Bannerlord v1.5.7 and War Sails v1.3.7 Update: Ferries, Advanced Starting Options, Ship Mooring, Blood Feuds, 39 Naval Events and Console Timing

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord v1.5.7 and War Sails v1.3.7 are now live on PC. TaleWorlds Entertainment released the update on November 11, closing out a public beta that began in August. It is a large, sandbox-focused update: ferries and ship mooring for War Sails owners, Advanced Starting Options that let you begin a campaign as a king, an outlaw or a beggar, battle sites you can loot after a fight, personality traits with real numbers attached, blood feuds that follow executions, and 39 new naval random events. Console players will get the same update later, once the console release process is finished.

Everything below comes from TaleWorlds' official Patch Notes - WS v1.3.7 / BL v1.5.7 on Steam, which also collects the full beta changelog from v1.5.0 through v1.5.7. Changes tagged War Sails apply only to owners of the naval expansion. Changes listed under Bannerlord apply to the base game and carry over into War Sails as well.

What Is in the Update

The release bundles nearly three months of public beta work into one PC patch. The headline additions are:

• Advanced Starting Options (ASO): campaign scenarios, player starts and stackable modifiers for new Sandbox games, plus a shareable seed.
• Battle Sites and Wreckages: lootable markers left on the campaign map after land and sea battles.
• Personality trait effects: every trait now carries concrete bonuses and a drawback.
• Blood Feuds: executions can trigger a running feud between clans.
• Clan party controls: party stances replaced by direct behavior toggles.
• War Sails ferries, mooring and coastal castle ports: easier ways into naval play and more places for fleets to fight.
• 39 naval random events and destructible boarding ropes.
• Four new battle terrains, two south of Ortysia, one southeast of Quyaz and one south of Baltakhand.
• Multiplayer: Captain mode formation targeting, a Streamer mode and a round of balance changes.

Release Timing and Console Status

The update went live on PC on November 11, 2026, with the patch notes posted on Steam at 9:33 AM CT that morning. The opening line of the notes states that the console release is "planned once the release process for them concludes," so PlayStation and Xbox players do not have a date yet.

Several changes in the patch are aimed squarely at consoles even though they arrive there later. Fast Mode, previously a separate module, now lives inside Advanced Starting Options, and TaleWorlds says this is also how Fast Mode is intended to reach consoles. The beta also improved main menu and Save & Load screen opening times on consoles, shortened Save & Exit, and fixed a console bug where the Save option stayed enabled after hitting the save limit, causing failed saves with no explanation.

How to Get the Update on PC

On Steam the patch downloads automatically like any other game update. Anyone who opted into the beta branch during testing should check the game's Properties and the Betas tab to confirm which version they are running, since the final beta builds in the changelog (dated November 10) carry the same v1.5.7 and v1.3.7 version numbers as the live release.

Mods After the Update

Patches of this size routinely break mods, and the changelog lists several modding API changes that require updates from mod authors:

• Shield block parameters in native_parameters.xml were split by direction. Modules that override the old upper/lower arc names must switch to the new direction-specific names.
• Kingdom naming: Kingdom.EncyclopediaTitle was renamed to Kingdom.FormalName, GetFormalNameForKingdom was removed, and str_kingdom_formal_name was removed from the XML. The game asserts on load if a module still carries the old entry. Save slots are not affected.
• Visibility: a new IsVisibilityPersistent function replaces a removed parameter in the party visibility model.
• Deployment: custom mission controllers now need to call Mission.OnDeploymentFinished or Mission.OnInitialSpawnCompleted so that missions initialize correctly.

If a modded campaign refuses to load, disable mods until their authors confirm v1.5.7 support. The release also fixes a crash caused by loading errors after removing mods and a bug where a module mismatch popup appeared endlessly when continuing a campaign.

War Sails: Getting Out to Sea Earlier

TaleWorlds framed the War Sails side of the update around one problem: owning a fleet demanded substantial progress, so naval content arrived late in a campaign. The patch keeps that progression intact but adds earlier entry points.

Ferries Between Coastal Villages

You can now travel between certain coastal villages without owning a ship. To board a ferry you must:

• be in a coastal village (hostile villages included)
• not be part of an army
• have a party of no more than 50 troops
• carry enough gold for the fare

The fare depends on your party size and on the hostility of both the departure and destination villages, and a hostile village's ferry charges more. Each coastal village has a preset destination, shown in the village menu. During the beta, the developers halved the base price of ferries and fixed a bug where a ferry could get stuck if its destination was raided after it left.

Mooring Ships in Town Ports

In neutral or allied towns you can now moor ships instead of selling them or sending them to your clan. There is no limit on how many ports you can use or how many ships you leave behind. That lets you sail out with only the ships that suit the job, whether that is trading, raiding or a straight fight.

There is one catch. Moored ports become inaccessible if the town owner goes to war with you, and they reopen once hostilities end. Spreading a fleet across ports owned by a likely enemy carries real risk.

Coastal Castle Ports and Blockades

Coastal castles now have port points. You can embark and disembark there, and the siege blockade feature that already applied to coastal towns now extends to these castles too. The change is meant to create more naval clashes during sieges. A beta hotfix also fixed a bug that stopped defenders from attacking a besieger by engaging their naval blockade.

Smaller Pirates and a Personal Vessel

New captains get two more on-ramps. Smaller pirate parties now spawn to give early fleets fights they can win, and the War Sails "Personal Vessel" modifier in Advanced Starting Options starts you with a small trading ship.

39 Naval Random Events

The random event system from land play now extends to the water with 39 new naval events. They appear based on your actions at sea, each tells a short story and each ends in a choice that can affect your character's traits, skills, party, items or gold.

A Bannerlord beta hotfix also reworked how all random events display outcomes. Each possible result is now a bulleted list grouped with its probability, so it is easier to see what can happen at each chance. You can also open the Encyclopedia during a random event.

Naval Battle Changes

Boarding now has a counter. Ship attachment ropes can be hit and destroyed by the player to stop a bridge from forming, and rope physics were overhauled to behave more realistically. Late in the beta, the Cut Loose action was tightened: bridges cannot be cut directly while an enemy is on them or on your ship, the Cut Loose order icon greys out with an explanation when blocked, and the same rules apply to AI troops.

Other battle changes include:

• Skeletal crew: you can now deploy ships with fewer troops than the skeletal crew number. The UI warns that those ships will underperform.
• Deployment spacing: ship gaps scale with formation width, capped at 20 meters (13 meters for eight dromons in river battles). River battles use a fixed zone depth with 50-meter front and back margins.
• Perks at sea: most non-governor perks outside the Mariner, Boatswain and Shipmaster trees now have their numeric effects reduced by 50% in naval battles.
• Boatswain XP: no longer earned when your ships take damage. You now build it by keeping party morale high at sea, and repairs grant more of it.
• Shipmaster XP: a higher base multiplier, scaling with ship count, and bonus XP for traveling in and commanding a fleet.
• Victory music: naval battles no longer all end with the Battanian victory theme.

The War Sails storyline also got a difficulty pass. Enemy weapons in the alley fight and ship escape deal less damage, the allied ship in Escort the Vlandian Merchants has 14 troops, the fireship in Break Out of Omor Estuary is much harder to sink before it reaches its target, and naval storyline quests now award renown. In the final build, every ship is anchored during the boss fight with Purig to prevent interruptions.

Advanced Starting Options

Advanced Starting Options are the biggest change for anyone starting a new Sandbox campaign. They come in three categories that can be combined freely.

Campaign Scenarios

Scenarios reshape Calradia before you arrive. ASO treats the choice as a guideline and randomizes the details.

• Default: Calradia as you know it.
• United Empire: the civil war is over and your chosen imperial faction has reunited the Empire.
• Invasion: a faction of your choice has expanded aggressively and rules most of Calradia.
• Last Stand: a faction of your choice is down to a single town.
• 2 Faction War: every faction except two of your choosing has been eliminated, and the survivors are at war.
• Randomized Calradia: randomizes the starting state to the degree you choose.
• Nord Invasion (War Sails): the Nords have pushed south and want more.

Player Starts

Player starts shape your own position and work with any scenario:

• Default: the standard Sandbox start.
• King: rule a faction of your choice.
• Vassal: serve a faction of your choice.
• Mercenary: a small clan under mercenary contract.
• Trader: a workshop and a caravan in a random town.
• Outlaw: wanted by every faction in Calradia.
• Beggar: nothing but the ragged clothes on your back.
• Fleet Admiral (War Sails): a vassal with a force at sea.
• Merchant Venturer (War Sails): trade ships, a convoy and a workshop in a random town.

Some starts must be unlocked by reaching King, Vassal or Mercenary rank in a campaign. Loading an existing save that already meets the condition also unlocks them. The Trader and Merchant Venturer unlock conditions were removed during the beta, so both are available from the start.

Modifiers and Seeds

Modifiers stack on top of any scenario and start:

• Bandit Surge: larger bandit parties everywhere, with occasional huge ones.
• Civil Unrest: higher rebellion chances.
• Recruit Shortage: notables generate far fewer recruits.
• Swift Travel: faster movement on land and sea.
• Personal Vessel (War Sails): start with a small trading ship.

Every campaign also uses a seed. Share the seed and your ASO options with a friend and they can recreate the same Calradia, or share the seed alone for partial parity.

Battle Sites and Wreckages

After land or sea battles, sites now appear on the campaign map. You can investigate them, but so can looters and pirates, which are drawn to them. They come in three sizes: small battles leave Skirmish Sites and Wreckages, medium battles leave Battlegrounds and Battle Wreckages, and large battles leave Battle Aftermaths named after the nearest settlement.

Bigger sites take more time and troops to search but pay more. Possible finds include:

• wounded survivors you can recruit, with numbers tied to your party's best Medicine skill (which also earns Medicine XP)
• denars
• trade goods and scavenged valuables that grant Roguery XP
• a map revealing a nearby bandit hideout

Roguery skill and party size set your search speed. Sites eventually vanish, though Aftermaths turn into Battle Remains that linger on the map. A later beta build cut the number of pirate parties investigating wreckages to one, two or three depending on size.

Personality Traits Now Have Real Effects

Traits always influenced AI behavior, but the effects were hard to see. Each now usually grants two positive effects and one negative, with values for both tiers. A few examples from the patch notes:

• Calculating / Cerebral: +10% / +20% workshop income and siege engine construction speed, but -3 / -6 starting relation with notables you meet for the first time.
• Generous / Munificent: +25% / +50% additional mercenaries and faster party morale gain, at the cost of +10% food consumption.
• Honest / Honorable: faster relationship and settlement loyalty gains, but crime rating decays 40% / 80% slower.
• Merciful / Compassionate: +25% / +50% chance to capture prisoners instead of killing them and +5% / +10% village hearth growth, but less gold from ransoms.
• Cruel / Sadistic: +20% / +40% raid loot and -20% / -40% rebellion chance, but you kill more prisoners in battle.
• Daring / Fearless: more resistance to morale loss and +10% / +20% renown after battles, but slower daily HP recovery.
• Cautious / Very Cautious: fewer siege simulation casualties and fewer prisoner escapes, but siege preparation takes 30% / 60% longer.

AI lords benefit from their traits too. Hovering over a character in the Encyclopedia now shows their traits and effects, and trait tooltips show where you sit on each spectrum. Your character also gains Leadership XP while keeping morale high, and nobles, companions and wanderers now gain daily XP based on their focus points.

Blood Feuds

Executing a member of another clan can now start a Blood Feud, and AI clans can start one with you by executing a member of your clan when relations are at -50 or lower. The captor's Mercy trait also plays a part.

While a feud runs:

• your clan members toss a coin on whether to execute captured rivals
• AI clan members always execute you if given the chance
• each day an AI captor holds one of your clan members, execution becomes more likely, reaching certainty on day 10
• a captor who enters a settlement hands the prisoner over for execution 8 days later
• no ransom offers are allowed between the feuding clans

Feuds can be settled through Ransom Brokers, which count only executed family members. If you lost or tied the feud, it ends for a small commission. If you executed more, you pay compensation. Relations are then set to -50. A feud also ends if relations climb back to 0. Until then, it blocks defections, faction membership and invitations from a ruling clan, and safe-passage agreements with the rival clan.

Clan Party Controls and Campaign Tweaks

Party stances are gone. According to the patch notes, they had no reliable, recognizable effect outside of stopping raids in the defensive stance. In their place are direct toggles to allow or forbid raiding villages, donating troops to garrisons, joining other armies and, in War Sails, owning a fleet.

A new clan party recovery system holds a defeated party's slot and respawns it with the same setup from a safe location. In War Sails, a clan party defeated on land gets its ships back on respawn.

Other campaign changes worth knowing:

• Travel speed: naval and land party speeds are up 15%.
• Settlement security: garrison size matters less for security, while quests, nearby hideouts, governors, buildings and raid prevention matter more. Settlements turn rebellious below 35 loyalty instead of 25.
• Persuasion: failed defection attempts now have a one-season cooldown instead of one year, and failed marriage attempts can be retried after one season.
• Parley: you can now parley with enemy parties as well as settlements. The hotkey moved to Ctrl+Click (Y on controller).
• Governors: the loyalty penalty for a governor of a different culture has been removed.
• Village actions: hostile actions against villages only trigger war if the village resists and you choose to attack.

Multiplayer Changes

Captain mode gains formation targeting, letting captains issue targeted charge orders to infantry, ranged and cavalry formations. By default, formation markers disappear beyond 350 meters and only show when 20% of a formation is visible, and server admins can tune both.

The new Streamer mode works in Clan Matches and all Custom Server modes. Streamers do not take a player slot, cannot pick a team or vote and earn no XP or gold, and Streamer mode is not available in Duel. Servers that allow streamers show an eye icon in the list, and admins control capacity with MaxStreamerCount.

The patch also includes a balance pass. Horse charge knockdown penetration rose from 0.40 to 0.43, so charges of 8 damage or more knock agents down, while all horse speeds fell by 5 to 10%. The melee piercing multiplier for head and neck hits dropped from 1.25 to 1.15. Sturgia's Varyag gained armor but lost speed, the Raider Axe lost damage, reach and swing speed, and Empire's Spatha and Long Spatha lost thrust damage. Dedicated servers moved from .NET 6.0 to .NET 8.0, enabling support on Ubuntu 24.04.

Notable Fixes

The final v1.5.7 and v1.3.7 builds focus on stability:

• relation penalties no longer apply twice when attacking caravans, convoys or villagers
• clan party disbanding works properly again
• the Inspiring Leader captain effect now applies
• troop upgrade XP no longer increases by moving troops back and forth in the party screen
• Seaborne Village Raid simulations no longer run forever
• crashes fixed around random events releasing prisoners, crafting orders, the Save/Load screen and the Merchant Prince perk

Earlier beta builds fixed bastard swords not working as two-handers, mangonels and trebuchets missing their targets, ranged units stuck shuffling under an Engage order, and an automatic win when sallying out after a successful siege ambush.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Bannerlord v1.5.7 come out?

Bannerlord v1.5.7 and War Sails v1.3.7 released on PC on Wednesday, November 11, 2026. TaleWorlds posted the patch notes on Steam at 9:33 AM CT.

Is Bannerlord v1.5.7 on PS5 and Xbox?

Not yet. The console release is planned once the release process for consoles concludes, and no date has been announced.

Do I need War Sails for ferries and mooring?

Yes. Ferries, ship mooring, coastal castle ports and the 39 naval random events are War Sails features. Advanced Starting Options, Battle Sites, trait effects, Blood Feuds and clan party toggles are part of the base game.

How do ferries work in War Sails?

Go to a coastal village with no more than 50 troops, outside an army, and pay the fare. The fare scales with your party size and the hostility of both villages, and each village has a fixed destination shown in its menu.

Do Advanced Starting Options work with existing saves?

ASO choices are made when you start a new Sandbox campaign. Existing saves that already meet King, Vassal or Mercenary rank conditions unlock those player starts for future campaigns.

How do I end a Blood Feud in Bannerlord?

Settle it through a Ransom Broker, which ends it for a small commission if you lost or tied the feud, or for compensation if you executed more. Feuds also end if relations between the clans climb back to 0.

Will my mods work with Bannerlord v1.5.7?

Not necessarily. The update changes several modding APIs, including kingdom naming and shield block parameters, so many mods need updates. Disable mods that have not been updated if a campaign fails to load.

What changed in Bannerlord multiplayer?

Captain mode gains formation targeting, a Streamer mode arrives for Clan Matches and Custom Servers, horse speeds drop 5 to 10%, charges knock down more easily, and melee head and neck piercing damage is lower.