What Expansion Pass 4 contains
Expansion Pass 4 is $49.99 and includes Singer of Storms (out now), The Silver Seas (3 November 2026), Court of the Archfey (Q1 2027) and Forge of the Firstborn (Q2 2027).
Expansion Pass 4 costs $49.99 and contains four pieces: Singer of Storms, The Silver Seas, Court of the Archfey and Forge of the Firstborn. The Steam page lists five items because the pass itself appears in the bundle list alongside its contents, which is the kind of detail that makes people think they are getting an extra expansion. They are not.
The pass released on 1 October 2026 with Singer of Storms available immediately. The Silver Seas followed on 3 November 2026. The other two are dated to 2027: Court of the Archfey in the first quarter, Forge of the Firstborn in the second.
What each piece is
| Piece | Status | Release | What it contains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singer of Storms | Out now | 1 October 2026 | Instant content pack: a premade ruler, a storm orb for the Item Forge, Seamare mounts, the Children of the Waves society trait, armour and equipment sets |
| The Silver Seas | Out now | 3 November 2026 | Mercantile culture, Aqualon and Sharkkin, four tomes, Free Captains, ocean map content |
| Court of the Archfey | Announced | Q1 2027 | Fey-themed expansion: illusion magic, seasonal change, forest spirits, a new ruler type |
| Forge of the Firstborn | Announced | Q2 2027 | Dwarven halls, a living-golem race, and an enchantment mechanic built around a magical forge |
Singer of Storms is the odd one out: a content pack that lands in your faction creator and item forge immediately. Its Tidecallers trait is the piece that interacts most directly with The Silver Seas.
The arithmetic
Bought separately at their US prices, The Silver Seas is $24.99 and the pass is $49.99. If the two 2027 expansions are priced like previous large expansions — historically in the $19.99 to $24.99 range — then the pass saves you somewhere between $15 and $25 against buying all four, provided you actually want all four.
If you only want the sea, the pass is the more expensive way to get it. $49.99 for one expansion you will play now plus three you may never touch is worse value than $24.99 for the one you want, and the pass does not discount the individual purchase later.
There is one timing wrinkle worth knowing. The previous pass was scheduled to leave sale on 3 November 2026; Pass 4 shows no such deadline.
Outside the pass
It does not include the base game. It does not include cosmetic packs sold separately. It does not include the older expansion passes, so if you are missing Expansion Pass 1, 2 or 3, this purchase will not fill those gaps.
It also does not include the Manta update, because that is free for everyone and cannot be sold.
How to decide in one minute
- Buy the pass if you are still playing Age of Wonders 4 regularly and expect to be playing it in summer 2027. The per-piece discount is real and the 2027 content is already announced with themes.
- Buy The Silver Seas alone if the sea is the specific thing you want. The culture and the tomes are self-contained; you will not be locked out of anything mechanical by skipping the pass.
- Buy neither yet if you have not played the base game recently. The free Manta update already changed trade and water for you; try those first, then decide whether you want the culture that specialises in them.
Whichever you pick, check your platform first: PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, no Switch, no last-gen consoles. The release date and price page has the full platform and regional pricing picture, and the is it worth it page is the short version if you are already at the checkout.
Singer of Storms, in detail
The instant pack is worth spelling out, because it is the piece people skip past when they read the pass contents. Its own store listing describes it as a pack for taking dominion over the primal forces of the ocean, and it includes:
- Mael of the Choristers of the Storm, a new premade ruler.
- New customisation items for Champions, Wizard Kings and Elder Vampire Hybrids.
- New hero loadouts for the same three ruler types.
- The Tempest Orb, a new magic orb weapon for the Item Forge.
- Storm Seamare, a new exotic mount trait.
- Tidecallers, a society trait that lets you recruit and use various water units.
The Tidecallers trait is the one that matters for The Silver Seas. Being able to recruit water units as a society trait is a different route into a naval army than the Mercantile culture, and it works for factions that have no interest in trade. The Tempest Orb is the other piece with mechanical weight: an Item Forge weapon that any hero can carry.
The standalone listing for Singer of Storms shows $49.99, the same as the entire pass, which tells you what Paradox thinks the pack is worth on its own, and why almost nobody should buy it that way.
If you already own a piece
Steam's dynamic bundles normally let you complete a set at a reduced price if you already own one piece, and Paradox has used that mechanism before with its collector's bundles. If you already own Singer of Storms, check the pass page for a completion price before paying full price; the store will show it if the mechanism applies to this bundle.
If you already own The Silver Seas and are considering the pass for the 2027 content, the completion price is the number to look at, not $49.99.
