Campaigns

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 has 20 campaigns across the original game and its two expansions: seven in The Restoration of Erathia (1999), including the secret campaign Seeds of Discontent, six in Armageddon's Blade (1999) and seven in The Shadow of Death (2000). A campaign is a chain of linked scenarios "tied into richer story lines" (Prima guide, p.1), in which your strongest heroes travel on from one map to the next. This page lists every campaign with its heroes and scenarios, explains how campaigns unlock and carry over, suggests an order to play them, and covers how the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake retells them. The story itself is on Story.

Quick facts

How campaigns work

Start one from New Game, Campaign, then choose the game and the campaign. In The Restoration of Erathia each scenario's difficulty is preset, and instead of picking a town, hero and resource bonus you are offered two or three starting bonuses; in some campaigns you also choose the order of the middle scenarios (Prima guide, p.287). The Shadow of Death let you choose the difficulty of its own campaign maps (The Shadow of Death manual, p.9).

Heroes carry over. In Long Live the Queen "your best four Heroes from each scenario pass onto the next", and its first map, Homecoming, caps them at level 6 and sends them on "without their inventories or armies"; later maps raise the cap and carry six or eight heroes (Prima guide, pp.288-290). Some campaigns carry artifacts too: in Liberation, quest artifacts won in one map open Border Guards in the next (p.311). Victory goals vary from map to map: capture a named town, defeat a named hero, gather 200,000 gold, flag every mine, raise 2,500 Skeletons or find the Grail, some within a time limit (pp.288-344).

Continue a campaign with Load Game, not New Game. The Restoration of Erathia's campaigns are linked, and the manuals warn that starting over from New Game instead of loading your campaign save stops the final campaigns from unlocking (Armageddon's Blade manual, p.6; The Shadow of Death manual, p.11).

The Restoration of Erathia

The seven original campaigns tell the war for Erathia "from three points of view, following the actions of good, evil, and neutral characters": three good campaigns following Queen Catherine Ironfist, two evil ones following her enemies, one neutral campaign of mercenaries profiting from the war, and a secret campaign about a border dispute after it (Prima guide, p.287).

Source: Prima guide, pp.288-344. The guide names the third Long Live the Queen map "Gryphon Cliff" in the text and "Gryphon Cliffs" in its index.

They unlock in tiers: first Long Live the Queen, Dungeons and Devils and Spoils of War; when those three are done, Liberation and Long Live the King; after those, Song for the Father; and then the secret campaign (p.287).

A few goals from the guide show the range: Homecoming asks you to capture the town of Terraneus, Steadwick's Fall to take Steadwick within three months, Gold Rush to amass 200,000 gold, Season of Harvest to gather 2,500 Skeletons within three months, and the last good map, For King and Country, to win without losing Queen Catherine or Lord Haart (pp.289-338).

The secret campaign

Seeds of Discontent follows Faruk Welnin, who wants to free the Contested Lands "from both Erathia and AvLee forever". To open it, finish For King and Country and accept the offer to save your game; then load that final save, and the campaign screen shows a seventh campaign (Prima guide, p.339). Its first map, The Grail, gives you two months to find the Grail; in The Road Home the Ranger Ryland must carry it to the town of Welnin (pp.339-344).

Armageddon's Blade

Armageddon's Blade added "six new campaigns featuring their own story lines". The first five can be played in any order and, unlike The Restoration of Erathia's, need no saved game to start; Foolhardy Waywardness, "the expert's campaign", unlocks after the other five (Armageddon's Blade manual, pp.4, 6).

Source: Armageddon's Blade manual, pp.9-11.

The Shadow of Death

The Shadow of Death is a prequel: "The story reveals the events that lead to The Restoration of Erathia game" (The Shadow of Death manual, p.9). Its four opening campaigns can be played in any order; the last three unlock one after another.

Sources: The Shadow of Death manual, pp.13-16; the four heroes of Unholy Alliance are named by Wikipedia. The manual heads Yog's entry "Heroes: Wizard" but gives him Barbarian skills, and the Prima guide lists him as a Barbarian.

What order to play them

The game's own unlocks set the order inside each set. Between the three, two orders make sense:

• Release order: The Restoration of Erathia, then Armageddon's Blade, then The Shadow of Death. This is how players met the story in 1999 and 2000, and the original campaigns start gently (Homecoming is set to Easy, Prima guide, p.289), while Armageddon's Blade ends with "the expert's campaign".
• Story order: The Shadow of Death's campaigns lead up to the Restoration war (manual, pp.4-5, 9), and Foolhardy Waywardness also predates it (Armageddon's Blade manual, p.11); then come The Restoration of Erathia and the Armageddon's Blade campaign, which follows the war.

New players should start with the original campaigns or play the tutorial first (Beginner's Guide).

Which versions have them

The Complete Edition on Steam and GOG holds all three games and so all 20 campaigns. The 2015 HD Edition is based on The Restoration of Erathia only, and its Steam page lists "7 exciting campaign scenarios" (Steam, read Oct 21, 2026). Heroes Chronicles is a separate series of eight episodes about the barbarian Tarnum (Wikipedia). The fan-made, unofficial Horn of the Abyss adds campaigns of its own.

The campaigns in the Remake

7:22 Ubisoft says the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake covers the original game and both expansions, and that "the entire story is now woven into a single continuous experience, complemented by a new introductory prologue campaign" and "a new suite of fully produced cinematics" (Ubisoft press release, Aug 26, 2026). The store page adds an epilogue: "Experience the original campaigns as one unified story, enhanced with a new prologue, epilogue, and cinematic scenes" (Steam, read Oct 21, 2026). PC Gamer played "the simple campaign prologue" before the reveal (Aug 26, 2026). The Remake is due in 2027; Ubisoft has not said how the campaigns are ordered within it, as of Oct 21, 2026. See What's New in the Remake.

Frequently asked questions

How many campaigns are in Heroes 3? Heroes of Might and Magic 3 has 20 campaigns: seven in The Restoration of Erathia (including the secret one), six in Armageddon's Blade and seven in The Shadow of Death. All 20 are in the Complete Edition.

What order should I play the Heroes 3 campaigns? Inside each game Heroes of Might and Magic 3 unlocks its campaigns in a fixed order, so the main choice is between release order (The Restoration of Erathia, Armageddon's Blade, The Shadow of Death) and story order, which starts with The Shadow of Death because it is a prequel. Release order starts with the easier maps.

How do you unlock the secret campaign in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, finish For King and Country, the last map of Song for the Father, save the game when offered, then load that final save: a seventh campaign, Seeds of Discontent, appears on the campaign screen. It only appears if you continued every campaign through Load Game.

Are the expansion campaigns in the Heroes 3 HD Edition? No: the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD Edition contains only The Restoration of Erathia and its seven campaigns, without Armageddon's Blade or The Shadow of Death. The Complete Edition on Steam and GOG has all of them.

Do heroes carry over between Heroes 3 campaign scenarios? Yes: in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 campaigns your best heroes (four, six or eight, depending on the map) move on to the next scenario, often without their armies or artifacts and sometimes under a level cap. Some campaigns also carry over quest artifacts.

Will the Heroes 3 Remake have the campaigns? Yes: Ubisoft says the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake tells the original and both expansions' campaigns as one continuous story, with a new prologue, an epilogue and new cinematics. It is due in 2027.

Sources

• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, Prima Publishing, 1999, pp.1, 287-344
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade manual, The 3DO Company, 1999, pp.4, 6, 9-11
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death User Manual, The 3DO Company, 2000, pp.4-5, 9, 11, 13-16
• Heroes of Might & Magic III - HD Edition, Steam, read Oct 21, 2026
• Heroes Chronicles, Wikipedia, revision of Oct 8, 2026
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death, Wikipedia, revision of Oct 2, 2026
• Ubisoft Reveals Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake at Gamescom, Ubisoft via Games Press, Aug 26, 2026
• Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake, Steam, read Oct 21, 2026
• I've played Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Remake, and I still can't believe we're getting 2 HoMMs in the same year, PC Gamer, Aug 26, 2026
• Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake - Gameplay Overview Trailer, Ubisoft, Aug 26, 2026 (video)