--- title: "HoMM Olden Era Patch #11: The Necromancy Rework, and Does It Really Change Necropolis?" description: "HoMM Olden Era Patch #11: Necromancy can raise units of any tier, but in smaller numbers. The official changes and what followed through October 2026." url: https://after-strategy.com/en/homm-olden-era-patch-11-necromancy-rework-2026/ lang: en published: 2026-08-14 updated: 2026-10-26 author: "Simon Dougnac" author_url: https://after-strategy.com/en/auteur/simon/ game: "Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era" game_url: https://after-strategy.com/en/jeux/heroes-of-might-and-magic-olden-era/ categories: [tour-par-tour] tags: [heroes-of-might-and-magic, homm, olden-era, unfrozen, hooded-horse, patch, necromancy, edition-2026] translations: fr: https://after-strategy.com/fr/homm-olden-era-patch-11-necromancie-refonte-2026/ es: https://after-strategy.com/es/homm-olden-era-parche-11-nigromancia-rework-2026/ publisher: "After Strategy" --- # HoMM Olden Era Patch #11: The Necromancy Rework, and Does It Really Change Necropolis? > HoMM Olden Era Patch #11: Necromancy can raise units of any tier, but in smaller numbers. The official changes and what followed through October 2026. Patch #11 of Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era arrived on July 6, 2026, two months after the April 30 Early Access launch. It is not a routine fix. Unfrozen rewrites the logic of Necromancy, Necropolis's faction skill, and along the way adjusts Schism, Hive and several hero skills. Three and a half months later, there is enough distance to judge what the rework changed, and what the October balance beta is putting back on the table. ## Necromancy before Patch #11: why it felt stuck Before July, Necromancy depended on the composition of the hero's army. The patch notes describe a strict restriction that tied raising the dead to what the army already contained. In practice, a hero with no creature of a given tier could not raise units of that tier after a fight. Unfrozen acknowledges the flaw in its patch notes: the previous version was powerful enough, but too complex to grasp. Players had to anticipate which creatures they could raise before even starting a battle. That hidden logic made the faction hard to read, especially for a newcomer discovering Necropolis. ![Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era — hero exploring the adventure map with resources and buildings in view](https://after-strategy.com/images/articles/homm-olden-era-patch-11-necromancie-refonte-2026/screenshot-1.webp) ## What the rework actually changes The core change is simple to state: after a victory, you can raise enemy units even if your army holds no creature of the matching tier. High-tier units become reachable without any special preparation. These are the conversion rules set out by Unfrozen: - By default, fallen enemies come back in their base form: a tier 1 unit becomes a Skeleton, a tier 2 unit a Wight. - If the army already holds undead of the right tier, the raised version depends on its composition. - If only the upgraded version is present, that one is raised, at an extra energy cost. - If several upgrades coexist, the one with the larger stack in the army wins. Map tooltips now show which creature will be raised. In the combat results window, the player can cancel the raise and recycle the fallen enemies into Necromantic Energy. The same window lets you switch between accumulating energy and turning creatures into undead of the same tier. The choice therefore shifts from preparation to arbitration. Before the fight, there is no need to check the army's composition. After the fight, you must decide between raising units right away and storing energy for later. ## The price of flexibility: fewer units raised Unfrozen did not hand out this freedom for free. According to Unfrozen, the starting and recovery energy values were adjusted, and that the total number of raised units dropped noticeably. The published figures let us measure the gap. The hero's base pool goes from 1000, 1250 and 1500 to 3000, 4000 and 5000 depending on level. But the raising cost is multiplied by four for tiers 1 to 7: 5 becomes 20 for a tier 1 unit, and 500 becomes 2000 for a tier 7. Tier 8 goes from 2000 to 7500. A quick calculation from those values alone gives the order of magnitude. At the base level, a full pool could raise 200 tier 1 creatures before the patch, against 150 after. At the top level, it goes from 300 to 250. Volume therefore falls by roughly 17 to 25 percent for tiers 1 to 7, ignoring sub-skills and the energy gained by recycling the dead. The energy recovery values did not move, so against costs multiplied by four they weigh less. Two adjustments soften that picture: - The elite class "Chronomancer" now refills the hero's energy pool every day. - The "Death Herald" sub-skill doubles its maximum pool bonus, from 500 to 1000. Conversely, "Eternal Service" restores less health, 50 HP instead of 80. The overall picture looks more like a rebuild of the faction's economy than a simple removal of a constraint. ![HoMM Olden Era — tactical combat interface on a hex grid with hero stats and unit placement](https://after-strategy.com/images/articles/homm-olden-era-patch-11-necromancie-refonte-2026/screenshot-2.webp) ## The other changes in the patch Necromancy takes the headline, but the patch touches other faction mechanics. Here are the changes Unfrozen announced: - **Schism**: Abyssal Communion now applies to units from other factions. Its maximum level goes from 4/5/6 to 3/4/5 and the share of temporary creatures per level from 3% to 2.5%. Unfrozen explains the choice by below-par results in Classic mode, while the faction stayed very strong in Single Hero mode. - **Hive**: larvae have more health, 16 instead of 8, while other summoned stacks no longer count when calculating the number of larvae. The emphasis shifts to their explosive potential. - **Battle Magic and Summon Avatar**: after the nerfs to Might heroes, mages had gained the upper hand. Battle Magic returns to its original values, and the base version of Summon Avatar is weakened, with more options through its sub-skills. - **Random maps**: the Jebus Tournament and Outcast Tournament templates arrive with uninterrupted simultaneous turns, along with the hybrid templates Mix and Galaxy. - **Fixes**: an exploit that let Temple players gain unlimited resources on the adventure map is removed, as is a damage bug on the Dungeon dragons' alternative attack. Unfrozen also reminds players that deliberately exploiting bugs in competitive play can lead to a temporary or permanent ban. ## What has happened since July Patch #12, released on July 10, served as a follow-up fix. Unfrozen explains there that earlier adjustments had over-nerfed Magic heroes in Arena mode. The Magic Damage bonus of Sorcery goes from 10/20/30% to 20/30/40%, and its specialists gain 15% plus 5% per 3 hero levels. The story since has been written around content: Patch #13 and The Mysterious Island, the September patch, then [Alliances and the advanced map generator](https://after-strategy.com/en/heroes-might-magic-olden-era-alliances-random-map-generator-2026/). On the competitive side, the Alvari Cup began on August 1 with 16 invited players. In its September 30 announcement, Unfrozen also lists the Necromancy rework among the hero skill balancing work promised in its third-quarter roadmap, alongside the Schism and Grove adjustments. On October 15, Unfrozen opened a public beta branch for what it calls the biggest balance update since Early Access began. It replaces the damage formula based on Attack and Defense, rebalances skills, artifacts and alternative upgrades, and makes the Global Map AI stronger. The undead are affected: the Skeleton gets 2 Defense and the Wight gains 1 point of health. Unfrozen stresses that none of these changes is final, and a second beta update followed on October 21. ## What to watch now For a Necropolis player, the thing to follow is how two workstreams interact. The Patch #11 rework changed how many units you raise, while the beta changes what those units are worth once raised. A sturdier Skeleton or a thicker Wight alters the value of a mass raise of low tiers. The question is no longer just "is Necromancy readable?" but "what is a raised army worth under the new damage system?" The beta feedback, which the studio wants broken down by faction, template and game stage, should answer that before the main release. To place Necropolis against the other factions, the [HoMM Olden Era 2026 tier list](https://after-strategy.com/en/heroes-olden-era-faction-tier-list-2026/) remains the site's most complete reference. ## Going further - [All our Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era articles](https://after-strategy.com/en/jeux/heroes-of-might-and-magic-olden-era/) - [Olden Era roadmap: one million copies and the 2026 stages](https://after-strategy.com/en/homm-olden-era-1-million-sold-roadmap-2026/) - [Olden Era Early Access review](https://after-strategy.com/en/heroes-might-magic-olden-era-early-access-review-2026/) - [HoMM Olden Era 0.82: The New Attack/Defense Damage Formula Explained](https://after-strategy.com/en/olden-era-damage-formula-attack-defense-update-0-82-2026/) *Sources: [official Patch #11 notes on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3105440/view/668369251018478585) · [Patch #12 on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3105440/view/668369251018481274) · [balance beta announcement](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3105440/view/689771494788563699) · [Gamespace on Patch #11](https://gamespace.com/all-articles/news/homm-olden-era-received-patch-11-necromancy-update-ui-tweaks-and-balance-changes/)* ## Frequently asked questions ### What does Patch #11 change for Necromancy in HoMM Olden Era? **Patch #11** (July 6, 2026) removes the strict link to army composition: after a victory, Necromancy can **raise enemy units even without a creature of the same tier**. In exchange, the energy values were adjusted and the total number of raised units drops. The results window also lets you recycle the dead into Necromantic Energy. ### Does Patch #11 affect factions other than Necropolis? Yes. Patch #11 changes **Schism**'s Abyssal Communion, **Hive**'s larvae, the stats of **Battle Magic** and **Summon Avatar**. It also adds the Jebus Tournament and Outcast Tournament templates and fixes an infinite-resource exploit on the **Temple** side. ## Sources - - - - - - - - - - Source : [HoMM Olden Era Patch #11: The Necromancy Rework, and Does It Really Change Necropolis?](https://after-strategy.com/en/homm-olden-era-patch-11-necromancy-rework-2026/) — After Strategy