Happy New Year, Age IV players! 2026 is going to be another big year for Age of Empires IV, and we look forward to sharing more details in the future about the two DLCs we announced late last year.
For now, we wanted to start the year off with some additional bug fixes and balance changes, as well as follow-up with a bulk reward of Perk Points for players who may have lost Perk Points from Masteries after the initial release of Dynasties of the East.
Read on to learn more about what’s new with this patch!
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
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 15.3.8338.
If you are unable to launch the game after downloading the update, make sure you add (or re-add) the Age of Empires IV client or folder as an exception to your firewall and antivirus program. That’s it; you’re ready to play!
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 15.3.8338.
That’s it; you’re ready to play!
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 15.3.8338.
That’s it; you’re ready to play!
- Under the games tab from the PlayStation Home Screen Locate the game and hover over it. Make sure not to select it!
- While hovering over the game press the Pause button (☰) on your controller.
- In the new pop up menu select the Check for Update option.
- If there is a new update available, this will automatically start the download. If your game is on the most recent version, selecting this option will confirm that information for you.
That’s it; you’re ready to play!
Still having trouble? Visit our support site!
Please Note: As part of updating to this latest build, any saved games and observable matches made on previous builds will be unable to be loaded or replayed.
Season Twelve
Next Event: Something in the Water
The relaxing waves have brought back old friends but with new rewards! They might be monsters, but you’ll be the one sinking your teeth into the challenges while you take on the competition.
Improvements to the Map Monsters mode:
- Improved spawn logic for the monsters preventing them from spawning in inaccessible locations.
- Monster discovery results in the monster despawning with a visual effect.
Login February 6th at 10:00am PT (1:00pm ET / 18:00 UTC) through April 2nd at 10:00AM PT (1:00 PM ET / 17:00 UTC) to claim your bounty!
| Challenge | How to Unlock Reward |
| Something in the Water | 🔒 Login during Something in the Water 🚩 Event Profile Icon – Something in the Water |
| Sea Conquest | 🔒 Sink 10 enemy ships in multiplayer or skirmish matches. 🏆 Profile Icon – Sunk |
| Dockyard Demolition | 🔒 Destroy 4 enemy docks using ships multiplayer or skirmish matches. 🧱 Coat of Arms Sigil – Fire the cannons |
| Mythic Haul | 🔒 Gather 200 food from fishing spots in a single multiplayer or skirmish match. 🧱 Coat of Arms Sigil – Water Horse |
| Something Fishy Going On | 🔒 Be the first to discover the Dragon Turtle. 🧱 Coat of Arms Sigil Frame – Fin |
| Street Party | 🔒 Deploy 50 ship units in a single game. 🧱 Coat of Arms Banner Pattern – The Thousand Teeth |
Map Pool Rotation
We are excited to roll out the second mid-season map pool update of the season, bringing several classic favorites into rotation while refreshing a few maps that have been in the pool for a while. This rotation includes rotations across both Solo Ranked and Team Ranked!
1v1 Ranked Map Pool
- King of The Hill –> Socotra
- Ancient Spires –> Confluence
- Relic River –> Rocky River
- Ocean Gateway –> Baltic
- Sunkenlands –> Prairie
Team Ranked Map Pool
- Mountain Clearing –> Hedgemaze
- Lake Side –> Mongolian Heights
- Canyon –> Canal
- Waterholes –> Forest Ponds
- Prairie –> Himeyama
General Map Updates
- Nomadic Ridges & Nomadic Tarns removed from the Quickmatch FFA map pool.
- Number of map downvotes in Quickmatch increased from 15 to 25.
Perk Points Make Good for Masteries
Thank you for your patience as we worked through issues related to Perk Points not being properly granted or saved last year. To make good on the fact that many of you completed Masteries intended to reward Perk Points, if you currently have fewer Perk Points than the completed Crucible Masteries would have awarded, you will be granted the missing points the next time you load into the game.
Bugfixes
- Fixed an issue in Crucible where the Ottomans were limited to 4 Vizier points by default. The Imperial Council will surely hear about this.
- Fixed an issue across all platforms that caused the wrong civilization flags to appear when viewing another player’s Crucible history in their Player Profile.
- Fixed an issue where the timer would start on the Boon Selection Screen after choosing to restart a match in The Crucible.
- Fixed a bug where Relic Carts were being selected by Military Selection hotkeys in The Crucible.
AI Updates
- AI player will no longer issue conflicting commands to naval units, which results in the unit getting stuck in a command loop.
UX/UI & Menus (All Platforms)
- While we’ve previously fixed other instances of the main menu stuttering when certain USB devices were plugged into the system, we now believe we’ve resolved all instances of this issue across all platforms.
UX/UI & Menus (Console)
- Fixed an issue where the “Console Only” cross-network option was selectable in various lobbies. This option has been removed but may be made available at a later date.
- PlayStation 5 only: Fixed an issue where the controller light bar would ignore the Visuals –> In-Game HUD –> Player Colors setting when it was set to “Team-Based.”
- PlayStation 5 only: Fixed an issue where the controller light bar would not match the player color when playing a Campaign or Crucible mission.
- PlayStation 5 only: “Failed to subscribe to mods” error no longer appear when crossplay is disabled.
- PlayStation 5 only: When loading into an older build, you’ll now see various notifications informing you of a new update.
Editor/UGC
- -map_gen_debug has been re-enabled for modding purposes.
General Bugfixes
- Various stability fixes made to reduce crashes across all platforms.
- PlayStation 5 only: Fixed an issue where autosaves didn’t save correctly on certain campaign missions with longer names (i.e. The Fall of Xiang Yang).
- PlayStation 5 only: Significantly reduced the size of save game files.
Civilization Bugfixes (All Civilizations)
All Civilizations
- Corrected issue where some units and their projectiles would not appear from the Fog of War after attacking.
- Age up research time reduced from 105 seconds → 100 seconds for all Ages.
- Dromon:
- Move speed increased from 1.5 to 1.62.
- Damage increased from 6 to 7.
- Added +3 bonus damage vs Incendiary Ships.
- Ranged Armor increased from 3 to 4.
- War Elephant health reduced from 850 to 800.
- Fixed an issue with the Beachhead Ram not gaining additional arrows from garrisoned units when the ability is activated.
- Relics can no longer be duplicated using multiple Shamans with the Relic Ovoo ability.
- Ovoo health increased from 1500 → 1750.
- Keshik:
- Feudal Age health increased from 145 → 150.
- Castle Age health increased from 175 → 180.
- Imperial Age health increased from 210 → 215.
- Beachhead cost reduced from 500 Stone → 400 Stone.
- Barracks, Stable, and Archery Range reinforcements upgrades cost increased from 950 Stone → 1100 Stone.
- Padded Armor upgrade armor reduced from +2 → +1.
- Debuff Arrow duration reduced from 15 seconds → 10 seconds.
- Inspiration duration increased from 35 → 38 seconds.
- Aachen Chapel aura range increased from 6.5 → 7 tiles.
- The White Tower no longer researches technologies more quickly than other Keeps when playing as the House of Lancaster.
- Muster the Nobles tooltip now correctly states that it spawns four Demilancers rather than five.
- Lord of Lancaster:
- Feudal Age health reduced from 200 → 170.
- Castle Age health reduced from 225 → 200.
- Imperial Age health reduced from 250 → 235.
- Increase Hobelar cost from 70 Food 20 Gold → 75 Food 20 Gold
- Uma Bannerman damage aura reduced from +15% → +10%.
- Early Varangian Guard:
- Damage reduced from 12 → 11.
- Berserk damage reduced from 6 → 5. Berserk damage remains unchanged in the Caste Age and Imperial Age.
- Riddari:
- Damage reduced from 26 → 24.
- Elite damage reduced from 31 → 29.
- Butted Chainmail (Ranged), Lamellar Armor (Melee Infantry), and Scale Barding (Cavalry) upgrades:
- Tier 2 costs increased from 500 Silver → 550 Silver.
- Tier 3 costs increased from 1000 Silver → 1100 Silver.
- Runestones requirements increased from 5 defeated enemies to 10 defeated enemies.
- Imperial Hippodrome:
- Champion Scout damage reduced from 7 → 5.
- Champion Scout torch damage aura reduced from +35% → +25%.
- Champion Riddari infantry movement speed aura reduced from +15% → +10%.
- The Khan will now properly shoot an arrow into the air when using one of the signal arrow abilities in the Imperial Age.
- Fixed an issue which prevented the Khan from granting nearby units +2 armor with the Defense Arrow ability.
- Queued Monastery units and upgrades are no longer lost when Monastic Shrines is researched.
- Keshik:
- Feudal Age health increased from 145 → 150.
- Castle Age health increased from 175 → 180.
- Imperial Age health increased from 210 → 215.
- Ovoo
- Health increased from 1500 → 1750.
- Stone generation rate increased from 120 → 130 in the Castle Age.
- Stone generation rate increased from 150 → 160 in the Imperial Age.
- Early Horseman health increased from 110 → 115.
- Mongols now produce Horsemen +25% faster.
- Mangudai:
- After moving for 1 second, attack speed will begin to slow down from 0.88 → 1.97 seconds per attack.
- Attack speed rapidly returns to normal when the unit stops moving.
- Sipahi:
- Feudal Age health reduced from 155 → 145.
- Castle Age health reduced from 185 → 175.
- Imperial Age health reduced from 220 → 210.
- Fixed two Hojo Daimyo Estate upgrades that were mislabeled in the Remappable Hotkey list.
- Fixed an issue where English villager units were unable to attack the Yatai.
- Shinobi ambush ability can no longer be cast on walls.
- Ryokan healing increased from 3 every 6 seconds → 4 every 5 seconds.
- Villagers gathering from the Sake Brewery’s Toko-Koji mats no longer benefit from mining upgrades.
- Ikko Ikki Monks will now properly attack fleeing enemies after researching Mountain Top Training.
- Shinobi can no longer throw grenades without decreasing the grenade counter.
- Hisar Academy resource generation per active Governor increased from 50 Food 50 Gold → 70 Food 70 Gold.
- Tughlaqabad Fort:
- Shahi Walls cost reduced from 275 Stone → 250 Stone.
- Red Brick Bastions cost reduced from 100 Gold 300 Stone → 75 Gold 275 Stone.
- Tughlaqabad Fort Benefactor cost reduced from 100 Gold 350 Stone → 50 Gold 200 Stone.
- House of Learning:
- Neza Training cost reduced from 75 Food 250 Gold → 60 Food 150 Gold.
- Khanda Drills cost reduced from 50 Food 200 Gold → 60 Food 150 Gold.
- Elephant Caretakers cost reduced from 90 Food 225 Gold → 60 Food 150 Gold.
- Collateral Damage cost reduced from 90 Food 225 Gold → 60 Food 150 Gold.
- Ballista Elephant:
- Population cost increased from 3 → 4.
- Damage increased from 16 → 18; bonus vs Infantry increased from 12 → 14.
- Elite damage increased from 17 → 19; bonus vs Infantry increased from 14 → 18.
- Fixed a bug where cancelling & requeuing the Imperial Red Seals upgrade would spawn extra Imperial Officials once the upgrade was researched.
Investigation
Your reports continue being crucial to our prioritization and implementation of fixes and features in the game. Keep them coming!
For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!
Coming Up…
Alongside the two 2026 DLCs we announced in a previous blog post, the team has also been working on several quality of life features that we hope to release alongside the Spring DLC. These improvements include:
- Random Map & Biome options, for those of you who want some surprise.
- New Player Colors, for those of you who like to customize.
- Faster flow for getting through the end-of-game screens, for those of you who can’t wait to get into the next match.
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.