Hey guys! The Winter Festival is here and it comes with A TON of cool changes! The game’s balance has been completely redone, and we truly hope you’ll have even more fun playing Northgard :-)

I. It’s the Winter Festival again!

• Permafrost is the default biome during the winter festival.
  
• Villagers can build snowmen
  
• Giant Trees have winter decoration.
  
• Axe Throwers throw snowballs
  
• Some Deer have red nose.
  
• Bears on Permafrost are white
  

II. General Changes

1. Lore Related Changes

A LOT of different Lores have been modified to make the game more enjoyable and intuitive to play:

• Trading lore doesn’t exist anymore.
  
• Shipbuilding now allows the Lighthouse.
  
• Coinage now allows the trading routes.
  

• Mining Efficiency is now at Tier I in Wealth Tree, replacing Trading
  
• New Mining Efficiency: +50% speed mining. No more additional ore.
  
• Eradication becomes a generic Lore, no longer a Stag specific lore. It is a Tier II in Growth Tree, replacing Mining Efficiency.
  
• New Eradication: Silo bonus +10%. -50% upgrade costs. No more happiness bonuses.
  
• Recruitment is now triggered when sacrificing a Dragon unit or slaughtering a sheep or a giant boars
  
• Medecine : +50% healing speed (no more Healers can bring food when they do not heal).
  
• Military Strategy get a max set at 25%
  

This patch will introduce two new Lores that fill holes in some of the clans potential. These will grant us more flexibility when balancing the game or designing new clans:

• Tier IV in Growth branch ⇒ Shiny Happy People: -20% required happiness based on your population
  
• Tier IV in Wealth branch ⇒ Trading Caravan: Trading Route gets +20%. Affinity with neutral factions grows quicker
  

2. General Relic Related Changes

• Mjolnir: does less damage during a shorter time.
  
• Skull of Hrungnir: gets a 1 year cooldown and you can summon more than 1 zombie giant.
  

3. Miscellaneous Changes

Coming with the rework of the Lore tree, the following changes will help balance things up:

• Healers can bring food when they do not heal. No need for Medicine lore anymore.
  
• The Townhall provides +1 krowns.
  
• Basic Mining speed has been slowed down.
  
• Skirmishers are no more accessible to all clans. They are exclusive to the Snake clan.
  
• New tool for Scouts: +15% scouting speed, run between territories
  
• Forge building cost is reduced: 60 wood, 15 krowns, 30 sec build time
  
• Spectral warriors and Myrkalfars can be found in any Biome, not only Ragnarok.
  
• New Altar of Kings: +3 Food / Wood / Krowns / Lore, +1 happiness, 50 fame
  
• Supply lines penalty decreasing with time -5% per year
  
• There can be more than one Bear in a zone, depending on difficulty and Townhall distance
  
• We added a cooldown for the first recruitment of the Warchiefs (This includes Kaija, but not Signy).
  
• Projectile Resistance is now an ability.
  
• When playing in multiplayer with or against AIs, it is now possible to have an infinite pause.
  
• You can keep exploring a Ruin or Shipwreck an ally started to explore without starting over.
  

4. Neutral Faction Changes

A few things have changed regarding the Neutral Factions behavior to give them a fair impact on the game:

• Trading with neutral factions improves trading over time.
  
• Trading with them prevent them from attacking you (works with Kobolds and Myrkalfar).
  
• If you have a positive relationship with a neutral faction, they won’t attack your territories.
  
• Blain gets the thunder attack, like the Raven's Giant Mercenaries.
  

III. Clan Balancing

• Fresh Fish replaces Hearthstone
  
• Foresight replaces Recruitment
  
• Near the sea Spirit:
  +1 Krown and +1 Wyrd for 4 building on coastal zone.
  Now replaces Shipbuilding
  
• Knowledge from Beyond now allows the trading routes.
  
• Fame 500 - Howl from the Sea Master:
  During the Kraken event, your clan is feasting.
  

• Quality of Life replaces Negotiate
  
• Warcry cooldown is now shared between both warchiefs.
  
• Metalcraft:
  Now replaces Mining efficiency
  Warchiefs mining and forge speed is increased by +60%
  
• Excavation: Every Warchief Mining stone or iron produces +4 lore
  
  

• Draconic Frenzy:
  +100% att if a military unit fights with no other allied military unit in the zone.
  
• Dragonkin:
  20% projectile resistance is now displayed
  Attack power 12 => 13
  Move speed +10%
  
• Blood, Sweat & Tears replaces Medicine
  
• Capture: Chance to capture is doubled if warchief is in zone
  
• Skull of Hrungnir:
  You can now summon more than one Undead Giant.
  We added a 1 year cooldown after each Undead Giant recruitment
  
• Slave Trade replaces Erudition
  

• Skirmishers are now exclusive to Snake clan.
  
• New Signy:
  She has new stats and she grows quicker
  Age 16: Signy gain ranged attack
  Age 17: Signy can go through neutral foes zones like skirmishers
  Age 18: Signy gain Scorched Earth
  
• Scorched Earth:
  Like mercenaries, Signy pillage resources in enemy territory depending of the zone production
  
• Under Pressure:
  +20% att and supply penalty reduced for Skirmishers. +10% to other military unit attack.
  +0.5 happiness and +1 Food for each military unit in a non allied zone next to or in an enemy territory
  
• Guerilla Tactics:
  Military units gain +1% Attack Power per unit lost or killed in an enemy territory (max 30%)
  
• New Black Market:
  +10% merchant production & allows Trading Route
  +50% income from Trading routes with enemy clan
  This clan gains no resources from you and diplomacy is decreased
  
• Rapacious Exploitation
  Now replaces Negotiate
  Bonus of special tiles (such as Thor’s Wrath or the Geyser) is doubled
  Rapacious Exploitation no longer allows scouting neutral ruins
  
• Gungir: The Clan of the Snake's Relic:
  Unlock the Stealth Ability to all military units
  Stealthy units won’t get attacked by Watch Tower for 5 seconds when entering a tile.
  

• Legacy:
  Now replaces Hearthstone
  Altar of Kings production and happiness +50%
  
• Herbalism:
  Active menders gives +5% production and +10% Lore production in Mender's hut Zone.
  +20% Healing speed.
  
• Simple Living replaces Sharp Axes
  
• Lay of The Land replaces Mining Efficiency
  
• New Bartering:
  Allows Trading Routes.
  You can trade every resource to neutral factions.
  Trade routes with neutral factions +1 happiness per trading route
  
• Osmosis replaces Negotiate
  
• Mask of Gullinbursti, the Clan of the Boar's Relic:
  +5 Food production. Summon a non controllable giant boar from all forests.
  Boars into allied territory are pacified.
  You can sacrifice boar from your territory for food (500).
  It regenerates its health quickly.

• Shield Maiden and Kaija get projectile resistance like Shieldbearers.
  
• Kaija costs 40 Food and 40 krowns
  
• Hibernation: Units regenerate during winter in allied territory
  
• Winter Festival:
  50% penalty winter prod
  +3 Happiness in winter
  +50% on Trading Routes in Winter

• New Negotiator: +2 krowns, +20% commercial influence
  
• Exotic Goods replaces Erudition
  
• New weapon in the Forge for Raven Mercenaries: they get 20% projectile resistance.
  
• Mercenaries Raid: Longer time before appearing in enemy territory.

• Starting Bonus: Starts with 40 lore
  
• Fame 200: Also gives 75 lore
  
• Fame 500: All productions gets +1% per 100 Fame
  
• Lore Hero Emblem:
  Altar of kings cost no stone
  Gives +2 happiness and earns fame
  Hero Emblem replaces Recruitment
  
• Food Preservation:
  +3 food for each Silo (+5 if upgraded)
  +1 happiness per silo.
  Now replaces Hearthstone
  
• Glory of the Clan:
  +20% fame on fame gains.
  +20% on Trading Route and Great Trading Route
  
• The Value of Great Deeds:
  Skalds produce 1 krown (+1.5 if upgraded).
  Skalds tools are free and -50% forge time
  Now replaces Mining Efficiency

• Starting Bonus: Can build only one SheepFold
  
• Shepherd:
  2 free sheep.
  Can build a second Sheepfold.
  +10% sheepfold production
  
• Industrious replaces Recruitment
  
• Amenities replaces Eradication

• Conqueror:
  +75% attack power versus Tower
  +75% decolonization speed
  
• Spoils of War: Villager, Warrior, Skirmisher, Draugr, Warchief give 5 krowns less.
  
• Horn of Managarm: It is possible to summon a white wolf individually.

This update will download automatically from Steam. If you have any problems/queries with regard to the update, leave a comment below or contact us at support@shirogames.com where our Support Team will be ready to assist.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback and suggestions over the last few months and of course, a big thank you to the beta testers!

We hope you all enjoy this update and have a great holiday season!

- Shiro Games