Heroes

For a complete list of all heroes, see Hero List. For a complete list of all hero abilities, see Hero Abilities.

Hissho Leader

Heroes are powerful characters that provide great bonuses to your planetary Systems and Fleets. Heroes must be recruited and then attached to a fleet or system. While active, Heroes will gain XP, allowing them to access Abilities that improve their bonuses each time they level up to max level 20 (25 in Disharmony).

Every Hero has two Classes out of the five total (Commander, Corporate, Adventurer, Pilot and Administrator), which determine the Hero's starting attributes and their access to special abilities. The five attributes (Melee, Offense, Defense, Labor and Wit) give bonuses to FIDS production or combat actions. Heroes accumulate XP every turn they are attached to a Fleet or System and even more when they engage in battle. Every time the Hero levels up, you can unlock one Ability for that Hero.

There is a limit on how many Heroes can be used by an empire at any time, the so called "Academy Cap", which can be increased by researching the tier 7 technology Futuristic Game Theory (+2 Academy Cap) and tier 9 technology Perfect Forecasting (+3 Academy Cap) on the Diplomacy & Trading Technology Tree. There is a Dust cost to recruit a Hero as well as a upkeep that must be paid each turn.

Recruitment and Expelling

Heroes are recruited out of a Recruitment Pool, that initially consists of 3 randomly chosen Heroes for the faction. Every 50 turns, another Hero is added to that pool. This interval can be influenced by Research.

The cost for recruiting Heroes depends on the number of Heroes you already have in your service.

No. Heroes	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Hiring Cost ()	20	80	140	200	260	320	380	440	500	560	620

The upkeep cost of Heroes is equal to twice their level. When you fire ("expel") a Hero, they become available to every Empire still in the game (this implies that the initial Hero pool is not shared between the different Empires).

Experience

Heroes can gain experience and level up. Each level gives 1 ability point, which can be spent to unlock Abilities. XP requirements are as follows:

Level	Total XP	XP from previous
1	0	-
2	10	10
3	20	10
4	40	20
5	80	40
6	120	40
7	160	40
8	200	40
9	250	50
10	300	50
11	360	60
12	420	60
13	500	80
14	600	100
15	700	100
16	800	100
17	900	100
18	1000	100
19	1100	100
20	1200	100

The XML suggests the following values for XP gain; however, there appear to be some hidden modifiers:

Source	XP
Assigned (per turn)	1
Completed construction	1
Won battle	20
Drew battle	10
Lost battle	5
Injured enemy Hero	20

In reality, Battles vary greatly in the number of XP they award, and depend on the ships destroyed. In addition, the construction XP bonus is related to the resource cost of the improvement. An exploitation gives 3 XP, for example. 

Stats

There are 5 different stats that give bonuses to the Star System or Fleet the Hero is assigned to. All stat bonuses are per point (for example, a Hero with a Labor of 5 would give bonuses of +10% Food and a +10% Industry ).

Labor	+2% Food +2% Industry
Wit	+2% Science +2% Dust
Melee	+5 Defense on Star System +5% Defense on Star System +10% Invasion on Fleet
Offense	+4% min Damage on Fleet Weapons +4% max Damage on Fleet Weapons +4% Intercept Evasion on Fleet Weapons +4% on Fleet Weapons
Defense	+4% Interception Accuracy (Flak) +4% Absorption (Beam) +4% Deflection (Kinetic) per turn +4% on Fleet Defenses

Abilities

Main Article: Abilities

Abilities are traits of Heroes that change the attributes for a hero, allowing the hero to benefit the system or fleet they are located in.

Injury

A Hero attached to a Fleet who is defeated in Combat becomes injured. A Hero attached to a Star System is injured when the system is lost. Injured Heroes can not be used until they are healed. You can pay to heal the Hero. This cost is reduced each turn. The  cost will decrease to 0, and you can start using the hero again.

Some effects reduce the cost to heal your Heroes, including the Hero Ability Hardy Constitution, as well as your racial picks. 

Cloning

Horatio - Administrator Commander Hero

One of the traits of Horatio is "Cloning", which gives the ability to copy an existing Hero. The copy has the same Abilities, attributes and the same XP as the original. It is possible to clone a clone but clones count towards your Academy Cap. The cost for cloning is the same as for hiring a Hero.

Hero Capacity (Academy Points Cap)

There is a limit to the number of heroes you have under you command at any given point in time. As you research further into the tech trees additional heroes can be hired from the academy.

Technology Unlocks (research cost)	Hero Limit	Turns / New Hero	XP Bonuses
Starting	3	50	0
Improved Fleet Management (300)		-5 turns	+20%
Futuristic Game Theory (7,500)	+2	-10 turns
Maximized Exploitation (14,000)		-5 turns	+50%
Perfect Forecasting (25,000)	+3	-10 turns