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2.5.0 Update Patch Notes

Company of Heroes 3 · Community Announcements · July 29, 2026

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Overview

Update 2.5.0 will be available for Company of Heroes 3 today at 10am PT and includes 2 new maps, a refresh of the game lobby, and several changes to gameplay systems and multiplayer balance. Much of the multiplayer balance work in today's update is a first major step towards addressing the current meta of massing units (blobbing). This work begins today with a focus on infantry, and will continue in the next major update, 3.0 in October, with more changes targeting the massing of vehicles. Today's update also supports the release of Company of Heroes 3's first standalone experience – Final Stand. Many of the fixes and changes included in today’s update are thanks to your feedback. Please continue to share your feedback or ask the dev team questions here and report any issues to us at help.relic.com.

Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand

[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/4836540/Company_of_Heroes_3_Final_Stand/"]

Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand introduces an all-new standalone wave defense experience designed for solo and co-op play. Build layered defenses, hold the line against overwhelming odds, and survive 12 increasingly challenging waves of enemy forces featuring dynamic battlefield events and powerful bosses. Battle across multiple Battlegrounds against forces drawn from the Wehrmacht, US Forces, British Forces, and Deutsches Afrikakorps factions. Learn more about Final Stand here and buy it now for a 10% discount during the launch period and a bonus 20% discount for Company of Heroes 3 owners.

Maps

New Maps added to all modes

Butcher & Bolt - (1vs1)

Night-time desert raids are synonymous with the exploits of British Commandos. Relive their daring exploits in our new 1vs1 map! Players will always be close to their enemy's HQ, but resources on the extreme flanks are what will secure victory – overextend at your own risk, and strike fast to sever any opponent who does not watch their back.

Raids conducted by the Special Air Service and Long Range Desert Group (affectionately known as the Desert Taxi Service) marked a turning point in the desert war.

While the siege of Tobruk ground on during the winter of 1941, convoys of British Commandos struck out at airfields and munitions depots from the inhospitable Great Sand Sea, melting away into the night once the deed was done. Such raids destroyed German and Italian planes on the ground, starved fighting vehicles of fuel, and rid soldiers of their munitions.

Casualties among the Commandos were high, but their long-term effect on enemy morale endured for the remainder of the war.

Across the Savio - (3vs3)

Community map makers DutchToast and Foolish Viceroy have again restored a beloved Company of Heroes classic – Across the Rhine. This is a map of tiers, with players fighting for control over the boggy lowlands at the river’s edge, the concrete battlements to the center, or the farmlands on the high ground. We hope players enjoy returning to an iconic battlefield first introduced in Company of Heroes 2’s British Forces DLC.

On October 21, 1944, the Savio River was hastily formed into the next brutal line of defense. German forces had fallen back through a series of river positions, from the Foglia to the Lamone, but at the Savio, progress halted. With continuing rainfall and floodwaters threatening to collapse its banks, the Savio proved to be one of the most deadly bridgeheads faced by the Allies in Italy.

Map Quality of Life Features

We are still collecting feedback from our Official Discord and making changes where we felt they were most needed. Thanks again to our dedicated community for all feedback provided; please do not hesitate to leave any further feedback or issues on our maps.

User Interface & User Experience

Lobby & Battlegroup Selection Improvements

We've overhauled the multiplayer lobby experience to streamline Battlegroup selection and to improve usability across Skirmish, Co-op vs A.I., Quick Match, and Custom Games.

Multiplayer

For multiplayer balance in update 2.5.0, we are aiming to improve the importance of unit tactics and micro, and big changes are coming to some core systems.

Our main target this update is to make infantry positioning more rewarding. Cover is more durable and harder to crush, targeting and suppression is much more punishing against infantry in the open, and multiple weapons are being made weaker against cover.

We hope these changes make a difference to the early phases of the game, but we do not expect them to fix all of the frustrations players have right now. Mass vehicle play is a problem we’re aware of, and we will be looking at that more closely in update 3.0.0 in October. These changes take a great deal of time to test and validate, especially since there are always uneven winners and losers when making global changes. So we will closely monitor this update and your feedback.

Pathing

We've made several improvements to pathing, fixing some longstanding issues.

Infantry Combat and Suppression

We are making some changes to infantry combat to help alleviate some of the issues facing the game. These changes are not meant to fix all the issues regarding massed infantry, but they should make it easier for the defender to reduce the effectiveness of the enemy when fighting from good positions or are backed by suppression.

Infantry Formations

We are tightening infantry squad formations to make squads that are in the open slightly more vulnerable to area of effect weapons as squads currently have wide formations and reduce the amount of space a squad covers.

Infantry Small-Arms Priority

Infantry weapon priority has been adjusted to make combat more consistent and reduce cases where infantry squads spread their damage amongst all members of the enemy squad. This should make it easier to bleed enemy models over the course of an engagement.

Suppression

The following changes make it significantly harder for suppressed enemies to break suppression while they are still in-combat. Previously, only a weapon that dealt suppression damage could keep a squad in the suppressed state with enemies automatically recovering even if they were in combat after 10 seconds.

This should make it easier to halt large masses of infantry so long as the Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) can get its suppression off, and nearby units are able to prevent suppression recovery.

Heavy Machine Guns

We are increasing the penetration power of HMGs to allow them to better combat early ultra-light vehicles to allow for more soft counters which should be able to help factions like the Wehrmacht in team games where they lack their own combat capable ultra-light unit.

The power of the HMG is being reduced against units in cover as the changes to suppression make these units significantly stronger in infantry combat.

Automatic Rifles and Light Machine Guns

Special weapons like automatic rifles and LMGs are having their damage penalties against heavy and garrison cover types increased to match most weapons. This will make heavy cover more valuable against the majority of upgraded squads in the game.

Team Weapons

Team weapons will no longer be counted to the area of effect damage limit, making damage against them more predictable with units like mortars or artillery.

Munition Points

As fuel plays such an important factor for gaining tech-based power spikes, the capture time of certain munition points are being reduced to make it easier for players to prioritize this resource in the early game.

Mortars and Mortar Halftracks

Mortars are receiving adjustments to make them a little easier to access but have slightly slower speeds. We have also increased their penetration against certain objects to make them better able to destroy cover or abandoned team weapons.

Light Artillery - Pack Howitzer, 4.2 Inch Heavy Mortar, le.IG 18 Support Gun

Light artillery is too effective against stationary targets, having high damage payloads, good range, and good area of effect that makes it a little too hard to fight from cover when these units are on the field.

To retain their hitting power, while reducing their ability to take a squad out of a fight with a single hit, these units will be inaccurate at the start of their barrage, but steadily have their accuracy increase the more they fire.

Medium Anti-Tank Guns - 6-pounder, 57mm, Pak 38/40

The power of veteran Anti-Tank (AT) guns is being slightly reduced as their rate of fire can be oppressive to medium tanks, and they level up very quickly.

Casualty Recovery

Recovered casualties could still provide too much manpower over the course of a long game. Because of this, we are further reducing the amount refunded to the player.

Vehicle Weapons

We are slightly reducing the effectiveness of vehicles that fire on the move - mainly against infantry - by allowing projectiles to scatter further in front or behind the target when a miss is rolled.

The previous system always capped the distance scatter to the scatter max value even if the moving scatter penalties would bring it over the limit.

Direct-Fire Ballistic Weapons - Autocannons, Anti-Aircraft Guns, Anti-Tank Rifles, Tank Cannons

Previously, cover would not provide its damage reduction bonus if a projectile-based weapon’s shell landed behind the unit’s cover or the weapon rolled a hit. This caused heavy cover to be somewhat ineffective against certain weapons.

We are making a change so all direct-fire based projectile weapons now have their damage properly reduced if the cover bonus would apply.

Cover

We are increasing the durability of many map objects in the game, particularly heavy cover objects so the battlefield retains strongpoints for longer periods of time, allowing for more dynamic infantry combat. Previously, it was too easy to destroy the majority of cover objects, which led maps to being fairly barren by the mid game.

Light Vehicles - Marders, Stuarts, Chaffee, Semovente, Carro, 8rad

The majority of light vehicles are having their medium crush reduced to light crush to increase the longevity of heavy cover in the early to mid-game. We have noticed that maps could be easily flattened, reducing the amount of positional play there was early game vehicles hit the field.

Wespe and Bishop Self-Propelled Artillery

Certain artillery units are having their veterancy adjusted to have their ability recharge bonuses lessened or moved to higher levels. Currently, veteran artillery units can have too much up-time, allowing for constant barrages that make positional play very difficult in the late game.

The Cannone, Whizbang, and Walking Stuka changes can be found in faction notes.

Veterancy bonuses for these two units changed to the following:

High Explosive Light Artillery Barrage - Pack Howitzer, le.IG 18, Heavy Mortar, Stummel, Scott, M3 75mm HE Barrage

This change is to make these units less effective against vehicles which they are not intended to counter.

Rifle Grenades

We are reducing the kill radius of the rifle grenade to make them less devastating. There will still be instances they can kill a squad, but this doesincrease the chance a healthy squad in a line formation or one that is dodging, will survive.

Team Weapon Formations

We are making a change that allows team weapons like HMGs to have further spacing when placed in cover to make it harder to destroy/damage the entire crew with a single grenade or area-of-effect (AOE) weapons.

Paradropping

Medical Vehicle Healing Auras - 251/M3, CWT, 2.5 Tonne Truck

The healing range of these mobile healing and reinforcement platforms has been reduced to make front-line healing more risky when dealing with indirect-fire/AOE weapons and force the truck to get closer to the frontline.

Panzerschreck

The Panzerschreck is having its far aim-time reduced, allowing this weapon to engage long-range targets sooner.

Flamethrowers

This change should reduce how likely a mine will trigger on contact with a flamethrower while still making these weapons able to quickly clear a mine if the player knows its location.

Off-Map Heavy Artillery Strikes

A large number of off-map artillery strikes are having their cooldowns increased to give more moments in the game where the player in not constantly under attack from off-maps, especially in team games.

Engineers, Pioneers, Sappers and Panzerpioneers

US Forces

Support Center Upgrades Locked Behind Tank Depot

We are locking a number of Support Center upgrades behind the Tank Depot to reduce the power of strategies that focused on getting powerful upgrades early and creating more incentives to reach the Tank Depot.

M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles

The BAR is once again being locked behind the Support Center to allow for more un-upgraded infantry play in the early game that is combined with lessening the impact of shock timings early game on other factions.

Bazooka Team

Riflemen Squad

M1919 HMG Team

M1919A6 Light Machine Gun - All variants

The M1919A6 LMG is having its firepower slightly increased to bring it more in-line with other weapons.

Sherman Whizbang

Char B1 Heavy

The Char’s armor is being slightly reduced to make it more vulnerable to AT fire from the front, particularly when Mechanized Support Center (MSC) armor and veterancy bonuses come into play. Its fuel price has also been increased to better reflect its performance.

Zone Rouge

Advanced Tourelle

SSF Commando Squad

Paratrooper Squad

To better reflect their role as advanced infantry, we have slightly increased the DPS of the stock Paratrooper squad.

Gallant Stand

Pershing

Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht is receiving several small changes targeting their early game to give them a little more resilience by having slightly more manpower and combat effectiveness for their starting units while reducing the impact their shock timings provided by Officer Quarters and the faction’s light vehicles.

Infanterie Kompanie

Infanterie Kompanie Officer Quarters

The fuel price and research time of Infanterie Kompanie is being raised to lessen the impact of the timing push Wehrmacht can do in the early game and give their opponent more time to respond.

Pioneer Squad

Pioneers are having their firepower slightly increased to better allow them to support Grenadiers in the early game or when engaging units like Scouts. Build times have been increased to prevent how quickly Pioneers can grab map control by massing them.

Grenadier Squad

Jager Squad

Flak 30 Anti-Aircraft Gun Team

221 Armored Car

The 221 is having its fuel cost increased and armor reduced to make it easier to soft counter by positioning/cover in the early game and slow down its rush timing.

251 Halftrack and Variants

Nebelwerfer 42 Rocket Launcher Team

Sturmpioneer Squad

Fallschirmpioneer Squad

251/16 Flammpanzerwagen

Adjustments have been made to the 251/16 to reduce its impact on the battlefield by increasing its build time and experience requirements and reducing its health, which also comes with the reduced frontal armor change on the standard 251. We still want the 251/16 to be more durable than the standard 251 as the unit needs to get closer to the front, but the reduced armor and health should allow small-arms support to put the 251/16 at risk of being finished off by AT weapons.

Borgward Wanze

Coastal Reserves Squad

Jericho Trumpets

Siege Camp and Pantherturm

Siege Camp

Command Panzer IV Medium Tank

British Forces

Infantry Training

The amount of experience being granted by Infantry Training has been reduced as units would start reaching Veterancy 2 too quickly after this upgrade was researched.

Team Weapon Training

Team Weapon Training is having its cost increased to better reflect the strong benefits it gives to team weapons.

Light Vehicle Training

The ability recharge speed of this upgrade is being reduced primarily to target the Bishop’s recharge speed which resulted in constant barrages with little downtime.

Royal Engineer Section

Royal Engineers are having their manpower costs slightly adjusted to better reflect their light combat role that greatly tapers off past the early-game due to its close-range nature.

M3 Stuart Light Tank

The Stuart’s accuracy is being slightly increased.

Foot Guards Section

Foot Guards are having their close and mid-range effectiveness increased to allow the unit to cause a little bit more damage at range if they are forced to fight from cover.

M3 Grant Medium Tank

With the Grant being less capable as an all-rounder unit, we are now able to reduce the unit’s unlock cost to better reflect its more specialized role at brawling with opposing medium tanks with some Anti-Infantry firepower.

Operation Thunderclap

30cwt LRDG Truck

SSB Commando Section

Directed Air Support

Directed Air Support has received changes to allow more targets to be designated and in quicker succession. We have also sped up the strafing runs to allow them to more reliably hit their target after the air strikes have been called

Canadian Shock Section

Land Mattress Team

Polish Recon Mission

Sherman VC Firefly Tank Destroyer

The armor of the Firefly is being reduced to allow opposing medium tanks to threaten this unit once they have managed to close the gap.

Deutsches Afrikakorps

Armory

We have made changes to the Armory to reduce the power of Panzergrenadier heavy builds which have become a staple for the faction, getting high durability when multiple upgrades are stacked on them.

In return, we have created a new upgrade that allows the Afrikakorps to opt out of the medical truck in the Armory to create greater tech diversity.

New Armory Layout

Veteran Squad Leaders

Bolstered Panzergrenadiers

Advanced Repair

Halftrack Deployment

The Panzerjäger call-in currently allows the Afrikakorps to respond to early light vehicles that is often used to support their own light vehicle shock timing. This gave the Afrikakorps too much tempo, allowing them to dictate the early-to-mid game by getting a mobile Anti-Tank unit without a build-time. Because of these reasons, we are removing it.

In return, we are allowing two additional call-ins, allowing the Afrikakorps to bring in more support style units to bolster their ranks.

Panzergrenadier Squad

The Panzergrenadier was too effective when firing on the move with their basic rifles, resulting in the unit having a little too much firepower. When mixed with their Combined Arms bonus, it made this infantry unit too good at assaulting and chasing down opposing squads.

2.5 Tonne Medical and Utility Trucks

Panzerjäger Squad

To help Panzerjägers against heavier vehicles, we have changed their ambush bonus to grant them increased weapon penetration instead of accuracy.

Flakvierling Halftrack

The Flakvierling is having a minor reduction in manpower cost as it is losing significant power when firing units in cover.

StuG III D Assault Gun

The StuG D is having its AOE increased and projectile arc lowered to allow this unit to better hit targets that are on the move. The unit’s shells can still be dodged, but it is now much more likely the squad will take a light amount of damage from each shell.

Projectile minimum elevation lowered from 20 to 10; allows for lower angle shots for slightly faster time on target.

Cannone da 105/28

Panzer III N Medium Tank - Short 75mm

Guastatori Squad

Kriegsmariner Squad

Walking Stuka Rocket Launcher

Butterfly Bomb Paradrop

The arm time of Butterfly Bombs is being reduced to accommodate the change to paradropping that allows these objects to be targeted whilst in the air.

Goliath Demolition Vehicle

To make Goliaths less capable at finding targets on their own, we have greatly reduced their vision.

Transfer Depots

We are increasing the amount of resources required for transfer as the ability was too efficient.

Bug Fixes

Gameplay

A.I .

Towing

US Forces

Wehrmacht

British Forces

Deutsches Afrikakorps

Art & Animation

UI Improvements & Fixes

Audio

Campaign

Stability

Known Issues Under Investigation

Localization

Gameplay

A.I.

Campaign

Final Stand

Audio, Art, and Animation

UI & UX

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