Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles now lets you pilot any ship on a trade route you own. Taking a vessel into combat carries a direct consequence: if it sinks, its captain is removed. Xbox Wire’s article dated October 1, 2026, announces that the update and the Medieval Houses and Verne Bannerless DLCs are available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
More freedom to shape settlements
In the October 1 Xbox Wire announcement, Bulwark’s solo developer Tomas Sala describes the release as bringing the Xbox version into line with the PC development version. Its changes span settlement construction, upgradable surveyors, direct ship control and the way enemy forces conduct wars.
Curved walls can be built without restrictions on type, length or angle. That gives settlement builders more freedom over the outline of their fortifications, with the wall’s shape and placement both open to adjustment.
The update also introduces upgradable surveyors, including the new Behemoth. Arbology towers let you grow trees in settlements, extending the changes to their appearance beyond buildings and defensive walls. These additions sit alongside the naval and military changes, giving players more to work with when developing their settlements.
Your trade routes become a way into naval combat
The condition for taking the helm is ownership of the trade route: you can select and pilot any ship travelling on a route you own. Direct control therefore ties this new naval option to your trade network, rather than granting access to every vessel you encounter.
The captain’s removal makes a combat loss consequential beyond the ship itself. Choosing to fight with a vessel also exposes the character commanding it. The freedom to take control and the risk attached to sinking are parts of the same decision.
That decision now takes place amid reworked enemy behavior. Enemy forces can attack before returning to defend their settlements, while patrol ships can engage your settlement or join the defense against your attacks. An assault can therefore draw opposition from patrols as well as the forces defending its target; those patrols can also threaten your own settlement.
Fortresses can appear to block trade routes, bringing conflict onto the connections between settlements. Your network supplies the ships available for direct control, but its routes can also be obstructed. Trade and warfare consequently meet in the same stretch of water.
New houses and units arrive alongside the update
Medieval Houses adds six wood-clad houses, expanding the range of buildings available for settlements. Verne Bannerless includes a Bannerless Corsair warbird, a Verne Missile ship and a Piranha Fast airship.
For Xbox players, the release brings construction and warfare changes together with direct control of trade-route ships. The clearest trade-off is at sea: taking the helm gives you another way to enter combat, while a sinking also costs you the captain. More gaming news is available on JEU.VIDEO.
