Dire Wolf

The Dire Wolf is an animal in Return of Rome and Age of Empires II.

Age of Empires

Dire Wolf
Animal
Introduced in	Age of Empires: Return of Rome
Hit points	100
Melee attack	1
Rate of Fire	2
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor class	All
Speed	Walking: 0.85 Running: 1.275
Line of Sight	3
Maximum food	0

Dire Wolves were introduced once the Age of Empires game mode was launched in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome. Unlike most other predators in Age of Empires, including the ones ported in to Return of Rome from Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Dire Wolves do not contain any food.

Age of Empires II

Dire Wolf
Animal
Introduced in	Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Hit points	100
Melee attack	0
Rate of Fire	2
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor class	All
Speed	Walking: 0.85 Running: 1.275
Line of Sight	3

The Dire Wolf is a wild animal that is only available in the Scenario Editor in Age of Empires II.

Although appearing stronger than regular Wolves at the first glance (especially in-game, where the attack is not shown), Dire Wolves are actually weak compared to their regular counterparts, holding no attack and taking every attack bonus there is. Still, despite having no attack, the Dire Wolf deals one damage per strike due to the damage mechanics of Age of Empires II.

In a one-on-one combat with a Villager without Loom, the Villager outlasts the Dire Wolf with 17/25 hit points left as opposed to a regular Wolf which is even with a Villager.

Due to being partially coded as buildings, Dire Wolves have a square frame when selected, rather than round like most units, and it seems to be untouched by most long-range projectiles, except the Area of Effect damage dealt by any. It shares this behaviour with another Scenario Editor unit, the Junk. Due to how its base armor and armor classes are set up, it receives extra damage from Battering Rams.

Due to unknown reasons, projectiles from most ranged attacks miss Dire Wolves, no matter the technologies the attacking archer or building has. This often leads to Dire Wolves being almost (but not entirely) immune to ranged attacks other than those dealing Area of Effect damage. They have a guaranteed hit only when the Dire Wolves come into melee range of the attacker.

Trivia

• The dire wolf (Canis dirus, lit. "Terrible Dog") is an extinct relative of the Wolf that lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene. Although commonly portrayed as much larger and stronger than the wolf in Medieval Fantasy (e.g. Dungeons and Dragons, Game of Thrones), real dire wolves were similar in size to living wolves. However, they had more robust jaws and were better adapted at crushing bone and killing megafauna, which reduced competition with wolves and made dire wolves the American ecological equivalent of Old World hyenas.
• Since Dire Wolves have all armor classes, the Spearman-line is quite effective against them. Spearmen can kill Dire Wolves in two hits, while Pikemen can kill them in one hit.