Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord — Beta Patch Notes v1.3.0 release notes

Beta v1.3.0

Greetings Warriors of Calradia!

The v1.3.0 base game update is now available in Public Beta.

This update brings a wide range of improvements across the game, from new features to refined gameplay systems and technical upgrades - all aimed at making your time in Calradia more engaging and rewarding.

Because this is a Beta, please note that:

Save game compatibility is not guaranteed.
You may encounter instability, crashes, or unfinished elements as we continue development.

This phase aims to stress-test the update at scale, gather performance data, and make sure everything is solid when v1.3 launches in full.

If you’d prefer to wait for the most polished version, stick to the Live branch and jump into v1.3 with the launch of War Sails. But if you’d like to be part of the journey, opt into the Beta branch via the Steam Betas system today and tell us what’s working - and what still needs work.

Thank you for sailing with us on this voyage!

Before jumping into the full patch notes, here's a quick recap of the many features being introduced.

Singleplayer

Art

Changes

Added a new main menu video for each culture - 6 in total.
Added 4 new armor pieces: Blackened Boots, Blackened Armor, Blackened Cape, and Blackened Hood. These have a high stealth factor.
Added 4 new shields: Sturgian - Druzhinnik Kite Shield, Reinforced Leaf-Point Kite Shield, Leaf-Point Kite Shield; and Vlandian - Angular Kite Shield.
Added 6 new sword scabbards for existing blades.
Scene Atmospheres
We moved away from an automated interpolation of atmospheres based on time of day and instead introduced a greater range of custom environments that are tailored to cover specific times.
We further fine-tuned atmosphere values in general and improved our skybox textures.
Added and improved existing global illumination for various towns, castles, and keeps.

Fixes

Minor fixes (including siege-related) across town, castle, and tavern scenes.
Minor clipping fixes for the Rural Headdress and Palatine Guard Helmet.
Minor fixes for Battania helmets.
Fixed a visual issue with the Arbalest crossbow handle texture.
Fixed a bug that allowed players to leave the training field mounted area on horseback.

Animations

Changes

Improved idle animations for guards.
Corrected party rotation visuals on the campaign map — parties in map events now face their opposing leader rather than the midpoint of the event.
Adjusted beggars’ animation speeds for smoother movement.

Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused some parties to play a running animation while stationary on the campaign map.
Fixed an issue where the battle animation would not play for a party raiding a village during a raid.
Fixed a bug where sitting beggars would not turn to face others while speaking.
Fixed a bug where a character seated on a throne could slide out of position when a conversation began.
Fixed a bug that caused idle animation issues for female companions in civilian scenes.
Fixed an animation bug that caused the barmaid to get stuck in the beer-pouring animation.
Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to sit or float in mid-air in civilian scenes.

Campaign Map

Fixed specular issues affecting the appearance of settlements on the world map.

Audio

Changes

Game music now ducks when the player gets near town musicians.
A new music track & sound set for stealth missions.
A new sound set for “The Retreat” ending.
New sound sets for Settlement Build, Recruit and Kingdom Decisions panels.
A new ambient sound set for Slow Motion/Order mode.
A new sound set for Formation Targeting.
A new sound for the Banner Bearer's movement.
A new sound for fast movement of the Campaign camera.
A new sound for hideout battles and raids on the Campaign map.
A new sound set for weather events on the Campaign map.
Added ambient village scene sounds to scenes that were missing them.
Optimized the footsteps to free up audio resources in crowded situations.
Balanced the in-game UI notification volumes.
Revised the bodyfall physics sounds.
Reworked the campaign ambients to have more consistency.
Improved the sound of campaign armies.
In-combat AI yelling behavior now reacts to close engagement and chasing situations.
The arena audience now better reacts to fights.

Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused the background music to stop when switching culture in the Character Creation screen.
Fixed a bug that caused some combat music to have the wrong transitions and mood jumps.
Fixed a bug that caused order and dialogue voiceovers to play on the Loading screen.
Fixed a bug that prevented the in-game Master Volume setting from impacting the intro sound.
Fixed a bug that caused the character’s voice type to reset every time the Character Creation screen was opened.
Fixed a bug that caused the wrong voice to be assigned to the character on the Character Creation screen.

Changes

Implemented a new heir selection popup. The new popup presents information in a clearer, more visual format similar to the marriage popup, and shows the player’s relation to each candidate.
Improved the town management popup:
Pressing outside the Reserve popup now cancels instead of confirming.
Fixed a bug that caused the “Add to queue/Remove from queue” button to always display as “+”.
Added tooltips to the “Add/Remove” and “Set as active” buttons.
You can now reorder items on the right‑side queue via drag‑and‑drop, or click to manage an item directly.
Fixed a bug that caused minor visual flaws.
Added a visual for the banner‑bearer count on Order of Battle formation cards.
Added controller hotkeys to the Order of Battle screen.
Added “Culture” to hero tooltips in the Manage Town menu.
Added a tooltip to the Party Troop Wage icon.
Added additional warning menus for “Force Recruit” and “Force Goods” hostile actions to indicate that the action may cause war.
Added a tooltip warning of possible death when accepting corporal punishment.
Added an influence gain message to the log when donating prisoners.
In a hero's encyclopedia page, the friends/enemies lists have been shortened to 3 rows, and the overflow is now displayed via a tooltip.
The message log is now temporarily hidden (instead of cleared) when opening fullscreen menus, entering Photo Mode, or starting a conversation.
Made several improvements to the “Upgrade Troops” popup regarding horse requirements.
Disabled saves are now also selectable in the “Saved Campaigns” screen (they cannot be loaded).
Disabled quicksave‑related options when the save limit is reached and added a tooltip explaining why. Previously, a non‑specific error would appear.
In Custom Battle, the Siege Engine selection popup can now be exited without making a selection.
Clarified “Party Wage/Party Expenses” texts and refined clan tier bonus descriptions on the Clan screen.
Time now resumes to its previous state after a marriage offer is closed.
Made troop tiers more visible on the Manage Troops screen before hideout battles.
Moved the pregnancy icon on the Clan screen to be more visible.
Updated journal quest highlighting: clicking a quest now hides its highlight, while updated/new stages remain highlighted until clicked a second time.
Items plundered during raids are now grouped before being displayed.
Restructured the troop list in the in‑game encyclopedia into two main groups: Culture (regular faction troops) and Outlaw (bandits).
Improved encyclopedia search to include results with diacritics.
The “Transfer All” button when trading with a settlement now transfers goods only up to the settlement’s gold; pressing it again transfers the remaining goods.
The “Toggle Camera Follow Mode” button no longer appears in Photo Mode when visiting scenes like the Tavern.
Made unavailable items clearer to distinguish in the Crafting → Refine window.

Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused the “Undo/Redo” and “Reset/Reset All” buttons to not remember history values properly during character creation.
Fixed a bug in the Inventory screen that could cause prisoner conformities to reset when moved to Discard and back.
Fixed a bug in the Lord’s Hall fight where the “Done” button remained grayed out when the player did not have enough troops.
Fixed a bug where links that wrapped to a new line in a text box would lose their proper styling.
Fixed a bug that caused an old alley leader’s thumbnail to remain in the settlement menu bar after changing the leader.
Fixed a bug where the banner sigil was not displayed on shields in the Clan screen.
Fixed a bug where pausing the game with an active tutorial caused the tutorial to appear in front of the pause menu.
Fixed a bug that caused inconsistencies between militia/garrison information displayed in the Encyclopedia and in hover tooltips.
Fixed a bug that prevented the Encyclopedia from responding to gamepad navigation.
Fixed a bug that caused the “Kingdom has been destroyed” cutscene to display the wrong kingdom name.
Fixed a bug where the “Location” text in the Kingdom screen’s Armies tab displayed the current “Behavior” instead.
Fixed a bug that showed the wrong cutscene when the main hero executed their own sibling.
Fixed a bug in the Character Developer screen where a perk selection popup would not close when changing characters, instead moving to an incorrect position.
Fixed a bug that caused the troop percentage sliders to behave unpredictably in the Custom Battle menu.
Fixed a bug where opening the Kingdom screen via circle notifications caused it to remain permanently enabled.
Fixed a bug that caused no information to be shown when a raid ended because the village’s bound settlement joined the player’s kingdom.
Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor could trigger tooltips even when off-screen.
Fixed a bug that made the banner button in the Clan screen unclickable if a tutorial was active.
Fixed a bug in the Character Developer screen where “Unspent attribute points: 0” text was invisible.
Fixed a bug that caused banner effects to display twice in banner item tooltips.
Fixed a bug in the Inventory screen where horse weights were incorrectly included in the left roster’s capacity.
Fixed a bug where pressing in-cart army icons in the Army Management screen caused the X button state to change incorrectly.
Fixed a bug that caused alternative usage buttons in Inventory screen tooltips to appear unselected after selection.
Fixed a bug in the Kingdom screen’s Fiefs panel where a floating button with no text appeared when no fiefs were selected.
Edited the layout of certain screens and adjusted the orientation of some non-Latin alphabets to resolve alignment issues.
Fixed a bug that caused the prisoner donation tooltip to display repeatedly above a settlement.
Fixed a bug that caused banner inconsistencies in certain cases for settlements and mobile parties.
Fixed a bug that allowed kingdom decisions to be viewed when they should be disabled.
Fixed a bug that prevented the “Party Priority Change” dropdown in the Clan → Parties screen from being enabled.
Fixed a bug that caused highlights to be missing on recently completed quests.
Fixed a bug that caused the “Manage Army” button to display inconsistently between the map and Kingdom screens.
Fixed a bug that made the Members list slider in the Kingdom screen’s Clans tab unclickable.
Fixed a bug that caused the party speed tooltip to display incorrect values.
Fixed a bug where, if the player was not the leader of an ongoing siege and the leader’s party left, another party could appear twice in the overlay menu.
Fixed a bug that caused certain tooltips to overflow incorrectly into two lines.
Fixed a bug that caused parties to display incorrectly in the army overlay after creating an army.
Fixed a bug that caused individual army members to display inconsistent tooltip behaviors.
Fixed a bug where neutral troops appeared as attackers in the scoreboard during missions.
Fixed a bug in the Order of Battle screen where pressing Esc while dragging a hero could make the hero disappear.
Fixed a bug in the Order of Battle screen that prevented selected formations from being deselected when pressing Esc.
Fixed a bug that caused dialogue nameplates to misalign in ultrawide displays.
Fixed a bug that caused tooltips to appear in incorrect positions on ultrawide screens.
Fixed a bug where “Press to do 5/All” shortcuts in party/inventory item tooltips appeared invisible.
Fixed a bug in New Game/Campaign Options where some settings appeared available when they should be unavailable, and vice versa.
Fixed a bug that prevented raider parties in the tutorial from being tracked correctly.
Fixed a bug that prevented Encyclopedia search results from appearing when using an on-screen keyboard (Steam Big Picture, consoles, etc.).
Fixed a bug that prevented a notification banner from appearing when a new governor assigned by the player arrived.
Fixed a bug where zooming the camera with a controller immediately before entering a settlement broke focus.
Fixed a bug that prevented marriage notifications from appearing when a female family member married.
Fixed a bug that caused the workshop purchase tooltip to be misleading, showing only the lack of funds as a reason but failing to mention the workshop limit.
Fixed a bug that caused siege engine tooltips to remain on screen if the game was paused.
Fixed a bug that prevented the “Charge to the Gate” order icon from appearing during sieges.
Fixed a bug that displayed nobles in the village UI even after they had left.
Fixed a bug that caused on-screen notifications to persist with broken text when exiting a mission during an active notification.

Stealth & Disguise

Implemented the stealth system - used in prison breaks (from a dungeon) and hideouts.
Enemies detect the player through sight and sound, reacting to movement, noise, bodies, or their alarmed allies.
Their vision is influenced by
elevation — enemies see more clearly when looking down, but struggle to spot movement above them.
light exposure — shadows and night offer concealment while areas lit by torches make you stand out.
Natural hiding spots such as tall grass and dark corners provide concealment; crouching reduces visibility further.
Enemy alertness states: Neutral → Cautious → Searching → Fully Alarmed.
Added distraction mechanics with thrown objects and noise-making; some enemies resist being diverted.
Stealth attacks deal bonus damage to unaware targets with certain weapons allowing crouched melee and ranged strikes.
Players can drag bodies to conceal them and prevent raising alarms.
Your roguery skill will now also impact the damage dealt via stealth attacks as well as how fast you move and the noise you make while crouched.
Reworked the bandit hideout scenes and mission to accommodate stealth gameplay.
Instead of diving straight into the fight, you’ll need to clear out sentry camps surrounding the main hideout first. Once you’ve eliminated these outer threats, you’ll have the option to call for an all-out assault on the main camp, leading to the final boss fight.
Reworked dungeons and the prison break mission to accommodate stealth gameplay.
Breaking someone out won’t be as simple as waltzing in and cutting their shackles — you’ll now need to sneak your way in, locate the prisoner’s cell, and then escort them out without raising suspicion. You can’t fight your way in, but once you reach the cell, guards will start to sense that something is off and begin patrolling. At that point, you’ll have to decide—do you attempt a stealthy escape, or fight your way out?
6 new dungeon scenes have been added designed for stealth gameplay.
Implemented a third equipment layout which will be utilized in stealth missions.
Certain armor pieces now modify your visibility and audibility, offering bonuses for stealth-oriented gear. This is indicated with a stealth bonus entry on the item tooltip.
Selected daggers now have an alternate backstabbing attack.
Daggers, certain swords, short bows, composite bows, light crossbows, and select throwing weapons will be usable in stealth missions.
The range of available weapons remains subject to change.
Added Bag of Rocks for creating distractions and diverting enemy attention.
Implemented the disguise system - used when sneaking into hostile towns.
The first infiltration of a town requires setting up a contact inside the settlement. The town mission, however, now has increased guard presence and surveillance, requiring you to disguise yourself and find the contact person within the mission.
Disguise relies on inconspicuity — suspicious actions such as running, drawing weapons, or hiding will raise guard suspicion. High suspicion triggers guard investigation. If you break line of sight, they eventually return to their posts.
Being identified blows your cover, placing all guards on full alert and initiating pursuit. Escape requires leaving the settlement and capture results in imprisonment.
If you establish a contact successfully, you can then explore the town in disguise, including in any future entries.
If you prefer the campaign menu, you may still use the skill roll option to sneak into the settlement each time — but only after you’ve established a contact there.
Implemented