Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era beginner's tips and tricks

These Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era tips and tricks will get your heroic army up and running in no time. The many features in this game can feel overwhelming; gold, resources, town buildings, unit recruitment, spells, focus points… It's a lot to learn, but this guide contains the essential information you'll need to survive your first game.

Here are eight Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era beginner's tips to help you out.

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A Hero needs sidekicks

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is all about building the strongest Hero with the largest army before your opponent does, so time management is very important. More Heroes means more opportunities to explore and gather upgrades, so if you have the option, getting additional Heroes is always a wise idea. You can recruit more Heroes by building a Tavern (which may be unlocked already, depending on the type of game).

Be sure to choose one "main" Hero who moves from battle to battle (preferably the easiest ones first) while the other Heroes gather resources, scout the map, and collect fresh units to bring to your main Hero's army. This is the most efficient way to get a single overpowered Hero army in as few turns as possible.

Start your games by upgrading your town and collecting resources early

So you've spawned on your first map in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era… Now what? Instead of moving, be sure to click on your first town and get some upgrades (specifically additional units) first. While every game is different, here's a list of early-game actions that are almost always handy:

• Recruit units in your first town and add them to your main Hero's army. Do so again after the first week has passed.
• Get a second Hero to do the scouting and recruiting (as mentioned in the previous tip).
• Build a Mage Guild (more on that below). In short, it'll allow you to cast spells in battle, and even in the first few fights, instant-killing enemies is a very useful way to prevent unit losses.
• Collect wood stacks and claim a Sawmill to produce two wood per day.
• Collect ore stacks and claim an Ore Mine to produce two ore per day.
• Collect treasure chests to get experience (not gold, unless you really need it). Otherwise, you risk playing with an underleveled Hero before long.
• Build a Temple/Palace or other gold-generating town upgrade.
• Build town upgrades that allow the recruitment of new units, such as (in the case of the Temple faction) a Hippodrome and Griffin Rookery.
• Start taking down nearby enemies — the easy ones first.

Unlock and level combat spells using a Mage Guild

By clicking on the spellbook icon during combat, you can use powerful spells to buff units, heal units, debuff the enemy, or unleash powerful attacks. To unlock your first set of seven random tier 1 spells, open the town menu, click "construct new buildings," and build the first Mage Guild at the cost of 2,500 gold and five wood. The first Mage Guild built in a single town unlocks tier 1 spells, the second Mage Guild within that town unlocks tier 2 spells, and so forth. Here's where you'll find the Mage Guild in the town menu:

Not satisfied with the random spells you received? Then you can build another Mage Guild in another town to get more (this will get you a second randomized set of seven tier 1 spells). If you receive the same spell twice, it'll level up that spell. You can check your spells' level-up effects by hovering over them in the Magic Observatory and holding Shift. Other ways to level spells include unlocking certain buildings (such as the Endless Scroll of Platinum) and picking a spell-leveling passive after leveling a Hero. You can also level and unlock spells directly by paying a certain number of resources, but this is costly, so save this method for your most important spells only.

Beware that most spells have a cooldown period, so you can't reuse them immediately. More important, however, is their mana cost; as you only have a limited amount of mana to spend per battle, save it for your best spells. Ending the day will replenish a bit of mana, but the best way to replenish the mana pool is to interact with a Well or end the day in a town with a Mage Guild.

Collect focus points and spend your Focus Charges

During battle, keep an eye on the golden bar at the bottom of the screen; these are your focus points. Units gain focus points by attacking or taking damage. Whereas melee units receive two points per attack, ranged units only receive one.

After receiving six focus points, you will hit the first Focus Charge node (there are usually three in total). If you click on a unit, you will see that some of their abilities are marked with one or more Focus Charge symbols; you can spend your Focus Charges to use these abilities. Unless you have a strategic reason to hoard them, it's best to spend your Focus Charges before maxing out the focus points, as you won't be able to gather more points when the bar is full.

Create cannon fodder units

A good way to trick the enemy into wasting their attacks is to create one-stack units and place them as a buffer in front of your mightier units. Use them as a living shield for ranged units, a means to gather focus points quickly, or a way to tank counterattacks. If the enemy has already countered a one-stack unit, they usually can't do so anymore on the next unit that attacks them within the same turn. To create one-stack units, right-click on a unit and choose the "split one unit" option.

Delay your turn strategically by waiting

In Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era battles, making the first move is often not the best move. Although ranged units may be able to reach faraway targets, the first melee units in the turn order are usually limited to movement only, as the enemy is too far away to attack. If you push your units forward, and the enemy units move second, they'll get the opportunity to move and attack your units, thus placing you at a disadvantage. To delay (but not skip!) a unit's turn, you can press the hourglass icon next to their profile picture (the "wait" feature).

So… is it useful to have units with low initiative (aka "slow" units)? Absolutely not; among units that choose to wait, units with the highest initiative are placed last in the turn order. A unit with high initiative can thus benefit from moving last on the first turn, and moving first on the second turn. If you clicked the "wait" option on your first turn, but noticed that your unit is still forced to move quite early, this explains why; the enemy units also chose to wait, and they have a higher initiative.

See that road? Use it

Since time management is incredibly important Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, try to reduce movement time as much as possible. If you'd like to compare potential pathways, click on a tile so the green line appears (but don't move yet!) and hold ALT; this will show you the troop's movement cost and their remaining movement points for that turn. Here are a few ways to reduce movement cost:

• Travel by road (as opposed to off-road). Feel free to stray from the path to reach off-road enemies and items, but try to stick to it whenever possible.
• Avoid river tiles as much as possible.
• Use global map spells related to movement. For example, Second Wind restores 40 movement points to a Hero (once per day), and Shadowflight allows the Hero to move through terrain obstacles, such as mountains.
• Move your units through their native terrain. Though it's certainly not always possible, using either a Hero or units whose faction matches the map region will greatly reduce movement cost. Beware that all units in the troop must be native to the region to trigger the effect.

Improve visibility

It's easy to miss items like ore stacks and piles of wood on the Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era map, so be sure to hold ALT to highlight every item, creature, and building you can interact with. Alternatively, you can open the settings, go to "readability," and toggle "always highlight interactibles" on, so you don't have to use ALT anymore. You can adjust the highlight color (the color of the glow effect) here as well.

Another helpful visibility feature is the danger zone, which creates a red area around every enemy, not only making them more visible, but also telling you exactly how close you can get before battle commences. You'll find this feature by clicking the map icon in the top left corner.