Heavenly Spear DLC announced

[MedicMaaan]

Revealed at the XBOX Games Showcase during Summer Game Fest 2025:

Age of Mythology: Retold - Heavenly Spear - Announce Trailer | Xbox Games Showcase 2025

Coming Fall 2025: A Divine Weapon. A Mortal Hero. A New Pantheon Awakens.

Heavenly Spear brings an all-new Japanese pantheon to Age of Mythology: Retold, introducing 12 new gods, each with unique god powers, divine technologies, and myth units drawn from centuries of legend.

Embark on a 12-mission campaign following Yasuko, a humble farmer’s daughter who discovers a magical spear and is swept into a mythic war. As she uncovers the spear’s secrets, she must battle the cunning spider Yokai Magumo, the power-hungry warlord, Kagemasa, and ultimately face the monstrous Yamata no Orochi, the Titan of the Japanese Pantheon.

Command new units drawn from Japanese mythology including famed Kitsune foxes, the deadly Jorogumo spider, and the mighty, club-wielding Oni. Elite Samurai and shadowy Shinobi join your armies to add new layers of strategy and deception.

Exciting stuff!

[Nordsultan]

From the Steam Page
Age of Mythology: Retold - Heavenly Spear on Steam

A New Pantheon Rises. A Legend Awakens.

Command the gods, heroes, and yokai of Japan in Heavenly Spear, an all-new expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold. Play a sweeping campaign, wield the powers of mighty Japanese gods, and command samurai and mythical yokai to achieve victory.

A Journey from Farmer to Hero

Heavenly Spear follows Yasuko, a peaceful farmer’s daughter whose destiny changes when she discovers a magical spear hidden in the countryside. As war looms and chaos spreads across the land, Yasuko is thrust into a world of gods, monsters, and mortal ambition. With the guidance of Akari, guardian of the spear, Yasuko must uncover the relic’s secrets and prevent it from falling into the hands of Kagemasa, a ruthless warlord who seeks to imprison the sun goddess Amaterasu and claim godhood for himself.

Yasuko’s journey spans 12 hand-crafted campaign missions, each rich with cinematic storytelling, unforgettable characters, and escalating stakes. Along the way, she’ll face mythical beasts, forge divine alliances, and ultimately battle Kagemasa in his monstrous final form to restore balance to the world.

A Pantheon Like No Other

Unleash the might of 12 new gods—each offering unique playstyles, god powers, and strategic possibilities. Awaken Raijin’s thunderous drums, send whole armies flying across the map with Fujin’s Smiting Gust, or even summon Watatsumi’s swirling dragon typhoon to devastate your enemies. Each Japanese god offers unique ways to dominate the battlefield.

Spirits, Swords, and Shadows

Myth units blend iconic Japanese folklore with inventive gameplay mechanics:

• Kitsune: fox spirits who serve as scouts and strengthen nearby units, making them perfect for intelligence-gathering and supporting raids.

• Shinigami: a terrifying spirit whose shout scares away enemies and who respawns into a more powerful form when defeated.

• Tengu: winged master swordsmen who leap into battle. Samurai: skilled human soldiers who become more powerful with every victory.

• Shinobi: expert assassins and saboteurs adept at hasty escapes.

New Maps, New Strategies

Battle across six new multiplayer and skirmish maps, inspired by the sacred mountains, misty forests, and mythic landscapes of Japanese legend. These maps are more than battlegrounds—they’re living mythologies waiting to be conquered.

Whether facing friends online or perfecting your build orders in solo skirmish, these new environments offer fresh tactical challenges and strategic depth.

[hasansan]

I’m really disappointed with their choice. Doing Chinese and Japanese expansion back to back is not a good decision. Especially when the future of AOMR is unknown.

[MedicMaaan]

I like having more options for gameplay, but I agree with you about it being disappointing. I was hoping to see an Aztec pantheon. This is also DLC 2… have we heard any plans to go beyond that? I hope they do!

[Armilus]

They have not reavealed any plans to go beyond the second pantheon. They also didn’t say if they’re gonna end it after that.
Maybe this is their way of saying that we can absolutely expect Celts and Mesopotamians and Romans, even when they have partially similar aesthetics. Maybe this is them trying to pander to the asian market.
If you would have asked me yesterday, or even an hour ago, I would have told you that Japanese is the least likely pantheon they’ll go for right now, maybe except for Romans.
But I would have also told you that this doesn’t mean it has to be Aztecs.

[hasansan]

[WhatnotAwot]

I noticed a lot of Chines assets such as their trees and farms were reused, but that’s great because I was really hoping for a map that uses Peach Blossoms besides Peach Blossom grove since that map is a bit rough to play on.

[Velk413]

I’m not disappointed per se, but I would have rather seem something Mesoamerican or Mesopotamian first as opposed to both the DLC civs being East Asia. Hopefully things do well enough for us to see more DLCs so we can get those regions later.

[EverybodysFoo1]

wow thats some great summary!

i really have to get used to the two units umibozu and esepcially wanyudo… they look so high fantasy compared to most other units in general.

but the others all look really cool. especially like the oni, ashura, shinigami, itsumade, kitsune. also cool to see a spider myth unit!

what i am a bit sad about is that tengu seem to have the mechanic i always hoped valkyries would get. x)

and i would be REALLY disappointed if yamata no orochi “hydra” titan will be the civ titan. don’t get me wrong i think it looks pretty damn great and badass but all other civ titans are bipedal. this would break the “thematic”. - otherwise they could have made cerberus a four-legged titan too for example.
my guess is tits a campaign titan like chiyou.

i also assumed the one god is susanoo according to my quick researches but the other one tsukuyomi is a welcome hint! will research this one too, thanks!

edit: tsukuyomi is the god of the moon and very important (obviously) makes all sense! thanks for the infos!

[Velk413]

Also I have to say, its kinda funny that they announce this DLC while i’m playing AOM for the first time in like a month lol

[Josh1Axel]

@MedicMaaan

Embark on a 12-mission campaign following Yasuko, a humble farmer’s daughter who discovers a magical spear and is swept into a mythic war. As she uncovers the spear’s secrets, she must battle the cunning spider Yokai Magumo, the power-hungry warlord, Kagemasa, and ultimately face the monstrous Yamata no Orochi, the Titan of the Japanese Pantheon.

This is what I liked most. Personally, I found the Chinese campaign short, and I also found it a bit boring that most of the missions were just Chinese versus Chinese.

Spoiler alert:
I really liked the Underworld mission, where you had direct contact with the different cultures.

[EricTheRed283]

[EverybodysFoo1]

i just realised this too! 12 missions! YES! Thank you! Also the main character seems to have more space/room for characterisation (unfortunately i didn’t got that attached to the chinese main character even i liked the idea).

[EverybodysFoo1]

now we can speculate the minor gods (leave this up to more experiences guys like it seems you are) and which myth creatures are for which age.

---

i assume:

classical age: Kamaitachi / tengu / kitsune

heroic age: Oni / Shinigami / Tsuchigumo (water kappa)

mythic age: Umibozu / Itsumade / Ashura (water wani)

[ZagorathAus]

I think most people were expecting or hoping for Aztecs or another mythology from the Americas. A lot of people were also hoping for a Mesopotamian (or neighbouring area) mythology, or for Celtic myths.

Personally, I count myself in that group. Aztecs would have been my favourite choice. However, if this is just the 2nd of multiple DLC pantheons we get, Japanese is a great choice. Just as the OG game gave us a bunch of civs within Europe and the Mediterranean, where they could naturally interact with each other without stretching credulity too much, going to Japan immediately after China feels like a good fit.

If, and only if, getting Japan doesn’t mean that we never get the Aztecs, I’m really happy with this choice. But if this is the last big expansion we ever get, it’s a little disappointing.

[Velk413]

@ZagorathAus

If, and only if, getting Japan doesn’t mean that we never get the Aztecs, I’m really happy with this choice. But if this is the last big expansion we ever get, it’s a little disappointing.

The more I think about it, the more confident I am that we’ll get at least 1 more DLC, and that this one being Japanese isn’t a bad sign and was probably planned as such before the devs even had sales numbers and such for the base game.

this DLC isn’t going to make Microsoft that much “new money” because a lot of people bought it in the bundled release of the base game. They probably want to save the more heavily desired civs for new DLCs that bring in “new money” as opposed to one that most of the profit out of it came in a year before release. Also since apparently per Steam you have to release content within a year of accepting money for it, they probably wanted one that they could reuse some Chinese assets for to make sure they met that deadline while not having to resort to something half-baked. Also there are things that show proof that the Japanese DLC was planned for awhile, so I don’t think it was them wanting to just satisfy a commitment before abandoning the game or anything. And even to kinda combine these two points, they probably didn’t want to have the devs spend more time designing 100% new assets for content that was sold before that time investment was made and wouldn’t make that much “new money”.

Additionally I was watching a Chillyempires video and he mentioned there is a 9-tailed fox character that is pretty prevalent in Chinese mythology and should have been included with China, and the only logical reason for it to not was if they were doing Japanese and wanted to save the fox character for the Japanese civ, and that design decision likely would have been made before the base game sales numbers were official given that they must have been working on the basic framework for the Chinese civ at least before the base game was released. And that’s not even to mention the Japan files that were accidentally visible in the base game when it first released that i’ve heard of, which is another piece of evidence.

With all of these factors i’m at this point very confident that the 2nd DLC being Japan wasn’t a “this isn’t doing well so lets get it over with and abandon the game” decision. Now if the first “new money” DLC (the third total, which i’d guess will be something Mesoamerican) flops, then there will be concern that they might abandon the game, and alarm bells will be going off in my mind, but i’m pretty darn confident we’ll get at least one more DLC after this one, and hopefully a number more after that.

[Vyache6650]

At this rate, we will also wait for Slavic mythology

[OmaDesala]

My prediction is that they’ll then focus on Aztec Maya and Inca DLC, offering them 1 by 1 and also a premium pack that combines all 3 like the one we got

[CouguarLoup7693]

I was hoped for an aztec pantheon but a japanese pantheon will be ok. Samurai in AoM will be very good !
I hope that the campaign of this DLC will not be japanese vs japanese but japanese vs japanese and chinese. The best thing is the 12 scenarios campaign, I think than the chinese campaign with 9 scenarios was a little short.

If there is another future DLC let’s us sacrifice unit to the aztecs gods !

Also Celts and Slavs.

[Skadidesu]

@hasansan

I’m really disappointed with their choice. Doing Chinese and Japanese expansion back to back is not a good decision. Especially when the future of AOMR is unknown.

Every choice they could have made would have made someone sad that it’s not their favourite.
You don’t do yourself a favour if you see every addition as not adding all the other things you’d want to have. This way you’ll never be happy.

Japanese are culturally distinct enough to be added after Chinese in my opinion.
So different that I’m afraid that the entire Japanese campaign will be mirror matches again. But that is an issue that the Fall of the Trident already had.

Celts and Slavs are culturally closer to Norse/Greeks then Japanese to Chinese when it comes to Mythology.

@Vyache6650

At this rate, we will also wait for Slavic mythology

I’m afraid that they are relatively low priority for them.
I know that Witcher and stuff made Slavic mythology more popular recently but Aztecs, Celts and Babylonians are probably still higher on their priority list.

An official Witcher crossover could get some attention for the game though.