Conan Exiles Enhanced (UE5) Update: Release Date, Features & What We Know

It is finally happening. After eight years on Unreal Engine 4, Conan Exiles is getting the biggest technical overhaul in its history. Funcom has confirmed that Conan Exiles Enhanced, a free Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, launches on May 5, 2026; the game's eighth anniversary.

This is not a minor patch. It is a complete rebuild of the visual and performance backbone of the game, developed in collaboration with Inflexion Games, the studio behind the survival title Nightingale. For longtime Exiles, returning players, and anyone running a Conan Exiles community server, May 5 is going to feel like a brand new launch.

Here is everything we know so far about the Conan Exiles UE5 update, what is actually changing, and what server admins need to do to get ready.

Conan Exiles Enhanced Is Officially Coming May 5, 2026

Funcom announced Conan Exiles Enhanced on April 23, 2026, with a launch date set for May 5. The upgrade is free for anyone who already owns the game on Steam and arrives as a separate edition alongside the original.

The original Unreal Engine 4 version is being rebranded as Conan Exiles Legacy. Legacy will remain playable but will not receive new major content updates, the Bazaar will be disabled, and Crom Coins will no longer be valid on it. Steam users will be able to choose which edition to launch.

One important note for the community: Conan Exiles Enhanced is launching on Steam only. Players on the Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, and consoles will remain on the Legacy version at launch. Funcom has said it is open to bringing Enhanced to other platforms in the future, but nothing is confirmed.

What's New: Unreal Engine 5 in Conan Exiles

The headline of the Enhanced update is the move from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. Funcom has called out four specific rendering technologies that come with the upgrade.

• Lumen is UE5's real time global illumination system. Light now bounces and reflects off surfaces dynamically the way it does in the real world. Torches glow off cave walls, sunlight cuts through jungle canopy, and firelight washes over armor with proper warmth. The Exiled Lands look genuinely cinematic in places they previously looked flat.
• Nanite is UE5's virtualized geometry system. It allows the engine to render incredibly detailed environments — rocks, ruins, cliffs, statues — without the usual performance cost. The world simply has more visual information packed into every frame.
• Virtual Shadow Maps bring high resolution, accurate shadows that hold up at any distance. No more low resolution shadow popping or muddy distant shadow detail.
• Improved Terrain rounds out the visual upgrade with higher quality landscape rendering, better material blending, and more detailed ground textures.

Funcom says Enhanced is targeting smooth 60+ FPS gameplay across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra settings on most PCs, with Steam Deck support out of the box. Despite UE5's reputation for being demanding, Funcom has clearly prioritized optimization.

Merged Worlds: Exiled Lands and Isle of Siptah Are Now Connected

One of the most surprising features of Enhanced is that the Exiled Lands and the Isle of Siptah are being merged into a single world for the first time. Players can now travel between the two maps freely, without separate save files or character transfers.

To make the merge work, Funcom had to physically reposition Siptah and change its world coordinates. Most player progress carries forward — characters, thralls, and inventories all transfer over — but there is one important caveat for veteran Siptah players. Structures and bases built on the Isle of Siptah will not transfer to Enhanced. If you have a base on Siptah you want to remember, take screenshots before May 5.

Bases on the Exiled Lands transfer normally.

Beyond the Engine: Quality of Life Upgrades

Enhanced is not only a graphics update. Funcom is shipping a number of long-requested quality of life changes alongside the UE5 move.

• Revamped UI. Cleaner menus, improved navigation, and a more modern interface across the board.
• Enhanced crafting. Crafting now pulls ingredients from nearby storage chests and follower inventories automatically. Anyone who has spent half their playtime moving stacks of iron between boxes will appreciate this one immediately.
• Refreshed Mod Dev Kit. The modding pipeline has been rebuilt for UE5, and Funcom has worked with several popular mod authors to ensure key mods are ready at launch.

Will My Mods Work After the UE5 Update?

This is the question on every modded server admin's mind, and the honest answer is: it depends on the mod.

An engine migration of this size always breaks compatibility with mods that have not been updated. Mods built for UE4 cannot simply be dropped into the UE5 build of Conan Exiles and run. Modders will need to update their projects against the refreshed Mod Dev Kit and re-publish.

Funcom has confirmed that several popular mods will be ready at launch through their work with the modding community. Beyond that, expect a transition period that lasts weeks or months. Larger, actively maintained mods will return quickly. Smaller or abandoned mods may not return at all.

If you run a heavily modded server, our recommendation is straightforward. Before May 5, take a manual full backup of your current server files (don't worry, our system automatically takes backups at least once a day). Check each mod's Steam Workshop page in the days following launch to see which have been updated. Reintroduce mods one at a time on the Enhanced build to make troubleshooting easier. Refer to our guide on changing the mod order, or contact us if you need assistance.

What Conan Exiles Server Admins Need to Do for the UE5 Update

If you run a private or community Conan Exiles server, the good news is that Funcom has designed the migration to be relatively painless. Saves carry over and most file paths do not change. Here is the actual process.

• Stop the server before updating. Do not update over a running instance. Bring the server fully offline first.
• Pull the Enhanced build. When Funcom pushes Enhanced to the dedicated server depot on May 5, run a Steam Update from your control panel. The Enhanced build will replace the existing server binaries.
• Expect a slow first boot. The first time the server starts on Enhanced, it will perform an in-place migration of your database to the UE5 schema. This will take longer than a normal startup. Do not interrupt it.
• Saves carry forward. The ConanSandbox/Saved/ directory structure does not change in Enhanced. Your game.db file containing characters, structures, and progress is preserved through the migration. The same caveat about Siptah structures applies — Exiled Lands builds transfer, Siptah builds do not.
• Back up before you do anything. Take a fresh full backup of your save and config files before the update. If something goes wrong, a clean rollback to Legacy on a separate Steam install gives you a fallback.
• Plan for higher resource usage. UE5 dedicated servers tend to use slightly more RAM and CPU than the equivalent UE4 build, particularly during the first few minutes after a restart while the new lighting and geometry systems initialize. If your server was already running close to its resource ceiling on Legacy, this is a good moment to consider upgrading your plan.

If you are setting up a fresh Conan Exiles Enhanced server from scratch on May 5 or later, our Conan Exiles dedicated server setup guide walks through the full process step by step, and our knowledgebase article on importing an existing single-player or co-op world covers how to bring a personal save up to a hosted server.

Why the UE5 Update Is a Big Deal for Conan Exiles

It would be easy to look at Enhanced as a visual refresh, but the bigger story is what it unlocks for the future of Conan Exiles.

Funcom is not going to keep building new content on a deprecated engine. Moving Conan Exiles to UE5 is what makes future expansions, new biomes, new mechanics, and bigger community projects possible. Combined with the merged worlds, the refreshed modding pipeline, and the Inflexion collaboration, Enhanced is positioning the game for years of additional support.

For a survival sandbox that is now eight years into its life, this is what relevance looks like. Conan Exiles in 2026 is being given a foundation that can carry it well into the next decade.

Get Back Into the Exiled Lands on May 5

If the UE5 update has you wanting to jump back in, this is the perfect moment. Whether you are returning to an old base, exploring the newly connected Isle of Siptah, or starting a fresh community server with friends, you will be playing Conan Exiles at its technical best.

Reliable server performance matters more than ever on the new engine. Higher fidelity environments, more demanding shaders, merged maps, and bigger mod payloads all put more load on your host. Pick a server provider that can keep up.

Your Conan Exiles Enhanced server starts here.