1. Get Yugoslavia, Albania, Spain and Portugal through diplomacy first setupAll four submit or become subjects before any war starts — the Holy Land comes from Britain the same way. 29:00

The "final crusade" that closes this path: Germany falls in about a month, the Soviets in about three, then Japan and China, then the United States — full world conquest under the Pope.

Roman Republic — the strongest single result in the video

A hybrid: reachable when the king keeps his title even under a democracy, then the same conquest pattern as the Papal State (Eastern Mediterranean, puppet Spain and Portugal, beat the Allies) gets replayed to found the "Roman Republic" — a constitutional monarchy with an Augustus as its figurehead.

1. Open Decisions and scroll to the bottom once democratic grindThe European Federation chain only shows up there — it's what lets a democratic Roman Republic core territory the Papal path's forced-conversion war never reaches. 43:56

"Way better because we can core everything up to the Urals" — cores running past Poland and the Baltics into Perm and Tobolsk.

There's a skippable decision to release a "useless" Bosporan Republic partway through this chain — the creator declines it and keeps the territory instead.

The civil war split: north or south

Every path below starts the same way — a fascist regime that loses enough legitimacy (usually by struggling badly against Ethiopia) triggers an Italian Civil War, and the side you back decides both the fight and which tree follows.

The Socialist Democracy run backs the industrial north — the Communist run below backs the agrarian south instead, which the creator says is a noticeably stronger start.

1. Don't worry about the fascist side's army in this civil war freeIn this run every fascist division had already been converted to artillery-only before the war started, so the civil war itself is short regardless of which side is picked. 32:11

Socialist Democracy — a democratic republic, not a communist one

Backing the industrial north and letting the moderate socialists win the internal power struggle produces a democratic Italian Republic that still leans on communist advisors "because they're so much better."

1. Don't take the 90% puppeting discount just because it's there skipThe socialist balance-of-power meter offers a steep discount on puppeting every defeated Axis country — this run declines it as "unbecoming," splitting Germany and converting the rest to democracies instead. Sending at least 9 volunteer divisions to the Spanish Republicans earlier is a separate step on the same path. 35:00

European Democracies — the same civil war, played for speed

A faster version of the same north-backing civil war, redirected into founding the "Free States of Europe" instead of letting Italy simply absorb territory.

1. Guarantee Austria's independence during the civil war build-up setupAustria still submits to Germany anyway, but the guarantee is what generates a liberation war goal afterward. 36:25

Communist — Antonio Gramsci and a decolonization loophole

Backing the agrarian south produces the "Italian Union" under Antonio Gramsci, joining the Comintern and running a decolonization mechanic that gains territory while staying technically anti-colonial.

This is exactly the requirement the creator says doesn't actually get enforced: the tooltip states the focus should be blocked once the civil war has happened, but he reports it still completes afterward anyway.

1. Let colonies vote after decolonizing instead of abolishing them outright grindA year after the focus, each colony votes independent or core — in this run East Africa chose independence and Libya chose to stay, becoming a full core. Only after decolonizing does "Condemn Colonialism" unlock, demanding every European power leave Africa — refusal generates three simultaneous war goals at once. 38:57

Anti-Stalinist — communist, but invading the USSR

Same civil war start, but this time refusing the Comintern in favor of a much weaker faction of its own — and eventually invading the Soviet Union instead of allying with it.

None of this is narrated: relations sit at -10/-20 with 100%/100% trust, diplomatic actions cost 10-100 political power depending on the action, and the visible army group runs 4/24/24/24/4 divisions by type.

1. Don't abolish colonies right away on this path skipHolding off means the only ready-made war goal available is on the USSR — geographically distant — so a war on Germany has to be manually justified instead of coming from a focus. 41:47

Deunified — playing a fragment on purpose

The opposite of everything above: a game-setup toggle (not a focus) reverses Italian unification, putting the player in charge of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies instead of a unified Kingdom of Italy.

Starting from the Two Sicilies with the historical military and the Ethiopian war already inherited, the default tree can still conquer the other Italian mini-states one at a time.

Not independently verified: a comment citing "55 days at London" during the Italy First UK invasion has no matching screenshot, so it's reported only as a comment claim. Also unresolved: an unlabeled 50% indicator in the diplomacy-panel screenshot's top bar, and most in-path day counts, which this video simply never states.

Sources

Channel: AtlasProductions. Video: "Every Way To Play Italy In Hearts of Iron 4" (46:13). Top comments reviewed; substantive ones credited above.