Your hero is by far your strongest military troop, and it has many properties that your other troops do not have. Your hero can gain levels by earning experience from various tasks and your hero can learn special skills that either benefit the hero itself or the entire settlement. There are four different hero classes to choose from, and each has different properties and strengths.

There are four possible ways to gain experience: attacking, exploring, the Learning skill, and if your hero is a thief, successfully performing spy missions.

Attacking - Your hero gains by far the most experience from attacking. The larger the target is that you attack, the more experience your hero will get. Your hero will not gain any experience for failed attacks, unless it was a very close battle. Your hero needs to be sent on the attack to gain experience from battles.

Exploring - You may send your hero out to explore for new land that your settlement can use, which also earns it some experience. Your hero needs to be sent on the exploration to earn experience (sending just your villagers will not earn you any experience).

Learning Skill - If your hero has at least level 1 Learning, it will gain a small amount of experience every hour (one point of experience per level of Learning per hour).

Spy Missions - Since the thief hero class is the only hero class that is allowed to be sent on spy missions, only thief heroes may gain experience in this way. If your thief hero successfully performs the spy mission, it will gain a small amount of experience.

Your hero will gain a level when it gains enough experience. To get from level 1 to level 2, your hero needs to get 100 experience. From there on, every level requires 10% more experience than the previous one did. So to go from level 2 to level 3, your hero would need to gain 110 more experience, and so on. When your hero gains a level, its two basic attributes get 7.5% stronger. You also receive 5 skill points that you can use to purchase skills.

Attributes are your hero's offensive strength and defensive strength. They are increased by 7.5% of their current value when your hero gains a level.

Offensive Strength - The amount of offensive power that your hero adds to an invasion if you send it.

Defensive Strength - The amount of defensive power that your hero adds to your settlement if it is at home when your settlement is invaded.

There are four different hero classes that you can choose from. The four classes vary widely in their attributes and strengths. The differences between the four classes are explained in detail below. When a hero levels up, its two basic attributes automatically increase by 7.5%.

Admiral - The naval attacking class. Begins with 1,250 offence and 700 defence. Begins with level 2 Naval Excellence skill and level 1 Naval Trading skill. Bireme drachmae and lumber costs are reduced by 20% for settlements with an Admiral as their hero, settlements with Admirals as their hero receive a +5% offensive power bonus against islands if the Admiral is sent on the attack, and biremes can carry 50 troops instead of 25 if the Admiral is sent on the attack.

Priest - The main exploring and defending class. Begins with 500 offence and 1,200 defence. Begins with level 2 Learning skill and level 2 Explorer's Intuition skill. Gives -10% defensive casualties to your troops if your Priest hero is at home when your settlement is invaded. Gives -10% offensive casualties to your troops if your Priest hero is sent on the invasion.

Thief - The espionage and Thievery class. Begins with 800 offence and 800 defence. Begins with level 2 Thievery skill (is also the only hero class that can learn the Thievery skill). Can be sent on spy missions. Has access to two more spies than other hero classes. Spy training costs 1.5% of your settlement's drachmae production per hour per spy rather than 2%, and spies in training receive an extra 20% experience per hour. Spies of thief settlements steal 50% more resources on a successful spy mission than spies of other settlements.

Warrior - The main attacking class. Begins with 1,500 offence and 500 defence. Begins with level 2 Battle Acuity skill. Settlements with Warriors as their hero receive a +5% offensive power bonus against non-island kingdoms if the Warrior is sent on the attack, and Warrior heroes receive 20% more experience when attacking than other heroes do.