Recommended settings

1.13 is famous for being configurable, but with well over a thousand INI settings spread across multiple files it can be hard to know where to begin. This page lists a handful of tweaks that many players — especially first-time players — find worth changing before starting a campaign. Everything here is optional: the defaults give you the "standard" 1.13 experience.

All settings below were verified against the current game data on GitHub (1dot13/gamedir, the data used by the "Latest" releases). Where a setting moved or disappeared compared to older builds, the table says so.

Playing a mod instead of plain 1.13?

The paths below use Data-1.13. If you play a mod built on 1.13, edit the files in that mod's data folder instead — for example Data-AIM\Ja2_Options.INI for AIMNAS. See Mods built on 1.13 and how the data folders layer.

Use a plain text editor

Edit INI and XML files with a text editor such as Notepad++. The older documentation warned against the bundled INI editor because it caused problems; a text editor always works. Back up any file before you change it. See INI editing basics for general advice.

INI tweaks

These settings live in Data-1.13\Ja2_Options.INI. Each row lists the [Section] the key sits under, so you can jump to it quickly. For a broader tour of the file, see Ja2_Options.INI.

Setting	Section	Why you might change it
TRIGGER_MASSIVE_ENEMY_COUNTERATTACK_AT_DRASSEN	[Strategic Event Settings]	Set to FALSE for a first campaign. The Drassen counterattack is infamous for hitting very hard, very early — the INI itself warns it makes the beginning of the game "MUCH HARDER". If you keep it on, read the survival tips.
REDUCED_INSTANT_DEATH	[Tactical Gameplay Settings]	TRUE converts damage that would kill one of your mercs outright (from a gun or knife, when no death animation triggered) into damage that leaves them in a coma instead. Makes merc deaths less likely. Not available in the old r7609 build.
MINE_INCOME_PERCENTAGE	[Financial Settings]	Scales mine income. 100 is normal JA2 profit; valid values run from 1 up to 65535 (a value of 0 is treated as 1). Raise it if you find money too tight.
WHICH_MINE_SHUTS_DOWN	[Strategic Event Settings]	One mine runs out of ore during the campaign. -1 = random (default), 0 = no mine shuts down, or pick one: 2 Drassen, 3 Alma, 4 Cambria, 5 Chitzena, 6 Grumm.
STEALING_FROM_SHIPMENTS_DISABLED	[Bobby Ray Settings]	TRUE stops NPCs stealing from your item shipments (in Drassen that is Pablo).
CHANCE_OF_SHIPMENT_LOSS	[Bobby Ray Settings]	Percentage chance that an entire Bobby Ray's shipment is lost. Default 10; set 0 if you never want to lose one.
CHANCE_TONY_AVAILABLE	[Shopkeeper Inventory Settings]	Chance that Tony, the weapon dealer in San Mona, is at his shop. 80 is the vanilla value; 100 means he is always home.
ENABLE_ALL_WEAPON_CACHES	[Strategic Gameplay Settings]	TRUE enables every sector with a "secret" weapon cache — chests holding mediocre-to-good equipment.
DROP_ALL	[Tactical Difficulty Settings]	Controls enemy item drops. 0 = normal drop chances, 1 = enemies drop everything, 2 = enemies drop everything but items that would normally not drop are severely damaged. On the old r7609 build this was a New Game screen option instead (see New Game options).
SELL_ITEMS_WITH_ALT_LMB	[Financial Settings]	TRUE (the default) lets you sell items straight from the sector inventory screen by holding Alt and left-clicking the item. The companion key SELL_ITEMS_PRICE_MODIFIER controls the price you get (default 10, meaning 10% of the item's value).
MERCS_CAN_BE_ON_ASSIGNMENT	[Recruitment Settings]	0 = default behavior (some mercs are on assignment at game start and go on assignments during the campaign), 1 = everyone is available at the start but may leave on assignments later, 2 = every merc is always at your disposal.
MERCS_CAN_DIE_ON_ASSIGNMENT	[Recruitment Settings]	FALSE prevents A.I.M./M.E.R.C. mercs you have not hired from dying while away on other missions. (The per-difficulty cap on such deaths, MaxMercDeaths, lives in DifficultySettings.xml.)
SLAY_STAYS_FOREVER	[Recruitment Settings]	TRUE lets the character Slay stay with your team indefinitely; with FALSE he can only be recruited for a limited time.

Newer optional systems

Recent releases added several large optional systems, all switched in Ja2_Options.INI as well. Each row links to the page that explains the system in full — read it before you flip the switch.

Setting	Section	Why you might change it
MINI_EVENTS_ENABLED	[Mini Events Settings]	Off by default. TRUE turns on Mini Events: random campaign events that pop up on the strategic screen with two choices, each with positive and/or negative effects. A low-risk way to add flavor to any campaign.
REBEL_COMMAND_ENABLED	[Rebel Command Settings]	Off by default. TRUE enables Rebel Command: you direct the rebels at the strategic level through the A.R.C. laptop site. The INI recommends starting a new campaign ("unless you're up for a challenge"); if you enable it mid-campaign, the game grants a starting stock of Supplies based on the current day and progress.
AGGRESSIVE_STRATEGIC_AI	[Strategic Event Settings]	Default 2: the Queen can launch Drassen-style counterattacks on every city, plus major offensives late in the campaign. 1 keeps the city counterattacks but drops the offensives; 0 downgrades the non-Drassen counterattacks (the Drassen one has its own toggle, above). Worth lowering for a gentler first campaign — see the strategic war.
MERC_WEBSITE_IMMEDIATELY_AVAILABLE	[Recruitment Settings]	TRUE sends Speck's introductory e-mail at the start of the game, so the budget M.E.R.C. hiring site is open from day 1. See Hiring & contracts.
FAST_BOBBY_RAY_SHIPMENTS	[Shopkeeper Inventory Settings]	TRUE makes Bobby Ray's shipments arrive faster. See Bobby Ray's for the shop's other quality-of-life settings.
FOOD	[Tactical Food Settings]	Off by default, and fine to leave off for a first campaign. TRUE opts in to the food & water system: mercs must eat and drink or suffer morale, energy and eventually stat penalties.
DISEASE	[Disease Settings]	Off by default. TRUE opts in to the disease system: mercs can catch diseases from swamp insects, corpses, contaminated items and more. Like food, an extra survival layer for players who want more to manage.

Settings that moved or were removed

Two entries from older versions of this list no longer work the way they used to:

• ALLOW_REINFORCEMENTS — on the old r7609 build this was a Ja2_Options.INI setting. In current releases, battlefield reinforcements are enabled per difficulty level in TableData\DifficultySettings.xml instead (see Reinforcements below). The only related INI key left is ALLOW_REINFORCEMENTS_ONLY_IN_CITIES under [Strategic Gameplay Settings], which restricts reinforcements to movement between city sectors and affects militia only.
• SHOW_SKILLS_IN_HIRING_PAGE — this setting (a tooltip with skills and traits on merc portraits on the A.I.M. and M.E.R.C. hiring pages) existed in r7609/r8741-era builds but is no longer present in the current Ja2_Options.INI. If you still play an old build, it remains available there.

XML tweaks

These files live in Data-1.13\TableData. XML is fussier than INI — a malformed file can prevent the game from starting — so read editing XML safely first and keep backups.

Starting money

Open TableData\DifficultySettings.xml and edit the <StartingCash> value inside the block for the difficulty you want to play. The current defaults are:

Difficulty	<StartingCash>
Novice	45000
Experienced	35000
Expert	30000
Insane	15000

Edit the existing blocks — do not add new ones

The file itself warns: do not create new difficulty entries; modify the level you want to play. Parts of the game still assume the original difficulty levels.

Vehicle seating capacity

By default the Hummer, the ice cream truck and the helicopter each hold six mercs. If you field bigger squads, raising the capacity makes strategic movement much easier.

In TableData\Vehicles.xml, find the vehicle by its <uiIndex>:

<uiIndex>	Vehicle
160	Hummer
162	Ice cream truck
163	Helicopter

Change the <SeatingCapacities> value from 6 to what you want. The ground vehicles define ten seat positions (SeatIndex 0–9), which is the upper limit for them.

Possible crash

The game may crash if your squad size is smaller than the vehicle capacity and you enter combat while in a vehicle. If you raise vehicle capacity, consider raising your squad size to match.

Reinforcements

When this feature is on, enemies (and your militia) can reinforce an adjacent sector during a battle: they arrive at the edge of the map a few turns after the fight starts, which can swing the outcome dramatically.

In current releases this is controlled per difficulty in TableData\DifficultySettings.xml:

<AllowReinforcements>1</AllowReinforcements>
<AllowReinforcementsOmerta>0</AllowReinforcementsOmerta>

• <AllowReinforcements> — 0 off, 1 on. On by default on every difficulty; set it to 0 in your difficulty's block to turn the feature off.
• <AllowReinforcementsOmerta> — whether the enemy may reinforce Omerta specifically. Off by default on Novice, on for Experienced and above.

On the old r7609 build this was the single ALLOW_REINFORCEMENTS key in Ja2_Options.INI instead.

Advanced: display and scaling

Third-party software

Apart from cnc-ddraw, the tools below are third-party software that is not part of 1.13. Use them at your own risk.

cnc-ddraw (included — try this first)

Current 1.13 releases ship with cnc-ddraw (by FunkyFr3sh), a DirectDraw replacement that solves most performance and graphics problems on modern Windows. Run cnc-ddraw config.exe in your game folder (next to ja2.exe) to configure fullscreen or borderless-window mode, scaling shaders, the renderer, FPS limits and more. There is no need to download anything — it is already installed. The project lives at github.com/FunkyFr3sh/cnc-ddraw.

For startup problems and other display fixes (including legacy advice for old builds), see Troubleshooting.

Alternatives

If cnc-ddraw does not give you the result you want — for example a borderless window or integer scaling for a sharper image — these tools have been used with JA2:

• dgVoodoo 2 — a wrapper for old DirectX (and Glide) graphics APIs.
• DxWnd — runs old games in a window and intercepts their graphics calls.
• IntegerScaler — scales the game image by whole multiples for a pixel-sharp result.

Setting these up for JA2 1.13 is not covered by the official documentation — if you get stuck, ask on the Bear's Pit forum or the 1.13 Discord. As a rule of thumb, avoid running two DirectDraw wrappers (such as cnc-ddraw and dgVoodoo 2) at the same time.

Linux and macOS

JA2 1.13 is a Windows program, but it runs under Wine. See the Troubleshooting page for notes on running 1.13 outside Windows.

Sources

• Data-1.13/Ja2_Options.INI from the 1dot13/gamedir repository (current setting names, sections, values and in-file documentation)
• Data-1.13/TableData/DifficultySettings.xml from the 1dot13/gamedir repository (starting cash, reinforcements, MaxMercDeaths)
• Data-1.13/TableData/Vehicles.xml from the 1dot13/gamedir repository (vehicle indices and seating)
• "Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13 - Recommended Settings" from the previous (r8741-era) 1.13 starter documentation
• "Technical Issues with JA2 1.13 – Problems and Solutions" from the gamedir Docs folder (cnc-ddraw note, August 2023)