Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era news & patch notes

Greetings, Heroes!

Over the past few weeks we’ve noticed that quite a few community-run tournaments are already either in progress or slowly on the rise. We’re incredibly happy to see that the competitive spirit lives in within the community and is being spread across Olden Era! It also happens that this perfectly aligns with our plans. We’re happy to announce that, together with Behemoth’s Lair, Ubisoft and Hooded Horse, the first official Olden Era tournament, The Alvari Cup, will begin on August 1st 2026!

You can check out more information about the tournament on its official webpage!

16 invited participants will compete against one another in a Single Elimination, Best of Three format over the next few weeks, showcasing their Might and Magic, with the ultimate victor claiming the grand prize we’ll reveal very soon!

In the future, we plan to host more official tournaments, including open format tournaments, where everyone will be able to sign up! We will continue to take care of both PvE and PvP environments simultaneously and we are constantly reading your feedback!

Check our Roadmap here!

Check our upcoming PvE content here!

Get Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era while it's 25% off now:

With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Greetings, Heroes!

Following Patch #11, we've put together a smaller follow-up patch addressing bugs and rough edges that surfaced after its release. No sweeping changes this time — just a focused round of fixes to make sure everything introduced in Patch #11 is working as intended.

Full patch notes are below. Good luck on the battlefield!

Steam reviews — thank you!

Your reports and feedback after Patch #11 helped us identify and prioritize the issues addressed in this update. Keep them coming — they go straight into our bug tracker. Thank you for your support!

Changelog

v. 0.80.34

Bug Fixes

• Jebus Tournament: The absence of a player’s starting hero at the beginning of a tournament battle no longer crashes the game.

• Fixed the hotkey for "Heroic Strike".

• Fixed a bug where the match timer incorrectly continued running for both players while simultaneous turns were stopped.

• An enemy hero executing a strike while under the effect of "Mirage" no longer crashes the game.

• An opponent leaving Arena Mode while selecting a target for an ability no longer crashes the game.

Balance

• Balance adjustments from the previous patch over-nerfed Magic heroes in Arena Mode; as a result, we are decreasing the starting unit counts offered during the draft phase.

• "Sorcery": Magic Damage bonus increased: 10/20/30% → 20/30/40%.

• Magic Damage specialists (Sorcery specialists) have been adjusted: they now gain a 15% + 5% bonus per 3 hero levels (previously 10% + 1% per 1 hero level).

• "Stables" have been completely blocked from generating on Sprint template (for good this time, good riddance).

• The size of the player starting areas on Jebus Tournament template has been slightly reduced. Guard strength for both standard guards and central area gatekeepers has been slightly decreased.

• "Point of Balance" objects can no longer generate in players' side areas on Helltide.

Localization

Fixed a translation memory error where the Chinese localization for Angels (and Archangels) was accidentally reverted to 光明者. The correct official term (天使) has been fully restored.

Official Wiki

New to the series or a returning veteran? We have an Official Community Wiki for you to master the art of war! Thanks to active community members, it has detailed breakdowns of unit stats, spell tiers, and other detailed data for those who wish to dig deeper. You, our community, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Join the Community

Stay informed and share your victories with the community! Follow us on Discord, Steam and Facebook for the latest patch notes, community discussions and chit chat with our team! We would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to the unofficial community subreddit, where you’re also welcome to share your thoughts!

With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Greetings, Heroes!

A quick hotfix is here to address a few issues discovered after the previous update — including a bug affecting Advanced-tier Battle Magic, a save loading issue, and some incorrect skill and law descriptions.

Full patch notes are below. See you on the battlefield!

Changelog

• Fixed incorrect behavior of the Advanced Battle Magic.

• Fixed a bug where some saves would not load.

• Fixed an error in the description of the Summon Avatar skill.

• Fixed an error in the description of the "Dungeon Masters" laws of the Dungeon faction.

Thanks for your reports — keep sending in bug reports, it helps us make the game better!

With love,

Greetings, Heroes!

We are excited to present a massive and fresh update, with a special focus on balancing faction mechanics, fixing exploits, and improving overall gameplay convenience. Based on your feedback and collected statistics, we have prepared a series of large-scale changes that will noticeably refresh the current meta. Main highlights of this patch:

• Necromancy. We have completely reworked the core logic for raising undead after combat. You can now raise enemy units into undead even if you did not have creatures of that exact tier in your army. Along with this, the energy cost to raise creatures has significantly changed, and we have added helpful elements to the UI, including the ability to manually recycle fallen enemies into Necromantic Energy directly in the combat results window.

• Other Faction Skills. Changes have been made to Schism's "Abyssal Communion" (the effect now applies to non-Schism faction units as well), as well as to Hive's larvae mechanics, shifting their gameplay focus toward their explosive potential.

• Battle Magic and Summon Avatar. Following recent balance adjustments and nerfs to Might heroes, Mages have significantly solidified their position. We are reverting the base stats of "Battle Magic" to their original values. The heavily debated "Summon Avatar" skill has also been adjusted — the base version is weakened, but you will now have more options for situational upgrades via its sub-skills.

• New “Tournament” Win Condition Templates. New competitive templates have been added to the random map generator — Jebus Tournament and Outcast Tournament, featuring uninterrupted simultaneous turns, alongside the hybrid templates called Mix and Galaxy.

• Template Rotation. The template rotation pool has been updated for both Classic Mode and Single Hero Mode, and the faction pick-and-ban order between players has been slightly adjusted.

• Bug Fixes. Among other fixes, we eliminated an exploit that allowed Temple players to infinitely gain resources on the Global Map, resolved an issue with incorrect Dungeon dragons alternative attack damage, and fixed errors related to loading multiplayer saves. ⚠️ Reminder: Intentionally exploiting in-game bugs in competitive play can result in a temporary or permanent multiplayer ban! Engaging in such behavior may also violate the rules of the platform you're playing on, risking a platform-wide ban. Don't jeopardize your account for a dubious advantage — play fair! ⚠️

Thank you so much for your support, for developing the official community wiki, and for helping us make the game better!

Steam Reviews: Keep Them Coming!

We read every single review — and this patch is proof. Your feedback on Necromancy directly shaped the changes you see today. If you haven't left a review yet, now's a great time: it helps us understand what matters most to you and guides what we tackle next.

Changelog

v. 0.80.31

Bug Fixes

Combat and Creature Behavior

• Fixed a bug where dragons dealt half damage with their alternative attack when choosing certain strike directions.

• Fixed the description of the "Vampirism" passive ability for Vampire Lords and Vampire Scholars.

• Fixed a bug where Stinging Ra’Shoth counterattacked while under the effect of "Staggering Hits".

• Fixed a bug where the "Weakening Venom" and “Poisonous Blood” abilities of Chthonic Hydras and Infernal Hydras increased damage dealt instead of reducing it.

• Fixed a bug where the "Mirror Copy" spell effect could be dispelled, leading to the indefinite existence of the created copy on the battlefield.

• Added the correct cooldown time for the "Lightning Bolt" ability of Thunder Qilins.

• Fixed a bug where the max-level "Guillotine" spell failed to trigger on stacks with full HP.

• Activating active skills or performing a counterattack animation in combat no longer resets the player's current selection from the active abilities panel.

• Fixed a bug where Grove faction Might heroes in Arena Mode were offered an incorrect set of skills to choose from.

• Fixed an incorrect creature type indicator for the summoned Avatar.

• Enemy traps now become visible strictly upon being stepped on, rather than when stepping onto adjacent hexes.

Global Map and Objects

• Fixed a bug where the "Scales of Worth" object granted its bonus only to the first hero who visited it.

• Fixed an exploit that allowed Temple players to infinitely gain resources on the Global Map.

• Highlighting and Outlines:

  • Fixed the outlining algorithm for interactive objects: outlines now correctly update after visiting them and at the start of a new week.

  • Interactive object highlighting logic now correctly accounts for the currently selected hero.

• Fixed a bug where the "Infernal Cirque" object offered level-1 skills as a reward instead of the maximum level.

• Hero Map Behavior:

  • Heroes now correctly disappear from the Global Map after fleeing from combat.

  • Heroes now correctly disappear from the Global Map upon losing a battle for the Grail.

• Fixed the specialization of the hero Xirr — it now correctly protects him from negative effects on the Global Map.

• Fixed a bug where combat against neutral squads failed to trigger in certain situations.

Multiplayer, UI, and Lobby

• Fast clicking of the Tab key while transitioning to the combat screen no longer breaks the battlefield rendering.

• Fixed a bug where entering a tournament combat from a city placed the player on the Global Map with a broken game UI.

• Fixed incorrect calculation and display of Law points and Astrology Points.

• Lobby:

  • Players can no longer occupy locked slots in the lobby prior to match start.

  • Fixed a bug with map areas generation if player slots were locked in the lobby.

  • Fixed a bug that caused map generation failure under certain lobby settings.

  • Fixed a bug where a host leaving the lobby set an unknown password for that lobby.

• Settings and Saves

  • Language changes are now applied instantly, but are saved only upon confirming the settings.

  • Fixed a bug where Necropolis heroes appeared in the Tavern with no Necromantic Energy.

  • Fixed a bug where settings were reset after editing the emote wheel or confirming the configuration.

  • Using a period (.) in a save file name no longer cuts off or corrupts the save file name.

• Detailed tooltips have been added to the UI, informing players of specific reasons why fleeing or surrendering is currently impossible in combat.

• Fixed a bug where certain extra heroes were incorrectly shown as unselectable on some maps and templates.

• Fixed an issue where some saves in multiplayer were loading incorrectly.

• Fixed a visual bug where an oversized Aga’Shoth Rider could be displayed on the battlefield.

• The Black Player color is now correctly displayed on the initiative bar.

• Combat stances for Dungeon heroes are now displayed in the correct order.

• Fixed the position of the numbers in the selected spells during arena’s draft phase, which were shifted after the previous update.

• Positive and negative effects are now correctly displayed in the hero inventory window.

• Fixed the position of the "Already Visited" text for the "Four Scholars Shrine" object.

• Fixed an issue where the Tactical Phase timer overlapped the battle timer in the first round, making them unreadable as a result.

• Artifacts included in a set are now correctly highlighted on the city screen, whilst within the hero inventory window.

New Features

• The Necromancy interface has been significantly redesigned: additional information has been added to guard tooltips on the map and in the end-of-battle window. You can now switch between accumulating Necromantic Energy and turning creatures into Undead of the same tier directly in the battle results window.

• The Dungeon Heroes' Combat Stance interface has been improved.

• The retreat button has been disabled in single-hero mode, and tooltips have been added explaining the reasons for blocking an escape or surrender in various situations.

• Selected spells are now displayed in the arena's final window.

Balance

Skills

Offense

• "Reality Wardens": Effect reworked. The sub-skill now reduces the enemy hero's Spell Power by 10%. The effect is doubled if the hero knows "Nightshade Magic."

Luck

• The base chance to trigger a Lucky Hit per 1 point of Luck has been increased: 6% → 8%. This chance is now twice the base trigger chance of the high Morale effect.

Wisdom

• "Rhythmic Cadence": Max mana bonus increased: 30% → 40%.

• "Stargazer": Daily Astrology Points gained increased: 250 → 500.

Battle Magic

Following recent balance adjustments and nerfs to Might heroes, Mages have significantly solidified their position. We are reverting the base stats of "Battle Magic" to their original values while balancing its individual sub-skills.

• Creature Attack and Defense bonus scaling from the hero's Spell Power and Knowledge: 15/25/35% → 15/20/25%.

• Sub-skill Updates:

  • "Battle Mage’s Authority": Attack bonus scaling from Spell Power reduced: 20% → 15%.

  • "Mage Protector’s Authority": Defense bonus scaling from Knowledge reduced: 20% → 15%.

Summon Avatar

Based on collected statistics and your feedback, we are introducing a series of adjustments to this skill. The new version significantly reduces the power of the base version of the summoned Avatar, but allows you to heavily upgrade it depending on your preferences and the game situation.

• The Avatar can now survive strictly 3 hits, regardless of the skill level.

• The number of hits can no longer be increased by bonuses that "increase creature HP."

• Base damage reduced: 12-12 → 10-10.

• Damage scaling per 1 point of hero Spell Power reduced: 12–12/12–12/12–12 → 6–6/8–8/10–10.

• The spell has been moved to Tier 4, meaning its cooldown is now 5 rounds (including the round of casting).

• Sub-skill Updates:

  • "Avatar of Fury": Base damage bonus to the Avatar increased: 25% → 40%.

  • "Avatar of Celerity": Base Speed and Initiative bonuses to the Avatar increased: 1 → 2.

  • Replacement skill: "Fields of Mana" has been replaced by a new sub-skill, "Summon Destruction": The hero and friendly creatures deal +50% Damage to all summoned creatures.

Combat

• "Effortless Strike": This sub-skill is now learned at the Expert level of the skill.

• "Swordcraft": This sub-skill is now learned at the Advanced level of the skill.

Thaumaturgy

• "Ancient Scrolls": This sub-skill is now learned at the Expert level of the skill.

• "Thaumaturge Brilliance": This sub-skill is now learned at the Advanced level of the skill.

Faction Skills

Necromancy

The current version of Necromancy is powerful enough, but overly complex to grasp. With this update, we are removing the strict restriction that ties undead raising to the current composition of the hero's army. Now, even if your army lacks creatures of a certain tier, you will still be able to raise high-tier units after a victory.

To balance this change, we are adjusting the starting energy values and its recovery after combat — the total number of raised units has been noticeably decreased.

🎨 Additionally, we have made major improvements to the Necromancy UI.

• Reworked the core logic for raising undead after combat:

  • You can now raise enemy units into undead even if you did not have creatures of that exact tier in your army.

  • By default, fallen enemies are resurrected as their base versions: Tier-1 units become Skeletons, Tier-2 units become Wights, etc.

  • If your army already includes undead of the required tier, the type of unit raised depends on its composition:

    • If the base creature is present — the base version is raised.

    • If only the upgraded creature is present — the upgraded version is raised (at an increased energy cost).

    • If multiple upgrades of the creature are present — the undead type whose stack is numerically larger in the army will be raised.

• Information regarding which exact creature will be raised has been added to map tooltips.

• In the combat results window, you can now cancel the summon decision and manually recycle fallen enemies into Necromantic Energy.

• Base Necromantic Energy capacity for heroes increased: 1000/1250/1500 → 3000/4000/5000.

• Energy cost to raise creatures (values in parentheses indicate upgraded versions):

  • Tier 1: 5 → 20 (26)

  • Tier 2: 10 → 40 (54)

  • Tier 3: 25 → 100 (140)

  • Tier 4: 50 → 200 (290)

  • Tier 5: 100 → 400 (600)

  • Tier 6: 200 → 800 (1280)

  • Tier 7: 500 → 2000 (3500)

  • Tier 8: 2000 → 7500

• Energy recovery values chosen instead of raising units remain unchanged.

• The elite class for Necromancers — "Chronomancer" — has been reworked. It now fully replenishes the hero's Necromantic Energy pool daily.

• Sub-skill Updates:

  • "Death Herald": Max Necromantic Energy bonus for the hero: 500 → 1000.

  • "Eternal Service": Base health restored reduced: 80 → 50 HP.

Abyssal Communion

Following recent adjustments, Schism still performs under expectations in Classic Mode while remaining dominant in Single Hero Mode. We are making a series of adjustments to faction laws (see below), expanding the effect of their faction skill to cover all units instead of just Schism faction units, while reducing numerical bonuses.

• The Abyssal Communion effect now applies to non-Schism faction units as well.

• Maximum level of Abyssal Communion reduced: 4/5/6 → 3/4/5.

• The percentage of temporary creatures summoned per Communion level has been reduced: 3% → 2.5%.

• Sub-skill Updates:

  • "Call of the Void": Mana restored per level of Abyssal Communion reduced: 3 → 2.

  • "Celestial Abyss": Bonus to the number of temporary creatures per Communion level reduced: 1% → 0.5%.

Summon Swarm

Recent changes have had a positive impact on Hive's power, particularly in Single Hero Mode. However, in the late game, their faction skill allows them to create a massive extra unit that is extremely difficult to counter. We are adjusting the stats of summoned larvae and shifting gameplay focus toward their passive explosive ability.

• Other summoned or temporary stacks are no longer counted when calculating the number of larvae to summon.

• Larvae health increased: 8 → 16.

• "Unstable Concoction": Damage increased: 8 → 15 per hero level.

• "Fiery Embrace" and "Blow Up": Damage increased: 16 → 30 per hero level.

Murmuring

• The effects of the sub-skills "Just One More Time," "Burst of Energy," and "Strong Connection" now trigger as many times as there were Focus Charges spent to activate the ability.

• "Just One More Time": Spellbook cooldown reduction reduced: 2 → 1 round.

Hero Specializations, Starting Skills, and Resources

Temple

• Kestrel. Starting skill: Offense → Luck.

• Keandra. Starting skill: Battlecraft → Offense.

• Lord Edgar:

  • Starting skills: Advanced Righteousness → Basic Righteousness and Battlecraft.

  • Creature Attack and Defense bonus scaling from hero attributes: "10% + 5% per 6 hero levels" → "10% + 5% per 5 hero levels."

• Merry Elias. Max mana capacity bonus increased: "10% + 5% per 5 hero levels" → "20% + 5% per 4 hero levels."

• Zenith. Starting skill: Wisdom → Summon Avatar.

• Lia the Untethered One. Starting spell: Inner Light → Judgement.

• Julius. Starting skill: Resistance → Defense.

• Vesper. Starting skill: Battle Magic → Daylight Magic.

• Nadir. Specialization reworked: this hero's spell effect can now stack.

Necropolis

• Kel’Ghul. Number of Dread Knights in the starting army increased: 2-3 → 3-3.

• Ethric. Wights removed from the starting army, but the number of Liches increased: 3-4 → 4-6.

Grove

• Gingertail: Starting skill: Battlecraft → Leadership.

• Octavia: Lucky Strike chance bonus: "2% + 1% per 4 hero levels" → "3% + 1% per 4 hero levels."

• Vatawna: Max mana capacity bonus increased: "10% + 5% per 5 hero levels" → "20% + 5% per 4 hero levels."

• Elder Tss’kish: Number of Herbomancers in the starting army increased: 2-3 → 3-4.

Schism

• All Might Heroes:

  • Starting Defense: 2 → 1

  • Starting Knowledge: 1 → 2

• Jänhei: Starting skill: Wisdom → Battlecraft.

• The Iron Master:

  • Starting skill: Resistance → Wisdom

  • Number of Concubi in the starting army increased: 2-3 → 3-4

• Martyr Tho: Starting skill: Daylight Magic → Arcane Magic.

• Eye Collective: Starting skill: Summon Avatar → Leadership.

Hive

• Maelstrom: Number of Reavers in the starting army increased: 2-3 → 3-4.

Dungeon

• All Might Heroes:

  • Starting Spell Power: 2 → 1

  • Starting Knowledge: 1 → 2

• Tellaris the Betrayed: Specialization reworked. The hero's spell now affects all friendly creatures.

• Rhea: Lucky Strike chance bonus: "2% + 1% per 4 hero levels" → "3% + 1% per 4 hero levels."

• Kelarr, son of Navarr: Starting spell: Wean → Stone Fangs.

Factions: Creatures, Laws, and More

Temple

• Tier 2:

  • Crossbowmen. Initiative: 5 → 4.

  • Austringer:

    • Initiative: 5 → 4

    • Defense: 4 → 3

  • Marksmen. Initiative: 7 → 6

• Tier 3:

  • Griffin. HP: 25 → 30

  • Temple Griffin. HP: 25 → 30

  • Guardian Griffin. HP: 25 → 30

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Mews II" (upgraded Tier 2 dwelling) is now 250 Gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Griffin Rookery I" (Tier 3 dwelling) is now 250 Gold more expensive.

• Laws:

  • "Training: Scouting". Max level reduced: 2 → 1. Cost increased: 3/3 → 4

  • "Swift Reflexes". Cost increased: 5 → 6

  • "Sacred Lands". Cost increased: 3 → 4

Necropolis

• Tier 2: Base weekly growth across all cities increased: 16 → 19. All hero starting armies adjusted accordingly.

  • Wight: HP restored via "Phantom Vampirism" (new name for “Memory Devourer” trait) reduced: 40% → 30%.

• Tier 3: Base weekly growth across all cities increased: 13 → 14. All hero starting armies adjusted accordingly.

• Tier 5:

  • Lich. Damage: 12-16 → 13-16

  • Pestilent Lich. Attack: 16 → 12

  • Sanguine Lich. Damage: 12-16 → 13-16

• Tier 6:

  • Dread Knight. HP: 100 → 80.

  • Avatar of War. HP: 100 → 80, Initiative: 11 → 10.

  • Hollow Reaper.

    • HP: 100 → 80

    • Damage: 22-24 → 24-26

    • Initiative: 10 → 11

• Tier 7. HP restored via "Vampirism" increased: 40% → 50%.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Quiet Pavilion I" and "II" (Tier 2 dwelling) is now 500 Gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Kennel I" and "II" (Tier 3 dwelling) is now 250 Gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Tomb of Warriors I" and "II" (Tier 6 dwelling) is now 1000 Gold cheaper.

• Laws:

  • "Laws of the Immortals". Law point income bonus for cities reduced: 20/40/60% → 10/20/30%.

  • "Black Death". Over-time effect damage bonus reduced: 50/100% → 25/50%.

  • "Bloodthirst".

    • Max level reduced: 2 → 1

    • Cost increased: 3/3 → 6

    • Vampirism effect improvement reduced: 50/100% → 60%

  • "Animate Dead I", "III", and "V". Now increases Necromantic Energy pool by 500 instead of increasing Necromancy skill power by 2%.

  • "Animate Dead II" and "IV". Now increases Necromancy power by 2.5% instead of increasing Necromantic Energy pool by 250.

Grove

Following the last patch, Grove fell significantly in power. To bolster the faction, we are lowering the balance weight of all "Awakening" traits, as they prove to be quite situational in practice. This has led to creature adjustments, city dwelling cost rebalances, and adjustments to creature density on maps and in Pandora's Boxes.

• Tier 2:

  • Hoplet:

    • Attack: 5 → 6

    • Defense: 3 → 5

    • Damage: 3-6 → 4-8

  • Dawn Hoplet:

    • Attack: 7 → 9

    • Defense: 3 → 5

    • Damage: 3-6 → 4-8

  • Dusk Hoplet:

    • Attack: 5 → 7

    • Defense: 5 → 7

    • Damage: 3-6 → 4-8

• Tier 7:

  • Phoenix. Speed: 7 → 8.

  • Flaming Phoenix:

    • Attack: 34 → 36

    • Defense: 26 → 27, Speed: 9 → 10.

  • Energy Phoenix:

    • Defense: 36 → 39

    • Speed: 9 → 10

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Faun Huts II" (upgraded Tier 1 dwelling) is now 250 Gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Hop Patch I" and "II" (Tier 2 dwelling) is now 500 Gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Menhir Circle I" (Tier 3 dwelling) is now 250 Gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Menhir Circle II" (upgraded Tier 3 dwelling) is now 500 Gold more expensive, but no longer requires Ore.

  • Construction of "Blooming Pond I" (Tier 4 dwelling) is now 1 Crystal cheaper.

  • Construction of "Blooming Pond II" (upgraded Tier 4 dwelling) is now 250 Gold more expensive, but 1 Crystal cheaper.

  • Construction of "Shroomwood Shack I" (Tier 5 dwelling) is now 2 Crystals more expensive, but 1 Gem and 1 Mercury cheaper.

  • Construction of "Shroomwood Shack II" (upgraded Tier 5 dwelling) is now 500 Gold cheaper, but 2 Crystals more expensive.

  • Construction of "Thunder Lair I" (Tier 6 dwelling) is now 500 Gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Thunder Lair II" (upgraded Tier 6 dwelling) is now 1000 Gold more expensive, but 5 Wood and Ore cheaper.

  • Construction of "Pyre I" (Tier 7 dwelling) is now 2500 Gold and 5 Wood more expensive, but 5 Crystals cheaper.

  • Construction of "Pyre II" (upgraded Tier 7 dwelling) is now 2500 Gold cheaper, but 5 Wood and Ore more expensive.

• Laws:

  • "Child of Woods". Grove hero sight radius bonus increased: 1/2 → 2/4. Grove hero movement points bonus increased: 10/20 → 15/30.

  • "Fertile Ground". Growth bonus in all external dwellings increased: 50/100% → 100/200%.

  • "Elite Qilins". Qilin damage bonus increased: 2/4/6 → 3/6/9.

  • "Force of Nature". Heroic Strike damage bonus increased: 10 → 20.

Schism

• Tier 1. Ferocious Ra’Shoth. Speed: 5 → 6.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "House of Chains I" (Tier 5 dwelling) is now 1000 Gold cheaper, but 5 Mercury more expensive.

  • Construction of "House of Chains II" (upgraded Tier 5 dwelling) is now 500 Gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Bloated Mansion I" (Tier 6 dwelling) is now 1500 Gold cheaper, but 5 Mercury more expensive.

  • Construction of "Eerie Summoning Rite I" (Tier 7 dwelling) is now 2500 Gold more expensive, but 5 Mercury cheaper.

• Laws:

  • "Unfrozen Strength I—VII". Max level reduced: 2 → 1.

  • "Depths of Mind".

    • Max level increased: 2 → 3.

    • Daily morning mana restoration reduced: 10/20% → 5/10/15%.

    • Cost increased: 1/1 → 2/2/2.

  • "Cold Touch". Cost increased: 3/3 → 4/4.

  • "Call of the Deep". Max level increased: 2 → 3.

  • "The Abyss Stares Back". Law Tier reduced: 5 → 4. Cost reduced: 5 → 4.

  • "Elite Abyssal Envoys". Abyssal Envoys movement speed and initiative bonus reduced: 3 → 2.

  • "Ice Storms". Cost increased: 4 → 5.

  • "The World is Ours". Cost increased: 3 → 6.

  • "Planar Explorers".

    • Gained Astrology Points increased: 250/500/750 → 500/1000/1500.

    • Cost increased: 2/2/2 → 3/3/3.

  • "Survival Conditions". Law Tier reduced: 4 → 3.

Hive

• Tier 6:

  • Waurms:

    • Attack: 20 → 21

    • Defense: 20 → 21

  • Devourer:

    • Attack: 20 → 21

    • Defense: 20 → 21

    • Damage: 24-26 → 26-28

  • Pyroboros:

    • Attack: 20 → 21

    • Defense: 20 → 21

• Buildings. Construction of "Burning Soul Burrows I" (Tier 6 dwelling) now requires "Paper Nest I" (Tier 3 dwelling) instead of "Chitinous Ziggurat I" (Tier 4 dwelling).

• Laws:

  • "Hive Offsprings I". Larva explosion damage bonus reduced: 100% → 50%.

  • "Hive Offsprings II". Now grants summoned larvae the Taunt effect instead of the Double Attack effect.

  • "Hive Offsprings III". Now grants summoned larvae the Double Attack effect instead of the Taunt effect.

Dungeon

• Tier 2:

  • Infiltrator:

    • Defense: 2 → 4

    • Damage: 3-5 → 3-6

  • Guile Infiltrator:

    • Defense: 2 → 4

    • Damage: 3-5 → 3-6

  • Bleak Infiltrator:

    • Defense: 3 → 4

    • Damage: 3-5 → 3-6

• Tier 3:

  • Onyx Dancer. HP: 18 → 20.

  • Jasper Dancer. HP: 18 → 20.

  • Aureate Dancer. HP: 18 → 20.

• Tier 5:

  • Medusa Sculptor. Defense: 17 → 18.

  • Medusa Queen:

    • Attack: 15 → 17

    • Initiative: 7 → 8

• Tier 6:

  • Hydra. Initiative: 8 → 6.

  • Chthonic Hydra.

    • Defense: 34 → 30

    • Initiative: 8 → 6

  • Infernal Hydra. Initiative: 10 → 8.

• Tier 7:

  • Cave Dragon. Damage: 45-50 → 50-60.

  • Black Dragon:

    • Defense: 31 → 32

    • Damage: 60-65 → 65-75

  • Ashen Dragon. Damage: 60-65 → 65-75.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Warren I" (Tier 1 dwelling) is now 250 Gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Safe House I" and "II" (Tier 2 dwelling) is now 500 Gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Amphitheater I" (Tier 3 dwelling) is now 250 Gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Labyrinth II" (upgraded Tier 4 dwelling) is now 250 Gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Chthonic Home I" (Tier 6 dwelling) is now 500 Gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Chthonic Home II" (upgraded Tier 6 dwelling) is now 500 Gold and 5 Wood cheaper.

  • Construction of "Cave Palace II" (upgraded Tier 7 dwelling) is now 5 Wood and Ore more expensive.

• Laws:

  • "Dungeon Masters I—VII". Cost reduced: 3 → 2.

  • "Leaders of the Nation". Cost increased: 2/2 → 3/3.

  • "Tactical Advantage". Cost increased: 5 → 6.

  • "Triumvirate’s Agents". Cost increased: 4/4 → 5/5.

  • "Magical Education".

    • Max level increased: 1 → 2.

    • Cost reduced: 5 → 4/4.

  • "Saturation". Cost reduced: 4 → 3.

Neutral Creatures

• Tier 4. Starchild: Now deals only 50% damage to adjacent targets with its basic attack.

• Tier 6. Worldwatcher: Granted a new passive ability that protects the stack from effects that instantly kill extra units upon attack.

Pandora's Boxes

The number of creatures players can receive from Pandora's Boxes has been adjusted. Values are given for standard/upgraded versions in "before → after" format:

• Necropolis:

  • Tier 3, Undead Pet: 50/35 → 50/36.

  • Tier 4, Graverobber: 31/21 → 31/22.

  • Tier 6, Dread Knight: 16/10 → 18/11.

• Grove:

  • Tier 2, Hoplet: 30/20 → 25/20.

  • Tier 3, Vine Iriyad: 28/20 → 24/17.

  • Tier 4, Naiad: 23/16 → 24/17.

  • Tier 5, Herbomancer: 18/12 → 19/12.

  • Tier 6, Qilin: 13/9 → 14/9.

• Schism:

  • Tier 2, Cultist: 25/20 → 30/20.

  • Tier 4, Grand Shoth: 20/14 → 21/15.

  • Tier 5, Concubus: 22/15 → 21/14.

• Hive:

  • Tier 4, Scorpion: 32/22 → 29/20.

  • Tier 5, Reaver: 15/10 → 16/11.

  • Tier 6, Waurms: 13/8 → 12/8.

• Dungeon:

  • Tier 1, Troglodyte: 50/35 → 45/35.

  • Tier 2, Infiltrator: 40/30 → 35/25.

  • Tier 3, Onyx Dancer: 34/25 → 32/23.

  • Tier 6, Hydra: 12/8 → 13/8.

• Neutral Creatures:

  • Tier 1: 56 → 60.

  • Tier 2: 32 → 35.

  • Tier 3: 22 → 21.

  • Tier 4: 15 → 17.

  • Tier 5: 12 → 14.

  • Tier 6: 9 → 10.

Spells

Daylight Magic

• "Blessing". Damage bonus to basic attacks reduced: 20/25/25/35% → 15/20/20/30%.

• "Haste":

  • Base duration of applied effect increased: 1/1/1/1 → 2/2/2/2.

  • Casting cost increased: 6/6/6/6 → 8/8/8/8.

• "Favorable Wind":

  • Damage bonus to ranged and long-reach attacks changed: 20/25/35/50% → 20/30/40/40%.

  • At level 4, it now also removes the combat shooting penalty.

• "Shorten Shadow". Target Attack and Defense reduction increased: -2 → -3.

• "Riposte". Casting cost reduced: 15/15/15/15 → 10/10/10/10.

• "Radiant Armor":

  • Gained damage reduction reduced: 20/30/30/40% → 15/25/25/35%.

  • Casting cost increased: 18/18/18/18 → 22/22/22/22.

• "Judgement". Casting cost reduced: 35/35/35/35 → 30/30/30/30.

Nightshade Magic

• "Web". Base duration of applied effect increased: 1/1/1/1 → 2/2/2/2.

• "Enlarge Shadow". Target Attack and Defense increase boosted: 2 → 3.

• "Despair":

  • Base damage dealt reduced: 20/20/30/30 → 10/10/15/15.

  • Casting cost increased: 9/9/9/9 → 11/11/11/11.

• "Fatal Decay". Base duration of applied effect increased: 1/1/1/1 → 2/2/2/2.

• "Sleep". Base duration of applied effect increased: 1/2/3/3 → 2/3/4/4.

• "Vulnerability":

  • Effect power reduced: 20/30/50/50% → 20/30/30/30%.

  • At level 3, it now amplifies damage received by the target to its maximum.

  • Casting cost reduced: 11/11/11/11 → 8/8/8/8.

Arcane Magic

• "Early Start":

  • Base duration of applied effect increased: 1/1/1/1 → 2/2/2/2.

  • Casting cost increased: 6/6/6/6 → 8/8/8/8.

• "Energize". Casting cost reduced: 11/9/9/9 → 9/7/7/7.

• "Optical Illusion". Ranged damage reduction increased: 25/50/50/50% → 30/60/60/60%.

• "Temporal Spheres":

  • Now deals Magic Damage instead of Pure Damage.

  • Casting cost increased: 9/9/9/9 → 11/11/11/11.

• "Carapace". Casting cost increased: 14/11/11/11 → 18/14/14/14.

• "Impending Fate". Damage per target level reduced: 20/30/45/45 → 15/25/40/40.

• "Mirror Copy". When creating a copy, it now duplicates only the native size of the stack, excluding temporary units.

• "Reality Distortion". Damage is now distributed across multiple hits corresponding to the number of hits the stack sustained while under the effect, instead of a single strike. Total skill efficiency remains unchanged.

Primal Magic

• "Ice Bolt". Base damage dealt reduced: 75/150/150/150 → 50/100/100/100.

• "Cave In":

  • Base damage dealt increased: 50/100/100/100 → 75/150/150/150.

  • Casting cost increased: 10/10/10/10 → 12/12/12/12.

• "Anti‑Magic". Casting cost reduced: 16/16/16/16 → 12/12/12/12.

• "Circle of Winter". Casting cost increased: 19/19/19/19 → 21/21/21/21.

• "Stone Fangs". Casting cost reduced: 18/18/18/18 → 11/11/11/11.

Artifacts

• Automated Antimagic Shield. Gained a new, additional effect: friendly creatures are immune to "Berserk."

• Protective Belt. Gained a new, additional effect: friendly creatures are immune to "Sleep."

• Crimson Resonance Controller. Gained a new, additional effect: friendly creatures are immune to effects that prevent them from attacking.

• Emerald Resonance Controller. Gained a new, additional effect: friendly creatures are immune to effects that instantly kill extra units upon attack.

• Caduceus Mana restored decreased: 6 → 4.

Map Generator and Objects

General Changes

• Guard layout for the "Tomb of a Nameless Hero" object is now same, regardless of the artifact contained inside.

• Added a new template for Classic Mode — Jebus Tournament: a template utilizing gameplay principles of Jebus Cross, but featuring tournament battles on Day 6 of Week 1, and Days 1, 3, 5, and 7 of Week 2. The tournament is a best-of-5 format, and always features the player's starting hero. Note that if the hero is dead when a battle begins, it results in an automatic loss.

• Added a new template for Single Hero Mode — Outcast Tournament: a template utilizing gameplay principles of Jebus Outcast and Vendetta, featuring tournament battles on Week 2 Day 1, Week 2 Day 6, and Week 3 Day 4. The tournament is a best-of-3 format.

• Added a new template for Single Hero Mode — Mix: a tournament-format template focused on town development and castle progression in the style of Exodus.

• Added a new template for Single Hero Mode — Galaxy: a tournament-format template featuring a hybrid playstyle centered around town development and capturing global map objectives.

Jebus Cross

• Slightly decreased the generation count of Pandora's Boxes in starting areas.

• "Eternal Dragon" can no longer generate in starting areas.

• Guard strength increased by 5% in all areas.

• Guard strength increased by 15% for the central area entrance.

• The probability of generating the following objects without external guards has been significantly reduced: "Point of Balance", "Colosseum", "Ritual Pyre", "Tomb of Vigilance", "Boreal Call", "Carrion Pile", "Petrified Memorial”.

Exodus

• Template final battles now occur on the following in-game days:

  • Week 2, Day 3.

  • Week 3, Day 4 (instead of Week 3, Day 5).

  • Week 4, Day 5 (instead of Week 4, Day 7).

• Unique active faction buildings can no longer be constructed in the uncaptured starting city by default.

• Slightly increased the area size of each player's first treasury area.

• Guard strength increased by 15% for each player's first treasury.

• Guard strength increased by 25% for each player's final treasury area.

• "Four Scholars Shrine" no longer generates in either player's final area.

Helltide

• Guard strength increased by 10% for each player's central treasury.

Vendetta

• One guaranteed "Well" object has been added to the player's starting area.

• Increased the weekly guard accumulation rate for all neutral cities within player starting areas.

• Guard strength increased by 35% for the central area entrance.

Sprint

• Accelerated the progression system for Laws by 1.5×.

• Accelerated the unlock progression rate for Global Map spells by 2.0×.

• "Fallen Angel Wings" can no longer generate on this template.

• Guard strength increased by 20% for the player's final and penultimate areas.

• The guaranteed "Pit of Glory" has been replaced with a guaranteed "Four Scholars Shrine."

Sand Clover

• Adjusted biome generation rules for side and connection areas on this template.

• Added minor symbolic guards between individual elements of the central area.

• "Altar of Insight" objects in the central area have been replaced with "Endless Scrolls" of various magic schools.

Exodus, Helltide, Blitz, Massacre, Sprint

• "Stables" and "Tear of Truth" can no longer generate on these templates.

Matchmaking

Following the introduction of features that save combat configurations and layouts to conserve tactical phase time, we are adjusting timer settings available during battles with neutral armies.

Furthermore, we are rolling out a slight rebalance to template rotations in Classic Mode: as a test, the experimental template Jebus Tournament is introduced in place of Sand Clover — a tournament system template for Classic Mode featuring uninterrupted simultaneous turns. You will always fight using your initially selected hero; keep in mind that if your hero is dead when the match triggers, it results in an automatic loss.

We are also adjusting the template rotation pool for Single Hero Mode: the selection now lists 4 templates featuring infinite simultaneous turns, some focused heavily on town infrastructure and town progression, and others centered around external map structures and resources. Consequently, we are temporarily removing Exodus from the mandatory selection pool during this test window to allow players to easily explore these new templates.

Classic Mode

• Map rotation updated:

  • Old set: Jebus Cross, Universe, Infinity, Sand Clover, Arcade.

  • New set: Jebus Cross, Universe, Infinity, Last Fortress, Jebus Tournament, Arcade.

• Jebus Cross and Jebus Tournament are always included in the selection pool.

• Combat timer values adjusted across leagues: 120 → 90 seconds.

Single Hero Mode

• Map rotation updated:

  • Old set: Harmony, Sprint, Exodus, Blitz, Vendetta.

  • New set: Helltide, Sprint, Exodus, Blitz, Outcast Tournament, Vendetta.

• Combat timer values adjusted across leagues:

  • Placement League: 75 seconds per battle.

  • Iron: 80 seconds per battle.

  • Bronze: 80 seconds per battle.

  • Silver: 80 seconds per battle.

  • Gold: 75 seconds per battle.

  • Platinum: 70 seconds per battle.

  • Diamond: 65 seconds per battle.

  • Master League: 60 seconds per battle.

• On Outcast Tournament and Vendetta templates, this time is reduced by an additional 20 seconds.

• In all leagues, the daily timer bonus has been increased by 15 seconds.

Pick and Ban System

• Adjusted the faction ban-and-pick order between both players:

  • Old order: Player 1 Ban — Player 2 Ban — Player 2 Pick — Player 1 Pick

  • New order: Player 1 Ban — Player 2 Ban — Player 1 Pick — Player 2 Pick

• Player 1 and Player 2 assignments are now determined purely at random, rather than being based on matchmaking queue duration.

Arena Mode

Following the latest balance update, Magic heroes have shown a trend of improved performance. We are rolling out a minor adjustment by increasing the average starting army size for both players. Among other side effects, this will slightly boost the baseline efficiency of Might heroes in Arena Mode. Factions that received substantial buffs in recent updates will receive a lower scaling adjustment compared to the rest.

• The number of creatures offered to players has been changed (values shown for standard/upgraded versions in "before → after" format):

Temple

• Tier 1. Swordsman: 180/140 → 200/155.

• Tier 2. Crossbowman: 140/100 → 160/120.

• Tier 3. Griffin: 65/50 → 70/52.

• Tier 4. Lightweaver: 58/40 → 64/44.

• Tier 5. Cavalry: 26/18 → 28/19.

• Tier 6. Inquisitor: 25/16 → 27/17.

• Tier 7. Angel: Unchanged.

Necropolis

• Tier 1. Skeleton: 370/280 → 425/325.

• Tier 2. Wight: 145/110 → 165/125.

• Tier 3. Undead Pet: 130/90 → 144/104.

• Tier 4. Graverobber: 64/44 → 76/52.

• Tier 5. Lich: 54/36 → 60/40.

• Tier 6. Dread Knight: 28/18 → 34/21.

• Tier 7. Vampire: 22/13 → 24/14.

Grove

• Tier 1. Faun: 145/110 → 150/115.

• Tier 2. Hoplet: 105/75 → 90/70.

• Tier 3. Vine Iriyad: 70/50 → 78/56.

• Tier 4. Naiad: 52/36 → 58/40.

• Tier 5. Herbomancer: 37/24 → 38/25.

• Tier 6. Qilin: 20/12 → 25/16.

• Tier 7. Phoenix: Unchanged.

Schism

• Tier 1. Ra’Shoth: 220/165 → 235/185.

• Tier 2. Cultist: 110/85 → 125/90.

• Tier 3. Aga’Shoth Riders: 95/70 → 105/74.

• Tier 4. Grand Shoth: 50/34 → 54/36.

• Tier 5. Concubus: 48/32 → 47/31.

• Tier 6. Arbitrator: 25/15 → 26/16.

• Tier 7. Abyssal Envoys: Unchanged.

Hive

• Tier 1. Parasite: 165/125 → 180/140.

• Tier 2. Locust: 105/80 → 115/85.

• Tier 3. Hornet: 65/45 → 70/50.

• Tier 4. Scorpion: 60/42 → 64/44.

• Tier 5. Reaver: 27/18 → 29/19.

• Tier 6. Waurms: 20/13 → 21/13.

• Tier 7. Hive Queen: Unchanged.

Dungeon

• Tier 1. Troglodyte: 295/230 → 320/245.

• Tier 2. Infiltrator: 140/105 → 140/100.

• Tier 3. Onyx Dancer: 105/75 → 108/76.

• Tier 4. Minotaur: 52/36 → 54/38.

• Tier 5. Medusa: 47/31 → 49/32.

• Tier 6. Hydra: 22/14 → 25/15.

• Tier 7. Cave Dragon: Unchanged.

Localization

• The Wight ability "Memory Devourer" has been renamed to "Phantom Vampirism" to clearly indicate that it benefits from the Necropolis faction law "Bloodthirst".

• The Sanguine Lich’s ability "Unlife, Undeath" has been renamed to "Temporal Vampirism" to clearly indicate that it benefits from the Necropolis faction law "Bloodthirst".

• Added the clarification note "Does not revive fallen units." to the tooltip text of the following abilities: "Temporal Vampirism" (Sanguine Lich), "Holy Ablution" (Hierophant), "Regeneration" (Chthonic Hydra), "Way of Arina" (Sentinel of Glory), as well as the "Guardian" sub-skill under the "Righteousness" skill tree.

Official Wiki

New to the series or a returning veteran? We have an Official Community Wiki for you to master the art of war! Thanks to active community members, it has detailed breakdowns of unit stats, spell tiers, and other detailed data for those who wish to dig deeper. You, our community, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Join the Community

Stay informed and share your victories with the community! Follow us on Discord, Steam and Facebook for the latest patch notes, community discussions and chit chat with our team! We would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to the unofficial community subreddit, where you’re also welcome to share your thoughts!

With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era News Recap

Greetings, Heroes!

This patch introduces an update to the combat tactics phase: unit formations are now saved between battles! We've also improved the visual display and sound of unit movement there.

You can find the details and nuances of how the new system works in the full changelog below.

In addition to the tactics phase changes, we've continued removing bugs: fixes have been made to tournament template issues related to last-second timer actions and tournament start notifications; several incorrectly functioning tooltips have been addressed; the "Ambassador's Word" set effect has been fixed, along with a number of other bugs.

We've also added a confirmation window when clicking the "Exit" button in the connection loss window. No more accidents!

Full patch notes are below. Good luck on the battlefield!

Changelog

v. 0.80.24

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused numerous UI errors after loading a previously started Hotseat game, or when swapping positions with an AI player in the lobby of a previously started game.

• Fixed a bug where, in rare situations, the timer in the lobby settings could display "00."

• Fixed a bug where part of the progress from an old campaign profile could carry over to a new profile created in the same slot.

• Fixed a bug in tournament templates where moving a unit between slots (from a hero to a town, from a town to a hero, etc.) in the last second of the timer before a tournament battle started could result in creatures being duplicated or disappearing.

• Fixed a rare bug in tournament templates where a player who attacked a neutral stack in the last second of the timer before a tournament battle started would lose the ability to interact with that neutral stack after the battle ended.

• Fixed a rare AI bug where, under certain circumstances, the AI could freeze during its turn.

• Fixed a potentially serious bug related to checking adjacent zones for the possibility of interrupting simultaneous turns when casting adventure map spells.

• The notification about an upcoming tournament battle on tournament templates now adjusts to fit the text size.

• Fixed an error where an incorrect value was displayed in the tooltip for the "Eternal Service" sub-skill of the "Necromancy" skill.

• Fixed a bug where, after researching the "Elite Liches" law, the resurrection bonus it provides was not displayed in the Lich ability tooltips.

• Fixed a bug where the "Ambassador's Word" set effect was not triggering.

• Fixed an error where a connection loss window appeared in the following situation: one player upgrades creatures in the "Pit of Glory" while the other player simultaneously moves a hero from the garrison slot to the guest slot (or vice versa).

• Fixed an error where the extended info tooltip for a scroll continued to display over the previous cell where the scroll had been located.

• Fixed a bug where autobattle did not work when attacking objects guarded by a garrison in campaign mode.

New Features

• Added a confirmation window when clicking the "Exit" button in the connection loss window.

• The unit formation selected during the tactics phase is now saved for battles against AI players.

• Important details about how the system works:

  • The formation is saved separately for each of the player's heroes.

  • Formation saving only applies to standard battles against neutral enemies. In battles for objects or against other players, armies are placed in their default positions.

  • The formation is saved at the moment the tactics phase ends in standard battles against neutral enemies.

  • If for any reason (for example, due to an obstacle on the battlefield) a unit cannot be placed in its previously saved position, it will be placed in its default position instead.

  • Unit placement takes into account the order in which stacks occupy the hero's army slots.

    • Example: a hero had Skeletons in the first slot and Wights in the second → During the tactics phase, a formation was saved with Skeletons placed higher and Wights lower → After the battle, the player swapped Skeletons and Wights in the army slots, so Wights are now in the first slot and Skeletons in the second → In the next battle, Wights will be placed in the higher position (where Skeletons used to be) and Skeletons in the lower position (where Wights used to be).

• Improved the visual display of unit movement in tactics mode; sound has been added.

Balance

• Reduced the damage dealt by the Avatar per point of hero Spell Power: 12–12/16–16/20–20 → 12–12/12–12/12–12. This change is a temporary fix ahead of an upcoming major balance update.

Steam reviews — thank you!

Your reviews help us understand what matters most to you. We read every single one, so please keep them coming — they really do make a difference.

Official Wiki

New to the series or a returning veteran? We have an Official Community Wiki for you to master the art of war! Thanks to active community members, it has detailed breakdowns of unit stats, spell tiers, and other detailed data for those who wish to dig deeper. You, our community, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Join the Community

Stay informed and share your victories with the community! Follow us on Discord, Steam and Facebook for the latest patch notes, community discussions and chit chat with our team! We would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to the unofficial community subreddit, where you’re also welcome to share your thoughts!

With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Greetings, Heroes!

As we continue our work on the upcoming Teamplay and Advanced Random Map Generator features (among many others featured in our roadmap), we've seen various calls regarding additional PvE content. Today we would like to announce something that we've been brewing in the meantime:

We are proud to announce that The Mysterious Island — one of the most popular maps for Heroes III among PvE fans, inspired by Jules Verne's novel and created by Papyjama — is coming to Olden Era together with its author as our new Level Designer!

Papyjama's immense talent and map sculpting skills have impressed us from the beginning and thanks to his creativity we will be able to add more maps and scenarios to the game at a regular pace. His personal project will be the first of many such PvE additions, as well as the first giant-sized hand-crafted map that's coming to the game! More maps from under his craftsmanship will be added in the future. We are incredibly happy and honoured to be working with such a skilled community member. We would also like to highlight that The Mysterious Island is in the late stages of development and we hope to add it in one of the next big content patches.

Here's what Papyjama himself wanted to share with all of you:

I'm so happy and proud to work on Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era! Imagining adventures for others has always been a dream... I never thought it could be real one day! Thank you so much for your trust!

To celebrate his addition to Unfrozen Team, we interviewed Papyjama to learn and showcase the history of how The Mysterious Island came to be, as well as to give you a small taste of what's coming to Olden Era!

We will continue to take care of PvE content for the game and read your feedback carefully. Enjoy your travels across Jadame and may the Four Scholars guide you! With love, 💙 Unfrozen Team

Greetings, Heroes!

Changelog

• Fixed another variation of the game exit exploit, which also affected the correct saving of match results. ⚠️We remind you one more time that bug exploiting and other dishonest behaviour in competitive play may end up with a long-term multiplayer ban for you.

• Fixed a bug crashing Jebus Outcast and All Around generation.

• Fixed a bug that was the reason for Law and Astrology points not increasing on the first day of each week (although Mondays are hard, so we don’t judge them too much).

Greetings, Heroes!

Yesterday’s patch brought significant changes, and today we’re releasing a hotfix to address them.

Having analysed the initial data and your feedback following Patch 8, we’ve concluded that a number of changes have had too significant an impact on single hero mode’s gameplay — primarily affecting the Schism faction. In today’s minor patch, we’re reverting some of these changes and adjusting others in line with our vision for balance. At the same time, we are implementing improvements for Hive that were originally planned for a later date ahead of schedule.

The update also includes bug fixes (including those introduced by Patch 8 itself) and a buff to the Dungeon in the Arena.

Full patch notes are below. Good luck on the battlefield!

Changelog

v. 0.80.19

Bug Fixes

• Jebus Cross: Fixed a bug from the previous update where Taverns and Mage Guilds were still being built in central area cities despite the intended changes.

• Sand Clover: Fixed a bug from the previous update where some guards were not generating.

• Exodus: Fixed a bug from the previous update where the template could still generate more dwellings of a specific tier.

• Fixed a bug from the previous update where upgraded versions of Cultists had inconsistent hiring costs.

• Fixed a bug from the previous update where the casting cost of the Death Merchant's "Ensnare Memories" ability was displayed incorrectly.

• Fixed bugs from the previous update related to the class changes for Tavi and Pauper (wrong models and Heroic Strike).

• Fixed a bug from the previous update where the number of bonus attributes for the Temple sub-skill "Strong Faith" was displayed incorrectly.

• Fixed a UI bug that occurred when exchanging items or troops between heroes if either hero had active buffs or debuffs. In multiplayer, this was also causing desyncs.

• Fixed a bug where force-closing the game via Alt+F4 during the pick-and-ban phase incorrectly assigned match results.

• Fixed a bug with army growth from temporary stacks gained through Communion of the Abyss for the Schism faction AI-opponent.

Balance

After reviewing your feedback following yesterday's patch, we are making a number of adjustments in today's hotfix.

Yesterday's changes were aimed at refreshing the gameplay, including strengthening the Schism faction's standing in Classic mode. However, as many of you noted in the comments, some of those changes had too strong an impact on Single Hero mode. In today's update, we are reverting some of those changes and making additional adjustments. These changes will have a greater impact on Single Hero mode and a lesser one on Classic mode, where Schism's position is already quite weak.

At the same time, in the previous update we did not give sufficient attention to the Hive. Its situation is broadly the inverse of Schism's — the faction performs well in Arena and Classic modes but struggles in Single Hero mode. One reason for this is the demanding nature of Hive battles, which require significant time investment to minimize losses. As a result, in that update we slightly adjusted combat timers and intended to observe how this would affect the faction's results before making further decisions. However, we see your requests for more impactful changes, so we are implementing some of the planned adjustments now.

Skills

After the update, the Summon Avatar use cases have shifted, closing off some abuse scenarios (though you will certainly find new ones), and the skill has also started performing effectively in Arena mode. Based on initial observations, the skill appears quite strong, so we are making a slight adjustment to its damage and will continue to monitor its performance. More significant changes, however, will require more data.

"Summon Avatar"

• Damage scaling from Spell Power decreased: 12–12/18–18/24–24 → 12–12/16–16/20–20.

Hero Specializations

We have slightly adjusted the starting skills of Hive heroes so that, in combination with the other changes, these heroes perform better as starter heroes — which will primarily affect their effectiveness in Single Hero mode.

Hive

• Pauper

  • Starting skill: Luck → Battlecraft

• Maelstrom

  • Starting skill: Insight → Luck

• Nor

  • Starting skill: Battlecraft → Insight

• Zoran, the Self-Founded

  • Starting skill: Nightshade Magic → Defense

• Lo

  • Starting skill: Defense → Recruitment

• Leira

  • Starting skill: Battle Magic → Nightshade Magic

• Oriax

  • Starting skill: Recruitment → Battle Magic

• Tavi

  • Bonus to the number of summoned Fire Larvae based on Hive army health: 4% + 1% per every two hero levels → 4% + 2% per every three hero levels

Factions: Creatures, Buildings, Pandora's Boxes, and More

During the creature changes, we revisited the balance value of certain active and passive abilities, resulting in adjustments to some creatures — and related elements such as Pandora's Box counts, hiring costs, and city recruitment buildings. The main changes affect the Schism and Hive factions: the former has been slightly nerfed, while the latter has been buffed. Additionally, significant changes have been made to Hive faction laws, which should allow them to accumulate power faster in Single Hero mode matches. Also included are Pandora's Box changes for the Dungeon faction that were accidentally omitted from the previous update.

Pandora's Boxes

The number of creatures players can receive from Pandora's Boxes has been adjusted. Values are given for standard/upgraded versions in "before → after" format:

• Necropolis:

  • Tier 4, Graverobber: 30/21 → 31/21.

• Hive:

  • Tier 3, Hornet: 30/22 → 28/20.

  • Tier 4, Scorpion: 29/20 → 32/22.

  • Tier 7, Hive Queen: 7/4 → 8/5.

• Dungeon:

  • Tier 1, Troglodyte: 60/45 → 50/35.

  • Tier 2, Infiltrator: 35/25 → 40/30.

  • Tier 3, Onyx Dancer: 34/24 → 34/25.

  • Tier 4, Minotaur: 20/14 → 23/16.

  • Tier 5, Medusa: 21/15 → 23/16.

  • Tier 6, Hydra: 11/7 → 12/8.

Necropolis

• Tier 7:

  • Vampire Lord:

    • Defense: 25 → 26.

  • Vampire Scholar:

    • Attack: 26 → 27.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Bone Exchange I" (Tier-4 dwelling) is now 250 Gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Bone Exchange II" (Tier-4 dwelling) is now 500 Gold cheaper.

Grove

• Tier 1:

  • Faun:

    • Damage: 3–4 → 3–5.

  • Faun Archer:

    • Damage: 3–4 → 3–5.

  • Faun Warrior:

    • Damage: 4–5 → 4–6.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Shroomwood Shack I" (Tier-5 dwelling) is now 500 Gold cheaper.

Schism

• Tier 1:

  • Ra'Shoth:

    • Initiative: 5 → 4.

  • Stinging Ra'Shoth:

    • Initiative: 5 → 4.

  • Ferocious Ra'Shoth:

    • Initiative: 6 → 5.

• Tier 2:

  • Cultist:

    • Speed: 4 → 3.

    • "Glance of the Abyss" ability effect power: 15 + 3 × Stack Size → 12 + 2 × Stack Size.

  • Binder:

    • Attack: 6 → 5.

    • Speed: 6 → 5.

    • "Glance of the Abyss" ability effect power: 15 + 3 × Stack Size → 12 + 2 × Stack Size.

  • Votary:

    • Speed: 5 → 4.

• Tier 6:

  • Rift Arbitrator:

    • Attack: 24 → 26.

    • Defense: 26 → 28.

    • Initiative: 12 → 10.

• Tier 7:

  • Abyssal Envoy:

    • Initiative: 9 → 8.

  • Abyssal Overseer:

    • Initiative: 10 → 9.

  • Abyssal Executor:

    • Initiative: 11 → 10.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Cultist Spire I" and "Cultist Spire II" (Tier-2 dwelling) is now 250 Gold cheaper.

• "Involuntary Summons" once again requires "Mage Guild III" to be built.

• "The World is Ours" law Tier reverted to pre-update value: 3 → 5.

Hive

• Tier 1: Base weekly growth in all cities increased: 21 → 22. All hero starting armies adjusted accordingly.

  • Parasite:

    • Damage: 2–3 → 2–4.

    • Speed: 3 → 4.

  • Warden Parasite:

    • Damage: 2–3 → 2–4.

    • Speed: 4 → 5.

  • Ravager Parasite:

    • Damage: 2–3 → 2–4.

    • Speed: 5 → 6.

• Tier 2: Base weekly growth in all cities increased: 13 → 14. All hero starting armies adjusted accordingly.

  • Locust:

    • Damage: 3–4 → 3–5.

  • Overgrown Locust:

    • Damage: 3–4 → 3–5.

  • Harvester Locust:

    • Damage: 4–4 → 4–5.

• Tier 3:

  • Hornet:

    • Damage: 4–7 → 4–9.

  • Chanter:

    • Damage: 4–7 → 4–9.

  • Stinger:

    • Damage: 4–7 → 4–9.

• Tier 4:

  • Scorpion:

    • Attack: 11 → 12.

    • Defense: 11 → 12.

  • Volcanic Scorpion:

    • Attack: 11 → 12.

  • Spelaean Scorpion:

    • Defense: 11 → 12.

    • Damage: 11–14 → 12–14.

• Tier 6:

  • Health restored by the "Corpse Eater" passive ability: 65 → 120.

• Tier 7:

  • Hive Queen:

    • Initiative: 7 → 8.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Neglected Housing I" (Tier 1 dwelling) is now 500 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Neglected Housing II" (Tier 1 dwelling) is now 1250 gold more expensive and no longer requires Crystals to build.

  • Construction of "Carrion Lair I" (Tier 2 dwelling) is now 500 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Carrion Lair II" (Tier 2 dwelling) is now 1750 gold more expensive and no longer requires Crystals to build.

  • Construction of "Paper Nest I" and "Paper Nest II" (Tier 3 dwelling) is now 250 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Chitinous Ziggurat I" and "Chitinous Ziggurat II" (Tier 4 dwelling) is now 250 gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Tower of Love I" and "Tower of Love II" (Tier 7 dwelling) is now 2500 gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Tower of Love II" (Tier 7 dwelling) now requires 5 Wood and Ore.

• "Hidden Desires" law Tier increased: 1 → 2.

• "Focus Reserves" law Tier decreased: 2 → 1.

• "Natural Selection" law Tier decreased: 4 → 3.

• "Evolve, Adapt, Overcome" law Tier increased: 4 → 5.

• "Prosper and Flourish" law Tier decreased: 5 → 4.

Spells

Day Magic

• "Riposte." Can now be cast on Magical creatures.

Arena Mode

Due to the creature balance changes, minor adjustments have also been made in Arena mode. Additionally, the Dungeon faction was underperforming in Arena mode, and to strengthen it we are slightly increasing its army sizes.

The number of creatures offered to players has been changed (values shown for standard/upgraded versions in "before → after" format):

Necropolis

• Tier 4. Graverobber: 64/44 → 68/46.

Grove

• Tier 5. Whisper Whisperer… nah, kidding, Herbomancer: 35/24 → 37/24.

Schism

• Tier 1. Ra'Shoth: 215/165 → 220/165.

• Tier 2. Cultist: 100/75 → 110/85.

Hive

• Tier 1. Parasite: 180/140 → 165/125.

• Tier 2. Locust: 110/85 → 105/80.

• Tier 3. Hornet: 70/50 → 65/45.

• Tier 4. Scorpion: 58/40 → 60/42.

Dungeon

• Tier 1. Troglodyte: 285/220 → 295/230.

• Tier 2. Infiltrator: 135/100 → 140/105.

• Tier 4. Minotaur: 50/34 → 52/36.

• Tier 5. Medusa: 45/30 → 47/31.

• Tier 6. Hydra: 21/13 → 22/14.

• Tier 7. Cave Dragon: 9/5 → 10/6.

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Official Wiki

New to the series or a returning veteran? We have an Official Community Wiki for you to master the art of war! Thanks to active community members, it has detailed breakdowns of unit stats, spell tiers, and other detailed data for those who wish to dig deeper. You, our community, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Join the Community

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With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Greetings, Heroes!

A brand-new patch is now live — and it is a massive one.

This patch covers extensive balance adjustments across multiple game systems: skills, spells, hero specializations, creatures, artifacts, map templates, and the matchmaking system. The expert-level subskills for “Murmuring” have been significantly reworked, and the “Summon Avatar” skill has been fully overhauled to position it as a purely magical ability.

Certain passive creature abilities were recalculated — most notably “Parry.” Additionally, based on collected telemetry and statistics, we have buffed the upgraded versions of creatures that were noticeably underperforming compared to their alternative upgrade options.

Improvements have also reached the random map genertator. The side areas on the popular Jebus Cross template are now much more interesting to play, while the Sprint, Harmony, and Exodus templates have been adjusted to increase overall pace of the game. Along with these changes, we have updated the template pool for the matchmaking.

Finally, we have patched-out a number of exploits and crucial bugs. In particular, we have removed the ability to abuse Alt+F4 to disconnect from games, fixed an exploit that allowed players to peek at the opponent’s setup during the tactics phase, and eliminated a bug that permitted free creature upgrades.

Furthermore, we have taken disciplinary action against players who knowingly exploited these vulnerabilities to secure unfair victories, as well as those who encouraged other community members to use them.

⚠️ A Quick Reminder: Intentionally exploiting in-game bugs in competitive play can result in a temporary or permanent multiplayer ban! Engaging in such behavior may also violate the rules of the platform you're playing on, risking a platform-wide ban. Don't jeopardize your account for a dubious advantage — play fair!

Full changelog is below. Good luck on the battlefield!

Changelog

v. 0.80.18

Bug Fixes

Combat and Creature Behavior

• Ghouls spawned during combat now correctly leave a corpse on the battlefield upon death.

• Fixed a bug where increasing the maximum health of an Energy Phoenix caused its passive ability "Eternal Flame" to malfunction.

• When creating a copy of a Crystal Iriyad stack, its passive ability "Crystal Thorns" now correctly applies to both the original stack and the copy.

• The Naiad passive ability "Embodiment of Water" now correctly grants the stack immunity to the effects of "Ice Bolt" and "Circle of Winter" as intended.

• Fixed a rare bug where the morale debuff from Avatars of War failed to be removed from enemies when two or more of them died simultaneously.

• Positive and negative effects applied by friendly stacks now correctly expire when the source stack dies.

• Fixed a bug where summoned creatures under the effect of max-level "Heavenly Blades" were destroying themselves.

• Creatures with ranged and long-reach attacks surrounded by other stacks now correctly switch to melee attacks while under the effect of "Berserk."

• Fixed a rare bug where a stack would skip its turn instead of waiting.

• Fixed a bug where creatures in combat could not trigger the positive Morale effect after waiting.

• Fixed a bug where immunity to the Vampirism mechanic, destruction of summoned creatures, and destruction of temporary stacks was not working correctly.

Heroes, Skills, and Spells

• The Lich ability "Death’s Embrace" now correctly interacts with the "Masterful Despair" spell effect applied by Laura.

• Fixed a bug where Spell Power bonuses scaling from the level of Summon Avatar specialist heroes were not working.

• Fixed a bug where the Grove hero sub-skills "Burst of Energy," "Just One More Time," and "Strong Connection" were incorrectly triggering when using abilities that did not actually consume Focus.

• Fixed the "Revenge" sub-skill of the "Combat" skill — the hero now correctly receives a bonus Heroic Strike after a friendly stack dies.

• The "One for All" and "All for One" sub-skills no longer incorrectly grant attribute bonuses for corpses on adjacent hexes.

• Changes to Spell Power during combat now correctly update the numeric values of active effects and spells.

• Magic Defense now correctly reduces magic damage from damage-over-time effects.

• Fixed a bug in the effect applied to a hero by the "Shadowflight" spell.

• The "Thaumaturgy" skill is no longer offered at the "Wise Owl" map object.

• Fixed the synergy between the "Fortune’s Favored" Elite class and "As Luck Would Have It" sub-skill, which was causing abnormally high Defense values on creatures.

• Fixed a bug where the Temple faction's "Chosen One" active ability had no cooldown.

• Fixed incorrect descriptions of the "Temporal Spheres" spell upgrades.

Exploit Fixes

• Alt+F4 protection: Reworked the emergency application close system. If a player closes the game via Alt+F4, the system now correctly assigns an automatic loss to that player and a win to their opponent.

• Fixed an exploit that allowed seeing the enemy army placement during the Tactics Phase using a creature with high Speed.

• Fixed a bug that allowed dishonestly swapping low-tier creatures for high-tier ones by switching their positions.

Sieges and Cities

• Fixed a bug where traps created during a siege were not dealing damage to creatures that stepped on them.

• Defensive tower damage during sieges now correctly scales based on the number of buildings in the city.

• Fixed a bug causing a "zero" stack to appear when sending a hero to the "Guild of Six Winds" in a Temple city.

Multiplayer and UI Bugs

• Fixed a bug where interacting with a map object in the last second of a player's timer would lock that object for the rest of the match.

• Fixed a bug where Tier-7 creatures in the diplomacy window were blocking the purchase of all other creatures in that window.

• Fixed incorrect display of a player kicked from a match when reopening the connection issues window.

• Fixed incorrect display of the current income and point totals for Laws and Astrology when passing the turn in hotseat mode.

• Fixed the Spellbook automatically closing when the opponent performed certain actions.

• Fixed incorrect behavior of the hire window when there was insufficient gold to purchase creatures.

• The tooltip for "Pocket Dimension" now disappears from the screen on its own.

• The ~ hotkey (by default) now correctly resumes and stops hero movement.

• Fixed the objects controlled by Black Player incorrectly marked as controlled by Red Player.

Description Fixes

• Fixed incorrect numeric values for the Dungeon faction law "Leaders of the Nation."

• The Dungeon faction law "Triumvirate’s Agents" now correctly applies only to heroes of that faction, as intended.

• Fixed incorrect values in the description of the Minotaur Vanguard passive ability "Adrenaline Surge."

• Fixed errors in the descriptions of the artifacts "Singing Pan‑Pipe" and "Clenching Ring."

Campaign and Scenarios

• ⚠️ This fix will not apply to saves made inside a mission before the patch ⚠️ The victory screen no longer covers the final story dialogue.

• ⚠️ This fix will not apply to saves made inside a mission before the patch ⚠️ Fixed broken quest and event triggers when loading certain missions.

• Fixed a bug that locked artifact item slots when carrying them over from one mission to another.

• The "Restart" button is no longer locked when loading a save.

• Autosaves made within the same in-game day no longer overwrite each other — a save number in parentheses is added instead.

UI Improvements

• Fixed a visual bug with creature movement range display during the tactics phase.

• Holding Shift on elite class tooltips (in the hero window) now allows you to view details about the skills required to unlock those classes.

• Positive and negative effects applied to heroes and creatures are now significantly more visible.

• Various other visual improvements.

Balance

Skills

"Summon Avatar"

The skill has been significantly reworked and now the summoned avatar has its own unique scaling rules.

• The summoned Avatar no longer receives a Defense bonus, and the Attack bonus now scales from the hero's Spell Power (not from Attack).

• The Avatar no longer has a regular HP. Instead, it can survive a fixed number of hits: 2, 3, or 4 (depending on skill level).

  • The number of hits the Avatar can survive is increased by bonuses that increase creature HP.

  • The Avatar's HP cannot be restored during combat via healing spells or abilities.

• Changes to the Avatar's base stats:

  • Damage increased: 6–6 → 12–12.

  • Initiative decreased: 6 → 5.

  • Speed decreased: 6 → 5.

• Changes to stat bonuses (per 1 point of hero Spell Power):

  • HP changed: 12/18/24 → N/A.

  • Damage increased: 6–6/12–12/18–18 → 12–12/18–18/24–24.

• Restriction: the Avatar can no longer be copied using the "Mirror Copy" spell.

Sub-skill updates:

• "Avatar of Fury": now increases the summoned Avatar's Damage by 25%. The bonus is doubled if the hero has the "Leadership" skill.

• "Avatar of Toughness": now allows the Avatar to survive one additional hit. The bonus is doubled if the hero has the "Defense" skill.

"Murmuring"

• Child of the Woods: Maximum mana granted has been reduced: 30 → 20.
• Expert-level sub-skills have been significantly reworked.

• "Just One More Time." The cooldown reduction for all spells in the Spellbook when using Focus has been increased: 1 → 2 rounds.

• "Burst of Energy." The bonus Damage to the Heroic Strike has been increased from 5% to 15%, but it now only lasts until the end of the current round.

• "Strong Connection." The hero attribute bonus has been increased from 1 to 2, but now only lasts until the end of the current round.

"Righteousness"

• Sub-skill "Chosen One." Stat bonuses granted to a creature from the hero's attributes have been reduced: 100% → 50%.

• Sub-skill "Strong Faith." The bonus to additional attribute per round when a stack dies has been reduced: 2 → 1.

"Sorcery"

• Sub-skill "Piercing Spells." Magic resistance ignored on targets has been increased: 20% → 25%.

• Sub-skill "Magical Influence" has been replaced by a new sub-skill "Summoning Sorcery": All summoned creatures in battle gain +25% health and deal +25% damage.

"Insight"

• Sub-skill "Civic Innovation." Bonus Law points: 100% → 30%.

"Offense"

Bonus damage from regular attacks reduced: 15/20/25% → 10/15/20%.

"Defense"

Damage reduction from regular attacks reduced: 15/20/25% → 10/15/20%.

Hero Specializations

• Spell specialists have been slightly buffed. They now gain 1 additional Spell Power for their spell for every 2 hero levels (previously every 3 levels). Affected heroes:

  • Temple: Julius, Vesper, Anastasia the Meek, Nadir.

  • Necropolis: Marl, Laura, Lord Rufus.

  • Grove: Old Pilgrim, Faleor, Aeliniel, Glacia, Vim, Halon, Echolily, Sullie.

  • Schism: Changeling Urgo, Ra'Davok, Sister Keiri.

  • Hive: Mila.

  • Dungeon: Tellaris the Betrayed, Sister Deira.

• Diplomat heroes have been slightly buffed. The base diplomacy power bonus has been increased from +5% to +10%. They also now gain +1% to persuasion power for every 3 hero levels (previously every 4 levels). Affected heroes:

  • Necropolis: King‑of‑Kings.

  • Grove: Alluring Sh'a.

  • Dungeon: Ylwari.

• Morale specialists have been slightly nerfed. The additional morale trigger chance now increases by 1% for every 6 hero levels (previously every 4 levels). Affected heroes:

  • Temple: Aeos the Exalted.

  • Hive: Goldentongue.

• Physical damage specialists have been nerfed. Base and specialized stack damage now increases by 1% for every 4 hero levels (previously every 2 levels). Affected heroes:

  • Necropolis: Bulwark.

  • Grove: Gorel Spearhead.

  • Schism: Grellekh the Betrayer, Icequeen Hel’Ghat.

  • Hive: Niev.

• Magic Damage specialists have been buffed. Magic damage now increases by 1% for every hero level (previously every 2 levels). Affected heroes:

  • Schism: Blackhorn.

  • Dungeon: Zakron the Great.

• Lord Edgar (Temple) has been nerfed. Bonus attack and Defense granted to creatures from the hero's attributes reduced: "20% + 5% per 6 hero levels" → "10% + 5% per 6 hero levels."

• Aeliniel (Grove) has been buffed. Additional duration of Firewall increased: +1 → +2 rounds.

• Tarius and Funerella (Necropolis) have been buffed. They now gain a 2% bonus to Necromancy power for every 5 hero levels (previously 1%).

• Tavi (Hive) is now a Magic hero, and Pauper (Hive) is now a Might hero.

Starting Spell Changes

Temple

• Heretic Avis: started with no spell → "Groundsight."

• Pip: "Early Start" → "Clear Fog."

• Lia the Untethered One: "From a Bird’s Eye" → "Inner Light."

• Clarissa: "Energize" → "From a Bird’s Eye."

Necropolis

• Zam: started with no spell → "Primordial Chaos."

• Adahn: "Silence" → "Shade Cloak."

• Ethric: "Shade Cloak" → "Song of Power."

• Guildmaster Klastor: "Read Minds" → "Naira's Veil."

• Shadespinner Oona: "Sleep" → "Umbral Grip."

• Funerella: "Shackles" → "Read Minds."

Grove

• Eith: "From a Bird’s Eye" → no spell.

• Mreowa: started with no spell → "Berserk."

• Elder Tss'kish: "Song of Power" → "Energize."

Schism

Important! Since all heroes of this faction are hybrids between Might and Magic, each of them now receives a starting spell. In addition, their starting army sizes have been averaged and no longer depend on the hero's specific class.

• Nihil: started with no spell → "Energize."

• Blackhorn: started with no spell → "Ice Bolt."

• Matastala the White: started with no spell → "Optical Illusion."

• Jänhei: started with no spell → "Early Start."

• Mara Mat’ha: started with no spell → "Unnatural Calm."

• The Iron Master: started with no spell → "Silence."

• Changeling Urgo: no spell → "Shackles."

• Martyr Tho: started with no spell → "Assemble!"

• Grellekh the Betrayer: "Blessing" → "Enlarge Shadow."

• Icequeen Hel'Ghat: "Ice Bolt" → "Shorten Shadow."

• Kwinri: "Groundsight" → "Riposte."

• Eye Collective: "Wean" → "Reinforcements."

• Tölketh: "Reinforcement" → "Circle of Winter."

• Ulkuth: "Unnatural Calm" → "From a Bird’s Eye."

• Dhüvri: "Blink" → "Thick Hide."

Hive

• Nor: "Impending Fate" → no spell.

• Pauper: "Fireball" → no spell.

• Leira: "Vulnerability" → "Wean."

• Khariset: "Anti-Magic" → "Fireball."

• Tavi: started with no spell → "Anti-Magic."

Dungeon

• Creta, Daughter of Navarr: "Groundsight" → "Mind Reading."

• Gleard the Grey: "Shackles" → "Temporal Spheres."

• Kelarr, Son of Navarr: "Groundsight" → "Wean."

• Glastor: "Thick Hide" → "Clear Fog."

Starting Skill Changes

Temple

• Vesper: "Daylight Magic" → "Battle Magic."

Necropolis

• Zam: "Battlecraft" → "Recruitment."

• Adahn: "Recruitment" → "Battlecraft."

• Funerella: Advanced "Necromancy" → Basic "Necromancy" and "Summon Avatar."

Grove

• Mreowa: "Sorcery" → "Combat."

Dungeon

• Motley: "Luck" → "Recruitment."

Hive

• Pauper: "Battle Magic" → "Luck."

• Oriax: "Summon Avatar" → "Recruitment."

Spells

Daylight Magic

• "Healing Water." Base HP restored increased: 25/25/25/25 → 50/50/50/50.

• "Inner Light." Base reduction to negative effect duration changed: −2/−3/−3/−3 → −2/−4/−4/−4.

• "Vengeance":

  • Base Damage dealt reduced: 100/100/100/100 → 60/60/60/60.

  • Damage scaling from Spell Power reduced: 20/20/30/30 → 15/15/20/20.

• "Judgement." Base damage dealt changed: 200/300/300/300 → 200/400/400/400.

Nightshade Magic

• "Web." Casting cost reduced: 11 → 9.

• "Umbral Grip." Damage scaling from Spell Power increased: 8/12/16/16 → 10/15/20/20.

• "Summon Star Children":

  • Base number of summoned creatures increased: 4/4/4/4 → 8/8/8/8.

  • Number of summoned creatures scaling from Spell Power reduced: 2/2/2/3 → 1/1/1/2.

• "Naira's Kiss":

  • Base Damage dealt reduced: 200/300/300/300 → 150/200/200/200.

  • Damage scaling from Spell Power reduced: 20/20/30/30 → 15/15/20/20.

Arcane Magic

• "Shackles." Casting cost reduced: 9 → 6.

• "Mirror Copy." Casting cost reduced: 24 → 20.

• "Impending Fate." Damage per target level changed: 20/25/35/35 → 20/30/45/45.

• "Reality Distortion." Casting cost reduced: 21 → 15.

Primal Magic

• "Wean." Base reduction to positive effect duration increased: −1/−2/−2/−2 → −2/−4/−4/−4.

• "Ice Bolt." Initiative reduction on target increased: 2 → 3.

• "Firewall." Base damage dealt increased: 60/60/90/90 → 80/80/120/120.

• "Anti-Magic." Casting cost reduced: 18 → 16.

• "Summon Primal Remnant":

  • Base number of summoned creatures increased: 6/6/6/6 → 12/12/12/12.

  • Number of summoned creatures scaling from Spell Power reduced: 2/2/2/3 → 1/1/1/2.

• "Armageddon":

  • Base Damage dealt increased: 100/200/300/300 → 150/250/350/350.

  • Damage scaling from Spell Power increased: 10/10/10/20 → 15/15/15/25.

Neutral Magic

• "Magic Arrow." All damage is now dealt across three consecutive strikes.

Artifacts

• Ring of Neutrality:

  • Rarity: Epic → Rare.

  • Effect reworked: the artifact now only neutralizes Luck (instead of both Luck and Morale previously).

• Monster Head:

  • Rarity: Common → Rare.

  • Effect reworked: the artifact now neutralizes the Morale of all stacks in combat.

• Sixth Finger:

  • Enemy Morale and Luck reduction reduced: 2 → 1.

• "Ethereal Knowledge" set:

  • 2-artifact bonus weakened: bonus XP gained by the hero 100% → 50%.

  • 4-artifact bonus changed: it now increases the duration of all applied effects by 8 rounds (previously they lasted indefinitely until the end of combat).

Factions: Creatures, Buildings, Pandora's Boxes, and More

During our analysis of game statistics, we found that some passive abilities were incorrectly accounted for during the initial balancing process (for example, the "Parry" creature passive). As a result, some creatures were over-tuned and have been adjusted downward.

We also made a large number of targeted stat adjustments. These are mainly aimed at buffing upgraded versions of creatures that, according to collected data, were underperforming compared to their base versions.

Pandora's Boxes

The number of creatures players can receive from Pandora's Boxes has been adjusted. Values are given for standard/upgraded versions in "before → after" format:

• Temple:

  • Tier 3, Griffin: 22/16 → 26/18.

• Necropolis:

  • Tier 1, Skeleton: 80/60 → 65/50.

  • Tier 2, Wight: 40/30 → 45/35.

  • Tier 3, Undead Pet: 46/32 → 50/35.

  • Tier 5, Lich: 33/23 → 27/18.

  • Tier 6, Dread Knights: 17/11 → 16/10.

• Grove:

  • Tier 2, Hoplet: 25/20 → 30/20.

  • Tier 3, Vine Iryad: 24/16 → 28/20.

  • Tier 4, Naiad: 21/15 → 24/17.

  • Tier 5, Herbomancer: 15/11 → 18/12.

  • Tier 6, Qilin: 11/7 → 12/8.

• Schism:

  • Tier 1, Ra’shoth: 45/35 → 35/30.

  • Tier 3, Aga'shoth Rider: 26/18 → 32/23.

  • Tier 4, Grand Shoth: 17/12 → 20/14.

  • Tier 5, Concubus: 20/13 → 22/15.

• Hive:

  • Tier 1, Parasite: 35/30 → 40/30.

  • Tier 2, Locust: 30/20 → 35/25.

  • Tier 3, Hornet: 24/18 → 30/22.

  • Tier 4, Scorpion: 26/18 → 29/20.

  • Tier 5, Reaver: 14/10 → 15/10.

  • Tier 6, Waurms: 12/8 → 13/8.

Temple

• Tier 4:

  • Lightweaver:

    • Attack: 10 → 11.

    • Defense: 10 → 11.

  • Hierophant:

    • Defense: 15 → 16.

    • Initiative: 4 → 6.

  • Sun Herald:

    • Attack: 15 → 16.

    • Damage: 11–17 → 11–18.

    • Initiative: 4 → 5.

• Tier 6:

  • Inquisitor. Health: 95 → 90.

  • Excommunicator:

    • Health: 95 → 90.

    • Damage: 22–32 → 23–33.

• Tier 7:

  • Archangel. Gained the "Duelist" passive, same as the Apotheosis.

  • Apotheosis. Defense: 30 → 35.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Sundrop Chapel I" and "Sundrop Chapel II" (Tier 4 dwelling) is now 250 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Threshold Basilica I" (Tier 6 dwelling) is now 500 gold cheaper.

  • Building "Hippodrome I" (Tier 5 dwelling) now requires "Griffin Rookery I" (Tier 3 dwelling) instead of "Mews I" (Tier 2 dwelling). Construction of both versions of the dwelling is now 500 gold cheaper.

Necropolis

• Tier 2:

  • Wight. Initiative: 7 → 5.

  • Wraith. Initiative: 9 → 7.

  • Phantom. Initiative: 8 → 6.

• Tier 3. Barghest:

  • Attack: 8 → 4.

  • The "Call the Pack" ability no longer ends the stack's turn. Its effectiveness has been reduced from 25% to 20%.

• Tier 4:

  • Graverobber:

    • Defense: 9 → 10.

    • Damage: 6–8 → 6–9.

  • Merchant of Death:

    • Defense: 9 → 10.

    • Damage: 7–9 → 7–10.

    • "Dig Up Bones" ability. Number of summoned skeletons scaling from stack size increased: 2 → 3.

    • "Ensnare Memories" ability. Number of summoned Wights scaling from stack size reduced: 2 → 1. Ability casting cost reduced: 3 → 2.

  • Kennelmaster:

    • Attack: 12 → 13.

    • Defense: 13 → 10.

    • Damage: 6–8 → 6–9.

    • Speed: 5 → 6.

• Tier 5:

  • Lich:

    • "Rewind Death" ability. Health restored changed: 60 + 10 × stack size → 20 + 10 × stack size.

  • Sanguine Lich:

    • "Rewind Death" ability. Health restored changed: 60 + 15 × stack size → 40 + 20 × stack size.

• Tier 7. Vampire Scholar:

  • Stack abilities no longer end its turn.

  • "Corpse Explosion" ability replaced by new ability "Cleansing Blood": removes all negative effects from a chosen friendly stack.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Bone Exchange II" (Tier 4 dwelling) is now 250 gold more expensive.

• Law "Elite Liches." Bonus to Lich healing ability power: 100% → 50%.

Grove

• Tier 1. Base weekly growth in all cities increased: 12 → 13. All hero starting armies adjusted accordingly.

  • Faun. Initiative: 5 → 4.

  • Faun Archer. Initiative: 6 → 5.

  • Faun Warrior. Initiative: 7 → 6.

• Tier 2. Base weekly growth in all cities increased: 8 → 9. All hero starting armies adjusted accordingly.

  • Dusk Hoplet. "Bloom" ability. Spell Power bonus until end of round reduced: 3 → 2.

• Tier 3:

  • Vine Iriyad:

    • Attack: 4 → 6.

    • Defense: 10 → 11.

  • Fungal Iriyad:

    • Attack: 4 → 6.

    • Defense: 10 → 11.

    • Initiative: 2 → 3.

  • Crystal Iriyad:

    • Attack: 4 → 6.

    • Defense: 10 → 11.

    • Initiative: 2 → 3.

• Tier 4:

  • Naiad:

    • Health: 35 → 40.

    • Defense: 9 → 10.

    • Damage: 10–12 → 10–14.

  • Vernal Naiad:

    • Health: 35 → 40.

    • Defense: 9 → 14.

    • Damage: 14–16 → 14–18.

  • Brumal Naiad:

    • Health: 35 → 40.

    • Attack: 13 → 15.

    • Defense: 9 → 10.

    • Damage: 14–16 → 14–18.

• Tier 5. Murmurmancer. "Shroomsong" ability. Mana restored per Focus point reduced: 8 → 6.

• Tier 6:

  • Thunder Qilin. Damage: 27–36 → 30–36.

  • Mist Qilin:

    • Attack: 26 → 24.

    • Defense: 26 → 24.

    • Damage: 27–33 → 27–36.

• Tier 7:

  • Phoenix:

    • Attack: 26 → 28.

    • Defense: 24 → 26.

  • Flaming Phoenix:

    • Attack: 32 → 34.

    • Defense: 24 → 26.

  • Energy Phoenix. Attack: 26 → 28.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Faun Huts I" (Tier 1 dwelling) is now 250 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Hop Patch I" and "Hop Patch II" (Tier 2 dwelling) is now 250 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Blooming Pond I" and "Blooming Pond II" (Tier 4 dwelling) is now 250 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Shroomwood Shack II" (Tier 5 dwelling) is now 5 Wood cheaper.

  • Construction of "Thunder Lair I" and "Thunder Lair II" (Tier 6 dwelling) is now 500 gold cheaper.

Schism

• Tier 1:

  • Ra’shoth. Initiative: 2 → 5.

  • Stinging Ra’shoth:

    • Attack: 4 → 5.

    • Defense: 4 → 5.

    • Initiative: 4 → 5.

  • Ferocious Ra’Shoth. Initiative: 3 → 6.

• Tier 2:

  • Cultist. Damage: 3–5 → 4–6.

  • Binder:

    • Damage: 3–5 → 4–6.

    • Speed: 5 → 6.

  • Votary:

    • Damage: 3–7 → 4–8.

    • Attack: 8 → 9.

• Tier 5:

  • Mistress of Chains. Attack: 16 → 20.

  • Bewitcher. Initiative: 5 → 6.

• Tier 6. No longer deals 1.5× damage in Melee due to the "Paradoxical Shooter" passive: their damage is now reduced the same as all other ranged units.

  • Rift Arbitrator:

    • Attack: 22 → 24.

    • Defense: 24 → 26.

  • Bloated Arbitrator. Damage: 20–24 → 22–26.

• "Involuntary Summons" building no longer requires other buildings to be constructed first.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Lesser Summoning Rite I" (Tier 1 dwelling) is now 500 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Cultist Spire II" (upgraded Tier 2 dwelling) is now 250 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Aga'Shoth Stables I" (Tier 3 dwelling) is now 250 gold cheaper.

  • Construction of "Disturbing Summoning Rite I" and "Disturbing Summoning Rite II" (Tier 4 dwellings) is now 250 gold cheaper.

  • "Involuntary Summons" building no longer requires other buildings to be constructed first.

• "The World is Ours" law Tier reduced: 5 → 3.

Hive

• Tier 2. Overgrown Locust. Damage: 3–5 → 3–4.

• "Burning Soul Burrows" (Tier 6 dwelling) no longer requires "Paper Nest" (Tier 3 dwelling) to be built first.

• Buildings:

  • Construction of "Burning Soul Burrows I" and "Burning Soul Burrows II" (Tier 6 dwellings) is now 500 gold more expensive.

  • Construction of "Tower of Love I" (Tier 7 dwelling) now requires 5 Wood and Ore.

  • Construction of "Tower of Love II" (Tier 7 dwelling) is now 2500 gold more expensive.

Dungeon

• Tier 2. Guile Infiltrator. Defense: 2 → 3.

• Tier 4:

  • Minotaur. Morale: 2 → 1.

  • Minotaur Lord:

    • Attack: 12 → 11.

    • Initiative: 7 → 6.

    • Morale: 2 → 1.

  • Minotaur Vanguard:

    • Defense: 12 → 11.

    • Morale: 3 → 2.

• Tier 5:

  • Medusa Sculptor. Attack: 18 → 20.

  • Medusa Queen. Initiative: 6 → 7.

• Tier 6:

  • Chthonic Hydra:

    • Health: 150 → 160.

    • Defense: 32 → 34.

  • Infernal Hydra. Damage: 30–33 → 30–38.

• Tier 7. Ashen Dragon. Attack: 33 → 37.

Neutral Creatures

• Tier 4. Primal Remnant. "Emboldening Spores" ability replaced by new ability "Cleansing Spores": removes all negative effects from this creature and all friendly stacks in adjacent hexes.

• Tier 8. Lich Dragon. This creature's magic resistance now reduces incoming Magic Damage by 85% (previously 60%).

Map Generator and Objects

General Changes

• Adjusted the internal guards of the "Tomb of Vigilance" object:

  • Number of Undead Pets and their upgraded versions depending on object difficulty: 13/26/37/47 → 14/28/40/50

• Adjusted the internal guards of the "Ritual Pyre" object:

  • Number of Herbomancers and their upgraded versions depending on object difficulty: 5/10/14/18 → 4/8/11/14

• Adjusted the internal guards of the "Carrion Pile" object:

  • Number of Locusts and their upgraded versions depending on object difficulty: 18/36/52/65 → 19/38/55/69

• Maps now generate slightly more Wood and Ore relative to other resources.

• Gold rewarded for defeating the "Research Laboratory" guards reduced: 30000/40000/50000/60000 → 20000/30000/40000/50000.

Jebus Cross

• Starting areas:

  • Artifact generation improved.

  • Pandora's Box creature generation slightly improved.

  • Guard strength for optional cities reduced by 35%.

• Probability of high-tier creature dwelling generation slightly increased.

• Central area:

  • Number of Prisons slightly reduced.

  • "Remote Foothold" generation adjusted: they now spawn more evenly, and the roads leading to them cover a larger area.

  • Default creature count in external dwellings increased to 2× the standard growth.

  • Default-built "Tavern" and "Mage Guild" removed from all cities. Other pre-built buildings have also been slightly adjusted.

• Side areas:

  • 2 mandatory guarded "Town Gates" added, allowing players to return to any city they own.

  • Spells and creatures completely removed from Pandora's Boxes in these areas.

  • Default creature count in external dwellings increased to 3× the standard growth.

  • Each side area now guarantees one city matching the player's faction. All creature recruitment buildings are fully constructed in these cities and in the area's central city.

Arcade

• Maximum number of possible "Dragon Utopias" in the central area increased.

• Several artifacts unsuitable for this template have been removed from generation.

• Guard strength of objects in the central area increased.

Exodus

• Pandora's Boxes granting +3 and +4 to all hero stats can no longer generate in player final areas.

• Pandora's Boxes granting +1 and +2 to all hero stats are less frequent in player final areas, but their value (and external guard strength) has been increased relative to standard values.

• Creature dwelling generation in player starting areas adjusted: the statistical bias toward low-Tier dwellings has been removed.

Sprint

• All heroes now start with the "Primordial Chaos" spell, with its casting cost reduced to 0.

• The spells "Assemble!", "Groundsight," "From a Bird’s Eye," "Naira's Veil," and "Clear Fog" are fully blocked.

• Guard strength between areas increased.

• The number of Astrology points and Law points required to gain new levels has been reduced.

• All "Logistics" specialist heroes are banned.

• The number of unguarded resources in all areas has been reduced.

Harmony

• Template size reduced to 112×112 for more dynamic gameplay.

• Unguarded resource count reduced in all areas.

• Guard strength increased between the 2nd and 3rd areas of each player, and between the 3rd areas of both players.

• A mandatory "Redwood Observatory" added to the 2nd area.

• The 2nd area now contains two "Town Gates," positioned away from roads.

Vendetta

• More creature dwellings and "Town Gates" now generate in the starting area.

• More creature Pandora's Boxes now generate in the central area.

Jebus Outcast

• Several variations for starting area generation have been added to the template.

Miracle

• The generator now lays dirt roads to help players visually identify exits from the starting area more quickly.

Matchmaking

We hear your requests for the ability to play exclusively on the templates you prefer. As mentioned in the early access roadmap, this feature will definitely be added in the future. In the meantime, we've prepared a small change to the online game settings and rotated the templates available for competitive play.

Classic Mode

• Map rotation updated:

  • Old set: Jebus Cross, Universe, Infinity, Last Fortress, Arcade.

  • New set: Jebus Cross, Universe, Infinity, Sand Clover, Arcade.

  • Jebus Cross is always included in the selection pool.

• Timer settings adjusted on some templates:

  • Jebus Cross. +60 seconds added to the daily timer.

  • Universe. −120 seconds from the starting timer.

  • Infinity. −60 seconds from the starting timer.

  • At high Ranks, combat time on all templates increased from 90/105 to the standard 120 seconds.

Single Hero Mode

• Map rotation updated:

  • Old set: Harmony, Sprint, Exodus, Jebus Outcast, Vendetta.

  • New set: Harmony, Sprint, Exodus, Blitz, Vendetta.

  • Exodus is always included in the selection pool.

• Timer settings adjusted. Combat time is now set to uniform values across all leagues: 60 seconds for Sprint and Vendetta, 80 seconds for all other templates.

Arena Mode

We are beginning to plan a major arena update that will make battles even more engaging and exciting. It will arrive a bit later — but in the meantime, to keep things fresh, we're making some small balance adjustments to the current ruleset to shake up the meta.

• The following artifacts have been removed from the mode: "Orb of Inhibition," "Ring of Neutrality," "Monster's Head," "Chain Link," "Deck of Spells," and "Runestone Shards."

• The following artifacts will appear much less frequently: "Nightshade Tome," "Daylight Tome," "Arcane Tome," "Primal Tome," "Robe of Enlightenment," "Bottled Spells," and "Spellbinder’s Hat."

• Players are now offered a choice of 10 spells when building a loadout (previously 9).

• Level 4 spells no longer appear in the Arena. The chance of receiving a level 2 or 3 spell has been reduced.

• The number of creatures offered to players has been changed (values shown for standard/upgraded versions in "before → after" format):

Temple

• Tier 4. Lightweaver: 60/40 → 58/40.

Necropolis

• Tier 1. Skeleton: 350/265 → 370/280.

• Tier 3. Undead Pet: 135/95 → 130/90.

• Tier 4. Graverobber: 62/42 → 64/44.

• Tier 5. Lich: 56/38 → 54/36.

• Tier 7. Vampire: 22/12 → 22/13.

Grove

• Tier 1. Faun: 145/110 → 150/115.

• Tier 2. Hoplet: 100/75 → 105/75.

• Tier 3. Vine Iriyad: 70/50 → 75/55.

• Tier 4. Naiad: 52/38 → 52/36.

• Tier 5. Herbomancer: 32/22 → 35/24.

• Tier 6. Qilin: 20/12 → 24/15.

Schism

• Tier 1. Ra’shoth: 250/195 → 215/165.

• Tier 2. Cultist: 105/80 → 100/75.

• Tier 3. Aga'shoth Rider: 90/65 → 95/70.

• Tier 4. Grand Shoth: 46/32 → 50/34.

• Tier 5. Concubus: 46/31 → 48/32.

• Tier 6. Arbitrator: 25/16 → 25/15.

• Tier 7. Abyssal Envoy: 13/7 → 12/7.

Hive

• Tier 1. Parasite: 190/145 → 180/140.

• Tier 2. Locust: 125/95 → 110/85.

• Tier 3. Hornet: 75/55 → 70/50.

• Tier 4. Scorpion: 66/46 → 58/40.

• Tier 5. Reaver: 30/20 → 27/18.

• Tier 6. Waurms: 23/14 → 20/13.

• Tier 7. Hive Queen: 13/8 → 12/7.

Steam reviews — thank you!

Your reviews help us understand what matters most to you. We read every single one, so please keep them coming — they really do make a difference.

Official Wiki

New to the series or a returning veteran? We have an Official Community Wiki for you to master the art of war! Thanks to active community members, it has detailed breakdowns of unit stats, spell tiers, and other detailed data for those who wish to dig deeper. You, our community, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Join the Community

Stay informed and share your victories with the community! Follow us on Discord, Steam and Facebook for the latest patch notes, community discussions and chit chat with our team! We would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to the unofficial community subreddit, where you’re also welcome to share your thoughts!

With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Greetings, Heroes!

We are now a month into the Early Access of HoMM: Olden Era during which we’ve got to see you explore Jadame in every way imaginable! However, there's something you have done that has completely blown us away:

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has already sold over 1 000 000 copies on Steam!

This means that so many of you have purchased the game that you would effectively form a massive island nation — impressive!

Here's what you, our community, have managed to achieve on top of that: Since the game's launch you’ve posted nearly 17 000 reviews and over 33 000 of you have joined us on Discord! You also continue to support us in every way you can on all social media and in the game so thank you for that!

Thanks to all of that, we were able to align our roadmap to your needs and feedback! We will continue to prove that Olden Era is not just another Heroes game, but a return to greatness you’ve all been asking for!

As we continue exploring Jadame together, your feedback will be our greatest resource. Every review and bug report helps us to improve all aspects of the game and deal with all the issues you come across. Believe it or not, we read every single one of your messages and reviews and will continue to do so.

Additionally, we published the roadmap earlier today, which you can read more about here!

Thank you for your support and patience! May you always find the best Pandora Boxes!

With love,

Greetings, Heroes!

What a lovely start to an Early Access these past four weeks have been! So, so many of you have decided to join an expedition or catch a portal to Jadame, explore it and share feedback with us — we’ve been extremely happy to work with it these past few weeks! As always, we continue to monitor your feedback and weave it into the upcoming updates and changes.

While our main priority remains to ensure a smooth experience in Olden Era and to address any urgent issues that may arise — which will lead to many regular patches throughout Early Access — we would also like to share what our long-term plans are!

Now that we’ve heard loud and clear what you think are the most important features that we should implement, we’re ready to unveil what you’ve all been waiting for: the Roadmap for Olden Era’s Early Access!

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Regular updates:

Throughout the Early Access stage, we plan to — besides fixing bugs, balancing and improving UI and Quality of Life — regularly add fresh content. New neutral creatures, heroes, artifacts, spells, map objects, scenarios and so on — everything is on its way.

Stage 1 (Q3 2026):

• Teamplay Mode: a highly requested co-op play feature. You will be able to play together as a team versus AI-opponents or another team of players.

• Advanced features for the Random Map Generator : Changing the map size, setting the amount of players and adjusting other significant options directly in the game.

• Hero skills rebalance: Hero skills’ will be changed according to your feedback.

• Emote wheel update: the emoji wheel will become more comfortable to use and feature more responses.

Stage 2 (Q4 2026):

• Matchmaking system rework: Advanced options and features for matchmaking system.

• Elite classes (also known as Subclass system) rework.

• Observer Mode & Replays: Highly anticipated — already announced previously — features that allow you to watch other players’ matches or recap the most exciting moments of your own match!

• Alternative Creature Upgrades rebalance.

Stage 3 (the road to patch 1.0, before the full release):

This stage includes all the time left in Early Access — we will share more details on this content as we get closer to the end of Stage 2.

Throughout this lengthy Stage we plan to add or change the following things:

• Underground Layer: The classic HOMM-series feature, it will allow you to venture into another map level, which exists simultaneously with the main map. It will include special terrain, its own set of objects, brand new music theme and much more.

• Thieves' Guild: Yet another highly anticipated classic feature, which allows players to get more info on their enemies and the overall game situation.

• New neutral Tier 8 Creatures: Lich Dragons will get some company!

• Map Editor improvements: Map editor will become much more user-friendly, stable and clear.

• Ironman mode for the Campaign: Those who crave a challenge will get a chance to try their best in order to beat the story without an opportunity to save the game regularly. One save to rule them all!

• Match statistics: Behold the post-match charts and numbers in their full glory.

• The max level for spells will be increased from 4 to 5, with some additional improvements that will be revealed in the future.

• Major hero specialization rework.

• Cities’ models changing on a global map with upgrades.

• New win conditions in PVP.

Stage 4 (1.0, full release):

During this Stage we aim to exit the Early Access and fully release Olden Era (more details about that in the future). What does it mean exactly? It means:

• Campaign acts 2 & 3: Fully fleshed out campaign with a completed story.

• PVE Roguelike Mode: We know it’s intriguing and we cannot wait to share more with you!.. Yet a bit later.

• Map Sharing support.

• Alternatives to Pick & Ban for PVP.

• More achievements.

• More Steam perks (Steam only: sorry, we cannot add Steam perks outside the Steam…)!

One more notice: last week we mentioned there would be a balance patch coming. However, it needs just a tiny bit more time and will arrive early next week.

There are also various places we’d like to invite you to such as:

Official Wiki

New to the series or a returning veteran? We have an Official Community Wiki for you to master the art of war! Thanks to active community members, it has detailed breakdowns of unit stats, spell tiers, and other detailed data for those who wish to dig deeper. You, our community, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Join the Community

Stay informed and share your victories with the community! Follow us on Discord, Steam and Facebook for the latest patch notes, community discussions and chit chat with our team! We would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to the unofficial community subreddit, where you’re also welcome to share your thoughts!

With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Greetings, Heroes!

A new update is now live! This patch focuses on significantly improving the overall campaign experience, eliminating progression-breaking script crashes, and optimizing map areas. We have also fixed several bugs that were unfairly abused in some games, ensuring a fair and competitive playing field for everyone.

Additionally, this update introduces a couple of quality-of-life features: the in-game bug-report form has been slightly improved, and you can now select an alternative starting camera position during combat.

Rest assured, the next patch is already on the way! Get ready to see it next week — its main focus will be balance changes, and we cannot wait to share them with you!

Changelog

v. 0.80.16

New Features

• Added an alternative starting camera position in combat. It allows you to zoom the starting position in a little closer or, conversely, further out.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the pocket dimension logic with the "Direct Supervision" skill that allowed army size to be doubled.

• Fixed a bug that doubled garrison troops during a city siege.

• Fixed incorrect behavior of the "Taunt" effect.

• Fixed a bug where the camera would sometimes zoom in too far at the start of combat.

• Disabled camera position saving between battles.

• Fixed a bug where a hero on the map could not interact with a city by pressing Space.

• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to use a hero's strike when using the upgraded Excalibur.

• Fixed incorrect camera behavior in certain situations.

• Fixed tournament information display after loading a save.

• Fixed UI breaking when loading the game in map view mode after one of the participants had left the match.

• Fixed incorrect display of the name of a participant who lost or left the game.

• Fixed the "Perception" sub-skill of the "Insight" skill.

• Fixed Cyrillic character display in player nicknames.

Campaign

⚠️ Most fixes will not apply to saves made inside a mission prior to the patch ⚠️

General

• Fixed game area layouts in several missions. This fix directly affects AI behavior logic and the correct functioning of sub-skills related to territory control.

• Fixed the timing of story dialogue windows in a number of missions — dialogues following the defeat of story enemies now play strictly after their death animation, not before it.

• Necromancy is now enabled by default for Necromancer heroes.

"Into the Woods"

• Fixed a bug that caused the dialogue with the Crystal Canyon guards to repeat after the player chose to attack them.

"Never-ending Conflict"

• Removed a pile of resources that was located inside decorations and was inaccessible.

• Added unique inventory icons for quest-related items.

"Burning Hearts"

• Fixed a bug in the dialogue with the builders: selecting "Give Resources" now correctly deducts them from the player's total.

• The builders' quest is now correctly removed from the journal if the player changes their mind about fulfilling the conditions and decides to attack them instead.

• Fixed a bug where Ignatius would appear in the final dialogue even when he shouldn't have. ;)

• The neutral Warlock will no longer return and attack the spies at the portal.

"Deal with a Vampire"

• Fixed bugs with quest markers.

"Saving the Knight"

• Fixed a critical bug related to the Sentinel of Glory that broke all subsequent mission scripts.

• Fixed a critical bug related to the Troglodyte that broke all subsequent mission scripts.

• Fixed the Troglodyte dialogue replaying after selecting "Attack."

"Renegade" and/or "Corruption"

• Fixed a bug where, during the amplifier destruction quest, the player received a negative effect despite having the option available to avoid it.

• Added a unique model and icon for one of the quest items.

• Fixed a bug that caused an infinite tactical phase in the battle with the Necromancer at the portal.

• Updated the bonus movement point logic for all heroes.

• Minor mission balance tweaks.

• Fixed quest markers.

• Fixed a bug that caused an error in one of the quests.

• Replaced one outdated voice-over audio track.

"Alvar Diruil"

• Fixed a bug that allowed one of the battles to be skipped.

• Map exit points and paths leading to them are now more visually prominent.

• Fixed incorrect speaker name and portrait display in certain dialogue lines.

Scenarios

⚠️ Most fixes will not apply to saves made prior to the patch ⚠️

General

• Fixed game territory layouts in several missions. This fix directly affects AI behavior logic and the correct functioning of sub-skills related to territory control.

"Fun and Graves"

• Fixed a bug that blocked mission completion after winning in one of the possible situations.

• Fixed a bug where the game incorrectly registered the death of one of the characters.

• Fixed the portrait of one of the non-player characters.

"Glittering Strait"

• Fixed a bug that caused an empty, broken dialogue to appear.

Localization

• Updated localization for all languages: added translations for new settings, fixed errors, etc.

• Added the ability to select the localization language in the bug report submission form.

Steam reviews — thank you!

Your reviews help us understand what matters most to you. We read every single one, so please keep them coming — they really do make a difference.

Official Wiki

New to the series or a returning veteran? We have an Official Community Wiki for you to master the art of war! Thanks to active community members, it has detailed breakdowns of unit stats, spell tiers, and other detailed data for those who wish to dig deeper. You, our community, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Join the Community

Stay informed and share your victories with the community! Follow us on Discord, Steam and Facebook for the latest patch notes, community discussions and chit chat with our team! We would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to the unofficial community subreddit, where you’re also welcome to share your thoughts!

With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Greetings, Heroes!

We're releasing a small hotfix addressing two annoying bugs that affected AI behavior and multiplayer stability.

Changelog

• Fixed a bug where AI was not constructing buildings in its cities.

• Fixed a bug where a player would sometimes not appear in the "Connection Problem" window for kicking.

Thanks for your reports — keep sending in bug reports, it helps us make the game better!

With love,

Greetings, Heroes!

We have just released a new patch focused on multiplayer stability, gameplay improvements, and a wide range of fixes across the campaign, user experience, and interface. This patch resolves several causes of desynchronizations and softlocks in online play, reworks certain timer-related mechanics, and introduces additional balance adjustments for difficulty levels and AI behavior.

We have also introduced a new “Moderate” difficulty setting for skirmish maps. Located right between Normal and Hard, it’s designed to help you transition to tougher challenges with ease.

Thank you for your continued feedback and bug reports — they help us keep the game stable and steadily improving. Have a great time exploring Jadame and stay tuned for the next updates!

Changelog

Bug Fixes

Network & Stability

• Fixed a desync issue caused by the “Involuntary Summons” building in loaded saves.

• Fixed a desync issue caused by the “Guild of Six Winds” building.

• Fixed a freeze in loaded saves where simultaneous turns had been interrupted.

• Network lobby & matchmaking:

  • Fixed windows closing for players when lobby settings were changed.

  • Reconnection timeout after a disconnect reduced from 6 to 4 minutes.

  • Improved opponent search in matchmaking.

• Fixed a bug where a player who left a match was not actually removed from it, potentially causing the match to run indefinitely.

• Kicked players no longer appear in the connection issues window.

• Various other network stability improvements.

Timers, Hotseat & UI

• Fixed a bug preventing combat from starting on templates with tournaments and “Hell Light Arena” in hotseat mode.

• Players now receive +5 seconds on the timer after each stack ends its turn in combat.

• Changed the rules for timer penalty accumulation when restarting a match.

• Fixed incorrect display of time spent in the campaign.

• Redesigned building windows on the city construction screen.

• Buildings with a choice are now more prominent: options are displayed separately, and the text indicating a choice must be made has been added to the button.

• Camera tracking has been disabled in the following situations: entering a town and leaving without a hero; dismissing a hero.

Balance

Difficulty levels in the campaign and on random maps have been adjusted:

• A new AI difficulty level has been added to random maps, sitting between Normal and Hard. The full list in ascending order: Easy, Normal, Moderate, Hard, Unfair, and a separate Multiplayer difficulty outside this scale.

• AI behavior on Hard and Unfair difficulties has been slightly adjusted. As these levels are intended to challenge experienced players, AI strength on these difficulties has been increased.

• Balancing of Easy and Normal campaign difficulties is ongoing. Changes have been made to the missions “Never-ending Conflict,” “Burning Hearts,” “Deal with a Vampire,” and “Alvar Diruil.” A mission restart is recommended to apply changes in full.

We will continue monitoring difficulty levels in both the campaign and standard play to ensure every player can find their comfort zone. Keep sharing your feedback in the comments and on social media.

Campaign

General Fixes

• Fixed portrait display for certain characters in the final campaign missions.

• Fixed camera tracking on enemy heroes in the missions “Never-ending Conflict,” “Burning Hearts,” “Renegade,” “Corruption,” and “Alvar Diruil” (when the relevant setting is enabled).

Mission-Specific Fixes

Garner Hills

• Fixed a missing final dialogue when all minotaurs had been lost.

Into the Woods

• Fixed territory boundary markings.

• Moved some quest objects for better narrative flow.

• Fixed dialogue timing after combat with an enemy: it now plays after the enemy's death animation, not before.

Alvar Diruil

• Fixed quest markers displaying above creature banks.

• Fixed various cases of dialogue appearing at the wrong time.

Eternal Conflict

• Fixed fog of war reveal over a quest object.

• Fixed a bug preventing combat with a story character from starting.

Burning Hearts

• Fixed a quest marker remaining above the astrologer's tower after the related objective was completed.

Corruption

• Fixed a reward not being granted for one of the side quests.

• Fixed reputation values shown in one of the dialogues.

• Fixed the speaker name on one of the slides.

Scenarios

• “Fun and Graves” — Removed redundant dialogues and made minor map design tweaks.

• “Gorges of Discord” — Fixed the position of the infiltrator dwelling when playing as the Dungeon faction; it can no longer be captured for free.

Localization

• Added descriptions for the new difficulty level.

• Updated Czech localization: fixed various errors and typos.

• Replaced some narrative placeholder texts in Russian, English, and Czech (remaining localizations to follow in the next patch).

Steam reviews — thank you!

Official Wiki

Join the Community

Greetings, Heroes!

We have just deployed another update to address several technical issues and quality-of-life bugs reported by the community. This patch focuses on refining Multiplayer UI, and squashing persistent bugs within the Diplomacy and Recruitment skills. We’ve also tightened turn-timer logic in online play to ensure a fair experience for everyone.

Looking ahead, our next update will focus on futher rebalancing lower difficulty levels as well as improving the network stability.

Thank you for your detailed bug reports — they allow us to keep the portals to Jadame running smoothly! We hope you all have a fantastic weekend enjoying the game.

Changelog

Bug Fixes

Gameplay and AI-player:

• Fixed a rare AI error occurring during combat.

• Fixed a bug that blocked the recruitment of creatures when using the Diplomacy skill with Negotiator sub-skill.

• Fixed the Mentors sub-skill of the Recruitment skill.

• Fixed an issue that allowed players to repeatedly select responses in dialogue windows.

UI and Multiplayer:

• Fixed the display of skill and sub-skill tooltips in the hero window when using the Shift key.

• Combat timers no longer overlap the Initiative bar on 16:10 aspect ratio screens.

• Fixed the gold growth display after constructing a Bank or Treasury.

• Fixed a UI error occuring when spliting stacks.

• The Alt key is now functional again during the pick&ban in multiplayer.

• The Exit to Desktop button now correctly closes the application while in multiplayer.

• Fixed the localization of the opponent’s name in the battle log.

• Fixed the display of losses for stacks containing temporary units.

• Fixed a multiplayer bug when a player could continue taking actions even after their turn timer had expired.

Map Editor:

• Fixed the customizable version of the University object (custom_university): it no longer crashes the game when loading a map.

Steam reviews — thank you!

Your reviews help us understand what matters most to you. We read every single one, so please keep them coming — they really do make a difference.

Official Wiki

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Greetings, Heroes!

Thank you for sticking with us and sharing your feedback on Discord, the Steam forums, and in reviews — we read every comment. Keep it coming!

We've seen a lot of reports about issues playing with multiple friends, so we're putting out a hotfix for this as quickly as possible. We're also aware of connection problems in certain regions and are actively working on a fix. AI balance remains on our radar as well.

In upcoming patches, we plan to introduce changes relating to game difficulty, and we are continuing to work on improving the stability of online play.

Changelog

Bug Fix:

Fixed a crash occurring in multiplayer matches with 3 or more players when unit abilities were used during player vs. player combat.

Localization:

• Fixed missing ability description text for Temps magique in French.

• Fixed game date display in Japanese.

• Fixed various typos across multiple languages.

Official Wiki

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Greetings, heroes!

In this update, we’ve focused on bug fixes, improving network stability, and balance adjustments.

Critical bugs affecting campaign progression and AI-player behaviour have been fixed, and errors in creature and object stats have been corrected.

The network is now more stable — we’ve improved lobby entry, the reconnection process, and client synchronisation. In multiplayer, we’ve adjusted timers, the “Diplomacy” skill parameters, and the cost of several Hive faction buildings. We’ve also made adjustments to hero skills and fixed localisation mistakes in several languages.

We keep actively working on network stability and balance — there are many more improvements to come. Thank you for your feedback and bug reports: it is thanks to you that we can make the game better with every update.

Changelog

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that occured when loading several save files in a row and attempting to open the Esc menu.

• Fixed a bug blocking progress in the “Into the woods” mission.

• Fixed a campaign bug where the Mountain Monastery object increased hero attributes by 1 instead of 2.

• Fixed a rare AI-player error during sieges.

• The recruitment window now automatically closes once all available units have been hired.

• Fixed an issue with construction menu scaling on 21:9 monitors.

• Restored missing tooltips explaining stats within the neutral creature window.

• ⚠️ Experimental Feature: Added an option to enable input from peripheral devices. Important! Full support for controllers is still not available.

• Set the default AI difficulty in lobbies to Easy. ⚠️ Please double-check your settings when creating a new lobby if you want to change it!

• Fixed Crystal Iriyad Defense stat (8 → 10).

• Fixed the cost of the “Nature’s Fury” ability of Faun Warriors (1 → 2).

• Fixed an issue where the “Children of the Wild” faction law was not functioning.

• Added a notification when receiving an artifact from the “Crow Nest” object.

• Fixed an issue causing AI-player to freeze in some battles.

• Fixed a bug where the “Beelzebub’s Blessing” bonus incorrectly stacked with “Battle Frenzy” and “As Luck Would Have It” subskills, resulting in unintended massive attribute boosts of the Maniacal Reavers.

• Fixed the incorrect tooltip for AoE attacks that only target enemy creatures (previously they incorrectly stated they affected all creatures).

• Infernal hydra now correctly applies Weakening Venom when using its alternative attack.

Network

• Resolved several issues related to joining lobbies and starting games.

• Fixed the reconnection system during active game.

• Added a game version check when inviting friends (via the Invite button or lobby code) to prevent desynchronization caused by version mismatches.

• Improved filtering for lobbies without password protection.

• Various general networking improvements.

Balance

• Timers in Multiplayer:

  • Time for selecting heroes, skills, and artifacts on Arena increased from 5 to 6 minutes.

  • PvE combat timer in Single Hero mode reduced by 5 seconds. The daily timer bonus increased by 15 seconds, and the weekly bonus by 30 seconds.

• Diplomacy skill:

  • The additional cost for recruiting joining creatures reduced from +100% resources to +50%.

  • Increased the influence of army composition and hero level on the likelihood of creatures joining the player.

  • Slightly reduced army strength requirements when attempting to recruit "Hostile" squads.

• Defense tower damage per constructed building increased from 10% to 15%.

• Hive faction construction costs:

  • Chitinous Ziggurat: Gold: 2250 → 3750. Crystals: 5 → 0.

  • Burning Soul Burrows: Gold: 4500 → 6000. Crystals: 10 → 5.

• Hero Skills:

  • Battle Magic: Attack and Defense bonus based on Magic stats: 15/20/25% → 15/25/35%.

  • Thaumaturgy: Additional mana cost for re-casting a spell: 150/125/100% → 100/75/50%.

  • Tactics: “One for All” sub-skill. Attack bonus reduced from 3 to 2 per adjacent enemy.

  • Tactics: “All for One” sub-skill. Defense bonus reduced from 3 to 2 per adjacent friendly creature.

Localization

• Fixed the outdated game title translation in Traditional Chinese.

• Fixed an incorrect translation for the hero Le Ménestrel in French.

• Fixed translation error in the tutorial quest log in Polish.

• Fixed a bug with the "Leeching Hop" ability for Hoplets and Dusk Hoplets.

• Fixed a bug with the Lich Dragon ability description.

• Minor typo fixes across all supported languages.

Steam reviews — thank you!

Your reviews help us understand what matters most to you. We read every single one, so please keep them coming — they really do make a difference.

Official Wiki

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Greetings heroes!

Less than three days have passed since you first stepped into the world of HoMM: Olden Era, and you have already changed our lives forever! We are blown away to announce that: In less than 72 hours, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era sold over 500 000 copies on Steam!

This not only means that so many of you have purchased the game you’re effectively a kingdom of your own (wow!), but also lets us shine in the Steam top sellers chart next to such games as Diablo IV and Windrose! On top of that here is what you, our incredible community, have achieved in just three days: Since the game's launch you’ve posted over 6000 reviews and over 25,000 of you have become a part of our Discord. We have also hit a new record of almost 60,000 of you playing Olden Era according to SteamDB charts. Thanks to your amazing support! These numbers are beyond our wildest dreams! We will continue to work tirelessly to prove that your faith in us is warranted and to ensure the legacy of this beloved series remains proud and alive. Thank you for your support and patience! May your morale be ever high!

Greeting, Heroes!

Difficulty adjustments

This patch focuses on making the early game experience more enjoyable, especially for those who prefer a relaxed pace. Many of you have expressed concerns that the AI-player was treating you a bit too harshly on Easy and Normal difficulties in custom games. Making the game feel balanced and rewarding for every playstyle is a top priority for us, so we’ve implemented the needed changes.

Changelog

Balance:

Adjusted the AI difficulty for random maps and scenarios:

• Easy. Significantly weakened. The AI will now act very passively, giving players plenty of time for calm, unhurried development.

• Normal. Weakened. The AI is now less aggressive and uses less complex hero and city management (less army transfering between the heroes and the cities, as well as unit upgrading).

• We will continue to monitor AI difficulty across all difficulties and make timely adjustments, including the addition of new difficulty levels if necessary.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that caused the siege sub-skill text to display an error.

• Fixed an issue where building effects would disappear or display incorrectly during construction.

• Fixed an issue with cloud saves.

• Restored missing tooltips explaining stats within the creature window.

• Fixed the display of the hero window after leveling up during combat.

• Removed the ability to launch scenario maps in the online lobby (this caused desynchronization). However, players can still load old scenario saves in the online lobby, doing so will likely results in errors.

Localization:

• Fixed an incorrect description of the Chant de champignons ability in French.

• Minor typo fixes across various languages.

Steam Reviews: Keep Them Coming!

We read every single review — and this patch is proof. Your feedback on AI difficulty directly shaped the changes you see today. If you haven't left a review yet, now's a great time: it helps us understand what matters most to you and guides what we tackle next.

Official Wiki

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May your heroes be mighty and your castles ever-growing.

With love,

💙 Unfrozen Team

Greeting, Heroes!

We have released a small patch fixing several issues that jumped straight of the portal following the game’s release. The changes are already available in the game!

Steam Reviews: Your Feedback Matters

Changelog

v. 0.80.09

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue where hotkeys would fail to save or reset correctly.

• Fixed the display of Credits in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

• Fixed data loading issues for the leaderboard and profile in some versions.

• Temporarily disabled detection of unsupported peripherals (such as gamepads, steering wheels, pedals) to prevent conflicts with keyboard and mouse controls. An option to enable these devices will return as an experimental feature in a future update.

Network

• Optimized analytics and data saving for online games launched from the lobby.

• Fixed a rare server error occuring in the lobby.

Balance

Zookeper

• Fixed template rules that could cause launch errors or crash during gameplay.

Symmetry

• Fixed elevation issues that caused incorrect placement of Hell Light Arena.

• Fixed template rules that could cause launch errors or crash during gameplay.

Arcade

• Added Dragon Utopias to the central area.

• Reduced the number of Pandora’s Boxes containig creatures in the central area.

• Adjusted the value of Dragon Utopias and Legendary Artifacts.

• Reduced the number of points of interest with multiple rewards.

• Increased the number of points of interest with single reward.

Sprint

• Removed Pandora’s Boxes that grant experience.

• Increased the number of artifacts.

• Reduced the number of Pandora’s Boxes containing creatures in the penultimate (6th) area.

• Added Dragon Utopias to the penultimate (6th) area.

• Adjusted the distribution of reward values across areas 4—7.

Localization

• Fixed minor typos in the Russian localization.

• Removed an extra colon from main menu button in the Spanish localization.

• Fixed a typo in the bug report interface in the Polish localization.

• Fixed the description of Self‑Reconstruction ability for the Lich Dragon across all languages.

• Fixed font size issues on the clock in Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

• Fixed spacing issues in the Ukrainian localization.

• Fixed several missing symbols in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

Official Wiki

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Greetings everyone! 24 hours have passed since we’d first opened the doors and portals to the world of HoMM: Olden Era! Just to say this launch has been a success would be an understatement:

In that short time you’ve posted over 3000 reviews and over 90% of you are happy about the game. At this minute there is over 50,000 of you playing Olden Era. Thanks to your amazing support!

We are still over the moon and cannot thank you enough for believing in us and our project! This is a childhood dream come true for the whole team and we promise to use this opportunity you've given us to the best of our abilities!

On top of all the exciting numbers above, we are happy to share: Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has already sold over 250 000 copies on Steam!

That means we broke even on development costs in just one day! It also brings Olden Era to be the number 1 in the current Top Sellers chart on Steam.

As we continue this journey together, your feedback is our greatest resource. Every review and bug report helps us to improve all aspects of the game and squash all those nasty bugs. Believe it or not, we read every single one of your messages and reviews.

Thank you for your support and patience! May your treasure chests always offer the most amount of gold!

Join the Community

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Released!

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is now available in Early Access!

Set in the fantasy world of Enroth, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a brand new entry in the legendary series of turn-based strategies. Lead one of six available factions to victory by building magnificent cities, defeating countless armies, and obtaining powerful artifacts. Explore the unknown realms of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era — now with a 25% Early Access release discount for the first 2 weeks!

A Historic Milestone!

Before we dive into the fray, we have to celebrate an incredible achievement: 1.5 million of you wishlisted Olden Era, propelling it into the Top 10 wishlisted games on Steam! This level of support is staggering, and drives our team to make the definitive Heroes experience for fans old and new.

Steam Reviews: Your Opinion Matters

As we embark on this journey to Jadame, your feedback is our greatest resource. Every review helps us fine-tune the balance between factions, polish the mighty multiplayer, and ensure the magic feels just right.

If you’ve been conquering towns and gathering artifacts, please consider leaving a Steam review. It doesn’t need to be long or detailed — a few words about what’s working, what’s bumpy, or what stood out is more than enough. Your honest impressions are vital as we shape the future of Olden Era together!

What’s in Early Access on the Launch Day?

Here’s what you can expect from the Early Access:

• Six unique factions: Temple, Dungeon, Schism, Grove, Necropolis, and Hive

• An in-game tutorial

• The first act of the campaign. More acts will be added with the full release of the game

• Premade scenarios with self-contained stories, with even more coming during Early Access

• Classic, Single Hero, and Arena modes, available in both single-player and multiplayer

• Matchmaking, ranked play, and leaderboards for all three modes in multiplayer

• A wide variety of Random Map Generator templates for unlimited replayability

• Hotseat mode, allowing you to play against friends and family one after another on a single PC

• A series of puzzle-style challenges

• A pre-release version of map editor to create your own adventures

Official Wiki

New to the series or a returning veteran? We have an Official Community Wiki for you to master the art of war! Thanks to active community members, it has detailed breakdowns of unit stats, spell tiers, and other detailed data for those who wish to dig deeper. You, our community, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Join the Community

Stay informed and share your victories with the community! Follow us on Discord, Steam, Facebook and our official website for the latest patch notes, community discussions and chit chat with our team! We would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to the unofficial community subreddit, where you’re also welcome to share your thoughts!

The Journey Begins!

As we launch into Early Access, please keep in mind that this is the beginning of a long journey! While we‘ve worked hard to ensure the smooth experience, Early Access means the game is still evolving.

Our entire team is “on the ball” and we’ll be rolling out hotfixes non-stop over the first few weeks to address any technical hitches. We want to thank you for your incredible support and your patience as we squash those initial bugs together! Additionally, we’ll be publishing the roadmap for upcoming content and changes to Olden Era once the initial dust has settled and your first feedback is in our hands!

The tales of Olden Era begin today. Will you be their hero or their villain?

Greetings everyone! We would like to announce what we thought to be impossible — Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has just hit 1.5 million wishlists on Steam! This puts us as the 9-th most wishlisted game on Steam! We are very thankful for your continued support and interest in our project! You're the best community we could have ever asked for and we are beyond thrilled to walk this path together with you! This is an incredible achievement and milestone for Unfrozen team to reach, which would not be possible without your support! Remember — Jadame will open up to all of you on April 30th! We can't wait to reveal its secrets to you! Link to the game:

Heroes of Might and Magic has always embraced change — not only in the captivating blend of tactics, strategy, and economy, but also in its visuals. From the hand-painted charm of Heroes II to the high-fidelity realism of later titles, each entry introduced a new artistic direction that helped to define the tone, mood, and identity of the series’ universes. With Olden Era, we are continuing that tradition. While building on the legacy of the series, we are introducing our own identity and ideas to the players — one rooted in the vivid, magical style that first drew many of us to the world of Enroth. This devlog explores the artistic choices behind Olden Era and offers a behind-the-scenes look at how we approached key design decisions.

Listening to the Community

As we were working on the game, we reached out to the Heroes community across multiple platforms and conducted over 20 interviews with opinion leaders — including pro gamers, YouTubers, Heroes streamers, modders and map makers — to better understand what matters to players today. Here is what we heard loud and clear:

• The game must run smoothly and be accessible.

• Visual clarity is essential — everything must be easy to read.

• Familiar gameplay is key, but it should be modernised.

• The legacy matters, but players also want something new to explore.

These insights aligned closely with our own vision and became foundational pillars in the development of Olden Era.

Not a Remake — a New Chapter

One of the most frequent questions we continue to receive is: Where does Olden Era stand as a Heroes of Might and Magic game? The answer is clear and important: Olden Era is not a remake of any previous chapters. It is a brand-new, official entry in the franchise — built from the ground up. While we have deep appreciation for the earlier Heroes games, our intention has always been to create something original and fresh for people to enjoy. We have preserved the core mechanics that define Heroes, but we are also evolving the formula with new features, quality-of-life improvements, a distinctive tone, and a unique visual style. A fresh artistic vision is central to that evolution. While we drew inspiration from earlier games — especially Heroes II — we reimagined those ideas to suit modern computers, development tools, expectations, and our own creative goals.

Lessons from the Series’ Past

Heroes of Might and Magic is a series with a long history that you can learn a lot from. Each game brought something new to the table. Not only did mechanics vary, but also the visual style changed drastically. We studied them all — both gameplay and art — to understand what worked, what didn’t, why certain choices were less successful than others, and how we could do our best to choose the right direction.

Heroes I & II: Magic in Simplicity

Following in the footsteps of their spiritual predecessor King’s Bounty by the same lead designer Jon Van Caneghem these games embraced bold colours, charm, and fairy-tale aesthetics. Their visuals were immediately readable and emotionally resonant — an approach that inspired us deeply. This visual style and its vibrant, intense colours are what drew people in and earned the game’s spot as a memorable classic. As a group of fans who grew up with these games, we chose to honour this legacy and embrace it whilst working on Olden Era.

Heroes III: Gameplay Reigns

While legendary Heroes III shifted drastically toward a more realistic visual style, abandoning the cosy hand-drawn animations of the former title in favour of 3D models rendered as 2D sequences. However, this new direction initially reduced the readability of the global map in comparison to earlier titles. At the time of its release, the change from a fairy-tale artstyle to baroque-inspired aesthetic was met with a wide range of responses. But in the end, what truly mattered was that its core gameplay loop had been solidified and became the standard for nearly all games released later. That mechanical brilliance remains a cornerstone of Olden Era.

Heroes IV: The Cost of Experimentation

Creative and ambitious, Heroes IV took an unexpected turn toward the isometric 3D trend that was popular at the time. In doing so, it sacrificed clarity and cohesion — its combat maps remain a reminder that visual style should never compromise usability. At the same time, its approach to the core gameplay taught many that straying too far from the familiar gameplay can be a risk of losing more veteran players than attracting new ones into the community. Despite these missteps, Heroes IV is a game we respect deeply for its creative push, and we believe it was unfairly underrated at its time. Heroes of Might and Magic IV and Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era battlefields side by side

Heroes V–VII: Potential Pitfalls of Full 3D Transition

Heroes V, developed by Nival Interactive, introduced another major revolution by fully transitioning to 3D. The shift brought stunning town screens and a dramatic visual overhaul that gave the game a unique presence. This bold leap left a lasting impression on players and remains a memorable chapter for all the players of the franchise. However, like any innovation, it came with challenges. Creating realistic proportions for characters and landscape in a fully 3D environment was not easy without negatively affecting readability essential in a strategy game. To keep the clarity, visual indicators, such as bright circles, were added to make the heroes and units stand out on the map. In addition, the richness of animated 3D objects, while visually impressive, also came with higher performance demands. While with the development of gaming hardware it was not a problem for some, the games became less accessible for those who had older and less powerful computers. In Olden Era, we tried to focus both on optimization and a lasting look, suitable for a strategy game.

The developers of Heroes VI and VII explored a similar stylistic path by blending realistic 3D landscapes with more static, flat visuals for the faction towns. This approach moved away from the Heroes V designs — which had drawn some comparisons from the community to Warhammer Fantasy Battles — in favour of more unified, monochromatic heraldries. While this was a deliberate and interesting stylistic solution, some players still judged the new style for reducing the readability of the units within one faction. Might and Magic: Heroes VI global map and Might and Magic: Heroes VII battlefield

Other Inspirations: King’s Bounty: the Legend

King’s Bounty: the Legend (2008) was both a commercial and artistic success thanks to its lush, whimsical visuals. This approach earned the game a lasting love of the players, that resulted in multiple expansions, and its place among the fans of turn-based strategies. Even to this day the game has aged gracefully thanks to its artstyle choice. In contrast, Disciples III — a darker, more ‘realistic’ fantasy title, released about a year later — highlighted how easy it is to lose readability and system performance when aiming for gritty photorealism, especially in 3D-strategy games. Despite that, the raw brutality of the chosen artstyle evoked strong emotions among the game’s audience. From both, we gained a valuable lesson: artistic cohesion matters, however, in this genre readability matters even more. To sum up everything we have learnt from the visual history of Heroes and other genre-defining games:

• Visual changes were always present throughout the Heroes series.

• Our personal preference in style draws from the nostalgic looks of Heroes II and King’s Bounty.

• Although changes and progress are inevitable, they must be done with care.

• Readability and performance have always been and probably will stay crucial for the genre.

• Factions should have their leading colour palette, but it shouldn’t dictate everything within it.

• Stylisation is one of the keys to success that also prolongs the life of the art style and a game in general.

Visual Development: From Prototype to Production

With all of this in mind, we explored many directions during prototyping — tweaking saturation, contrast, silhouettes, scale, background detail, and more. Every iteration brought us closer to a visual style that blends personality, clarity, and performance. Very early concept of the visuals, showing how Art Team experimented with lighting, shadows and saturation Early stage prototype. Objects are easier to see and have a clearer shape, colours are not as intense as before

Next prototype. Adjusted saturation, objects and decorations are closer to a unified style. Some purchased models are used here as placeholders

What we’ve landed on so far is a cohesive, hand-crafted visual identity — one that balances the key qualities important for the Heroes experience: nostalgic visuals recreating the feeling of familiar universe, and easy readability, so important for a turn-based strategy. As we approach Early Access, we continue working on the game visuals, improving them based both on our own vision and your feedback, which helps us see your perspective! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45162246/e793f4b1e4dcab343d01221dccca7b5aa22dcddf.pngThe current development build. The artstyle for both objects and decorations forms a unified blend of familiar and brand new visuals

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45162246/0261d161f01e57e6bbc8d939cf4c6359b872596c.png

Performance and Visual Priorities

Aiming to avoid any major problems with performance we have designed Olden Era to run smoothly, with lower system requirements than the current Steam median, so that as many people as possible can get to enjoy Olden Era. A large-scale 160×160 Jebus Cross map can contain tens of thousands of animated and effect-laden objects, and millions and millions of polygons on the screen at the same time, which can severely impact performance. We handle this by efficiently backloading assets into RAM or GPU’s VRAM, keeping gameplay seamless and responsive. We strongly recommend using an SSD for optimal performance, especially to minimise load times. This is the hardware cost of optimization that allows for as few interruptions as possible. Our other goal is for the only loading screen you ever see to be when starting or continuing a game — not when entering towns or battles.

Smart Budgeting, Focused Effort

Even as we build a fantasy world, we face the practical reality of game development. As previously mentioned, we are developing Olden Era independently using our own funds. All development — both technical and artistic — is done by our internal teams, with almost no outsourcing. This ensures full creative control and consistency in vision during development. Even if we found ourselves in the middle of an AI-revolution, our direction for Olden Era was set years before it began. Therefore, we made a firm decision not to use AI to generate any assets. It means that every model, texture, and animation you see in the game is hand-crafted by our artists. This topic has created a huge discussion in the game development industry, sparking lots of thoughts but also outrage. Our philosophy and stance remains that we will not use Generative AI whatsoever during development and that decision will not change at any point — it would be disrespectful to the hard work our Art Team has done as well as to you, our community. We are further supported in that by our publisher Hooded Horse, whose CEO Tim Bender said the following in a recent interview that you can check here:

“I f*king hate gen AI art. It has made my life more difficult in many ways…suddenly it infests sh*t in a way it shouldn't," Bender said. "It is now written into our contracts if we're publishing the game, 'no f*king AI assets'.”

Part of this decision involved showing off our talented artists’ work, some of which you can check here Concept art created by our artist Dzikawa All of this means we must plan carefully what we can work on, and prioritise what matters most: gameplay, content, and long-term support. In fact, we are proud to say that Olden Era will launch with more content than any previous Heroes game at release — thanks in large part to our art style choice and efficient planning. This allowed us to implement more content without sacrificing other important features such as map editor, maximum map size, templates, and readability of the global map. To support this claim, we have analysed the most popular Heroes titles in terms of content: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45162246/97c7e7bf93af899cf658416dea5534e12a8177d7.png

Future-Proof Visuals

One of our primary goals behind the art style choice has been to ensure that the visuals remain appealing for years to come. Technology evolves quickly, however stylised visuals, when designed with care, retain their charm and legibility for years. Although nobody can deny Heroes III being the high point of the series, we personally believe that it was Heroes II — with its timeless visuals — that caused the franchise to become so well-known in the first place. That’s the kind of longevity we aim for. Our visual direction is trying to blend the best of Heroes I through III, with touches from King’s Bounty, presented in a clean, almost isometric presentation that highlights the charm. In the end, it’s not just about nostalgia, we want to ensure that Olden Era has its own identity, and even a decade from now players can return to it and still find it beautiful.

So why 3D and not 2D?

At first glance, 2D graphics seemed ideal for our goals. They evoke fantasy worlds, carry hand-crafted charm, and tend to be less demanding on hardware. However, working with 2D comes with a lot of hidden challenges.

Not Really Simple

Many people love 2D animation for its “simplicity and warmth”, but in reality creating high-quality 2D animation is anything but simple. Every object must be drawn by hand, and every angle or rotation — animated separately. It’s a slow and labour-intensive process. Imagine a unit that can move not only left and right but diagonally. In 2D, diagonal movement requires an entirely new set of assets. Add in attack and defence animations, and the workload multiplies fast. Then there’s the matter of volume. To make an object feel three-dimentional in 2D, light and shadow have to be painted directly onto it. These highlights, however, will remain static — rotating the unit or moving a light source won’t change them. In Hollow Knight, for example, highlights are painted right onto the beetle sprite and stay the same no matter how it moves This limitation is why many games with “flat”, cartoon-like visuals are actually 3D under the hood — a style often called 2.5D. The Banner Saga is a great example of 2.5D game with turn-based combat Ori and the Blind Forest uses similar techniques, blending 3D technology with a painterly style In 3D, dynamic lighting is built-in. A 3D model is made of polygons, and the engine can calculate light rays hitting each surface, adjust shading based on position and movement. This eliminates many of the manual steps required in 2D.

Animating the Models

We learned these limitations first-hand while working on Iratus: Lord of the Dead. Creating that game was… let’s just say, a learning experience. The thing is, when it comes to 2D animation, there are really only two main approaches: #1: Skeletal animation (aka Spine animation). Moves parts of a flat image like a puppet. It fakes depth but cannot truly rotate, often looking stiff and “marionette-like”. It is still a ton of work, for the result that does not always feel great: Because this technique was often used in older browser games, it also carries that visual association for many players. Iratus, our previous game, was built with this animation style in mind #2: Full frame-by-frame animation (classic Disney™ style). Every single frame is drawn by hand. It can look amazing, but costs in time, finances, and labour are enormous. Disney™ films were made by hundreds — sometimes thousands — of artists, working frame by frame. And what if you want to change anything in the finished animation? Welcome back to the drawing desk to re-do every single frame again! Doing this for over 140 creatures, each with multiple animations, would be unrealistic. A standout example of the modern games that used this approach is Cuphead, whose creators spent at least 7 full years hand-drawing, scanning, and colouring tens of thousands frames. Apart from time consumption, the reality is that nowadays skilled 2D animators are scarce (roughly one for every 20–30 experienced 3D artists). To sum up: 3D is just much more suitable when it comes to budgeting and longevity of the game’s life-span. In simple terms: a lot of the work that has to be manually applied in 2D on a case-by-case basis, is automatically handled by 3D engines’ various features.

Reviving Legacy Material with a New Vision

By setting Olden Era centuries before the events of the RPG game Might and Magic VIII, we have gained creative freedom to explore the early days of Jadame — a continent of the world of Enroth, not explored in the Heroes series before. That meant we could create multiple new factions, creatures and heroes, with their own stories and personalities. Of course everything that is added has to be in accordance with Branding Team’s vision of the world and its inner structure. One of our main goals (and challenges!) was to create a perfectly balanced mix of old and new — a game in which characters familiar to many of us since childhood would head out on new adventures across the new continent, fighting monsters not seen before and living through the stories before untold. This meant:

New designs for iconic creatures and heroes

Unicorn in Heroes II vs Unicorn in Olden Era

Pixie in Heroes II vs Pixie in Olden Era

Vatawna in Heroes II vs Vatawna in Olden Era

Ethric the Mad in RPG Might and Magic VI vs Ethric the Mad in Olden Era

Bringing more Might & Magic characters into Heroes series

Not known to many, the world of Enroth is going through technological decline the closer we get to the events of the RPG Might and Magic VIII. “TERMINATOR” Drone in RPG Might and Magic VI vs Worldwatcher in Olden Era Couatl in RPG Might and Magic VIII vs Couatl in Olden Era

Artorius Veritas in RPG Might and Magic VIII vs Artorius Veritas in Olden Era

‘Aging down’ classic figures and expanding their stories

As we wish to relive the nostalgia of seeing a hero we’ve grown to know as a child, we decided to also bring back a few familiar faces, as well as units from the other Heroes of Might and Magic games, especially in cases where the lore allowed us to do so!

Old Vesper in Heroes II vs Young Vesper in Olden Era Even when the only material available was a blurry sprite or a low-res portrait, we worked to reimagine it faithfully. The result was a visual blend of the old and the new that honours the franchise’s roots while pushing forward.

Your Feedback in Action

Although we have our own vision, we are carefully listening to the feedback of our community, implementing the most interesting ideas and suggestions as well as tuning the game to appeal to most of you. Following a lot of the feedback we received over the last few months we decided to come up with quite a few changes to the readability of Olden Era’s both combat map and adventure map. Here are some of the ones we’ve already shared with you as well as a few fresh reveals.

Expanded Battleground

One of the key pieces of feedback we have received from you was that the battleground isn’t large enough. We expanded it and adjusted most units’ statistics to accommodate for that.

Visual Settings

New Readability Settings

As you shared your feedback with us whilst playing the demo, it was made clear that you would like more readability options. This is why we created a separate readability tab that allows you to adjust various options to your liking. We’ll go over these options below.

Customisable highlight settings

We added various options for the highlight feature, allowing you to change its colour, the way the highlight pops up (be it by pressing ALT, hovering over objects or to be permanently on) as well as adjust the highlight colours based on what you’re interacting, such as heroes, guards, visited objects and so on.

Customisable colour profiles

Colour profiles can be used to make the image more vibrant, turn the game darker or keep the middle ground between the two. Depending on what you choose, you will either lower or further increase the saturation of the game. Default colour profile Saturated colour profile Dark colour profile Apart from that we added the options so everyone can adjust the visuals of the game to their liking:

• Option to toggle outlines:

  • Keep them on as they are

  • Keep the outlines on interactive objects only

  • Turn them off completely

• Combat map highlights for active units

• Player-coloured spaces beneath units

• Full UI toggle for clean screenshots

• Toggle the cloud shadows

• Option to fully desaturate background on the global map, leaving the interactable objects clearly visible (see the images below)

No desaturation, 50% desaturation and 100% desaturation

Updated User Interface

Since our first reveal, your constant feedback was that our UI could use a little bit more love. We updated it to be more immersive and reminiscent of the older games. We believe that it’s in a good place between old, nostalgic UI and a new, modern approach to the interface. We will continue to read your feedback and use it to improve the UI in Early Access.

Updated Models

Many of you voiced your concern when it comes to certain models in the game. We also want our units to be as aesthetically and visually pleasing as they can be, so we look closely at what the community wants and all the ways we can improve upon them! While many models already received some changes, we are constantly listening to more and more feedback from our players, and here we would like to show you some of the most recent changes we made according to that! In addition to that, we also added a way to rotate, zoom in on and view models in the unit preview screen.

The model viewer lets you fully rotate the units and zoom in on them

The Angels

Angel models were redesigned for clarity and visual impact, but at the same time they kept their unique look. Old angel model New Angel models featuring angels (right-most), archangels (at the top) and apotheosis (at the bottom) However, you’ve let us know that the Archangels would look much better if they had a different hue so we updated them according to your feedback! Updated Archangel colour scheme

The Dread Knights

We’ve heard your feedback about the old Dread Knight model and so we decided to replace them with a new one that is more in line with the nostalgic look they were known for in Heroes III and IV. Old Dread Knight model New Dread Knight Model

The Aqualotls

You’ve let us know that aqualotls from Mexican mythology were difficult to distinguish in combat and that you would like to see more humanoid creatures in the Grove’s lineup. We removed them and added the greek Naiads, who kept a bit of the aqualotl in their visual design. Old Aqualotl Model New Naiad Model

The Hive

Hive units are retextured to stand out more, gaining a more distinct and insect-like colour scheme. They have also had their Gnats and Mantes replaced with more distinguishable Parasites and Scorpions. Old Hive units New and updated Hive units Thank you for all of the feedback you have provided so far — we appreciate your passionate approach to our work and will continue implementing changes as we push forward towards the Early Access release!

Future Modding Support

We know how much the Heroes community values modding, and that it’s one of the key elements that helped the series live such a long life. That’s why Olden Era is being built with high modability in mind. Once the game is fully released, we are intending to give you the chance to swap or adjust visuals or create new content of your own. We believe players should be able to shape the game they love.

Conclusion: A Game Built to Last

We are building Olden Era not just for launch, but for the years ahead. We believe this game carries forward the legacy of Heroes, but also stands on its own. We want the game and — by extension — the franchise to become more accessible to new players while remaining engaging to the veterans alike. We want Olden Era to be a new chapter in the series’ journey through the years with its own stories and unique design. In summary:

• Olden Era is an original, standalone entry in the franchise — not a remake — which allows us to deliver a lot of unique content, with endless possibilities.

• The game is funded and developed by the Unfrozen team alone, which gave us creative freedom, but also posed some technical and financial limitations we had to consider.

• Since development is funded by us, we need to plan our budget wisely — by prioritizing performance and readability of the game, which is our main focus.

• The stylised art style is central to the game’s identity and longevity. The initial games in the series were designed with bright, fable-like and cartoonish style in mind. In following these decisions, we return the series to its roots.

• Our artistic and design choices are based on deep research, previous experience and multiple stages of the project.

• The art style choice allows us to include more content without sacrificing clarity or gameplay features. As it is similar to the classic games, it lets us work with your feedback faster and allows us to add more nostalgic objects and creatures that you all remember and love with a refreshed, but very familiar design.

• 2D animation tends to be extremely time-consuming and expensive, while mostly yielding average results. Animating such art style comes with a lot of restrictions. This is why we chose 3D — so that we could create the game on a bigger scale than what 2D animation would have allowed us to.

• Performance, clarity, and readability guide every design choice we make.

• To ensure a smooth gameplay experience, performance is and will remain our top priority, with lower system requirements than the current Steam median. This is one of the most important factors to our playerbase, and as such, we take it very seriously as well, and will constantly optimize the game further!

• Every asset is handmade and done nearly exclusively in-house. This is a strict position that we took on for the project and it will not change in the future. No AI. No shortcuts.

• Community feedback is actively shaping the game — and always will. Many changes that happened were the result of us not only reading your feedback, but also immediately acting upon it. As listed above, some of the changes are: New unit models, new settings for visual effects or readability, expanded battlegrounds and a partially updated UI.

• From all of these various changes that we’ve made, the visual settings that we implemented will let you tune the look of the game to your liking so that you will be able to make it darker or brighter based on your preferences. You will also be able to adjust highlights between certain interactables on the map to your needs.

• Modding support will ensure that players can customise their experience in the future.

Thank you for being on this journey with us so far and stay tuned!

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