What Engine Is Stronghold 4 Using?

Stronghold 4 is right around the corner, and with Firefly Studios promising a major refresh of the long-running ‘castle sim’ strategy series, players are wondering about the tech powering it all. Here’s what we know about Stronghold 4’s game engine.

In previous Stronghold entries, Firefly Studios used several different 2D and 3D engines, including the Vision Engine. For Stronghold 4, the developers opted for a more advanced and mainstream game engine that should also make it easier to mod.

What Engine Is Stronghold 4 Running on?

It’s been confirmed Stronghold 4 has been built using Unreal Engine 5, which should allow the new mainline game to have bigger and flashier castle sieges, as well as denser castles with more units and visual details crammed together.

While strategy games are usually built with in-house engines and older ones that are well-known by veteran studios and communities, UE5 has been proven to be flexible and easy-to-use, even if a distinct lack of optimisations has negatively affected some games. Let’s hope Firefly Studios is putting it to good use.

Will Stronghold 4 Support Modding?

Official details regarding Stronghold 4 mods haven’t been shared yet by Firefly Studios, but looking at past games in the series, we’re confident something will be revealed sooner or later.

Over the years, the Stronghold series has remained alive and healthy thanks to continued user support via mods and custom content. This has pushed Firefly to explore ambitious remasters like last year’s Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition. Therefore, it’s unlikely the studio will change course now.

It must be noted that, whenever modding is confirmed for Stronghold 4, the tools will have to be adapted to UE5, which might create new challenges for the developers. But at the same time, it’s common to see fully user-made mods for UE5 games, so custom content and tweaks will be coming one way or another.