Recruiting, equipping and commanding soldiers

Learn a soldier's blueprint, then choose the recruit from Military in Adventure's Build menu. You can have three hired soldiers in total. They use a different limit from animal companions. A recruit starts at your current level, with health and damage or healing scaled from its role. It needs a free walkable place to deploy. Recruiting spends the offered resources and a turn. These recruits are not available in The Wilds.

Choose the right role

The Ranger attacks from four horizontal and vertical steps away. The Sentinel and Bulwark have one-step reach, with the Bulwark starting with more health. The Channeler and Sapper have three-step reach and a blast around their target. The target takes full damage and surrounding eligible foes take half, rounded down with a minimum of one. The Sapper waits through two combat actions after each throw. The Tender instead heals the living soldier within two steps who has the most missing health, including itself. It cannot heal you.

Hand over real equipment

Right-click a soldier and choose Give Weapon or Give Armour. It can carry one weapon and one piece of body armour. Sentinels and Bulwarks use melee weapons, Rangers and Sappers use bows, crossbows or slings, and Channelers and Tenders use staves. Weapon damage adds to the soldier's attack, or to the Tender's healing. Armour points reduce incoming hits. Other equipment bonuses do not apply. Taking equipment back needs room in your pack. A soldier who dies drops its equipment where it fell and is removed permanently.

Let experience keep them useful

Living soldiers learn from credited kills within 15 tiles, including diagonals, in the same realm. They can grow to their owner's current level. Experience earned at that limit is saved up to one level's worth. Once you gain a level, a later qualifying kill can let them advance. Levelling increases their role's health and damage or healing, while keeping their health proportion with whole-number rounding. It does not increase reach, blast size or throwing speed.

Orders and travel

Right-click a visible soldier for Follow Me, Stay Here or Go Home. Orders and equipment changes are free. Stay Here and Go Home can leave soldiers in the overworld while you travel elsewhere. In temporary places such as dungeon floors and ship interiors, soldiers move with you when you leave, even if you told them to stay. Following soldiers try to avoid fire and keep pace with faster travel when the path is clear. Staying put does not stop their ordinary combat actions.