Update 18.9036 is an update for Age of Mythology: Retold released on March 4, 2025, accompanying the release of Immortal Pillars. It contains several balance changes, including for the Chinese pantheon since their introduction into the game files after the last update, where they were playable by those granted early access as well as by Scenario Editor triggers for others who pre-ordered the expansion or own the Premium Edition. It also introduced the Daily Celestial Challenge event, where new Blessings for Arena of the Gods can be earned.
Game[]
Stability and performance[]
- Fixed crashes that could occur in some rare situations.
- Minor improvements to increase general stability.
- Performance updates for VFX and other Immortal Pillars content.
- Fixed a hang that could occur when skipping a cinematic in a multiplayer custom random game.
- Fixed a persistent black screen that could occur when skipping some cinematics.
- Fixed a crash that could occur on some machines when tabbing out while the game starts and then changing graphics settings.
- Stability improvements for PlayStation 5.
Achievements[]
- Fixed a bug with the Xuanyuan Sword achievement that caused it to be unobtainable.
Localization[]
- Updates to localization to address strings where the English version appeared in the last update.
- Updates to improve the quality of some strings.
Graphics[]
- Performance optimizations applied to Immortal Pillars VFX content.
- Updates to improve the consistency of visuals in some Pillars of the Gods campaign scenarios.
Audio[]
- Music is now present in the Chinese tutorial cinematic.
- Updates to adjust cinematic sound levels in all audio for the Pillars of the Gods campaign.
- Fixed a bug causing cinematic music in some scenarios to be quiet and unaffected by the music volume setting.
UI[]
- Fixed a bug causing the light set changes made in Photo Mode to persist after exiting Photo Mode.
- Fixed a bug causing some text to clip incorrectly in some situations.
- Fixed a bug where observers joining a match would see "Open Slot" instead of player names in the lobby and loading screens.
- Fixed a bug where visual glitches could occur when transitioning from cutscenes to loading screens or to campaign progress dialogs.
- Fixed a bug causing passwords to block spectating matches in some situations that should not have required a password.
- Fixed a bug in Arena of the Gods where the blessing information would not show correctly in some situations.
- Fixed a bug during lobby setup where players who do not own a DLC could not see the selected Major God of players who had selected a major god that is part of a DLC.
- Updated main menu layout.
- Fixed a missing button background for the Chinese pantheon tutorial in the Learn tab of the main menu.
- Fixed a bug preventing use of the invite search bar when using controller in some situations.
- Fixed a bug where crossplay setting changes could require a game restart to apply in some situations.
- Fixed various issues with navigation in the Code of Conduct UI that made it harder to navigate.
- Fixed a bug causing the "Directory Up" button to not always show as available in the correct situations in the save/load dialogs.
- In the save/load dialogs directories will now show up at the top and remain alphabetical when sorting by size.
Controller/Xbox[]
- Added construct building site menu commands to foundations.
- Added repair building site menu command.
- Fixed a bug causing icons on the radial menu UI to appear darker than intended in some situations.
- Fixed a bug with myth units in the Atlantean find menu.
- Added a ring menu for the Trading Post.
- The Villager Priority System will now default to automatic Farm construction enabled.
- Fixed a bug that could sometimes occur while initializing the Villager Priority System.
- Moved transport into the correct find menu location for the Chinese and Atlanteans.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the techs to display incorrectly in the ring menu after selecting multiple of a particular unit / building type.
- Fixed a bug that would have prevented researching Fishing Ship upgrades on Controller in some situations.
- Fixed a bug causing the Age Up option in the god power menu to not function correctly in some situations when using the hold to show menu mode.
Gameplay[]
Fixes[]
- Fixed a bug in Arena of the Gods where players could become stuck in cutscenes when playing in Co-op mode.
- Fixed a bug causing AI exploration to not behave correctly in some situations.
- Changing major god of a player from Chinese to non-Chinese through triggers now properly deactivates God Bonuses and removes buff progress UI elements from the HUD.
- The game camera is no longer improperly zoomed when loading a save file while the Chinese background scenario plays on the main menu.
- Self-casted abilities (e.g., Qiongqi flying/landing) now properly cycle among potential casters when manually cast.
- Fixed a bug allowing the SPC version of Titan Gates to be throwable by various means.
- Fixed a bug where Town Centers could not be placed over Settlements if a Tartarian Gate was placed too close.
- Fixed a bug where Isis Town Centers gave +5 population while under construction.
- Fixed a trade bug caused by an issue with the defensive stance.
- Automatons no longer regenerate when dying while in a disabled state (i.e., being frozen/petrified or thrown after dying) before playing their death animation to prevent them from ending up in a "zombified" state.
- Fixed a bug causing some actions not to behave correctly. This affected passive heal auras (e.g., Healing Spring, Qilin, etc.) and the Fei infection mechanic.
- Fixed a bug that allowed Taotie to improperly apply stackable bonuses if its target died before the devour action was performed.
- Fixed a bug causing gather rate to be calculated incorrectly in some situations.
- Fixed a bug that could cause Kuafus to not obey gather points in some situations.
- Fixed bugs with some blessings that did not function correctly when playing as the Chinese pantheons.
Campaign[]
- Updated spotlight images are now available for all the new Pillars of the Gods campaign scenarios.
- Fixed a bug causing strings to appear incorrectly in some scenarios.
- Minor polish to improve scenarios and cutscenes in the Pillars of the Gods campaign scenarios.
Balance[]
Heroic Fleet: adjusted as follows
Relics[]
- Pandoras Box: myth unit favor cost reduced from -20% → 15%.
- Blanket of Empress Zoe: building crush armor vulnerability bonus increased from -10% → -15%.
Greeks[]
- Poseidon: Lure - cost reduced from 30 → 20 favor.
- Athena: Restoration - repeat cost increased from +10 → +20 favor.
- Apollo: Oracle - Unit and building line of sight bonus increased from +4 to +5.
Egyptians[]
- Bast: Hieracosphinx - Movement speed bonus on Sphinx reduced from +15% to +10%.
- Sekhmet: Citadel - cooldown increased from 30 → 120 seconds.
- Camel Rider: Now have a 1.25x multiplier vs archers.
- War Elephant: Now have a 1.5x multiplier vs archers.
Norse[]
- Forseti: Dwarven Breastplate - Hirdman and Berserk bonus reduced from -20% → -15% hack armor vulnerability. (This change was intended but not actually implemented)
- Freyja: Sessrumnir - Hero hitpoints increased from 15% → 20%.
- Tyr: Fimbulwinter - Added a hard cap and a soft cap to the number of wolves that the Fimbulwinter God Power can spawn.
- Odin: Raven - Line of sight increased from 14 → 16.
Atlanteans[]
- Prometheus: Theft of Fire - Adjusted as follows
- Oranos: Sky Passage - Adjusted as follows
Units[]
- Cheiroballista: adjusted as follows
- Hitpoints increased from 85 → 105.
- Attack range reduced from 20 → 18.
- Line of sight reduced from 22 → 20.
- Cheiroballista (Hero): adjusted as follows
- Hitpoints increased from 115 → 120.
- Attack range reduced from 20 → 18.
- Line of sight reduced from 24 → 20.
- Turma: adjusted as follows
- Movement speed reduced from 5.3 → 5.0.
- Line of sight reduced from 18 → 16.
- Attack range increased from 13 → 14.
- Turma (Hero): adjusted as follows
- Movement speed 5.6 → 5.3.
- Line of sight reduced from 20 → 18.
- Attack range increased from 13 → 14.
Chinese[]
- Note: The Chinese were released with this patch itself, and as such this changelog is with respect to the early access.
- Shennong: Heal rate on favored land reduced from 5 → 1.5 per second, but increases by 1.5 per age.
- Goumang: Taowu - can now throw cavalry units with his dash. (This does not work as stated as the size limit still excludes cavalry)
- Chiyou:
- Yazi - adjusted as follows
- Movement speed reduced from 6 → 5.5.
- Hitpoints reduced from 250 → 210.
- Hack Armor reduced from 35% → 25%.
- Son of Loong - Yazi special attack damage reduced from +50 → +40 hack.
Random maps[]
- Fixed a bug that caused a failure to load the yellow_river map when starting games with the water map set of random maps.
New maps[]
- Bamboo Grove: You start in a narrow pass within the bamboo forest. Hold the chokepoint, exploit the resources behind your base, and defend against enemy attacks from the front.
- Great Wall: The Great Wall offers a temporary truce. Fortify your defenses and plan your attack before breaking through to the enemy!
- Peach Blossom Land: Players begin together in this mythical paradise, but must venture out into the Peach Blossom Land for resources, or attack early to seize the advantage.
- Qinghai Lake: A mysterious shrine rests upon China’s largest lake, its shallows navigable by land and naval units alike. Capture it to gain an economic bonus.
- Silk Road: With limited resources to gather, players need to capture Trading Posts along the Silk Road which grant resources of your choice. The Trading Posts will stay under your control as long as your units or buildings are nearby.
- Steppe: The generous grassland perimeter offers ample resources, but true power lies in controlling the central open steppe and its vital settlements.
- Yellow River: The Yellow River divides the region and forks in the center to form an island. Shallow crossings offer passage, making attacks predictable and rewarding keen awareness of your opponent. Players must migrate to more fertile banks as the starting resources run dry.
Modding/Editor[]
- Town Center Building Chain anchor VFX is no longer shown in the editor to prevent the constant spawning of objects whenever a scenario with Chinese Town centers is loaded.
- Fixed a bug in the default editor that caused the "Size" text on the New Scenario popup to show in the wrong place.
