Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Beginner’s Guide (Build 0.81): The 6 Factions, a First-Week Plan, and the One-Hero Mistake

The short version: start on the Temple faction at Normal difficulty, get a second hero before day 7, and stop clearing every neutral camp you can see. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has been in Steam Early Access since April 30, 2026 with six factions and the first act of its campaign, and it has changed a lot since the first wave of guides. This one is checked against build 0.81.02, the September 30 update, and the October 2 hotfix.

Sources are Unfrozen’s own Steam announcements, the official community wiki and two guide sites. I haven’t logged hours in this build myself, so where a recommendation is my reading of those sources rather than something the developer states, I say so. The wiki’s own editors flag several faction pages as out of date, so I only lean on those where a patch note or a second source agrees. Last checked October 7, 2026.

Quick start: your first session in 8 steps

1. Check the machine. Steam lists Windows only, a quad-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a GTX 1650-class 4 GB GPU and an SSD as the minimum. The list price is $39.99 in the US; a 25% sale was running when I checked.
2. Play the in-game tutorial, then campaign Act 1. Act 1 is the only act in Early Access, so it works as a long tutorial.
3. Pick Temple and Normal difficulty. Both guide sites I read point new players at Temple, and Unfrozen weakened the Easy and Normal AI two days after launch.
4. Hold ALT on the map. It highlights every object you can interact with.
5. Learn four hotkeys: L for Laws, B for the spellbook, O for the Mage Guild, and 1 to 0 for unit and hero abilities in combat.
6. Move on roads and native terrain. Roads cut travel cost by 33%, and deserts carry a much higher movement penalty.
7. Hire a second hero by day 7. More on why in the one-hero section below.
8. Split a cheap stack before a hard fight and send the single creature in first to soak the counterattack. Retreat whenever the maths looks bad.

The hotkeys, roads, ALT highlight and unit-splitting tips come from the official wiki’s Beginner’s Guide. This guide covers the opening only; faction build orders, hero builds and campaign missions deserve deeper guides of their own.

What you’re buying: Olden Era in Early Access

Olden Era is a turn-based fantasy strategy game from Unfrozen, published by Hooded Horse, whose launch build shipped with six factions (Temple, Dungeon, Schism, Grove, Necropolis and Hive), the first campaign act, an in-game tutorial, Classic, Single Hero and Arena modes, and ranked multiplayer, per the launch announcement. It had passed 1,000,000 copies sold on Steam by May 28, according to Unfrozen’s own post. The core loop is complete, but only one of three campaign acts exists and the map is flat, as the table shows.

Stages and dates come from the May 28 roadmap; the September 30 update reported the Q3 goals complete. Treat everything dated Q4 or later as a plan, not a promise.

What changed since the May guides were written

Several of the guides I checked date from May, and some of what was true then isn’t now. The table lists the changes that affect a beginner, with the date each landed.

The biggest shift is the one nobody can fix in a table: balance. Both tier lists I checked, KeenGamer’s from May 3 and Common Sense Gamer’s from May 30, predate Patches #8, #9 and #11 and the Roadmap Patch. In the September 3 devlog, Unfrozen said Temple’s faction skill will be reworked into “prayers”, a new skill will address Hive’s and Dungeon’s “bleeding problems”, and percentage-based damage and defence modifiers will be rebalanced. The September 30 post adds that the balance patch will get a public beta branch first. Read any tier list as a snapshot, including mine.

The six factions: which one to pick first

Pick Temple for your first campaign missions. If you’d rather start on the faction both May tier lists rank strongest, pick Dungeon, and leave Hive and Schism until you’re comfortable with Focus and morale.

Faction identities come from the wiki’s Factions page and the patch notes; native terrain, Hive’s Hivemind and Schism’s Communion are from the KeenGamer beginner guide. Dungeon’s two attack modes are from the wiki’s Dungeon page, which its editors flag as partly out of date, but the 0.81.02 changelog still fixes a bug in the Onyx and Jasper Dancers’ alternative attack, so the mechanic is current. The two tier lists agree on the order at both ends: Dungeon first, Schism last, Necropolis and Grove second and third. They only swap Temple and Hive in the middle. Both name Temple as the beginner pick.

Native terrain matters more than it looks. Heroes pay no movement penalty on their faction’s native terrain, and the official wiki says the same applies when every unit in the hero’s army belongs to that faction. A Temple army marching across grass moves at full speed.

Which faction should you start with?

• Never played the series: Temple, campaign Act 1.
• Want the strongest faction on both lists: Dungeon. Expect more decisions per stack because of the second attack mode.
• Like snowballing by winning fights: Necropolis, after reading the July necromancy changes.
• Like to stay at range: Grove.
• Like risk: Hive or Schism, once you know the combat rules below.

Your first week: what to build and when

Spend week one on three things: income, one dwelling for your best early unit, and a second hero. Do income first if your starting army can already beat the nearest camp; build the dwelling first if it can’t. That test is from KeenGamer’s building-priority advice, and it’s the most useful single rule I found.

The week matters because creature dwellings refresh at the end of every week. A dwelling built before the reset produces a stack immediately, so finishing one on day 7 gets you its first troops now instead of next week. That timing rule is KeenGamer’s.

The schedule combines KeenGamer’s rules and Common Sense Gamer’s day-by-day targets. They disagree on one point: Common Sense Gamer wants a level-1 Mage Guild by day 7, while KeenGamer says to build Mage Guilds only when their spells would immediately change how you play. I’d side with KeenGamer unless you start with a Magic hero. That’s my judgment, not something I’ve tested.

One mechanic hides in plain sight. Capturing is worth more than it looks because it feeds your Laws. The wiki’s Laws page lists 600 Law Points for capturing a tier 1 dwelling, against 300 for a wood or ore mine and 200 for a gold mine. Tier 2 laws unlock after 5 Seals, tier 3 after 15, and you can earn at most 100 Seals a game. The wiki doesn’t say how many points make a Seal, so I can’t convert that into days. Check the numbers in game, since patches may have moved them.

The logic is the same as the milestone gating in our Factorio Space Age beginner’s guide: don’t expand until what you’ve built pays for the next step.

The hero mistake: why one hero isn’t enough

Running the whole game on a single hero is a beginner mistake both guide sites name. Common Sense Gamer lists it outright and asks for two heroes by day 7, with the main hero carrying the army and the others exploring, ferrying troops, collecting weekly dwelling growth and picking up resources. KeenGamer says to separate faction armies across heroes. None of this applies in Single Hero mode, which is built around one.

The wiki’s Hero Basics page adds the economics. A tavern hero costs 2,500 gold, and only the first two heroes on offer each week arrive with a sizeable army; every later one comes with a single tier 1 unit. Heroes can also be released from prison dwellings on the map. The hero limit is usually tied to how many cities you own.

There’s also a combat reason to split armies. The official wiki says units fight better beside their own kind: an army of one faction gets +1 morale, and every extra faction in it costs −1. Each point of morale is a 4% chance per stack to act twice (positive) or lose its action (negative).

So keep the main hero’s army pure and let secondary heroes carry mixed troops that aren’t fighting. Skills such as Leadership, morale artifacts and faction laws offset the penalty, and each creature type has its own morale cap, per the wiki’s combat page. The sources I read are guide writers’ judgments, not win-rate data, so treat “biggest mistake” as consensus rather than measurement. I couldn’t verify that it literally loses maps. What the mechanics do show is lost tempo and lost troops, since every dead stack is gold plus the weekly growth you could have recruited instead.

Combat in five rules

Fights are turn-based on a hex grid, and the same five rules decide most of them.

1. Bait the counterattack. Most units can counterattack only once, so peel one cheap creature off a stack, send it in first, and attack with the real stack for free.
2. Spend Focus. A ranged or long-reach attack, or taking a hit, gives 1 Focus Point; a melee attack gives 2; retaliation gives none. Six points make one Charge and you can hold three. Splitting ranged attackers into small stacks builds Focus faster without inviting retaliation. Don’t hoard Charges.
3. Use Long Reach. Long Reach attacks hit exactly one hex away and provoke no counterattack.
4. Wait, don’t always act. Waiting pushes a unit to the end of the round, which can force slower enemies to move toward you first and give you the first attack. Skipping ends a unit’s turn without acting, which helps when attacking would only invite a deadly counterattack.
5. Retreat freely. Don’t fight a battle that costs more stacks than the reward is worth. Not every camp is worth taking: guarded mines, chokepoints and external dwellings usually are.

The numbers come from the wiki’s Focus and combat pages and KeenGamer’s guide, all linked above or in Sources. The first rule is also why splitting your cheapest units before a hard fight is step 8 of the quick start.

Hero skills: what to take, and what not to plan yet

Take Logistics whenever it’s offered, then Leadership, Offence and Defence. Those four are the common recommendation across both guides I read; KeenGamer adds Scouting and Diplomacy. Each faction has a Might hero and a Magic hero. Might heroes lean towards Attack and Defence, Magic heroes towards Spellpower and Knowledge, and each class can learn one skill the other can’t (Combat for Might, Thaumaturgy for Magic).

Each hero can also branch into a subclass by reaching Expert in five specific skills, the wiki’s Hero Basics page notes. I wouldn’t plan a route yet. Patch #8 already reworked skills, and the roadmap schedules a rework of elite classes for Q4 2026. That’s the opposite of our Ranni’s questline guide, where the points of no return reward planning ahead: here the developers are about to rewrite the route. Take the generally useful skills and revisit the subclass question after that update.

Which mode fits you?

If you’re arriving from Civilization-style games, our games like Civilization roundup covers the neighbouring turn-based picks. Within Olden Era, the right mode depends on what you want from it.

These come from the September 3 devlog and the September 30 changelog. The random map generator is single-player Quick Start only for now.

FAQ

Is Olden Era worth buying in Early Access right now?

Yes if you want skirmishes, random maps, Alliances or ranked play; wait if you want the finished campaign, because only Act 1 exists and Acts 2 and 3 arrive at 1.0. Unfrozen has shipped 14 numbered patches since May 1, so the game changes fast. If a story and real-time combat matter more than turn-based strategy, our ranked action RPGs of 2026 is the better buy. For wider picks, see the best strategy games of 2026.

Which faction should a complete beginner start with?

Temple. Both guide sites I read recommend it for new players, KeenGamer describes its early economy as forgiving, and its tier list notes it is slow to build momentum. The one catch is that its faction skill is due a rework, so expect that part of the faction to feel different after the next balance patch.

How many heroes do I need?

Two by day 7 is the floor, with the main hero kept to one faction for the morale bonus. The tavern’s weekly stock gives only two heroes with a real army, so hire from those and use the second as a carrier and scout.

What difficulty should I pick?

Normal. Unfrozen weakened the Easy and Normal AI on May 2, and KeenGamer advises Normal until you’ve mastered the systems. The weakening applies to random maps and scenarios, so the campaign may feel different.

Can I play it with a friend?

Yes. Alliances arrived on September 30: you can play co-op against AI or team against team, turns are simultaneous, you can trade resources and armies, and if one of you meets the victory condition you both win.

Sources

1. Valve / Unfrozen. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era on Steam — release date, factions, Early Access content, price and system requirements. Steam
2. Unfrozen. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Released! — launch content list, April 30, 2026. Steam News
3. Unfrozen. Building the Future — Olden Era’s Early Access Roadmap is here! — Stages 1–4, May 28, 2026. Steam News
4. Unfrozen. The Land of Glory: 1,000,000 Copies of Olden Era Sold! — May 28, 2026. Steam News
5. Unfrozen. Patch #2: Difficulty adjustments and Bug Fixes — v0.80.10, May 2, 2026. Steam News
6. Unfrozen. Patch #8: Skills Rework, Balance Pass & Exploit Fixes — v0.80.18, June 1, 2026. Steam News
7. Unfrozen. Patch #11: Necromancy Update, UI Tweaks and Balance Changes — v0.80.31, July 6, 2026. Steam News
8. Unfrozen. Patch #14: More PvE Content and Plans for the Future! — v0.80.49 and the balance preview, September 3, 2026. Steam News
9. Unfrozen. Alliances & Updated Random Map Generator — v0.81.02 changelog, September 30, 2026. Steam News
10. Olden Era Community Wiki. Beginner’s Guide — terrain, roads, splitting units, mixed-army morale, hotkeys. Hooded Horse wiki
11. Olden Era Community Wiki. Hero Basics — classes, subclasses, skills, hiring heroes. Hooded Horse wiki
12. Olden Era Community Wiki. Combat system and Morale — turn order, wait and skip, long-reach attacks, morale rules. Hooded Horse wiki
13. Olden Era Community Wiki. Focus — Focus Points, Charges and abilities. Hooded Horse wiki
14. Olden Era Community Wiki. Laws — Law Points, Seals and tier unlocks. Hooded Horse wiki
15. Olden Era Community Wiki. Factions — one-line identities (stub page). Hooded Horse wiki
16. Olden Era Community Wiki. Necromancy — faction skill page (written before Patch #11). Hooded Horse wiki
17. KeenGamer. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era complete beginner guide. KeenGamer
18. KeenGamer. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era all factions tier list — published May 3, 2026. KeenGamer
19. Common Sense Gamer. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era — 12 tips and tricks every player must know. Common Sense Gamer
20. Common Sense Gamer. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era factions tier list — published May 30, 2026. Common Sense Gamer
21. Olden Era Community Wiki. Dungeon — units, fighting styles, Triumvirate’s Strength, gems (page flagged by editors as partly out of date). Hooded Horse wiki
22. Wikipedia. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era — development and release timeline. Wikipedia

Illustrations in this guide were created for editorial purposes and are not in-game screenshots. Heroes of Might and Magic and Olden Era belong to their respective owners; this guide is unofficial.

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.