Quick Summary
Patch #13 is primarily a major PvE content update, bringing the long-awaited The Mysterious Island scenario to Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era.
The new large-scale single-player map is an official Olden Era remake of one of the popular Heroes III custom scenarios created by Papyjama. It supports all six playable factions and takes narrative inspiration from Jules Verne's famous novel.
Arena Mode receives the most interesting systemic PvP changes. Players can now reroll artifacts, spells, and creatures during the draft, while selected underperforming heroes receive additional starting attribute bonuses based on their Arena performance.
This looks like an interesting direction for Arena. Dynamic hero tuning and draft rerolls make the mode feel more like a standalone competitive experience that can continuously evolve without changing the rest of Olden Era.
Regular PvP balance changes look much less dramatic. There are adjustments to all six factions, but there is currently no obvious candidate for a major tier-list move.
Our team will continue monitoring the meta and thousands of Single Hero matches. If Patch #13 creates meaningful faction or template shifts, we will update our tier lists and guides accordingly.
What Patch #13 Changes in the Meta
For regular competitive PvP, the immediate impact appears limited.
The most notable directions are:
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temple gets a substantial law overhaul aimed at improving its late game.
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necropolis receives several nerfs, including Pestilent Lich and creature-growth specialists.
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grove - qilin are slightly weaker, alongside a nerf to Burst of Energy.
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hive shifts power away from Parasites and Waurms toward Scorpions.
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dungeon receives new and adjusted laws aimed at improving its early game.
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schism receives only a small Tier 1 adjustment.
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Several competitive templates receive timing, economy, guard, and layout changes.
There is no clear reason yet to move any faction dramatically in the current tier list.
Patch notes can suggest a direction, but actual faction strength depends on how these changes interact with map templates, hero pools, build orders, and real competitive games.
For now, Patch #13 looks more like fine tuning than a PvP meta reset.
Patch #13 Context
Recent Olden Era patches have focused heavily on competitive balance, faction mechanics, templates, and multiplayer stability.
Patch #13 changes the emphasis.
Its headline feature is not another PvP balance overhaul, but a major addition for players who want handcrafted single-player content. At the same time, Arena receives mechanics that make it increasingly distinct from both Single Hero and Classic PvP.
That combination makes Patch #13 more interesting as a product-direction update than simply a balance patch.
New PvE Content: The Mysterious Island
The biggest addition in Patch #13 is The Mysterious Island.
The Olden Era version is a large-scale single-player scenario featuring:
- all six playable factions
- handcrafted exploration
- narrative events
- a large map designed for a long playthrough
- a story inspired by Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island
This is an important release for Olden Era's PvE side.
Until now, a large part of the game's replayability has depended on random map templates, campaign content, and competitive modes. A large handcrafted scenario gives PvE players another reason to return to the game for exploration rather than matchmaking.
The scenario is also not considered narratively complete yet. The developers say its story will expand in future updates as additional mechanics arrive, including the underground level.
Arena Update: Rerolls Added to Draft
Patch #13 introduces a reroll system to Arena Mode.
Players can now refresh choices during:
- artifact draft
- spell draft
- creature draft
Each player starts with 4 reroll points.
Players also gain:
- 1 additional reroll point during the artifact draft
- 1 additional reroll point during the creature draft
This adds another resource-management layer to Arena.
Instead of simply accepting the options generated by the draft, players can decide whether a bad roll is worth replacing or whether reroll points should be saved for a later phase.
The change should reduce some draft frustration while also creating another decision point for experienced players.
Arena Update: Dynamic Hero Starting Bonuses
Certain Arena heroes now receive additional starting bonuses to their primary attributes.
The important part is how these bonuses are determined: they are based on the heroes' current Arena performance metrics and the developers explicitly say they can be dynamically adjusted in future updates.
This is an interesting development.
Instead of changing the global version of a hero every time Arena balance becomes uneven, developers can tune individual heroes specifically for this mode.
That potentially gives Arena its own balancing layer.
Is Arena Moving Toward a Battlegrounds-Style Model?
It is too early to call this a roadmap, but Patch #13 introduces some interesting parallels with games built around continuously tuned draft-based modes.
Arena now has:
- random draft choices
- rerolls as a limited resource
- hero-specific balance modifiers
- modifiers that can be dynamically updated based on performance
- a ruleset increasingly separated from other PvP modes
That makes Arena feel a little closer to the design philosophy behind modes such as Hearthstone Battlegrounds, where the core experience stays recognizable while heroes, bonuses, available options, and balance values can be adjusted independently over time.
There is currently no announcement of seasons, seasonal passes, rotating mechanics, or similar systems for Olden Era Arena.
But mechanically, Patch #13 gives developers more tools to evolve Arena independently in the future.
It will be interesting to see whether this remains a small balancing layer or becomes the foundation for a much larger Arena ecosystem.
Arena Update: Creature Specialists Affect the Draft
Heroes with creature specializations now guarantee that creatures of their respective tier appear in the draft pool for both players.
For example, if a hero specializes in Tier 1 creatures, Tier 1 creatures are guaranteed to appear among the available options.
This makes creature-specialist heroes more predictable without giving the benefit exclusively to one side.
Certain high-power spells are also limited so they cannot appear above Level 1 by default, and creature draft quantities have been adjusted.
Together with rerolls and hero bonuses, these changes make Arena drafting less purely random and give players more tools to influence their final build.
PvP Balance Changes
Balance Change: Temple Laws Reworked
temple receives the largest structural faction adjustment in Patch #13.
The developers specifically point to Temple's weaker late-game performance and have substantially reworked its laws.
The most important direction is the Temple Elite Creatures law tree:
- Maximum levels increased from 2 to 3
- Elite Angels scaling changed from
25/50% → 20/40/60%
Several other laws have lower adoption costs, while some existing bonuses have been reduced or redistributed.
Hero's Blessing scaling from hero attributes was reduced from 25% to 20%, but its adoption cost was also lowered.
Meta impact
temple is probably the faction worth watching most closely after Patch #13.
The changes clearly attempt to improve its late-game progression, but the actual value will depend heavily on whether players can reach and efficiently use the additional law levels without sacrificing too much early tempo.
There is not enough evidence yet to justify a tier-list move.
Balance Change: Necropolis Receives Several Nerfs
necropolis receives mostly downward adjustments.
Pestilent Lich — Death's Embrace
- damage-over-time effects now deal only half their full damage when activated
- cooldown increased: 1 → 2 rounds
- cost increased: 1 → 2 Focus Charges
Weekly creature growth granted by specialist heroes was also reduced:
- 2 → 1
The Gifts of the Afterlife law now has fewer levels and costs more to adopt, while Terror and Dread moves from Law Tier 4 to Tier 5.
Meta impact
These changes reduce several sources of Necropolis efficiency, but they do not fundamentally redesign the faction.
Necropolis remains worth monitoring, especially because relatively small changes to army preservation and growth can compound over a full Single Hero game.
For now, calling this enough for a tier change would be premature.
Balance Change: Grove Qilins Nerfed
grove - Tier 6 qilin line receives small defensive nerfs:
- HP: 135 → 130
- Defense reduced by 2
- Luck: 3 → 2
The Burst of Energy sub-skill also loses part of its Heroic Strike scaling:
- 15% → 10% damage bonus per Focus Charge spent
Tier 5 dwellings become cheaper in Crystals but more expensive in Gold.
Meta impact
This looks like a moderate reduction to some Grove late-game efficiency rather than a change to its core game plan.
There is currently no obvious reason to move Grove significantly in the tier list based on Patch #13 alone.
Balance Change: Hive Power Redistributed
hive receives an interesting role adjustment between several creature tiers.
The developers explain that Parasites and Locusts had begun overlapping too much in battlefield role, while Waurms were becoming too dominant and Scorpions remained underused.
Parasite
parasite Speed reduced by 1 across the Tier 1 line:
- Parasite: 4 → 3
- Warden Parasite: 5 → 4
- Ravager Parasite: 6 → 5
Scorpion
scorpion lose some HP but gain significant Initiative:
- Scorpion: Initiative 3 → 5
- Volcanic Scorpion: Initiative 4 → 6
- Spelaean Scorpion: Initiative 4 → 6
Waurms
waurms Tier 6 Initiative is reduced:
- Waurm: 8 → 7
- Devourer: 8 → 7
- Pyroboros: 9 → 8
Devourer receives a small damage increase in compensation.
Meta impact
This is more of a power redistribution than a direct Hive nerf or buff.
Parasites lose some of their exceptional mobility, Waurms act later, and Scorpions become much more active on the battlefield.
Whether that improves Hive overall will depend on whether the stronger Tier 4 role compensates for the loss of tempo elsewhere.
Balance Change: Dungeon Laws Adjusted
dungeon gets targeted law changes intended to strengthen its early game.
Triumvirate's Agents now:
- applies to all heroes
- costs less to adopt
- grants Attack, Defense, and Spell Power instead of bonuses to all attributes
A new Arcane Knowledge law increases maximum mana capacity for all heroes by 15.
Meta impact
These are useful changes, but they do not immediately suggest a major Dungeon meta shift.
The faction's core army progression and main PvP patterns remain largely intact.
Balance Change: Schism Almost Unchanged
schism receives only a small creature adjustment.
Ferocious Ra'Shoth
- Attack: 4 → 3
- Defense: 4 → 3
- Initiative: 5 → 6
Compared with previous patches, this is a very small change and should not redefine Schism's position by itself.
Competitive Template Changes
Patch #13 also adjusts several multiplayer map templates.
Mix
Final battles now happen earlier:
- Week 2, Day 2
- Week 3, Day 2
- Week 4, Day 1
Starting resources, city structures, treasury areas, and guards were also adjusted.
Galaxy
Galaxy becomes smaller:
128 × 128 → 112 × 112
The template also receives layout, road, city, Town Gates, terrain, and object-density adjustments.
Outcast Tournament
- Pandora's Box distribution adjusted
- high-tier external dwellings adjusted
- Global Map spells unlock faster
Sprint
Later final battles move earlier, including the last one:
- Week 4, Day 2 → Week 3, Day 6
The template also receives changes to Global Map spell progression and pocket-dimension availability.
Jebus Tournament
Pandora's Boxes containing army units can no longer generate in the central area.
Meta impact
These template changes may ultimately matter more to Single Hero statistics than several of the direct faction balance adjustments.
Earlier final battles, resource changes, guard difficulty, and different access to dwellings or spells can significantly change which faction strengths are rewarded.
We will monitor match data before drawing conclusions.
Fixed in Patch #13
Patch #13 includes a large number of fixes across combat, spells, multiplayer, UI, templates, and map generation.
Some of the more relevant competitive fixes include:
- archangel now deal correct counterattack damage.
- vampire-scholar no longer incorrectly generate 2 Focus Points from basic attacks.
- fire-larva no longer incorrectly generate Focus from basic attacks.
- fire-larva explosion laws now correctly affect passive explosions.
- several counterattack bonuses now apply correctly
- competitive template generation received fixes for asymmetric maps
- timer expiration no longer risks skipping the following player turn
- Classic tournament hero selection works correctly
- Schism's Involuntary Summons structure now works correctly
- several spell, skill, artifact, and creature interactions were fixed
Patch #13 also restores Shift+U for hiding the user interface and introduces several smaller UI and notification improvements.
AI Development Begins
The patch also contains an interesting note for PvE players: preparatory work has started on reworking AI hero behavior on the Global Map.
The developers describe the current changes as foundational and relatively minor, but they may already slightly affect computer-controlled heroes.
Combined with the release of The Mysterious Island, this reinforces the impression that PvE development is becoming a more visible priority.
Final Verdict
Patch #13 is much more interesting as a content and systems update than as a traditional balance patch.
For PvE players, The Mysterious Island is easily the headline feature and one of the largest handcrafted additions to Olden Era so far.
For competitive players, Arena is the part to watch.
Rerolls, hero-specific performance bonuses, guaranteed creature tiers for specialists, and independent Arena balance rules create the foundations for a mode that can evolve much more aggressively than Classic or Single Hero.
Whether Olden Era eventually develops Arena toward something closer to a seasonal, continuously tuned mode such as Hearthstone Battlegrounds is purely speculation for now — but Patch #13 makes that direction technically much easier to imagine.
For regular Single Hero PvP, there is no obvious new S-tier or collapsing faction yet.
Patch #13 contains many balance changes, but most look incremental. Temple's new law progression is probably the biggest candidate to watch, followed by the redistribution of Hive creature power.
Town Portal will continue tracking thousands of matches and the evolving faction meta. If the data shows meaningful changes, our tier lists and faction guides will be updated accordingly.