Age of Empires IV Season Four brings a fantasy biome, Nomad mode, and more

After spending some time in the testing track, the Season Four update for Age of Empires IV now has a confirmed release date. Developer Relic Entertainment is launching the major update on February 16, and it is carrying three new maps, a special biome with an attached event, a returning classic game mode, and more.

Jumping in, the newest biome joining the game is Enchanted Grove. This fantasy-inspired biome sports a purple hue throughout its land and sea areas, with plenty of glowing plants also littering the landscape. An Enchanted Stag can spawn in this map during multiplayer and skirmish matches, and successfully hunting it gives players a Golden Stag Monument. For balance purposes, this biome will not be included in Ranked rotations.

Speaking of Ranked, Season Four will kick off a new competitive season on February 17, bringing another wave of rewards to earn while climbing up the tiers from Bronze through Conqueror.

Coming back to the Season Four update, Four Lakes, Continental, and Marshland arrive as three brand-new maps. Meanwhile, the iconic Nomad game mode that was popularized by Age of Empires II is coming to the latest entry as an official addition.

The mode has players spawning with three villagers in randomized positions in the map. This makes for a chaotic start with unusual base positions and uneasy fights. Instead of relying on the community mod version of Nomad, players will be able to select the game mode in custom and skirmish games natively following the update.

As for mods, Relic is making major upgrades to the in-game mod browser. This includes a dynamic search that pops up results while typing, better search results, filters to find official mods by the developer, subscriber counts on search tiles, and other improvements. Other features like minimap zoom levels, UI improvements to unit and garrison HUDs, a cheat code to turn off the UI entirely, AI improvements, are here too.

Age of Empires IV Season Four update lands February 16 for owners of the game and PC Game Pass subscribers. Head here to read the full changelog of the update, which includes a huge amount balance changes aimed at maps and civilizations.