Total War: Warhammer 3 Update 5.3 patch notes: Ogre reworks, new items, and more

Find out what the patch from October 31, 2024, has to offer

Creative Assembly / Sega

Creative Assembly is releasing Update 5.3 for Total War: Warhammer 3 on October 31, 2024, bringing a couple of Ogre-related mechanics reworks, a wave of brand-new magic items, and a free unit alongside several other changes and fixes.

Players of the Ogre Kingdoms will be able to take advantage of a reworked Bounty system, while everyone benefits from the overhauled Ogre Mercenary mechanics – the studio already detailed both of the Ogre reworks in the previous week, so this is nothing new. The same goes for a new unit introduced with this update, a Grave Guard halberd variant for the Vampire Counts.

There is a lot more to discover in this update, however, such as a list of brand-new magic items – some uniques among them – you will be able to find in your campaigns from now on.

CA has some spooky, scary skeletons for you. Do they send a shiver down your spine? / Creative Assembly / Sega

Find the full Total War: Warhammer 3 Update 5.3 patch notes below.

Total War: Warhammer 3 Update 5.3 patch notes

Ogre Mercenary Recruitment Rework

• Increased the Ogre mercenary unit cap per army from 1 to 3.
• Ogre mercenary pools now replenish at a rate of 1 unit every 5 turns.

The quality of mercenary units available now depends on the tier of the Ogre camp More mercenary units are now available from Ogre camps, including:

• Ogre Bulls
• Ogre Bulls (Dual Weapons)
• Maneaters
• Maneaters (Ogre Pistols)
• Mournfang Cavalry
• Ogre Giant

Ogre Bounties Rework

“We plan to release a large rework for the Ogre Kingdoms in the next DLC pack, alongside an extensive 'Mercenary Contracts' feature for Golgfag Maneater. Therefore, we felt the existing Contracts feature needed a refresh and were able to implement it ahead of that release.”

• The feature has been renamed to “Bounties” to avoid confusion with the upcoming feature.
• We've improved the UI to make it more thematic.
• Bounties no longer require player acceptance at a rate of one every 10 turns.
• All three bounties are issued and active simultaneously, allowing players to complete them opportunistically.
• When one Bounty is completed (or expires or is aborted), it will be replaced with a new one on the following turn.

New Magic Items

Generic Items:

• Tilean Pavise
• Forest Cloak
• Longshot's Cap
• Engineer’s Knapsack
• Ranger's Quiver
• Potion of Farsight
• Spotter's Spyglass
• Deepwood Branch
• Lucky Arrow
• Asp Bow
• Dragonfire Handgun
• Hunter's Talon
• Outrider's Handgun
• Ranger's Axe
• Sky Titan's String
• Wyvernbone Bow

Unique Items:

• Helm of The Draesca
• Deathsinger (Named “Cynatcian” if it belongs to the High Elves)
• Doomsinger (Named “Elthraician” if it belongs to the High Elves)
• Maad's Map
• Idol of Zak-Aloooog (Only available for Greenskins)
• Aldred's Casket of Sorcery

Research Overflow

Previously, finishing the research of a technology while having a high tech rate could lead to the research getting “wasted” due to overflow. Creative Assembly has changed the system so that this is no longer the case.

“With our new system, when you finish researching a technology with surplus points, those extra points will be stored as 'research point surplus' in your technology tree. This surplus will then automatically be applied to the next technology you research. Enjoy the small (but now real) benefits of 5% research rate in the long, long run.”

Movement Range Display

“We've reworked how campaign movement range is displayed in an effort to improve clarity when moving and switching stances. Previously, movement range was shown as percentages, but it often represented a numeric value under the hood. To clarify this, movement range is now displayed as a numeric value, while bonuses will still be presented as percentages. This change should make entering and exiting stances much more understandable, especially when calculating the movement range you need!”

Disciple Army Confirmation Button

• When you press the button to create a Disciple Army as Slaanesh, a confirmation prompt now appears to prevent accidental creation.

Battle Map Tree Cluster Update

The following maps have been updated with removed or reworked trees:

• Cauldron Creek – Ogre Valleys
• Misty Valley – Ogre Valleys
• The Great Gulley – Ogre Valleys
• Forest of Shadows – Vampire Forests
• Cursed Marshes – Vampire Forests
• The Dead Wood – Vampire Forests
• Corpse Crossing – Vampire Forests
• Forest of Shadows (conquest)
• The Dead Wood (conquest)
• Shadow Mountain – Darkland Mountain
• Scorched Valley – Darkland Mountain
• Darkland Peak – Darkland Mountain
• Darkened Gorge – Darkland Mountain
• Ashen Trails – Darkland Mountain
• Great Hunt Tomb – Norscan Hills
• Old Corpse Hills – Norscan Hills
• Spine Path – Norscan Hills
• Horned Hills – Cathay Plains
• The Raining Rocks – Cathay Plains
• Shell Mountain – Cathay Plains
• Terracotta Walk – Cathay Plains
• Horned Hills (conquest)
• Hungering Valley – Ogre Valleys
• Jade Desert – Cathay Desert
• Husk Desert – Cathay Desert
• The Arid Shrine – Cathay Desert
• The Dry Plains – Cathay Desert
• False Oasis – Cathay Desert
• The Desert’s Run – Cathay Desert
• Old Hunt Rise – Norscan Mountains
• Carrion's Course – Norscan Mountains
• Peak Hunger – Ogre Mountains
• Plains of the Darklands – Darkland Plains
• Tempest Plains – Kislev Plains
• Icy Breath Bridge – Kislev Plains
• Plains of the Patriarch – Kislev Plains
• The Flats of Kislev – Kislev Troll Country
• Troll Run – Kislev Troll Country
• Bastion River – Kislev Troll Country
• Fjord's Edge – Kislev Troll Country
• The Flats of Kislev (Conquest)
• Troll Run (Conquest)
• Compass Reach – Cathay Wastelands
• Dragon Ash Fields – Cathay Wastelands
• The Barren Plains – Cathay Wastelands
• Red Dust Route – Cathay Wastelands

Modding

• We have made a number of changes to many of our Lua scripting files to enable modders to edit them without requiring a full overwrite of the file. While this will not have a noticeable gameplay impact for most users, it will enhance compatibility between various mods and reduce issues when using multiple modifications.
• Addressed a known issue for modders by removing the previous cap on the maximum number of provinces, now allowing more than 255 provinces. This change should resolve the limitation, though further testing by the modding community is encouraged, as additional restrictions may still exist.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when entering the Nemesis Crown marker.
• Fixed a crash when opening a character's skill tree, especially affecting Kairos Fateweaver. This issue caused consistent crashes under specific conditions and has been resolved to improve stability. 
• Fixed a crash that occurred when a character ranked up and triggered auto development of skills.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when units attempted to dock a ladder to a wall.
• Fixed an issue where certain playable factions could not be revived through rebellions after being destroyed.
• Fixed an issue with the Warband mechanic that prevented Be'lakor from upgrading Chaos Troll units to Bile Trolls.
• Fixed an issue where the Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord (Yin) had only one use of the bound spell "The Enfeebling Foe" in campaign. The number of uses has now been increased to four.
• Fixed an issue where, when playing as a Warriors of Chaos faction, many technologies requiring active Gifts of Chaos would not consistently work without a clear reason.
• Fixed issues with teleportation to foreign regions via Oxyotl's ‘Visions of the Old Ones’.
• Campaign AI should now use certain mechanics less frequently to align with intended design, including Book of Grudges units, Matters of State, Colleges of Magic, and Malakai’s Adventures.
• Adjusted Nakai's 'Wild-Eyed' skill to align with the Kroxigor Ancient's 'Blade Master' skill, increasing the melee attack bonus from +9 to +12 for consistency.
• Fixed inconsistencies in the names of skills and unit abilities in the Gorebull skill tree.
• Fixed an issue where occupying the Oak of Ages as the Ogre Kingdoms allowed the construction of regular settlement buildings instead of the Oak of Ages building.
• Fixed an issue where some effects of certain Dwarf Deeps buildings, which require adjacent Dwarf factions, were not triggering.
• Addressed an overlap issue in the Lords & Heroes dropdown, where the remaining travel time counter overlapped when using sea lanes with Greasus.
• Resolved an issue where the UI for building Silent Sanctums as Oxyotl was obscured by a dark overlay, making the icons and confirmation dialog difficult to see.
• Fixed an issue where the Wood Elf Tree Spirits buildings were incorrectly showing as a landmark building in the landmark icon tooltip.
• Resolved a UI issue where players, despite having sufficient resources, could not send gift payments to Clan Moulder, affecting multiple factions and occurring without warning; the gift mechanic now functions correctly for all factions.
• Fixed an issue where the contact effects in the Daemon Prince gifts panel did not display tooltips.
• The Gorebeast Chariot of Khorne unit is now correctly listed as a 'Monstrous Chariot.'
• Resolved an issue where Karanak's running animation on the campaign map did not loop smoothly, causing snapping and desynchronization with his movement speed.
• Resolved a visual issue where Alarielle did not play animations while mounted and moving in Lileath's Blessing or Ambush stances.
• Resolved a visual issue where the floating part of the helmet on the Heralds of Tzeentch unit duplicated during idle animations for both the Lore of Metal and the Lore of Tzeentch.
• Fixed visible terrain holes at the edge of the shroud.
• Resolved an issue in Kislev's Frozen Falls battle where defeating the initial enemies did not progress the mission, preventing completion and leading to an automatic defeat.
• Fixed an issue where Greasus' quest battle, 'Overtyrant's Crown,' in both multiplayer and singleplayer campaigns lacked objectives and featured immobile AI. The battle now starts properly, with objectives displayed, enemy units moving, and reinforcements spawning as intended.
• Addressed situations where the default deployment leads to units being cramped in one corner.
• Fixed an issue where ranged units with the ability to shoot while moving would sometimes not fire when repositioned. Additionally, addressed instances where they experienced significant delays in firing due to misaligned ticks.
• Ambushed armies that have retreated and are set to be wiped out will no longer attempt to withdraw from battle.
• Fixed an issue where Chaos Warhounds exhibited erratic movement and became stuck behind corners in Domination Battle maps. Pathfinding has been improved to ensure they move smoothly towards their targets.
• Addressed an issue where large AI attacking armies on certain maps encountered challenges reforming due to constrained playable space. In these situations, AI armies will now bypass the reform phase and proceed with a more focused attack.
• Fixed an issue where the AI remained idle during ambushes when the enemy was hidden (stalking).
• The Battle AI will attempt to distribute its units across multiple targets to minimize blobbing in land battles.
• Fixed an issue where the AI seemed idle while crossing the river, waiting for reinforcements. Now, when 95% of the units have crossed, they advance to attack without delay.
• Dwarf Ancestor Ghosts with shields now have the correct Missile Block Chance (55%).
• Alberic's unique Hippogryph Mount (Tempete) now correctly uses Bordeleaux's faction colours.
• Adjusted the size of Feral Ice Bears to match the intended design.
• Fixed an issue where certain contact effects, such as those used by Skaven units and Vampire Coast spells, were incorrectly applied despite being intended to be ignored by unit attributes like ' Immune to Contact Effects’.
• The leadership benefit from the 'Encourage' attribute has been normalized to +4, regardless of whether it comes from a character or a unit (previously +3 for characters and +8 for units). This reinstates an earlier improvement from Warhammer 2's Twisted and Twilight DLC.
• The quest ability ‘Soulbinding’ is now correctly classified as a passive ability.
• The Doombringers (Warpfire Throwers) now correctly have the ‘Scurry Away!’ ability.
• Resolved an issue where manual fire orders for the Iron Daemon and Dreadquake Mortar were being ignored, even though the UI indicated the orders were active.
• Wulfhart's Witch Hunter, Dr. Hertwig van Hal, now benefits from the abilities ‘Tools of Judgement’ and ‘Grim Resolve.’
• Adjusted the collision boxes of the Steam Tank and Land Ship to allow both units to be more reliably hit from the rear.
• Fixed an issue with the Khepra Guards Regiment of Renown unit, where the left sword floated during the knockdown animation.
• Fixed an animation issue for the Scions of Mathlann (High Elves) where their spears appeared to snap when transitioning from combat to idle.
• Resolved a visual issue where the Iridescent Horror's helmet disappeared during idle animations for both the Lore of Tzeentch and the Lore of Metal.
• The Golden Griffon RoR now plays an animation when casting the bound spell ‘Searing Doom.’
• An asset outside the playable area of the Black Fortress siege map has been grounded to ensure full player immersion. This is a Greenskins map, not a Tzeentch map - know your place, asset. 
• Fixed a bug involving several floating assets in the siege battle for The Crystal Spires.
• Adjusted rock and cliff assets across multiple Ogre Mountains maps.
• Camera collision has been implemented for the lava pools surrounding The Bleeding Spire battle map, limiting visibility beneath them.
• Cliff assets and terrain have been adjusted to eliminate unintended gaps across the Altar of Chaos battle map.
• A wall asset in the Black Fortress siege battle map has been readjusted to better align its textures with surrounding assets. 
• A number of humanoid reference assets were unintentionally left in Throgg's Monster Hunt: The Salzenmund Soul-Eaters Quest Battle and have now been removed.
• A tower on the Hell Pit siege map has been marked as destructible to align with the intended design, ensuring the complete destruction of all towers on the east side of the wall. 
• The deployment zone of the Fetid Catacombs map has been adjusted to avoid overspilling into the non-playable areas.
• Players can now see the "Quenched!" contact effect from Soul Quench in the temporal effects UI when the ability is applied.
• Replaced the incorrect ‘Shielded’ tooltip with the correct ‘Armour Piercing’ tooltip for Dwarf Ancestor Ghost Hans Valhirsson.
• Fixed an issue where Blessed Field Trebuchets were missing their 'No Friendly Fire!' Tooltip.
• Adjusted the tooltips for Piercing Bolts of Burning and Searing Doom to reflect the actual duration of the bombardment.
• Addressed an issue on the Galbaraz Conquest map in multiplayer where water did not apply shallow water terrain effects.
• Resolved an issue on the Dok Karaz multiplayer map where water pools did not apply water terrain effects.
• Fixed a bug where disconnecting a player's ethernet cable during the multiplayer campaign countdown could create a dead lobby. One player would sometimes load into the game and get kicked out, while the remaining players were left in a lobby that became invisible to others. 
• Fixed an issue where the Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Shadows) was missing the Tormentor Sword item in Skirmish vs AI.
• Improved the wording of an instructive tooltip in the game settings for better clarity.
• Fixed a bug where setting up a Cult after attacking a settlement in the Changeling campaign did not trigger any VO lines.
• Resolved an issue where Thorek Ironbrow's name was not translated into French in the Great Book of Grudges.
• Fixed an issue where the effects of the skill 'Barak Varr Handshake' - increased range and anti-infantry units - are now correctly translated into Traditional Chinese.
• Fixed an issue with the Czech translation of the Dwarf blue line skill 'Mason,' ensuring it's now clear that the effect applies only to the main building chain of each settlement in the province, not all buildings.
• Fixed a bug where the Ancient Protector ability text was not translated, making it visible only in English.
• Fixed an issue where Oxyotl could be dismembered.

Check out the official blog post for changes pertaining to multiplayer and balance.