Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Skills Guide – Every Skill, Subclass, and Synergy Explained

by Fernando Diaz / Articles, Heroes of Might and Magic, Might & Magic Games / 01 Aug 2025

Welcome back, Heroes. That cozy loop of exploiting maps, taking mines, and leading your fantasy armies to victory is calling once more. But in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, building your hero has been revamped more than ever before. The creators are combining the old slot-based system of Heroes III with the complex, branching perk trees of Heroes V to create an interesting hybrid.

This is not a new coat of paint; it’s a ground-up expansion of hero development. Ditch being stuck with the same two or three “meta” skills each game. Olden Era wants your decisions to have weight, from level 1 through to the climactic late-game. This guide will cover all you need to know, from the fundamentals of leveling to every last skill and the revolutionary new Subclass system.

Back to Basics: How Hero Progression Works

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of playing a Heroes game, the core loop is going to feel like slipping on a familiar pair of Boots of Speed. You kill, you search, you pillage treasure, you gain XP. Ding! You level up.

Here’s the rundown in Olden Era:

Leveling Up: Gives you one point in a primary stat (Attack, Defence, Spellpower, or Knowledge) and the chance to acquire a new skill or upgrade an existing one.

Skill Slots: You have a total of 8 skill slots, including those your hero starts with. Choose wisely, because you cannot remove them.

Starting Skills: Each hero has their set Faction Skill (e.g. ; Necromancy for Necropolis) and usually one additional skill depending on their class or specialization.

Three Tiers: Every skill has three tiers: Basic, Advanced & Expert.

Subskills & Subclasses

This is where HoMM: Olden Era really hits its mark. Drawing inspiration from Heroes V & VII, the progression system gets it right;

Subskills: The Heart of Your Build

When you level up a skill, you don’t just get a bigger number. You get a choice.

Leveling up to Advanced: You are offered a choice of one of three different subskills.

Leveling up to Expert: You choose one of the two remaining subskills.

This means that two Expert Logistics heroes could have immensely varied bonuses. One might be able to conserve movement points in difficult terrain, while another will have a subskill that gives their army an advantage on their first turn of combat if they marched a long way. The developers promise “soft synergies” between subskills and other main skills, so you’re encouraged to consider your build.

Subclasses: The Ultimate Specialization

This is your reward for mastering a specific set of skills.

How it Works: Each hero class has two powerful subclasses. To unlock one, you will need to master a particular set of skills and subskills.

Optional Power: The game will alert you when a choice feeds into a subclass you may be working towards. While these subclasses provide enormous bonuses, the developers reassure us that you can craft a fully functional, winning hero by completely ignoring them. The decision is yours.

Faction Skills: Your Hero’s Identity

Each hero is associated with their faction. This is their defining, non-tradable ability that outlines their overall strategy.

TEMPLE – Ascension

Whenever a friendly unit stack is defeated, the rest of your army is given a temporary HP boost. A typical “last stand” ability, it makes your remaining forces surprisingly durable and can turn an otherwise lost battle into a pyrrhic victory.

Basic: +10% HP

Advanced: +20% HP

Expert: +30% HP

NECROPOLIS – Necromancy

The old-school zombie power. When you win, a percentage of the total HP of the enemy dead is used to reinforce your existing Undead stacks. Most significantly, it no longer creates new, low-level skeleton stacks but instead increases the size of stacks you already have.

Basic: 4% HP converted

Advanced: 6% HP converted

Expert: 8% HP converted

HIVE – Call Swarm

An active combat ability. Your hero places a clutch of eggs on the battlefield, which hatch into a group of Fire Larvae at the start of the next round. The power of this summoned stack grows based on the total health of your entire Hive army.

Basic: 8% of army HP

Advanced: 12% of army HP

Expert: 16% of army HP

SYLVAN – Murmuring

Restores “Focus Charges” at the start of battle. It is not certain what Focus is, but it could be the resource Sylvan creatures use to execute their special abilities, similar to the Rage mechanic in Heroes V. This ability keeps you ready for anything at the start of every battle.

Basic: 1 Charge

Advanced: 2 Charges

Expert: 3 Charges

DUNGEON – Triumvirate’s Strength

Every turn, your hero can enter a “Stance,” giving a large increase to one of your primary stats. This provides amazing tactical leverage, letting you give your spell damage a big boost to set up a killer nuke or provide your defense with a boost to survive a difficult attack.

Basic: +4 to stat

Advanced: +5 to stat

Expert: +6 to stat

VIBHRANTI (Illusion/Confusion) – ???

This hints at a potential as-yet-unknown faction. The name and description suggest a mind-control or debuff specialty, with the ability to turn enemy stacks against their brethren or render them useless. This could be a huge tactical game-changer.

Basic: Affects stacks up to a value of 4

Advanced: Affects stacks up to a value of 6

Expert: Affects stacks up to a value of 8

The General’s Toolkit: General Skills

These are the bread-and-butter abilities within the grasp of most heroes. Your choices here will decide your hero’s role as a frontline bruiser, master tactician, or wealthy governor.

Combat Skills

Offence: Your monsters hit harder. Simple and always valuable. (10%/20%/30% Damage)

Defence: Your monsters become more resistant to physical attacks. (10%/20%/30% Damage Reduction)

Leadership: Raises your army’s Morale, causing them to gain extra turns more frequently. (+1/+2/+3 Morale)

Luck: Your forces get more frequent lucky strikes for double damage. (+1/+2/+3 Luck)

Adventure Map Skills

Logistics: The crème de la crème. Additional movement points on the world map. (10%/15%/20% Movement)

Scouting: Increases your sight range, so you can see further into the fog of war. (+1/+2/+3 Sight Radius)

Diplomacy: Allows you to bribe neutral forces to join you instead of fighting them. (0%/25%/50% Persuasion Power)

Tactics: Enables you to position your troops on a larger section of the battlefield. (2/3/4 lines)

Support & Economy Skills

Economy: More gold in your treasury per day. Necessary for expanding your towns. (500/750/1000 Gold)

Insight: Your hero gains experience faster. A good early-game option to speed up your build. (20%/30%/40% XP)

Siegecraft: Boosts your catapult’s damage while besieging a town. (50/100/150 Damage)

Beyond Steel and Stone: Magic & Special Skills

For those who prefer to win battles with raw arcane power or clever cunning.

Magic Schools

Each level in a magic school allows you to learn spells of a certain tier without a Mage Guild. The Expert level also provides a significant bonus.

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era – All Magic Spells & Effects Explained

Daylight Magic: Presumably the “Light” or “Life” school. (Unlocks Tiers 3/4/5 | Expert also grants -2 mana cost & +1 to effective spell level)

Nightshade Magic: The “Dark” or “Death” school. (Unlocks Tiers 3/4/5 | Expert also grants -2 mana cost & +1 to effective spell level)

Arcane Magic: The school of pure, direct magic. (Unlocks Tiers 3/4/5 | Expert also grants -2 mana cost & +1 to effective spell level)

Primal Magic: The “Nature” or “Summoning” school. (Unlocks Tiers 3/4/5 | Expert also grants -2 mana cost & +1 to effective spell level)

Magic-Adjacent Skills

Sorcery: Increases the damage of all your spells. (10%/20%/30% Spell Damage)

Resistance: Reduces magic damage received by your army. (10%/20%/30% Damage Reduction)

Intelligence: Gives you a larger mana pool to cast more spells. (20%/40%/60% Max Mana)

Thaumaturgy: A fascinating power that enables you to cast more than one spell per turn, but with a steeply increasing mana cost. An Expert will be able to cast a second spell for double the mana, which is often a game-winning action. (300%/200%/100% added cost)

Special Skills

Recruitment: Increases the weekly creature growth in all your towns. A must for any long game. (+4 Core / +0/+2 Champion / +0/+0/+1 Elite)

Battle Magic: A passive boost to your monsters’ Attack and Defence based on your hero’s Spell Power and Knowledge. Turns a powerful mage into an adequate general. (10%/20%/30% of hero stats)

Battlecraft: Rewards strategic patience. Waiting before acting grants an Attack boost, while defending grants a Defence boost. (20%/30%/40% to Attack or Defence)

Summon Avatar: Grants a special spell that calls an enormous Avatar whose stats scale directly with your hero’s Spell Power and Knowledge. This is the ultimate “might and magic” ability, turning your spellcaster into a one-person army. (HP per SP: 20/30/40 | DMG per SP: 4/8/12)

With this new tiered configuration, the possibilities for hero building in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era seem virtually unlimited!! Now get out there and start experimenting—your kingdom isn’t going to build itself…

13 Games Like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 You Need to Play – 2025 Edition

10 Best Games Like Might and Magic – Classic & Modern First-Person RPGs

Fernando Diaz

Fernando is doing what he always did, sharing his honest opinions about games whenever he can. The difference is now he is writing and not talking about it.

View all posts