BETA Patch: Balance Tweaks to Spells and Heroes, Plus a New Artifact

3 hours ago Comment Views: 1

Greetings, Heroes!

Not long ago, we opened a public beta branch to trial the largest balance overhaul since the game entered Early Access. Every detail is covered in our earlier announcement.

A fresh beta update has just gone live! It brings balance adjustments to skills, heroes, artifacts, spells and creatures, along with revised starting resources, changes to Single Hero Mode, and a batch of bug fixes.

The complete patch notes follow below. Best of luck on the battlefield!

⚠️ Important: This update is available only on the public beta branch. Certain images, translations and other elements may still be absent, and we’ll complete them before the update reaches the main version of the game. Nothing in the beta is final. Depending on test results and your feedback, we may refine or reverse any of these changes.

How to Join the Beta

Open Steam and right-click Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era in your library.
Choose “Properties” → “Game Versions & Betas”.
Within that section, pick the public-test-branch option.
Let Steam finish downloading the update, then start the game as you normally would.
Occasionally, you may need to restart Steam before the beta branch becomes visible.

Returning to the main version: Head back to the same “Game Versions & Betas” tab and select “Default Public Version“.

BETA Patch: Balance Tweaks to Spells and Heroes, Plus a New Artifact

Saves: Beta saves are kept in the saves_beta and campSaving_beta folders.

Worth noting:

Your save list will look empty after you switch to the beta. This is completely normal. Your existing saves remain intact and will reappear once you return to the main version.
Cloud saves are turned off in the beta.
Saves created in the beta can’t be seen in the main version of the game.

Multiplayer: Everyone in a session must be running the same game version. Beta players are matched on a dedicated server alongside other beta participants.

Changelog

v. 0.82.03 BETA

Balance

General

Starting resources now vary according to the chosen difficulty.
Single Hero Mode: The 20% reduction to the Astrology Points and Law Points needed for leveling up has been removed. Consequently, unlocking Global Map Spells and Laws in this mode will be somewhat slower.

Skills

Implemented a variety of changes to the subskills of “Summon Swarm”, “Offense”, “Defense”, “Logistics”, “Scouting”, “Sorcery”, “Nightshade Magic”, “Resistance” and “Thaumaturgy”.
Reworked the new Temple faction skill. The effect of its Prayers is now single-use but stackable. Rather than applying solely to the active stack, it can be held by several stacks simultaneously until each one has triggered it.

Heroes

Tweaked the starting skills of Typhona, Old Pilgrim, Zam and The Minstrel.
Reduced the power of Lord Edgar’s specialization, along with those of all creature specialists and experience specialists.

Artifacts

Introduced a new artifact, the “Orb of Poison”, which stops both heroes from using hero abilities during the first round of combat. “Orb of Inhibition” no longer carries this effect.
“Tactical Guide” now influences both sides of the battle instead of only the enemy.

Spells

“Shadowflight” (level 1) has been weakened and relocated to Tier 1 of High Neutral Magic, so heroes can learn it at level 4.
“Gate of Light” now sits in Tier 2 of High Neutral Magic and can be learned at level 8.
“Pocket Dimension” now sits in Tier 3 of High Neutral Magic and can be learned at level 12.
“Dimension Door” (level 4) received a modest buff.

Creatures

Applied a large number of small balance tweaks across creatures.

Map Objects

Modified the guards of “Mearea’s Altar”.
“Pandora’s Box” objects that contain spells no longer teach a hero magic while bypassing their magic skills.
“Pandora’s Box” objects offering a choice can no longer be closed and put off for later.

Templates