Horn of the Abyss (HotA) is a meticulously crafted fan-made expansion for Heroes of Might and Magic III, designed to seamlessly integrate with the original game’s mechanics and aesthetics. Developed by HotA Crew, this expansion introduces new content that honors the legacy of the original while enhancing gameplay depth and variety.
| Platform | Heroes 3 Complete |
| Version | 1.7.3 |
| File Size | 317 MB |
| Update | 08.08. 2025 |
| Authors | HotA crew |
| Download (official, moddb.com) | |
| Download (alternative download, WoG Folder) | |
| Heroes 3 Complete GOG version (works only with this version) | |
| How to install Heroes 3 HotA step-by-step | |
| ⚙️WoG Folder is online source of HoMM mods I’ve discovered over the past decade. It’s regularly updated, and all mods are neatly organized. The WoG Folder also contains various goodies like the “Did you know?“ series, artworks, manuals, meme collections, and more. | |
A significant development that coincides with 1.7.3 patch’s completion is the release of Horn of the Abyss on GOG.com. Those who have a copy of Heroes of Might and Magic III in their GOG collection can now also install HotA from there.
Horn of the Abyss (HotA) v1.7.3 changelog:
HotA Bugs
[-] Fixed the susceptibility of a currently invulnerable Couatl to the effect of Poison that could interrupt the meditation animation
[-] Fixed bugs regarding incorrect surrender cost in the relevant tooltip
[-] Fixed the misplaced tooltips about seeing Keymaster’s Tents in the English version
[-] Fixed the incorrect tooltip about health to be restored with Sacrifice
[-] Fixed the incorrect text color when viewing the enemy’s spellbook with Eagle Eye
[-] Fixed a bug with the possible display of incorrect terrain in the Airship Yard window
[-] Fixed the possibility of misplaced voice clips appearing in custom campaigns
[-] The “..” line for going up a level now remains in the topmost position even upon sorting the folder
[-] Fixed a bug where music would not turn on immediately upon enabling it in the settings
[-] Fixed a possible crash when teleporting through Maelstroms
[-] Added accounting for changes in movement points attained through Pandora’s Boxes, previously lacking for the AI
[-] Fixed possible lack of experience granted by heroes’ starting Learning skill in RoE and AB maps
[-] Fixed the 100-round combat limit that had been reset on many multiplayer templates
Gameplay
[-] Learning experience bonus: 25/50/75% -> 20/40/60%. At the level-up that happens after gaining/advancing Learning, upgrading the skill again will not be offered if the hero has other skills that can be upgraded
[-] Chance to learn spells prior to a combat with Eagle Eye: 40/50/60% -> 10/20/30%. Learning spells cast by the opponent in combat is 100% guaranteed if the spell is of an appropriate level
[+] AI now less likely to activate the Automatons’ detonation upon death mode. The AI will only activate it if it believes that a stack of Automatons may die imminently
[+] Gog count in starting armies: 4-7 -> 5-7
[+] Hell Hound count in starting armies: 3-4 -> 4-5
[+] Goblin count in starting armies: 15-25 -> 20-30
[+] Orc count in starting armies: 4-6 -> 5-6
[+] Griffin count in starting armies: 2-3 -> 4-5
[+] Dwarf count in starting armies: 3-5 -> 5-7
[+] Walking Dead count in starting armies: 4-6 -> 6-8
[+] Water Elemental count in starting armies: 2-3 / 3-5 + 1-2 -> 3-5 / 3-5 + 2-3
[-] Galthran banned and Ranloo allowed on the Jebus Cross template
[-] Rion, Gem, Verdish, and Floribert allowed on the h3dm1, mt_Andromeda, mt_Antares, mt_Diamond, mt_Firewalk, mt_Jebus, and mt_TeamJebus templates
[-] Kalid banned on the 2sm2c(2), Nine-day Wonder, and Skirmish(M) templates
SoD Bugs
[+] Fixed a hero last step cost bug: now all the step cost modifiers are correctly taken into account when determining the possibility of making a diagonal step at the cost of a horizontal one
[+] Fixed a bug with incorrect music resuming after a combat. In HotA, due to this bug, combat victory music would continue playing on the adventure map
[+] Fixed a bug with a possible looping of the hero’s movement sound when trying to take a step with insufficient movement points when Fly or Water Walk are cast
[+] Fixed a bug with a delay when turning music on and off in the settings
[+] Fixed a bug with music not turning on immediately on the first player’s turn in Hot Seat mode
[+] Fixed a bug: after playing the campaign cutscene, the campaign music would not resume on the scenario information screen
[+] Fixed a bug with starting music when minimizing and expanding the game while the music is paused
[+] Fixed a bug with casting Slayer by Master Genies: now it correctly accounts for the enemy having living units susceptible to the advanced Slayer effect
[+] Fixed incorrect display of some buildings as campaign bonuses that could cause crashes in HotA
[+] The game no longer crashes when restarting a scenario if the campaign file is missing
[+] To prevent the object count value from overflowing, if there are 65,000 objects on the map, new week monsters will no longer appear; if there are 65,534, Holes will no longer appear upon digging
Graphics
[+] Fixed faulty palettes and blue/turquoise pixels in adventure map sprites of the Celestial Necklace of Bliss, Helm of Heavenly Enlightenment, Quiet Eye of the Dragon, Dragon Scale Armor, Dragonbone Greaves, Dragon Wing Tabard, and Still Eye of the Dragon
[+] Multiple corrections to the Conflux Town Hall building screen images
[-] Fixed and restored the original sprite of the Conflux Resource Silo
[-] Fixed the shifted outline of the Conflux Marketplace
[-] Fixed the perspective and lighting of the Castle on the backgrounds of Castle creatures
Map Editor
[+] Added the “Miscellaneous” tab in the map specifications, where some settings were moved from the “General” tab
[+] Added the option to prevent starting a map on newer versions of HotA (for maps made in a specific version of HotA that may not work properly in newer versions due to gameplay updates)
[+] To prevent the object count value from overflowing, the map editor prohibits adding more than 64,500 objects on a map
Campaign Editor
[+] Added the option to prevent starting a campaign on newer versions of HotA (for campaigns made in a specific version of HotA that may not work properly in newer versions due to gameplay updates)
[-] Fixed the possibility of incorrect campaign file reading
[-] Fixed the position of the Gunpowder Warehouse in the campaign bonus list
[-] Campaign name input field now a single-line field
Template Editor
[-] Fixed a bug: HotA-original combination artifacts were not included in the list of combination artifacts banned from assembly
[-] Fixed a bug: setting the maximum number of combat rounds was not saved correctly
[-] Fixed a bug: error messages for generating town/terrain/faction types did not contain text
Interface
[+] Information about creature level and attack type added to the monster view window on the adventure map
[+] When visiting a Blacksmith, the war machine’s properties window can now be opened open by right-clicking it
Miscellaneous
[+] Added 4 new maps: Just Win, Or Else; Key to Victory: The Second Key; Sails and Propellers; Treasures of the Pyramid
[-] “Original template pack” template renamed to “Default Random Map”
[+] Added the “Default Random Map (Legacy)” template, which contains a number of elements excluded from the standard HotA gameplay: allowed Cloak of the Undead King, monsters joining for free, Resistance instead of Interference, allowed Galthran and Sir Mullich, etc.
[+] If the user has disabled the DirectPlay component, a window suggesting to install it will now be displayed before the main game window launches
[+] Fixed a crash on non-Windows platforms due to savegame files having names with characters invalid in Windows
[-] Corrections of scenarios, campaigns, templates and texts
Horn of the Abyss (HotA) version 1.7.2:
[!] Added a new campaign, All In, enriching the story of the Horn of the Abyss. The campaign poses an average challenge
Horn of the Abyss version 1.7.1:
[!] Forged in Fire campaign difficulty on Easy & Normal levels has been significantly reduced
[!] Fixed many bugs in Forged in Fire campaign. Several bugs unintentionally reduced difficulty on higher levels
[!] Some of the critical bugs mentioned below have already been fixed through HD Mod updates
Horn of the Abyss version 1.7.0:
[!] Added the new Factory town and faction, including new heroes, creatures, and outer dwellings
[!] Added the new Forged in Fire campaign dedicated to the Factory. Campaign maps have increased difficulty
[!] Added the campaign editor and support for custom campaigns, new background and region maps for campaigns
Core Horn of the Abyss (HotA) features:
- New fully playable town — Cove and Factory
- New war machine — Cannon. Available at Cove’s Blacksmith
- New artifacts and artifact sets
- New banks and conservatories
- New types of map objects
- New heroes
- New terrain for Conflux town — Highlands
- New terrain for Factory town — Wastelands
- Towns change their appearance, depending on Fort level
- Map editor
- RMG template editor as well as extended RMG template format
- Support for bigger map sizes (Huge, XHuge and Giant)
- A lot of balance fixes (like finally nerfing the necromancers or making life easier for Tower and Inferno)
- A lot of RMG fixes (for example, removing all sea elements from non-sea random maps)
- A lot of graphical fixes (like, really a lot… original game had plenty of graphical bugs)
Platform and installing:
Horno of the Abyss (HotA) is to be installed on top of the previous HotA version or the original game “Heroes of Might and Magic III: Shadow of Death” or “Complete”. Localization of the original game does not matter.
Attention: HotA is not to be installed on top of “Heroes of Might and Magic III — HD Edition” (from Ubisoft), or on top of “Restoration of Erathia” or “Armageddon’s Blade” HoMM III versions.
If there are issues when performing an automated update of the HD-Mod, you can download the up-to-date installer package from the developer’s website and install it over the old version in the same folder.
When I install hota in H3 Complete folder and want to launch it is says that there is no HD_launcher.exe. I can launch only H3, but cant get into Hota. Anyone knows what is the problem here?
Try this installation where everything is described step by step and maybe you will find the place where you made a mistake: https://heroes3wog.net/how-to-install-heroes-3-horn-of-the-abyss-steb-by-step-hota/
My antivir detect downloader.gen (trojan) in your .exe files….. thanks for expirience….
HotA FAQ nr. 29. My antivirus software warns me of potential issues with the installer file, or during updating HotA/HD-mod. Should I be concerned?
No, you should not. Most of the advanced market-leading antivirus suites usually have no issue with these files. Some of the lesser solutions, especially free ones and those developed in China, use the most basic heuristic analysis mechanisms, potentially causing false alarms with applications that in fact do not contain any harmful code. You may refer to virustotal.com and get confirmation that the bulk of existing antivirus programs find our files safe for use.
Has anyone made maps? Like a collection of maps for НоMM3 and expansions?
try this: https://heroes3wog.net/heroes-3-maps-collections-download/
Hello,
in game (v.1.7.1) I dont see correct growth numbers in towns (in left bottom area). It is bug and if yes, it will be fixed soon?
Thanks.
Sorry i got it. The numbers show actually possible creatures to buy from that town.
Hi Gloom, I’m glad you figured it out yourself, if you want to change it, run HD_Launcher.exe, then Tweaks tab and find = 1 and change 1 to 0.
Hello guys!
This might be stupid but when I download the setup and try to install, it is not accepting the install folder no matter what I pick. It says the folder should contain the original HOMM 3 file but when I pick that folder, the same error message pops up.
I am using the HOOM 3 Complete GOG version downloaded and installed via GOG Galaxy.
Sorry if it is trivial, I’d appreciate some help.
Thanks.
Hi, you must be making a mistake somewhere 🙂 Try installing Heroes 3 Complete from GOG using offline installers, you can find them in the game profile on GOG.com. Then install Heroes 3 in a simple directory such as C:\HoMM3 Complete (do not install the game to). Then continue according to this guide.
Hi all,
i have downloaded v1.7.0 (official download) but i came with 4 trojan horses. WTF is this?!
Oh, how many more times will we deal with this… this is mainly done by AVG, Avast, Avira, Free antiviruses… they falsely mark the file.
Hello ! This update is really great, unfortunately i ve got a problem, When a fight began, the game crash with the message: ” GetSample could not find the “sfx” resource “cnotattk.82M” .
Any helps ?
Thanks a lot !!!!
Hi, did you do a clean install of HotA 1.7? Or did you install on an older version?
zdraví, takže to jde jen ne verzi od GOG ? mam od ubisoftu complet a steam HD a ani do jedny mi to nejde 🙁
Najlepšia je určite GOG verzia, pokiaľ máš verziu od Ubisoftu, ktorá je dostupná na STEAMe, tak tá je ti k ničomu. Je nepoužiteľná. Kúp si Heroes 3 Complete na GOG. Je tam skoro stále za 2,50€.
Zdravím. A co verze HoMaM 3 of Epic Store? Na tu to funguje? Zkoušel někdo? Děkuji
Áno, tá by mala fungovať, ale je potrebné aby NEBOLA inštalovaná v Program Files. Osobne aj tak preferujem GOG verziu, pretože na jej spustenie nepotrebuješ žiadneho klienta.
Maaan, I haven’t played yet, but just downloaded and simply want to say – it’s AMAZING what you guys are doing! As a creative person with plenty of my own projects, I simply have HUGE admiration for your efforts – and I can only imagine the countless hours producing this Factory town and doing all the other HOTA work must take. And not only that – but THE WAY you guys work/release your stuff – is equally if not more admirable. In the modern world where everything is commoditized, commercialized, clickbaity, full of ads, interruptions and all kinds of other things that only frustrate the user, as opposed to making the experience better – the fact that you’re actually here working for free, releasing this stuff for free, all in the spirit of what the world/internet/video games felt like back 20 years ago when i was a kid, back when Heroes first came out – that’s really just incredible and admirable.
Heroes3 was my childhood. There were many sleep-less “sleepovers” at my friend’s place, battling dragons all weekend long hehe. Thank you much for bringing back to life those feelings that I thought were only memories now and would probably never happen again.
I’ll paypal you some beer money – it’s not much but just a little gesture to really show my appreciation!
I can’t download it, it freezes at 99%
Hello, if you could not download the modification, it is probably because your antivirus is blocking the download. This is mainly done by AVG, Avast, Avira… they falsely mark the file and prevent the download.
The computer is broken in HOTA sadly. :/
I downloaded and installed the mod and everything works but I can’t load anything. As soon as I hit the Load button on Single Scenario or Campaign the game crashes. It is not installed in the C: and the OS is Windows 10.
do you have any other mods installed in the folder?
Are you using the Heroes 3 Complete GOG version?
No other mods, using the Heroes 3 Complete version. As I said – the mod itself works, I can play the game, it’s just that every time I try to load a game – it crashes. Happy to send you the log file over the e-mail if you get in touch with me.
Found the issue, it was my fault
Great that you fixed the error. Where was the problem?
I had a language pack mod. Strangely enough it was working whilst playing but it wasn’t working when trying to load. Tried a clean install and adding the mod and it worked.
repeating 20 times and it is not working
I don’t understand, what are you repeating 20 times already? You need to be more specific if you need help.
What magic is God’s Scales foe divine anubians i ask