- A Year in the Empire - Celebrating Celestial Empire's 1st Anniversary! - 23 September 2026
Hello Governors!It’s almost hard to believe, but Celestial Empire has been in Early Access for a whole year! On September 23rd 2025, we opened the gates to our Empire and invited you to start building your cities with us. Since then, we’ve spent the past year expanding the game, experimenting with new mechanics, listening to your feedback, and watching the incredible cities you’ve created.From new maps and production chains to completely new progression systems, buildings and resources, Celestial Empire has changed quite a bit since those first cities began to rise. Some additions fundamentally changed the way you develop your Empire, while others were smaller improvements designed to give you more options and make governing your cities a little smoother.So, with our first anniversary upon us, we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to look back at everything that happened during…
- A New Chapter for Celestial Empire - Roadmap Update - 19 August 2026
Yesterday marked the beginning of our sale for Celestial Empire, and we thought there was no better time to share not only what's happening now, but also a glimpse at what's coming next. As we continue developing the game, we're excited to give you an updated look at our roadmap and the features we want to bring to your cities in future updates.ProjectsAmong the most recent additions we're working on are the new Projects that will allow you to shape the world around your city in entirely new ways. From expanding administration, faith and scholarship, to improving trade, storage and craftsmanship - each Project will influence the way your city interacts with the wider world and help you compete with other cities for influence and recognition.We're also planning to introduce The Silk Road, which will open up new trade opportunities. This Project will become available alongside the Nobles…
- v.0.9.376 Hotfix - 19 August 2026
Fixed houses not connecting to the Yamen after loading a game if the distance between the house and the Yamen was greater than 500 cells.Fixed ranged miracles (Miracle of Purity, Miracle of Splash, etc.) appearing at the location where they had been used after loading a game.Fixed the Capacity Increase Card bonus from monuments.
- v.0.9.375 Hotfix - 3 June 2026
Fixed a warehouse issue that, under certain circumstances, prevented deliverers from picking up or delivering resources. Newly constructed warehouses could also fail to function correctly.Fixed an issue where, when three or more production buildings were placed in a row and the Watermill improvement was active, one or more buildings would not receive the improvement's effects properly.Fixed an issue where the additional deliverers granted by Ao Guang's perk would not be correctly applied after loading a saved game.
- v.0.9.374 Hotfix - 28 May 2026
Fixed a crash that could occur when the player attempted to load a corrupted save file.Fixed a crash that could occur during the first game launch while PSO generation was in progress.Fixed GPU crashes related to hardware-based machine learning features.Added Blessings for buildings that previously did not have them.Added visual feedback when a Card cannot be placed or added to a slot.Fixed Well range updates.Fixed an issue where red Blessings with no valid target buildings could appear when the Blessing pool was empty.Fixed Card slot visibility on the Market during selected festivals.Fixed Card loading in Spiritual Buildings.Fixed the number of slots in Fisherman buildings, Tin Extractors, and Gold Extractors.Manuscripts are now visible in the statistics panel.Statistics no longer contain spoilers.
- v.0.9.372 Hotfix - 23 May 2026
Hotfix: Fixed a crash occurring after purchasing Nuwa’s production improvement when residential buildings were located nearby. Fixed a crash that could occur when deleting or connecting canals. Fixed a crash when loading a game. Fixed workforce counting. Fixed festival loading issues. Fixed a bug occurring when exiting the statistics window.
- NEW CONTENT UPDATE – Cards & Merit - 22 May 2026
Card SystemThe brand-new Card System is being introduced to Celestial Empire.Cards are generated over time in the Academy. Several factors can increase the generation speed, including nearby Libraries and Debate Rooms, higher Merit levels, and optional resource consumption. Players can accelerate the process by supplying resources such as Red Ink, Paper, and Paintings.Once ready, the Academy produces a card pack that can be opened by the player. Each pack offers a choice between two different cards, allowing for more strategic decisions and city specialization. Cards are divided into multiple rarity tiers: Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.Each card type is designed for a specific category of buildings. Buildings now feature dedicated card slots where cards can be equipped to provide powerful bonuses. Additional slots can sometimes be unlocked using Manuscripts.Card types available to o…
- Academies are coming to the game! Discover the new system - 26 February 2026
New mechanic: Academies This mechanic introduces a new resource: Manuscripts. You will be able to obtain them thanks to a new building: the Academy. The building has three levels:AcademyRegional AcademyImperial AcademyScholars are employed to produce Manuscripts. On the first level: 500, on the second: 750, on the third: 1000 plus 200 Elites. With each level, the Manuscript creation speed increases. At base, on the highest level the Academy can produce 4 Manuscripts per minute. Production speed increases if the Academy is within range of:Library (max +3 Manuscripts per minute)Observatory (max +4) This is a new building that increases Science Points production in Inventor’s Workshops within its range.Debate Room (max +6) This is a new building that increases Science Points production in Inventor’s Workshops within its range.Calligraphy School (max +12) This is a new building that inc…
- Galloping Into the Year of the Horse! - 17 February 2026
Happy Chinese New Year of the Horse! 🐎🎉 Dear Governors!With the Chinese New Year of the Horse upon us, we wish you a year full of energy, adventure, and great building moments in Celestial Empire! May your cities grow strong and your plans always succeed. Thank you for being part of our community. It’s amazing to see you building, exploring, and enjoying the game with us ❤️ Since Celestial Empire is still in Early Access, we’re continuing to pour our energy into creating new content, improvements, and features, making sure every update brings you more fun and new ways to grow your cities.We have some exciting surprises in store! Among them, in the coming days, a new update will arrive, featuring:new buildings,new game mechanics to enrich your experience,improvements and balance adjustments to existing systems,quality-of-life fixes to make managing your cities even more enjoyable!More…
- v0.9.337 – Patch notes - 28 January 2026
NewA new production chain: Smoked Eggs – a food required by “Elites” New building: “Egg Smokehouse”New building: “Chicken Coop” – introduces a new production mechanic. Place the building so that it is adjacent to a “Duck Farm”. It can be adjacent to more than one building – then its productivity is the sum of all neighboring “Duck Farm” buildings.A new way of using some “Miracles” purchased in the Divine Shop. You now throw a potion at a target location in the city (e.g., onto burning buildings to extinguish them).“Miracles” that now work this way:fire extinguishing Miracle,demon banishment Miracle,epidemic cure Miracle.More Miracles of this type are planned, e.g. the Instant Reforestation Miracle.ImprovementsAdded a range-increasing upgrade to the Shrine and Temple buildings.Added a coal upgrade to several production buildings.Changed the Restaurant recipe for the “Scholars” tier.Added…
- Chinese Garden - 20 December 2025
We’ve added a new building: Chinese Garden. You can unlock it in the Technology Tree after reaching the “Elite” city development level.Garden ExpansionThe main building can be upgraded by adding extensions. There are over a dozen types available, which can be obtained:through trade,via events,by finding blueprints on the map.Extensions increase the capacity and the income generated by Gardens. Each extension has a rarity that affects its stats.⚠️ Important balance changesIn this update, we adjusted the balance of city income and expenses.After loading an older save, taxes for individual social groups may be set differently than before.We also removed the ability to trade certain resources — mainly advanced ones available at higher city development levels.v0.9.326 — Patch NotesImproved visuals of rice field terracesTax modifiers no longer increase losses when taxes are negativeFixed the…
- Did you enjoy Celestial Empire? Nominate us for The Steam Awards! - 24 November 2025
Welcome Governors!The Steam Awards 2025 are here! It’s the perfect opportunity to show your support for Celestial Empire by nominating it for the “Sit Back and Relax” category.Did you enjoy shaping your own dream Chinese city? If Celestial Empire has been your calming escape, we’d be honored to have your vote! 💖 Thank you for your support!The Devs
- New map! Mountains - 6 November 2025
v0.9.315 — Patch NotesNew FeaturesNew map! Mountain Realm.ImprovementsCompleted localization in all available languages.Changed the layout of the filter toggles near the minimap from a horizontal bar below it to a vertical column next to it.Improved the top resource bar.Improved first-person animations.Visual improvements to buildings.Improvements to trade events.Improved the animation of irrigation channels filling with water.FixedFixed a crash on game startup that occurred after the update.Fixed a glitch in filter visualization.Fixed a lock occurring after completing the first stage of constructing the “Mountain Palace”.Fixed an issue with counting followers after moving a religious building.Note!If you experienced issues launching the game after the update, the most common cause is an error during content download. The solution is to verify the integrity of the game files in the Stea…
- v0.9.313 — Patch Notes - 17 October 2025
Improvements Balanced the final quest Improved the visual behavior of water wheels from upgrades Minor trade changes (UI, Trade Deals) UI scaling fixes Visual tweaks to the gods relationship tree Fixed Fixed NPCs freezing in houses Fixed lingering warnings after using water wheels Fixed game hang after loading a city (if the issue still occurs, please contact us) Fixed a crash related to the epidemic Fixed incorrect display of needs satisfaction in houses Fixed an issue with clicking the coal switch from the upgrade in a production building Note! If the game fails to start after the update, the most common cause is an error while downloading content. The solution is to verify the game files in the Steam app.
- v0.9.312 — Patch Notes - 13 October 2025
Improvements Improved the behavior of the monitor selection option. Updated Codex entries. Visual improvements to upgraded water wheels. Fixed Fixed the missing button to build walls after unlocking them in the tech tree. Note If the game fails to start after the update, the most common cause is an error while downloading content. The solution is to verify the game files in the Steam app.
- v0.9.311c Hotfix - 10 October 2025
Added a safeguard to prevent a crash when launching the game after updating to 0.9.311.
- v0.9.311b Hotfix - 10 October 2025
Added a safeguard to prevent a crash when launching the game after updating to 0.9.311.
- v0.9.311 — Patch Notes - 10 October 2025
Improvements Added the ability to pet the panda in FPP mode. Updated Codex entries. Added monitor selection to the graphics settings. Increased the number of slots for autosaves. Added a warning window for low disk space when saving the game. Fixed Fixed a bug where workforce was deducted after removing the Blessing orb. Fixed a bug where blessings did not activate after loading a game (affected production buildings). Removed a blocker after offering gifts at the monument (construction would not finalize). Made fixes to the improvement that adds oxen to farms. Fixed an issue where a giant farmer character could occasionally appear. Note If the game fails to start after the update, the most common cause is an error while downloading content. The solution is to verify the game files in the Steam app.
- v0.9.310 — Patch Notes - 8 October 2025
Improvements Updated Codex entries. Adjusted the balance of vials affecting trade. Added a VFX effect during cottage healing. Minor visual tweaks. Fixed Fixed an issue with building-group buttons assigned to slots on the bottom bar that occurred after loading a save. Further animation fixes. Stability Fixed a crash when upgrading the large Blessings Building (crash fix). Potentially fixed the cause of hangs during loading that could end with exiting to desktop. Addressed several other crash causes (crash fixes). Note! If you encounter launch issues after the update, the most common cause is a content download error. The solution is to verify the game files in the Steam app.
- 0.9.309b Hotfix - 3 October 2025
Fixed a crash that occurred after loading advanced game progress. We apologize for the inconvenience.
