This article is about the technology in Age of Empires II. For other uses, see Heated Shot. |
Heated Shot is a technology in Age of Empires II that can be researched at the University. Once researched, it gives towers an attack bonus of +125%, and Castles, Harbors, and Kreposts +4 attack against ships, i.e. both the ship and fishing ship armor classes. Notably, it does not affect the Town Center. Heated Shot affects all projectiles of the respective buildings by the same amount as that of the primary projectile.
Due to the rules of multiplication of attacks which rounds off the values, the actual increase for towers may not be +125%.
Availability chart[]
Available | Unavailable |
---|---|
Attack increase against ships[]
Because Heated Shot is an attack multiplier for towers, but not for Castles and Harbors, the actual increase in attack bonus against ships differs for the affected buildings.
Building | Without | With | Additive increase | Percentage increase |
---|---|---|---|---|
Donjon Watch Tower |
7 | 16 | 9 | 128.57 |
Guard Tower | 9 | 20 | 11 | 122.22 |
Keep | 10 | 23 | 13 | 130 |
Bombard Tower | 40 | 90 | 50 | 125 |
Castle Krepost |
0 | 4 | 4 | inf |
Harbor | 10 | 14 | 4 | 40 |
Before the launch of The African Kingdoms, it was highly dangerous to enter a building's firing range not only for ships, but also for Camel Riders and Mamelukes, as camel units were also in the ship armor class.
Buildings exclusive to the Scenario Editor also benefit from this technology, with the Poenari Castle and the Fortress being treated like Castles and Kreposts (i.e. receiving an additional +4 attack bonus) and The Accursed Tower, The Tower of Flies as well as Fortified Towers, Sea Towers and Fire Towers being treated like towers (i.e. receiving an additional +125% attack bonus). For the latter, the effect seems to be slightly stronger (around 260% instead of 225%) due to rounding errors.
Civilizations bonuses[]
- Chinese: Heated Shot is 10%/15% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
- Italians: Heated Shot is 33% cheaper.
Team bonuses[]
- Malians: Researching Heated Shot is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Researching Heated Shot is 25% faster.
Changelog[]
The Age of Kings[]
- Tower damage increase is +50%
The Conquerors[]
- With patch 1.0b, tower damage increase is +125%.
Definitive Edition[]
- Portuguese: With update 42848, researching Heated Shot is 30% faster.
Lords of the West[]
- Italians: With update 44725, Heated Shot is 33% cheaper.
Trivia[]
- Neither of the two civilizations introduced in Dawn of the Dukes have access to Heated Shot.
- With the 256x tech mod or the Going Above and Beyond cheat code, this upgrade can be used to do damage to non-ships as well. All units technically take all kinds of bonus damage, but they have 10,000 armor against all bonus damage they're not supposed to take (i.e. armor classes they don't have). Being multiplicative, Heated Shot researched repeatedly can allow your anti-ship attack to exceed the 10,000 ship armor of non-ships. 10 upgrades should let any tower one-shot anything that doesn't have a repeated multiplicative HP upgrade.
History[]
“ | Coastal gunners who engaged ships learned to heat their cannonballs in furnaces until they were red hot. If a heated shot lodged in the woodwork of a sailing ship, it could set the ship afire. The wadding in the barrel of the gun had to be sufficiently thick to not burn away before the cannon could be fired. If the shot burned through the wadding too quickly, the gun could go off before being properly aimed. In such a case the gun might explode rather than fire. Heated shot that plunged through decks was especially dangerous. It could lodge deep in the ship where the crew could not reach it with water before fire had taken hold. If fire reached the powder magazine, the ship would explode. | ” |
—Age of Empires II manual |