Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era Gets Its Biggest Balance Patch

Unfrozen, the Cyprus-based studio with Russian roots, has released the largest balance update to date for the early-access strategy game Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era. Patch 0.82.06 aims to cut the stats of overly strong late-game units and to make upgraded versions of creatures more varied.

A new damage formula

The biggest change is how attack and defense are calculated. Damage now depends on the difference between the attacker's attack and the defender's defense, rather than on their absolute values. According to the developers, this has several effects:

• One stat point has the same impact regardless of the total stat count.
• The damage ratio between units stays constant throughout a match, so high-tier creatures remain effective at any stage.
• Artifacts and stat bonuses feel equally strong from the start of a game to the end.
• Low-level creatures are slightly stronger early on, but no longer scale as sharply into the late game.

Skills, interface and AI

The team also added protection against overly lucky or unlucky streaks of morale and luck triggers. The combat interface has been updated, and the Temple faction skill, along with many others, has been reworked. Faction creatures, heroes, artifacts and spells were adjusted as well.

The AI on the global map is now noticeably stronger. Two new neutral creatures, the Kitsune and the Mummy, have been added, matchmaking has been improved and a number of bugs fixed. The full changelog is available on the game's Steam page.

What comes next

Shortly after 0.82.06, the developers shipped hotfix 0.82.07 to address problems introduced by the large patch. The team is now working on new story maps and solo adventures.

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era launched in early access on April 30 on Steam, Microsoft Store and Game Pass. It holds a "Very Positive" rating on Steam (86%) and sold 1 million copies in its first month.