More than two years after launch, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition keeps getting new goodies. The remastered strategy game has just got another major update, which brings a new co-op event, two new co-op campaigns, rewards, bug fixes, and more.
Age of Empires II: DE’s Update 58259 – catchy, isn’t it? – has kicked off a new co-op event that runs from, well, right now to February 14. This is offering a new bunch of challenges that in turn yield some decent in-game rewards, which you can earn by beating the set tasks within a certain time limit. In the style of similar events the devs have run before, this one gets you to complete a set of challenges in order, with five in total. You won’t need to hit them all on consecutive days, but you can only complete up to a maximum of one per day, so you’ll need to play on at least five different days while the event’s live to nab them all.
Rewards vary by day, but include things like cheat codes that let you up your population cap or share resource around your team. There are also profile icons and a Town Centre decoration up for grabs. If you sign into Xbox Live at any time while the event’s in swing you’ll get to keep all of the mods and profile icons you unlock forever, so it’s well worth doing if you intend to keep them.
Elsewhere, the update brings the Alaric and Saladin co-op campaigns to the live game, which means six full campaigns and five historical battles to tuck into. You can catch the full list of these in the devs’ patch notes.
The update additionally ushers in the usual round of gameplay balance changes and bug fixes – which are lengthy, so also available to check out directly in the patch notes – as well as some cool new features for lobbies and matchmaking. Ranked Deathmatch has now come to custom lobbies, for example, and there’s a new ‘balance teams’ button that’ll help you – yep, you guessed it – balance your teams in this mode.
The latest update for #AgeofEmpiresIIDefinitiveEdition is now available! This patch features map balancing, gameplay fixes, Custom Lobby Ranked Deathmatch, and the newest Co-Op Event!
📜 Read more: https://t.co/bkA2JcRtze pic.twitter.com/cs4O271I1n
— AgeOfEmpires (@AgeOfEmpires) February 1, 2022
Beyond the chunky new update, the Age devs tease that “2022 will be busy!” in the notes. “At the close of last year we mentioned that there’s plenty on the horizon for Age II:DE, with our plans to continue updating and supporting the game for a long, long time,” the devs explain. “It’s the New Year and as we deliver the January Update, we’re working through a ton of planning in parallel and thinking about how we can best share our aspirations with you (and trust us, there’s some really cool stuff in the works!) We know you’re interested in this info, so we’ll be sure to follow up once we’re ready to reveal just a few of the things coming to Age II:DE in 2022!” Lovely stuff.