Shiro Games has once again expanded the brutal, mercenary-driven world of Wartales with the launch of its third major expansion, The Curse of Rigel, which released on December 11, 2025. This latest add-on pulls the game away from its previous focus on naval combat in Pirates of Belerion and large-scale warfare in The Skelmar Invasion, steering the players instead toward a singular, oppressive, and deeply corrupted new region.
The expansion introduces the County of Rigel, a secluded valley nestled deep within the Alazar mountains where sunlight struggles to pierce the dense canopy. The local people speak in hushed tones of the Weald, an ancient, twisted forest so impenetrable that its very paths are said to shift, warping the minds of those who dare to enter. For months, strange and vicious attacks have plagued the region, with villagers being torn apart and hunters vanishing among the massive, gnarled roots. The King himself has already dispatched his knights to investigate the source of this terror, and now, your mercenary troop is hired to join the wider campaign.
The Curse of Rigel offers a different kind of challenge compared to previous regions. The Weald is designed to be hostile even before combat begins, forcing players to grapple with concepts like visibility and a pervasive sense of fragility. Your lantern is more than just a light source; it is a vital tool, cutting through the eerie mist to reveal traces of the spreading corruption. This new region leans heavily into a horror aesthetic, where the very atmosphere builds tension and pressure, making the usual risk-reward balance of exploring for loot versus retreating to camp feel far more desperate.
Within these oppressive woods, you will encounter the corrupted, once-human figures horribly reshaped by the Weald’s dark influence, their howls echoing through the trees as the line between man and monster dissolves. The game introduces a constant tension centered on the question of how much of that corruption your own company is willing to absorb. The greatest risk—and reward—is that your own companions can become infected, voluntarily or not, and transform into Lycanthropes or the Hypertrophied Lycanthrope unit types, each featuring unique skills and finishers. Utilizing these feral abilities grants powerful new options, but it risks drawing your troop into the same savage spiral that claimed the enemies.
Complementing the paid expansion, Shiro Games is also introducing a brand-new class in a free accompanying update: the Thaumaturge. This class emerges from the laboratories of Alazar as a support specialist, utilizing an incense burner and glass vials to manipulate clouds of vapor on the battlefield. The Thaumaturge’s role is to buff allies, weaken enemies, and strategically shift the flow of a fight through concoctions and fumes.
Furthermore, the expansion weaves its theme into the existing progression loop. Corruption becomes a subject for study back at the company’s camp, where new research paths built around dissecting and experimenting on the collected grafts—or Lycanthrope samples—are unlocked. Through structured alchemy and experimentation in the new Field Laboratory, players can unlock additional, long-term bonuses and improvements for their mercenaries, including enhancements and mutations specifically for their Lycanthrope units. This approach to grafting new mechanics onto established systems ensures that The Curse of Rigel adds depth without breaking the pace of the core Wartales experience.
