EU5 Upcoming Patches and DLC: The 2026-2027 Roadmap

This page tracks what Paradox has said publicly about EU5's future, not what mods or community wishlists hope for. The 1.4 "Río Salado" row is checked directly against Paradox's own Steam news feed (Tinto Talks #117-121, fetched from api.steampowered.com/ISteamNews/GetNewsForApp/v2/?appid=3450310): every scope item in that row is stated there in so many words. The 1.5 "Orleans" row and the two DLC windows below are sourced only to secondary coverage (gamewatcher.com, gamerant.com); no Tinto Talks post in the feed addresses 1.5 or DLC scope directly yet, so treat those as officially-sourced-but-secondhand until Paradox posts about them directly. Where a date is a window rather than a fixed day, that's the source hedging, not us.

Confirmed free patches after 1.3

1.2 and 1.3 are shipped history at this point; 1.3.11 is EMBRIT's current reference patch across the site. 1.4's confirmed scope matches what we've already covered in detail on the 1.4 "Río Salado" patch annotation: this table is the roadmap view, that page is the deep dive on what's actually been said about each system. Population growth is also confirmed for 1.4, not just the flavor systems above. Tinto Talks #118 announces a food-surplus-driven growth model replacing the current stored-food and free-land mechanics; see population growth explained for what's changing and why. Ambitions is not in 1.4. Paradox said directly, in Tinto Talks #117 (2026-07-22), that Ambitions "will not come with 1.4" and moved it to a later, not-yet-numbered update they're calling Discovery, targeted for late 2027, alongside a content-delivery-system overhaul and a Colonization rework, both confirmed in the same post. Earlier roadmap graphics that showed Ambitions inside 1.4 are, in Paradox's own words, "not yet up to date." Beyond Discovery, Paradox has stated only that updates continue, with new start dates, strengthened nomadic-nation gameplay, and further improvements as longer-term plans. No version number or window is attached to those yet, so they're not in the table above.

DLC: one pack shipped, two still coming

Fate of the Phoenix is out. Patch notes since 1.2.2 fix and extend its content directly ("For owners of the Fate of the Phoenix DLC…"), which only makes sense for something already in players' hands. It's dropped from the table below; the other two packs are still ahead of us.

The two DLC windows above are aggregator estimates, not Paradox-stated dates, worth flagging specifically for Across the Pillars: Tinto Talks #117 (2026-07-22) says coverage of it begins only after the 1.4 dev diaries conclude, and Tinto Talks #121 (2026-08-19) still lists it as not yet started ("we'll be covering the above before we get into Across the Pillars"). A Q3 2026 ship (before the free 1.4 update it accompanies) isn't credible against that sequencing, so we've widened the window rather than repeat a date the feed doesn't support.

What this means if you're deciding whether to buy in now

If you're playing Castile right now, Across the Pillars is the one to watch: it directly touches your nation's region. If you're weighing EU5 against EU4 on "how much content will this actually have," see EU4 vs EU5 for the base-game comparison; this page is specifically about what's still coming, not what's already shipped.

Related reading

For the detailed breakdown of what's confirmed so far for 1.4 specifically, see the 1.4 "Río Salado" patch annotation. Back to the full EU5 guide for every other page.