------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Heroes Chronicles: The Conquest of the Underworld ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents 1. Version History 2. Intro and FAQ 3. Tips 4. Towns 5. Creatures 6. Skills 7. Heroes 8. Magic 9. Artifacts 10. Spells 11. Cheats 12. Walkthrough 13. Legal Stuff and Contact ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Version History ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Version .25- Intro, FAQ, Town, and Creatures done. Version .5 - Happy New Year! Heroes, Magic, Artifacts done. (01/01/06) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Introductions and FAQs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have been hooked on Heroes of Might and Magic (which Heroes Chronicles is based on) ever since playing a HOMM 2 demo when the game was first released. This particular series of games follows the exploits of Tarnum, a former Barbarian, as he is chosen by the "Ancestors" to be an Immortal Hero and to make amends for the evils he committed in the past. Although previous HOMM games have had storylines (usually in Campaign mode) this series has a much deeper and well developed plot as well as some familiarity with the character of Tarnum. In each game we find out more and more things about his past. In this game the Ancestors send him to Erathia to recover King Gryphonheart's soul from the clutches of the Inferno. Questions in General Q: Is there multiplayer in this game? A: Sadly no. However if you have more than one town you can assign each person a hero and a town, but this is designed to be a 1 player game, and is very linear. Q: Are the other Heroes Chronicles worth getting? A: Well if you enjoy the storyline then yes. Especially if you do not own Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Armageddon's Blade, or Shadow of Death. If I recall there is an artifact featured in one of the Chronicles that is not available in any of the other games. Q: Heroes 4 has been out for some time and Heroes 5 is on the horizon. Why write a FAQ on a HOMM3 inspired game? A: Because in my humble opinion HOMM3 was a much better game than 4 for many reasons. However, I am pleased to see that HOMM5 is looking like it will incorperate ideas from both HOMM3 and HOMM4. Q: I'm a Heroes fan and I can't find this game anywhere! Help! A: I got this game from a KB Toys store in an outlet mall for a very cheap price, if you don't have luck finding it there then try online. Q: How many towns are in this game? A: Four. The Castle, The Inferno, The Dungeon, and The Necropolis. Q: Is the "Grail" Structure available in this game? A: Yes and No. In the main game I don't believe you get one (correct me if I am wrong) but you can use a cheat to get it in all your towns. The Grail Structure in your town is different depending on what town type you have. The cheat even works for the "previews" of the other Chronicles games. However the game will know you cheated and you will recieve the rank of "Cheater!!" when you beat the game. (see cheats section) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Tips ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. At a minimum have two heroes besides Tarnum. It is tempting to just use Tarnum with a powerful army, but a single hero can only travel so far and his town is open to attack, especially if you are on your way to attack another town. Those heroes if for nothing else are useful is visiting the creature dwellings and returning to your town to upgrade them. Besides two of those heroes will carry over to the next campaign. You can get by with 3 total heroes. Too many more than that will just weaken your army overall. 2. Although Tarnum has the skills of a knight, do not shy away from letting him use magic. Especially Wisdom and Earth Magic. Wisdom because he will be able to learn all spells and Earth Magic because he will be able to use the excellent expert Town Gate spell. He gets high stats in all catagories, and will almost become invincible once he obtains the Angelic Alliance! (see artifact info) 3. Logistics, Tactics and Diplomacy are an excellent skills to have with a "might" type of hero. Avoid Navigation, First Aid, and Scouting. Luck is also weak compared to the other skills as well IMO. 4 For a "magic" type hero, do not bother with Eagle Eye, Intelligence, Mysticism, or Scholar. All are useful in some situations but there is alot of opportunities to get more spell points, and spells without wasting the space for these lackluster skills. 5. Try to limit your casualties whenever possible. If that means being cheap so be it. For example if you are going up against something slow like a zombie why risk the possibily of losing pikeman when you can just have all the creatures "defend" while the monks or the archers shoot at them. Chain Lightning is also excellent for this purpose. (see spells section) 6. If you want to get Tarnum reinforcements, try to avoid sending him back by himself. Instead recruit everything in your town and give it to a fairly good hero and have them meet each other half way. Ideally this is in a location fairly close to your castle and where their isn't much chance of your other hero being attacked. Give Tarnum all of the units (even if that means your other hero is stuck with 1 pikeman) If the other hero is attacked by an enemy just retreat or surrender. You can then recruit him again at the same level. Keep in mind that Tarnum can never retreat, surrender or be killed or it's a game over. And do not give Tarnum reinforcements if enemies are near your castle or it's not near the start of the next week. The reason is if you are stuck with 1 pikeman, even if you are in your castle you don't stand much chance against an enemy. A way to remedy this is to have one hero just be responsible for collecting creatures and reinforcing Tarnum, have another hero have a fairly good army and constantly be near the castle. The problem is that these heroes will lose out in exp and stats. A healthy balance is good. You want to protect your castle but not be stuck there. 7. Finally when attacking an enemy castle try to avoid going on the "moat" if at all possible or unless you are sure you are going to enter the opponents castle next turn. Expert Teleport for magic users or Expert Ballistics for might heroes as well as strong flying units is the key to victory. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Towns ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Castle: The Castle is the best town in the game. That's just my opinion but almost all the units are better than any other town. Some of the extra buildings in the town are kinda lame, even I will admit. For starters the Mage Guild only goes up to level 4 (for some odd reason in other games I remembered it going up to level 5) this isn't a huge deal but it does prevent you from learning a couple of the best spells in the game. Some "unique" structures it features are the Brotherhood of the Sword which give heroes a +2 morale during sieges. Okay, but not great. The Blacksmith builds a Ballista which is invaluable for Tarnum who does great damage with it in later levels. The Resource Silo give wood and ore which is key to alot of Castle structures. In one mission you might be able to build a Lighthouse and a shipyard as I recall one castle being on a lake. The Lighthouse increases movement for your ships so it is useful. So okay the town itself doesn't possess amazing extra stuff but it is still the best. Inferno: Probably the weakest town in the game. Again my opinion, but almost all of the units stink compared to the castle. That being said, the Inferno does have the best special buildings. It has level 5 Mage Guilds, a Mecury producing Resource Silo, The Order of Fire which ups visiting heroes Spell power, and Brimstone Stormclouds which further increases power during a siege. However the Inferno has the Castle Gate, which I *grudgingly* admit is the best non creature structure in the entire game. With it you can instantely go back and forth through Inferno towns even if they are on the other side of the map or underground. Normally it isn't that useful as there aren't normally over two Inferno's but in this game there are tons of them and the ability to go to four different Infernos anytime you are in one, without any movement cost is truly a potentially devastating skill. That is until you capture one and use it against them. This town will be your archrival and the final battle will be held in this fiery pit. Necropolis: Better than the Inferno, but not very threatening in this game. In fact this town is more of an annoyance than anything else. It has 2 deadly creatures, and skeletons. However one of the crown strategies of this town is to kill peasants and raise them as skeletons or recruit them and turn them into skeletons. Oddly enough some units are better dead than alive. Fortunately for you they cannot employ that strategy in this game because there are no peasants that I have encountered. Their resource silo is the same as the castle's and their skeleton transformer can transform any unit into skeletons Their blacksmith produces flimsy First Aid tents and the Necromancy Amplifier increases the power of Necromancy as it's name suggests. The annoying thing that the Necropolis will do however is employ one of it's structures called the Cover of Darkness. I cannot begin to tell you how annoying this is and that the AI always uses it because it only costs 1000 gold to make! It shrouds your FOV and so you will be running around blind. (this is one time I will admit that Scouting is useful.) Dungeon: The Dungeon is an interesting town. It, like the Inferno has good special buildings, however it also has fairly good creatures. If left alone for a long time the Dungeon can be somewhat difficult to defeat unless the town is restricted as to what creature dwellings it can build. The Silo of this town gives 1 sulfer, and the Battle academy give 1000 exp which is handy for heroes starting out. The Blacksmith like the Castle produces Balista, and the portal of summoning can draw in creatures from external dwellings. The thing to watch out for is the mana vortex which doubles spell points! Not bad, a worthy foe. But often crippled by creature restrictions like the Necropolis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Creatures ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Castle Level 1 Pikeman Health: 10 Attack: 4 Shots: none Movement: land 60 gold Size: 1 Defence: 5 Dmg: 1-3 Spd: 4 The best level 1 unit in this game, but yeah it's not really fast. Halberdier Health: 10 Attack: 6 Shots: none Movement: land 75 gold Size: 1 Defence: 5 Dmg: 2-3 Spd: 5 The speed helps as does the attack and damage range. Much better than trogs skeletons, or imps or any of those upgraded. Level 2 Archer Health: 10 Attack: 6 Shots: 12 Movement: land 100 gold Size: 1 Defence: 3 Dmg: 2-3 Spd: 4 Not great. Upgrade them. Marksman Health: 10 Attack: 6 Shots: 24 Movement: land 150 gold Size: 1 Defence: 3 Dmg: 2-3 Spd: 6 2x the shots and 2x attacks. Good speed as well. Needs to be protected Level 3 Griffin Health: 25 Attack: 8 Shots: none Movement: airborne 200 gold Size: 2 Defence: 8 Dmg: 3-6 Spd: 6 Good at harassing archers. Royal Griffin Health: 25 Attack: 9 Shots: none Movement: airborne 240 gold Size: 2 Defence: 9 Dmg: 3-6 Spd: 9 Counters everything, also the target of enemies attacks, good unit. Level 4 Swordsman Health: 35 Attack: 10 Shots: none Movement: land 300 gold Size: 1 Defence: 12 Dmg: 6-9 Spd: 5 Speed is an issue with them Crusader Health: 35 Attack: 12 Shots: none Movement: land 400 gold Size: 1 Defence: 12 Dmg: 7-10 Spd: 6 Much better damage, and it can attack twice. Level 5 Monk Health: 30 Attack: 12 Shots: 12 Movement: land 400 gold Size: 1 Defence: 7 Dmg: 10-12 Spd: 5 Well rounded shooter. Zealot Health: 30 Attack: 12 Shots: 24 Movement: land 450 gold Size: 1 Defence: 10 Dmg: 10-12 Spd: 7 Respectable upgrade. Doubles shots and has the ability to do the same damage when attacked with melee. Level 6 Cavalier Health: 100 Attack: 15 Shots: none Movement: land 1000 gold Size: 2 Defence: 15 Dmg: 15-25 Spd: 7 A good mounted unit that does more damage the longer it travels. Champion Health: 100 Attack: 16 Shots: none Movement: land 1200 gold Size: 2 Defence: 16 Dmg: 20-25 Spd: 9 Called "neigh-neighs" by my friends, these are excellent units. Has the "charge" skill like the Cavaliers. Level 7 Angel Health: 200 Attack: 20 Shots: none Movement: airborne 3000g+1 gem Size: 1 Defence: 20 Dmg: 50 Spd: 12 It does 50% more damage to it's archrival the devils. But in a battle between an angel and a devil the devil will win. Archangel Health: 250 Attack: 30 Shots: none Movement: airborne 5000g+3gems Size: 2 Defence: 30 Dmg: 50 Spd: 18 The best unit in the game. It can ressurect fallen creatures and will beat any creature in this game including the archdevil (provided there are the same number of them) Inferno: Level 1 Imp Health: 4 Attack: 2 Shots: none Movement: land(flutters) 50 gold Size: 1 Defence: 3 Dmg: 1-2 Spd: 5 A completely useless pile of crap. Familiar Health: 4 Attack: 4 Shots: none Movement: land(flutters) 60 gold Size: 1 Defence: 4 Dmg: 1-2 Spd: 7 Not quite as bad, because it can drain spell points and is pretty fast. Still sucks. Level 2 Gog Health: 13 Attack: 6 Shots: 12 Movement: land 125 gold Size: 1 Defence: 4 Dmg: 2-4 Spd: 4 It's slow but then again so is the archer. I give it an average score. Magog Health: 13 Attack: 7 Shots: 24 Movement: land 175 gold Size: 1 Defence: 4 Dmg: 2-4 Spd: 6 has fireball attack that effects both ally and enemy. Can sometimes do more harm than good. Level 3 Hell Hound Health: 25 Attack: 10 Shots: none Movement: land 200 gold Size: 2 Defence: 6 Dmg: 2-7 Spd: 7 An excellent unit. You need to watch out for these. Especially if they have bless cast on them. Fast as well. Cerberus Health: 25 Attack: 10 Shots: none Movement: land 250 gold Size: 2 Defence: 8 Dmg: 2-5 Spd: 8 Notice the damage went down. However the thing also sprouted two more heads and can attack three things at once not to mention just got faster. Level 4 Demon Health: 35 Attack: 10 Shots: none Movement: land 250 gold Size: 1 Defence: 10 Dmg: 7-9 Spd: 5 Not great but then again is very cheap. Horned Demon Health: 40 Attack: 10 Shots: none Movement: land 270 gold Size: 1 Defence: 10 Dmg: 7-9 Spd: 6 Not a big upgrade and now crusaders are much better than them. However they are still inexpensive. Level 5 Pit Fiend Health: 45 Attack: 13 Shots: none Movement: land 500 gold Size: 1 Defence: 13 Dmg: 13-17 Spd: 6 very similiar to demons but do alot more damage. Still not very good. Pit Lord Health: 45 Attack: 13 Shots: none Movement: land 700 gold Size: 1 Defence: 13 Dmg: 13-17 Spd: 7 200 gold for 1 speed and the ability to raise demons from dead allies. Not a good deal in my opinion. Save the money and stick with Pit fiends. Level 6 Efreeti Health: 90 Attack: 16 Shots: none Movement: airborne 900 gold Size: 1 Defence: 12 Dmg: 16-24 Spd: 9 meh again not great. the speed and flying ability is alright. Efreet Sultan Health: 90 Attack: 16 Shots: none Movement: airborne 1100 gold Size: 1 Defence: 14 Dmg: 16-24 Spd: 13 alright these things are pretty good. Defense and speed are up and come with a fire sheild spell. Still take the Champion over it though. Level 7 Devil Health: 160 Attack: 19 Shots: none Movement: teleport 2700g+1mercury Size: 1 Defence: 21 Dmg: 30-40 Spd: 11 these are very good. They have no retaliation, lower luck and teleport. Arch Devil Health: 200 Attack: 26 Shots: none Movement: teleport 4500g+2mercury Size: 1 Defence: 28 Dmg: 30-40 Spd: 17 again great unit can teleport anywhere on the map and no retaliation. Necropolis A note about the creatures here. They are undead, meaning they have no morale and lower other creatures morale that are not in the Necropolis (which makes sense why would a human work with a zombie?) They also cannot be blessed or cursed hypontized, made to go berserk, or blinded. Level 1 Skeleton Health: 6 Attack: 5 Shots: none Movement: land 60 gold Size: 1 Defense: 4 Dmg: 1-3 Spd: 4 If the enemy heroes is any good you will see alot of these. Skeleton Warrior Health: 6 Attack: 6 Shots: none Movement: land 70 gold Size: 1 Defense: 6 Dmg: 1-3 Spd: 5 Again a unit that isn't amazing by itself but has numbers on it's side. Level 2 Walking Dead Health: 15 Attack: 5 Shots: none Movement: land 100 gold Size: 1 Defense: 5 Dmg: 2-3 Spd: 3 This is a bad unit. Zombie Health: 20 Attack: 5 Shots: none Movement: land 125 gold Size: 1 Defense: 5 Dmg: 2-3 Spd: 4 Still a pretty bad unit. The health went up but it has bad attack and appaling speed. Level 3 Wight Health: 18 Attack: 7 Shots: none Movement: airborne 200 gold Size: 1 Defense: 7 Dmg: 3-5 Spd: 5 The first of the three airborne units but the least threatening, heals the wight at the top of the stack. A ok unit but they seem to die quickly. Wraith Health: 18 Attack: 7 Shots: none Movement: airborne 230 gold Size: 1 Defense: 7 Dmg: 3-5 Spd: 7 The speed really helps this unit drastically and makes it a threat against archers and monks. It also drains spell points. Level 4 Vampire Health: 30 Attack: 10 Shots: none Movement: airborne 360 gold Size: 1 Defense: 9 Dmg: 5-8 Spd: 6 A good well rounded unit with no retaliation but they are no match for Vampire Lord Health: 40 Attack: 10 Shots: none Movement: airborne 500 gold Size: 1 Defense: 10 Dmg: 5-8 Spd: 9 An extremely deadly unit. If you are facing them you must attack them as hard as you can or they will spell disaster. They are fast strong and drain life back into themselves and can actually regain lost stacks of units. So for example a group of archers shoots and kills 10 of these, when the vampires attack them not only will they kill alot of archers but they will regain those 10 vampires that were originally killed. Level 5 Lich Health: 30 Attack: 13 Shots: 12 Movement: land 550 gold Size: 1 Defense: 10 Dmg: 11-13 Spd: 6 A good shooter that fires a "death cloud" which will also units that are adjacent to the one attacked but will not hurt theirs! Power Lich Health: 40 Attack: 13 Shots: 24 Movement: land 600 gold Size: 1 Defense: 10 Dmg: 11-15 Spd: 7 Same thing except better. The 10 extra hit points + Spd are worth the cost Level 6 Black Knight Health: 120 Attack: 16 Shots: none Movement: land 1200 gold Size: 2 Defense: 16 Dmg: 15-30 Spd: 7 These are archrivals of the Cavalier/Champion family, and are very strong. 20% chance to curse. Dread Knight Health: 120 Attack: 18 Shots: none Movement: land 1500 gold Size: 2 Defense: 18 Dmg: 15-30 Spd: 9 I'm fond of Champions but I have to admit these things are better. They have a 20% chance to curse and a 20% chance to do double damage! If any of those things happen it's really bad. Fortunately the enemy doesn't use these often. Level 7 Bone Dragon Health: 150 Attack: 17 Shots: none Movement: airborne 1800 gold Size: 2 Defense: 15 Dmg: 25-50 Spd: 9 The very presence of this creature drops morale. A vicious attacker however the enemy never actually used one of these against me. I did fight them as one of the wandering creatures on the map though. Ghost Dragon Health: 200 Attack: 19 Shots: none Movement: airborne 3000g + 1mercury Size: 2 Defense: 17 Dmg: 25-50 Spd: 14 If you notice both of these creatures don't have the attack and defense of the other level 7 creatures. However the ghost dragon has a 20% chance to age the enemy creature. If this happens 1/2 of their hit points are gone. Meaning 100 archdevils vs. 1 pissed off ghost dragon = 100 archdevils lost about a total of 10,000 health! Dungeon Level 1 Troglodyte Health: 5 Attack: 4 Shots: none Movement: land 50 gold Size: 1 Defence: 3 Dmg: 1-3 Spd: 4 Average cheap and sorta slow, having no eyes to begin with they are immune to blind Infernal Troglodyte Health: 6 Attack: 5 Shots: none Movement: land 65 gold Size: 1 Defence: 4 Dmg: 1-3 Spd: 5 a cheap and good upgrade. Level 2 Harpy Health: 14 Attack: 6 Shots: none Movement: airborne 130 gold Size: 1 Defence: 5 Dmg: 1-4 Spd: 6 They can fly and return to the spot they started the attack from, they will lose alot when they are countered Harpy Hag Health: 14 Attack: 6 Shots: none Movement: airborne 170 gold Size: 1 Defence: 6 Dmg: 1-4 Spd: 9 They solved the "counter" problem by adding no retaliation, and also thus created the most annoying unit in the game. It can attack from over castle walls kill 2-3 Crusaders and return behind the walls. Level 3 Beholder Health: 22 Attack: 9 Shots: 12 Movement: land 250 gold Size: 1 Defence: 7 Dmg: 3-5 Spd: 5 no melee penalty like the zealots, and a fairly good unit overall. Evil Eye Health: 22 Attack: 10 Shots: 24 Movement: land 280 gold Size: 1 Defence: 8 Dmg: 3-5 Spd: 7 good upgrade to an already good unit. Level 4 Medusa Health: 25 Attack: 9 Shots: 4 Movement: land 300 gold Size: 2 Defence: 9 Dmg: 6-8 Spd: 5 Ironically this creature is better at melee than it is at ranged. It suffers no melee penalty and can turn enemies hit by its melee into stone. Medusa Queen Health: 30 Attack: 10 Shots: 8 Movement: land 330 gold Size: 2 Defence: 10 Dmg: 6-8 Spd: 6 Doubles it's shots from 4 to 8. Level 5 Minotaur Health: 50 Attack: 14 Shots: none Movement: land 500 gold Size: 1 Defence: 12 Dmg: 12-20 Spd: 6 A good solid fighter, Minotaurs should be included in your army when you capture a dungeon. Morale is never below 1 great health and damage. Minotaur King Health: 50 Attack: 15 Shots: none Movement: land 575 gold Size: 1 Defence: 15 Dmg: 12-20 Spd: 8 Very good unit. Watch out for these creatures. Try not the get attacked by them. Level 6 Manticore Health: 80 Attack: 15 Shots: none Movement: airborne 850 gold Size: 2 Defence: 13 Dmg: 14-20 Spd: 7 Despite looking intimidating these creature are very weak. 80 hp and 13 damage is not impressive for a level 6 creature. Scorpicore Health: 80 Attack: 16 Shots: none Movement: airborne 1050 gold Size: 2 Defence: 14 Dmg: 14-20 Spd: 11 20% chance to paralyze. Still a very bad unit despite being faster, it is too expensive and has hardly has any health. Level 7 Red Dragon Health: 180 Attack: 19 Shots: none Movement: airborne 2500g+1sulfer Size: 2 Defence: 19 Dmg: 40-50 Spd: 11 Immune to magic levels 1-3, has breath atack that will attack through 2 hexes. Make sure you do not accidentaly roast one of your own units. Black Dragon Health: 300 Attack: 25 Shots: none Movement: airborne 4000g+2sulfer Size: 2 Defence: 25 Dmg: 40-50 Spd: 15 100% Immune to Magic both good and bad. In HOMM3 there was an item that destroyed that resistance but I don't think that item is in this game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6.Skills ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRIMARY SKILLS Every time you level up you will automatically recieve a primary skill point attack,defense,spell power, and knowledge. Attack effects how much damage your troops do in combat. Defense effects how much damage they resist from other troops (magic is a different story) Spell power effects how much damage a spell does Knowledge effect how many times you can cast a spell Might Heroes are prone to learning attack and defense Magic Heroes are prone to learning SP and knowledge However most might and magic heroes will probably grow a little in all areas. SECONDARY SKILLS When the hero levels up he/she will choose between two secondary skills, but can choose only one. Some will be new skills and others will be upgrade to ones he/she already has. The succession of upgrades is: Basic Advanced Expert For example let's say Tarnum has a Basic rank in Artillery and levels up there might be Advanced Artillery or Basic Wisdom or two Basics. The different skills you can learn in this game are: MIGHT SKILLS: Archery: Increase Ranged Attackers ability to do damage Offense: Increase Melee Attackers ability to do damage Resistance: Causes enemy spells to fail Leadershio: Raises Morale Luck: Raises well...uh Luck Tactics: Allows you to move your troops into a more favorable position. Artillery: Allows you to manually attack with Ballista and castle turrents and increase damage from Ballistas. Ballistics: Allows you to maunally attack with Catapult and cause it to do more damage First Aid: Improves use of First Aid tent NEUTRAL SKILLS: Necromancy: a portion of enemies killed come back into your army as skeletons Diplomacy: Reduces cost of surrender and increases chance of recruiting wild creatures into your army Estates: increases gold Learning: increases EXP Logistics: increases movement Pathfinding: Eliminates movement penalties Scouting: Increases your view radius of maps Navigation: Increases movement over water MAGIC SKILLS: Eagle Eyes: Learn spells from enemies who use spells against the hero Intelligence: adds to heroes spell points Mysticism: Regenerates set number of Spell points every day Scholar: Can teach other heroes spells. Sorcery: Causes magic to do more damage Wisdom: Allows heroes to learn level 3,4, and 5 spells. Air magic: improve air spells Earth magic: improve earth spells Fire magic: improve fire spells Water magic: improve water spells ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Heroes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pretty much the only heroes you can recruit are from the Castle town. There may be some exceptions but that is the rule of thumb. Knights: These are the might heroes. They can learn magic but perfer combat skills Tarnum: Male Knight Specialty: Ballista does more damage per level up Comments: You don't have any choice but to use this guy, forgot what skills he starts with but definately give him Artillery, Wisdom, and Earth Magic. Tactics and Ballistics, as well as Logistics are handy for this character Sir Mullich: Male Knight Skills: Advanced Leadership (I think) Specialty: +2 speed for all units Comments: a very useful hero due to his ability to strike first and let champions move farther for their charge. Edric Male Knight Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Armorer Specialty: Improve Attack and Defense of Griffins Comments: Armorer is a nice skill and Griffins are a useful unit and he looks cool but he's not that great in the long run. Lord Haart Male Knight Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Estates Specialty: Increased money for every level up based on Estates Comments: meh. very lackluster in my opinion, only good for his money :D and to get the most out of that you have to level him up. Orrin Male Knight Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Archery Specialty: Archery bonus per level up Comments: fairly good because if he levels up enough his archers can be deadly However the Castle has two archer units so factor that in. Sir Christian Male Knight Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Tactics Specialty: Increase power of Ballista after 4th level. Comments: Normally I would suggest recruiting him, but since you start off with Tarnum who has even more powerful ballistas I would just stick with him. Sorsha Female Knight Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Offense Specialty: Improve Attack and Defense of Swordsmen/Crusaders Comments: Not bad, because she has both offense and powers up the Crusaders. Sylvia Female Knight Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Navigation Specialty: Bonus to Navigation per level up Comments: Pretty much the worst hero you could pick. There are barely any oceans in this game because alot of it takes place in the underground. Thus Navigation=useless Tyris Female Knight Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Tactics Specialty: Improve Attack and Defense of Cavaliers/ Champions Comments: My pick for the Knight to accompany Tarnum, Champions are solid units that need a bit more attack and defense to give them an edge and Tactics are great Valeska Female Knight Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Archery Specialty: Improve Attack and Defense of Archers Comments: Archers in some instances are the bread and butter of your offense so she isn't a bad choice. Clerics: The magic type hero for the Castle Adela Female Cleric Skills: Basic Wisdom, Basic Diplomacy Specialty: Bless spell is used to a higher effect Comments: Diplomacy can sway wild creature to join your side, Bless is a useful spell but common, overall a pretty good hero. Adelaide Female Cleric Skills: Advanced Wisdom Specialty: Frost Ring spell is used to a higher effect Comments: Advanced Wisdom is cool, Frost Ring isn't that great, but she's probably one of the prettiest heroines in the game so keep that in mind Caitlin Female Cleric Skills: Basic Wisdom, Basic Intelligence Specialty: +350 gold per day Comments: not very good as a hero. If you expect a long campaign recruit her and take most of her units and leave her somewhere so you get the 350 gold Cuthbert Male Cleric Skills: Basic Wisdom, Basic Estates Specialty: Weakness spell is used to a higher effect Comments: Weakness can be useful but overall not a good hero Ingham Male Cleric SKills: Basic Wisdom, Basic Mysticism Specialty: Attack and Defense of Monks increase per level up. Comments: only useful if you like Monks/Zealots alot Loynis Male Cleric SKills: Basic Wisdom, Basic Learning Specialty: Prayer spell is used to a higher effect Comments: Despite looking really lame this guy is good. Prayer is a very good spell, so I consider him the best of the Clerics. Rion Male Cleric Skills: Basic Wisdom, Basic First Aid Specialty: First Aid is improved per level up. Comments: looks awesome like some badass medieval Jedi, but First aid is kinda meh...well in some instances it can be useful like if an angel gets hurt badly he can heal it to almost full health. But not the greatest cleric IMO Sanya Female Cleric Skills: Basic Wisdom, Basic Eagle Eye Specialty: Eagle Eye is improved per level up. Comments: Eagle eye I never really liked but it can be quite useful in some instances. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Magic ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Their are many spells but I'm just going to highlight the ones that are useful AIR: Level 1: Haste Why: increases speed. Expert Haste increase every units speed which is a big advantage Level 2 Disrupting Ray Why: Reduces defense and can be stacked as many times as needed Lightning Bolt Why: Fairly Powerful spell and easy to come by early in the game Precision: Why: helps ranged units do more damage. Level 3 Air Shield Why: Ranged attacks do less damage to your troops Destroy Undead Why: does damage to all undead,who are among your enemies Level 4: Chain Lightning Why: one of the best offensive spells in the game. Powerful and hits lots of units. Level 5: Dimension Door Why: allows you to teleport to a location normally no accessable. Fly Why: allows you to fly over obstacles in the map. FIRE: Level 1: Bloodlust Why: Causes units to do more hand to hand damage Curse: Why: Causes enemies to inflict minimum damage Level 2: Blind Why: Stops an enemy from moving or attacking Level 3: Fireball Why: Area Attack Level 4: Berzerk Why: Causes enemies to attack nearest creature near it regardless if rather it is an enemy Frenzy Why: Raise attack at the price of defense. Inferno Why: Big Ranged attack WATER Level 1: Bless Why: allows unit to do maximum damage Cure Why: heals unit and dispels them Dispel dispels both good and bad units Level 2: Ice Bolt Why: use it if you didn't get Lightning Weakness: Decrease enemy attack strength Level 3: Teleport Why: Expert Teleport can warp any creature anywhere even over castle walls! Level 4: Prayer Why: Gives a bonus to attack, defense, and speed. Expert Prayer is great because it effects all your units! EARTH Level 1: Sheild Why: Reduces hand to hand damage from enemies Slow Why: Slows down enemies Stone Skin Why: Increases defense Level 3: Anti-Magic Why: make unit invincible to magic Earthquake Why: If Magic hero doesn't have Ballistics he should use this Level 4: Meteor Shower Why: Powerful Ranged attack Resurrection Why: Advanced and Expert restore troops back into your army permanantly Town Portal Why: Advanced and Expert allow you to go to any allied town Level 5 Implosion Why: tons of damage to one enemy. Legal stuff: This work is Copyright 2005 by Daniel Kolb (username: The Unholy Fish) And cannot be used for any reason outside of: Gamefaqs.com neoseeker.com DLH.net without expressed written permission. Help keep these guides free! If you find errors or just want to comment, my email is (kolbster@gmail.com)