Paths of heroes...

C. Another comment about chests – always keep in mind that they are also a good source of GOLD! If you plan to rely on diplomacy or build very expensive structures, it is worth collecting gold with secondary heroes. D. Also, if your secondary hero is exploring a forbidden zone where you don't want your main hero to go (perhaps there is nothing important there except for a few chests, or he is in a hurry to something else), you could have the secondary hero collect gold or gain experience even in the early stages of the game, where the main hero could benefit from it, but it would take too much time. E. Demon caves are a bit tricky... If you enter and fight the demon's minions, usually about 10 earth elementals, after defeating them, you usually get 2500 gold. By refusing to fight them, you risk one of four possibilities (getting gold and 1000 exp, getting only experience, losing 2500 gold (or the hero, if you don't have 2500!), or getting a little gold and an artifact), which is generally much better. F. All other sources of experience and skills can be used by a large number of heroes (Temple, Stonehedge, Witch Hut, Mercenary Camp, Fortress, Arena, and the Tree of Knowledge, which has the same price for all heroes (decided at startup, it may be nothing, 10 gems, or 2000 gold)). In the case of the Tree of Knowledge not requiring any payment, level advancement can be done immediately (however, it is better to do this with reserve heroes first, because using the Tree of Knowledge before you already have about 50,000 experience is a real waste). G. The supposed location shows the Sirens – a good way to convert useless armies into experience points. [If you have tons of cash or only a few armies, you won't need to give them to a hero who has little experience and send him there. The Sirens will destroy some of his armies and reward him with experience equal to the total HP of the destroyed armies. Ideal for getting rid of golems, ogres, hydras, and other (usually useless) units. You can gain several levels for a novice hero. In general, this is not a method for frequent use, but sometimes it works well. And, sometimes it helps human players, because computer heroes sometimes visit the Sirens with their main armies and thus make your job of killing these heroes easier later.] 5. Artifacts Always take the time to sort through artifacts, as you have a limited number of slots for them... All artifacts that protect against magic have become important in the latest updated version – the AI has started using spells like Paralyze and Blind frequently. In older versions, it never did this, and those artifacts only wasted space. And, remember one thing – (Note from the Literary Editor: the following describes a rarely mentioned semi-bug. Since it is not in the game description, I apologize, but I have removed it.) So, give "extra" artifacts to a reserve hero, along with all artifacts that add resources or gold. This leaves artifacts that improve basic skills and abilities, morale, luck, and movement. And even when you are preparing to capture a strong enemy hero (preferably in his castle, so he cannot escape), think carefully about which artifacts your hero might be missing for that battle, so that you can get even better ones from the enemy. (You usually won't need magic artifacts with Knights/Barbarians, and sometimes defense/attack artifacts with Mages who plan to rely on their strong magic... Also, some morale and luck boosts can be skipped for this battle, not to mention movement artifacts.) Please get rid of unwanted artifacts by sacrificing a hero to the enemy [if you want to give an artifact to the enemy – a payment, an ugly mask, and hearts of ice and cold, depending on which spells you have ;-) (Note from the Literary Editor: you can also add "Cursed Fisbin" here. And there is no "heart of cold" – it means "heart of fire".)] or simply by dismissing him and hiring another. I often even hire a hero to be dismissed with negative items. NWC should have made negative artifacts stick to the hero..., as it was in the original HOMM. 6. Movement Rules The total movement points of your hero depend not only on his skills but also on his armies, and the difference is 4 movement points between very slow and very fast armies. (The slowest army always matters, in case you didn't realize that). So, leave hydras, ogres, gnomes, and possibly orcs and archers at home if you don't really need them. Extra movement points can often be the only difference between life and death, i.e., if you encounter an enemy hero with a large army during your exploration, and he starts right after you finish your turn. [It just occurred to me that this could be a good way to waste your opponent's time – as soon as the opponent wanders to the edge of your territory, be close enough to him to let him see you. But make sure your hero has very fast armies, perhaps logistics or artifacts that increase movement... and each time, end your turn just a few steps away from him... And thus run around the map, wasting the time of the opponent's powerful army...] 7. Also, always customize heroes for use! If you have a ship and vast seas to conquer, you can buy a sorceress, try to get her to level up to become an expert navigator, dismiss her gnomes, and then we set off. (The dismissed gnomes will not speed up her ships, but she will have two extra movement points on land – and those can often save her a whole day if she can collect resources and get into the boat all within one turn. The same goes for barbarians exploring deserts, swamps, etc. – we leave the orcs in the castle, try to become an expert scout.)