Arena

Arena is Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's quick mode: each player drafts a hero, skills, artifacts, spells and an army in a few minutes, then fights one battle against a player or the AI, with its own ranked rating. It was playtested in March 2025 and overhauled in Patch #13 on Aug 20, 2026 with hero starting bonuses, 4 reroll points and guaranteed creature tiers for specialists.

1:01 Arena is the quick mode of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era: each player drafts a hero, then skills, artifacts, spells and an army, and the two builds fight a single battle, with "no traditional map exploration, no castle building, no resource gathering" (Devlog #5, Nov 22, 2024). You can fight another player or the AI, and online Arena has its own rating and matchmaking. It was the first mode the public could play, in an open playtest in March 2025, and Unfrozen overhauled it in Patch #13 on Aug 20, 2026 with hero starting bonuses, 4 reroll points and guaranteed creature tiers for specialist heroes. Unfrozen's Early Access launch trailer runs through a draft (choose artifacts, choose spells, choose creatures) and straight into the battle.

Three tall cards on a starry blue background. Each shows a round hero portrait (a green ogre-like face, a dark-haired woman in an antler crown and a red demonic face), four stats, a specialty icon, the hero's name and a faction emblem below. Short bonus text sits under the outer two cards, and a progress line of steps runs along the bottom. — The Arena's "Choose Hero" step offering three heroes, Marl, Aeliniel and Xirr, each with stats and a faction emblem, above a progress line from Hero to Confirm Everything, in an image from Unfrozen's Steam announcement "Patch #13: The Mysterious Island" (Aug 20, 2026). Unfrozen

Quick facts

Format	Draft (hero, skills, artifacts, spells, army), then one battle
Opponent	Another player or the AI (Devlog #5)
Draft time	About 5 minutes; the online draft timer is 6 minutes since Patch #3 (May 3, 2026)
Match length	"Like 10-15 minutes" (Unfrozen, Aug 29, 2024)
Ranked	Yes, a separate rating, matchmaking and leaderboard
Rerolls	4 reroll points, plus 1 in the artifact and creature phases (Patch #13)
Open playtest	Mar 17 to about Mar 28, 2025, Arena only
Ancestor	Heroes 5's Hot Seat Duel Mode (18 preset heroes)

How the draft works

1:51 Unfrozen calls Arena "a classic draft" (Devlog #5). You are offered three heroes and pick one; then you choose skills, again one of three, over several level-ups; then artifacts, spells and the army; then everything is confirmed and the battle begins. The progress line across the top of the screen runs from Hero to "Confirm Everything".

Several rules keep a random draft playable. Heroes in Arena start with an empty skill pool, unlike on a map, so specialists get a higher chance of being offered their own skills, mages always start with a basic spell, and every skill is taken at its second level from the start, which lets you pick a subskill at once. Artifacts and skills change which spells are offered. The draft is mirrored for fairness: "if you get a rare artefact, your opponent will be offered an equally powerful one", and creature tiers and upgrades offered to both sides are similar without being identical.

9:19 IGN's Early Access review (Apr 28, 2026) liked the mode best of all: you draft "almost like a trading card game", which exposes you to randomness more than anywhere else, but makes Arena "a great way to learn and test synergies without having to play hours of a full run".

A starry blue screen. On the left, a hero panel with a gaunt crowned portrait, stats, an equipment silhouette and an empty inventory grid. On the right, three tall cards each show a glowing artifact (a ring, a cloak and a purple orb) with its name, rarity and effect. A progress line along the bottom runs from Hero through Artifacts to Finalize Everything, with a timer at the top. — The Arena's "Choose Artifacts" step for the hero King-of-Kings, offering Chain Link (Epic Ring), Iridescent Cloak (Epic Armor) and Orb of Twilight (Epic Item), with 3 of 7 artifacts picked, in an image from Unfrozen's Steam announcement "Devlog #5: Game Modes pt.2: Arena" (Nov 22, 2024). Unfrozen

The Patch #13 overhaul

Patch #13 (Aug 20, 2026, v0.80.45) made the biggest change to the mode since launch:

Hero starting bonus: depending on how they perform in Arena, certain heroes get extra primary stats, bonuses Unfrozen says "will be dynamically adjusted in future updates".
Rerolls: the artifact, spell and creature offers can be refreshed. Players start with 4 reroll points and gain 1 more in both the artifact and the creature phase.
Specialist tiers: a hero who specializes in a creature tier guarantees that tier in the creature draft for both players. Tier 1 specialists, for example, make sure Tier 1 creatures appear on both sides.
Spell caps: certain high-power spells offered in the draft no longer go above level 1 by default.
Army counts: the number of creatures offered in each pick was adjusted.

A starry blue screen. On the left, a hero panel with a white-bearded portrait, stats, skills and an equipment silhouette. On the right, three tall cards each show a round spell icon, its name and Arcane Magic tier, a description and checkable upgrade lines. A Reroll button sits beneath them and a progress line runs along the bottom. — The Arena's "Choose Spells" step for the hero Old Pilgrim, a Warden, offering Shackles, Spatial Snare and Impending Fate from Arcane Magic, with upgrade options and a Reroll button, in an image from Unfrozen's Steam announcement "Patch #13: The Mysterious Island" (Aug 20, 2026). Unfrozen

Balance changes before and after

Arena is tuned in nearly every balance patch, often through the size of the stacks it offers:

Date	Patch	Arena change
May 3, 2026	Patch #3	Time to pick heroes, skills and artifacts raised from 5 to 6 minutes
Jun 1, 2026	Patch #8	Six artifacts removed from the mode (among them "Orb of Inhibition", "Chain Link" and "Deck of Spells"), the four school tomes and other spell artifacts made much rarer, 10 spells offered instead of 9, level 4 spells removed, stack counts changed
Jun 2, 2026	Patch #9	Dungeon, "underperforming in Arena mode", gets larger armies
Jul 6, 2026	Patch #11	Magic heroes were doing better, so average starting armies grow, which helps Might heroes
Jul 10, 2026	Patch #12	Patch #11 "over-nerfed Magic heroes in Arena Mode", so starting unit counts go down again
Aug 20, 2026	Patch #13	Starting bonuses, rerolls, specialist tiers (above)
Oct 15, 2026	Beta v0.82.02	Stacks you already picked can be offered again, offered stacks 15 to 20% larger, starting stat bonuses retuned

The Oct 15 beta's bonus list names the heroes: John Johnson, Pip, Octavia, Aunt Daliar, Vim, Echolily, Grellekh the Betrayer and Kwinri get +1; Gingertail and Tölketh +2; Nadir, Adahn, Blackhorn, Mila, Oriax and Curson, Duke of Rage drop from +3 to +2; Tavi and Enatee drop from +4 to +2 (Unfrozen). The beta is on the public test branch only, and its release date is to be announced. See Balance Update Beta.

History

Arena was added "because of the community requests", Unfrozen wrote: few players have time for long templates, and fan-made arena maps for earlier Heroes games were hard to find and rarely balanced (Devlog #5).

The mode was the first part of Olden Era the public played. An open playtest of Arena ran from Mar 17 to about Mar 28, 2025 through Steam Playtest (Unfrozen); sign-ups were "x10 more than we anticipated", and the requests passed 100,000 by Apr 7, 2025. The free demo of Oct 9, 2025 included it, a closed ranked playtest announced Mar 25, 2026 covered 1v1 in all three modes, and the server stress test of Apr 22, 2026 was "Only Arena mode". Arena shipped with the Early Access launch on Apr 30, 2026.

Do not confuse the mode with the "Hell Light Arena", a map object that stages battles on Classic templates; the beta's new Jebus Arena template, a 160 by 160 Jebus Cross variant without a central town, is built around that object and is not part of Arena mode. See Random Map Generator.

Tips from the rules

Use the guarantees. A creature specialist guarantees its tier for both players, so a specialist hero tells you what your opponent will also be offered.
Budget your rerolls. You get 4 reroll points, and 1 more arrives in each of the artifact and creature phases.
Plan combinations, not single picks. Unfrozen's advice is that "grabbing everything won't work": artifacts and skills shape the spells you are offered, so pick toward one plan.

7:38 For the battle itself, Vilestride's combat guide of May 10, 2026 names splitting stacks as "the single biggest difference in the outcome of your fights": single creatures block paths to your shooters and soak up the enemy's damage, and splitting your own big stacks keeps you from wasting damage on overkill.

For heroes, see Heroes and Best Heroes; for the items, Artifacts; for the battle itself, Combat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Arena mode in Olden Era? Arena is a quick Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era mode in which each player drafts a hero, skills, artifacts, spells and an army, then fights one battle. There is no map exploration, town building or resource gathering.

How long is an Arena match in Olden Era? Unfrozen said a match takes "like 10-15 minutes", and the draft about five of them. The online pick timer has been 6 minutes since Patch #3 (May 3, 2026).

Is Olden Era's Arena ranked? Yes. Arena has its own rating, matchmaking and leaderboard online, separate from Classic and Single Hero, and you can also play it against the AI.

What did Patch #13 change in the Arena? Patch #13 (Aug 20, 2026) gave weaker heroes a starting stat bonus, added 4 reroll points for the artifact, spell and creature offers, and made creature specialists guarantee their tier in the draft for both players.

How many rerolls do you get in the Olden Era Arena? Four reroll points at the start, plus one more during both the artifact and the creature draft phases, since Patch #13.

Can you play Arena against the AI in Olden Era? Yes. Unfrozen's Devlog #5 says you may fight another player or the AI, and Arena is listed among the modes available in single-player and multiplayer.