Total War: Warhammer III — Realm of Chaos and Chaos Rifts guide

The Realm of Chaos is a corrupted place that will destroy the minds of weak mortals who enter it. However, you’ll venture forth with your legendary lord, eliminating all those who stand in your path to reach a climactic battle. Here’s our Total War: Warhammer III Realm of Chaos guide to help you with the challenges and mechanics once you enter the Chaos Rifts.

Note: For more information, check out our Total War: Warhammer III guides and features hub. You can also take a look at our Survival Battles guide.

Total War: Warhammer III Realm of Chaos and Chaos Rifts guide

Chaos Rift trigger and Realm of Chaos main objective

Chaos Rifts in Total War: Warhammer III will appear a few dozen turns into your campaign. To clarify, I’ve checked four different screenshots (Daemon Prince x2, Kislev, and Grand Cathay) and I’m seeing anywhere from turn 32 to turn 35. However, just a few turns prior to that, the Advisor will notify you that Ursun can be heard rumbling, and the rifts will pop up after a while. This is your cue to prepare for what comes next:

• There will always be at least one Chaos Rift in each province. Make sure your legendary lord’s army is fully replenished and that you can reach it quickly, as only your legendary lord’s army may enter the Realm of Chaos.
• Sets of rifts will last for 15 turns only, and a new set of rifts will appear much later. Again, it’s somewhat variable, as I’m seeing anywhere between turn 65 to 67 for the second set.
• Eventually, Rogue Armies of the Chaos Gods will also appear in the regular campaign area. They’ll raid, sack, raze, and spread corruption as they go along. This implies that you’re better off holding a couple of provinces, only raiding or sacking neighboring lands when you need to. If you try to “paint the map,” you’ll over-extend and make it tough to defend your territories from all the Rogue Armies that will burst forth.

• The main goal once you’re in a deity’s realm is to complete the necessary mechanics to unlock a Survival Battle. Achieve victory there to claim a champion’s soul.
• Multiple factions may enter the same realm. If a faction grabs a soul before you do, you’d get booted out and you’d have to retry later. It’s basically a race to see who can collect all four champion’s souls throughout the campaign.
• Once you’ve cleared all four Survival Battles in each realm, you’ll unlock the Forge of Souls final battle to win the campaign.

Chaos Rift options

When you interact with a Chaos Rift, you’ll see these options:

• Entering any of the four Realms of Chaos (available to your legendary lord).
• Traverse Rifts – Your legendary lord can teleport to any existing rift. As such, is possible to play as the Daemon Prince and end up causing a ruckus in Cathay.
• Close Rift – This can be done by any army, including those led by generic lords. It closes the rift in that province, preventing Rogue Armies from showing up.

Note: Realms of Chaos have a special mechanic related to the Winds of Magic rework. Because these zones are teeming with Warp energies, you’ll have unlimited Winds of Magic reserves (save for Khorne’s because he thinks magic is for cowards). It means that you’ll have more opportunities to cast regular abilities, alongside the new Cataclysm spells.

Realm of Chaos: Khorne

The Realm of Chaos in Total War: Warhammer III that’s ruled by the Blood God is the most straightforward of the bunch. You just need to kill soldiers and lay waste to other forces to fill up your Bloodshed Meter. Once full, you can fight the Survival Battle in the Brass Citadel.

However, you can also slightly delay by checking out the corners of the map. These contain unique weapons listed below, as well as a means to fully replenish all army casualties. The weapons all have +10 Khorne corruption, +20 melee attack, enables magic attacks (!), +250 armor-piercing weapon damage, the Unbreakable attribute, and an extra ability:

• Skar’s Kraken Killer – Healing per second and vigor loss reduction.
• The Bane Spear – Direct damage ability that’s strong versus a group of units.
• Gillellion’s Soul Render – Hex ability that prevents the target from moving.
• Chainsword – Has a passive that increases base weapon damage and armor-piercing weapon damage up to 300% depending on each kill made by the unit. Go ahead and unleash your inner Space Marine.

Note 1: If playing as the Daemon Prince, he can only use gear pieces granted by Daemonic Glory. As such, only your generic lords and heroes can equip these weapons.

Note 2: Khorne will take away the weapons that he’s granted if you enter a different Chaos God’s realm later on.

Realm of Chaos: Slaanesh

Slaanesh’s Realm of Chaos in Total War: Warhammer III looks like a depiction of hell from Dante’s Inferno. The goal is to rush through with March stance selected so you can reach the gateways. These will take you one level/circle below until you reach the very bottom. Beware of Slaaneshi armies that will chase you around, especially at higher difficulties.

Another facet is that She-Who-Thirsts will tempt you into leaving this domain by offering nifty rewards. Picking a reward will boot you out of the realm, though you can retry later. Here are the tempting options:

• Circle of Avidity – +15,000 gold.
• Circle of Gluttony – +20,000 gold; +200% casualty replenishment rate to all armies and +200 growth in all provinces (15 turns).
• Circle of Carnality – +50,000 gold; +20 diplomatic relations with all factions (20 turns).
• Circle of Paramountcy – +60,000 gold; all units in your lord’s army reach rank 9 and -1 global recruitment turn duration (permanent).
• Circle of Vainglory – +45,000 gold; +5 levels to all lords and heroes (permanent) and +20 levels to newly recruited lords and heroes (10 turns).
• Circle of Indolency – +100,000 gold or +50,000 gold and a couple of loot:
  • Slaanesh’s Blade (weapon) – +30 melee attack, enables magical attacks, +500 armor-piercing weapon damage, +20% ward save, and Unbreakable.
  • Personal Sycophant (follower) – +100 XP gain per turn, +200% XP, +20% campaign movement range, and +25% campaign line of sight.

Note 1: Similar to Khorne’s items, the ones from Slaanesh can only be equipped by generic lords and heroes in case you’re playing as the Daemon Prince.

Note 2: Some of the rewards being handed out might be different. I suggest reloading a save in case you see something you don’t want. It’s definitely a viable strategy to get in and grab something awesome, but it’s going to prolong the campaign. Still, it’s your only recourse if the AI is already several circles below you.

Realm of Chaos: Tzeentch

Tzeentch’s domain is still filled with hostile armies, but the progression is trickier. The goal is to reach a landmark in the corner of the map, connected by way of teleporters. These teleporters have a purple icon, and the destinations are unknown by default (you could end up on floating islands that are further away). Here are some other facets:

• Teleporters tend to be random depending on the campaign. I’ve ventured into this area while playing as another faction, and I followed the same path I took beforehand. I still got ported somewhere else.
• There are white circles that you can interact with. These can reveal the sigils so you’ll know which teleporters match.
• The white circles can also be used to either replenish casualties or obtain a boon. For example, you can have +90% factionwide research for nine turns.
• Lastly, enemy armies that you defeat have a post-battle option that lets you reveal sigils, too.

Realm of Chaos: Nurgle

I would suggest saving Nurgle’s Realm of Chaos for much later in your Total War: Warhammer III campaign. The goal here is to go to the opposite end of the domain to reach a landmark. Only then will you be able to go to the northern section for the Survival Battle.

However, your entire army barring Nurgle units will suffer attrition as you traverse this area. With numerous hostile squads, you’re in for a world of hurt. Your only recourse is to interact with the white circles in the corners of the zone, as these fully heal all troops and give you attrition resistance for a time. If you attempt this later in your playthrough, you could have the perks, ancillaries, and traits that can minimize attrition for good.

Chaos debuffs

Lastly, the longer you stay inside a Realm of Chaos in Total War: Warhammer III, the greater the chances of mutations. These are negative traits that have debilitating effects on leadership, unit stats, control, and more. To remove these, make sure you can garrison your lord’s army in a province capital or a settlement with the “torch” building — i.e., Locus, Patrol Houses, or their equivalents (the buildings that let you discover Skaven undercities). Every turn has a chance of removing these negative traits until your lord is back in tip-top condition.

Total War: Warhammer III is available via Steam, Epic Games, and the Xbox Game Pass for PC.