Heroes

Heroes are a feature introduced in Round 32, giving a small but scaling passive bonus to a Dominion. No resources are required to generate one, though a small investment is required to start gaining a benefit.

Creating a Hero

Creating a hero can be done at any time in the life of a Dominion, simply by going to the Heroes page, located under the 'Dominion' heading in the left-hand side menu. Select the type from the dropdown, press the Randomize button or name the Hero yourself, and that's all that's needed to create one. Names cannot be edited, however, so choose the name wisely.

Types, Scaling, and Experience

There are seven types of Heroes in the game. Each type grants a different bonus, aimed at improving different aspects of a Dominion. They gain experience through taking Info Ops or Black Ops, but not Theft Ops, as well as through invading other Dominions. Experience is lost when being invaded, though Heroes can never lose a level in this way. Every hero starts at level 0, where no bonus is granted, and can reach level 12 at most.

Types and Scaling

Type of Hero	Bonus Type	Scaling per level	Notes
Alchemist	Platinum Production	+0.20 %
Architect	Construction Cost	-1.20 %	Platinum costs only.
Blacksmith	Military Unit Cost	-0.25 %	Gnome Ore Costs not affected.
Engineer	Investment	+0.60 %
Healer	Casualty Reduction	+1.00 %	Non-unit casualty bonus
Infiltrator	Spy Power	+2.00 %
Sorcerer	Wizard Power	+2.00 %

The bonus scales per level, and is found by multiplying the level with the scaling per level. E.g. a level 4 Blacksmith will give 0.25 % x 4 = 1.00 % military cost reduction. Additionally, Shrines and the Altar of Heroes increase the effectiveness of heroes. A level 10 Alchemist with the Altar of Heroes wonder would give 4.00 % extra platinum because the wonder increases hero bonuses by 100 %. Note that a level 0 hero will not give any benefits whatsoever, no matter the amount of other bonuses: multiplying by a hero level of 0 is always 0.

Experience

Experience or XP for heroes is gained in three distinct ways. The simplest, and the one most people will encounter, is by doing Info Ops on other human players. Every successful Info Op grants 2 XP to a hero. Thus, a typical check to see what someone's DP is will usually grant 6 to 10 XP: 2 each for a Clear Sight, a Survey Dominion, and a Castle Spy, plus 2 more for the potentially required Barracks Spy and Land Spy. However, opping bots does not grant any experience.

The second method of experience gathering is to use Black or War Ops on someone else. There is a distinction between the Black Ops that are always available and the War Ops that are unlocked through being at war or recently invaded: Black Ops like Assassinate Draftees or Insect Swarm grant 4 XP per success, while War Ops like Assassinate Wizards or Fireball grant 6 XP per success. Magic that is reflected back via the Energy Mirror spell does NOT count as a success here.

The third method of experience gathering is invasion. For every acre gained during an invasion, including generation, your hero gets 1 XP. This experience is applied immediately upon successful invasion; failing an attack will not grant any experience.

For all of these methods, Shrines and the Altar of Heroes wonder offer increases in experience: 2 % per 1 % Shrines to a maximum of 20 %, or 5 % for the Altar. These stack with each other. These bonuses will very likely cause experience to be fractional, causing the message at the top of the screen to say "You gain 2.04 XP" or similar. Though the Heroes page itself will only show integers, the fraction is tracked, and will tick over, e.g. doing 5 regular ops while having 5 % Shrines - a 10 % XP bonus - would grant 11 XP.

Experience can also be lost in two different ways. The most conventional way to lose experience on a hero is to be invaded: for every acre lost, a hero loses 1 XP, to a floor of whatever experience they need to retain their level. Heroes will never lose levels through invasion. Additionally, selecting a new type of hero, e.g. switching out an Alchemist for a Blacksmith, halves experience. This method does lower hero levels: a level 5 hero at 2020 XP would become a level 4 hero at 1010 XP.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Experience required	100	300	600	1000	1500	2250	3000	3750	4700	6000	7750	10000

Strategy and Tips

Though Heroes are only a small part of your Dominion, and will not make or break a strategy, there are some strategic decisions to be made. As all bonuses are additive with other bonuses of the same name, certain Heroes and certain races do not necessarily work together well. For example, a typical Spirit build features heavy use of the Spectral Warrior with Almost Never Dies if not bottomfeeding. A Healer would therefore not do much: that Hero would only reduce casualties on Phantom Knights, Banshees, or when the High Cleric Tower Wonder is involved, reducing the use-case. Icekin only cares about the raw WPA for the Ice Elemental OP, and if they do have maximum or near-maximum raw WPA, it is not very likely that there will be any issues with most magic Ops they want to cast on others. The Sorcerer would likely be overkill and not add much. Lastly, a Gnome Explorer will get very limited use out of the Blacksmith: Ore costs cannot be reduced, and the Rockapult is already quite cheap on platinum. Combined with not always needing to actually train DP, the actual benefits would be rather limited.

On the other hand, using an Infiltrator or Sorcerer Hero as the Dominion who helps the realm get ops on other people can be a useful boost and space-saver. The Infiltrator is likely more useful in this role, as it is possible to increase WPA via the Spires Improvement, but if the race is Halfling or Lizardfolk with a lot of Elite DP, the Sorcerer can see good use: the high native SPA means the ops needed are likely doable to get without any additional bonus.

Rerolling a Hero is also an option that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand: requirements change as the round goes on. A converter might decide to run an Alchemist, Engineer, or Infiltrator for the first half of the round, but when the convert starts, they might switch to a Blacksmith to help with faster unit training; or they might decide to reroll into a Healer just before the first hit to have some extra casualty reduction. These aren't things that should always be done: there is a cost and it can be quite steep, but it is useful to keep in mind.

Lastly, the Healer, Infiltrator, and Sorcerer Heroes have bonuses that are directly tied to a method of experience gathering. For these Heroes, the level that they were as the button was pressed applies. For example: Dominion A has a level 1 Healer at 280 experience. They invade, hitting for 330 acres after generation, levelling the Healer to level 3 with 610 experience. However, casualties are still calculated with the level 1 Healer bonus. Any hits they take, however, would be calculated with the level 3 Healer.