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Prefer it on your machine

Download the game

The same mod as a native build. Faster than the browser, keeps your progress in an ordinary folder, and offers to fetch the free demo data for you on first launch. What you download is the engine only — it contains none of the original game's data.

You do not need this to play.

Both the campaigns and an online battle against a friend run in the browser, with nothing installed on either side — play the campaigns or play a friend. This page is for having it on your own machine.

Step 1 — Grab the engine

Windows will warn you — that's expected.

Windows SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC” for any program it hasn't seen many times before. It is a reputation check, not a virus scan: a brand-new build from a small project has no download history, so it gets flagged. Nothing was detected in this file. The upstream fheroes2 builds trigger the same notice for the same reason.

How to run it anyway (Windows)
  1. If the browser blocks the download, open its downloads list and choose Keep.
  2. Right-click the .zipProperties → tick Unblock at the bottom → OK. Do this before extracting and the rest of the warnings disappear.
  3. Extract the folder, then run fheroes2.exe.
  4. If the blue SmartScreen box still appears, click More infoRun anyway.

Prefer not to click through warnings? Build it yourself from source — the full build instructions are in the repository.

How to run it anyway (macOS)

The macOS build is unsigned too, so Gatekeeper blocks the first launch. Right-click (or Ctrl-click) the app → OpenOpen in the dialog. You only need to do this once.

Verify the download yourself (SHA-256)

Windows: certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256 · macOS/Linux: shasum -a 256 <file>. The same list is served as downloads/SHA256SUMS. Each hash also links to that file's public multi-engine scan on VirusTotal.

fheroes2_windows_x64_SDL2.zip
51c60b210c03e20372284096d637f592b28ee663668ffd64906f444c5b548a4b
fheroes2_ubuntu_x86-64_SDL2.zip
0cbb5dbe19cb79f9578d477138a116d9d4826db02f3a09d9ddd32d06f4569cec
fheroes2_macos_x86-64_SDL2.zip
9d07c928805685fe0a55d71872af8bc4b2634d5d08b28edf1cd9e51b25c4749b

Step 2 — Add your Heroes II game files

The engine needs the original Heroes of Might and Magic II data. Pick whichever you already have — and if you have neither, the first launch offers to fetch the free demo for you in one click.

💿

Own the original

Point the engine at your existing copy — buy it on GOG or the Ubisoft Store. First launch walks you through it.

🎮

Use the free demo data

No copy? Every package bundles a script that fetches the officially free HoMM II demo assets, and the game offers to run it the first time it starts without data.

More about the game files, and what happens to them →

Why the two steps? The original Heroes of Might and Magic II and all its art, maps and music are the property of their rights holders. This project ships none of that copyrighted data — you supply your own legally-obtained copy (or the free demo). The engine and this mod are open source under the GNU GPL v2.
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