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"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 Skies ability, the Heroic Age ranged heroes lack this ability; it only shows up in their attack data when they are targeting a flying unit.
Age Advance Bonuses
Age advancement grants Greek heroes the following improvements:
- +10% hit points, +10% attack
File:Icon Egyptian.png Egyptians
Pharaohs and Priests are the standard heroes of the Egyptians. The Egyptian player starts the game with a Pharaoh, who does not occupy any population slots. The Pharaoh can empower buildings, improving all of the building's functions, and heal allied units. He is not particularly strong, but he does gain 20% attack per Age advance. If killed, he soon rises again at the Town Center.
The Mythic Age minor god Osiris has a god power that transforms Pharaoh into the Son of Osiris, who can do everything the Pharaoh can do, often better. The Son of Osiris has dramatically increased hit points and a deadly chain lightning attack which can attack up to four units. Osiris also grants New Kingdom, which gives the player additional Pharaohs. Recasting Son of Osiris prompts another Pharaoh to spawn.
The Priest is similar to the Pharaoh. They are weaker but can be mass-produced. Egyptian players start with one Priest and more can be trained once a Temple from the Archaic Age. Like the Pharaoh, Priests can heal units, and can build Obelisks, which help with scouting by providing a continuous Line of Sight. Priests are very weak against human units, but very good against myth units when massed, especially the slower ones.
All Egyptian heroes can heal friendly units, and deal divine damage to myth units (Pharaohs and Priests due to the Heka ability, the Son of Osiris due to having a divine attack type). While the Pharaoh and Son of Osiris can collect Relics intrinsically, Priests can do so only with Hands of the Pharaoh researched. Pharaohs and Sons of Osiris can always empower buildings, while Priests can only do so if the player worships Ra, and at a reduced efficiency.
Age Advance Bonuses
Age advancement grants Egyptian heroes the following improvements:
- Pharaoh: +10% hit points, +20% attack, +9/+6/+2 Line of Sight (Classical/Heroic/Mythic Age)
- Son of Osiris: +10% hit points (added to a base of 420 hit points, making a total of 546 hit points)
- Priest: +10% hit points, +10% attack, +8/+6/+2 Line of Sight (Classical/Heroic/Mythic Age)
File:Icon Norse.png Norse
The main Norse heroes are the Hersirs, the captains of the Viking army, and the Godis, a type of religious and political leaders in ancient Scandinavia. Hersirs can be trained at the Temple since the Archaic Age and at the Great Hall since the Classical Age. They are formidable against myth units but are otherwise average melee fighters and not cost-effective against human soldiers. They are also infantry and are countered by anti-infantry units. Godis can be trained from the Heroic Age onward at the Great Hall, and are ranged javelin-wielding archers. They can counter ranged enemy myth units better than Hersirs, and are the only counter to flying myth units.
The other type of Norse hero cannot be trained. Mythic Age players who worship Baldr can use the Ragnarok god power, which instantly transforms all the player's Gatherers and Dwarves into Heroes of Ragnarok. These heroes are similar to Hersirs, but are faster, have better armor, and a stronger basic attack. However, they are not quite as good against myth units.
Both Hersir and Heroes of Ragnarok are similar to infantry units, though, as usual with heroes, they do not benefit from upgrades and bonuses affecting infantry. Nevertheless, they are susceptible to counter-infantry units such as the Hypaspist, and, like other Norse foot soldiers, they can build and repair buildings. Since they are also melee units dealing hack damage, the Norse need to use Godis to counter flying myth units or fast ranged myth units. Jarls could catch up and deal great damage to fast land myth units.
In Retold, the Godi was added and is available from the Heroic Age. Furthermore, the player can no longer train the Hersirs in the Longhouse, and the Gatherers are transformed into the male and female Hero of Ragnarok, while the Dwarves are transformed into the Dwarf Hero of Ragnarok. The Dwarf Hero of Ragnarok is now a separate unit to the other two versions, but the three versions are still selected together when double-clicking.
Another hero called Gullinbursti was added in the New Gods Pack: Freyr. The Gullinbursti has four different versions of himself, all of which are separate, with different attributes, models, and sizes. Just like the Heroes of Ragnarok, the hero unit is only available through a god power, from the major god Freyr. A different version will spawn depending on the Age when the god power is used, i.e. one version for the Archaic Age, etc. The Gullinbursti automatically dies at the end of its lifespan. The first two versions have the same lifespan, the Heroic Age version lives longer, and the Mythic Age version longer still. Aging-up while Gullinbursti is present does not improve it; only further recasts of the god power will summon the next variant.
Age Advance Bonuses
Age advancement grants Norse heroes the following improvements:
- +10% hit points, +10% attack
File:Icon Atlantean.png Atlanteans
The Atlanteans do not train their heroes, but rather create them from regular human units. These transformations cost on average around 120% of the unit's original cost, plus a small amount of favor. The transformation takes several seconds, so should be timed properly in advance, and it can be risky to do while already under attack. Units that can be transformed are the Citizen, Oracle, Murmillo, Katapeltes, Turma, Arcus, Contarius, Cheiroballista, Destroyer, and Fanatic.
All these specially-created hero units gain a large bonus against myth units, and Oracle Heroes generate favor faster than Oracles. They retain the multipliers they had before and the characteristics. For example, the Katapeltes Hero is similar to its human counterpart and retains its large bonus against cavalry. Atlantean heroes have better base stats than their human unit counterparts, though their other upgrades (e.g. Medium Infantry) are lost. On the other hand, their Age advance bonus is greatest in the Classical Age, giving them an early boost. They also get more armor from Armory technologies.
Attack bonuses against base units are retained by their hero counterparts, except if the attack bonus is against the class human soldier. For example, Spearmen have attack bonuses against the two forms of the Contarius. Prior to Retold, this was implemented by adding an attack bonus against the hero units. With Retold, the hero units have the same armor class as their human counterparts for the purpose of attack bonus, hence removing the need for the special attack bonus.
Turning ordinary units into heroes is expensive early on. They are also slow to transform, which can turn out to be fatal if already engaged by the enemy. To help combat this, Prometheus grants the player the Heart of the Titans technology which decreases the time of turning human units into heroes, plus the Valor god power which transforms a human unit for free instantly, while also healing it fully.
Before Retold, transforming a human unit into a hero also increased the number of population slots the unit occupied, which could push a player over the population limit. This prevented the training of units to replace lost heroes.
In Retold, Cheiroballistas can now also be converted into heroes. The Oracle is the only hero who is not listed as an "Idle Hero". He is not even listed as an "Idle Military Unit". Heroes only gain the "Sacred Hands" ability, allowing them to pick up Relics, after at least one Temple has been built. Furthermore, Hyperion's Sons of the Sun technology instantly and permanently converts all existing and future Oracles into heroes.
Gaia grants Hero Citizens instead of the usual Citizens at the start of each game.
Hero Stat Bonuses
Upgrading a human unit to a hero grants it the following improvements:
- Oracle: +10 hit points, +0.5 speed, +2 Line of Sight, enables melee attack (6), +100% Line of Sight growth rate
- Citizen: +20 hit points, +0.2 speed, +2 Line of Sight, +1 range (15)
- Turma and Arcus: +10 hit points, +0.3 speed, +2 Line of Sight
- Murmillo, Katapeltes, Contarius, Destroyer, Fanatic: +15 hit points, +0.3 speed, +2 Line of Sight
Age Advance Bonuses
Age advancement grants Atlantean heroes the following improvements:
- Classical Age: +20% hit points, +20% attack
- Heroic Age: +10% hit points, +10% attack
- Mythic Age: +5% hit points, +5% attack
