Secondary Skills are qualities of your hero. There are 28 different secondary skills and each one has three levels : Basic, Advanced and Expert.
When your hero gets a level-up (primary skill increase) he/she also gets a choice of 2 secondary skills - you may choose to learn one. Hero can have a maximum 8 secondary skills learned.
After hero has learned a skill, learning it again will increase it's level. If hero manages to get all 8 expert skills, future level-ups will only give a primary skill increase.
RED - Combat skills, YELLOW - Adventure skills, BLUE - Magic skills
Pictures shown are those of expert level skills.
| Archery | Increases the damage done by range attackers in hero's army |
|---|
 |
Basic: ranged attack damage is increased by 10% |
|---|
| Advanced: ranged attack damage is increased by 25% |
| Expert: ranged attack damage is increased by 50% |
| Very useful to tower, stronghold and dungeon heroes. Unless you plan to take over another town type, Archery is not very useful to fortress, inferno and rampart heroes due to lack of ranged troops. |
| Offence | Increases the amount of damage the hero's troops inflict in hand-to-hand combat |
|---|
 |
Basic: Inflicted hand-to-hand damage is increased by 10% |
|---|
| Advanced: Inflicted hand-to-hand damage is increased by 20% |
| Expert: Inflicted hand-to-hand damage is increased by 30% |
| Definitely a good skill to have, Offense increases the amount of damage that your creatures do in combat. For example, with expert Offence 10 Thunderbirds will do 143 - 195 points of damage as opposed to 110 - 150 and that's a nice thought. This skill goes hand in hand with the Barbarians' great attack, amplifying it further. Offense also enables magic heroes to compensate for their obsession with brains and neglect of muscle :) |
| Armourer | Reduces the amount of damage recieved by hero's troops in combat |
|---|
 |
Basic: Damage inflicted on troops is reduced by 5% |
|---|
| Advanced: Damage inflicted on troops is reduced by 10% |
| Expert: Damage inflicted on troops is reduced by 15% |
| A nice skill you will want to have for advanced protection. This skill basically modifies the defense of all of your units. This skill is very powerful with a Beastmaster who already happens to have a great well rounded defense. Creatures with weaker defense, especially those of the Stronghold or Inferno, will want this skill to raise the poor protection of their units. This skill is a major want if you desire one of those buff super heroes. Best Heroes for Skill - Heretic, Barbarian, Beastmaster, and Alchemist. |
| Resistance | Some enemy spells cast on hero's troops will fail and have no effect |
|---|
 |
Basic: 5% chance of spell failure |
|---|
| Advanced: 10% chance of spell failure |
| Expert: 20% chance of spell failure |
| A great skill for all heroes, but most important for heroes lacking in the magic department, such as the Barbarian. This skill increases your chance of resisting spells, such as implosion, which in the hands of a powerful Warlock could destroy the strongest group of creatures in your army with one strike. Resisting curses and slow is also important. This could easily turn the outcome of the battle in your favor. Likely Students: Barbarians, Battle Mages, Beastmasters and Overlords. |
| Leadership | Hero's troops gain a morale rating bonus. |
|---|
 |
Basic: +1 morale |
|---|
| Advanced: +2 morale |
| Expert: +3 morale |
| With this skill your army rarely freezes in panic, and with an expert level often at least one of your units has the ability to attack the opposing force twice, very nice if the extra attack is given to a Pack of Arch Angels. High morale has the ability to turn the tides of the battle in your favor. Low morale also has the ability to turn the tides, just not in your favor... See primary skills page for more details. Undead don't have morale - they fear nothing, but they ain't too keen either :) If you plan to mix creatures from more than two towns in your army, you need this skill. |
| Luck | Hero's troops gain a luck rating bonus. |
|---|
 |
Basic: +1 luck |
|---|
| Advanced: +2 luck |
| Expert: +3 luck |
| Adds a chance of increased damage to all troops. Useful to all. See primary skills page for more details. |
| Tactics | Allows you to arrange your troops on the battlefield before combat begins |
|---|
 |
Your tactics - enemy tactics = 1 placement allowed within the first 3 hex coloumns |
|---|
| Your tactics - enemy tactics = 2 placement allowed within the first 5 hex coloumns |
| Your tactics - enemy tactics = 3 placement allowed within the first 7 hex coloumns |
| Especially nice for ranged troops, which you can move close enough to get a better ranged attack yet still keep at a decent distance from the enemy's troops. You can cover your shooters with defenders - against fast flying creatures, or you can move your slow troops towards the enemy - essential for slow but deadly fortress creatures. If tactics of you and your enemy are equal, usual placement formation is applied. |
| Artillery | Gives hero manual control over ballista, makes ballista shoot 2 times
per turn and increases ballista's chance of dealing double damage. |
|---|
 |
Basic: ballista's shots have 50% chance of dealing double damage |
|---|
| Advanced: ballista's shots have 75% chance of dealing double damage |
| Expert: ballista's shots deal double damage |
| Definitely the skill for the mighty. The Ballista (which this skill is for) relies heavily on your heroes attack statistic. Magic heroes cannot use this skill very effectively at all, because their attack is usually low. Great heroes for this skill include very strong Might classes such as the Knight and Barbarian. The Ballista can serve as another ranged attacker in some aspects, but without high attack skill this skill can be useless. Remember that ballista only has 250 hit points. In endgame that means one hit, and it's gone. Keep in mind whether you have somewhere to buy a Ballista, or else you will feel stupid for choosing this skill :) |
| Ballistics | Gives hero manual control over catapult, increases catapult's number of shots, accuracy and damage. |
|---|
 |
Basic: catapult does 1 shot with 60% chance to hit the intended wall. 50% chance for maximum damage. Until all seige walls are destroyed, chance to hit arrow towers or drawbridge is less than 60%. |
|---|
| Advanced: same as basic but catapult does 2 shots per turn |
Expert: two shots of maximum damage, each with 75% chance to hit the intended wall.
Until all seige walls are destroyed, chance to hit arrow towers or drawbridge is less than 75%. |
| Especially useful to fortress and stronghold heroes due to lack of flying creatures. |
| First Aid | Gives hero manual control over first aid tent and increases it's effectiveness. |
|---|
 |
Basic: regenerates up to 50 health on top creature in a troop |
|---|
| Advanced: regenerates up to 75 health on top creature in a troop |
| Expert: regenerates up to 100 health on top creature in a troop |
| Useful to heroes from first-aid-tent-producing towns: rampart, necropolis and fortress. Keep in mind that once the weak tent is torn, which is one hit or one spell in mid to end game, this skill is useless. |
| Necromancy | When hero wins a battle, a portion of the enemy killed turns into skeletons and joins hero's army. |
|---|
 |
Basic: 10% enemy creatures killed are resurrected |
|---|
| Advanced: 20% enemy creatures killed are resurrected |
| Expert: 30% enemy creatures killed are resurrected |
| Necromancy skill is usually only available to necropolis heroes, but others have little use for it anyway because having skeletons ruins the morale of living creatures. If all 7 slots of hero's army are occupied and there are no skeletons almong them, but skeleton warriors are present, necromancy will resurrect skeleton warriors, but 2/3rds of usual quantity of skeletons. This skill is great when you can find lots of weak monsters. |
| Diplomacy | Increaces the chance of wandering creatures joining hero's army, lowers the cost of surrendering. |
|---|
 |
Basic: 25% of creatures normally fleeing will offer to join. -20% to surrendering cost. |
|---|
| Advanced: 50% of creatures normally fleeing will offer to join. -40% to surrendering cost. |
| Expert: all creatures normally fleeing will offer to join. -60% to surrendering cost. |
| Learn diplomacy when you get a chance. Getting wandering troops to join you might be the key to victory. Make sure that your army is big enough to scare the creatures you are attacking and make sure there's an empty slot in your army so they can join. |
| Estates | Hero starts to produce gold |
|---|
 |
Basic: 125 gold/day |
|---|
| Advanced: 250 gold/day |
| Expert: 500 gold/day |
| Need for estates really depends on situation. But in most games extra gold is very handy. |
| Learning | Increases the amount of experience gained by hero |
|---|
 |
Basic: earned experience is increased by 5% |
|---|
| Advanced: earned experience is increased by 10% |
| Expert: earned experience is increased by 15% |
| Using information found on the level advancement page, you can calculate that if non-learned hero gains 55000 experice, hero's level will be 18. Say you've learned basic Learning at level 3, advanced at level 5 and expert at level 8, this would have turned 55000 experience into 62475 experience, making that hero level ... 18. Basically, you've wasted 3 level ups, and barely got 1 extra level up by the time you're level 20. So, unless you plan to develop this hero towards level 30, avoid this skill. I must admit I was decieved by it until I did the calculations and won't choose it again unless I'm playing a large map and building a superhero. But even in that case I'll think hard - an extra useful skill could do more good than a few primary skill points. So, avoid Learning completey, be stupid, and you'll be smart :) |
| Logistics | Hero's land movement range is increased |
|---|
 |
Basic: range is increased by 10% |
|---|
| Advanced: range is increased by 20% |
| Expert: range is increased by 30% |
| Get it! It's extremely beneficial when you are desperately trying to get to your castle before the enemy and... if I only could have made it those two extra steps! The opposing force is at your door and it is currently day SEVEN and he has the last move before the new week... It is a sad occasion when you have to defeat your own men to regain your castle, and just think they could have been a part of your army... if you could have made those two extra steps. |
| Pathfinding | Reduces the movement penalty when moving over rough terrains |
|---|
 |
Basic: no penalty for rough, 25% penaly for sand and snow, 50% for swamp |
|---|
| Advanced: no penalty for rough, sand, snow, 25% penaly for swamp |
| Expert: no movement penalties on rough terrains |
| No Pathfinding: 25% for rough, 50% for sand and snow, 75% for swamp. This skill is useless on maps that consist of grass terain or if all rough terrain on the map is native to your town type. |
| Scouting | Increases hero's view radius on adventure map |
|---|
 |
Basic: view radius is increased by 1 square |
|---|
| Advanced: view radius is increased by 2 square |
| Expert: view radius is increased by 3 square |
| Quite a useless skill for good heroes... but good for scouts. |
| Navigation | Increases hero's movement range over water in boats |
|---|
 |
Basic: water movement range is increased by 50% |
|---|
| Advanced: water movement range is increased by 100% |
| Expert: water movement range is increased by 150% |
| Totally useless on waterless maps, crucial on island maps. |
| Eagle Eye | Hero may learn spells cast by enemies on him in combat |
|---|
 |
Basic: hero has a 40% chance to learn spells of level 2 and below |
|---|
| Advanced: hero has a 50% chance to learn spells of level 3 and below |
| Expert: hero has a 60% chance to learn spells of level 4 and below |
| One of the less useful skills. Useful only for spellcasters who cannot build a level 4 mage guild or who happened to get bad spells. |
| Intelligence | Adds bonus to hero's maximum spell points |
|---|
 |
Basic: maximum spell points increased by 25% |
|---|
| Advanced: maximum spell points increased by 50% |
| Expert: maximum spell points are doubled |
| A magic user who possesses this skill has options available that were never a consideration. For example, an enemy is spotted heading for your castle, you do not have enough movement points to get to him. However, along with your expert air magic, allowing you to cast Dimension Door four times a day; you can not only catch up to the enemy you can engage them in battle. Now are you not glad that you have expert in this skill, because you are going to need spell points to defeat this mighty force. For magic users who happen to be low on knowledge, this skill can help immensely. |
| Mysticism | Increases the number of spell points hero regenerates each day |
|---|
 |
Basic: +2 spell ponts per day to hero's spell regeneration |
|---|
| Advanced: +3 spell ponts per day to hero's spell regeneration |
| Expert: +4 spell ponts per day to hero's spell regeneration |
| A useful skill for magic users to make sure spell point are available most of the time, because without them any amount of spell power is useless. However, Intelligence is better. It's easier to stop in town or visit the well to regenerate. |
| Scholar | Allows hero to automatically exchange spells with other heroes during trading sessions. Hero learns spells that he/she doesn't know and teaches spells other hero doesn't know. |
|---|
 |
Basic: teach and learn spells level 2 and below |
|---|
| Advanced: teach and learn spells level 3 and below |
| Expert: teach and learn spells level 4 and below |
| Useful on large/Xlarge maps where you have many heroes and castles. Totally useless in games where you only have 1 main hero that has plenty of mobility. |
| Sorcery | Increases the damaging effect of spells cast by hero. Effect depends on the spell cast. |
|---|
 |
Basic: effectiveness of cast spells is increased by 5% |
|---|
| Advanced: effectiveness of cast spells is increased by 10% |
| Expert: effectiveness of cast spells is increased by 15% |
| Useful for powerful spellcasters. Quite useless to might heroes whose lightning does 100 damage - with expert Sorcery it will do 115, yay. |
| Wisdom | Allows hero to learn spells above the second level |
|---|
 |
Basic: hero can learn spells level 3 and below |
|---|
| Advanced: hero can learn spells level 4 and below |
| Expert: hero can learn all spells |
| Wisdom is a must for any hero who plans to use even half-decent spells. Once upon a time, one hero learned Wisdom, built a decent mage guild with neat spells and visited it, put on his magic armor and rushed into battle with the strongest foe. The evil foe had a stronger army and became a bit uneasy when he saw the good hero's confient righteous grin. The good hero decided which spell to use, reached into his pack and ... discovered that he forgot to buy the spellbook. The villain let him surrender because he hasn't had such a good laugh in a long time. Do not forget to buy the spellbook or you might end up looking really bad! :) |
| Air Magic | Increases the effectiveness of Air Magic spells cast by hero |
|---|
 |
Basic: Air Magic spells are cast at the basic level |
|---|
| Advanced: Air Magic spells are cast at the advanced level |
| Expert: Air Magic spells are cast at the expert level |
| Good hero must know at least 1 magic school secondary skill. At expert level it allows you to cast spells such as Dimension Door Multiple Times in one day! |
| Earth Magic | Increases the effectiveness of Earth Magic spells cast by hero |
|---|
 |
Basic: Earth Magic spells are cast at the basic level |
|---|
| Advanced: Earth Magic spells are cast at the advanced level |
| Expert: Earth Magic spells are cast at the expert level |
| Good hero must know at least 1 magic school secondary skill. At expert level it allows you to cast spells such as Town Portal allowing you to choose the town to teleport your hero to! |
| Fire Magic | Increases the effectiveness of Fire Magic spells cast by hero |
|---|
 |
Basic: Fire Magic spells are cast at the basic level |
|---|
| Advanced: Fire Magic spells are cast at the advanced level |
| Expert: Fire Magic spells are cast at the expert level |
| Good hero must know at least 1 magic school secondary skill. At expert level it allows you to cast spells such as Slayer which helps you to destroy those creatures such as Angels, Behemoths, Devils, Dragons and Titans! |
| Water Magic | Increases the effectiveness of Water Magic spells cast by hero |
|---|
 |
Basic: Water Magic spells are cast at the basic level |
|---|
| Advanced: Water Magic spells are cast at the advanced level |
| Expert: Water Magic spells are cast at the expert level |
| Good hero must know at least 1 magic school secondary skill. This skill is especially nice to have at expert level if you have prayer, which can then be cast on all of your troops instead of just one. At expert level Prayer will increase the attack, defense and speed of all your troops by +4. Very nice. |
Avoid: Learning, Eagle Eye, Scholar.
Doubt: Artillery, First Aid, Scouting, Navigation, Mysticism.
Prefer: Offence, Armourer, Logistics, Intelligence, Wisdom, one or two Magics.
Thanks to The Nether Gods team for images used on this page!
