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Hercules is a Hero in Civilization VI. He is exclusive to the Heroes & Legends game mode, introduced in the Babylon Pack.
- Attributes:
- Has 6
Charges. - Counts as a melee unit.
- Cannot earn experience or
Promotions.
- Has 6
- Abilities:
- Rugged: Ignores
Movement penalties in Hills terrain. - Hercules' Labor: Use when located on a friendly
District under construction. Hercules immediately completes construction of the
District. Costs 2 Charges and all
Movement. - Hercules' Rage: Use when located on an enemy
District. Hercules destroys all buildings present and pillages the
District. Costs 1 Charge and all
Movement.
- Rugged: Ignores
Strategy[]
Like all Hero units, Hercules'
Strength increases with the progression of the eras, as shown in the table below.
| Era | |
|---|---|
| Classical | 48 |
| Medieval | 62 |
| Renaissance | 76 |
| Industrial | 88 |
| Modern | 102 |
| Atomic | 112 |
| Information | 122 |
| Future | 136 |
Hercules' Labor is a simple yet effective ability. Being able to instantly construct any district for 2
Charges makes him an excellent choice for any civilization at any point in the game, especially in the early game when you need to build up your infrastructure quickly. With this ability, recalling Hercules in the mid- and late game can still be useful, since he can finish up to 3 different
Districts. When you compare the amount of
Faith spent to bring him back to using Moksha to buy
Districts using
Faith, Hercules is the much better deal. He is also helpful when are pursuing a Science Victory, as he can construct multiple Spaceports instantly.
Hercules' Rage is also another great active ability. At a cost of 1
Charge, he can remove all buildings from an enemy district and also pillage that district, which is especially damaging late in the game when districts are filled with buildings. This ability goes well with Hercules' aggressive nature depicted by his
Combat Strength: he has the highest
Combat Strength of all Heroes, which scales well into the mid- and late game.
Civilopedia entry[]
Heracles – better-known in English by his Roman name, Hercules – is the son of Zeus, and a hero that epitomized strength, if not good judgement. Hera, Zeus’s wife, hated Heracles for being the product of one of Zeus’s many affairs, and sought to bring ruin upon him however she could. This started in the cradle, as Hera sent snakes to kill the infant Heracles. Even then the boy was strong enough to overcome the serpents, and his strength only grew. His wisdom, however, did not keep pace with his physical strength: Heracles killed his music tutor with a lyre, threw a close friend (whose father and brothers he also slew) over a wall, tossed the herald Lichas into the sea, and, most tragically, killed his own children.
This latter act was done in a fit of madness after he was cursed once again by Hera. In order to atone for this act, Heracles undertook his famous Labors: slaying a monstrous lion (whose skin he later wore); defeating the hydra, a multi-headed snake whose blood was poison, and who would re-grow two heads whenever one was lopped off; stealing the girdle of Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons; and a number of other beast-slaying, livestock-stealing, stables-cleaning sorts of things.
Heracles’s tale ends tragically. As a centaur attempts to steal his wife away, Heracles shoots him with arrows dipped in the hydra’s poisonous blood. As the centaur dies, he whispers to Heracles’s wife that his tunic, soaked as it is in lusty centaur’s blood, would cause Heracles to fall more deeply in love with her. She convinces him to do so, and Heracles dies horribly from the poison, giving us all a powerful lesson about the benefits of not wearing shirts when one has the physique of a Greek god.
Heracles has had a long career after his death. The story of a tragically slain hero, the son of the supreme god, was an appealing one in the Mediterranean during the Roman era, and Hercules developed a sizeable following. Even in India, Greek-inspired Gandhara sculptors depicted Vajrapani, the protector of the Buddha, as Hercules with his iconic club and lion-skin.
Trivia[]
- Hercules' icon refers to the first of the hero's Twelve Labors: slaying the Nemean lion.
- Hercules and his Labors are referenced in the Steam achievement unlocked by winning a game on Immortal difficulty or higher.
| Civilization VI Heroes1 [edit] |
|---|
| Anansi • Arthur • Beowulf • Hercules • Himiko • Hippolyta • Hunahpu & Xbalanque • Maui • Mulan • Oya • Sinbad • Sun Wukong |
| 1 Requires DLC |
