Necropolis Guide

Necropolis in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era wins by getting bigger after every battle: its faction skill, Necromancy, raises defeated enemies as undead of the same tier from a reserve of necromantic energy, and its laws let it mix in other factions' creatures without a morale penalty and always fight on its own terrain. This guide sets Unfrozen's notes beside Turin's Necropolis Beginners Guide of May 5, 2026, and says where later patches changed his advice. The faction's lore, full lineup and history are on Necropolis; the basics are on Beginner's Guide.

Quick facts

Strengths and weaknesses

Necropolis grows where others shrink. Unfrozen's lead designer Leonid said the new Necromancy makes players "think more strategically, planning routes on the global map in a specific way (for example, visiting point #1 and point #2 to restore energy, and only then point #3 to use it)" (Unfrozen, Feb 2, 2026). The limit is the energy reserve, which keeps the army from growing without end, and the cost: since Patch #11 a base Vampire costs 2,000 energy to raise and a tier 1 Skeleton 20. The Steam store page calls vampires and liches "deadly but fragile" (Steam).

Opening and first weeks

41:36 Turin's beginner opening uses Kel'Ghul, the Dread Knight specialist. He buys Skeleton Archers at once and splits them into several stacks, because each stack's attack builds Focus and more stacks can surround enemies; the Dread Knights take the melee. In his video the first raise took Kel'Ghul's energy from 1,000 to 965, a pool Patch #11 tripled to 3,000 while making each raise four times dearer.

49:01 On day 6 he builds the Dread Knight dwelling ("essential for this build"), buys five, adds Fortifications 2 and Tax Collectors, and calls week 2 the power spike: buy nine Dread Knights and the archers and "nothing else", go into Economy, and get Liches before that week ends. With that army he takes a Pandora's Box most heroes could not fight yet. Patch #11 cut Dread Knights' health from 100 to 80 and made their "Tomb of Warriors" 1,000 gold cheaper, and Patch #13 moved 500 gold of that cost back onto "Tomb of Warriors I".

Using Necromancy well

• Know what you will raise. Since Patch #11 the guard tooltips on the map show which creature a fight will raise. Enemies come back as the base version of the same Necropolis tier unless your army holds only an upgraded version, which then costs more (Unfrozen).
• Bank or spend after each battle. The battle results window switches between raising and turning the fallen into energy, so a fight against creatures you do not want can refill the reserve instead.
• Choose the Chronomancer. The Necromancers' elite class refills the hero's whole energy pool every day since Patch #11.
• Feed the reserve. "Animate Dead" I, III and V add 500 energy each; II and IV add 2.5% Necromancy power; the "Death Herald" subskill adds 1,000 maximum energy.

40:31 Turin, playing before Patch #11, warns that energy barely moves while clearing small camps but big camps eat half or all of it, so a late-game hero "can gas out" unless you invest in the "Animate Dead" laws and "Death Herald"; he still thought Necropolis "really, really strong" after the cap. Since Patch #11 the reserve is larger and the Chronomancer refills it daily.

The full rules and the cost table are on Necromancy.

Faction Laws to take

Unfrozen's two defining Necropolis laws are "Death Equalizes All", so creatures from different factions do not lower each other's morale, and "Terra Mortis", so Necropolis heroes always fight on native terrain (Devlog #14, Dec 5, 2025). The first lets a Necropolis army add creatures from other factions, which any faction can recruit from dwellings on the map (Steam), without the morale cost. Other laws: "Bloodthirst" strengthens Vampirism (weakened in Patch #11 to one level costing 6 Seals), "Black Death" boosts damage over time, "Laws of the Immortals" adds Law points from towns, and "Elite Dread Knights" and "Elite Liches" upgrade those tiers. In the Oct 15 beta "Terra Mortis" costs 6 and "Return to the Soil" and "Death's Presence" are single-level laws costing 5. How laws work is on Faction Laws.

35:14 Turin recommends rushing "Laws of the Immortals" for its then 60% extra Law points from towns, with Tax Collectors and the Mercury law early on long maps. Patch #11 halved it to 10/20/30%, so it is a smaller prize now.

35:52 He calls "Terra Mortis" (always fight on native terrain) "god-tier" because it turns on the native-terrain bonus of the Necromancy subskill "Grave Soil" (10% more damage dealt and 10% less taken) in every fight, and pairs it with "Return to the Soil" (+2 Speed on native terrain) and "Death's Presence" (non-Necropolis creatures deal less damage).

38:20 For the late game he names "Elite Liches" (Lich healing restores 100% more) a must, adds "Elite Dread Knights" and, with Vampires, "Bloodthirst" for 100% more Vampirism. Both were cut soon after: Patch #8 halved the Elite Liches bonus to 50%, and Patch #11 made "Bloodthirst" a single level costing 6 Seals for 60% and halved "Black Death", his pick for a damage-over-time build, to 25/50%.

Heroes to pick

0:39 Necropolis heroes come as Necromancers and Death Knights, as Unfrozen's update reveal of Feb 2, 2026 labels them: King-of-Kings, Milossa the Golden, Lord Rufus and Laura among the Necromancers, Artorius Veritas, Marl, Kel'Ghul, Onkos and Bulwark among the Death Knights.

• Tarius and Funerella gain 2% Necromancy power every 5 hero levels since Patch #8; Funerella now starts with Basic Necromancy and Summon Avatar.
• Kel'Ghul starts with Dread Knights, 3 of them since Patch #11, and Ethric with 4 to 6 Liches.
• Marl, Laura and Lord Rufus are spell specialists, buffed in Patch #8; King-of-Kings is a diplomat.

3:10 Turin calls Onkos, the Skeleton specialist, "very good for beginners": he starts with about 80 Skeletons, which you upgrade to Skeleton Archers on day 1, and late in the game a second town that cannot afford high tiers can still feed his Skeleton stack. Patch #13 cut Necropolis specialists' weekly growth bonus from 2 to 1.

4:13 He rates Kel'Ghul "probably the earliest powerhouse" for clearing the map, with Tactics from the start and Dread Knights by week 2, best in tournament formats; the risk is that one elite stack can be wiped by a big spell from a Daylight caster. Kel'Ghul starts with 3 Dread Knights since Patch #11.

15:38 For a caster Turin's pick is Shadespinner Oona: her Nightshade spells gain a level (one more every 10 hero levels), and enemy heroes cannot cast Nightshade at all, a school he calls perhaps the best in the game; Shadow Army on a big Vampire stack is his favorite use. Patch #8 changed her starting spell from Sleep to Umbral Grip.

17:50 He calls Lord Rufus "S-tier" on big maps: his Masterful Rewind Life can resurrect a stack past its starting size, and he starts with Thaumaturgy, so Turin adds a second school, Nightshade by preference. He also likes Laura's Masterful Despair, which hits any creature type, for early creeping; Patch #11 halved Despair's base damage to 10/10/15/15.

More picks across factions are on Best Heroes.

Creatures and upgrades

2:55 The reveal video of Oct 31, 2024 shows the upper tiers in action: Liches and their upgrades raising and healing, then the Dread Knight, Avatar of War and Hollow Reaper. Since then Patch #11 raised tier 2 growth from 16 to 19 a week and tier 3 from 13 to 14, cut Dread Knights from 100 to 80 health and raised tier 7 Vampirism to 50%, and made the "Tomb of Warriors" (tier 6 dwelling) 1,000 gold cheaper. The Oct 15, 2026 beta reworks the alternative upgrades so each has a role: the Merchant of Death speeds up allied Skeletons and the Kennelmaster allied Undead Pets, the Wraith summons Wights with "Gates of Afterlife", the Armored Hound takes over "Call the Pack", and Vampirism rises to 66.6% (beta notes). Those are beta-only as of Oct 21, 2026.

21:15 Turin's first rule is "always go for the skeleton archers": a ranged unit at tier 1 puts a faction far ahead in early creeping. The exception is an opponent with Twilight, which stops ranged attacks; then he creeps with archers and switches to Skeleton Warriors for the late game.

33:29 His favorite upgrades for a standard army are the Phantasm, Barghest, Kennelmaster, Sanguine Lich, Avatar of War (for its double strike) and Vampire Lord; a damage-over-time build picks the Armored Hound, Merchant of Death and Pestilent Lich instead. Several have changed: Patch #8 cut the Barghest's Attack from 8 to 4 and its "Call the Pack" from 25% to 20% (it no longer ends the turn), cut the Lich's "Rewind Death" healing, and gave the Vampire Scholar "Cleansing Blood" in place of "Corpse Explosion"; Patch #11 lowered the Avatar of War's Initiative from 11 to 10.

34:08 Turin calls Necropolis's unique building, which he names the Undead Transformer, "extremely good": it turns living creatures, for example from Pandora's Boxes, into Necropolis units, so a long game can end with more Vampires than the opponent has top-tier units.

Matchups

6:57 Turin's counter-picks: Artorius Veritas starts with Masterful Berserk, which hits a radius and wrecks a player who boxes an army in a corner, and with Basic Resistance against casters; Bulwark's cut to basic and ranged attack damage suits a match against a ranged or basic-attack army but leaves him open to magic; and Masterful Web, which slows the whole enemy army, is his answer to Hive.

What changed in patches and the beta

• Feb 2, 2026: Necromancy rebuilt around the enemy's strongest stack and an energy reserve.
• Patch #7 (May 21, 2026): Necromancy on by default for Necromancer heroes (Unfrozen).
• Patch #11 (Jul 6, 2026): raise any tier, bigger reserve, higher costs, Chronomancer daily refill.
• Patch #13 (Aug 20, 2026): specialist heroes' weekly growth bonus from 2 to 1; "Terror and Dread" moved to law tier 5.
• Oct 15, 2026 (beta only): the upgrade rework above and lower tier 2 to 4 growth.

Frequently asked questions

How do you play Necropolis in Olden Era? In Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Necropolis fights often and raises the fallen with Necromancy, banking necro energy from fights it does not want to raise from and spending it on high tiers; since Patch #11 it can raise any tier.

What are the best Necropolis laws in Olden Era? Unfrozen's defining Necropolis laws in Olden Era are "Death Equalizes All" (no morale penalty for mixed factions) and "Terra Mortis" (always fight on native terrain), with "Animate Dead" laws adding necro energy or Necromancy power.

Who is the best Necropolis hero in Olden Era? Olden Era's Tarius and Funerella gain Necromancy power with level, Kel'Ghul starts with Dread Knights and Ethric with Liches; a Necromancer who takes the Chronomancer elite class refills necro energy every day.

What is the best Necropolis opening in Olden Era? Turin's Olden Era opening of May 5, 2026 plays Kel'Ghul with Skeleton Archers split into several stacks, builds the Dread Knight dwelling on day 6 and buys nine Dread Knights in week 2 before turning to the economy.

How much necro energy does Necromancy have in Olden Era? Since Patch #11 (Jul 6, 2026), Olden Era's Necromancy holds 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 necromantic energy at Basic, Advanced and Expert, and raising a base creature costs from 20 (tier 1) to 2,000 (tier 7).

Sources

• Devlog #14: Gameplay Mechanics pt. 3: Faction Laws, Unfrozen, Dec 5, 2025
• Necropolis Faction Update - Official Full Reveal, Unfrozen, Feb 2, 2026
• Patch #7: Removing Abuses and Improving Campaign, Unfrozen, May 21, 2026
• Patch #8: Skills Rework, Balance Pass & Exploit Fixes, Unfrozen, Jun 1, 2026
• Patch #11: Necromancy Update, UI Tweaks and Balance Changes, Unfrozen, Jul 6, 2026
• Patch #13: The Mysterious Island, Unfrozen, Aug 20, 2026
• BETA Patch: Balance Update - New Damage Formula, Smarter AI & New Creatures, Unfrozen, Oct 15, 2026
• Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era on Steam, Steam, read Oct 21, 2026
• Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era - Necropolis Faction Beginners Guide, Turin, May 5, 2026 (video)
• Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era - Necropolis Faction full reveal (Happy Halloween!), Unfrozen Official, Oct 31, 2024 (video)
• Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era - Necropolis Faction Update Official Full Reveal, Unfrozen Official, Feb 2, 2026 (video)