"Religious leader who stuns Treasure Guardians and has a chance to do Divine Strike damage in combat. Explores, fights, and builds Town Centers, Trading Posts, and Shrines."
—In-game description
The Ikko-Ikki is an archer hero in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Japanese. In standard random map games, the Japanese starts with two Ikko-Ikki; both are counted as separate units. It explores uncharted areas of the map and has some special abilities to help himself and his settlement.
Overview 
Edit
The Ikko-Ikki begin with the Divine Strike ability, which allows them to occassionally instantly kill a weakened enemy, and the Smoke Bomb ability to immediately return to their Home City shipment point. Later on they can acquire more abilities and Stealth mode from improvements at the Monastery. They can also build Shrines, granting a safe and convenient way to claim remote animal herds.
Since they are the only explorer to be classified as archers, Ikko-Ikki are affected by archer-specific upgrades, such as Carib Garifuna Drums (x1.25 damage versus villagers) and Seminole Bowyer (+25% damage).
One of the more clever uses of the Ikko-Ikki involves their stealth and Sabotage abilities for undermining unique structures such as Factories and enemy Wonders. With Mountain Warriors, they will receive twice the normal resources or experience for recovering Treasures, which can be a significant early game advantage. Do note that it has no effect on Treasures based on percentage or units.
Abilities Edit
| Ability | Effect |
|---|---|
 Stun
| Stuns a treasure guardian from a range of 16 for 20 seconds. 60 seconds cooldown. |
 Smoke Bomb
| Returns the Ikko-Ikki to the Home City shipment point after 4 seconds. 60 seconds cooldown. |
 Divine Strike
| Gives the Ikko-Ikki a 25% chance to instantly kill enemy units with lower than 30 hit points when attacking, which is affected by attack boosts. |
 Dodge
| Gives the Ikko-Ikki a 15% chance to evade enemy attacks. Requires Intonjutsu Stealth. |
 Sabotage
| Causes 1,500 damage to an enemy building or ship from a range of 16. 60 seconds cooldown. Requires Kayakujutsu. |
 Stream of Enlightenment
| Reduces the attack of enemy units in a radius of 24 around the Ikko-Ikki by 7.5% (stacks if both Ikko-Ikki are close together, see below). Requires Stream of Enlightenment Home City Card. |
- Due to sapping modified stats, the combined Stream of Enlightenment effect is more powerful than it is supposed to be if the enemy units have been improved in any way (e.g. +30% attack from Home City Cards are reduced to +10% instead of +15%). Since Stream of Enlightenment affects all enemy units in range, it can loosely be considered a TEAM card due to benefitting allied units.
- Keep in mind that melee attacks are faster, and will thus cause more frequent Divine Strikes. If the enemies are stunned and of a weaker variety, move the Ikko-Ikki into melee range to quickly kill them with one hit.
Upgrades Edit
The Ikko-Ikki gets +50% hit points and attack in every Age starting from the Colonial Age.
Further statistics Edit
As the Ikko-Ikki is unique to the Japanese, only improvements available to them that are shown in the following table.
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Treasure guardians, infantry |
| Weak vs. | Villagers, cavalry, Spies, Ninja |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Infantry Breastplate (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Sikh Gurus (+50%)
|
| Attack |  Carib Kasiri Beer (+10%) Carib Garifuna Drums (+1.0x multiplier vs. villagers) Seminole Bowyer (+25%) Tupi Poison Arrow Frogs (+10%) Yoga (+5%) Clenched Fist (+30% melee attack)
|
| Speed |  Incan Road-building (+20%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
|
| Sight |  Town Watch (+2)
|
| Creation speed |  Standing Army (-25%) Incan Chasquis Messengers (-25%)
|
| Other |  Reiki (can heal friendly units) Intonjutsu Stealth (gives stealth mode and the Dodge ability) Kyudo (+50% Divine Strike hit points threshold) Kayakujutsu (gives the Sabotage ability) Carib Ambush Party (train Carib Ambushers) Loyal Nootka War Chief (train Nootka War Chief)
|
Home City Cards Edit
As the Ikko-Ikki is unique to the Japanese, only other civilizations' TEAM cards that affect them are shown in the following table.
| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Ikko-Ikki | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Dutch
|
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Infantry Hitpoints
| Infantry gets +15% hit points |  | 10 |
French Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Ranged Infantry Attack
| Ranged infantry gets +15% attack |  | 10 |
Indians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
| All units get +5% hit points and attack |  | 25 |
Iroquois Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Scout Infantry
| Infantry gets +8 LOS | | 10 |
Japanese Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Mountain Warrior
| Ikko-Ikki gets +50% hit points and attack, and doubles the resources or XP they acquired from treasures |  | 1 |
 Stream of Enlightenment
| Ikko-Ikki gets the Stream of Enlightenment ability | | 10 |
Spanish Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Explorer Combat
| Heroes get +20% hit points and attack | | 1 |
 TEAM Inquisition
| All units get +10 LOS | | 10 |
History Edit
"Like the yamabushi and the sohei, the ikko-ikki are an order of Japanese warrior monks devoted to a form of ascetic Buddhism, specifically the Jodo Shinshu, or True Pure Land Sect. This sect believed that all believers were equally saved by the grace of the Buddha.
The ikko-ikki lived for years as scattered mountain hermits until the fifteenth century, when the eccentric Jodo Shinshu abbot, Rennyo, established a temple in the Echizen province and began to rally the local citizenry behind him. Even though Rennyo was a pacifist, he advocated the use of pragmatic violence during dark times, such as the years of conflict that defined Japan’s warring states period. With the support of villagers and ikko-ikki monks behind him, Rennyo led an uprising against the samurai rulers of Kaga province in 1488. His army claimed the region and declared themselves its rulers. This act represented the first time in Japanese history that a group of commoners ruled a province. For the next one hundred years, the ikko-ikki fought against and alongside many powerful daimyo, including Tokugawa Ieyasu, Oda Nobunaga, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, depending on their aims. Occasionally, they even found themselves facing warrior monks of other sects in battle.
The ikko-ikki monks wore clothes symbolic of their origin as countryside mobs, with traditional monk robes and varying degrees and types of armor. Many wore helmets, while others opted for the straw hat and cloak of a peasant. Naginata remained very common along with a variety of other blades, and a limited number of firearms. As they charged into battle, the ikko-ikki often carried banners ahead of them proclaiming, “Hail to the Amida Buddha!” and “Renounce this world and attain the Pure Land!”"
Gallery Edit
