How to get a Wild Walkers Hero?

[califax2k]

Hi,

I am completely new to 4X in general and just started playing EL since I like "learning" complex games.

After having finished the tutorial (which is already a while ago), I chose the Wild Walkers as my first faction, difficulty Easy, made modifications to the world, just one AI faction (maximally far away), ....
I just entered the 3rd era in science, unlocked the market (and put central markets in two cities (mainly because they raise satisfaction :-) ). Now, I would like to take advantage of a hero. My problem is, that I do not recall the prerequisites from the tutorial, that I need to get one. I just remember, it "suddenly" was there in the academy.

So, my question is: What do I need to do to get a hero? Is it still too early in the game or what am I missing??

Thanks for the patience with a 4X beginner.

Lars

[Groo the one]

For to unlock heroes (and mercenaries) you need the lvl 1 tech Mercenary Market, first.
https://endlesslegend.fandom.com/wiki/Mercenary_Market

[Manxome]

You should have started the game with one hero of your faction (initially leading the army containing your starting settler and a couple of your faction's basic military units). If you're not sure where they are now, one of those icons along the top of the screen (alongside empire info, research, etc.) opens up a list of all your heroes.

To get additional heroes, as Groo says above, you need to research the era 1 technology Mercenary Market. After that, you can go to the market screen (another one of those icons at the top) where you'll find a random selection of heroes (which might or might not include Wild Walkers heroes--you can buy heroes of any faction).

(Note that the "central market" city improvement that you mentioned in your post has NO relation to "the market" where you can buy and sell various goodies with dust.)

At a given time, 3 heroes are "exclusive" to you for 15 turns--these are replaced by new random heroes the turn after you buy them or after their timer runs out. If you desperately need a particular kind of hero, you can keep buying these to force new options to be generated every turn.

If an exclusive hero reaches the end of its timer without being bought (or if someone sells a hero), it gets added to a general pool that can be bought by anyone--but there's a size limit on the general pool, so once it fills up, heroes will start being removed to make room for new ones. Since the computer buys heroes approximately never, you can count on new heroes showing up in the pool after every 15th turn (i.e. on turns 16, 31, 46, 61, etc.) when the computers' exclusives expire.

(In a few cases, you can also receive heroes from quests. But the market is the only proactive way to get more.)

[Gilmoy]

After you research Era I Mercenary Marketplace, you have access to units and heroes.
In general, you get a random selection of different factions' units and heroes.
There's no way to force the marketplace to give you 1 faction.

You can wait for them to expire and recycle, or hire some.
Inevitably, you'll cycle through heroes of every faction, including Wild Walkers.
This generalizes to all future games, too.

After you learn the economy through Era III-IV, it's typical to hire 8-12 heroes of many different factions. Examine their skills carefully.

+ Some are good as infantry generals (left-side tree)
+ Some are ranged generals (left-side tree)
+ Some are good governors (right-side tree)
+ Some fly

[califax2k]

Originally posted by Groo the one:

For to unlock heroes (and mercenaries) you need the lvl 1 tech Mercenary Market, first.
https://endlesslegend.fandom.com/wiki/Mercenary_Market

Thanks, that was the missing link, although I must say that the description of this research kind of led me in the wrong direction since it states that it "opens the units and heroes tab in the market" which (is true but) reads like its just an additional feature of it :-)

[califax2k]

Originally posted by Manxome:

You should have started the game with one hero of your faction (initially leading the army containing your starting settler and a couple of your faction's basic military units). If you're not sure where they are now, one of those icons along the top of the screen (alongside empire info, research, etc.) opens up a list of all your heroes.

I must confess I didn't pay attention to that in the beginning as I was concerned with FIDSI and when to settle and such. Also, I started just two campaigns, so the time I'll check the initial hero out, too.

Originally posted by Manxome:

(Note that the "central market" city improvement that you mentioned in your post has NO relation to "the market" where you can buy and sell various goodies with dust.)

check

Originally posted by Manxome:

At a given time, 3 heroes are "exclusive" to you for 15 turns--these are replaced by new random heroes the turn after you buy them or after their timer runs out. If you desperately need a particular kind of hero, you can keep buying these to force new options to be generated every turn.

"keep buying" implies "keep having Dust" :-) That's one of my problems: As soon as everything is fine (no roaming armies, extractors produce resources, "people" are happy, ....) and I think "Now I could go on." I realize: Damn, no money

Originally posted by Manxome:

(In a few cases, you can also receive heroes from quests. But the market is the only proactive way to get more.)

check

Thanks

[califax2k]

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

There's no way to force the marketplace to give you 1 faction.

You can wait for them to expire and recycle, or hire some.
Inevitably, you'll cycle through heroes of every faction, including Wild Walkers.
This generalizes to all future games, too.

Yeah, maybe I've written it a bit confusing. Initially, my thinking was that Wild Walkers might need to do something different compared to other factions to get a hero - which is not the case.

So, with the Marketplace and the Era I research, I think I have everything to get to the next step (things like how to complete quests quickly, order of research, balancing of FIDSI production....)

Thanks a lot