Skip to main content

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition – Update 66692

Come jump into to another fun-filled release with exciting updates, in-game ranked map pool voting, a huge list of fixes, and more for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition!

With this HUGE update, we’re celebrating in style with a new Dress to Impress Event! Unlock golden fleece-wearing sheep and Crusader Knight mods, plus some really impressive profile icons! So don your best armor – it’s time for all the fun and spectacular challenges!

While there are plenty of notable fixes and features to which to look forward to today, here’s some of the big highlights coming with this month’s update:

  • Dress to Impress Event!
  • Rematch shortcuts!
  • In-game ranked map pool voting!
  • Optimized many art asset files to reduce the installation size by 20 GB (5 GB for Base Game and 15 GB for Enhanced Graphics Pack).
  • A huge list of fixes based on your feedback!

Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the juicy details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.



Thanks again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

Download on the Microsoft Store
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in the Microsoft Store:

  • Open the Microsoft Store.
  • Click the [∙ ∙ ∙ ] symbol next to your profile picture.
  • Select Downloads and updates.
  • Press the Get updates button to automatically detect, download, and install the latest changes to your game!
  • Open the game. The title screen should show you on Build 66692.

If you are unable to launch the game after downloading the update, make sure you add (or re-add) the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition client or folder as an exception to your firewall and antivirus program.
That’s it; you’re ready to play!

Download on Steam
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in Steam:

  • Open Steam.
  • Click on Library to see your games list.
  • Click Downloads at the bottom of the Library window.
  • [If the new build does not download automatically,] click the Download Now button to manually download the new update.
  • Open the game. The title screen should show you on Build 66692.

That’s it; you’re ready to play!

Download on the Xbox App for Windows 11
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in the Xbox App for Windows.

  • Open the Xbox app.
  • Games that are installed show up on the left side of the app.
  • Hover over the game or click it, and then select Update.
  • [If the new build does not download automatically,] hover over the game, select More Options (…), choose Manage. Under the Files tab, choose the option to Check for Updates.
  • Open the game. The title screen should show you on Build 66692.

That’s it; you’re ready to play!

Please note that custom mods may not be compatible with the latest game update. If you are experiencing issues launching or playing the game after downloading the new build, try disabling your installed mods before trying again.

Still having trouble? Visit our support site!


Build Spotlight

The Dress to Impress Event

August 29 – September 12

Age of Empires II: DE is celebrating a big update dressed in style – welcome to the Dress to Impress Event! Grab your best armor, shine it all up, maybe grab your golden sheep too, and come battle it out with some flair!

New Rewards!

TODAY through September 12th, complete the in-game tasks within the time limit to unlock exclusive rewards!

Day ~ 🎯 Sign in to Xbox Live.
🏆 Unlocks the Wachsmut von Künzingen profile icon.
💾 *Required* to save any rewards unlocked during the event!

Each of the following challenges must be unlocked in order and on separate days:

Day 1 🔒 Build 2 Town Centers playing as the Tatars.
🧱 Unlocks a graphical mod where sheep wear a golden fleece.
Day 2 🔒 Train 3 Militia or Men-at-Arms in a single Skirmish or Multiplayer match playing as the Aztecs.
🧱 Unlocks a graphical mod where Man-at-arms are using a Xolotl sword.
Day 3 🔒 Train 30 units wearing capes.
🏆 Unlocks a profile icon of a powerful Knight wearing medieval tournament gear with a decorated helmet and armor.
Day 4 🔒 Train 100 Unique Units with Shields.
🧱 Unlocks a graphical mod where the Crusader Knight replaces the Paladin.
Day 5 🔒 Train 10 Knights in one Skirmish or Multiplayer match before 25 minutes game time.
🧱 Unlocks a Black Knight graphical mod for Knights.

Keep it Forever!

Remember: if you sign in to Xbox Live at any point during the event, you get to keep all the mods and profile icons you unlock! Sign in, earn your rewards, and enjoy!

—The Age of Empires Team

Event F.A.Q.

Q: Do I have to complete the challenges on consecutive days?

While challenges don’t have to be completed on consecutive days, only one challenge can be completed per day.

Only the Xbox Live challenges can be completed *any* day before the end of the event!

This means that you will need to play at least five different days to complete all of the challenges.

Q: When is the last day I can complete the daily challenges?

The Dress to Impress Event concludes September 12th.

Q: Do I get to keep all of the event unlocks?

All you need to do is log into your Xbox Live account before the end of the event to keep all of the profile icons and mods you unlock; it’s as easy as that!

Q: What do I do if I accidentally unsubscribe from a special mod?

No problem! All you need to do is click your Profile Icon on the main menu, select Event Mods (under Collection), and then check the unlocked event mod you want to enable!

Q: How do I change my profile icon?

You can update your profile icon in your profile:

  1. On the main menu, click the Profile Icon next to your name.
  2. You should now be in the Profile Icons tab under Collections.
  3. Select your favorite icon, then click the Select Icon button to lock in your choice.
  4. You’re done!

Q: How do I download and enable mods?

For information about how to subscribe to and prioritize your mods, visit this article.


Game

Stability & Performance

  • Fixed an issue where players could get stuck on the main menu screen after accepting an invitation and successfully joining a match.
  • Fixed an issue where the game was failing to show other clans in the Clan Browser which then caused the game to get stuck when clicking Disband Clan.
  • The game no longer crashes when loading replays in certain situations.
  • The game no longer crashes when accepting Steam/join lobby URL invitations when the game is closed.
  • Added safety checks to prevent an out of range crash on the matchmaking screen.

Achievements

  • Rhapsody of the Bohemians achievement can now only be unlocked if 10 Houfnice are trained as Bohemians.
  • Added back Elephant Archer and Elite Elephant Archer icons as profile icon rewards, after they were replaced by Ghulam profile icons with Indian/Hindustani civilization change.
  • Various fixes on Dynasties of India Steam achievements.

Graphics

  • Fixed an issue where Flares were difficult to see during some games.
  • Added a new idle pose for Skirmishers, to better differentiate them from the spearman line. This pose was used in Age of Empires II legacy games.

UI

  • Armor Value/Icon no longer disappears in tooltips when a building/unit has an armor value of -1.
  • Obsolete Map Style dropdown no longer appears in single player lobby and for multiplayer hosts.
  • The AI difficulty is now displayed while in Quickplay queue.
  • Tech tree preview for Gurjaras now shows the Camel line properly.
  • Objective timers now update properly when changing in-game language.
  • Lobby creation for co-op games via the Main Menu no longer skips host setup.
  • Players can no longer interact with multiplayer lobby dropdowns and buttons when the map selection screen is open.
  • Diplomacy label for ally players during treaty is no longer different from the standard one.
  • Games can now be found properly with the Refresh button, when a word has three or less letters.
  • Fixed an issue where, in some languages or fonts, the player’s Custom Deathmatch Lobby rating overlapped with the “valid checkbox”.
  • Fixed a rare texture glitch in the Load Game screen.
  • Fixed a rare issue where map selection wasn’t displaying anything, leading to an error while launching the game.
  • Fixed a rare issue where the screen remains darkened after closing a warning dialog.
  • Fixed an issue where the campaign menu background was black when entering the campaign menu for the first time after launching the game.
  • Mods no longer appear duplicated in the Mod Manager.
  • Chat no longer appears truncated when above a certain character amount.

Settings

  • Co-op missions now properly reset all match settings to their defaults upon lobby creation.
  • Fixed a rare issue where players that were not set to a random civ could start a co-op game using a DLC civ they didn’t own which resulted in a crash during the loading screen.
  • Civilizations now update properly when changing player colors/numbers in single player scenarios.
  • Player resources are now properly assigned according to player color/number in scenarios.
  • Implemented a new rematch feature.
    • After a match has concluded, the rematch system creates an opportunity for all users in the match to opt into joining a new custom multiplayer lobby together with the same match settings as the game they just played.

Hotkeys

  • Fixed an issue where auto-farm reseed hotkey wasn’t working for Gurjara mills with garrisoned sheep.

Spectator Mode

  • Fixed an issue where players pausing a match in game might cause it to become permanently paused for spectators.

Recorded games

  • Choosing a player name on the GUI now sets the camera POV on the player properly.

Gameplay

General

  • Removed reaction distance modifier for predator animals (like Wolves, Snow Leopards) depending on difficulty and made it so that predator animals always find villagers within 6 tiles and other units within 4 tiles. Easiest difficulty on scenarios and campaigns will still use 4 tiles.

Fixes

  • Players are no longer able to push enemy units away during treaty by building foundations on top of them.
  • Trade Carts, Trade Cogs and Fishing boats are now properly affected by the hitpoint increase from the handicap system just as villagers would be.
  • Depleted resources no longer disappear on the minimap in fog of war.

Campaign Missions

  • Fixed multiple typos and audio issues in intro/outro slides and in-game menus of some campaigns.
  • Historic Battles: ‘Kurikara (1183)’: Moved some misplaced smoke effects.
  • Joan of Arc 5: ‘The Siege of Paris’: Hero unit Jean de Lorrain and Jean Bureau now has the Attack Ground command.
  • Francisco de Almeida 3: ‘Ruins of Empires’: Fixed a rare crash.
  • Rajendra 1: ‘The Successor:
    • Manyakheta is now a bit weaker.
    • The Chalukyan Army no longer rebuilds its military buildings.
    • Updated the scouts report to reflect that Vengi gives no economic aid, only military aid.
    • You can no longer approach the elephant enclosure from the north, and the stampede cut-scene here can no longer be triggered after morning comes.
    • The Chalukyan Army’s units will not chase you for as long as before.
    • Overhauled the objective about liberating the villages. For a village to count as being raided, you now also have to destroy the Chalukyan tower in it. If the Local Villages player is defeated, they are now properly deactivated and you will no longer get tributes from them.
    • Fixed the village counter, which would sometimes go haywire with negative numbers.
    • There are now notifications after each night objective, showing what effect that objective has for daytime gameplay.
    • Ensured the Chalukyan Army postpones their elephant production for as long as intended, if you finish the elephant enclosure quest.
    • The Chalukyan Army now starts with a University.
    • The army camp has more guards (during the night) and is more difficult to enter.
    • Added a flare sound when the Chalukyas go after the locals for betraying them.
    • When the local villages are defeated, you no longer share line of sight with them.
  • Rajendra 2: ‘Deeds of the Father’:
    • Fixed a bug where you never received any villagers after destroying both enemy Town Centers instead of capturing them. You now receive 10 villagers this way, as originally intended, making the achievement more achievable.
    • Added a timer for the opening defense objective and ensured Mahinda’s men focus on attacking your camp, so that they do not get lost if you try to lure them.
    • Fixed a bug where Ruhuna would still produce elephant units, despite the player having finished the Crown Jewels objective.
    • It is now possible to be defeated in the mission.
    • Fixed a very rare issue where you could trigger the final act (attacking Ruhuna) before having taken out both of the northern enemy towns.
    • The Chola Navy now defends a bit better at the beginning of the game.
    • Ruhuna no longer rebuilds any military buildings.
  • Rajendra 3: ‘Rising Star’:
    • You can no longer build Bombard Towers in the mission.
    • Sri Lanka now allies with the Chalukyas if you lose control of the Castle on the island.
    • The flare that appears when the Tungabhadra Castle quest begins no longer calls Vengi to attack in this direction.
    • Improved Srivijaya’s transport loading abilities (i.e. properly blocked an inaccessible spot they were trying to reach.)
    • Fixed a rare issue where the Chalukyas would build an excessive amount of Lumber and Mining Camps.
    • Fixed a rare issue where Sri Lanka would rebel out of nowhere, just as the scenario was ending.
    • You can no longer build any economic buildings during the opening fixed force mission.
    • The warning about Srivijaya possibly declaring war is no longer shown if you have already set them to enemy.
    • The notification about picking up lumber is no longer shown after the opening act.
    • The flags by the Tungabhadra River Castle are now removed if the Chalukyas are defeated.
  • Rajendra 4: ‘Sacred Waters’:
    • Fixed an issue where the player could lose control of the Relic Cart and wind up unable bring it to the monks.
    • The dialogue for capturing the Gaia trebuchets no longer plays if you have first taken Utkala.
  • Rajendra 5: ‘Slaying the Vritra’:
    • You can no longer build Bombard Towers in the mission.
    • Added a failsafe that removes all nearby missiles right as a Castle changes hands, to minimize the risk of the player accidentally destroying the building they are meant to capture.
    • Both Srivijaya and Sailendra now produce more Cannon Galleons on Moderate and Hard, and they start producing them a bit earlier than before.
    • Suryavarman now has significantly smarter transport landing AI and is an overall more helpful ally.
    • The Chola Navy now gradually get upgrades based on your progress.
    • Placed some rocks behind a barracks in Lamuri to prevent created units from getting stuck there.
  • Devapala 2: ‘Desire’:
    • On harder difficulties the opponents will construct forward towers and military buildings to defend the monument.
    • The effectiveness of the Rashtrakutas’s (purple) attacks on the monument has been improved.
  • Devapala 4: ‘Liberation?’:
    • Defeating the Rashtrakutas, destroying their wonder, or doing both will now complete the mission.
  • Prithviraj 1: ‘Born of Fire’:
    • It is now mandatory to defeat Nagarjuna (red) to win.
  • Prithviraj 5: ‘The Legend of Prithviraj’:
    • Player now gets Bow Saw instead of Heavy Plow after converting Elite Battle Elephants.

Co-op

  • Dialogue no longer carries over to a new game mode, after player leaves a co-op campaign too quickly.

Civilization Balance

General

  • Crossbowman research cost increased from 125 food 75 gold ▶175 food 125 gold.
  • Arbalester research cost increased from 350 food 300 gold ▶ 450 food 400 gold.
  • Dark and Feudal Age Stone Walls HP increased from 900 ▶ 1080; Dark and Feudal Age Stone Gates HP increased from 1375 ▶ 1650.
  • Elephant Archer has its cavalry archer armor increased from -7 ▶ -4, resulting in less bonus damage from skirmishers.
  • Elephant Archer cost decreased from 90 food 70 gold ▶ 80 food 70 gold.
  • Armored Elephant line is now affected by Siege Engineers (+20% damage bonus).
  • Starting resource and villager bonuses are no longer disabled in Empire Wars (affects Aztecs, Chinese, Huns, Incas, Lithuanians, Mayans, Persians, Sicilians, Gurjaras).
  • Age-advancement bonuses are correctly applied for the starting age only when an age other than Dark Age is selected (affects Ethiopians, Bengalis, Dravidians). Bonuses for skipped ages (before starting age) are still disabled.
  • Minimum buy price for all non-Saracen civilizations, with Guilds researched, is (re)set to 23 instead of 25.

Bengalis

  • Monks receive +3/+3 armor.
  • Elephant Archers and Armored Elephants now receive the intended bonus damage from their counter units (the bonus resistance modifier applies after the armor subtraction from the damage instead of before).

Britons

  • Receive access to Treadmill Crane.

Burgundians

  • Coustillier charge damage reduced from 25 ▶ 20.
  • Elite Coustillier charge damage reduced from 30 ▶ 25.
  • Economy technology food discount reduced from -50% ▶ -40%.

Byzantines

  • Receive access to Treadmill Crane.

Cumans

  • Fixed an issue where some Cuman herdable animals had 50% more food in them than intended.

Dravidians

  • Receive Bombard Cannon.

Gurjaras

  • Elite Shrivamsha Rider full agility recharge time increased from 15s ▶ 20s.
  • Mounted units additional bonus damage reduced from +50% ▶ +40%.
  • Elite Shrivamsha Rider upgrade cost now matches the intended amount (850 food 500 gold).
  • The calculation of the food income from garrisoned herdable animals now uses a non-linear calculation, where garrisoning additional herdable animals has diminishing returns. 15 *(ln FoodAmount/200+1), where FoodAmount is the sum of food in all garrisoned herdable animals. This means garrisoning more herdables will have diminishing returns. Garrisoning all of a player’s own herdables on a map with standard resources (like Arabia) now grants ~15% less food income than before.
  • Fixed an issue where Shrivamsha Riders could not dodge the nearby blast damage of projectiles.

Hindustanis

  • Ghulam HP reduced from 65 ▶ 55.
  • Elite Ghulam HP reduced from 75 ▶ 65.
  • Lose access to Halberdier.

Koreans

  • Elite War Wagon cavalry archer armor reduced from 0 ▶ -1.

Malay

  • Receive access to Treadmill Crane.

Saracens

  • The Saracen Market’s minimum buy price is now (re)set to 21 instead of 25.

Sicilians

  • Bonus damage resistance for land military units reduced from 50% ▶ 33%.
  • Lose access to Treadmill Crane.

Teutons

  • Lose access to Treadmill Crane.

Random Maps

New Maps!

Two new maps featured in Red Bull Wololo: Legacy tournament have been added to the map pool:

🌐 Morass

“Take advantage of the muddy morass surrounding the great tropical rainforest. The outskirts are rich in valuable resources and vulnerable wildlife.”

🌐 Shoals

“The shallow waters only allow for small groups of fish, but conquering the sea will allow you to quickly reach your enemy, as well as take control of the large gold deposits near the coasts.”

Map Balance

  • Migration:
    • Fixed a rare issue where berries could fail to spawn for one of the players.
  • Scandinavia:
    • Fixed an issue in the script which led to inconsistent extra deer spawns.
  • Islands:
    • Two starting gold piles (7+7) have been separated into three (7+4+3).
    • Two starting stone piles (5+5) have been separated into three (4+3+3).
    • Gold and stone piles are distributed more evenly.
    • The shapes of islands have been rounded to prevent extremely long and narrow island shapes.
    • Starting forests spawn 1 tile further away to allow for more space for starting resources.

Random Map Scripting

  • Added the new set_building_capturable RMS parameter, in order to enable Battle Royale building behavior (allowing the building to be captured many times) in other game modes.

AI

General

  • AI will now task villagers to foundations even if they are currently trying to gather from trees.
  • Fixed an issue where packed Trebuchets of AI players’ attack-groups can get stuck due to excessive spamming of commands in the AI engine.
  • Fixed an issue where AI was staying idle if no wood was present in the line of sight at the beginning of a Nomad game.
  • Chinese AI on the Budapest map now properly use both Town Centers to spawn villagers and for research.
  • AI in Extreme difficulty will now consider building Castles starting in the Castle Age instead of waiting for the Imperial Age.
  • AI players in Death Match have been optimized to no longer immediately build lumber camps in the first few minutes of the game.
  • The AI no longer builds docks before lumber camps on water maps.
  • The AI no longer ungarrisons Player’s units automatically when there are more than three in their own Town Center.
  • The AI for new DLC civilizations no longer creates more units than intended for specific difficulty pop limits.

Pathfinding

  • Units no longer go a few tiles in the opposite direction after receiving a movement task when they were previously chasing a unit with the attack command.
  • Fixed an issue to avoid Villagers going idle when gathering resources near walls.
  • Fixed an issue that caused villagers to return their food to the Town Center instead of a newly built Mill close to a berry bush.
  • Scout units are not able to pass through any kind of foundations anymore.

Modding

General

  • Importing Local Mods doesn’t break Subscribed Mods anymore.
  • Added support for installing mods with non-English characters.

Scenario Editor

  • Loading an AI script via the scenario editor no longer produces errors if certain map types are referred.
  • Armor/Attack Type field visually no longer resets to 0 after reselecting.
  • Speed Up Object Type resource can now affect the specific unit IDs.
  • List of triggers in Activate Trigger effect is no longer bugged when using Ctrl/Shift+move commands.
  • The Modify Attribute trigger effect now works properly with “Projectile Hit Mode” and “Projectile Vanish Mode” attributes.
  • Old scenarios using the Change Object Attack trigger effect now works properly with a negative attack.
  • The Modify Attribute trigger effect now also works properly with “Armor” and “Attack” attributes.

XS Scripting

  • XS files now transfer correctly on either Subscribed or Local Mods.

Ongoing...

Investigation

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!


What's on the Horizon

Coming Up...

For our next event we’re throwing a party – a Penguin Party! Join the party to earn some cool rewards celebrating the Winter months in the Southern Hemisphere. Then in October we’re continuing the celebration as Age of Empires officially turns 25 years old! Join us for exclusive events, very special announcements, and more as we celebrate across all games in the franchise.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.


Hotfix 71094

October 17, 2022: Today’s hotfix provides backend updates to support the production of upcoming anniversary and Red Bull Wololo events.

Become an Age Insider!

Insiders unlock access to exclusive news, updates, and opportunities to provide feedback about future releases. Here are some of the perks:

  • Access to private forums where you can interact with Age developers
  • The chance to join exclusive beta opportunities through Steam and the Windows Store
  • Channels to provide feedback and inspire quality changes in your favorite Age titles