The Master of Magic Heroes Compendium

You've just finished hacking your way through a lair filled with Giant Spiders and Earth Elementals, and your army has taken some heavy losses. After wiping the blood and gore from your weapons, you look into the lair to claim your booty. Lord knows you could use some gold to help pay for that new Ship Yard you're building in New Haven. And you really went crazy with the spells during this fight and could use some mana crystals to boost your reserves. But as you wipe away the cobwebs all you find is some washed-up hero whimpering like a puppy! "Damn", you think, "If I had to get a hero, why couldn't it at least be a GOOD one?"

Sound Familiar? Rare is the occurrence when you are able to rescue a hero from a lair. Even more rare, however, is the chance that you will want to keep the hero and join him/her into your ranks. But by following a few simple guidelines, you can often turn this situation to your advantage.

Let's review the situation. First, Unless you have an empty position in your list of heroes, this situation will never occur. So if you are hoping to gain a hero by rescuing one, make sure you have one or more slots available. You can improve your chances by disbanding all the "disposable" heroes from your ranks. Second, heroes are usually rescued from the tougher lairs. The tougher the lair, the higher the quality of the hero found within. Every lair, node, and keep offers a base 6.7% chance of having a hero inside. Not much better than solicitation, right? Also, you can only rescue heroes, not champions. That's a major drawback to rescuing heroes. By the time you are able to tackle these tough lairs and nodes, you don't need a hero. You need a champion.

If the hero you rescued does not fit the bill, use the following tips to try and change your luck:

* Always save the game before you enter a node, tower, lair, keep, or cave. This should be a mandatory part of your game.
* If you lose the battle, or lose a vital hero, you can reload the game without losing a number of turns.
* If the lair or node was tougher than you expected, you can reload the game and come back to that node later.
* If you don't like the loot you received, you can reload the game and try again. The "quality" of the loot won't change, but the exact item can. The "quality" means that if you get a mid-level hero the first time, you will probably get a mid-level hero the next time. But the exact hero can change. By using this idea, you can try for another hero by reloading your game and fighting the lair again. I can't guarantee you'll get a hero every time, but chances are good you'll get another one.

This trick takes patience. Lots and lots of patience. That is why rescuing heroes is ranked the second most valuable method. It is tougher to do, but you can probably get a better hero than you could through solicitation. The fact that you can reload the game and try again for a better hero is what makes it so valuable. Plus, you get the hero without paying the hiring cost!