Monk (Age of Mythology)

This article is about the unit in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon. For the similar unit in other games of the series, see Monk.

Monk
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon
Type	Hero
Civilization	Chinese
Age	Heroic Age
Creation
Trained at	Temple
Gold	100
Population	2
Training time	9 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	90
Speed	4
Line of Sight	16
Hack armor	20%
Pierce armor	15%
Crush armor	99%
Attack
Hack	9
Multipliers	Myth unit: 4× Animal of Set: 3×
Range	0.1
Healing
Heal rate	7.5 HP/s
Heal range	10
Conversion
Convert target	Human soldiers
Conversion range	11

The Monk is a Chinese Hero unit in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon. He can collect Relics, heal friendly units, and can also convert enemy human units.

Abilities

The most distinguishing feature of the Monk is that he is capable of converting hostile units, not unlike the Monk in Age of Empires II. The Monk can only convert human military units, not siege weapons, ships, myth units, etc., although worshipping Shennong allows Monks to convert non-Titan myth units as well. Note: Conversions fail if the player has reached/exceeded their population cap.

Conversion stats for each Monk (adding more Monks does not seem to affect conversion time):

• Range: 11 meters.
• Human units conversion time: 9–11 seconds
• Myth units conversion time: 15–20 seconds

The Monk can also heal friendly units at 7.5 hit points per second.

The Monk can carry Relics.

Further statistics

God bonuses

• Shennong: Enables converting myth units, +100% healing rate (15 hit points per second).

General technologies

• Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons, Iron Weapons: +10% attack.
• Copper Armor, Bronze Armor, Iron Armor: -15% hack vulnerability.
• Copper Shields, Bronze Shields, Iron Shields: -15% pierce vulnerability.

Myth technologies

• Burials (Dabo Gong): Convert 30% faster.
• Dragon Scales ( Ao Kuang): -10% hack vulnerability.

Relic bonuses

• Boots of Kick Everything: +10% movement speed.
• The Khopesh of Horus: +1.0 attack bonus multiplier vs. myth units.
• Pelt of Argus: +6 Line of Sight.

Strategy

The Monk is stronger overall than the Egyptian Priests and deal decent damage with an attack bonus against myth units. However, due to the fact that Monks are melee units, combined with their slow speed, they take a more supportive role in combat. They are capable of healing allies at a decent rate, so players may send their armies into battle and regularly retreat to a handful of waiting Monks to restore their hit points. On the other hand, Monks can also be brought closer to the battle field to make use of their conversion ability. Monks convert enemy units at a decent rate and the conversion process can stack up on a single unit so opponents may see their forces quickly being turned against them.

Converted units from other civilizations will lose all of their upgrades (except Armory upgrades) and do not benefit from most Chinese technologies, so they should not make up the bulk of an army. A possible exception to that rule would be in Supremacy battles when players rely on a Wonder to win. Players can mass Monks entirely and leave a decent population gap open to make conversion possible. Any siege, hero or (not counting Shennong) myth units remaining will be quickly taken out by the converted army or even the monks themselves. Converted Atlantean human soldiers can still be turned to Heroes, which is useful against players heavily reliant on myth units.

Changelog

Tale of the Dragon

• Initially, Monks could not attack animals. With hotfix #2 of patch 2.0, they can. With patch 2.8, they can properly attack all units.
• Initially, Monks have 15 conversion range, can convert frozen and stoned units, take 6 seconds to convert human soldiers, have a minimum and maximum convert time of 6 and 10 seconds, and could not pick up Relics. With patch 2.7, they have 11 conversion range, cannot convert frozen and stoned units, take 11 seconds to convert human soldiers, have a minimum and maximum convert time of 9 and 11 seconds, and can pick up Relics.
• Initially, Shennong's Monks took 15 seconds to convert myth units. With patch 2.8, it takes 14 seconds.
• With patch 2.8, Dragon Scales affects Monks.

History

“	"Heaven is the ultimate authority, the king of gods who should be admired by the king." – Dong Zhongshu From its earliest forms Chinese religion has relied on priests and monks for spiritual guidance. During the Shang period beliefs centered around animism and ancestor worship. People believed in gods of the wind, sun, clouds, and moon. They also worshipped Shangdi, the preeminent god of human destiny and the forces of nature, and they invoked their ancestors to intercede with him. Priests relied on oracle bones to interpret Shangdi's will, usually tortoise shells or the shoulder bones of cattle or oxen. They would write their questions on the bones, heat them, and watch and interpret the way they cracked. Shangdi evolved into the Chinese concept of Heaven during the Zhou period, a sky-god and supreme moral force which gave the emperors power and legitimacy to rule. This Mandate of Heaven was the divine concord by which the emperors retained power and exercised justice. By the Han Dynasty Shangdi was synonymous with Heaven, and also equated with the Jade Emperor of Taoism.	”
—In-game help section

Notes

• Monks without exception cannot convert the following units: Worker Units, Ox Carts, Heroes, siege weapons, flying units, Animals of Set, Titans, or Earth Dragons.
  • Furthermore, Monks cannot damage Worker Units, Ox Carts, or the roots spawned from the Uproot God Power. The reason behind this is unknown.
• Shennong's Monks can convert naval myth units, including Leviathans. If a Leviathan is transporting units upon conversion, the cargo will unload onto the shoreline if it's close enough. Otherwise, enemy units will remain trapped inside the friendly Leviathan.
• Due to an oversight, assigning a Monk to a Set player in the Scenario Editor will also allow him to convert most huntable wild animals in the same manner as Priests.

Gallery

Player 1 Monk

Player 2 Monk

	Heroes obtainable in random maps in Age of Mythology
God	Archaic Age	Classical Age	Heroic Age	Mythic Age
Greeks (1 each)
All		Hippocrates*
Zeus	Jason	Heracles	Odysseus	Bellerophon
Poseidon	Theseus	Atalanta	Hippolyta	Polyphemus
Hades	Ajax	Achilles	Chiron	Perseus
Aphrodite			The Argo
Egyptians
All	Pharaoh (1)
	Priest
Osiris				Son of Osiris
				Pharaoh (more)
Norse
All	Hersir		Godi
Freyr	Gullinbursti (1)
Baldr				Hero of Ragnarok
Atlanteans
All	Citizen (Hero) (50)	Murmillo (Hero)	Arcus (Hero)	Fanatic (Hero)
		Katapeltes (Hero)	Contarius (Hero)
	Oracle (Hero) (10)	Turma (Hero)
		Cheiroballista (Hero)	Destroyer (Hero)
Chinese (Immortal Pillars)
All	Pioneer		Sage (5)
			Jiang Ziya (1)
Fuxi		Nezha (1)		Yang Jian (1)
Nüwa	Kuafu (Hero) (1)			Li Jing (1)
Shennong				Wen Zhong (1)
Chinese (Tale of the Dragon)
All			Monk
Fu Xi	Immortal (8)
Others	Immortal (2)	Immortal (2)	Immortal (2)	Immortal (2)
Regicide game mode
All	Regent (1)