# HOI4 Resistance and Compliance Guide
> How occupied territory actually works in Hearts of Iron IV: what resistance costs you, what compliance gives back, how occupation laws set both at once, and what garrisons draw from your stockpile. Includes the values the game uses at capture and the trade a harsher law makes.
- **Game:** Hearts of Iron IV
- **Category:** Economy
- **Author:** LongBeam (https://guides-factory.com/about)
- **Difficulty:** Intermediate
- **Reading time:** 5 min
- **Published:** 2026-09-02
- **Updated:** 2026-09-02
- **Tags:** Hearts of Iron IV, compliance, garrison, hoi4, occupation, resistance
- **Adapted from:** [Occupation — Hearts of Iron 4 Wiki](https://hoi4.paradoxwikis.com/Occupation)
- **Canonical URL:** https://guides-factory.com/guides/hoi4-resistance-and-compliance-guide
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Take a country and its factories do not simply become yours. Occupied states run two counters against each other — resistance, which burns your garrisons and withholds the industry, and compliance, which slowly hands it over. This guide covers what moves each one, what the occupation laws trade away, and how the garrison fits in.
## Quick answer
| What | Answer |
| --- | --- |
| What resistance does | Damages garrisons, cuts the industry and resources a state gives you |
| What compliance does | Loyalty of the local population — raises the industry and resources you collect |
| Resistance at capture | Starts at 1%, then moves towards the state's resistance target |
| Compliance base gain | 0.075% per day |
| What sets the targets | Occupation law, chosen country-wide, per country or per state |
| Garrison | Assigned from the Occupied Territories tab; equipment is allocated automatically |
| Fastest fix for a bad state | A harsher occupation law lowers resistance and costs you compliance |
## Resistance: what it costs you
Resistance strength measures the severity of the populace's resistance to the controller's occupation of the state. Upon the state being captured, the initial resistance is set to 1%, from where it rises or falls to the Resistance target . If the state shouldn't have resistance any longer, the resistance decays towards 0 by -0.25% per day.
Resistance target reflects a potential amount of unrest in the state. The resistance slowly trends towards this value.
Resistance is a per-state number, not a per-country one. A quiet occupation can still contain one state that is burning, and that is the state to change the law on.
## Compliance: what it gives back
Compliance is a representation of a non-core territory's population's loyalty to the occupying regime. The in-game number represents the proportion of people in the local population that are loyalists. Compliance is calculated on a per-state basis with its own local effects while providing overall bonuses for occupied land when reaching a certain average threshold.
Compliance base gain is 0.075% per day by default, and almost everything else about your occupation pushes that number around:
| What changes it | Effect on compliance |
| --- | --- |
| Occupation laws | −0.11% to +0.03% per day, depending on which law |
| The **No Garrison** law | Compliance gain switched off entirely |
| Losing control of the state | −0.05% per day for the previous controller |
| You hold a claim on it | +5% growth |
| You are at peace | +10% growth |
| **Compassionate Gentleman** advisor | +2% growth |
All of it works against compliance decay, which never stops — so a state left alone under a harsh law does not simply sit still, it slides back.
## Compliance and the industry you collect
Compliance is not a mood — it is the multiplier on what an occupied state hands over. Three separate formulas run off it, and they are not equally generous:
| What you collect | At 0% compliance | At 100% compliance |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Factories | 25% of the state's | 100% |
| Resources | 35% of the state's | 105% |
| Manpower | 2% of the state's | 40.5% |
Refineries are the exception: they ignore compliance entirely and always produce their full output, and the same goes for fuel silos.
Average compliance across everything you occupy unlocks flat bonuses on top:
| Average compliance | What it unlocks |
| --- | --- |
| 15% | **Informants** — enemy operative detection chance +25% |
| 25% | **Local Police Force** — required garrisons −25%, recruitable population +0.5% |
| 40% | **Reorganized Workforce** — local resources +10%, local factories +10% |
| 60% | **Volunteer Program** — recruitable population +20% |
| 80% | **A New Regime** — triggers the event that establishes a collaboration government |
Occupation laws move the same three numbers directly: local factories anywhere from −35% to +60%, local resources the same range, and local manpower from +0% to +8%.
## Garrisons
In order to combat resistance and police the population, occupied states will need to be garrisoned by military troops to perform police duties. The in-game Garrison represents this and can be assigned from the Occupied Territories tab. The divisions needed to staff the garrisons are not visible on the map and are allocated and get their equipment automatically. The equipment allocation can be set via the Recruit & deploy dialog.
The trade nobody notices
Occupation laws set both counters at once. A harsher law pushes resistance down and compliance growth with it, so a country you intend to hold for years and a country you intend to strip for one campaign want opposite settings.
## Occupation laws
Occupation laws can be selected in a country's occupied, i.e., non-core, territories. They can be assigned on a country-wide, per-occupied-country, or per-state basis. They regulate the resistance targets, compliance generation rates, amounts of industry and resources available to the player in their applied states.
## Collaboration governments
The collaboration value represents the local population's willingness to cooperate with and aid the occupiers. Collaboration is necessary for curbing and eliminating resistance. There are two stages of collaboration: local collaboration and collaboration governments.
## Also worth knowing
- **Laws can be set three ways.** Country-wide, per occupied country, or per state — and the per-state setting is what a single rebellious province is for.
- **Garrison divisions never appear on the map.** They are allocated automatically and draw their equipment from your stockpile, which is why a garrison order quietly eats infantry equipment.
- **Losing control resets progress.** A state whose controller changes hands loses compliance rather than pausing it.
Source: [Occupation](https://hoi4.paradoxwikis.com/Occupation) on the Hearts of Iron 4 Wiki.
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## FAQ
### What is the difference between resistance and compliance in HOI4?
Resistance is how hard the local population fights your occupation: it damages garrisons and withholds industry. Compliance is the share of the population loyal to you, and it raises the industry and resources the state hands over. They are separate per-state numbers and occupation laws move both.
### How do I lower resistance in occupied states?
Change the occupation law on the state, and garrison it properly. A harsher law pushes the resistance target down, at the cost of slower compliance growth — which is the trade to make deliberately rather than by default.
### How fast does compliance grow?
Compliance base gain is 0.075% per day, before occupation laws, national spirits and leader traits change it. Losing control of a state works against it rather than pausing it.
### Do garrison divisions show up on the map?
No. Garrisons are assigned from the Occupied Territories tab, the divisions are not visible on the map, and their equipment is allocated automatically from your stockpile.