Faction Laws

0:14 Faction Laws are a technology tree tied to the faction you start with in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era: fighting guards, capturing external dwellings and owning town halls earn Law points, each full batch of points becomes a Seal, and Seals are spent on laws arranged in tiers. Unfrozen calls the system "entirely new to the series" and compares it to the technology trees of other strategy games (Devlog #14, Dec 5, 2025). Every one of the six Factions has its own scroll of laws, split into a Faction column (economy, heroes, unique tricks) and an Army column (its creatures). Laws arrived with the Early Access release of Apr 30, 2026 and have been rebalanced in almost every patch since.

Quick facts

How laws work

1:05 The idea was first announced in Aug 2024 as perk trees tied to your starting faction, so that "your beginner choice of faction will matter until the end" even if you conquer more castles, change your main hero or hire neutral troops (Designing a Heroes Game, Aug 29, 2024). Devlog #14 sets out the rules (Devlog #14, Dec 5, 2025):

• Law points. When your heroes fight guards they earn Law points alongside experience, "by default" at the same rate. Capturing external dwellings also pays Law points, so secondary heroes can bring in "a steady supply of Seals in regular bursts", and every town hall produces a set number of Law points each turn according to its upgrade level. Some subskills and laws raise the rate.
• Seals. Enough Law points give you a Seal, "just like a skill level-up works". You can spend it at once or save it, because some laws cost several Seals.
• Tiers. Laws are grouped in tiers. A tier becomes available only after you have spent enough Seals, and each tier offers stronger bonuses than the one before, with several laws to choose from in each.
• Upgrade levels. Many laws can be enacted again for a stronger effect: the patch notes list costs such as "Resource Riches I, II, III" at 2, 3 and 4 Seals in the beta (beta notes, Oct 15, 2026).

4:23 Unfrozen's stated aim is variety: laws let a faction lean toward a quick game, its high-tier creatures, might or magic, instead of one "best" build (Devlog #14). Law points are also a reward elsewhere: since the Oct 15, 2026 beta, Pandora's Boxes that used to give experience let you pick experience, Law points or Astrology Points (beta notes). Astrology Points are the parallel currency for global spells, described on Magic and Spells.

Laws Unfrozen has named, by faction

3:28 Devlog #14 showed one or two defining laws for each faction, with their in-game tooltips, and the patch notes name many more. The table lists what the tooltips and notes say; names in quotation marks are the game's.

The law tooltips are from the Devlog #14 images (Devlog #14, Dec 5, 2025); the other names are from Patches #8, #9, #11, #13 and the beta notes. Every faction's Army column has "Elite" laws for its creatures, such as "Elite Griffins" or "Elite Concubi", which Unfrozen rewrote across all six factions in the Oct 15, 2026 beta.

Changes since Early Access

• Jun 1 and Jun 2, 2026. Patch #8 cut the bonus Law points of the Insight subskill "Civic Innovation" from 100% to 30% (Patch #8). Patch #9 moved five Hive laws between tiers ("Natural Selection" from tier 4 to 3, "Prosper and Flourish" from 5 to 4) so the Hive gains power faster in Single Hero games (Patch #9).
• Jun 4, 2026. A hotfix fixed Law and Astrology points not increasing on the first day of each week (hotfix).
• Jul 6, 2026. Patch #11 halved the city Law point bonus of Necropolis's "Laws of the Immortals" (20/40/60% to 10/20/30%) and doubled the external dwelling growth of Grove's "Child of Woods" (50/100% to 100/200%) (Patch #11).
• Aug 20, 2026. Patch #13 overhauled Temple's laws, adding an extra level to every law that upgrades creatures, made "Power of Faith" affect only Temple heroes, and added Dungeon's "Arcane Knowledge" (Patch #13). A hotfix on Aug 25 stopped faction-only laws from applying to heroes of other factions (hotfix).
• Oct 15, 2026 (public beta). "Resource Riches I to III" rose from 1/2/3 to 2/3/4 Seals for every faction, Temple's creature laws went back to two levels after its new faction skill, "Great Conquest" again affects all creatures, and Hive Larvae from "Hive Offsprings II" now provoke enemies only in the first round after hatching (beta notes).
• Oct 21, 2026 (public beta). Single Hero mode lost its 20% discount on the Law and Astrology points needed to level up, and a bug that gave a huge amount of Law points for capturing external dwellings was fixed (beta v0.82.03).

Both beta updates are on Steam's public beta branch only; Unfrozen will announce the release date for the main game after testing. The full list is on Balance Update Beta, and every patch on Patch Notes.

Tips from the rules

2:15 Because guards are the main source of Law points, a hero who clears the map also unlocks laws, and secondary heroes who take external dwellings feed the same pool. Laws stay tied to the faction you started with, so a captured town of another faction adds buildings and creatures but not its laws (Devlog #14). Hero choices that touch laws are on Heroes and Skills.

4:56 Ic0n Gaming's Faction Laws guide (May 1, 2026) calls the laws that raise creature growth "fundamentals" for every faction, and advises laws that strengthen your army over economy laws unless you have something to spend the extra income on: a stronger army wins more fights, and every fight pays Law points.

6:45 The same guide advises choosing a milestone law to work toward, such as Temple's "Architect's Mastery", and planning your economy around reaching it. It also rates "Resource Riches" as worth a Seal early in the game whenever it helps you snowball.

8:19 Ic0n Gaming also points to a choice new to the series: upgrading towns means choosing between more gold and more Law points. Its advice is that Law and Astrology Points are worth more than gold once you can already pay for buildings, troops and upgrades, but that laws do no good without the gold for a solid army.

Frequently asked questions

How do Faction Laws work in Olden Era? In Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era you earn Law points by fighting guards, capturing external dwellings and owning town halls; each batch of points becomes a Seal, and Seals enact laws in tiers that open as you spend more Seals.

How do I get Law points in Olden Era? Fight guards with your heroes (Law points come at the same rate as experience by default), capture external dwellings, and upgrade your town halls, which produce Law points every turn. Some subskills, laws and Pandora's Boxes add more.

What are Seals in Olden Era? A Seal is the unit you spend on laws: you earn one each time your Law points fill up, like a level-up, and you can save Seals for laws that cost several.

Do Faction Laws carry over to other towns I capture? Olden Era's laws belong to your starting faction for the whole game, so capturing towns of other factions does not give you their laws; since Aug 2026 some laws work only for heroes or creatures of your own faction.

What are the best Faction Laws in Olden Era? Unfrozen does not rank them; its own examples of each faction's defining laws are Temple's "Power of Faith", Dungeon's "Magical Education", Hive's "Natural Selection", Grove's "Live roots", Necropolis's "Terra Mortis" and Schism's "Call of the Deep".

Did the beta change Faction Laws? Yes. The Oct 15 and Oct 21, 2026 public beta updates of Olden Era raised the cost of the "Resource Riches" laws, rewrote every faction's elite creature laws and removed Single Hero mode's 20% law discount, on the beta branch only so far.

Sources

• Designing a Heroes Game, Unfrozen, Aug 29, 2024
• Devlog #14: Gameplay Mechanics pt. 3: Faction Laws, Unfrozen, Dec 5, 2025
• Patch #8: Skills Rework, Balance Pass & Exploit Fixes, Unfrozen, Jun 1, 2026
• Patch #9: Hotfix & Balance Adjustments, Unfrozen, Jun 2, 2026
• Hotfix: Game Exit Exploit, Map Generation & Mondays, Unfrozen, Jun 4, 2026
• Patch #11: Necromancy Update, UI Tweaks and Balance Changes, Unfrozen, Jul 6, 2026
• Patch #13: The Mysterious Island, Unfrozen, Aug 20, 2026
• Hotfix: Save Fixes, Unfrozen, Aug 25, 2026
• Alliances & Updated Random Map Generator, Unfrozen, Sep 30, 2026
• BETA Patch: Balance Update - New Damage Formula, Smarter AI & New Creatures, Unfrozen, Oct 15, 2026
• BETA Patch: Balance Tweaks - Spells, Heroes & a New Artifact, Unfrozen, Oct 21, 2026
• Devlog #5 : Faction Laws in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era!, Unfrozen Official, Dec 5, 2025 (video)
• Faction Laws Guide For HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC OLDEN ERA, Ic0n Gaming, May 1, 2026 (video)