- Update 1.20.0.3 - 1 October 2026
Hello everyone! We're pushing a small hotfix today ahead of the weekend to tackle some high priority issues reported to us since the release of By God Alone. We're continuing to work on additional issues that have been reported, and those fixes will be deployed at a later date.Check the changelog below for more information!Update 1.20.0.3 ChangelogFixed a bug where all candidates to an elective title were prevented from being granted a title. Now only the candidate that is currently winning is blocked from being granted a title directlyFixed a crash that can occur in the Frankokratia fourth crusade storyChalcedonians are now properly counted as involved in the Iberian struggleFixed a bug where nomads could not reform faiths Fixed Coronation doctrines blocking rite editing if you did not have the Coronations DLCFixed a bug where creating a head of faith title as a non-christian would lea…
- Состоялся релиз дополнения By God Alone для Crusader Kings 3 с игрой за Папу Римского и масштабной реформой церкви - 30 September 2026
Студия Paradox Development Studio и издательство Paradox Interactive выпустили масштабное дополнение By God Alone для глобальной средневековой стратегии Crusader Kings 3 одновременно с бесплатным обновлением 1.20.0 под кодовым именем Crozier. Релиз состоялся 30 сентября 2026 года на площадке Steam, где расширение доступно по цене 1209 рублей или в составе сезонного абонемента Chapter V. Новая глава развития проекта целиком посвящена христианской церкви и механизмам духовной власти, ожидавшим столь глубокой реформы с момента премьеры стратегии. Центральной механикой дополнения стала возможность полноценной игры за теократии и духовных правителей. Игроки могут возглавить владения епископов или занять папский престол в Риме, распоряжаясь церковной казной, собственным типом правления и региональными архидиоцезами. Для католического мира разработчики воссоздали Коллегию кардиналов со шкалой…
- New Crusader Kings 3 expansion tasks you to "wrestle with sin" in a transformative overhaul to religion - 30 September 2026
Crusader Kings 3 expansion By God Alone is out now, expanding religion alongside the free 'Crozier' update 1.20 for the grand strategy game. Read the full story on PCGamesN: New Crusader Kings 3 expansion tasks you to "wrestle with sin" in a transformative overhaul to religion
- Now Available: By God Alone & 1.20.0 "Crozier" Update - 30 September 2026
Hello everyone! By God Alone, our latest Core Expansion for Crusader Kings III, is now available alongside the free 1.20.0 "Crozier" Update.In By God Alone, being a good ruler and being a good believer aren't always the same thing. Your characters will wrestle with sin as they try to live up to their faith's ideals, while navigating the rich and evolving political landscape of the Christian Church. Stir up religious debates (or bring them to an end), decide where the authority of the crown ends and the cross begins, and weigh your ambitions against the fate of your soul.By God Alone is available as part of Crusader Kings III: Chapter V, or as an individual purchase. Check out our release trailer below, followed by the changelog.By God Alone & 1.20.0 "Crozier" Free Update ChangelogExpansion Features (Paid)The Christian ChurchAdded the Christian Church, a Situation covering all of Chri…
- "By God Alone" Dev Diary #8 - (Truly) Everything Else - 29 September 2026
Hello! In case you didn’t know, our latest Core Expansion, By God Alone, launches on 30 September, which is tomorrow. Aside from trying to explain why September doesn’t have a 31st, we’ll walk you through several topics we normally cover right before release: Art, Music, Modding, and Achievements - all in one Diary! We also have some new faces to introduce: a dedicated UGC Experience (UGCx) team has been working hard to improve moddability, and in recent months they've added many features modders have been requesting for years. We'll hear from them later in this Diary. Let's dive in.Hello! Anton Holmqvist here, Art Lead on By God Alone, which takes a deep dive into the Catholic church. The Christian Church has a deep well of references to take inspiration from so I’m here to show you what the team came up with! Key ArtWe first did the key art in-house for Khans of the Steppe which turne…
- "By God Alone" Dev Diary #7 - (Almost) Everything Else - 22 September 2026
Hello everyone! I’m Jacob, Community Manager for Paradox Studio Black. As we get closer to the release of By God Alone, there are still a number of mechanics and features that we haven’t covered in detail. Several of these developed into systems substantial enough to warrant a closer look than we could fit into our earlier diaries. So today, we’ll be taking a closer look at a selection of those systems. Namely: Saints, Monastic Orders, the Great Schism, and Antipopes.We’ll also be spending some time on the Orthodox Church and how it is represented in By God Alone. While Catholicism remains a major focus of the expansion, Christianity more broadly is an important part of its scope, with Orthodoxy playing a distinct role in several of the systems we’ll be discussing today.For By God Alone, we have added a canonization system for landed rulers, allowing them to put a departed ancestor forw…
- "Silk & Silver" Dev Diary #6 - Merchants, Republics, & the Silk Road - 15 September 2026
Hello everyone, It is time for us to give another update on all things that are happening on Silk & Silver. As Joachim mentioned during the last Dev Diary, we are currently deep in the Iteration phase of the project. Lots of progress has been made so far, and we want to share some of the recent developments when it comes to our two new Government types for the expansion: Merchants and Republics.\ In the third Silk & Silver Dev Diary, Profit Above All: Merchants Vision, we covered the Merchant player experience in a broader sense: who they are, what matters to them, as well as the tools and connections they have access to in order to achieve their goals. If you haven’t already, you can read this first to get a better understanding of Merchant Monopolies, Trade Expertise, Trade Contracts, Company Domicile, and the Merchant relationship to their Patron.Today, we will mainly focus on what t…
- "By God Alone" Dev Diary #6 - Performance - 8 September 2026
When the All Under Heaven update released we shared an update on our performance work here: (Dev Diary #187 - Performance & Optimization). In that update we also included some hopes and dreams for Crusader Kings III going forward and this is the Dev Diary where we add up the status as we reach the By God Alone update. Hello again, I am Carl-Henrik, Principal Programmer on the Crusader Kings III team. Around the release of All under Heaven I discussed speeding up the load screen and improving various other systems soon. That is what this Dev Diary is about, along with where the day by day performance is heading, and how much memory the game is holding on to while you play. This article lands a few weeks before the release of By God Alone and we are still working hard to improve the systems even further. Anything can happen in this period so be prepared for any final numbers being wrong b…
- "Silk & Silver" Dev Diary #5 - Iteration - 1 September 2026
Hello there, and welcome back to the first Silk & Silver dev diary after summer!Like always, for those who don’t know me, I am Joachim, the Deputy Game Director in charge of Silk & Silver. Today, we are going to talk a little bit about iteration. To give a quick crash course on how we work at Crusader Kings 3, we usually split our development into some core phases:Concepting - 1 Month - The core idea of the DLC is createdPre-Production - 1-2 Months - We craft a proper game design document, do experiments, test ideas, and prepare the DLC for productionProduction - Variable time period - All the core systems are created and hooked inIteration - 1-3 Months - We iterate on everything we have put in, and make everything hook together properlyRC (short for Release Candidate) - 1-2 Months - An intense bug-fixing period right before releasePRS (short for Post-Release Support) - However long is…
- "By God Alone" Dev Diary #5 - Investiture Controversy - 25 August 2026
Hello everyone! In today’s dev diary, we’ll explain how a historical conflict between the church and monarchs, known as the Investiture Controversy, is translated into Crusader Kings III, and also serves as one of the seven chapters in the new Christian Church situation of By God Alone.Your feedback from earlier dev diaries regarding this subject has been especially helpful, and we thank you all for your valuable contributions and suggestions. Now, let's move on to what has been in the works.A significant update is the new Conditional clerical appointment doctrine, adopted by Christian faiths at game start. Under Conditional appointment, neither secular rulers nor the clergy need permission to appoint clergymen within their jurisdictions, and either side can act on a disagreement immediately.Unlike the existing appointment doctrines, Conditional appointment lets both sides make these ch…
- Dragon Age: Thedas at War is a BioWare RPG-inspired Crusader Kings 3 total conversion mod that's here to keep the series alive while it sits in EA limbo - 27 July 2026
Who knows when or if BioWare'll ever be allowed to make a follow-up to Dragon Age: The Veilguard . Whatever ends up being the future of a series EA've left in a rather ambiguous place, a group of Crusader Kings 3 modders have stepped up to make a Dragon Age total conversion that lets folks play out a bit of their own kingdom-battling history in Thedas. Read more
- PDX ModCon: July 24-26 - 24 July 2026
Rulers! Great tidings to all from PDX ModCon!We are a fan-organised three-day showcase and celebration event for Paradox mods; specifically those of Crusader Kings III, Victoria 3, and this year, Europa Universalis V. We will be presenting no less than 60 mods over the coming weekend. Besides trailers and presentations, we will have the developers of some of the biggest mods - including After the End and MEIOU and Taxes - answering your questions! But not Morgenröte, they will be asking the questions instead as all viewers compete in a live quiz.Throughout the event we will be raising money for the Video Game History Foundation, a group that preserves our digital heritage by collecting and archiving video game materials, everything from source code to magazines, open to access for all.Join us, starting this Friday the 24th and running until Sunday! For more information, visit the offici…
- PC Game Pass takes a fresh blow with eight big losses, including Crusader Kings 3 - 19 July 2026
Eight more games will leave PC Game Pass at the end of July, including heavy hitters CK3, Mount and Blade 2, Rain World, and Whiskerwood. Read the full story on PCGamesN: PC Game Pass takes a fresh blow with eight big losses, including Crusader Kings 3
- Faith, Power, and the Medieval Church - A Crusader Kings III Documentary - 7 July 2026
In the latest episode of our ongoing documentary series, medieval historian Eleanor Janega explores the real history at the heart of our upcoming Core Expansion for Crusader Kings III: By God Alone.Filmed inside one of London’s oldest medieval churches, this video enters a world where the Church did more than shape belief: it helped decide who held power, who could be challenged, and what counted as a rightful claim. For medieval rulers in Christendom, faith and politics were two sides of the same coin.
- Crusader Kings III × Dogecore: A Collection for the Chronically Medieval - 26 June 2026
Rule kingdoms. Wear the trauma.The medieval era wasn't pretty, and neither are you. Crusader Kings III has teamed up with Dogecore to bring you a collection that captures every glorious, cursed corner of the game you know and love.From hoodies and tees to tote bags and posters, this drop is for the player who's lost an heir to smallpox, tortured a vassal into submission, and somehow still calls it a good Tuesday.The collection features four original apparel designs:Sorry, Princess — I Only Date War Machines. Because love is a siege engine.Maslow's Hierarchy (CK3 Edition). Self-actualization is the Pope liking you. Physiological needs? Gold surplus. We don't make the rules.I Did Not Ask To Be Born. Blind. Bastard. Imbecile. Hideous. At least you have the genes for it.I Love Medieval Torture. The UI pop-up said it loses stress. You clicked the button. No further questions.And for those wh…
- By God Alone Dev Diary #4 - Christian Church Situation - 23 June 2026
Greetings! You may remember me from the days of Khans of the Steppe, but today I am here to welcome you to another By God Alone dev diary.When we set out to rework how Christianity feels in Crusader Kings III, we kept returning to the same question: how do you make a thousand years of Church history feel alive in a sandbox, without turning every playthrough into the same timeline? Our answer is The Christian Church; a new Situation that tracks the spiritual health of Christendom across seven different Chapters.Today we will walk you through how the Situation works: who participates, how Chapters change, what Catalysts push the Church forward, and what each era means for your ruler, both as a ecclesiastical government or not. \The Situation's sub-region is Christendom: the sum of every independent Christian realm whose lands fall within an archdiocese. The Church may become bigger or sma…
- Crusader Kings III - By God Alone expansion coming September 30 - 19 June 2026
Crusader Kings III from Paradox Interactive is set to get even bigger, with the By God Alone expansion coming September 30th bringing new ways to play. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/06/crusader-kings-iii-by-god-alone-expansion-coming-september-30/
- The next Crusader Kings 3 expansion is finally giving religion a complete makeover - 18 June 2026
I certainly wouldn't accuse Crusader Kings 3 of feeling shallow; Paradox's medieval grand strategy game continues to spawn fresh tales of political intrigue and family drama almost six years on from launch. One aspect core to the era that has always felt ripe for expansion, however, is the way it handles religion and faith, and it's finally time for developer Paradox to do just that. New Crusader Kings 3 DLC By God Alone promises many more ways that belief systems can influence your journey through the ages, and even lets you step into the Papacy for yourself. Read the full story on PCGamesN: The next Crusader Kings 3 expansion is finally giving religion a complete makeover
- Crusader Kings III: By God Alone - Available September 30th - 17 June 2026
Navigate through a medieval era with a rich religious life in Crusader Kings III: By God Alone, our latest Core Expansion releasing on September 30th! Wrestle with sin as your rulers try to live up to the tenets of their faith and tangle with church authorities who have power on earth, as well as heaven. Instigate or settle religious debates, negotiate the limits of crown and Papal authority, and ponder the afterlife.Coming to Crusader Kings III in By God Alone:Playable TheocraciesTake control of landed realms headed by an archbishop or even the Pope himself. As the Papacy, new resources of power and wealth will be at your disposal.The Christian “Situation”A new persistent Situation for Christian realms, allowing actions and decisions connected to the development and progress of the Faith.You can participate in Ecumenical Councils to decide on religious tenets and beliefs.Rites & Heresi…
- Crusader Kings 3 devs Paradox will make the roaming mercenary lifestyle of playing as a landless adventurer free for everyone later this year - 17 June 2026
While Crusader Kings 3 typically deals in the fantasy of sitting on a big chair in one place and shouting at underlings, roaming its world as a the unlanded leader of a band of travelling adventurers is just as fun and arguably the best way to kick off a custom dynasty. Up to now, the freedom to pursue the life of a ruthless mercenary, valiant knight, or stuffy bureaucrat surviving off of favours for rulers while searching for the ideal title or throne to claim as their own once they're ready has been locked behind 2024's Roads to Power expansion . Thankfully, Paradox plan to whisk it out from behind that curtain and make it a free part of the base game later this year. Read more
