Olden Era PvP hero skills: what to pick at every level
Updated: May 25, 2026
The hero in Olden Era isn’t “a portrait with a mana bar” — it’s the army’s main multiplier. Each Attack point flows to every stack, each cast bends the round, and a skill-tree mistake at level 5 costs more than a missed building tier.
This guide is about which skills and stats actually matter in PvP.
The six hero attributes
| Attribute | What it gives |
|---|---|
| Attack | +1 Attack to every stack in the army. |
| Defense | +1 Defense to every stack in the army. |
| Spell Power | Duration of buffs/debuffs and direct damage of spells. |
| Knowledge | +10 to mana cap per point. Does not affect buffs or control. |
| Morale | Baseline morale for the army (see combat mechanics). |
| Luck | Baseline luck for the army. |
A key observation about spell mechanics: buffs, debuffs, and control spells have a flat effect — it depends on the spell’s level only. Spell Power changes duration. So a Might hero with basic Blessing and Haste doesn’t fall far behind a mage on those — except where you need direct damage (Chain Lightning, Fireball, Armageddon), where Spell Power decides.
Might vs Magic — what’s different
The game’s 108 heroes split exactly down the middle: 54 Might and 54 Magic, 18 in each of the six factions.
| Might | Magic | |
|---|---|---|
| Stats grow more often | Attack, Defense | Spell Power, Knowledge |
| Exclusive | Recruitment | Thaumaturgy |
| PvP strengths | Big stacks, raw Attack | Direct damage, control |
| Weaknesses | Primal-mage opponents | Pure-mass Might pressure |
Neither class is strictly better — they have different timings. Might dominates short games and blitzes (fast army, direct hits); Magic comes online on medium-to-long maps once a tier 4-5 Mage Guild and Chain Lightning land.
Skill slots and mastery tiers
Each skill has three tiers — Basic, Advanced, Expert. Effects grow at every tier (exact numbers in the sections below).
Most heroes start with two skills: one faction skill (e.g. Necromancy for Necropolis or Summon Swarm for Hive) and one universal (most often Logistics or Offense).
S-tier universal skills
These are picked by every hero, Might or Magic. The PvP baseline.
Logistics — +10% / +15% / +20% movement points
Logistics is the best single skill in the game. Each extra movement point on the adventure map is one more fight, one more mine, one more pressure point. In PvP a 4-5 turn lead over a week translates into a full T5 dwelling.
Leadership — +1 / +2 / +3 Morale
Leadership directly raises the army’s Morale. Expert gives +3 = 12% chance of a double turn per stack per round. Worth more if your faction has morale-receptive creatures (everything except undead).
Offense / Defense — the ×1.5 swing at zero cost
- Offense: +15% / +20% / +25% damage on regular attacks.
- Defense: −15% / −20% / −25% damage from regular attacks.
Both are typed-damage modifiers (see the formula). Magic damage isn’t affected — you need Sorcery and Resistance for that.
Tactics — +1 / +2 / +3 placement rows
Tactics widens your placement zone in the tactical pre-battle phase: up to 3 / 4 / 5 rows. Your fast units start 4-5 hexes from the enemy archers — often that’s the whole first-round exchange.
Luck — +1 / +2 / +3 Luck
Luck — every plus is a +6% chance of a ×1.5 hit. Expert = 18% crit chance on every swing of every stack. Paired with high base Attack it turns one-shotting archers into a guarantee.
Resistance — −15% / −25% / −35% magic damage
Resistance is the prime anti-mage skill. Against a Chain-Lightning or Armageddon opponent, Expert Resistance cuts ~35% of incoming magic — often the line between “T7 survives one more turn” and “T7 dies”.
Magic branch (priority for Magic heroes)
Thaumaturgy — a second cast per round
Thaumaturgy is the main PvP magic skill. The hero can cast one extra spell per round from an unused school. The second-cast surcharge:
- Basic — +100% mana
- Advanced — +75%
- Expert — +50%
With Thaumaturgy a mage gets 8-10 casts per fight instead of 4-5 — literally double the magic output.
Wisdom — cross-school casting without school skills
Wisdom lets a hero learn spells up to tier 3 / 4 / 5 without the corresponding school skill. Without Wisdom, tiers 3+ require a school skill (Daylight / Nightshade / Arcane / Primal). Wisdom is the mandatory pick for any Might hero who wants to cast beyond Blessing.
Sorcery — +10% / +20% / +30% magic damage
Sorcery directly amplifies spell damage. It stacks with Spell Power and specializations (e.g. Blackhorn and other magic specialists). Combined with Expert it nearly doubles direct-magic damage.
Battle Magic — Attack/Defense from Spell Power and Knowledge
Battle Magic: friendly creatures gain +15% / +25% / +35% of Spell Power as Attack and of Knowledge as Defense. A mage with 12 SP and 12 Knowledge at Expert gives the army +4 ATK and +4 DEF. Turns a “caster” into a real support fighter.
School skills — +1 spell level + tier 5 access
All four school skills work the same: each point grants +1 to the level of that school’s spells (at Advanced and Expert), and at Expert lets you learn unlocked spells from the Magic Observatory without visiting a guild.
- Daylight Magic — ally buffs.
- Nightshade Magic — enemy debuffs.
- Arcane Magic — utility, teleports, control.
- Primal Magic — direct damage.
A PvP mage needs one school at Expert (usually Primal for Chain Lightning and Armageddon), with everything else routed through Wisdom.
Might-exclusive skills
Recruitment — city-wide growth
Recruitment is Might-only:
- Basic — +4 growth for tier-1 creatures across all cities.
- Advanced — +4 (T1), +3 (T2).
- Expert — +4 (T1), +3 (T2), +2 (T3).
By weeks 3-4 that’s +28 T1 / +21 T2 / +14 T3 above default growth per city. The best economic skill in the game.
Battlecraft — Wait / Skip Turn bonuses
Battlecraft: waiting grants friendly creatures an Attack bonus until end of round; skipping grants a Defense bonus. The exact percentages are not finalized in the current data files, but the “Ranged Combat Mastery” sub-skill is already active (+10% ranged damage dealt, −10% ranged damage taken; see the see the combat mechanics guide).
Combat — +10 / +15 / +20 hero strike damage
Combat increases the base damage of the hero’s own strike. Hero strikes are uncommon but in prolonged fights against a mage they add real tempo.
Faction starting skills
Each faction starts with a unique skill — without it, playing that faction in PvP makes no sense. All faction synergies route through it.
| Faction | Skill | One-liner |
|---|---|---|
| Temple | Righteousness | Every death in battle (yours or enemy) grants the hero +1 to all stats for 2 / 3 / 4 rounds; stacks. |
| Necropolis | Necromancy | After battle, 10% / 15% / 20% of the strongest enemy stack converts to undead (necrotic energy pool 1000 / 1250 / 1500). |
| Schism | Abyssal Communion | +3% to Schism creatures per Communion point (cap 4 / 5 / 6); halved each morning. |
| Hive | Summon Swarm | Once per round drops a clutch of eggs → next round hatches fire larvae (8% / 12% / 16% HP of Hive creatures). |
| Grove | Murmuring | Starting concentration at the beginning of battle: +1 / +2 / +3 charges. |
| Dungeon | Triumvirate’s Strength | Once per round the hero picks one of three combat stances — each grants a bonus to one hero stat (see note below on values). |
Pick the faction skill up to Expert when playing that faction: it’s the cheapest slot-for-slot source of your win condition.
Note that any hero (regardless of faction) can pick up Summon Avatar — this is not a faction skill but a general magic skill that summons a battle avatar with stats scaled from the hero’s Spell Power and Knowledge.
Utility skills
| Skill | Effect (Basic / Advanced / Expert) | When to pick in PvP |
|---|---|---|
| Diplomacy | Chance to recruit neutrals for gold / +25% / +50% persuasion | Long maps with large neutral stacks. |
| Scouting | +1 / +2 / +3 vision radius | Large maps, mine and second-city hunting. |
| Insight | +20% / +30% / +40% XP gain | Long games, level farming. |
| Siegecraft | +50 / +100 / +150 catapult damage | Mandatory-siege maps. |
| Economy | +500 / +750 / +1000 gold per day | Any long-economy game plan. |
In most PvP games these lose to combat and faction skills — take them as second/third-tier picks after the S-tier above.
Triumvirate’s Strength — exact values pending
Triumvirate’s Strength
is Dungeon’s faction skill: once per round the hero picks one of three
combat stances, each granting a bonus to one of their stats. The whole
double-attack Dungeon playstyle hangs off it. Exact numbers in the
current localization read as +0 — the description failed to interpolate
real values. The mechanic itself works: stance effects are visible in
battle, but I’ll add concrete numbers to this guide once patch notes or
an in-game test confirm them.
PvP priority shortlist
Might hero
- Faction skill (Necromancy / Summon Swarm / etc.) → Expert.
- Logistics → Advanced minimum.
- Offense → Expert.
- Leadership or Defense — depending on army (Defense vs ranged setups, Leadership vs Might).
- Recruitment → Expert by week 3.
- Wisdom → Basic (access to Blessing/Haste without a school).
Magic hero
- Faction skill → Expert.
- Thaumaturgy → Advanced/Expert (for +75/+50% second-cast cost).
- One school matching the archetype (Primal for direct damage) → Expert.
- Sorcery → Advanced minimum.
- Wisdom → Advanced/Expert (access to other schools via Thaumaturgy).
- Logistics → Basic/Advanced.
Where to next
- Pick a faction build for your hero — PvP faction guides are coming next: Dungeon, Necropolis, Hive.
- Plan a law tree around your starting skills — see the PvP laws guide.
- Full skill catalog — /en/olden-era/skills/.
- Ready-made faction builds with hero, spec, and starting skills — Top 3 Overpowered Builds.