Heroes

"Heroes are typically elite human soldiers that are powerful in combat, and may have special abilities as well Their training location depends on the civilization.

Atlantean heroes are created from Atlantean human units, including Citizens, Oracles, and soldiers.

Heroes are more expensive than human soldiers, but are cost-effective at defeating myth units.

Greek heroes are limited in number, but more powerful than other heroes. If a Greek hero dies, it can be retrained for the same price.

Egyptian heroes are the Pharaoh and Priest. You may have one Pharaoh (two, if Osiris' New Kingdom is researched and as many Priests as you can afford.

Norse heroes are Hersirs and Godis. You can train as many of them as you can afford.

Atlantean heroes can be promoted from any Atlantean human unit, and you can have as many as you can afford.

Age of Mythology campaign heroes can rise again if they fall in battle."
In-game description

Heroes are one of the three basic unit types in Age of Mythology, alongside human units and myth units. They share two core characteristics: they are powerful against myth units and they (except The Argo) can pick up Relics and store them in Temples. In accordance with the rock-paper-scissors combat system, heroes are indifferent against human soldiers and can be beaten by them, especially when at a numerical disadvantage. Heroes can be easily identified by the golden glow (white before Retold) surrounding them. Each of the game's civilizations has heroes with quite different characteristics, with varying stats, procurement method, and build limits.

Heroes are typically not classified as infantry, ranged soldier, or cavalry units, and do not benefit from bonuses and upgrades which benefit those human soldier types. Due to this, a mounted melee hero is no different from a dismounted one except for its higher movement speed. There are exception to this, as Hersirs are also infantry, and Godis are also archers. Similarly, Atlantean human soldiers upgraded to heroes, which continue to be classified as their original unit type classes and affected by Relic bonuses which affected their human forms, with yet another exception being that none of the infantry heroes are affected by Gaia's Book of Knowledge anymore.

In the campaign, unique heroes have both the glow as well as a glowing ring surrounding them. When they are killed, their corpse loses the glow and a glowing silhouette rises up from their lifeless body, followed by Athena announcing "A hero has fallen..." if the hero is an essential character.

Before Retold, heroes also had a separate attack bonuses against Animals of Set, as the latter were not classified as myth units.

File:Icon Greek.png Greeks

Greek players can train heroes at the Town Center once they have built a Temple, and at the Fortress. Each Greek major god has individual, named heroes, all of which are famous figures in Greek mythology.

A new hero becomes available at the start of each Age. This means that Greek players are limited to a maximum of four land heroes. Worshipers of Aphrodite have The Argo, a unique naval hero. However, Greek heroes are far stronger than those of the other four civilizations. They can slay myth units with ease and can hold their own against human soldiers, so long as they are not numerically overwhelmed. The three Greek heroes of a given Age are very similar to each other up to the Mythic Age. The Heroes in the Mythic Age vary more and each has its own special attack.

Greek heroes other than The Argo have a regular attack mode and an anti-flying unit attack mode. While this is hinted for the melee heroes with the Scourge of the Sky ability, the Heroic Age ranged heroes lack this ability; it only shows up in their attack data when they are targeting a flying unit.