Sprite Update Patch notes - Coming Tomorrow 16/6/2026

System Update: Empire Development Tree

The Empire Development Tree has been updated and significantly expanded. Over time the way that the tree was originally designed no longer matches the way that game has evolved. Empire Skills now represent a broader interpretation of their affinities and provide a better expression of your faction.

• Added new mutually exclusive Skills for almost every Skill in the Empire Development Tree

• All Rites have changed from Once per Game to Repeating

  • When a Rite is used its Affinity Requirements Increase and the accumulated Affinity is reset.

• Updated or Removed all preexisting Empire Development Skills & Rites

• Improved Readability of the Tree

  • Empire Rites have a new shape to better differentiate between them and regular skills

  • Mutually Exclusive Skills show a Lock icon when inspecting them

  • Skill Tooltips list Mutual Exclusive Skills

• With the exception of Skills from the General Branch, any owned Empire Skill in your current games will be removed and the Imperium costs refunded.

Associated Updates

• Updated all City Structures with appropriate Structure Tags

• Added the Guild Slot System which allows multiple Guilds to be built in a City

• Society Trait “Merciless Slavers”

  • Now gives the new Turncoat Masters empire skill

  • Now gives a 25% discount on recruiting captured and dominated units

• Society Trait “Keepers of Knowledge” - Now gives Seeing Stones instead of All Seeing

System Update: Teams

Teams have always been about providing an easy way to work together towards Victory, without having to go through the various Diplomatic Requirements. However this also meant all Diplomacy between Teams would be turned off. With these two new settings you can still team up at game start, without losing out on diplomatic intricacies.

• The Teams Settings is now a Dropdown instead of a Checkbox

• Added two new Settings to Teams in Advanced Settings

  • Alliance - Team members start in a full alliance with each other. Once the game begins, Rulers are free to leave the alliance if they wish.

  • Overlords - One player in each team is assigned the overlord, while the other players are his vassals. The overlord has control over diplomacy, and vassals may not leave the team without their permission.

    • Which Player is the Overlord can be set in the Player Slot Settings

New Content: Wizard King Customization

Secrets of the Archmages is all about the Wizard Kings, and there’s no better way to acknowledge this than with new Drip. New Wizard King customization items are available in the Base Game as well as owners of a variety of DLC’s.

• Added Customization Items for Wizard Kings

  • Helmet

    • Warlord (Male/Female)

    • Painbringer (Female)

  • Outfits

    • Phantasm Warrior (Male)

    • Pyre Templar (Male)

    • Warlord (Male)

    • Pyromancer (Female)

    • Constrictor (Female)

    • Geomancer (Female)

    • Painbringer (Female)

  • Capes

    • Pyre Templar

    • Warlord

Pantheon

• Increased the Save Data Size for Pantheons. Pantheon Saves can now contain up to 300 Rulers.

• Added Pantheon Content

  • 4 Evermore Items

    • Item Forge Skin - Merlin’s Tome

    • Item Forge Infusion - Magic Shield

    • Back Item - Astral Magic Circle

    • Banner Icon - The Leviathan

  • 5 Obbadoth Items

    • Item Forge Skin - Ysariel’s Sword

    • Item Forge Skin - Karissa’s Inferno Orb

    • Back Item - Chaos Magic Circle

    • Exotic Mount - Inferno Hound Mounts

    • Banner Icon - The Beast

  • 4 Duatha Items

    • Customization Item - Hambinger’s Bird

    • Back Item - Arachna’s Spider Legs

    • Back Item - Nature Magic Circle

    • Banner Icon - The Mistwalker

  • 2 Wizard King Items

    • Cat Ears & Tail

    • Arachna’s Crown

Culture Update: Reavers

The Reavers were our first DLC Culture, closing out 2023 with the Empires & Ashes Expansion. Since then we’ve introduced the concept of Sub Cultures and generally improved our Culture Designs. The Reaver's World Map Gameplay has had a problem of being too restricted and narrow, impacting diplomatic gameplay much more harshly than intended. With the Reaver Rework we are making them much more two dimensional and bringing them up to snuff.

Imperial Reavers

Affinities: Chaos + Materium.

Theme: Conquest feeds the Empire’s expansion and prosperity.

Combat Focus: Overwhelming ranged firepower, using Focused Aggression to bring targets down.

Imperial Reavers build tall, without regard for allies or enemies alike. Conquest grants them the resources needed to empower their mighty Imperial Cities beyond what others are capable of. An Imperial Reaver’s Throne City will be a jewel worth conquering indeed.

World Map Gameplay - War Spoils

Gain Warspoils through:

• Defeating units belonging to Free Cities, Dwellings, or Empires. (Scales with Tier)

• Conquering Cities

• Pillaging Provinces

Use Warspoils to:

• Construct unique City Structures that empower cities in unique ways.

• Convert Subdued units after combat

• Draft Cannon units

City Structures

• Mana Forge (Same as previous)

  • Replaces the Shrine

  • +10 Mana

  • +5 Structure Production

• Lodestone Foundry (Same as previous)

  • Replaces the Mana Obelisk

  • +15 Mana

  • +10 Structure Production

• Imperial Academy (Replaces Extraction Nexus)

  • Unique Tier 3 City Structure

  • Units garrisoned in this city gain +15 XP per turn

  • +20 Knowledge

• Imperial Warfactory (Replaces Reaver Manufactorum)

  • Special Province Improvement

  • Counts as Quarry

  • +10 Structure Production

  • +10 Draft per adjacent Quarry, Forester or Mine

• War Trophies (Repeatable)

  • Tier X City Structure

  • Costs 100 Warspoils to build (250 Production)

  • +10 Stability

  • +20 Food

  • +10 Structure Production

  • +10 Gold

Research Skills

• Engraving of Focus - Unit Enchantment

  • Non-Culture Units gains Focussed Aggression

• Designate Target - Combat Spell

  • Target enemy unit suffers 2x Marked and 90% chance to suffer 1x Immobilized

• Suppressing Barrage - Combat Spell

  • Enemy units in the target 1-hex Radius AoE suffer 10 Physical Damage and are knocked out of Defense mode.

Combat Gameplay - Focused Aggression

• Ranged or Magic attacks deal +10% damage per stack of Marked on the target.

• Melee attacks inflict Marked, Single Shot Melee Abilities inflict 2 Stacks of Marked

Unit Lineup

The lineup remains the same, although the Overseer’s base attack and the Magelock Cannon had their damage buffed.

• T1 Observer: Scout

• T1 Harrier: Skirmisher

  • New Passive “Slip Away”

• T1 Mercenary: Polearm

  • Drive Back - Now enters Defense Mode after use

• T2 Overseer: Support | Optional Mounted

  • Increased Damage from 10 to 14

  • Removed Chance to inflict Blind

• T2 Magelock: Ranged

• T3 Dragoon: Skirmisher | Mounted

  • Harrying Shot - Now has a 1 Turn Cooldown

• T3 Magelock Cannon: Ranged

  • Increased Damage from 30 to 40

  • Can now Fire while engaged

Federate Reavers

Affinities: Order + Materium

Theme: Alliances and Vassals are power, diversity is strength.

Combat Focus: Fielding a balanced roster of Vassal units alongside their own

Federate Reavers grow wide across the map, not through direct control, but through a strong network of Vassals they establish or create through conquest. They command many Vassals, gaining increased benefits from completing bounties and defeating infestations.

World Map Gameplay - Favors

Gain Favors through:

• Defeating Marauders (Scales with Tier)

• Destroying Infestations

• Maintaining Vassals at max Allegiance

Use Favors to:

• Improve the Allegiance of Vassals

• Nullify the Grievances of other Empires using the Declaration of Debt

• Trade with Free Cities

• Rush War Coordination with Vassals

• Rally the Lieges

City Structures

• Mana Forge (Same as previous)

  • Replaces the Shrine

  • +10 Mana

  • +5 Structure Production

• Lodestone Foundry (Same as previous)

  • Replaces the Mana Obelisk

  • +15 Mana

  • +10 Structure Production

• Extraction Nexus

  • Unique Tier 3 Unique Structure

  • +5 Gold per SPI

  • +5 Mana per SPI

• Reaver Manufactorum

  • Special Province Improvement

  • Counts as Mine

  • +10 Gold

  • +5 Gold per Vassal of the owner empire

Research Skills

• Banner of the Federation - Unit Enchantment

  • Non-culture Units that do not have Federate Levy gain Federate Soldier

• Revitalizing Alliance - Combat Spell

  • Target friendly unit

    • Heals for 10 HP

    • Units with Federate Soldier:

      • Heal +5HP for all friendly unit with Federate Levy in battle

    • Units with Federate Levy:

      • Heal +5HP for all friendly unit with Federate Soldier in battle

  • This effect then jumps to another target in range 3 up to 2 times.

• Sundering Barrage - Combat Spell

  • Enemy units in the target 1-hex Radius AoE suffer 15 Physical Damage and 90% chance to suffer Sundered Defense..

Combat Gameplay - Federate Levy/Soldier

Units from this Player’s Culture gain Federal Soldier:

• This unit gains +10 max HP for each Federal Levy in its Army.

• Grants +2 XP per turn to Federal Levy units in their Army each strategic turn.

• Gain +20% Accuracy and Damage against units adjacent to Federal Levy units.

Units recruited from Vassals through Rally of the Lieges and friendly units belonging to Vassals gain Federal Levy:

• Support Abilities heal Federate Soldier Units for +20% Temporary Hit Points

• This unit gains +10 max HP for each Federal Soldier in their Army.

• Grants +2 XP per turn to Federal Soldier units in their Army each strategic turn.

• Adjacent Enemy units suffer “Engaged by Levies.”

  • Attacks made by Federal Soldier units gain +20% accuracy and +20% damage against this unit.

Unit Lineup

The lineup is half the same, but all units will receive an art pass to visually represent them as less-evil aesthetic variants of Reavers.

• T1 Observer: Scout

• T1 Pistoleer: Skirmisher | Optional Mounted

  • Melee Strike - Base Attack

  • Shoot Magelock Pistol - Active Ability

    • Single Action Missile, Range 4, 1 Turn Cooldown

    • Deals 20 Physical Damage

  • Coordination - Passive

    • This unit gains +20% Critical Hit chance against Engaged targets.

  • Versatile Skirmisher - Passive

• T1 Mercenary: Polearm

  • Drive Back - Swapped Fire Damage for Spirit Damage

  • Drive Back - Now enters Defense Mode after use

• T2 Sapper: Support | Optional Mounted

  • Sundering Blast - Base Attack

    • Single Action Magic, Range 4

    • Deals 14 Spirit Damage

    • 90% chance to inflict Sundered Armor

  • Demolition Blast - Active Ability

    • Single Action Magic, Range 3, 2 Turn Cooldown

    • Deals 30 Physical Damage to target Obstacle

    • Units inside of obstacles suffer 2x Sundered Defense

    • Has Demolisher

  • Patch Up - Active Ability

• T2 Magelock: Ranged

• T3 Breacher: Magic Fighter | Optional Mounted

  • Magic Strike - Base Attack

    • Repeating Action Magic, Melee Range

    • Deals 15 Physical Damage

  • Breaching Shot

    • Single Action Magic, 2 Hex Cone, 2 Turn Cooldown

    • Deals 20 Spirit Damage

    • Base 90% chance to apply Sundered Defense.

    • Base 90% chance to apply Sundered Resistance

    • Has Breaching

  • Reinforced - Passive

• T3 Magelock Cannon: Ranged

  • Increased Damage from 30 to 40

  • Can now Fire while engaged

New Feature: Narrative Content Filter

This Setting, added in the Realm Content tab of the Advanced Realm Creation Settings, provides additional control over what kind of Narrative Content can appear during a game.

• Added a new Section in Realm Content for Narrative Content

• The following types of Content can be controlled

  • Toll of Seasons - A happening where fey invaders enter your realm and attack your cities.

  • Cosmic Happenings - A large collection of global happenings that affect the whole world with economic, terraforming and combat effects.

  • Intrigue Happenings - A small collection of happenings based around AI controlled lords being replaced by other characters.

  • Wandering Merchants - A collection of events that spawn shops for players to buy things during gameplay

  • Lost Souls - A collection of quests that can be triggered by moving an army onto a wandering lost soul unit.

Associated Updates

• Removed the following Realm Traits:

  • Toll of Seasons

  • Unfolding Mysteries

• Removed the “Disabled” option from the Happening Intensity setting. This will now be handled by the Narrative Content Filters.

Combat AI

• Made improvements to reduce the likelihood of AI using Healing Abilities on units that don’t need it

• Adjusted the bookcases & statues in the Archon Observatory Ancient Wonder to fade when they block vision of your units.

• Removed stone obstacle that was in front of the deployment zone of the Blossom Orchard TC map

• Reduced the amount of bats particles in the Sunless Lands Theme to improve performance

• Big optimization pass on textures used in the environment

• Added 2 Dreadlock Hairstyles for Female Humans

• Updated “Undo Movement” Logic - Damaging obstacles now blocks undoing movement

  • This also fixes Fiery Wake incorrectly blocking Undo Movement

• Debuff “Subdued” - Can now be Dispelled

• Buff “Haste” - No longer grants Very Fast Movement instead it increased Combat Speed by 1

• Debuff “Slowed” - No longer grants Slow Movement instead it reduces Combat Speed by 1

• Debuff “Life Seed”

  • Reduced Temporary HP healed from 20 to 15

  • Can now Stack up to 3 Times

• Passive “Watchful” - Renamed to Vigilant

• Obstacle “Lucky Sunflower” - No longer grants Lucky, instead it grants Fortune

Feudal

• Unit “Knight” - New ability “Knight’s Challenge”

  • Range 6, Debuff, Once per Battle

  • Challenge a Target Unit. Target Unit takes 50% increased Damage and deals 50% Reduced Damage

Mystic

School of Potential

• City Structure “Academy of Potential” - Now affects Magic Fighter units

School of Attunement

• Astral Echoes gained from unlocking Research Skills reduced from 20 per tier to 5 per tier

Industrious

• Unit “Bastion” - Defensive Sweep is no longer base

Primal

• The Primal Culture’s Introduction Quest has been reworked to help players keep better track of how many Dens they need to secure and that they need to produce the Temple of their subculture.

• Unit “Charger” - Cleaving Charge is no longer base

Oathbound

• Unit “Warbound” - Infernal Blaze is now Magic, not Melee

• Unit “Avenger” - Radiant Slash is now Magic, not Melee

• Unit “Peacebringer” - Arrow of Harmony is now Missile, not Magic

Nomads

Increased the resource incomes of Wonder Essences, except for Knowledge (Ancient Manuscripts) and Draft (Seed Pods) income.

• Mana Stores (Conduit)

  • Bronze - Increased from 1 Mana to 2

  • Silver - Increased from 2 Mana to 4

  • Gold - Increased from 3 Mana to 6

• Food Stockpiles (Farms)

  • Bronze - Increased from 3 Food to 5

  • Silver - Increased from 6 Food to 10

  • Gold - Increased from 9 Food to 15

• Rare Materials (Quarry)

  • Bronze - Increased from 2 Production to 3

  • Silver - Increased from 4 Production to 6

  • Gold - Increased from 6 Production to 9

• Treasure Trove (Mine)

  • Bronze - Increased from 1 Gold to 2

  • Silver - Increase from 2 Gold to 4

  • Gold - Increased from 3 Gold to 6

• Gaining a new Tome via Scripts now delays unlocking the next Tome by 2 Research cycles.

• Added new Exotic Mount Traits

  • Bone, Fire & Frost Wyvern Mounts for Base Game Owners

  • Gold & Obsidian Wyvern Mounts for Dragon Dawn Owners

  • Infernal Juggernaut Mount for Primal Fury Owners

• Added new Magic Starting Weapons - Grimoires

  • These Magic Weapons grant Heroes access to the Spike and Rebuke Abilities from Eldritch Sovereign Weapons

• Form Trait “Nightmare Mounts” - Now grants Lava Walk

• Society Trait “Chosen Destroyers” - Now grants Total War

• Society Trait “Scions of Evil”

  • Now grants Total War

  • Now can also grant a starting Polearm Unit

  • Can now be used by Reaver and Oathsworn

• Updated Laryssa Mirabilis to Federated Reaver

• AI players should have less issues with picking up the Vision of Promise and Vision of Ruin quests, as well as completing them.

• Unit Recruitment to Free Cities will now get cancelled when the City is Occupied.

Ambitions

• Major Ambition “Shepherd”

  • Now includes Fey Units for its completion requirements

  • Passive “Druid” - Now also affects Fey units

Vampires

• Added a 3 Turn Cooldown to the Devour Action - this cooldown is unique per Hero.

• Active Ability “Mesmerizing Bite” - Domination now lasts until the end of combat, as intended

• Passive “Rose Knight Guardian” - No longer works in Water or Lava combat

• Active Ability “Gravemarch” - Can now be used by multiple players in the same battle at once.

Dragon Lord

• Sumuskira the Grovetender “Mass Rejuvenation” - Increased cooldown increased from 1 Turn to 3.

• Signature Skill “Elder of Shadow” - No longer incorrectly grants Undying

• Signature Skill “Elder of Nature” - No longer triggers from Auto Spells

Ritualist

• Active Ability “Rite of Restoration”

  • No longer has the Support ability tag

  • Changed from Once per Combat to a 3 Turn Cooldown

  • Increased Healing from 10 Temporary HP to 20

• Active Ability “Rite of Vigil”

  • No longer has the Support ability tag

  • Changed from Once per Combat to a 3 Turn Cooldown

• Active Ability “Rite of Fury”

  • No longer has the Support ability tag

  • Changed from Once per Combat to a 3 Turn Cooldown

• Active Ability “Reincarnate”

  • Removed the Mana Cost for recruiting reincarnated Units

  • Changed from a Full Action to a Single Action

Battlesaint

• Active Ability “Battlefield Restoration” - No longer has the Support tag

• Active Ability “Warding Bond” - Now has the Support tag

Defender

• Active Ability “Warding Bond” - Now has the Support tag

Warlock

• Active Ability “Hex Pact”

  • Now has the Magic Weapon tag

  • Initial Cast of the ability can be modified

• Active Ability “Curse”

  • Now has the Magic Weapon tag

  • Now can be Modified

• Added support for Bengali, Devanagari, and Thai scripts, including new fonts so these languages display correctly.

• Settings for human player slots are now saved as well

• The system will no longer allow players to place multiple Siege Projects that block each other, such as Construct Onagers and Construct Bombard

• The Tome Selection screen of Faction Creation now shows which of the Tome Skills will be unlocked at game start.

• Spell Upkeep per Unit is now included in Spell Tooltips in the Research Screen and the Encyclopedia.

• Standard Primary Weapon’s tooltip now shows that the item can be equipped by an Elder Vampire alongside Champions and Wizard Kings

• Combat Spells now show applicable requirements when inspecting the Spell Book on the World Map

Controller

• In the Advanced World Setup, the restore defaults button on controllers will now be blocked if the Slot Settings panel is open. Similarly, pressing the back button will close the panel instead of closing the whole Advanced World Setup.

• Updated the Province Annexation flow on controller to include Teleporter Pins, allowing smoother annexation of Provinces on other Layers.

• Added new Item Forge Weapons - Grimoire

  • These Magic Weapons grant Heroes access to the Spike and Rebuke Abilities from Eldritch Sovereign Weapons

• Bone Wyvern Mounts are now Tier 3 and give +4 Blight Protection

• The Heavy Crossbow, Skypiercer and Ricochet now use the standard Piercing modifier instead of bypassing 5 defense

• Active Ability Infusion “Animate Flora” - Changed from a Free Action to a Single Action on a 4 Turn Cooldown

• Added a search bar to the Resource Inspector to filter properties by name or value

• Added a transform gizmo to the Modularity System in Resource Editor

• Added a script function to reset unit pools on the UnitSpawner

• Added support for linking RMG "Flavor Override" settings to map traits

• Added support for multi-editing of resource link lists

• Improved the Structure Replacement Selection menu to match the Resource Link List Selection Dialog style

• Improved slope painting in Level Editor — the checkbox wheel has been removed, painting now happens triangle by triangle in both Tactical and Strategic maps

• Improved the Localized String Dialog Window's key/value table to be resizable and show full cell content

• Improved Resource Editor to remember your last resource selection between reloads and refreshes

• Improved Resource Editor to allow clearing links with the 'Delete' key. Some exceptions may apply.

• View Preferences for Resource Editor, Content Editor, and Level Editor are now saved between sessions

• Improved Level Editor to hide deprecated Themes, Overlays, and DecoTypes

• Fixed an issue where returning to the editor after opening a modularity component caused scrollbars to stop working

• Fixed the "Num Groups For Tier Up" setting not being adjustable by mods

• Added Sanitization to Custom Realm Names.

• Allow Custom Realm Names to be shown in Multiplayer Games

• Fixed an issue in multiplayer lobbies where Combat Advantage would reset if the host left the lobby and then returned.

Out of Sync Fixes

• Fixed an Out of Sync caused by adding a unit to Rally of the Lieges while the Scroll of Astral Connection enchantment was active.

• Fixed multiple City Defender property Out of Syncs (occurring after combat and when triggered by SpawnHouseInvasionStack).

• Fixed an Out of Sync caused by routed units returning and not triggering hex markers.

• Fixed an Out of Sync caused by defeating a Free City that was not properly removing its properties from the owner player.

• Fixed a vision Out of Sync caused by Infestations registering their domain properties during PostActivate instead of Activate.

• Fixed an Out of Sync caused by a floating-point calculation using too large an epsilon.

• Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur when unpacking Cities in different languages

• Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Achievement Triggers.

• Sustained Operations can now end when War is declared on the Target

• Age of Spells are now Unlocked by a Universal Research based on your Tier 5 Tomes instead of being individual Research Skills.

Astral

• Tome of Evocation

  • Unit Enchantment “Lightning Blades”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer reduces Physical Damage

    • Reduced Lightning Damage from +4 to +2

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

• Tome of the Tentacle

• Unit Enchantment “Constricting Focus” - Now grants +2 Physical damage.

• Tome of Amplification

  • Unit Enchantment “Amplifying Arrows”

    • Renamed to Amplifying Imbuement

    • No longer reduces Physical Damage

    • Now also applies to Battle Mages, Magic Fighters and Support Units

  • Unit Enchantment “Frenzying Focus” - Moved from here to Tome of Nature’s Wrath

Chaos

• Tome of the Blood Rite

  • Unit Enchantment “Blood Drinking Blades”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • Increased Damage from +1 to +2

    • Increased Temporary HP recovered from from 2 to 3

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

  • Unit Enchantment “Sanguine Focus” - Now affects all attacks

  • Combat Spell “Rite of Blood Letting” - Now classified as a Damage Debuff spell (previously a Damage spell)

• Tome of Pyromancy

  • Unit Enchantment “Searing Blades”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer reduces Physical Damage

    • Reduced Fire Damage from +4 to +2

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

  • Unit Enchantment “Fiery Projectiles”

    • Renamed to Fiery Imbuement

    • Now affects all attacks

• Tome of Mayhem

  • Unit “Gremlin” - Now has Slipper and Swift again

• Tome of Revelry

  • Unit Enchantment “Bloodfury Weapons”

    • Now affects all weapons

    • Now also applies to Ranged Units and Magic Fighters

• Tome of Devastation

  • Unit “Warbreed” - Power Cleave is no longer base

  • Unit Enchantment “Flameburst Weapons” - Now applies to Ranged units

• Tome of Cleansing Flame

  • Unit “Pyre Templar” - Pyre Cloak is now a Magic attack

• Tome of Calamity

  • Unit Enchantment “Accursed Projectiles”

    • Renamed to Accursed Imbuement

    • Now affects all attacks

  • Unit Enchantment “Accursed Armors”

    • Removed Ghostfire chance

    • Increased chance to inflict Misfortune from 30% to 60%.

Materium

• Tome of Enchantment

  • Unit Enchantment “Sundering Blades”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

  • Unit Enchantment “Purging Arrows” - Now affects all attacks

• Tome of Rock

  • Unit Enchantment “Obsidian Weapons”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • Now also applies to Magic Fighters

• Tome of Winds

  • Unit “Zephyr Archer” - Zephyr Shot is no longer base

• Tome of Sand Stalkers

  • Unit Enchantment “Scorpion Venom Blades”

    • Renamed to Scorpion Venom Weapons

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

    • Now also applies to Ranged, Skimisher and Magic Fighter units

• Tome of Shades

  • Unit Enchantment “Shadow Blades”

    • Renamed to Shadow Weapons

    • Reworked to:

      • No longer ignores 50% of the target's Defense against targets that are Blind.

      • Flanking attacks deal +3 frost damage

      • Attacks on Blind units always flank

    • Now also applies to Ranged, Skimisher and Magic Fighter units

  • Minor Transformation “Living Shadows”

    • No longer has the chance to inflict Blind to attackers within two hexes

    • Now grants:

      • Fleeting

      • When a unit drops below 60% health it blinds adjacent enemies (90% chance) and gives the unit Obscured for a turn.

  • Unit “Shade”

    • Fatal Strike - Reduced damage from 25 Physical to 20

    • Fatal Strike - Now has Piercing

• Tome of Geomancy

  • Unit Enchantment “Resonant Blades”

    • Renamed to Resonant Weapons

    • Now affects all attacks

    • New Effect: Applies additional Damage based on the current Terrain Type

    • No longer inflicts Frozen in Arctic Terrain, now it inflicts Slowed instead

    • Now also applies to Ranged Units and Magic Fighters

• Tome of the Crucible

  • Unit Enchantment “Meteor Arrows” - Increased Damage from +3 to +4

Nature

• Tome of Roots

  • Unit Enchantment “Blight Blades”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer reduces Physical Damage

    • Reduced Blight Damage from +4 to +2

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

  • Unit Enchantment “Poison Arrows”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer reduces Physical Damage

    • Reduced Blight Damage from +2 to +1

  • Combat Spell “Healing Roots” - New Effect: Create Obscuring Flora on the target hex

• Tome of Fertility

  • World Map Spell “Restore the Land”

    • Now affects the provinces adjacent to the target province as well

    • Increased Casting Cost from 30 Mana/Casting Points to 45

  • Unit “Nymph”

    • Revitalize

      • Reduced the Cooldown from 3 Turns to 2

      • No longer removes all Negative Status Effects, now only removes 3

    • Seduce

      • Increased Cooldown from 2 Turns to 3

      • Increased chance to inflict Dominated from 60% to 90%

  • Added new Unit Enchantment “Staves of Life”

    • Applies to support units

    • Using a support or attack ability heals 15 Temporary HP to a random friendly unit within 3 hexes of the caster.

  • Moved Combat Spell “Animate Flora” from here to Tome of Glades

• Tome of Glades

  • Minor Transformation “Leafskin”

    • No longer gives +1 Resistance

    • Now gives 10% Accuracy, Evasion and Crit chance when in Forest Provinces

  • Unit “Glade Runner” - Increased the Range of Tracker’s Mark from 5 to 6

  • Unit Enchantment “Aspect of the Root”

    • Now needs an extra button press to confirm the ability

    • New Effect: Create Obscuring Flora on the Unit’s hex

    • Now places a flora obstacle on the unit’s hex when used

    • Now applies to Fighter, Magic Fighter and Shock

  • Moved Combat Spell “Animate Flora” from Tome of Fertility to here

• Tome of Fey Mists

  • Unit “Mistling” - Now has Slipper and Swift again

• Tome of Cycles

  • Unit Enchantment “Blades of Decay”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

  • Unit Enchantment “Blooming Projectiles”

    • Renamed to Blooming Imbuement

    • Now affects all attacks

  • Combat Enchantment “Parting Gifts”

    • Increased Heal from +12 Temporary HP to +15

    • Reduced Casting Cost from 100 Mana/40 Casting Points to 85 Mana/35 Casting Points

• Tome of Nature’s Wrath

  • World Map Spell “Destructive Regrowth” - Now also applies -2 Blight Protection for 2 turns

  • Unit “Horned God” - Shepherd of the Wild now applies to Fey, but not to other Horned Gods

  • Unit Enchantment “Frenzying Focus” - Moved from Tome of Amplification to here

    • Renamed to Frenzying Imbuement

    • No longer increases Range by +1

    • Now grants Life Steal

    • Now also applies to Skirmishers and Ranged units

• Tome of Paradise

  • World Map Spell “Enchanted Bloom”

    • No longer grants Provinces within the domain with either Grasslands, Forests, Fungus Fields, or Mushroom Forest features +2 Food, +2 Production and +2 Draft.

    • Now grants Provinces within the domain with either Grasslands, Forests, Fungus Fields, or Mushroom Forest features +5 Food and +5 City Stability.

  • World Map Spell “Blessings of Paradise”

    • Changed from a Sustained Spell to a Empire Upgrade

    • Now grants +5% Income to all Cities per Stability level above Neutral.

  • World Map Spell “Fortress of Vines”

    • Changed from a Sustained City Spell to a Sustained World Spell

    • Gives 10 Experience per turn to all friendly units in the domain

    • Enemy units in domain spend an extra 4 Move Points per hex moved

    • Summons a living vine next to an enemy unit each turn in battle

• Tome of the Goddess of Nature

  • Unit Enchantment “Force of Nature” - Now also applies to Spiders

Order

• Tome of Discipline

  • Combat Spell “Mantra of Purification” - Increased removed Negative Status Effects from 2 to 3

  • Unit Enchantment “Focus Aim” - Now has a 2 Turn Cooldown

  • Unit Enchantment “Empowered Strikes”

    • Now applies to Magic Fighters

    • Increased Damage from +1 to +2.

  • Unit “Monk”

    • Meditate - Increased healed Temporary HP from +15 to +25

    • Leap - Reduced Cooldown from 2 Turns to 1

• Tome of Prophecies

  • Unit Enchantment “Fated Projectiles”

    • Renamed to Fateful Imbuement

    • Now also applies to Skirmishers and Support units

• Tome of Supremacy

  • Unit Enchantment “Supreme Magic” - Now grants +2 Status Resistance Bypass.

Shadow

• Tome of Cryomancy

  • Unit Enchantment “Frost Blades”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer reduces Physical Damage

    • Reduced Frost Damage from +4 to +2

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

  • Unit Enchantment “Frost Arrows”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer reduces Physical Damage

    • Reduced Frost Damage from +2 to +1

• Tome of the Doom Herald

  • Joy Syphoners now has a different tooltip and properties it gives. It works the same but now gives a non-stacking property named Demoralizer for its morale damage part. This helps us having multiple effects that remove morale without letting it stack.

• Tome of Torment

  • Unit Enchantment “Tormenting Projectiles” - Now affects all attacks

• Tome of the Crimson Reign

  • Unit “Blood Exarch”

    • Siphon Lesser

      • Renamed to Siphon Blood

      • Damage reduced from 33 to 28

      • No longer increased Damage based on Tier of the Target Unit

      • No increased Physical Damage by +10 for each stack of Bleeding on the Target Unit.

    • Blood Pull - Increased chance to displace Bleeding Targets from 90% to 120%

    • Grant Blood of the Exarch - Cooldown now resets on any kill done by the Exarch, not just those done by its Siphon Blood ability.

• Tome of Severing

  • Unit Enchantment “Disrupting Blades”

    • Now affects all attacks

    • No longer applies to Skirmishers

  • Unit Enchantment “Null Shield” - Now also applies to Support units

Crystal Dwelling

• Unit Enchantment “Crystal Focus” - Now applies to all attacks

• Unit Type “Spider” - Now have Immunity to Slowed and Immobilized

• Unit “Primal Spider” - Now has the Spider unit type

• Unit “Dire Bear” - Increased HP from 120 to 130

• Unit “Giant Beetle” and “Death Beetle” - Pestilent Escape is now a Magic attack

• Unit “Butcher Ogre” - Butcher’s Cut is now a Melee attack

• Unit “Phase Beast” - Fast Phase cooldown reduced from 2 to 1.

• Unit “Herald of War” - Now has Burning Immunity

Crashes & Hangs

• Fixed a crash that occurred while loading in older saves

• Fixed a crash when unpacking a nomad city while under the influence of certain alignment modifiers

• Fixed hang on new turn when processing house influence modifiers

• Fixed the game getting stuck in loading certain story realms

• Fixed Crash when declaring war on a house with no capital

• Fixed a crash that could occur when leaving or unloading a game while income was being recalculated.

• Fixed a crash when using the “Restore” ancient wonder option from the city’s provinces panel.

• Fixed a crash that could occur due to an invalidated quest

• Fixed crash when razing or packing up a city while changing a province improvement to another type - the operation now gets correctly canceled.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when ending your turn, related to defeated Heroes being sent to the Prison or Crypt during the AI’s turn.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when checking whether a strategic operation could be started from a hint.

General

• Fixed an issue where the "Impenetrable Fortress" achievement didn’t always trigger, even if the requirement is met

• Improved performance when casting a spell with a lot of map vision, by skipping the detailed per-cell check (only needed for some spells) and going by visibility directly.

A.I.

• Fixed an issue where Dragon and Giant King AI Rulers did not properly upgrade their equipment when they level up.

• Fixed an issue where the AI could still annex Provinces while it was under Siege.

Art

• Fixed ritual circle decal sometimes showing up in the wrong spots

• Fixed TC textures for Nomads tents not showing correctly in the underground themes

• Fixed Player Color affecting the Palisade Wood.

• Fixed the Floating Daggers weapon appearing on the Diplomacy screen.

• Fixed heroes using the wrong animation for secondary abilities when equipped with the Throwing Dagger.

• Fixed broken visuals on the Ogrekin Subjugator and Tyrant Knight when mounted on wyverns.

• Fixed the Elder Vampire ruler missing their face while in the Void.

Audio

• Added missing Tidecaster base game song

Combat

• Fixed an issue where a repeating attack would sometimes keep going even though the enemy was dead

• Fixed Earth Shatter not doing the damage it promised

• Fixed an issue in some abilities that triggered when killing another unit where they were not getting triggered when a unit killed with a non-Melee/Magic/Missile ability.

• Fixed an issue where the following abilities did not respect the “Immune to Displacement” Tag

  • Astral Pull

  • Essence Pull

  • Cosmic Rescue

  • Recovering Windpull

  • Tentacle Vortex

  • Abducting Cyclone

• Fixed Free Cities continuing to cast spells after their leader was defeated in combat.

Cultures

• Fixed Tyrant Knight Trample not canceling defense mode/retaliations

• Fixed an issue where damage from Affinity Incarnate from the Architect Culture would be applied incorrectly to certain attacks

• Fixed an issue where units summoned after Scroll of Astral Connection was launched would still get the astral connection ability despite being Magic Origin units

Events

• Fixed the “Smoke and Ruins” aftermath not appearing when there are no free cities on the map.

• Fixed the “Profound Desire for X” hero quest being able to spawn its stack on any structure.

Heroes

• Fixed the Pack Leader hero skill incorrectly displaying the name “Shepherd”.

Interface

• Fixed an issue where damage values weren’t consistent between the Unit Panel, Unit Tooltip and Unit Ability Tooltip.

• Fixed an issue where a lock appeared on the arcane inspiration meter after cancelling the activation of arcane inspiration

• Tome Path screen no longer says "reached the max" when too many city names are added

• Fixed an issue that caused changes to the Hero Presence mode in the Pantheon Overview not to be saved when changes were made in quick succession.

• Fixed a bug that made it possible to start games where every player is on the same team.

• Fixed being able to change the teams setting when there are only 2 players.

• Fixed not being able to delete or overwrite custom realm templates

• Fixed AI Starting Bonus Settings for campaign Leaders showing up everywhere

• Fix for ordering issues on the Form Traits where higher cost stuff was higher than lower cost stuff

• Fixed alignment of Skill Trees and text wrapping on long skill tree names in some languages

• Fixed a Unit Healthbar UI refresh issue with units getting increased max hitpoints from a status effect in combat

• Fixed a notification that failed to show the city name (showing an empty {City}) when a defeated ruler returned to one of their cities.

• The structure screen now refreshes when a stack moves off of it so make sure we do not have stale buttons, like buttons that look enabled but should actually be disabled now that the stack is no longer on top of the structure.

• Fixed structure adjacency counters in the UI not reflecting actual gameplay values.

Text & Descriptions

• Fixed various localization issues in Polish, Russian, and Chinese text.

• Fixed a mixup of the noun “recruit” vs the verb “recruit” in some languages (e.g. “recrue” vs “recruter”)

• Fixed an issue where the City tier of a packed city had grammar tags visible in-game (usually in German or French)

• Fixed grammar issues in procedurally generated names.

• Undying and Fiery Rebirth descriptions updated to include that if the unit is dead and under the undying effect if their side is victorious in battle they also resurrect

• Fixed the Description the Blood Glass Essence

Pantheon

• Fixed several Ruler Presence abilities (Demonic Prince, Earth King, Ice Queen, Librarian, Pretender Kings) not functioning correctly.

Sieges

• The Raiding Party Siege Project now automatically removes itself when the City is breached to fix an infinite gold exploit.

Tomes/Spells

• Fixed an issue where Tome of Warding and Soul had 2 starting skills which made it random which one you got. Made it so it now is only one like the other T1 tomes

• Fixed Pall of Darkness being wrongly reduced to 0 thralls when used with Ritual Chambers.

• Fixed Rite of Bloodletting doing Unblockable Damage to Enemies.

• Fixed being unable to cast Summon Lesser/Greater Animal on underground ice dungeon provinces.

Units

• Fixed the Travelling Merchants not having Bonuses for Exalted Ranks

• Fixed an issue where the "For the Monarch" trait wasn't always applying the 100% upkeep reduction

World Map

• Added the T4 Mount sets to large reward sets so the Severing Golem Mount can now more easily be found.

• Fixed an issue that caused Fractured units in Ancient Wonders to receive enchantments.

• Fixed an issue where not all child properties were shown for a unit on the strategic map

• Fixed a bug where Blood Glass wouldn’t be placed upon completing the Lost Souls quests

• Fixed an issue where Cataclysms could target and trigger in the Umbral Abyss.

• Fixed the random map generator occasionally trying to place land features on water.

• Fixed an issue where heroes dying due to world map health draining effects would not end up in your crypt.

• Fixed Threshold-based Empire Skills not correctly counting each Landmark as a unique source when multiple share the same underlying property type.

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