Total War: Warhammer 3 Update 9.0 — End Times Crises, Glottkin, and Vampire Counts Rework Explained

Immortal Empires has always had the same structural issue in the late game: existing crises arrive predictably, without the dramatic escalation a campaign spanning three continents deserves. Update 9.0, previewed at Creative Assembly’s WHAT’S NEXT livestream on June 30, 2026, targets that problem directly — and most of the changes ship free to everyone, regardless of whether you buy the DLC.

Three End Times crises replace the flat endgame

Creative Assembly is replacing the current crisis system with three staged End Times events. An upgraded Vermintide acts as a mid-campaign pressure point. A Nagash-led invasion follows as the central escalation — even if you do not own the Undead Legions faction. The final stage is an Archaon-led assault built around what the developers describe as a true endgame state, not just another crisis pop-up.

The Archaon twist is notable: play as him and you can position yourself as the campaign’s final boss, with a win condition built around world-ending domination rather than the standard territorial objectives.

The risk here is balance. An End Times system that triggers too early breaks long campaigns; one that arrives too late becomes irrelevant. Creative Assembly has historically struggled to calibrate crisis timing across the enormous map of Immortal Empires.

Vampire Counts rework: Raise Dead scales with casualties

The Vampire Counts overhaul is the most concrete free change in Update 9.0. Raise Dead no longer operates at a fixed rate: the mechanic now scales with casualties taken during battles. Costly engagements unlock larger resurrections; comfortable wins give you less.

The tradeoff is real. Reaching maximum Raise Dead power requires lair investment and dedicated resources — turning the faction into an active economy rather than a passive snowball. In theory, Vampire Counts stay competitive late but demand deliberate management earlier.

Whether this fixes the polarizing swing between early dominance and mid-game fade-out that Mannfred and Isabella von Carstein produced in extended campaigns depends entirely on implementation. The full patch notes, expected closer to September, will tell the real story.

Individual victory conditions for every legendary lord

Update 9.0 replaces the generic campaign win conditions with unique objective checklists for each legendary lord. Depending on the lord, requirements might include leveling specific units, confederating with named factions, or constructing their most famous landmarks.

For players running multiple long campaigns, this is probably the change with the most long-term impact. Having a lord-specific narrative direction gives Immortal Empires the sense of purpose that open-ended sandbox runs often lack past the 150-hour mark.

Lords of the End Times: what September brings

The DLC is scheduled for September 2026 with four legendary lords. Three are confirmed:

• Nagash — the Great Necromancer as a playable legendary lord for the Undead Legions, a new playable race
• Boris Todbringer — Elector of Middenheim, joining the Empire with a fortress-lord identity
• Glottkin — the Glot brothers, marked by Nurgle, joining the Warriors of Chaos with new units: Putrid Blightkings, Basilisk, and a Chaos Siege Giant

A fourth legendary lord, widely expected to be a Skaven character, has not been officially confirmed. Neferata will arrive as a free legendary lord (FLC) for the Vampire Counts.

What to watch before September

The free patch alone makes a case for returning to Immortal Empires in September. The End Times crisis overhaul addresses the structural endgame problem directly, and individual victory conditions change how every run feels regardless of which DLC you own.

The tension is in the execution. If the Nagash crisis and the Archaon assault land as genuine pressure rather than another checkbox, Update 9.0 could push Immortal Empires into its best state since the Chaos Dwarfs expansion. If the balance misses, expect community pushback.

For a current read on faction standings before the meta shifts, the Immortal Empires tier list is the place to start. The original DLC announcement from earlier this year is in our Lords of the End Times preview.