Union Update – It’s “Empire of the Skies” Release Day!

Hello Anno Community,

While summer comes to an end, a brand-new adventure begins in the Anno world: “Empire of the Skies” is now available!

Game Update 15 & “Empire of the Skies”

Game Update 15 can now be downloaded! The “Empire of the Skies” DLC is now available on Ubisoft Connect and Epic, and will be available on Steam starting 7PM UTC+2 today. In the past weeks we have spoken a lot about the new content, so if you need some guides before diving into it, feel free to check our DevBlogs on the new Airships, all the new game features and content added with DLC11, and the “Clash of Couriers” Scenario!

Game Update 15 also features a long list of bugfixes, quality of life improvements and some balancing changes – you can read the full Release Notes here.

We want to make you aware of one Known Issue, however:

The Local Departments will unequip their departments and policy upon loading a savegame while their effect stays active. As you might imagine, this is going to be fixed, so we recommend not using and relying on said exploit to avoid any issues later down the line.

We will keep you updated on our planned patch.

Twitch Drops

Just like every DLC release in the past, “Empire of the Skies” comes with its own set of Twitch Drops: a banner and a mural, to show off the amazing Key Art of “Empire of the Skies” directly in your Anno cities. The Twitch Drops event will run until September 29th, so you have still got some time to watch your favourite Anno streamers and get yourself some fancy new ornaments. For more information check out our dedicated article.

A new Community Challenge

A new DLC also means a new Community Challenge for you, Annoholics! Last time you passed the Challenge with flying colours and built over 145000 Fertiliser Modules. WOW! Well, this time there are actually *two* Community Challenges – the main Challenge related to DLC11 and a side challenge. For “The Sky is the Limit”, you are required to build 500.000 Airships – combined amongst all players across the world, of course! “Fire on the Water” instead involves ships and harbour defences: you will need to build collectively 250.000 of the new Flamethrower Monitors and Flamethrower Towers.

Completing the main Challenge will lead to the reward, a new billboard ornament featuring a brand-new artwork related to the DLC. And, of course, we’ll also give you said artwork as a download to be used as a wallpaper. Rewards will be added with a future Game Update. Good luck on the Challenge, Anno Community!

This brings us to the end of this Union Update. We hope you enjoy “Empire of the Skies” and the “Clash of Couriers” Scenario! We cannot wait to see the transformation of your cities with all the new content – and the transformation of the sky, with all the new airships. So, feel free to share screenshots and videos with us!