Total War: Warhammer is a gigantic game, which is impressive, considering that there are only three games in the series. The games have been given a slew of DLC releases over the years, and the best thing about this is that whatever you can play within the first two games, you can play in the third.

RELATED: Total War: Warhammer 3 - Immortal Empires Is Overwhelming In The Best Way

That said, it can be a bit confusing figuring out how this all works and how the games interact with each other. We'll break everything down to make sure you know how it all works.

Updated April 30, 2023: Total War: Warhammer 3 (oh why didn't they just call it Total Warhammer 3?) has a very large list of DLC. Most recently released were the Chaos Dwarfs. We've added them to this guide and tweaked the formatting and details to make things clearer.

What Does Total War: Warhammer DLC Add?

There are two principal types of DLC that get released for Total War Warhammer games:

• Paid packs that add new playable races, factions, and legendary lords to the game.
• Smaller, free packs that add new legendary lords, heroes, units, and less often, races or factions. These are not part of the regular updates and must be added to your account individually.

These usually coincide with updates that add content to the game anyway, but only by purchasing the packs themselves will you be able to play as the new additions. This means that you may encounter new legendary lords and units and such in campaign games and in multiplayer, but you must buy or download the DLC to use them yourself.

There are some exceptions to this, however.

• There are three graphical effects packs that add blood and gore, one for each game. They are all called "Blood for the Blood God." The version for the second game is given for free if you own the version for the first game. The pack for the third game, however, costs money regardless.
• Some of the free DLC packs for the second game add new features, such as new maps for multiplayer games and the Ogre Mercenaries function.
• The Mortal Empires and Immortal Empires campaigns - these are only available if you own both the first two and all three games, respectively.

Some DLC cannot be acquired on Steam. These must be downloaded through the Total War Access program which requires linking a Total War account to your Steam account and then redeeming the items on your dashboard. Those DLC are:

• 30th Birthday Regiments of Renown for Total War: Warhammer.
• Gotrek and Felix for Total War: Warhammer 2.
• Catchweb Spidershrine for Total War: Warhammer 2.
• Glade Captain for Total War: Warhammer 2.
• Great Bray-Shaman for Total War: Warhammer 2.
• Ogre Mercenaries for Total War: Warhammer 2.

All Total War: Warhammer DLC

The table below lists every DLC currently available for the Total War: Warhammer games that add new playable content. These will either be new races, units, or legendary lords.

A DLC that adds a new race will, by default, add new legendary lords and units to your game.

Cross-Game Compatibility

One of the best things about this series is that there are benefits to owning all of the games and the DLC - you can play games that combine all the features of the games. Specifically, there are two campaigns that allow you to use everything you've purchased:

• Mortal Empires. This is a campaign in Total War: Warhammer 2 that smashes the maps of the first two games together and allows you to play any race, faction, and lord from those two games. You must own both of the first two games to play this campaign.
• Immortal Empires. This is a campaign for Total War: Warhammer 3 that does the same as Mortal Empires but for all three games. This has the largest map and allows you to play any race, faction, or lord from the entire series. You must own all three games to play in this campaign.

In addition to owning every game applicable to these campaigns, you'll also need to buy separate DLC packs if you wish to play as the races or lords locked behind them.

There is no backwards compatibility. You cannot play with any of the features of Total War: Warhammer 2 in the first Total War: Warhammer game, and the same is true of features in Total War: Warhammer 3.

These campaigns are compatible with all DLC released so far, including those for the first game. For example, if you buy "Realm of the Wood Elves" (a DLC for the first game), you will also unlock the Wood Elves as a playable race in Total War: Warhammer 2's Mortal Empires campaign. If you don't have the DLC, the Wood Elves will still be present, but as an unplayable faction.

How To Access Immortal Empires

If you want to play Immortal Empires, the huge campaign mode that includes every single race and faction from all three games, there are two ways to do it:

• Own all three Total War: Warhammer games and load up Total War: Warhammer 3. It will be available in the Campaign selection menu.
• Own Total War: Warhammer 3 and play a multiplayer game with someone who does own all three games and is hosting an Immortal Empires game.

Immortal Empires is not a DLC pack like Mortal Empires was - it's a free update added to the game automatically.

NEXT: Total War: Warhammer 2: The Best DLCs in the Game, Ranked