The Pantheon is a special mechanic of Age of Wonders 4. Each time players beat a realm, they can add their faction's leader to the Pantheon and get points they can spend on special upgrades.
The majority of these upgrades are cosmetic. When players create a new faction, they can use these upgrades to give their leaders different cloaks or hats, or use a new icon for the faction symbol. However, one out of every four upgrades is a mechanical bonus that can change a faction's traits or else give the leader a more powerful weapon and starting ability. This Age of Wonders 4 guide will explain which of these upgrades are worth getting first and how to get them quickly.
The Progression Chart
The first thing to know is that the realms on the left of the chart unlock on their own. Players can't spend any pantheon points on these, and instead they become available as the Pantheon level goes up. The last realm, the Desolate Realm, unlocks at Pantheon level 28.
The second thing to know is that, at least in the current game build, when players choose an upgrade all adjacent upgrades unlock. This includes upgrades that are above it and not just the ones below. This means that when players unlock the Godir's Crown helmet, all five of the upgrades that lead to it become selectable. This is important because the bottom upgrade in a column of four is always a mechanical upgrade instead of a cosmetic upgrade. Players can buy them all very quickly by completing one column and then moving sideways, and so they can get all the mechanical upgrades by level 25.
Culture Traits
Six of the mechanical pantheon bonuses are culture traits, with one for each affinity. Players can add them to custom factions or edit the existing factions and swap in new traits. Pantheon traits are easy to identify because they have a gold laurel symbol next to their name.
- Bannerlords: 1 Order Affinity, Rally of the Lieges happens twice as often, +25 Allegiance with the nearest free city and start knowing its location.
- Chosen Destroyers: 1 Chaos Affinity, -10 Alignment, cannot build or conquer new cities but each razed city adds a permanent +40 Gold, +20 Mana, and +20 Knowledge income. Also, the faction starts with -300 Relations with all other free cities and factions.
- Mana Addicts: 1 Astral Affinity, all units get Attunement: Mana Addicted (unit gets Life Steal for 1 turn when either side casts a tactical spell, but -5 Morale on a turn when no one casts a tactical spell). Also, the faction's battle mages and support units start with +1 rank and the faction starts with a free battle mage or support unit.
- Talented Collectors: 1 Nature Affinity, cities get +5 Gold, Mana, Knowledge, Food, Production, and Draft for every Magical Material they have in their Domain. The faction also starts with a free Magical Material near their throne city.
- Perfectionist Artisans: 1 Materium Affinity, city structures cost double the Production but add an extra +1 Stability and +5 Gold on top of their normal benefits. Tier 3 units start with +1 rank and the faction starts with a tier 3 unity, but the city cap starts at 1 instead of 3.
- Silver Tongued: 1 Dark Affinity, Pronouncements cost half as much, and that includes both the initial cost and the upkeep cost. The faction also spends nothing on trade deals with free cities, starts with an extra scout, and starts with the General empire skill Diplomatic Focus (+1 Whispering Stone).
Some of these culture traits are useful in every situation. Mana Addicts is great for a Mystic culture with plenty of mana and tactical magic points to throw around, and Talented Collectors is useful to almost any culture. Players should be annexing Magical Material provinces normally thanks to their bonuses, and this trait turns such provinces into one of each basic province improvement on top of anything else they build. It also provides access to the useful Nature skill tree.
The other culture traits can be useful depending on the circumstances. A realm with the Megacities trait doesn't allow factions to build more than one city, and so the penalties of Chosen Destroyers and Perfectionist Artisans are less pronounced. Players can also exploit Chosen Destroyers by razing a city, waiting for another faction to rebuild it, and then razing it again.
Bannerlords and Silver Tongued are more useful in realms with plenty of free cities to interact with. Silver Tongued factions can get free resources from free cities and vassals, at least if they remember to use the trade panel, but keep in mind that players won't start with three Whispering Stones if they choose a faction with both Chosen Uniters and Silver Tongued. For its part, Bannerlords is also useful on a map with plenty of Ancient Wonders since those also contribute to the Rally of the Lieges.
Starting Weapons
The other mechanical benefits players can get from Pantheon upgrades are new starting weapons. Players choose a starting weapon for their faction ruler in the Appearance step, and just like culture traits the Pantheon weapons have gold laurels next to their names.
Normally, a starting weapon comes with a tier 1 weapon and a basic skill that players can get when leveling up a hero. Pantheon weapons are also tier 1, but they add more damage types to the list and provide starting skills that most heroes will never get access to. And even if players change their leader's weapon, the special skill will stick with them for the rest of the game.
- Tyrant's Sword and Shield: Feudal Longsword, Feudal Shield, and Intimidating Aura (90 percent chance that adjacent enemies lose 5 Morale at the end of the hero's turn).
- Berserker's Greataxe: Greataxe and Berserker's Rage (after dropping past 33 percent health, the hero becomes Berserk and Steadfast).
- Cryomancer's Staff: Staff of Frost and Freezing Blast (14 frost damage, 90 percent chance of inflicting Frozen on target or Slowed if resisted).
- Druid's Staff: Staff of Blight and Sap Strength (90 percent chance of inflicting 2 Weakened on enemies in 1-hex radius, hero gets 1 Strengthened for each Weakened inflicted).
- Earthshaker's Hammer: Greathammer and Quake (12 physical damage to every unit and fortified obstacle in 2-hex radius around hero, 30 percent chance of hitting units with Immobilized for 1 turn).
- Orbs of Necromancy: Poison Orb and Raise Undead (raises friendly undead unit with 60 percent of its health, can use on other dead units to create temporary Zombie unit).
While these weapon sets have obvious connections to the six Affinities, any hero from any faction can start with any of these weapons. None of the special abilities are uniquely dangerous or exploitable, but all of them are much more useful than the generic starting abilities that come with the four original weapon sets. Players should always choose a Pantheon weapon to get a special ability even if they don't plan on sticking with the provided weapon type.
Age of Wonders 4 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.