Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition gets a massive naval overhaul with new warships and Inca rework

Forgotten Empires released another major patch for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition – update 169123, which brings sweeping changes to naval gameplay, new ship types, and a full rework of the Inca civilization. The patch launched alongside the new DLC, The Last Chieftains, focused on medieval South America.

The headline addition is the Hulk-line, a new main ship class designed to counter fire ships. The line has three tiers – Hulk, War Hulk, and Carrack – all of which are fast, durable vessels equipped with grappling hooks for close-range combat.

Their speed and armor let them shrug off fire ship attacks effectively, though they remain vulnerable to long-range galleys. The update also adds the Catapult Galleon, which replaces the cannon galleon for several civilizations – it has a shorter firing range but higher durability.

The new ships come alongside a broad naval overhaul with "significant changes across the board." Forgotten Empires rebalanced the entire fleet, reduced damage from demolition ships, and reworked fire ships to deal only melee damage instead of the previous melee-and-piercing combo.

Fishing vessels got tweaked too – they're now more fragile and slower at gathering fish, but can extract gold from whales, a new aquatic resource that raises some questions about the actual process.

Beyond the naval changes, the patch adds cross-platform voice chat and several accessibility features, including text-to-speech and speech-to-text. A flag update introduces regional garrison flags and civilization-specific waypoint and gather point markers.

The Inca civilization received a full rework – champi warriors are a new unit, eagle warriors have been removed, and several buildings including lumber camps, mining camps, and mills are no longer available.

All of these changes tie into The Last Chieftains DLC, which adds three new factions: the Mapuche, the Muisca, and the Tupi. Each comes with its own campaign and unique units – the Mapuche get a bolas rider, while the Muisca bring the guecha warrior, a javelineer who heals nearby guecha warriors upon death.