Hero’s Hour – Starting Tips

Starting Tips (Easy AI)

Note: Credit goes to Hereticon Maxim

Usually I start out my games like this

Day 1: Build new unit production building. Purchase All available units. Move your hero to the nearest easiest mine to capture should be either ore or wood.

If you level up from the fighting choose a skill/trait that is ideal for early game unit preservation or growth.

Diplomacy is situational, I’d recommend it if you have upgraded the skill to level 4 and have the gold to spare as you’ll get the units for a discount at that point. Early on you might want to avoid using it as paying a 40% premium for some units may prevent you from upgrading your base early on.

Mastery is an okay option as long as it is for a low tier unit early on. I would recommend any hero that can get tier 1 unit mastery to do so early on to maximize growth. Each point in mastery provides you with new units every day if the unit number is high enough, as an example, Lanzo of Order, has mastery that provides 14 Militia or their upgraded counterpart weekly this means that you get 2 per day on average, Additionally it provides a 5% bonus to health and damage per rank. Making the unit less feeble. In contrast Souleater of Decay has mastery of Liches which means he only produces 0.91 units per week which is more suitable for mid to late game.

Healing is another good one, it allows dead units a percentage based chance to return to the main army after winning a fight. Starting at 20% with diminishing returns (Whatever that means) In my experience rank 3 means about 45-55 percent of your soldiers will come back to life.

Legion is fantastic as it improves damage by 1 and health by 5 of all units per point used in it, making your weaker soldiers more formidable, but this also has a decent bonus for some other larger units that have area damage.

Mercurial is an exceptional perk on the condition that you can secure a mercury mine quickly, it has the highest unit production speed of any skill, producing 4 mercurials per day, which is a versatile unit with decent health and damage that has a lot of different varieties in its own unit but it provides no other bonus to the unit.

Blood Warping is another skill that you should get if it is available to you, it allows you to transform your weaker units into your most powerful unit after a fight. Usually this will result in 1-3 of your top tier units being produced per battle if it’s big enough.

Regeneration Gives your hero more mana regeneration per day, increasing your mana regen is great for casters early on if they have a good inexpensive spell to preserve units or summon aid.

Necromancy is good, as it allows you to get units for free, I would recommend avoiding using the ability when it costs mana early on, mana is better used in battle to support your troops.

For Decay Malediction or Bane are decent options, Malediction is fantastic as it makes your spells curse units and once those units die and become your soldiers for good. Each point increases the chance that this effect occurs to higher powered units, potentially granting you a Thanatos from stronger enemies. Bane is good as it provides 50 HP to your leader and 3 more damage per attack, plus it gives him a higher chance to curse tougher enemies each attack.

I would recommend avoiding royalty at first, it reduces the cost of purchasing units, but it won’t be very useful early on. Perhaps get it before purchasing units in week 2.

Finally devour, a self destructive ability in that it destroys your own units in battle, however this is offset by the attack and defense bonus you get after battle, I would avoid using it early on, but you should be able to use devour regularly later on and still grow your army. At rank 1, using devour on 5 units rated at power 28 it provided my leader with 3 attack and defense, later when it was upgraded to level four it was providing about 12-16 per use. You can only use devour once per day, and only while in combat though. So I’d recommend using it only near the end of a fight if you are winning or losing. There’s the potential to get your leader to have hundreds of attack and defense points later on, that means that you’ll be increasing unit attack and health by 3%*Attack or Defense. Needless to say this is incredibly powerful if used wisely across the game. Also part of why fighting against an AI hero that has it is so dangerous, they will use the ability too and snowball until their lowest tier unit has hundreds of health. This can

Day 2: Build your second unit structure if possible, don’t upgrade your existing ones yet, purchase the new units, at this point you can drop units out onto the world map and move them closer to your main army in the same turn as you purchased them. Armies without heroes can move 10 units on the world map. Join your army together if possible and take the second mine, again should be ore or wood. Once again, if you leveled up choose a perk that helps unit preservation, or growth if possible if not.

Day 3: By now you should have wood and ore production, this will allow you to upgrade your buildings, now I’d recommend getting a tavern/hero recruitment center. Don’t purchase a new hero yet though. Move your main army around the world map defeating easy encounters, Auto resolve can sometimes yield better results than actually commanding the army for yourself. Save frequently before battles in case they go south, that’s what savings there for. Pick up any resources you are able to. Once again, go for unit preservation or growth if possible.

Day 4: Now upgrade your tavern, consider what heroes you have available. If Oob is available he’s a pretty strong contender for recruitment because of his ability to grow an army, he has mercurial as a starting ability and an incredibly powerful skill tree. Other good choices are Hardsoul/Darkheart, Tobruni/Eartyaen, or Atoko/Bee. In my experience the skills they have will allow them to effectively grow while also adventuring. Keep on adventuring with your forces, shuffle your army between your heroes to allow them both to grow somewhat.

You want your second hero to be decently strong and able to produce their own units, Tobruni/Eartyaen should be the easiest to get powerful as he has six of his best development abilities down the right skill tree, legion, mastery, bloodlust, bloodwarping devour, and dragon king. He also has Royalty and Healing on the same side.

Atoko/Bee Have communion which is unique to wild, it’s a decent way to provide the enemies some distractions once every two days you might even keep some anima after a fight, Then they also have mastery, blood warping, and legion available to them. Growth is slower than Tobruni/Eartyaen, but still decent.

Hardsoul/Darkheart may take more time to grow they have legion, mastery, devour, and regeneration early on.

Day 5: Develop your economy in your base. Constantly look for your next mine to acquire or artifacts/chests.

Day 6: More of the same.