You’ll have to download a whopping 55 GB to patch Total War: Warhammer 3 to version 6.2. The advantage: the game will be smaller. We have the full patch notes.
Starting June 17, 2025, you’ll be able to download such a huge update for Total War: Warhammer 3 that even Call of Duty would tip its hat in respect: 55 GB of revisions are on the agenda, including extensive changes to items in Warhammer 3, AI adjustments – and most importantly: the compression of the files themselves is being massively overhauled.
The latter will reduce the overall size of Total War: Warhammer 3 by around 30 percent. If you want to reinstall the game, you’ll have to download a smaller package in the future. What’s more, this compression should also improve loading times. The patch notes mention reductions of 5 to 42 percent when switching to combat.
Below, we outline the most important changes in mega patch 6.2. The complete patch notes can be found on page 2 of this article.
The most important improvements in update 6.2
So, let’s summarize the fun:
- Better item progression: The patch cleans up the number of items for your lords. There are now fewer items, but they should feel more meaningful and tailored to your strength level on average.
- New units: The Chaos Dwarfs get a new affordable siege unit in the Hobgoblin Bolt Throwers, while the Vampires get heavy cavalry in the form of the new Blood Knights. The old Blood Knights are renamed Blood Knights (Lances).
- The aforementioned file compression ensures that the game shrinks by around 30 percent overall and loading times are faster.
- There are two new options for the campaign AI When activated, small factions act much smarter in their environment and are more likely to survive into the mid and late game. This also makes large factions react more dynamically to threats and new encounters.
- The so-called Portholes, i.e. the small unit graphics that appear when you click on a unit, have been redesigned. They should now look better.
- In addition, there are of course lots ofbug fixes and detail adjustments, which you can find on page 2.
What do you think of the update or the current state of Warhammer 3 in general? Feel free to write your thoughts in the comments, and we may take another look at this massive strategy game in a follow-up review if there is enough demand. But now on to page 2 and the patch notes.
The complete patch notes for Update 6.2 of Warhammer 3
MAGIC ITEM REWORK
The magic item system has been completely reworked to unify item design, balance item power, and declutter the inventory. In total, over 600 utility items (all common, uncommon, and rare items) have been adjusted in terms of their effects and rarity to fit our new balancing philosophy.
Core Changes
New power budget system: All items now follow a uniqueness/cost matrix to ensure that the rarity of the item matches its power.
Balanced rarity tiers:
More distinct power differences between common, uncommon, and rare items.
Rebalanced rarity thresholds (e.g., common items now 35–50, uncommon items start at 80).
Expanded item effects: Brand new effects (e.g., generic barrier, healing cap) for more variety.
“Status quo” approach: Powerful items will now be adjusted to their performance level instead of being weakened.
Smarter item management
Fewer but more powerful items to reduce clutter in the user interface.
Items tailored to your current collection and playstyle provide more variety.
Item fusion update:
Fused items now correspond to their category (e.g., armor fuses into armor).
Rare → Unique fusions are now possible (low chance of success, risk of failure).
What we haven’t changed
Updates to unique character items
These follow a slightly different paradigm and have a much wider pool of effects than standard accessory items.
We will likely need to make adjustments here, as some weaker unique items will likely struggle to keep up with the new top-tier rare items. However, this will be decided on a case-by-case basis in the future.
Wherever possible, we want to focus on their imagination and give them powerful thematic effects to reduce the current trend towards a collection of good but thematically incoherent stats.
Banners
These are set to be changed following the same paradigm as our approach to standard items in this patch, but didn’t quite make it into this version. After some further fine-tuning, they will be available soon!
Changes to banners
You can now equip multiple banners of the same type on different characters.
New Unique Items
Wyrmslayer Sword – A weapon for fighting large enemies.
Sparkling Shield – Reflects attacks and magic.
Cursed Armor – Strong defense with a curse.
Briarsheath – Stealth-focused armor.
The Fur Blade – Upgraded to a unique level; powerful but deadly.
Eight Burning Books of Khorne – Risk-reward chain of extremely rare magical books with a major impact on gameplay.
New Units
Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower – Affordable ranged siege unit for Chaos Dwarfs.
Blood Knight – Anti-infantry vampire cavalry variant with high endurance.
DEV NOTE:
The unit is called “Blood Knight,” not “Blood Knight (Sword & Shield),” as was incorrectly stated in last week’s dev blog. The old unit has been renamed “Blood Knight (Lance)” to match our naming conventions.
COMPRESSION
General compression with fast decompression speed implemented and applied to most files in the game packages:
The game memory size has been reduced by 27%.
Loading times when entering battles have been improved, with reductions ranging from 5% to 42%, depending on the battle.
Loading times when starting the campaign have been improved, with an average speed increase of 9%.
Game packages have been reorganized to reduce and minimize patching time for future updates.
Can modders also use compression?
We have informed the author of RPFM (Frodo) about how to support the new compression method within RPFM. Compression with the assembly kit is available, although some files, such as audio and video files, should not be compressed. Please note that the download size of this patch is larger than usual: 55 GB (may vary slightly depending on the platform). This is due to compression, which reduces the total size of the game by 27%, and to the reorganization of packages in order to streamline and lighten future patches and urgent fixes.
CAMBIOS EN LA IA DE LA CAMPAÑA
Two new customization options have been added:
AI Strength and Threat Assessment: default ON. When enabled, campaign difficulty settings are overridden so that AI factions are always better at assessing threats based on the strength and proximity of their rivals, in addition to having a general hostility towards unknown factions. Enabling this setting will produce the same result as the CAI BETA 1 setting.
Minor faction potential: disabled by default. When enabled, minor factions make better decisions in the campaign, increasing their tendency to survive longer and have a greater impact on campaigns. Enabling this setting will produce the same result as the CAI BETA 2 setting.
2D WINDOW UPDATE
As part of version 6.2, we have regenerated over 1200 2D windows throughout the game. Most of them were only generated during the initial implementation of units, and over time the game engine has changed significantly, going through rendering and lighting adjustments (some were generated during the dark age of shiny metal and were quite bright). They were also generated at different times in our approach to the generation process itself: how much anti-aliasing, what type of ambient lighting do we use?
All normal units (except characters, which use a different process) have been regenerated with a unified look and quality level, with consistent antialiasing and environments.
BUG FIXES
HIGHLIGHTS
The abilities granted by effects to summoned units (Summoned Skink Priest, Krell, and Summoned Guardian of Secrets) now activate correctly.
The radio range of units mounted on Slaanesh steeds (Slaanesh Seekers, Slaanesh Heart Seekers, Slaanesh Hellriders, and Slaanesh Hellriders (Hell Whips)) has been increased to slightly reduce their performance when fewer units are fighting in close combat at the same time.
The effects granted by Sniper and Assassin have been removed.
PERFORMANCE
Fixed a potential crash when opening a user interface panel for the first time.
Fixed a potential crash related to traversing the settlement in the prologue campaign.
Added restrictions to battle camera movement to prevent a potential crash during the unit positioning tutorial.
Fixed a potential crash during the skill guide.
Fixed a potential soft crash that could occur after teleporting the character and rejecting a mission battle. Fixed a potential campaign crash caused by the presence of a Skaven war machine during a match.
CAMPAIGN
GENERAL/GAMEPLAY
The wear immunity effects of vampires in Nagashizzar and Azhag’s Crown of Sorcery have been replaced, as they already benefit from them as a faction effect.
Azhag the Butcher’s Butcher trait now correctly grants immunity to psychology to his army.
The missing characters have been added to the “Characters of Tzeentch” category, so they are now affected by effects such as the Chaos Gift Arrows of Destiny.
The Chaos Lord of Tzeentch now unlocks Gate of Tzeentch from the Deadly Supremacy advantage instead of Gate of Khorne.
Grom’s trait now applies the Leadership effect only to normal goblins, matching the Physical Resilience effect.
Blood Speakers are now affected by Annihilator Armor, as they also lead armies.
Siege Attacker has been removed from Daemon Slayer Lords, as they are not legendary characters and do not have battering ram-sized axes.
Malakai’s Encamp stance now provides a chance to defend against ambushes.
Karak Kadrin now starts with the correct amount of treasury for his faction.
The “Caress the Female” and “Feed the Male” options now affect all Yin/Yang units instead of just a small selection.
Norsca can now recruit the Norscan Warhounds (Poison) unit in the campaign, instead of being exclusive to custom battles.
The Indisputable Champion advantage for Chaos Lords of Tzeentch now correctly grants experience gains to Tzeentch units.
SKILLS
Arkhan’s skill, “Legions of Death,” now provides a leadership boost at its second level.
The skill “Bloodlust” now more accurately describes which units benefit from its effects.
Overlapping abilities in Khargan the Mad’s ability tree have been resolved.
The ability “Plague Feeder” has been added to Khargan the Mad’s ability tree.
A Resist effect has been added to “Beastlord’s Presence” to reflect “Beastlord’s Gaze of the Beastlord”; Rakarth’s subsequent ability is now a true upgrade!
The Demon Prince now affects Nurgle’s Beasts with the ability “Rancid Menagerie.”
The Flesh-bound Elemental of the Beasts is now affected by the unique abilities of Great Shaman Bray, “Bellows of Discord” and “Hardened Skins.” Pelts.
TECHNOLOGY
Cockatrices are now affected by “Gaze of the Dark Gods” when played with any Beastmen Lord.
Imperial land ships are now affected by the “Reinforced Armour Plating” technology.
ANCILLARIES/ MAGICAL ITEMS
Mother Ostankya’s faction, Daughters of the Forest, can now acquire the “Priest of Taal” and “Priest of Ursun” ancillaries.
The effects that granted Assassin in addition to Assassin have been removed.
Witch engineers now have a slot for arcane items.
Sacred incense now correctly grants projectile resistance to friendly units within range.
BUILDINGS/SETTLEMENTS
Nurgle outposts now provide garrison units where they are built.
The Spirit Leech and Soulblight spells have been added to the Amethyst Wizard that Elspeth can obtain in the Amethyst College building.
Pigbarter now functions correctly as a minor settlement in RoC campaigns.
