
Total War: Warhammer III Bhashiva Character Pack & Notes (21st May 2026)
Update 8.0 is live alongside the Bhashiva Character Pack, and Cathay players are in for a serious shake-up.
Cathay mains have a lot to read today. The Bhashiva Character Pack and Update 8.0 are live now for Total War: Warhammer III, and the headline change is a complete overhaul of the Cathayan technology tree, split into separate Military and Provinces branches to give players more meaningful specialisation paths. The total number of techs stays the same, but the team has stripped out the single-benefit dead-ends that made parts of the old tree feel like a waste of turns.
Beyond the tech rework, the Gate Master, Alchemist, and Astromancer all receive significant skill tree updates. The Alchemist gains a Sky Lantern mount option and a new ranged combat focus, while the Astromancer gets a specialisation line for buffing magical creatures that's mutually exclusive per hero, so stacking multiple Astromancers won't let you double-dip. The Sky Lantern unit itself has been repositioned away from long-range sniping toward a ranged support buffer role, which should make it feel more distinct on the battlefield. These are the sorts of targeted reworks I'd rather see than blanket stat tweaks, and Cathay has needed this level of attention for a while.
Creative Assembly has noted that Patch 8.1 is the next planned update, though a hotfix could arrive sooner depending on what surfaces post-launch. The complete notes are below.
Full Patch Notes
Hey folks,
The Bhashiva Character Pack is OUT NOW alongside Update 8.0!
Find the full list of changes coming to Cathay alongside Bhashiva and her Tiger Warriors — as well as any additional fixes and adjustments — in the Update 8.0 Release Notes below.
Our next planned update will be Patch 8.1, but our teams are watching closely for any Hotfix requirements in the wake of today's release. If you run into any new bugs or issues after updating to 8.0, be sure to report them over in our dedicated bug reporting sub-forum.
See you on the battlefield!
— Steve Coleman // Senior Community Manager
Cathay Tweaks
Campaign
Complete overhaul of Cathayan Technologies:
- Technologies have been separated into two trees:
- Military – contains unit and combat enhancements
- Provinces – contains enhancements for provincial management, economy and actions on the campaign map and contains 2 starting nodes
- The amount of technologies and time to completely research all of them remain unchanged
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Changes to Legacy Buildings:
- Longma Paddocks – this building has been moved from tier V down to tier IV, so Great Longma Riders will be unlocked earlier.
Changes to Provincial Commandments:
- The Jade Dragon’s Edict – now provides Growth in addition to the existing effects
- The Iron Dragon’s Edict – now lowers the Construction cost of buildings in the province in addition to the increased Research rate
- The Storm Dragon’s Edict – slightly lowered the Corruption reduction effect
- The Sea Dragon’s Edict – changed the effect of this commandment to increase the building income in the province
Ivory Road Additions:
- More variety added to travelling caravan encounters
Characters, Units and Skills
- Gate Master
- Updated the skill tree to make him able to specialise in buffing Cathay melee infantry (excluding Tiger Warriors), Archer and Crossbow ranged units or buff self to become a better warrior.
- The combat line has been split in 2
- 1st line focuses on the melee self buffs
- Total skills reworked/reduced from 11 to 9
- Implacable Spirit (new) – Activates after 25 seconds of remaining stationary, granting increased range, armour‑piercing missile damage, and missile resistance.
- Bandolier – Increases ammunition capacity.
- Masterful Shot – Increases missile strength.
- Drill Disciple – Improves reload speed.
- Wall Veteran – While Implacable Spirit is active, also applies buffs to nearby units.
- Unit buff line has been updated. The player can select only one of the this skills - The Jade Standard, Sentry Mettle and Guerrilla Guard
- Bulwark of the Gate - unchanged
- The Jade Standard – updated
- - Upkeep for all melee infantry
- + Melee defense for all melee infantry
- - Upkeep for Peasant Archers, Jade Warriors with Crossbows, Celestial Dragon Crossbows and Tiger Warrior Stalkers
- + Missile strength for Peasant Archers, Jade Warriors with Crossbows, Celestial Dragon Crossbows and Tiger Warrior Stalkers
- + Reload for Peasant Archers, Jade Warriors with Crossbows, Celestial Dragon Crossbows and Tiger Warrior Stalkers
- Self-Specialization Line – allows further combat self-specialization for the Gate Master. The line is unlocked at level 12 and only one skill can be selected
- Volleymaster – new skill
- Adds Restock ability
- + AP missile damage
- + Bonus vs Large
- + Melee attack
- Adds the Guardian ability to the Gate Master
- + Hit Points
- Adds Immune to Psychology for the Gate Master
- Army Buff Skills – new line that allows the Gate Master to use new Assist Army actions similar to the Rune Priest
- Optimized Logistics – new skill and Assist Army action - adds ammo for missile units in the lord’s army
- Preparedness Drills – new skill and Assist Army action - improves the melee defense to the units in the lord’s army
- Alchemist
- Updated the skill tree to bring the Alchemist more in line with the customization level of recent heroes. She can focus on buffing self to be better in melee, casting or ranged (yes, ranged combat).
- Added a new mount option – Sky Lantern
- The Enchanted Metallurgy Line and Ability has been buffed to have better value.
- Alchemical Enhancements – new skill
- Adds magical attacks to the units in the Lord’s Army
- Adds the Alchemist’s Elixir of Puissance as a bound ability to the Alchemist
- Added a new Self Buff line for the Alchemist
- Student of the House of Secrets – new skill
- + Speed for the Alchemist
- Reduced Cooldown for Lore of Metal spells
- + Armour Speed for the Alchemist
- Adds the Alchemist’s Elixir of Iron Skin as a bound ability to the Alchemist
- + Melee attack
- + Missile Range
- + Ammunition
- + Winds of Magic power reserves capacity
- Unit counts as both Yin and Yang for activating Battle Harmony
- Adds the Health Potion as a bound ability to the Alchemist
- Army Buff Skills – new line that allows the Alchemist to use new Assist Army actions similar to the Rune Priest
- Metallurgic Refining – new skill and Assist Army action – increases Weapon Strength for units in the lord’s army
- Alchemical Hardening – new skill and Assist Army action - increases Armour for units in the lord’s army
- Astromancer
- Updated the skill tree to include a Caster Buff Line like most other new wizards. Added a specialization choice allowing him to buff constructs and magical creatures in the army.
- Caster Buff line – a new line allowing the Astromancer to become a better caster. Unlocked at level 12
- Attuned to the Heavens – new skill
- + Winds of Magic power reserves per turn
- Reduced Cooldown for the Lore of Heavens spells
- + melee attack
- + melee defence
- + Research rate
- Decreases construction cost for all buildings in the local province
- Increases spell intensity
- Allows the Astromancer to buff a specific group of magical creatures available to Cathay. Unlocked at level 14 and the skills are mutually exclusive. The buffs of a particular skill don’t stack with more Astromancers in the army, but each Astromancer can bring one of the other exclusive buffs
- Astromantic Warding – new skill
- Passive ability Astromantic Warding for Jade Lion, Jet Lion and Terracotta Sentinels in the lord’s army increasing their physical resistance
- Passive ability Heavenly Bonds for Great Moon Birds and Celestial Lions in the lord’s army increasing their speed and armour
- Spells range for the Astromancer
- + armour for the Astromancer
- Updated the Sky Lantern to change its role in combat. The focus is to make it a buffer for the ranged units:
- Reduced the missile range to be closer to the Crossbow units
- Added an explosion effect to its projectiles to be more effective against infantry
- Reduced its overall damage to deviate from the sniper role
- The unit can now activate both Yin and Yang Harmony similar to the War Drum
- Updated the Eye of the Dragon passive skill to improve the range and reload speed for nearby allied units in addition to its leadership buff
- Removed the Eye of the Dragon from the Sky Junk. Sky Lanterns are now the only way to get the buff.
Patch Notes
Campaign
General
- Fixed an issue where an occasional random crash would occur when manually starting a battle as Astragoth Ironhand
- Fixed an issue where the Dwarf's Foundry building wouldn’t increase the ranks of lords recruited by Malakai’s airship
- Fixed an issue where non-recruitable units were visible in the Chaos Dwarfs' Hell-Forge manufactory
- Fixed an issue for the Wood Elves so that the effect bundle "Tree Spirits Spared" from the dilemma "Forest Encounter: Tree Spirits" should now increase the Charge of Tree Spirit units instead of decreasing it
- Fixed an issue so that the Cult of Pleasure unusual location spreads 10 slaanesh corruption as stated in the tooltip
- Gave Tamurkhan back his tongue in his unit card and his porthole
- Fixed an issue where multiple unit types in Elspeth’s roster wouldn’t receive Schematics from damage dealt in battle
- Fixed an issue so that the main buildings in Chaos Dwarf settlements should now display in their tooltips how many construction slots they unlock
- Fixed an issue so that the Khorngors, Skullreapers, Wrathmongers and Bloodbeasts of Khorne should now properly receive the benefits of the Chaos Gift "Violent Hunger"
- Fixed an issue so that the effect bundle "Use the wisdom of the Old Ones" from the dilemma Ancient Skills should now decrease the construction cost of Nakai's horde buildings
- Fixed an issue where Markus's lords red skill line didn't affect Huntsmen recruited from Imperial Supplies
- Butcher and Firebelly heroes should now receive the Big Name "Magic Feaster" when they complete the requirement to win a battle against a spellcaster character
AI
- Fixed an issue where Vassals would constantly recruit until they went bankrupt
- Fixed an issue where when attacking a walled settlement, the AI would not move some units for the duration of the battle
UI
- Improved the unit card art for both versions of the Devotees of Slaanesh
- Fix a crash that would occur when opening the Lords & Heroes side panel when there is a Waaagh army whose general's initial unit has died
- Fixed lord/hero recruitment UI showing an incorrect upkeep amount for wounded lords and heroes
- Fixed an issue so that the tooltip explaining that Vassals cannot be 'Dominated' by Slaanesh now appears when hovering over the greyed-out button
Audio
- Added generic diplomacy lines to Azhag when clicking through the diplomacy panel and selecting the character depending on current diplomatic relations
- Fixed an issue so that the Norsca Great Shaman’s VO now plays when razing a settlement
Battle
General
- Resolved some weapon ghosting artifacts that appeared when Temporal Anti‑Aliasing was enabled
- Fixed an issue with the Chaos Dwarves' Skullcracker animation
- Fixed an issue in multiplayer where the supporting player was capable of issuing commands to gifted units while the game is paused and the Battle Realism mode was turned on
- Fixed an issue so that Direct damage, Healing spells and Barrier replenishment correctly scale down with small unit size
- Fixed an issue where Ancient Protector’s circle made out of sight units visible
- Fixed an issue where a softlock would occur after closing the scripted tour for Battle deployment
- Fixed terrain gaps, decal and no-go zone issues on the Vaul’s Anvil battle map
AI
- Fixed an issue so that AI Changebringers of Tzeentch no longer attack the player units in melee when they still have ammo
- Fixed an issue where enemy AI army clumped together in one place as the same order was being given to all units
- Fixed the AI controlled Ushabti (Great Bows) that were refusing to fight in melee when engaged
- Resolved a problem where the AI controlled lord stays idle in front of gates
- Resolved a problem where the AI Gyrobombers were not using the bombs
- Resolved a problem where the AI Changeling were constantly using the Transformation and De-transformation abilities one after another in melee
- Resolved a problem where the AI wasn't prioritizing using the single target damage spell Spirit Leech (Upgraded) on units with less entities
- Solved a problem where the AI in land battles sometimes stays idle with the whole army waiting for the player to attack while the player is outflanking him
- Resolved a problem where units were forming in narrow columns after destroying a gate and sometimes after receiving an order to attack a gate
- Resolved a problem when ranged units had orders to shoot target in range but with blocked fire arc, they were moving forward dangerously close to melee
- Fixed a problem where infantry were bracing even when the cavalry were not moving straight towards them, meaning they stayed in position facing enemy cavalry units without moving, allowing them to be skirted/bypassed
UI
- Fixed flickering UI overlay in battle when TAA is enabled and the camera is moving backwards
Units
- Fixed an issue by increasing the mass of Elspeth Von Draken when on a Barded Warhorse to be the same as other Empire characters while on a similar mount
- Fixed an issue so that Jade and Jet Lion units have their own specific unit caps
- Fixed an issue where Nuln Ironsides weren’t using all of the rifle model variants available to them
- Fixed an issue where the Celestial General would detach from the Celestial Lion during some flying attacks
- Fixed an issue by updating the attack active hitbox of the terracota sentinel so he has a better chance to connect hits
⚠ IMPORTANT
If you experience any issues after downloading the update, please take a moment to Verify the integrity of the game files first to ensure there were no issues when downloading. A step-by-step guide can be found in this article.
If the issues persist, please visit our support site for additional troubleshooting steps and assistance.
🧱 MOD WARNING
Please note that user-generated mods may have compatibility issues with new game updates. If you are encountering performance or stability issues following a release, is recommended that you disable any mods you're running. If you continue to experience issues, please visit our support site for additional troubleshooting steps and assistance.
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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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