Hello everyone!
Thrones of Blood and Gargoyle updates are coming in less than a week - next Tuesday, the 11th of November! Read the patch notes to find out what is to come:
System Update: Onboarding
Through two years of active development Age of Wonders 4 has seen tons of changes and every day we see new players join. With that in mind we’ve taken a holistic look at the Onboarding experience. The Tutorial is now extended to every step of the Realm & Faction Creation, Advices have been turned into full Tutorials and all outdated Tutorials have been updated and outfitted with new Voice Overs.
Added new Tutorials to all Front End Steps
Added recommendations to Front End Tutorials
Removed the Advice System
Advice Window reworked to a Tutorial History
Reworked all Advices into Tutorials
Updated all existing Tutorials with
Improved Instructions
New Highlights
New Voice Overs
Added a message for returning players that still have the Tutorial system enabled, to mark all base game tutorials as seen.
Tutorial Progression is now Saved in your session. Reloading a save will replay all Tutorials that were completed after saving.
Resetting Tutorials now applies to active/in-progress sessions without needing to do it from the Main Menu.
New Content: Item Forge
The Item Forge is getting expanded with a variety of new Infusions. Several Abilities and Passives have been added to the Item Forge, so that players can add them to gear and so that they appear as part of the auto-generated loot that players find.
Added the following active abilities as options on staffs and wands
Freezing Blast
Crushing Anguish
Finger of Death
Stunning Flash
Poison Dart
Sundering Curse
Tracker’s Mark
Flame Strike
Song of Carnage
Song of Revely
Seduce
Astral Blessing
Grant Defense
Exposing Light
Added the following active abilities as options on wands
Fire Breath
Frost Breath
Putrid Breath
Added the following passive abilities as option on Rings
Weakening Aura
Terrifying Aura
Aura of Disease
Distracting Aura
Added the following passive abilities as option on Miscellaneous items
Caretaker
Unleash the Hounds
Added the Electrified passive ability to Primary Weapons
New Content: Pantheon
Added Page support for Pantheon Rewards
Added 13 new Vampire Hunter Themed Pantheon Items
Hunter’s Outfit
Hunter’s Hat
Hunter’s Cape
Item Forge Visuals
Hunter’s Crossbow
Hunter’s Rapier & Whip
Garlic Trinket
Item Forge Infusions
Pull Shot Active Ability Infusion
Wail of the Banshee Active Ability Infusion
Pierce Shot Active Ability Infusion
Inspiring Presence Passive Ability Infusion
2 Banner Icons
Chalice
Stake & Mace
New Society Trait: Apex Predator
2 Generic Banner Unlocks
Wheel of Ages
Triumph Logo
Rework: Dark Ruling Cults
The Dark Culture has been updated to interact more closely with the existing Hero Systems. The Cult of Tyranny sees domination as the ultimate show of power, oppressing Vassals and exploiting cities. They specialize in debilitating their opponents and grinding down their weakened foes. The Cult of Death is one where sacrifice is the norm and a tool for those in power. Their units gain power from the deaths of both their allies and their enemies, critical strikes coming more steadily as the slaughter continues.
Global Updates
Unit “Dark Warrior”
Renamed to Immortal
New Passive: Lesser Resurgence
New Passive: Expendable
Unit “Pursuer”
No longer inflicts Weakened with it’s Attacks
New Ability “Relentless Pursuit”
Free Action
Once Per Combat
Cooldown is reset on kill
Teleport to target location, range 3
Cult of Tyranny
Affinities: Shadow + Shadow
Theme: Break the spirit to rule
Combat Focus: Weakening and Frost Damage
World Map Gameplay: Hostage Diplomacy
Cult of Tyranny starts with -1 Whispering stone
Free City Heroes defeated in combat are always Captured and put in the Prison.
When releasing a Conquered City as your Vassal:
A random hero from their hero pool is immediately Captured and put in the Prison.
Heroes in your Prison:
Make the Free City or Vassal they belong to count as though they had a whispering stone assigned. (Returning any you had previously assigned)
Grant an additional +1 Allegiance per turn for their Free City towards your empire.
Making peace with their Free city becomes 50% cheaper for each hero of theirs in your prison.
When Executed your cities gain +10 Stability for 10 Turns
City Structures
Collector (replaces Experimentation Chambers)
Replaces the Vendor
Grants +20 Gold income
Costs -5 Stability
Shadowtrade Quarter (Underground Laboratory)
Replaces the Market
Grants +30 Gold income
Costs -10 Stability
Overlord’s Tower
Unique Tier 3 City Structure
Grants +5 Imperium income
Grants +5 City Stability per Vassal
Research Skills
Mark of the Tyrannic Cult - Unit Enchantment
Non-Culture Units gains Cult of Tyranny
Tyrannical Exploitation - Strategic City Spell
Target Vassal City:
No longer gains Allegiance
Vassal Income is increased by 20% for each point of Allegiance gain.
Baneful Curse - Tactical Debuff Spell
No longer inflicts Sundered Defense and Sundered Resistance
Now has a 90% chance to inflict 2x Weakened and 90% chance to inflict 2x Misfortune
Combat Gameplay: Cult of Tyranny
Aura of Tyranny - Adjacent enemy units suffer -1 Status Effect Resistance.
Exploit Vulnerability
Repeating attacks and abilities gain 60% chance to inflict 1 Status Vulnerability and heal the attacker for +5 HP
Single Shot attacks and abilities gain 90% chance to inflict 1 Status Vulnerability and heal the attacker for +10 HP
Unit Lineup
The Cult of Tyranny subculture specializes in breaking their spirit. Generally favoring defense more than the other Dark Subculture(s), primarily through liberal application of Weakened.
Immortal (T1 Shock)
Pursuer (T1 Ranged)
Warlock (T2 Battlemage)
Now has Optional Cavalry
Sundering Curse
No longer applies Weakened
Increased inflicted stacks of Sundered Defense from 1 to 2
Increased inflicted stacks of Sundered Resistance from 1 to 2
Champion: Sundering Curse - Changed from increasing inflicted stacks to a 90% chance to inflict 2x Weakened
Tyrant Guard (T2 Polearm)
Renamed from Night Guard
Melee Strike - New Effect: Attacks have a 60% chance to inflict Immobilized for 1 turn
New Passive “Aura of Contempt” - Gain +1 Armor and Resistance per debuff on the attacking unit.
Tyrant Knight (T3 Shock)
Renamed from Dark Knight
Charge Strike
No longer inflicts Sundered Defense
Now has a 90% chance to inflict 2x Weakened for 3 turns
New Ability “Trample”
Single Action, Charge Attack. 2 turn cooldown
Single Shot, Base, Melee
Inflict 24 Physical Damage
Displace and Replace
Primary Target is knocked out of Defense mode and loses retaliations
Adjacent enemy units have 90% chance to suffer Weakened for 3 turns
Enter Defense Mode
New Passive “Despotic Vitality”
At the end of this unit’s turn Heal +15HP for each adjacent enemy unit
Cult of Death
Affinities: Shadow + Nature
Theme: Power from death
Combat Focus: Critical Strikes, anti-healing and Blight
World Map Gameplay: Embalming
May Embalm heroes in the Crypt
Grants +1 Embalmed Sacrifice, 25 Mana + 25 Mana per level of the Hero and removes the Hero from the crypt.
May use Embalmed Sacrifices to construct special City Structures in your cities
May use Embalmed Sacrifices to cast Morbid Sacrifice on friendly armies
When the Defeated Heroes setting is set to Owner in the Advanced Realm Settings an Embalmed Sacrifice is generated when the player defeats a Hero.
City Structures
Grave Obelisk
Replaces the Mana Obelisk
Costs 1 Embalmed Sacrifice
Grants +30 Mana
Grants +10 Stability
Crypt-Temple
Replaces the Monolith
Costs 1 Embalmed Sacrifice
Grants +40 Mana
Grants +20 Stability
Soulvault (replaces the Overlord’s Tower)
Unique Tier 3 City Structure
Costs 2 Embalmed Sacrifices
Grants +2 XP per turn to the Governor
Grants +10 Knowledge per turn
Mausoleum (replaces Dark Forge)
Costs 1 Embalmed Sacrifice
Counts as a Research Post
Grants +10 Knowledge
Grants +3 Knowledge per adjacent Conduit
Research Skills
Mark of the Death Cult - Unit Enchantment
Non-Culture Units gains Power From Death
Deathwaltz - Tactical Buff Spell
Target friendly unit:
Regains all action points
Dispels all negative status effects
Gains Deathwaltz
Ignore Casualties
Return after combat with full HP (Resurgence)
This unit dies at the end of this turn
Morbid Sacrifice - Strategic Army Spell
Costs 1 Embalmed Sacrifice
Units in friendly armies in province:
Restore to full HP
Gains Universal camouflage for 3 turns
Gain +15 Morale until the end of the next Combat
Gain +20 Max HP until the end of the next Combat
Combat Gameplay: Power from Death
Units with this trait gain the following when any unit dies:
+1 Mortal Blessing (+2 if this unit struck the killing blow)
This unit gains +5 Max HP per stack
+2% Critical Hit Chance
Last until end of combat
May stack up to 10
Unit Lineup
Dark’s unit lineup generally favors offense over defense, the Cult of Death subculture leans into this aspect even more, favoring hitting hard over self preservation.
Outrider (T1 Scout)
Immortal (T1 Shock)
Pursuer (T1 Ranged)
Mortalist (T2 Battlemage) - Replaces Warlock
Optional Cavalry
Blight Bolts - Repeating, magic attack
Death Hex- Active Ability (Former Sundering Curse)
Single shot, Debuff, magic, base
1 turn cooldown
Target Enemy unit and another within 3 hexes sustain damage.
Inflict Life Seed (Heal nearby unit on death for 20 temp hp)
Inflict 2x Decaying for 3 turns
Champion Rank: +4 Blight Damage, +1 Decaying
Death Guard (T2 Polearm) - Replaces Night Guard
Deathly Vitality - Active Ability
Single Action
Range 4
2 turn cooldown
Heal self for 10 HP +10 per stack of Mortal Blessing
Enter Defense Mode
Death Stalker (T3 Fighter) - Replaces Tyrant Knight
Melee Single Strike - Base Attack
Single Action
Single Shot, Base, Melee
120% chance to inflict 2x Decaying
New Ability “Death Stalk”
Single Action
Single Shot, Base, Melee
Once per Combat, Reset cooldown on kill
Target an enemy unit in Range 3
Displace and Replace the target
Inflict 30 damage
Fatality: Damage increases based on the target’s lost HP
Enter Defense Mode after use
New Passive “Fatebringer” - This unit gains +5% Damage for each stack of Mortal Blessing
New Passive “Blessed End” - On kill this unit gains +1 Mortal Blessing.
Slippery
Universal Camouflage
Quality of Life
Added AI Spellcasting Toggles to Combat Spells. While on the World Map you can now allow/disallow specific spells to be used by the AI during Auto Combat.
Updated the way Combat Enchantments are visualised during Combat
Combat Enchantments now show the number of turns until they trigger.
Combat Enchantments now the number of turns until they expire.
Combat Enchantments that are active this turn are shown as opaque.
Combat Enchantments that are not active this turn are transparent.
Combat Enchantments that will be active on the next turn have a red glow.
Added Trait Descriptions to the Form Tooltip to make it easier to read without needing to mouse over each trait separately.
The Upkeep and Main Type of a Unit can now be seen in its tooltip when viewing unit unlocks from tomes.
Mousing over the Action Point type icon of an ability when a unit is selected in combat now gives a tooltip explaining what the icon means.
Added the Obsidian Wyvern Mount hero item for owners of the Dragon Dawn Expansion.
City Structures
Wizard Tower: Prison Cells no longer needed to unlock the ability to Execute Heroes in your Prison
Free Cities will no longer automatically declare peace when their allegiance passes the threshold. Making Peace with a Free City is now a separate action.
Made the AI more persistent in attacking a city where the siege has been completed
Combat AI
AI Improvements for Primal units
Better understanding of using Primal Fury
Better understanding of when to use Disengaging Shot
Improved understanding of status effects that should only be applied when an enemy is in range. (Take Aim, Focussed Aim, Dagger of the Rite, True Strike, etc)
The Combat AI will now reduce threat around units that are paralyzed when the paralyze effect is predicted to last longer than 1 turn
New icons for Bathhouse: XP Bonus unit property and Heavy Fog (previously called Lightless) realm trait
Updated the WM visual of the Fey Fissure as it had issues when appearing next to coasts
Updated Tactical Music tag system to play specific DLC music at the right place
Updated SFX for Clairvoyance Ritual
Feudal
Unit “Militia”
Reduced Defense from 2 to 1
Reduced Resistance from 1 to 0
Increased Upkeep from 1 to 4 Gold
Unit “Aspirant Knight” - Reduced Charge Strike damage from 28 to 27
Unit “Knight”
Reduced Charge Strike damage from 31 to 27
Giant Slayer removed
Aristocracy
Unit “Liege Guard”
Sworn Bond - No longer takes all Damage with a 25% reduction, now mirrors damage with a 50% reduction (effectively splitting the damage between both members).
Industrious
Industrious’ economic effects ended up out of pace with other cultures as the game evolved. The extremes have been reduced a bit while hopefully keeping their feel intact.
Prospecting
No longer grants T2 Items
Reduced Gold reward range from 40-80 to 30-40
Reduced Production reward range from 40-80 to 30-50
Unit “Anvil Guard” - Increased Base Damage from 8 to 10
Unit “Halberdier” - Increased Base Damage from 12 to 14
Unit “Bastion” - Increased Base Damage from 12 to 14
City Structure “Town Hall III: Forge Tower”
No longer grants Hurry Production Discount
No longer grants Hurry Recruitment Discount
Mystic
Unit “Arcane Guard” - Increased Base Armor from 1 to 2
School of Summoning
Mystic Summoners has been rebalanced, removing excessive stat boosts that made them a mandatory element of any Magic Origin utilizing build. Astral echoes are now gained only from the pickups which must be sought out. Astral Connection has been reworked to retain synergy with magic origin units without excessive stat imbalance between this and other cultures utilizing those units.
Removed Astral Echo Gain from unlocking Research Skills
Echo Infusion - Echoes per XP cost decreased from 3 to 2
Culture Passive “Astral Connection” - Reworked to be more effective and play a bigger role instead of the flat unconditional boosts formerly given by Master Summoner:
No longer grants +5 Morale to friendly Magic Origin Units
Now grants +1 Defense and +1 Resistance to both units while adjacent to a friendly Magic Origin unit. This effect stacks.
Hero Passive “Master Summoner”
No longer increases Magic Origin Unit Damage by 10%
No longer increases Magic Origin Unit HP by 10
Unit Passive “Astral Resonance” - No longer grants Strengthed to Magic Origin units when casting Spells.
Combat Spell “Conjure Summoning Rift”
Summoning Rift now grants +15 HP Regeneration to friendly units in the province
Summoning Rift now makes Combat Summoning Spells 20% cheaper to cast
Unit “Summoner”
Spirit Summon - Increased range from 1 to 3
Spirit Summon - Changed from a Single Action to Leave One
Astral Bond reworked to instead grant +20% damage to the target, and heal the target for 20 HP at the start of each turn.
Added new research skill for Mystic Summoners: Scroll of Astral Connection to grant Astral Connection to non-Mystic Culture racial units
Updated Mystic Summoners Tutorial to remove mention of gaining Astral Echoes from Research Skills
Updated Mystic Summoners Subculture description
Oathsworn
Unit “Sealbearer” - Reduced Cooldown of Resonance/Transference/Fire Seal from 3 to 1
Architect
Architect damage stacking from Affinity Incarnate turned out problematic and has thus been reworked into a more controlled version. This has the added benefit of not disproportionately discouraging single-city playstyles for Architect cultures and allowing us to add a starting stack of Affinity Incarnate to ensure a smoother start.
Affinity Incarnate
Affinity Incarnate damage is now determined by the Dominant Affinity
Affinity Incarnate gained from Monuments is now capped at 4 (Other sources such as Cultivators or the 1 Starting Affinity Incarnate, can exceed this cap)
Architect players now start with 1 Affinity Incarnate inherently
Dominant Affinity description updated to clarify the property/damage channel swap of Affinity Incarnate
City Structures
Affinity Obelisks - Updated description to clarify Monument Tier count rather than Affinity Incarnate directly (functionality unchanged)
Updated Concept for Monuments and the culture to reflect the new implementation of Affinity Incarnate
Special Province Improvement “Monument Stage 1” - Now grants +10 Stability Income
Unit “Shademaker”
Shoot Bow - Increased Base Attack Damage increased from 10 to 12
Incarnate Shot - Increased Range from 4 to 6
Unit “Architect”
Incarnate Restoration - Now multiplies based on the stacks on the caster rather than the target.
Incarnate Restoration - Additional healing per stack of Affinity Incarnate increased from 10 to 20
Incarnate Restoration - Reduced Cooldown from 3 to 2
Affinity Tesseract now counts as a Battlemage for the purposes of Enchantments affecting them
Affinity Tesseract now inherits rank from the Architect when summoned (No longer gains ranks from global effects like the wizard tower)
Affinity Tesseract are now T2 Expendable summons, this means they gain 5 HP per rank rather than 10
Affinity Tesseract - Reduced Base damage from 12 to 10
Architect's Champion rank now grants the Tesseract Frenzy until end of battle correctly rather than for 1 turn
Defenders, Warriors, Spellblades, Death Knights and Battlesaints can now use Melee/Ranged Skirmisher weapons
Spellblades can now use Physical Ranged Weapons
Dragon Lord Warriors can now use Armored Claws
Updated the text of the Hero unit type to say it cannot be Mind Controlled or Dominated
Ambitions
Ambition “Crusader” - Now includes Umbral Demons as a valid Unit Type
Ambition “Steward” - Now available for Rulers during Faction Creation
Ambition “Collector” - Increased Renown gained per 3 turns of having an item equipped from 2 to 3
Battlesaint
Passive “Cleric” - Now grants +1 Resistance to the Hero and adjacent Allies
Active Ability “Cleric’s Favor” - Changed from a Single Action to Leave One
Passive “Paladin” - Now grants +1 Defense to the Hero and adjacent Allies
Passive “Fervorous Disciple” and Passive “Fervorous Martyr” are no longer mutually exclusive
Active Ability “Cleanse”
Replaces Active Ability “Bless”
Reduced Cooldown from 2 Turns to 1
Passive “Fortunate Support” -
Replaces Active Ability “Cleanse”
Grants +1 Fortune on Support abilities
Passive “Healing Support” swapped with Passive “Regenerating Support”
Active Ability “Warding Bond” swapped with Passive “Martyr's Blood”
Active Ability “Spiritual Guide” - New Effect: Increases Positive Morale gained by 50%
Active Ability “Condemnation”
Increased range from 1 to 4
Increased chance to inflict Condemned from 90% to Guaranteed
Passive “Defense 2”
Renamed to Greater Defense
Grants 2 defense and 10% evasion
Ranger
Passive “Knockback Snapshot” - Now allows Snapshot to be used within Enemy Zone of Control
Active Ability “Go for the Kill” - Now can be used when Engaged in Melee
Added explanation of different types of attacks to the action point encyclopedia entry
The list of enchantments for a unit in the tome of wonders now only shows enchantments that are compatible with the unit.
Faction tooltips on blocked factions in faction selection will now show why the faction is blocked if possible
Changed the order of subcultures for base game cultures to have the more beginner friendly one at the top.
Improved alphabetical sorting across multiple lists for different languages.
Updated the Combat Summon Tooltip to specify that its death does not affect the morale of allies, that it dies when it is only left with other combat summons or non-vital units and that the property duration is what indicates the summon duration.
Updated the City Interface with new Population Tracker and Rush Button
Updated the Prison Interface with Origin headers
Active Ability Infusion “Whirlwind” - Now scales damage from the hero’s primary attack
Active Ability Infusion “Power Cleave” - Now scales damage from the hero’s primary attack
Active Ability Infusion “Execute”
Renamed to Assassin’s Strike
Now scales damage from the hero’s primary attack
Now gains extra damage based on how much health is missing from the target
Now considered a base attack
Increased Infusion Point Costs from 1 to 2
Passive Infusion “Wind Shield” - Increased Infusion Point Costs from 2 to 3
Passive Infusion “Wind Barrier” - Increased Infusion Point Costs from 3 to 4
Active Ability Infusion “Summon Umbral Demon”
Increased Infusion Point Costs for Staves from 3 to 4
Increased Infusion Point Costs for Wands from 4 to 5
Passive Infusion “Army Trainer” - No longer stacks with itself, so having multiple copies in the same army has no further effect.
Shatter Blades and Javelins now do slightly more damage to make up for the fact that they block mounts
Hunter Spider and Vampire Spider Mounts have had their web attacks boosted to match the Dread Spider Mount
Blocked the Revert Button in Multiplayer Sessions on Turn 1
Fixed Team Settings resetting on clients after reopening the settings menu.
Fixed a bug that caused audio issues in multiplayer when a player is in the research or empire development screen when a combat starts
Fixed an issue where a Session would hang in classic turns if Manual Combat was finished outside of the Player Turn.
Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur when removing a Trait from Heroes.
Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur when removing Heroes through Infestations.
Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to AI Players attempting to build City Structures on Special Province Improvements.
Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur when gaining a Destiny Trait
Fixed an Out of Sync related to the City Building tutorial.
In the Resource & Content Editors you can now:
Change the size of the library resource selector and it will get preserved between tabs, including when you open a new resource pack
Move tabs by dragging
Close tabs with an X button
Close tabs with Middle Mouse Button click
Open resource packs in the File Explorer - "Open file location"
In the Resource and Content editors splitter sizes get saved in the config file so they stay persistent when closing and opening the editor.
Added type descriptions to all Properties, Magic Effects, Magic Targeters, Special Operations, Ability Modifiers and some other types. These can be seen when hovering a type in the type selector dropdown in the Resource Editor.
Map Definitions that support Lakes, now allow you to specify the size of the lake.
The “XP Bonus” Property can now be disallowed from stacking.
You can now change the AI Difficulty of Rulers added through Presence Traits.
Misc. Trait “Lightless” - Renamed to Heavy Fog
Enchanted Archipelago
Decimus will now be blocked from moving close to the player's island (therefore blocking building on it) until the player has dismissed him or finished his quest.
Eternal Court
Ensured the correct event(s) are triggered when you take the Eternal Court city before getting the quest.
Grexolis
Added various starting buffs to all Shad'rai allies, moderately on normal, high on easy.
Slightly moved Meandor closer to Ydgaard and moved Fangir moderately closer to Yaka and Nimue, so Shad'rai can clash with Covenant earlier.
Fixed that Turiel no longer released extra starting cities as vassals (which led to him being even harder to deal with).
Cliffs of Sordünn
Surrendering now functions correctly for the Cliffs of Sordünn.
Created alternate texts for the event at the end that changes upon whether or not the player has rescued Sundren from the Umbral Abyss.
Chaos
Tome of Pyromancy:
Special Province Improvement “Ritual Pyre” - Now unlocks the drafting of Inferno Puppy
Unit “Inferno Puppy” - Melee Strike now has a 60% chance to inflict Burning
Tome of the Horde
Unit “Warhound” - No longer inflicts Sundered Defense instead it inflicts Bleeding
Tome of Revelry
Siege Project “Revels of Blood” - No longer reduces Defending Unit Morale by 10 instead it inflicts 2 stack of Bleeding
Unit Enchantment “Bloodfury Weapons”
Now grants +2 Physical Damage to all Base Attacks
No longer grants +5 Morale and +1 Strengthened on Kill instead it inflicts 2x Bleed on adjacent enemies to the target.
Tome of Devastation
Unit Enchantment “Flameburst Weapons”
Reduced Fire Damage done to adjacent Units from 20 to 15
New Effect - Inflicts 2 Burning to adjacent Units on killing a unit
Unit “Devastator Sphere” - Detonate and Devastate now inflicts Burning and places On Fire markers
Unit “Warbreed”
Charge Strike - New Effect: Inflicts Bleeding
Power Cleave - New Effect: 90% Chance to inflict Bleeding.
Tome of the Chaos Lord
Unit “Balor” - Chaos Brand can no longer target Fiends, Heroes or Siegecraft Units
Materium
Tome of Discipline
Unit Enchantment “Empowered Strikes” - No longer applies to units without a repeating melee attack.
Nature
Tome of Evolution
Unit Enchantment “Rapid Evolution” - Now applies to all Evolve Units.
Tome of Prosperity
Unit “Prosperity Dragon” - Changed “Mask of Prosperity” from transferring sustained damage with a 35% reduction to reducing sustained damage by 50% and sharing it between both units.
Unit Enchantment “Blessed Armors” - Reduced Resistance granted from 2 to 1
Unit Enchantment “Staves of Grace” - Changed “Cleansing Rain” from removing all Negative Status Effects to removing 2 Negative Status Effects
Combat Spell “Grand Protection”
Reduced Bolstered Defense granted from 3 to 2
Reduced Bolstered Resistance granted from 3 to 2
City Structure “Garden of Affluence” - Reduced Gold income per Farm/Forester from 3 to 2
Shadow
Tome of the Reaper
World Map Spell “Summon Reaper” - Increased Casting Costs from 200 CP to 300 CP
Tome of the Revenant
World Map Spell “Fallen Angel” - Increased Casting Costs from 200 CP to 300 CP
Polearm Units - Base HP increased by +5
Skeletons now have Expendable, meaning they do not affect friendly unit morale on death.
Unit “Skeleton Polearm”
Renamed to “Skeleton Militia”
Increased HP from 50 to 55 (combined with the Polearm buff this gives them 60 max HP)
Unit “Razorback”
Passive “Quillhide” - Now inflicts guaranteed Bleeding against Melee attackers
Reduced Stats to be more in line with other Ranged units of its Tier
Reduced HP from 70 to 60
Reduced Defense from 2 to 1
Reduced Resistance from 2 to 1
Unit “Floral Stinger” - Now can be affected by Hastened and Cosmic Overdrive
Unit “Living Vines”
Now has the Deathless Property
Units with Deathless do not trigger “On Death” effects
Unit “Wrangler Ogre” - Now has the generic Champion rank up for Support Units
Unit “Inferno Hound” - Increased Melee Strike chance to inflict burning from 60% to 90%
Reworked how Magic Materials are spawned on the map. Improving control over the total number per layer and making sure there is a more balanced amount of each material.
Reworked the way Magic Material Collections function. They now require any combination of 3 Unique Materials in their Set to complete.
Reduced the amount of custom “Blessed Regions” appearing when Giant Kings DLC is enabled during realm creation.
Players within a team are now more consistently spawning closer to each other.
Crash Fixes & Hangs
Fixed a crash that could occur on resetting Status Effect Timers
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when retaking a Throne City
Fixed a crash that could occur when the vassal income calculation would process an invalid city
Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a save with a realm trait that no longer exists.
Fixed a crash that could occur when starting a map with a Presence Trait and changing the amount of players afterwards.
Fixed a crash that could occur upon completing the “Muse of Discovery”
Fixed a hang that could occur when Story Events would force a battle..
Fixed a hang that could occur in Combat hang caused by the AI trying to use an ineffective ability.
General
Fixed an issue on PS5 where the "Pantheon Rewards" screen remains displayed on screen if an activity was started while on "Pantheon Rewards" screen
Art
Fixed an issue where the Vignette Plane did not fill the entire screen on Ultrawide Displays
Fixed issues where units and Heroes would vertex explode when using their abilities
Fixed an issue where Giant Rulers would slide on the World Map if they didn’t finish their animation first before moving again
Fixed an issue where the Hero animation for the “Seduce” ability was stiff when performed while wielding a two-handed weapon
Fixed an issue where the Iron Golem's attack animation was slightly bugged around the weapon
Fixed an issue where Wizard King rulers have legs clipping through the boots
Fixed an issue where Wildspeaker forearm shows through the bandages
Fixed an issue where the "Aspirant Knight" unit presents clipping on the back of the head on multiple forms
Fixed an issue where Army Armor Color was not applying to weapons
Fixed an issue where Architect Staff of {Affinity} not showing their {Affinity} particles on it
Fixed an issue where Architect units appear naked and missing body parts after death
Fixed an issue where most Reaver weapons do not change color
Fixed an issue where Primal weapons do not change color
Fixed an issue where most Barbarian Culture weapons will not change color
Fixed an issue where Arachna's arm was misformed
Fixed an issue where the Giant Ruler's head slider didn’t work correctly
Fixed an issue where the Astral Attunement visuals were broken
Fixed an issue where the Honor Blade unit on Chariot Mount stood a bit too wide
AI
Fixed an issue where AI starting bonus did not adjust correctly when changing to custom
Fixed an issue where the AI would build City Structures on Province Improvements
Fixed an issue where AI was able to end on a province or outpost when they calculated a multi stack attack
Fixed an issue where deserting units would do nothing, now they are disbanded correctly.
Fixed an issue where Free City War Coordination attacks were not notified when their targets was destroyed through unconventional means
Combat
Reclaiming Bolts now bypasses precognition when it hits allies - allowing it to heal allies who are protected by precognition
Transmute now bypasses precognition when it hits allies - allowing it to buff allies who are protected by precognition
Fixed an issue where units being transformed into zombies would “When a unit dies…” effects
Fixed an issue that meant that transforming a dead unit into another unit (like a zombie or inferno hound) would prevent that unit coming back with Resurgence. Resurgence should always return the original unit.
Monarch's Decree now correctly affects all allies in battle
Fixed an issue where some summon abilities were able to be cast on non-valid hexes
Fixed an issue which meant that each separate bonus XP reward that was given after combat would be rounded up separately, hugely inflating XP rewards from combat
Combat Map
Fixed an issue where Lava Road map was counted as a Lava map, as this prevents a number of spells/effects/corpses on an otherwise normal map as well
Culture
Fixed an issue where units recruited after combat did not get properties such as For the Monarch
Fixed an issue where non-Architect Heroes would gain Incarnate abilities when recruited by an Architect player
Fixed an issue where it was possible to build another Monument in a city when the existing monument was occupied
Fixed an issue where the On Death Explosion from Seal of Fire was targeting your units not the units friendly to the unit with the debuff.
Dwellings
Crystal
Fixed an issue that when keeping the Structure Production flavored “relic” the Crystal Dwelling asks the player to retrieve, no Structure Production was rewarded for quests of 4 Skull Difficulty or higher.
Umbral
Fixed an issue where destroying an Umbral Dwelling would not destroy occupied provinces
Economy
Fixed an issue where being besieged would award the Beacon of Valor Draft Bonus without the Beacon of Valor structure
Fixed an issue where the Beacon of Valor structure would continue adding Draft even when not under siege.
Empire Development
Fixed an issue where Death Magic would sometimes award Casting Points to the wrong player
Events
Fixed an issue where a quest would fail when you pick an event option to resolve it peacefully.
Fixed an issue where an event of a player defeated would no longer spawn.
Fixed an issue where event buttons for Dragons and Eldritch Sovereigns wouldn’t validate themselves before opening.
Fixed an issue where certain intro events didn’t trigger in Ancient Wonders, causing players to immediately skip to the fight. This bug was present due to the event trying to convert an Obsidian Wyvern into a mount, but the mount didn’t exist.
Fixed an issue where the “False Flag Operation” event can target Heroes in other players' prisons (for the Hero sacrifice option)
Free City
Fixed an issue where Free Cities would receive a positive relation even if the alignment of the player is "Neutral".
Fixed an issue where Free Cities would infinitely be affected by a siege that should have been lifted by defeating the player attacking the Free City.
Fixed an issue where Initiate/Master Properties would not appear on Free City Heroes
Happenings
Cosmic
Fixed an issue that unit properties given by the Major Cosmic Happenings “Eye of Fire”, “Dawn of the Lodestar” and “Drifting Leylines” no longer applied to independent units.
Fixed an issue where the Invading Sylviculture, Rays of Winter, Cosmic Winds, Sunstruck Eruptions, and Colossus Moon events had their first option greyed out if someone else already chose it
Intrigue Happenings
Fixed an issue where the “Voice of the People” Happening would spawn without any followup quest spawning
When an Intrigue ends the rulers affected by it no longer get stuck in limbo and cause a crash. This fix only works on saves before the intrigue ends.
Heroes
Ambitions
Fixed the Conqueror hero ambition not completing if the city defenders were not inside the city center
Fixed Level 3 Renown reward removing all chance to die when Routing instead of halving it as intended
Fixed the Cult of Personality race trait not giving skill points to heroes who died in combat but did gain renown
Affinity Skills
Controlled Chaos now correctly affects all attacks instead of base attacks only
Fixed Aspect of Nature interfering with summon spells such as Wyvern Keeper.
Fixed Forgotten Tome not refreshing after resurrecting an Eldritch Sovereign.
Battlesaint
Cancel Warding Bond no longer shows up in the unit panel or as a status effect
Defender
Cancel Warding Bond no longer shows up in the unit panel or as a status effect
Elementalist
Fixed an issue where Elemental Mastery only applied to magical base attacks rather than all base attacks.
Fixed an issue where Amplifying Elements only applied to magical base attacks rather than all attacks.
Fixed an issue where Inexorable Cast only applied to magical attacks rather than all attacks.
Fixed an issue where Unrestrained Magic only applied to magical base attacks rather than all base attacks.
Fixed an incorrect damage link insert in discipline of Earth for the Elementalist
Warlock
Cancel Hex Pact is now correctly named
Cancel Hex Pact no longer shows up in the unit panel or as a status effect
Cancel Blood Pact no longer shows up in the unit panel or as a status effect
Fixed an issue where Decaying Magic did not work on Repeating attacks
Interface
Fixed a missing turn timer icon when an outpost is built by a Barbarian scout.
Fixed an issue where the income would not update after a trade with the Artifact Hoarder property.
Fixed an issue where the custom sorting of items in the arsenal panel would reset after disenchanting an item.
Fixed an issue where Affinities would not refresh when you get a “Mark of the ..” trait.
Fixed an issue where the top half of scrollbars would not respond to clicking and dragging
Fixed an issue where trading a Magic Material would stack notifications
Fixed visual issues with the targeting outline of spells that target dead units
Fixed racial tome units being misplaced inside icons when looking at tomes inside faction creation.
Fixed unit upkeep showing a bunch of zeroes. Units without upkeep will show as “0 gold“ or “0 mana”.
Fixed an issue that caused the first Hero that was made in Advanced Faction Creation to appear at the end of the Recruitable Heroes list.
Fixed controller bugs with the Initial Bonuses of Tomes in the research overview screen.
Fixed an issue that made the Race Name Generator create names that were too long
Fixed an issue where Combat Prediction with Army Strengths would not show in "Attack" options
Fixed an issue where Combat Predictions would not show correctly for Armies in Defensive locations
Fixed an Text Overflow issue with long subculture names in Faction Creation
Text & Descriptions
Fixed the prediction on the Alignment Tooltip for Devotees of Good at Pure Good
Fixed wrong income being displayed for the Temple of the Exalted in the research screen
Fixed the "Requires a connected item to be unlocked" error message appearing in the Pantheon item tooltip when it was only unaffordable.
Fixed the cost in the Pantheon item tooltip not changing its color when it becomes unaffordable.
Fixed a missing insert in Totem of the Wild’s tome entry.
Ice Coffin now says correctly that it applies Status Vulnerability
Fixed several broken string inserts in the Entry event of the “Tomb of the Thief” adventure.
Modding
Fixed a crash that could occur when resizing the map for custom regions.
Prophecy Traits
Fixed an issue where Titan Guardian would summon a second Earth Titan on Turn 2 of Combat
Fixed an issue where a Declaration of War with a Major War Justification did not count towards the progress of the “Desolations of War” quest when there was a Declaration of Rivalry.
Fixed an issue where converting an Outpost to a City would count as conquering a city.
Fixed an issue where the Age of Magic would reduce Spell Casting Cost fully instead of halving
Story Realms
Rings of Emnora - Fixed a crash that could occur when choosing the option to ask Fredric to leave the Realm.
Cliffs of Sordünn - Fixed a crash that would occur when Merlin is in the void before you initiate the siege with him. This is fixed by force-reviving Merlin if the player initiates a siege whilst he is in the void. The Player is notified of this in the resulting storyevent.
Tomes
Tome of Devastation
Warbreeds from Monstruous Rebirth now obliterate on death to prevent weird resurrection interactions where you can turn a tier 1 into permanent tier 4 units.
Tome of Eternal Lord
Battlefield reanimation now grants combat summon to revived zombies correctly.
Tome of Reaper
Greater Reanimation now grants combat summon to summoned Corrupt Souls correctly.
Zombies summoned by Marked for Death now gain combat summon correctly.
Fixed Silent Barracks not counting Arctic Dungeon and Desolate Dungeon provinces.
Fixed the Oracle unit from Tome of Prophecies incorrectly having the cost of a Tier 3 unit.
World Map
Fixed an issue in RMG with Teams enabled when there is No Underground layer.
Fixed an issue in RMG with Teams enabled where Continent maps wouldn’t generate their continents correctly.
Fixed an issue in RMG where the cleared ancient wonder for the Architect Wonders society trait would be placed too far away from the player.
Fixed an issue in RMG that could cause Ancient Wonders to be placed surrounded by mountains.
Fixed an issue where the “Fountain of Creation” Landmark would not spawn
Fixed an issue where it was not possible to move onto the Ruins overlay without Giant Kings.
Fixed an issue where vision wasn’t correctly granted when a teleporter would spawn on top of a unit.
Fixed an issue where teleporters had incorrect destinations
Fixed an issue where Free City Guards would still spawn while a city was in the process of being razed.
See you soon!