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Himiko is a Hero in Civilization VI. She is exclusive to the Heroes & Legends game mode, introduced in the Babylon Pack.
- Attributes:
- Has 8
Charges. - Counts as a civilian unit.
- Has 8
- Abilities:
- Inspiring: +5 Combat Strength to all units within 2 tiles.
- Swift: Ignores all terrain Movement penalties.
- Himiko's Charm: Target any adjacent city-state. Himiko immediately places 1 free Envoy in the city-state. If you are already the Suzerain there, Himiko also earns Faith. Costs 1 Charge and all Movement.
- Himiko's Rule: If you are its Suzerain, levy the troops of the city-state with no Gold cost. Costs 1 Charge and all Movement.
- Inspiring: +5
Strategy[]
The 
Faith yield of Himiko's Charm starts at 50 and increases by 25 per era.
Himiko is undeniably one of the most powerful Heroes, as her generalist abilities can lend themselves to both establishing relationships with city-states and wiping out the neighboring empires. As long as you start next to at least one city-state, you will have no problem becoming its Suzerain. After Himiko moves next to the city-state's City Center, it only takes a few turns for her to generate a few free 
Envoy in the city-state by using Himiko's Charm, possibly granting you Era Score for being its first Suzerain ever as well. If you activate her one more time after becoming the Suzerain, she will grant you 25 Faith in the Ancient Era, which will result in an instant Pantheon. This has a hidden bonus that more Envoys invested into city-states mean you will discover more and more Heroes without having to invest in exploration. Afterward, Himiko's Rule allows her to levy the troops of her tributary city-states at no 
Gold cost. This ability is devastating in the Ancient and Classical Era, especially on higher difficulty levels when city-states start with more units than players, and there is no worry about their units being obsolete. This free instant army will then receive 5 
Combat Strength from being within two tiles of Himiko, allowing them to clear through any neighbor with little to no resistance. The fact that Himiko can summon up a relatively large army in such a short amount of time, and all units come with such high Combat Strength, makes her the top tier first Hero pick no matter what civilization you are playing as. It is also worth noting that Himiko's 
Lifespan is 10 turns longer than a normal Hero, and her powerful aura will let her be relevant in battle until her very last turn, even after all of her 
Charges are expended. Furthermore, with Swift and 4 
Movement, she can quickly traverse the battlefield to give many units the Combat Strength buffs within the same turn. A unit will receive the 5 Combat Strength buff as long as it is within two tiles of Himiko when the attack is conducted, regardless of where she was at the start of its turn.
Being the only civilian Hero in the game, Himiko has a couple of mechanical quirks. She is able to cross international borders freely without pre-established Suzerainty or Open Borders, which makes her decent for exploration. More importantly, she cannot be captured and is virtually unkillable (except by nuclear weapons in the Atomic Era), which makes her the only Hero who's guaranteed to live until her Lifespan runs out.
Himiko's strengths make her a Hero that every civilization will want if they happen to discover her, but she does have some outstanding synergy with certain leaders. The most obvious one that comes to everyone's mind is Matthias Corvinus. Hungary under Matthias is already one of the strongest domination civilizations in the game; with Himiko by his side, there is nothing that can hold back the army of mercenaries with 10 bonus Combat Strength and 2 Movement, who can be levied for free and upgraded at a cheap cost from the very beginning of the game. Other notable mentions are leaders that can double the Envoy generated, like Tamar or Teddy Roosevelt (Rough Rider), or leaders that simply love city-state diplomacy, like Pericles.
Civilopedia entry[]
Though a figure of legend today, Queen Himiko was likely a real person. She was the queen of Yamatai, on the islands that the Chinese called Wa – present-day Japan. In Chinese records, Himiko sent gifts to the Cao Wei kingdom: the northernmost of the three states that divided China between them in the 3rd century A.D. In these records Himiko is dubbed "Queen of Wa (Japan), and friend of Wei" by the Chinese emperor.
Where Himiko’s story gets interesting is in the accusations of sorcery. Chinese sources recount that she bewitched all of the residents of Wa into submitting to her rule, how she lived in a great castle served entirely by female attendants and guards (excepting one man, who brought her food), and rarely left. This mystical reputation is compounded in Japanese records, which identify Himiko with a number of divine beings: as the high shaman of the Japanese sun-goddess Amaterasu, or a shamanic wife of a divine snake. In this latter story, Himiko (identified by the name Yamato-toto-hi-momo-so-bime no Mikoto) is happily married to a clearly divine being, but who only visits at night. She begs him to stay until morning so that she can see him in the sunlight, but he demurs. Eventually, she convinces him, and he tells her that she will see him in her toilet-case, but she must promise not to be shocked at his appearance. The next morning, when she opens the case, there is a beautiful white snake coiled inside. Himiko gasps in alarm, and the god-snake changes back to his human form. He is angry, tells her that she had been warned not to react, and that now he must leave her. Himiko, in her grief, stabs herself.
The wide range of storied surrounding Himiko paint a portrait of an extraordinary woman. She combined the features of a queen and shaman, something which must have disturbed the largely-patriarchal chroniclers in her time. Her story speaks to the almost otherworldly hold that charismatic people can have over us. In popular representations in Japan, she is occasionally a seductress and occasionally a wise old queen, but she remains as popular as ever.
See also[]
- Himiko in other games
| Civilization VI Heroes1 [edit] |
|---|
| Anansi • Arthur • Beowulf • Hercules • Himiko • Hippolyta • Hunahpu & Xbalanque • Maui • Mulan • Oya • Sinbad • Sun Wukong |
| 1 Requires DLC |