Incendiary Arrows is a technology in Age of Empires IV that can be researched at the University/Madrasa in the Imperial Age that increases the damage of most ranged units and grants them a siege attack against buildings. It is available to all civilizations except the Malians, which get Precision Training instead to improve their ranged units.
Overview[]
Incendiary Arrows increases the base damage, but not bonus damage, of non-gunpowder ranged units by 20%. It also grants many of these units a siege attack, which they use only against buildings. Tower Elephants, Desert Raiders do not get the siege attack, as they have a melee and torch attack respectively with which they attack buildings. The Khan, and Jeanne d'Arc-Mounted Archer also do not receive a siege attack, even though they do not have an alternative. Different units deal different amounts of damage with their siege attack, shown in the table below. The damage given is per arrow, so a Zhuge Nu that fires 3 arrows per volley will deal a total of 6 damage per volley with its incendiary attack.
| Unit line | Siege damage |
|---|---|
 Gilded Crossbowman
|
8 |
 Gilded Archer
|
6 |
 Crossbowman Arbalétrier
|
4 |
 Archer Longbowman Yumi Ashigaru Horse Archer Camel Archer Onna-Musha Jeanne d'Arc - Hunter
|
3 |
 Zhuge Nu Cavalry Archer Mangudai Khan's Hunter
|
2 |
Civilization bonuses[]
Abbasid Dynasty: Research speeds are +15%/+20% faster while Golden Age tiers 2/3 are active. If Preservation of Knowledge has been researched, this technology costs -20%.- Ayyubids: Research speeds are 25% faster while Golden Age tier 2 is active
- Byzantines: Research speeds are 30% faster per water level at buildings within the influence of a Cistern with the Dialecticus ability active.
- Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy: The technology researches 150% faster when the University is supervised by an Imperial Official. For Zhu Xi's Legacy, this can be improved to 300% faster after researching Regional Inspection.
- Delhi Sultanate: The technology is free, but takes 14.7x as long to research (1,320 seconds instead of 90 seconds).
- Mongols: The technology is available in the Blacksmith.
Changelog[]
- Originally, the base research time for the Delhi Sultanate was 5x default (450 seconds). With update 8324, this was increased to 15x default (1350 seconds). With Season Two Update 17718, it takes 12x as long (1080 seconds). With update 12.0.1974, it takes ~14.7x as long (1320 seconds)
- Originally Incendiary Arrows cost 300 food, 700 gold and only granted +20% ranged damage. With update 12.0.1974, it costs 500 food, 1,000 gold and also grants a siege attack vs buildings to most non gunpowder ranged units.
Campaign version[]
Because the campaigns do not get rebalanced with each update, Incendiary Arrows maintains the same stats in each campaign that it had upon the campaign's release. Therefore, in the original four campaigns:
- It grants Archers and Crossbowmen fire (not siege) damage which they use against buildings but also against siege engines. The damage depends on the unit, but is much higher and more comparable to their ranged damage. Horse Archers and Mangudai are not affected and it does not grant any ranged damage bonus.
- It costs 50 food, 450 gold, takes 60 seconds to research, and is researched at the Arsenal. Additionally, the Mongols get it by default from the start of the game.
In the The Sultans Ascend campaign:
- It costs 300 food, 700 gold and only grants non-gunpowder ranged units +20% damage. It does not grant any secondary anti-building attack.
