| “ | Flying scout. Has no attack, but can only be attacked by ranged units. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Sky Lantern is a secondary scout unit created for free by a Pioneer, the primary scout unit of the Chinese in Age of Mythology: Retold - Immortal Pillars. Once created, it can be controlled and moved around to reveal the map as another scout. It is a temporary unit, and automatically collapses after a short time. As a flying unit, it can be attacked only by ranged units, buildings, and certain god powers.
Unlike most flying units, Sky Lanterns can capture herdables, as well as convertible buildings such as Plenty Vaults, Trading Posts, and the Qinghai Lake Shrine.
Special ability[]
- Explosion (Passive, requires Sky Fire): Explodes when it hits the ground, causing 2
divine damage per second (2× vs. myth units, 0.5× vs. heroes) to enemy units and buildings in a radius of 5 for 5 seconds after it is destroyed.
Further statistics[]
Unique technologies[]
- Divine Light: +2 Line of Sight
- East Wind: +75% lifespan
- Sky Fire: Spawn area hazard upon death
Strategy[]
Due to their being free and their large Line of Sight, players can use them to scout the enemy base with impunity, thus keeping the Pioneer safe and use him to find resources. They do not last long, and they cannot be created as soon as they expire, as the recharge time for creating them is longer, so players must keep an eye on their Pioneer's ability meter to produce another when possible. When producing a Sky Lantern, players can specify a direction to release it in. Once created, the Sky Lantern will travel in the direction, thus freeing up some micro for the player and making scouting even more convenient.
Changelog[]
Immortal Pillars[]
- Initially, Pioneers do not automatically release Sky Lanterns when on Auto Scout mode, even when set to autocast. With update 18.12962, this is no longer the case.
- Initially, Sky Lanterns have 30 hit points and are automatically targeted by enemy units. With update 18.21333, they have 5 hit points and are no longer automatically targeted by enemy units.
History[]
| “ | Sky lanterns, also known as Kongming lanterns, are ancient Chinese paper lanterns. According to legend, they were invented by the renowned military strategist Zhuge Liang, also known as Kongming. It is said he used them as distress signals when surrounded by enemies, which is why they are also called Kongming lanterns. In addition to distress signals, lanterns are also utilized for making wishes and transmitting messages. In some legends, people even made large sky lanterns to illuminate the path for armies at night. |
” |
| —In-game help section | ||
Trivia[]
- The Sky Lantern is the only trainable flying unit which is not a myth unit.
- Kongming lanterns subsequently appear as the special ability of Zhuge Liang in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Three Kingdoms.
