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 eight types of basic 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 exploring and 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	+0.30 %
Architect	Construction Cost	-1.25 %
Blacksmith	Military Unit Cost	-0.20 %	Gnome Ore Costs not affected.
Engineer	Investment	+0.50 %
Farmer	Food Produced	+1.5 %
Healer	Casualty Reduction	+1.00 %	Non-unit casualty bonus
Infiltrator	Spy Power	+2.50 %
Sorcerer	Wizard Power	+2.50 %
Advanced
Scholar (heavy tech)	Maximum Population	+0.15 %	Requires 7500 RP
Scion (deconverter)	Explore Cost	-0.25 %	Requires 5 successful attacks

The bonus scales per level, and is found by multiplying the level with the scaling per level. E.g. a level 5 Blacksmith will give 0.25 % x 5 = 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 3.00 % 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.

As of round 46, it's possible to change between classes. This has a 96 hour cooldown and can be done between any class you have unlocked or would unlock. Any previous class you had will give half bonuses to what you had previously: if you had a level 4 Farmer before changing the class to something else, you would have a 3 % food produced bonus on top of your other hero bonuses.

Experience

Experience or XP for heroes is gained in four 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 XP to a hero. As of round 48, this is tied to how much strength is expended. 1 % expended Wizard Strength grants 1 XP, while 1 % expended Spy Strength grants 0.5 XP. This is modified by Spyglass or being in Shadow League: those both lower strength used for info ops, and thus also lower XP attained.

Bounties can also grant additional XP, but only for the first few you take per day. Those grant an additional 10 XP regardless of type of op.

The second method of gaining experience is to use Friendly, Black or War Ops on someone else. Again, this is tied to expended strength. A friendly cast of Illumination grants 3 XP and costs 3 % Wizard Strength, a Plague also grants 5 XP for 5 % Wizard Strength, and an Assassinate Draftees grants 2.5 XP for 5 % Spy Strength baseline. Magic that is reflected back via the Spell Reflect spell does NOT count as a success here.

The third method of gaining experience is exploring. For each acre explored _after protection_, your hero will gain 0.6 XP.

The final method of gaining experience 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: 40 % per 1 % Shrines to a maximum of 200 %, or 20 % 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. The Hero 'overview' you see from Disclosure will show integers, but the fraction is tracked, and can be seen in the Hero Bonuses list.

Lead from the Front and Lead from the Shadows multiply the bonuses after the bonus XP from Shrines or Altar is locked in. Thus, if you have Lead from the Shadows, the Altar of Heroes, and cast a Fireball, you get 20 XP: 5 + 5 from Fireball itself and the Altar increasing that by 100 %, and then a 2x bonus from Lead from the Shadows. And if you invade someone for 100 acres (after generation) with 5 % Shrines and Lead from the Front, you get 100 + 200 from the invasion and the Shrines, which is then multiplied by 2.5x to 750 XP due to Lead from the Front.

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, removes all experience gained within that class level. For example: switching your hero while you have a total of 1300 XP would put experience for the old class at 1200 and the new class at whatever floor it was at, starting at 0. If you later switch back to the first class, they would restart gaining experience at 1200.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Experience required	200	700	1200	1750	2300	2900	3500	4250	5000	6000	7500	10000

Hero Upgrades

At levels 1, 2, 4, and 6, your hero can unlock a new perk from among the choices at that level. You must choose wisely: all choices are permanent. The advanced hero classes each have one upgrade that is automatically unlocked when selecting them, meaning you cannot opt out. For Scholar, this reduces your future improvements and for Scion, your offense is reduced so that you cannot attack again. (Though hitting wonders or raids is still okay.) Scion can also select between two choices at level 0: these two are one time use only, even if you take Scion, reclass out of Scion, and then class back into Scion at a later date.

Name of Upgrade	Level	Classes	Description
Pursuit of Knowledge	N/A	Scholar	+25% research point production, -20% castle investment bonus
Disarmament	N/A	Scion	-100% offensive power, Destroying military buildings (Docks, Gryphon Nests, Guard Towers, Smithies, and Temples) awards discounted land
Martyrdom	0	Scion	Reduces the cost of spy and wizard training by 1% per 15 prestige (max 50%) for 24 hours
Revised Strategy	0	Scion	Reset all techs, then gain RP to unlock up to 5 techs lost plus 50% of the remaining techs lost
Lead from the Front	1		Experience gains from invasion and exploration are multiplied by 2.5x. Experience cannot be gained from magic and espionage
Lead from the Shadows	1		Experience gains from magic and espionage are multiplied by 2x
Enchantment	2		-1% wizard strength cost of self spells
Illusion	2		Failed spy ops no longer reveal your identity
King's Banner	2		-2% morale loss from invasion
Scribe's Journal	2		+10% research point gains from invasion
Spyglass	2		Survey Dominion and Land Spy now cost 1% spy strength
Divination	4		-10% cost of info spells
Hammer of Retribution	4		+5 prestige gains from invasion if the target realm has attacked your realm (doubled if in the last 24 hours)
Orb of Detection	4		+20% enemy spy losses on failed operations
Transmutation	4		Mana can be converted into other resources
Abjuration	6		-10% enemy lightning bolt damage
Anti-Magic Sigils	6		-2 hours enemy spell duration
Blade of Sundering	6		+20 % attack damage against wonders
Evocation	6		+10% fireball damage
Staff of the Stormcaller	6		+20 % Cyclone damage

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 Spectre with -80 % casualties if not bottomfeeding. A Healer would therefore not do much: that Hero would only reduce casualties on other OP or DP units, 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.

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 380 experience. They invade, hitting for 330 acres after generation, bringing the Healer to level 2 with 710 experience. However, casualties are still calculated with the level 1 Healer bonus. Any hits they take, however, would be calculated with the level 2 Healer.