
Europa Universalis V 1.2 Encinades is Patch Notes (6th May 2026)
EU5's biggest update yet lands today, touching the HRE, Orthodoxy, military systems, trade, and nearly everything else in between.
Paradox dropped 1.2 "Echinades" for Europa Universalis V today, and calling it a big patch would be underselling it. The studio describes it as their largest update yet, and the 72-page patch notes back that up.
The headliners are an overhauled HRE with a new Imperial Diet and Imperial Armories, a full Orthodoxy rework that turns Patriarchs into actual characters and scraps Rite Power in favour of Religious Influence, and a military overhaul that splits troops into Heavy and Light categories with separate upgrade paths. The Balkan and Greek content expansion adds 300+ new advances and around 150 Dynamic Historical Events, which should give that region far more depth than it had at launch. The long-requested Event Viewer also finally makes it in, and there's a sans-serif font accessibility option I'm glad to see included. Honestly, the scope here is impressive for a free update, and the AI Country Personalities system alone could change how the late game feels.
One firm warning from Paradox: 1.1.X saves will technically load, but the team says you'll likely find your country in an unrecoverable state. Start fresh. The complete notes are below.
Full Patch Notes
Emperors! Today we're releasing Update 1.2 "Echinades" our biggest update yet. From a sweeping expansion of Balkan and Greek content, overhauled HRE and a system for AI Personalities, and the much requested event viewer. 1.2 touches nearly every corner of the game. Please find out highlights below!
Checksum: 5be7
Date: May 6th, 2026
1.2 highlights:
- Balkan Content — 300+ new advances, ~150 new Dynamic Historical Events, and extensive new content for Greece and the Balkans, a couple new formables, reforms, and privileges.
- Overhauled Economy — Updated trade route logic and Maritime Presence mechanics, a new Trade Orders feature, Urban Rights, the Megalopolis location rank, and some tweaks to hopefully reflect a more historically accurate economic setups.
- Orthodoxy Rework — Patriarchs are now characters, with a reworked Law and Tenet system, and Religious Influence fully replacing Rite Power.
- Deeper Politics & Diplomacy — Overhauls to the HRE (new Imperial Diet, UI rework, Imperial Armories), a new Papal Authority system, and AI Country Personalities and Disposition Systems.
- Improved Military Systems — Overhauled logistics, a Heavy/Light troop split with distinct upgrade paths, some improvements to both land and naval combat, and new tools like army templates and City Walls.
- UI, Art & Accessibility Improvements — New in-game Event Viewer, a sans-serif font accessibility option, 3D City Walls visuals.
- ~2,000 Bug Fixes & Modding Support — Lots of under-the-hood polish plus new modding tools including Bureaucracies and Movements as fully moddable Systems to be expanded upon later.
Want to see it all in action? Check out our 1.2 Feature Breakdown video for a brief walkthrough of everything new in Echinades:
The patch notes for this update come out to just about 72 pages in google docs (Fun fact, based on our quick calculations that's about 21m long if you printed it out on A4 Paper). These notes are too long to share directly here on steam, however, you can find our full patch notes on our forums here:
https://pdxint.at/EUVEchinades
⚠️ WARNING You are able to load the save game from 1.1.X versions but our testing indicated that you will probably encounter your country in a unrecoverable state due to how many rules of the game have changed. For this reason we highly recommend starting a new save with 1.2
We hope you enjoy update 1.2! We couldn't have put it together without your feedback, so keep it up.
In the coming days and weeks we'll be monitoring you feedback and preparing some hotfixes and minor patches to follow based on that.
As usual, here is a list of handy EU5 links:
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Have fun and Be Ambitious!
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Written by
Nathan LeesGaming journalist and founder of XP Gained. Covering patch notes, breaking news, and updates across 160+ games.
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