Achilles (Age of Mythology)

This article is about the hero in Age of Mythology. For the hero in Age of Empires, see Achilles (Age of Empires).

Achilles
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Mythology
Type	Hero
Civilization	Greeks
Age	Classical Age
Creation
Trained at	Town Center Fortress
Requires	Temple
Food	75
Wood	0
Gold	175
Favor	2
Population	3
Train limit	1
Training time	18 seconds 16 seconds 14 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	330
Speed	5.3
Line of Sight	16
Hack armor	30%
Pierce armor	45%
Crush armor	99%
Ability	Sacred Hands [Passive] Scourge of the Skies [Passive]
Weight class	9
Melee attack
Hack	9.9
Multipliers	Myth unit: 8× Animal of Set: 1×
Reload time	1
Attack range	0.75
Anti-flying unit attack
Pierce	13.2
Multipliers	Myth unit: 8×
Reload time	2
Attack range	13

• Retold
• Original

“	Mounted Hero. Good against myth units. Switches to a ranged attack to fight flying units. Collects Relics.	”
—In-game description

“	Cavalry Hero. Good against myth units.	”
—In-game description

Achilles is the Classical Age* hero for Hades in Age of Mythology. He is based on the the character of the same name who was a near-immortal and a great warrior who fought in the Trojan War.

Abilities

• Sacred Hands (Passive): Can pick up Relics and deposit them at a Temple.
• Scourge of the Skies (Passive): Switches to ranged attack when targeting airborne units (since Retold).

Further statistics

General technologies

• Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons, Iron Weapons: +10% damage.
• Copper Armor, Bronze Armor, Iron Armor: -15% hack vulnerability.
• Copper Shields, Bronze Shields, Iron Shields: -15% pierce vulnerability.
• Ballistics: Fires more accurately at moving enemy targets.

Myth technologies

• Oracle (Apollo): +5 Line of Sight.
• Sun Ray (Apollo): +10% anti-flying damage, projectiles reveal the surrounding area.
• Beast Slayer (Artemis): +2 damage multiplier against myth units.

Age bonuses

• Heroic Age: +15% hit points, +15% damage, +1 damage multiplier against myth units, train time -10%.
• Mythic Age: +20% hit points, +20% damage, +1 damage multiplier against myth units, train time -10%.

Relic bonuses

• Arrows of Heracles: +5% attack.
• Fur of Boyi: Regenerate 0.25 hit points per second.
• Hermes' Winged Sandals: +5% movement speed.
• Kui Drum: +0.25% attack per 1% hit point missing.
• Pelt of Argus: +6 Line of Sight.
• The Khopesh of Horus: +1.0 attack bonus multiplier vs. myth units.
• Thundercloud Shawl: -5% pierce vulnerability.
• Tyrfing, Angantyr's Sword: Regenerate 10% of damage dealt to units.

Tactics

Achilles is the best armored Greek hero. As with all Greek heroes he is very powerful against myth units but is strong enough to take on most units in the game. Despite being described as a mounted hero, he does not benefit from any effects of being a cavalry unit. It simply means that he is fast, and as such can chase down fleeing units.

Changelog

Age of Mythology

• Achilles costs 350 food, 4 favor and is available in the Heroic Age.
• Achilles has a movement speed of 5.5, 340 hit points, ​40% pierce armor, a damage multiplier of 7× vs. myth units and 3× vs. Animals of Set, and trains in 23 seconds.
• Achilles cannot attack airborne units.

Tale of the Dragon

• Achilles costs 200 food, 150 wood, 4 favor.

Retold

• Achilles costs 75 food, 175 gold, 2 favor and is available in the Classical Age.
• Achilles has 300 hit points, ​30% pierce, a damage multiplier of 6.5× vs. myth units and no multiplier vs. Animals of Set, and trains in 20 seconds.
• Achilles can attack airborne units. His anti-air attack does ​5  pierce damage.
• With update 17.36100, Achilles has a movement speed of 5.3.
• With update 18.7603, the damage multipliers vs. myth units for both melee and ranged attacks were increased to 8×, and his weight class is increased from 7 to 8.

Immortal Pillars

• With update 18.21333, Achilles' damage vs. flying units increased from 5 to 12 and weight class increased from 8 to 9. He also trains 10% faster per Age advancement.

Mythology

“	Age -- 35 Homeland -- Scyros Occupation -- Hero of the Trojan War A great warrior and Greek champion in the Trojan War, he was nearly invulnerable, having been dipped in the River Styx as a child by his mother, Thetis. During the dipping, however, he had been held by the tendon in one of his heels (the Achilles tendon). Following an argument with Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks outside Troy, Achilles refused to fight and the war began to go in Troy's favor. A friend donned Achilles' armor hoping to re-inspire the Greeks, but he was slain by the Trojan champion, Hector. Enraged, Achilles rejoined the fight, slew Hector, and dragged his body around the city. Guided by the gods, Paris of Troy hit Achilles in his heel with a poisoned arrow, and the great warrior died.	”
—In-game help section

Trivia

• Achilles is the only Hero who cosmetically reflects shield upgrades in-game. This is due to the fact that his unit texture was supposed to be used for the cut unit Cataphract, which was supposed to be a trainable cavalry for Hades.
• Due to balancing reasons, Achilles is not "nearly immortal".
• After the fall of Troy, Achilles (represented by a Cataphract) can briefly be seen leading the Greek army out of the city, making it possible he survived the events of the Trojan War in Age of Mythology.
  • This is an oversight, originally Achilles was one of the Troy campaign heroes, but he was removed because Ensemble Studios either thought there were too many disposable characters, script changes/issues or because the events of Age of Mythology's Troy is set within the last weeks of the war, and by then Achilles was killed (this can be confirmed by the appearance of the "Armor of Achilles" relic in Scratching the Surface scenario).
• In the Beta, Achilles was going to be infantry hero, with a unique model.
  • This is present in the July 10th 2002 Multiplayer Alpha build.

Gallery

Close-up of Achilles in Retold

Achilles in-game model

Achilles no shield equipped

Achilles equipped with Iron Shields

Achilles' silent appearance in the outro of I Hope This Works

ACHILLES vs EVERY MYTH UNIT - Age of Mythology

	Heroes obtainable in random maps in Age of Mythology
God	Archaic Age	Classical Age	Heroic Age	Mythic Age
Greeks (1 each)
All		Hippocrates*
Zeus	Jason	Heracles	Odysseus	Bellerophon
Poseidon	Theseus	Atalanta	Hippolyta	Polyphemus
Hades	Ajax	Achilles	Chiron	Perseus
Aphrodite			The Argo
Egyptians
All	Pharaoh (1)
	Priest
Osiris				Son of Osiris
				Pharaoh (more)
Norse
All	Hersir		Godi
Freyr	Gullinbursti (1)
Baldr				Hero of Ragnarok
Atlanteans
All	Citizen (Hero) (50)	Murmillo (Hero)	Arcus (Hero)	Fanatic (Hero)
		Katapeltes (Hero)	Contarius (Hero)
	Oracle (Hero) (10)	Turma (Hero)
		Cheiroballista (Hero)	Destroyer (Hero)
Chinese (Immortal Pillars)
All	Pioneer		Sage (5)
			Jiang Ziya (1)
Fuxi		Nezha (1)		Yang Jian (1)
Nüwa	Kuafu (Hero) (1)			Li Jing (1)
Shennong				Wen Zhong (1)
Chinese (Tale of the Dragon)
All			Monk
Fu Xi	Immortal (8)
Others	Immortal (2)	Immortal (2)	Immortal (2)	Immortal (2)
Regicide game mode
All	Regent (1)