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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires IV. For the similar unit in other games of the series, see Monk and Imam. |
| “ | Support unit with no combat capability. Can pick up Relics, convert enemy units, and capture Sacred Sites. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Monk is a religious unit in Age of Empires IV that can be trained at the Monastery, Mosque, or Prayer Tent. It has no combat ability, but can pick up Relics, convert enemy units, heal friendly units, and capture Sacred Sites.
The Monk is called Imam for Muslim civilizations and Shaman for the Mongols.
Civilizations[]
| Imam | Monk | Other |
|---|---|---|
 Abbasid Dynasty Malians Ottomans
|
 Byzantines Chinese English French Jeanne d'Arc Zhu Xi's Legacy
|
 Ayyubids -  Dervish Delhi Sultanate -  Scholar Holy Roman Empire - Prelate Japanese -  Shinto Priest /  Buddhist Monk Order of the Dragon - Prelate Rus -  Warrior Monk
|
| Shaman | ||
 Mongols
|
Ability[]
Heal (Passive/Active): Heals friendly units at 7 hit points per second up to full health from a distance of one tile. This can be targeted by right-clicking on a unit, or the nearest unit within a 5 tile radius will automatically be healed. Targets in combat are healed 50% slower.- Toggle Automatic Healing (Toggled): Toggle automatic healing on or off.
- Drop Relic: Drop a held Relic at a particular location. This can only be used to drop-off a Relic on the map, not in a building such as a Monastery, which must be right clicked while holding the Relic.
- Conversion (Active): While carrying a Relic, attempts to convert all units within a 4.75 tile radius to its side. Any enemy units remaining within the radius at the end of a 6 second countdown are converted. Siege engines, hero units, and other religious units are not affected. Has a 120 second cooldown.
While the Ottomans can spawn two Imams with Field Work as early as the Dark Age, they can not pick up Relics or capture Sacred Sites until the Castle Age.
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Piety (+40); Improved: (+60, Mongols)
|
| Armor |  Fitted Leatherwork (+1 melee) Insulated Helm (+1 melee) Master Smiths (+1 melee) Iron Undermesh (+1 ranged) Wedge Rivets (+1 ranged) Angled Surfaces (+1 ranged)
|
| Healing |  Herbal Medicine (+60% faster); Improved: (+90%, Mongols)
|
| Ability |  Proselytization (Grants single-target conversion ability, Abbasid Dynasty) Field Work (Grants area heal ability, Ottomans)
|
| Other | Field Work (spawn two Imams at the Capital Town Center, Ottomans)
|
| Aura and ability enhancements | |
|---|---|
 Regeneration
|
 Divine Vitality (2 hp/s out of combat, Zhu Xi's Legacy)
|
| Armor |  Mehter Melee Armor Drums (+2 melee, Ottomans) Mehter Ranged Armor Drums (+1 ranged, Ottomans) Defense Arrow (+2 melee and ranged for 5/10/12 seconds, depending on Whistling Arrows, Mongols)
|
| Damage resistance |  Wall Defense (-25% ranged, -50% siege)
|
| Line of Sight |  Set up Camp (+30%, English)
|
 Movement speed
|
 Naval Deployment (+50% speed for 12 seconds after unloading from a Transport Ship, Byzantines) Mehter Speed Bonus (+15% when in formation with Mehter, requires Mehter Drums, Ottomans) Maneuver Arrow (+33% for 5/10/12 seconds, depending on Whistling Arrows, Mongols) Yam Aura (+15%, requires Yam Network, Mongols)
|
| Resource cost |  Consecrate (-25%, requires Ordinance Company, Jeanne d'Arc)
|
| Creation speed |   Conscriptio Influence (+20% per Cistern water level, Byzantines) Supervision (+150% for Chinese; +150% for Zhu Xi's Legacy or +300% with Regional Inspection) Golden Age Tier 3 (+20%, Abbasid Dynasty)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Resource cost | Zhu Xi's Legacy (-10% in  Yuan Dynasty)
|
Quantifying healing as equivalent resources[]
Suppose that healing a 1 hit point unit to its full health can be effectively seen as having a new unit, the economic impact of healing can be quantified as follows:
Suppose a unit has H hit points and costs a total of R resources. It would take H/7 seconds to fully heal up and thus generate equivalently 7R/H resources per second, or 420 R/H resources per minute. For example, a Knight in the Castle Age has 230 hit points and costs 240 total resources. Thus, healing Knights generates equivalently 420*240/230 = 428 resources per min, which is equivalent of about 11 Villagers (for 40 resource/min gather rate)
Since the calculation only involves the ratio R/H, it is worth inspecting its value for some common units. A higher RpH cost means each hit point is worth more resources, indicating that the unit is rather expensive. For instance, as shown in the table below, archer-type units have usually higher RpH than infantry (and thus may excel in either mobility or being ranged or have other strong points). Therefore, healing those high RpH units are especially worth it. On the other hand, a lower RpH cost means the unit is rather cheap because fewer resources are needed to have the same amount of hit points.
Feudal Age[] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit type | Total cost | HP | RpH | Equiv. working Vil. |
| Archer | 80 | 70 | 1.14 | 12 |
| Spearman | 80 | 90 | 0.88 | 9.2 |
| Horseman | 120 | 125 | 0.96 | 10 |
| (Early) Man-at-Arms | 120 | 120 | 1 | 10.5 |
Castle Age[] | ||||
| Assumes veterancy upgrades and Herbal Medicine | ||||
| Unit type | Total cost | HP | RpH | Equiv. working Vil. |
| Archer | 80 | 80 | 1 | 10.5 (16.8) |
| Spearman | 80 | 110 | 0.73 | 7.6 (12.2) |
| Horseman | 120 | 155 | 0.77 | 8.1 (13) |
| Man-at-Arms | 120 | 150 | 0.8 | 8.4 (13.4) |
| Knight | 240 | 230 | 1.04 | 11 (17.6) |
| Crossbowman | 120 | 80 | 1.5 | 15.8 (25.3) |
| Camel Rider | 240 | 270 | 0.89 | 9.3 (14.9) |
| Camel Archer | 240 | 120 | 2 | 21 (33.6) |
| Mangudai | 160 | 105 | 1.5 | 16 (25.6) |
| Horse Archer | 120 | 85 | 1.4 | 14.8 (23.7) |
| War Elephant | 1,000 | 1,400 | 0.7 | 7.5 (12) |
| Tower Elephant | 1,000 | 600 | 1.67 | 17.5 (28) |
Dialogue lines[]
- Abbasid Dynasty: /Abbasid Dynasty dialogue lines
- Byzantines: /Byzantine dialogue lines
- Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy: /Chinese dialogue lines
- English: /English dialogue lines
- French and Jeanne d'Arc: /French dialogue lines
- Malians: /Malians dialogue lines
- Mongols: /Mongols dialogue lines
- Ottomans: /Ottomans dialogue lines
Changelog[]
- Originally, all Monks moved at 1 tiles/s speed. With Server-Side Patch 12973, Monks without Relics move at 1.12 tiles/s, whereas those with Relics move 25% slower.
- Originally, Monks took 45 seconds to train. With Season Two Update 17718, they take 30 seconds to train.
- With update 6.0.878, religious units now only heal at 50% speed when their target is in combat.
Campaign version[]
Because the original four campaigns have not been rebalanced since the release of the game, Monks in those campaigns have different stats:
- They move at 0.88 tiles per second without a Relic and 0.44 tiles per second with a Relic
- They cost 200 gold and take 45 seconds to train.
Trivia[]
- Zhu Xi's Legacy and Chinese Monks carry a khakkhara, a staff topped with metal rings traditionally carried by Buddhist monks, particularly in the East Asian Buddhist tradition.
- English and French Monks carry a crosier, a stylized staff that is a symbol of the governing office of a bishop or Apostle and is carried by high-ranking prelates of various Christian churches.
- Imams and Scholars also carry a crosier, despite it not having been used by Muslims or secular scholars.
- Prior to Season Three, the Imam was an Abbasid unique unit.
- The Shaman is the only religious unit that doesn't change its appearance in the Imperial Age, because the Mongols during the early stages of development could not advance to the Imperial Age.
Gallery[]
See also[]
- Buddhist Monk ( Japanese)
- Dervish ( Ayyubids)
- Imam ( Abbasid Dynasty, Malians, Ottomans)
- Monk ( Byzantines, Chinese, English, French, Jeanne d'Arc, Zhu Xi's Legacy)
- Prelate ( Holy Roman Empire, Order of the Dragon)
- Scholar ( Delhi Sultanate)
- Shaman ( Mongols)
- Shaolin Monk ( Zhu Xi's Legacy)
- Shinto Priest ( Japanese)
- Warrior Monk ( Rus)
