With a dying god opening a portal to the Chaos Wastes in Total War: Warhammer 3, the realm of mortals has become all but one step away from total annihilation. And while the threat of Daemons remains at an all-time high throughout the lands of Warhammer, players and the hopeful alliances between the warriors of Kislev, the empire of Grand Cathay, and the other races are what’s left to defend the realms in Total War: Warhammer 3.
Of course, unless players know how to tap into the hidden dark powers for their own gain. In this Total War title, players familiar with their Warhammer lore know there’s always something to gain when sacrificing souls to the powers that be. And in this Total War game, knowing how to sacrifice souls and their full mechanics may turn the tide of combat.
What Are Souls?
Before players look into how to sacrifice Souls, it helps to understand how the concept generally works. First introduced in Total War: Warhammer 3 as a new gameplay feature, Souls serve as a unique currency or resource used exclusively by the Warriors of Chaos.
At its core, Souls in the Warhammer game are exactly what they sound like - they are obtainable once the Warriors of Chaos are victorious in combat against mortal and undead enemies. This reflects the concept of a Soul in general Warhammer Fantasy lore, wherein the Soul or the Spirit is the essence of both personality and intellect that sentient beings possess during their time in the Known World. Unless devoured by a Daemon or enslaved by a necromancer, Souls generally pass into an afterlife concept. In the context of Warhammer 3, the Warriors of Chaos trap the Souls they obtain for further use.
Enter The Warriors Of Chaos
The world of Warhammer, also known as the Known World, is extremely dangerous not simply because of the existence of various hostile factions and races but the threat that the Realm of Chaos proposes. It’s in this magical dimension where Chaos's corrupting force persists and the highly volatile Winds of Magic comes from. And while the Realm of Chaos isn’t necessarily “crossing over” with the Known World in its entirety, certain regions in the dreaded Northern Wastes have mingled fully with the Realm that it’s managed to corrupt its denizens.
This is where the Warriors of Chaos come from, comprised of warlike tribes that succumbed to the absolute worship of the pantheon of Chaos Gods - similar to the Chaos Space Marines within WH40K lore. Having given their all to these Ruinous Powers, Warriors of Chaos are capable of using the very souls of their enemies to power their hellish engines.
Gaining Souls
Before players learn how to sacrifice Souls properly, it helps to learn how they are gained throughout the game in the first place. While exclusive to the Warriors of Chaos, the nature of Souls as a currency means their acquisition is rather prevalent throughout the game’s numerous mechanics. If players want to gain Souls, they may want to consider the following methodologies:
- Combat: Players automatically gain Souls when winning battles against whatever kind of foe they face, similar to how Chaos Space Marines work in WH40K. The “Sacrifice Captives” option is specifically tailored for this use.
- Events: Dilemmas and Eye of the Gods can earn the Warriors some Souls depending on their performance and success.
- Settlement Capture: When players capture a settlement, they can capture Souls if they use the “Occupy and Vassalise,” “Raze,” and “Subjugate” options.
- Faction-Specific Mechanics: Certain factions within the Warriors of Chaos have special Soul acquisition mechanics. For instance, the Warhost of the Apocalypse gives players 25 Souls per turn with each Vassal. Likewise, the Fecundites gain 25 Souls whenever they spread a Plague.
- Magister (Ancillaries): They can boost the Souls gained in combat by as much as 10-percent.
- Soul Harvester (Path to Glory): This can boost the Souls gained in combat from 10-percent up to 15-percent.
- Skills: Certain Lords have Skills that may be able to boost the number of Souls gained in either combat or casualties.
- Culling the Weak (Technology): This particular Technology gives a 20-percent boost in Souls gained in combat.
How To Sacrifice Souls?
In the context of the gameplay of Total War; Warhammer 3, to sacrifice Souls is to spend them in various methods throughout the playthrough. Depending on the Faction players choose, the method of Soul spending or sacrifice they can make may be able to create various effects that may impact their long-term play. Here are the various ways players can sacrifice Souls in Total War: Warhammer 3:
Gifts Of Chaos
Exclusive to the Warriors of Chaos, the Gifts of Chaos is a special tech-three that provides various boosts for Factions within the Warriors of Chaos. These include the provision of various abilities and the ability to summon Daemonic Units, making them more fearsome than what WH40K memes suggest. Similar to Faction-specific features, the number of slots players can use to customize their Gifts of Chaos differ based on the Factions they use. Playing into the Soul mechanic, Gifts of Chaos has original costs to be activated and upkeep costs to maintain them. Here’s a general overview of Gifts that players can access:
- Gifts of the Undivided: These are “general” skills players can use to benefit their playthrough. They’re not necessarily leaning towards a particular playstyle but are rather “safe” choices players have to test the mechanic.
- Gifts of Khorne: These are more inclined to benefit combat-intensive players in their playthroughs, considering their pre-battle and post-battle effects.
- Gifts of Nurgle: These are more inclined to players who prefer overwhelming enemies with sheer numbers and a penchant for long-ranged combat with better defenses when fighting up close.
- Gifts of Slaanesh: These are more inclined to players who like to fight up close while at the same time maintaining steady control over their strategies in combat. This has a balance between resource-intensive and combat-intensive benefits.
- Gifts of Tzeentch: These are research-focused and magic-focused bonuses that help players develop their tech trees more efficiently and without much inconvenience.
Path To Glory
Similar to the Gifts of Chaos, the Path to Glory is another mechanic unique to Warriors of Chaos. This time around, Heroes and Lords can use their Path to Glory to “transform” into unique versions of Chaos God-themed beings, and even Daemon Princes, provided they can prove themselves worthy.
This is divided into two (2) parts. There are unlockable Boons of Chaos that are activated after completing specified objectives, and only three (3) can be active at a time. Meanwhile, Marks of Chaos cost Souls and may transform characters into Chaos God-dedicated forms, with the highest-tier in this group allowing them to become Daemon Princes themselves, all depending on their chosen Warhammer faction.
Seductive Influence
Unique specifically to the Seducers of Slaanesh Faction is something called Seductive Influence. Compared to other Factions within the Warriors of Chaos, the Slaanesh Faction isn’t immediately hostile to other Order factions. Rather, the Seducers of Slaanesh can “build up” Seductive Influence on separate Beastmen, Elven, and Human factions. Likewise, the factions have varying degrees of resistance to Seductive Influence.
In the context of using or sacrificing Souls, this plays into the Dominate skill of the Decadent Host and Ecstatic Legions faction, which can help the acquisition of territory much easier.
Unholy Manifestations (Shadow Legion)
Similar to the Gifts of Chaos, the Warriors of Chaos Factions also have something called Unholy Manifestations, wherein each of the four (4) Chaos Gods have supernatural “manifestations” of their incredible might that can be advantageous in various aspects of the match - regardless of the foes faced, be it the Skaven of Warhammer Fantasy or other factions.
In regard to sacrificing Souls and Unholy Manifestations, this mechanic works specifically with the Shadow Legion. In the lore, this is the legion of the Ungol Prince, now a newly-ascended Daemon Prince, after fully giving himself to the Ruinous Powers. Technically-speaking, the Shadow Legion variant of Unholy Manifestations are acquired after defeating armies under the Chaos Gods and cost Souls to use.
Total war: Warhammer 3 is available for the PC, Linux, and macOS.