Age of Wonders 4 The Silver Seas: DLC Features Guide

What Does The Silver Seas Add?

Build your next empire out on the ocean. Age of Wonders 4 The Silver Seas adds the Mercantile culture, ocean cities, pirate dealings, and four magical tomes that give seafaring campaigns more to fight over. Released on November 3, 2026, it arrived alongside the free Manta Update, which adds Trade Routes and water improvements for all base-game owners.

The expansion costs $24.99 on Steam and requires the base game. Its paid features include two new forms, the Children of the Waves society trait, the Free Captains dwelling, and new ocean events, creatures, and locations.

You can also get it through Expansion Pass 4 for $49.99. That pass includes Singer of Storms, this expansion, Court of the Archfey scheduled for Q1 2027, and Forge of the Firstborn scheduled for Q2 2027. Choose the standalone expansion if the maritime content is what you want; choose the pass if you also want those other additions.

The purchase distinction matters: Trade Routes and ocean Outposts belong to the free update; the Mercantile culture’s ability to establish ocean cities belongs to the expansion.

Get The Silver Seas on Steam.

Mercantile Culture: Barony and Cartel Explained

Mercantile factions can establish cities on land or turn water Outposts into ocean cities. Their economy revolves around trade, while their two subcultures take different approaches to expansion and combat.

Image: www.paradoxinteractive.com

Feature	Barony	Cartel
Affinities	Shadow and Materium	Shadow and Chaos
Economic tools	Expanded Outposts, vassal trade, and bonuses from connected routes	Concealed Smuggling Routes, including connections to hostile cities
Combat mechanic	Bounties strengthen Bounty Hunters against designated enemies	Leverage strengthens the next flanking attack against an affected enemy
Scout	Envoy, which can establish Outposts	Informant, which has Universal Camouflage
Support unit	Magewright, with strong direct healing	Curse Peddler, with debuff removal and healing

Barony: Build Trade Hubs and Focus Your Fire

The Barony’s Envoys can build Outposts without a hero. Its Improved Work Camp lets an Outpost claim two additional provinces, giving those settlements more territory to feed into your trade network.

The Trade District generates gold from routes connected to its city, including incoming routes owned by other empires. Other Barony structures add growth, stability, and route capacity.

Connect your expanded Outposts to a city before counting their resources toward your economy. Claiming the territory and collecting its income are separate steps under the Trade Route system.

In combat, use Assign Bounty to designate an enemy, then concentrate your Bounty Hunters on that target. They deal more damage to units carrying a Bounty and take less damage from them.

Protect your Silvershots’ firing positions, too. Steady Aim grants 50% accuracy and 20% more damage when they begin their turn outside melee engagement, lasting until they move. Their Silver Bullet Shot reaches range 6 but consumes a full action, so position them before the shot you want to take.

Cartel: Smuggle Profits and Set Up Flanks

Cartel Smuggling Routes can connect to foreign cities without a Free Trade Agreement, including hostile ones. These connections earn less without an agreement, so diplomacy still has an economic payoff.

The routes are concealed until another player has a unit standing on them. Scout foreign cities with your Informants, then use those discoveries to expand your smuggling network.

Combat revolves around Observant and Leverage. Unengaged Cartel units can apply Leverage to nearby enemies, preparing them for a stronger flanking attack.

Build Leverage before committing your flanker. Use Scry Leverage to add stacks when your units have not applied enough, or to prepare another attack after existing stacks are consumed. Curse Peddlers also offer an answer to debuff-heavy enemies: Curse Inversion removes negative status effects and heals more for each effect removed.

Trade Routes: Connect Your Economy and Protect It

The free Manta Update makes Trade Routes part of every empire’s economy. Each route belongs to an originating city, and its destination determines what it brings home.

Image: Steam / Triumph Studios

• Outposts: A connected route transfers the resources produced in the Outpost’s domain to its city. Outposts no longer require upkeep, but their resource income needs that connection. Magic Material ownership still works without a route.
• Free Cities: Routes provide income across resource types. Their output and your relationship affect the returns, while Trade Focuses let you increase particular resource production.
• Other empires: A Free Trade Agreement enables routes to foreign cities, providing gold and mana. The agreement requires at least a Wizard’s Bond.

Route construction costs Draft, with distance and destination affecting the expense. Distance follows movement costs, so terrain movement traits can influence a route’s path and price. Water connections are generally efficient.

Compare the actual route before committing Draft to a distant destination. Use water access and favorable terrain to connect settlements more efficiently.

Cities generally begin with one route slot. Core trade structures at City Tiers 2, 3, and 4 expand capacity and strengthen route escorts. Specialization structures then let cities earn more from particular connections.

Escorts discourage small raiding parties, but they cannot hold off a full army. A successful raid pays the attacker three turns of the route’s income.

Patrol valuable routes during war, and target profitable enemy connections when raiding. An exposed trade network gives your opponent both an economic target and a reason to force a battle.

Aqualon, Sharkkin, and the Merfolk Transformation

The expansion adds two faction forms with distinct aquatic appearances:

Image: Steam / Triumph Studios

• Aqualon: Near-human people with an elegant, otherworldly sea theme.
• Sharkkin: Sharklike warriors with prominent teeth, fins, and imposing builds.

These forms give you new foundations for faction creation. Choose the Aqualon for an uncanny ocean civilization or the Sharkkin for a more monstrous maritime empire, then build the faction’s culture and traits around your campaign.

Children of the Waves adds another customization option by transforming your people into Merfolk. It is a society trait, separate from the two new forms.

Other additions include the Seamare mount, four premade rulers including Marinus, a pirate interface skin, and new banner emblems. Three new music tracks composed by Michiel van den Bos accompany the expansion.

The Four New Tomes

The new tomes cover water manipulation, Ghostfire, piracy, and powerful frost magic.

Tome	Main mechanics
Tome of Hydromancy	Accelerates allies, manipulates enemies, and makes targets vulnerable to lightning and frost
Tome of the Damned	Applies Ghostfire and uses it to summon Accursed Wisps; also introduces the Accursed Lamenter
Tome of Piracy	Adds mobile skirmishers, Swashbucklers, explosive Ember Dust, and Powder Keg Diplomacy
Tome of Eternal Ice	Must be earned; brings ocean-freezing magic and the Ancient Hoarfrost Manta

Follow Hydromancy’s setup with lightning or frost attacks to exploit the vulnerabilities it creates. For a Ghostfire army, apply the effect before using the Tome of the Damned’s Wisp-summoning tools.

The Tome of Piracy supports a more aggressive maritime theme through mobile fighters and explosive abilities. Use its mobility to position skirmishers for attacks rather than leaving them tied to a static front.

The Tome of Eternal Ice changes the geography you are fighting over by letting you freeze the ocean itself. Its acquisition requires earning the tome, so build your initial strategy around the tools already available to your faction.

Free Captains: Pirate Allies and Trade Route Threats

The Bond of the Free Captains introduces independent pirate dwellings. Each captain has a personality and agenda, including Bloodthirsty, Avaricious, and Heroic dispositions.

Earning a captain’s allegiance can lead to a Life Bond, opening access to pirate units, stolen treasures, technologies, and exclusive shops. Their different temperaments give these relationships more texture than a single uniform pirate faction.

Read each captain’s disposition before choosing how to deal with them. Pursue allegiance when you want their rewards, exploit rivalries when that serves your plans, or fight them when their presence threatens your empire.

Hostile captains can raid your Trade Routes, provinces, and undefended cities. Keep their bases in mind when laying out an ocean trade network. Defend exposed connections and settlements before sending your main army far from home.

Ocean Events, Wonders, and New Threats

Ocean Happenings add events and economic opportunities to the water. Many are beneficial, giving exploration fleets something to pursue beyond transportation and combat.

Keep a force available to investigate ocean events before rivals reach them. Account for nearby wildlife and infestations when deciding how far that force can safely travel.

New locations give the sea distinct strategic targets:

• Tempestuous Vortex: Storm-driven currents and Rune Crabs can propel armies rapidly across the ocean.
• Armada’s Fall: A wreck-filled location built around salvaging sunken wealth.
• Uncharted Harbor and Pearltide Dome: Ancient Wonders offering economic and magical rewards. Pearltide Dome also provides access to Pearltide Bombs.
• Spawning Shoal: An infestation populated by symbiotic sea life.
• Pale Tidebloom: A coastal Magic Material infused with Ghostfire.

The expanded wildlife includes Frenzied Fish Swarms, Accursed Wisps, Hoarfrost Mantas, Seamares, and Lightning and Storm Rune Crabs.

The Pirate Reefs realm template and new realm traits provide additional settings for maritime campaigns.

More Free Manta Update Changes

The November 3 Manta Update also changes water combat, hero equipment, and battlefield readability.

Embarking is cheaper, and Outposts can be established on ocean tiles. Summoning, resurrection, and teleportation abilities now function on water, while embarked units have their own turning and positioning rules.

Reconsider water battles when building around summons or resurrection. Those abilities now give you tactical options at sea that were previously unavailable.

Ships gain faction-specific presentation, with three selectable boat skins, new attack animations, and visible Unit Enchantments. Ocean battlefields also receive coral, kelp, and other sea life.

Magic Fighters gain the Sword & Staff weapon option through hero loadouts and the Item Forge. It combines a Magic Strike main attack with a Dart secondary attack and supports both Staff and Melee Infusions. Spellblade and Death Knight classes receive related changes.

Frost combat gains Chilled, which stacks up to five times before freezing its target. Coordinate Chilled applications when you want to freeze an enemy, rather than spreading every application across separate targets.

Other changes include visible ability cooldown counters, battle names on combat screens, multiplayer connection improvements, and five Hunter Form Traits. Those traits provide camouflage and Very Fast Movement in their associated terrain, including Ashlands, Forests, Sand, Snow, and Water.