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Steam News2 July 20265d ago

Age of Wonders 4: Sprite 1.2 Update - 02/07/2026

Dear Godir, We have a new update: Sprite 1.2 bringing fixes across the board! The Empire Tree is seeing a lot of balancing and Tomes, Units, and Story realms are also getting some adjustments! Game Version: 1.015.004.

Full notes

Full Age of Wonders 4 update

Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.

What changed

46 fixes7 additions23 changes3 removals
  • Gameplay
  • Balance
  • Performance
  • Events
  • UI and audio
  • Maps
addedWe have a new update: Sprite 1.2 bringing fixes across the board! The Empire Tree is seeing a lot of balancing and Tomes, Units, and Story realms are also getting some adjustments!
changedAdjusted when AI rulers are allowed to call allied players into war.
changedCombat AI: Improved handling of minimum ability costs for buffs while in Cautious Approach.
changedSkill 2A “Otherworldly Reinforcements” - Switched placement with Skill 5A “Iron Rule”
changedSkill 2B “Specialized Troops” Reduced Knowledge Discount for Unit Unlocks from -40% to -25% Additional effect: Units unlocked via Research now cost 25% less Gold to Recruit
changedSkill 5A “Iron Rule” - Switched placement with Skill 2A "Otherworldly Reinforcements”
Skill 6B “Destiny of War” - Reduced Gold and Mana income+50+30Skill 6B “Destiny of War” - Reduced Gold and Mana income decreased, nerfKnowledge discount on City Spells & Structures-50%-25%Knowledge discount on City Spells & Structures increased, buffSkill 6A “Consolidated Industry” - Increased City Stability bonus+1+2Skill 6A “Consolidated Industry” - Increased City Stability bonus increased, buffSkill 3B “Foraging” - Reduced HP Regeneration+15+10Skill 3B “Foraging” - Reduced HP Regeneration decreased, nerf

Age of Wonders 4 changes

addedWe have a new update: Sprite 1.2 bringing fixes across the board! The Empire Tree is seeing a lot of balancing and Tomes, Units, and Story realms are also getting some adjustments!
changedAdjusted when AI rulers are allowed to call allied players into war.
changedCombat AI: Improved handling of minimum ability costs for buffs while in Cautious Approach.
changedSkill 2A “Otherworldly Reinforcements” - Switched placement with Skill 5A “Iron Rule”
changedSkill 2B “Specialized Troops” Reduced Knowledge Discount for Unit Unlocks from -40% to -25% Additional effect: Units unlocked via Research now cost 25% less Gold to Recruit

Dear Godir,

We have a new update: Sprite 1.2 bringing fixes across the board! The Empire Tree is seeing a lot of balancing and Tomes, Units, and Story realms are also getting some adjustments!

Game Version: 1.015.004.123535

  • Adjusted when AI rulers are allowed to call allied players into war.

  • Combat AIImproved handling of minimum ability costs for buffs while in Cautious Approach.

Astral

  • Skill 9A “Tower of Enlightenment”

    • Now clearly indicates it applies to all Wizard Tower City Structures (both tier and side upgrades)

    • Replaced +10 Mana Income with +10 Knowledge

    • Now also grants +10 Food for those structures.

Chaos

  • Skill 2A “Otherworldly Reinforcements” - Switched placement with Skill 5A “Iron Rule”

  • Skill 2B “Specialized Troops”

    • Reduced Knowledge Discount for Unit Unlocks from -40% to -25%

    • Additional effect: Units unlocked via Research now cost 25% less Gold to Recruit

  • Skill 5A “Iron Rule” - Switched placement with Skill 2A "Otherworldly Reinforcements”

  • Skill 6B “Destiny of War” - Reduced Gold and Mana income from +50 to +30

  • Skill 9A “Endless Hordes” - Replaced with Resilient Hordes

    • Tier 1 Units gain +30 HP, +2 Defense, and +2 Resistance

    • Tier 2 Units gain +20 HP, +1 Defense, and +1 Resistance

Materium

  • Skill 1A “Metropolitan Plans” - Switched placement with Skill 2B “Land Sculptors.

    • Reduced Knowledge discount on City Spells & Structures from -50% to -25%

    • Additional Effect: Structures unlocked through Research cost -25% Gold to Produce

  • Skill 2B “Land Sculptors” - Switched placement with Skill 1A "Metropolitan Plans”

  • Skill 4B “Growing Workforce” - Additional effect: Quarries grant +2 City Stability

  • Skill 6A “Consolidated Industry” - Increased City Stability bonus from +1 to +2.

Nature

  • Skill 3A “Symbiotic Armies” - Replaced +5 Morale per turn with +2 XP per turn.

  • Skill 3B “Foraging” -

    • Reduced HP Regeneration from +15 to +10 per turn

    • Reduced XP gain from +5 to +2 per turn.

  • Skill 7B “Spiritual Grounds” - Now includes the Blossom Node as a Food Node.

  • Rite 8A “Rite of Awakening” -

    • Increased Knowledge and Mana gained from +10 to +15

    • Additional effect: Now also grants +15 Gold per population

  • Rite 9A “Rite of Nature’s Guardian”

    • No longer summons a random army of Animal & Plant Units at your Cities

    • Now summons a White Wolf with Animal Guardian and Resurgence and an Entwined Scourge with Plant Guardian and Resurgence in your Throne City

    • Animal Guardian grants other animal units in the army +1 Defense and +1 Resistance

    • Plant Guardian grants other plant units +1 Defense and +1 Resistance

  • Skill 9B “Rangers” - Replaced with Well Supplied

    • Units starting their turn in your domain gain “Well Supplied” for 5 turns

    • Well Supplied grants +10 max HP and +20% healing received in combat

Order

  • Skill 5A “Shared Prosperity” - Additional effect: Now also grants +5 Production for Gold City Structures.

  • Skill 9B “Absolute Loyalty” - Increased vassal income from +25% to +40%.

Shadow

  • Skill 1B “Finders Keepers” - Reduced Income Rewards bonus from +60% to +50%

Evermore

  • Added a tooltip clarifying that the Secrets of the Archmages quest ends when siding with Symon.

  • Added information explaining that a single anchor city cannot bind multiple landmarks.

Azh’Ruun Pit

  • Updated text to clarify that players only need to protect the Chain of Hatred.

Astral

  • Tome of Abjuration

    • Unit Enchantment “Mage Armor”

      • Defense reduced from +2 to +1,

      • Additional effect: Now also grants +2 Status Resistance.

    • Unit Enchantment “Abjurer Glyphs” - Now also applies to Support and Battle Mage units.

    • Special Province Improvement “Glyph Tower”

      • Adjacency Bonus now also counts Research Posts

      • Additional effect: now also grants +10 Draft

Chaos

  • Tome of Burning Passion

    • Unit Enchantment “Strength Sapping Projectile” - Additional effect: Now grants +1 Fire Damage.

    • Special Province Improvement “House of Passion” - Cost increased from 60 Gold / 130 Production to 100 Gold / 250 Production so it matches its tier.

Materium

  • Tome of the Sand Stalkers

    • Minor Transformation “Dunestalkers” - Movement on Sand provinces changed from Very Fast Movement to Fast Movement.

    • Special Province Improvement “Grand Bazaar” - Reduces adjacency bonus income from +3 Gold and +4 Food to +2 Gold and +3 Food.

  • Tome of Shades

    • Unit Enchantment “Shadow Weapons”

      • No longer always flanks Blinded Units

      • Now deals +3 Frost Damage when flanking or attacking Blinded units.

  • Unit “Immolated Soul”

    • Now always counts as a Magic Origin Unit

    • Drafting an Immolated Soul now requires Mana instead of Gold

    • Now has Burning Immunity

  • Unit “Temptress” Kiss of Seduction - No longer triggers Retaliation attacks.

  • Landmarks now have an individual 40% chance to be included in the random map generation library, adding more variety and occasionally fewer landmarks on generated maps.

Crash Fixes & Hangs

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when inspecting Dragon Rulers due to customization data that no longer linked to a category.

  • Fixed a crash that could occur in the Freed Lands of Manuhari due to a missing underground infestation region.

  • Fixed a crash that could occur on Evermore for players who don’t own the Giant Kings content (only applies to newly started games).

  • Fixed a crash that could occur on Burrow Downs when Happenings armies gifted a conquered free city to Arachna that Arachna had not yet met.

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when a structure was absorbed by an infestation, such as after a player who owned an Ancient Wonder was defeated.

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when clicking a header in the City Overview.

Achievements

  • Fixed the “Pruning For Progress” achievement not unlocking when completing an Affinity Branch.

Art

  • Fixed an issue where the icon for the Living Spider Nest ascension was missing.

  • Fixed an issue where the the Houndmaster and Clay Arbalest had incorrectly placed Arrow PFX

  • Fixed an issue where the eye visuals for the Champion, Collector, and Archer in the Nomad culture were missing.

  • Fixed an issue where Sword/Net Loadouts did not use Culture Swords

  • Fixed an issue where Rulers with a Floating/Flying Major Transformation would not have movement Animations when equipped with Floating Daggers.

  • Fixed an issue where the Sapper Unit was missing their Head and Staff when affected by the Gaia’s Chosen Major Transformation

  • Fixed an issue where the horns from the Demonkin Major Transformation were placed too low on Toad and Moleman forms.

  • Fixed an issue where the Owlkin Mystic (Potential) Spellweaver form sometimes appeared without a head when a random head was selected.

  • Fixed an issue where modifying Leg Length would separate the Bodies when under the effect of Spider’s Embrace.

Combat

  • Fixed an issue where Constricted couldn’t be applied to units with Slowed or Marked

  • Fixed an issue where Death Casting wouldn’t give casting points when an enemy unit dies

Culture

  • Oathsworn

    • Fixed an issue where the Avenger’s Radiant Slash applied Sundered Defense in addition to Sundered Resistance; it now applies only Sundered Resistance, matching its description.

  • Primal

    • Fixed an issue where annexing a Primal Den before receiving its quest would not increment the quest’s counter.

    • Fixed an issue where both the old and new versions of the “Spirits of the Desert” quest were able to trigger at the same time.

    • Fixed an issue where the “Spirits of the Ashlands” event showed a wolf instead of a sabertooth.

  • Reavers

    • Federated Reavers’ Federate Soldier property now correctly affects Heroes with Federate Levy.

Faction Creation & Rulers

  • Fixed an issue where Symon was incorrectly flagged as an editable ruler.

Heroes

  • Fixed an issue where the Nature Affinity Skill “Poisonous Undergrowth” was not marked as a debuff ability.

  • Fixed an issue where the Order Affinity Skill “Dome of Protection” was not marked as a support ability.

  • Fixed an issue where the Warlock’s Claim Soul ability would fully bypass Defense, and its description now reflects this.

Interface

  • Fixed an issue where Exalted Unit Ranks would not combine into a single line item.

  • Fixed an issue where Archon Prophecy wildlife units were incorrectly tagged as Tome units.

  • Fixed a missing capital letter at the start of the second paragraph in the “Frikka’s Deception” arcanum event text.

  • Fixed an issue where the Chaplain Research Skill was marked as a Strategic Summon instead of a Unit.

  • Fixed the description of Staves of Life for consistency.

Multiplayer

  • Fixed an issue that allowed Intrigue Happenings to occur in Multiplayer after the introduction of the new Narrative Content Settings

Secret Spells

  • Fixed an issue where several Secret Spells (Cinren’s Temptation, Noctus’ Mastery, Ydgaard’s Trade, and Zaethyl’s Paradise) were affected by the Mystic Potential subculture without gaining its benefits.

  • Fixed an issue where the Evasion from Yaka’s Feline Infusion did not affect the correct attack types.

  • Fixed an issue where the economy bonus from Zaethyl’s Parasite would stack with repeated casts

  • Yaka’s Feline Form now correctly has the Minor Transformation tag.

  • Ysariel’s Fallen Form now correctly has the Major Transformation tag.

Story Realms

  • Fixed an issue where pre-made rulers from Story Realms would not receive their correct Ascension Traits when unlocked in the Pantheon.

Evermore

  • Fixed an issue where the “Into the Storm” quest could occasionally trigger twice, which could lead to various bugs and crashes.

  • Fixed an issue where overlapping unit properties could be applied incorrectly in some scripted situations.

Azh’Ruun Pit

  • Fixed attacking Walburgis (and DaDa Yo) adding the Demonized race transformation to the attacking faction.

  • Fixed an issue where DaDa Yo could be edited after being unlocked.

  • Fixed Ysariel’s title not rendering correctly in his Shrouded Portal challenge.

  • Fixed an issue where the Chain of Lies would not break if Karissa had already been defeated when approaching the City

  • Fixed an issue where quest objectives were not incrementing for the Break the Chains and Evil Bound quests when chains were broken or a player was defeated.

Burrow Downs

  • Fixed an issue where the “To Court with Mockery” landmark claim counter would not refresh in some vassalization situations, which could prevent the quest from being completed.

  • Fixed a missing story event when Ham Binger was defeated explaining that the player loses the mission.

World Map

  • Fixed an issue where a region on a Breached Isle could not be annexed.

  • Fixed several provinces on Frikka’s Isle that couldn’t be annexed due to rivers and mountains incorrectly placed on their center hex.

  • Fixed an issue where the units unlocked from the Mistflow Gardens Landmark had a Gold Cost instead of Mana. This applies to the Evening Sprite, the Seasonal Fairies, and the Nymph.

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Source

Steam News / 2 July 2026

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