Total War: Warhammer 3’s patch 5.2 sees Creative Assembly continuing its work to bring the grand strategy game back on track, its release date promising to introduce additional changes to existing races while addressing various bugs and issues.
Although it won’t coincide with the launch of a brand new DLC, Total War: Warhammer 3’s patch 5.2 release date will be one of the first to signal a shift in how the developer handles this type of updates.
Total War: Warhammer 3 Patch 5.2 Release Date
Initially slated to launch at some point during late August 2024, before locking down its release date to August 20, 2024, Warhammer III’s patch 5.2 is confirmed to include “some extra bits and pieces” of new content.
- Total War: Warhammer 3 Patch 5.2 release date: August 20, 2024
This comes out of a desire to keep things relatively fresh while we wait for the arrival of major pieces of DLC, the next of which is expected in the latter part of the year.
These larger content drops require time to develop, and reworking or adding a smaller serving of new content to both new races and those that might feel a bit forgotten will help tide us over in the interim.
Creative Assembly has yet to share exact details on what’s coming in Warhammer III’s patch 5.2, but a blog post is expected to be published in the weeks leading up to its launch.
“If you caught our ‘What’s Next?’ video back in June you’ll remember we mentioned smaller pieces of new content coming alongside our regular patching, and we’re excited to announce that patch 5.2, which is currently targeting a late August release, will be the first to include some extra bits and pieces,” the developer wrote under the patch notes for hotfix 5.1.3, linked above.
“We’ll be sharing a blog in the coming weeks from Design Director Mitchell Heastie, who’s been heading up this project, to tell you more about what you can expect.”
That blog was published on August 15, giving us a clearer picture of what we can expect from Warhammer III’s patch 5.2.
“These updates will allow us to tackle the things we are less likely to do as part of an upcoming DLC - […] like updating older features, or at times even updating races, but primarily focused in areas of the game that we recognise haven’t been priorities in the past, or were likely to be in the future,” the developer clarified while also mentioning that it wants “to make sure for each update we’re providing something new,” whether bigger or smaller additions.
Total War: Warhammer III’s patch 5.2 adds the following four features alongside a suite of bug fixes and smaller changes:
- A new feature for the Dwarfs - The Deeps
- A rework of the Chaos Cult feature
- A new small “global” feature – Unusual Locations
- An update to Cathay’s Ivory Road feature
The Deeps
Starting with The Deeps, its goal is “to provide more opportunity for playing taller, perhaps investing more in fewer settlements and making what you do have tougher to take,” when playing as any of the Dwarf factions.
An optional addition to the race, which received quite a bit of love in Warhammer III’s latest DLC, it opens up extra building slots alongside a separate building tree while requiring a hefty investment.
Constructing the Great Gate grants access to The Deeps in any owned settlement, although existing locations will need to be developed before building new ones. Blocked Tunnel also throw a spanner in the works, but the feature should grant new avenues to play more defensively as the Dawi.
Chaos Cult Rework
The Chaos Cult rework covers all four Chaos Gods removing the no high corruption requirement and making it easier to target where these dens of evil spread. This is attained by making it the duty of the Cultist agent to spread the word of Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, and Slaanesh to other lands.
In addition, the Cult Magus is “a new campaign-only version of the Cultist agent, and they can create special Cult locations that have extra building options and innate benefits.” You can get these special variants by sufficiently developing standard Chaos Cults.
The feature also receives additional interactivity. Borrowing from the Skaven Undercities, the more cults you build, the more likely is that the region owner discovers your machinations, “with certain buildings making you more or less discoverable, some revealing you instantly and others simply destroying the Cult.”
A whopping 36 building choices spread across four categories will be available, while most cults support two building slots instead of just one. Those established by a Magus can house three buildings.
All of them grant access to teleportation ritual previously available only to Khorne while tapping into their respective Chaos God’s usual tactics (think Grimoires and trickery for Tzeentch, lots of killing and Skull reaping for Khorne, and so on).
Unusual Locations
Unusual Locations help improve Warhammer III’s worldbuilding through the inclusion of “various unique, and perhaps strange, locations that can appear at your settlements.”
They range from Cults to different Orders “or perhaps something entirely different,” but are not linked to specific factions.
“They’ll situate themselves at your settlement as a building at various points throughout your campaign,” the developer writers, “and all come with effects and in many cases trade-offs, events, traits, items, or otherwise. Something akin to landmarks but bringing more interactivity, uniqueness, and flavour to your campaigns.”
The Ivory Road update is meant to “bring it more in line with the Chaos Dwarfs convoys feature,” allowing Grand Cathay to dispatch multiple caravans, see them gaining units based on their destination, while also expanding the pool of potential destinations.
You can read more about patch 5.2 and its release date in the full patch notes and catch up on the team’s future plans for Total War: Warhammer III by checking out the video embedded below.
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