Soldiers

**Soldiers** are AI controlled minions that appear in the campaign, dominion, and skirmish mode.

## Appearance

There are soldiers for all three factions and are identifiable by the unified design of their helmets, body armor, and shield.

* Viking soldiers are wearing leather lamellar over their clothes, covering their shoulders and the entirety of their chest and waist. Wearing gilded Gjermbundu helmets, they have trimmed beards. They wield round shields and Carolingian swords.
* Knight soldiers wear padded jackets or gambesons, along with kettle hats and a nicely trimmed beard. They wield heater shields and arming swords.
* Samurai soldiers wear a cuirass resembling *tosei do* (Sengoku Era armor), *tatami* sleeves, *kabuto* and *menpo*. They wield *te-date* shields and katana.

At the start of the Sakura update, the Soldiers' shields featured varied patterns than the standardized single pattern design they used to have. While some continued to have the same pattern, there could be other Soldiers whose shields would have their own design; in some cases, all soldiers would sport a unique pattern on their shield.

As of Season 1 of the Year of Reckoning, Soldiers have received updated appearances to reflect the peace after the recent Cataclysm, which brought new resources to all factions. Their outfits are cleaner and striped, and their headwear now use gold or fine iron material. There are now multiple tones of team color for Soldiers, with Attackers having red and oranges, and Defenders having blue, violet and blue-greens. In addition, there are new voice lines.

Keep in mind that differences between factions are purely aesthetic, as they will all behave in the same way.

Soldiers are noticeably smaller in comparison to the Heroes of each faction, with even the smallest of Heroes (ie. Peacekeeper, Nobushi) standing a bit taller than the Soldiers. This may be justified by the fact that after the Cataclysm centuries ago, there was a lack of access to resources, thus only the strongest or fortunate (Heroes and Captains) were properly nourished, while others such as Soldiers were left without the means necessary to maintain that kind of physique.

## Combat

As purely AI controlled units, Soldiers have a set function in each of the game modes. In non-Dominion games, they occupy a certain point of the map together with a Captain. Whereas in Dominion, they collective charge from either sides towards the center point objective, Point B (on The Shard, this is Point C), beginning an endless stalemate that only ends when one team wins and the other team's Soldiers retreat.

Factors of combat against Soldiers is as follows:

* Soldiers technically have a bit of health, as Soldiers attacking other Soldiers takes a short while before one dies, but for most Heroes' attacks, they will die in one hit. It is likely that attacks from enemy Soldiers deal reduced damage to their health, while Hero attacks, even those dealing sub-5 damage, are increased to guarantee killing them.
	+ Soldiers are not affected by Bleed damage (thus cannot be killed by Bleed alone), although they will still be tagged as Bleeding for the purpose of Peacekeeper's Exsanguis passives and Shaman's Blood Trance.
* While it is not possible to lock onto them when in Guard mode, Heroes will automatically approach nearby Soldiers when outside Guard mode, attacking them with their available combos.
	+ A Hero can still guard-break them or block their attacks. This allows Heroes to push them around or defend against them as they would when fighting other Heroes.
	+ Though, blocking their attacks does not engage a full guard mode like it would when receiving attacks from other Heroes.
	+ In contrast, while Heroes cannot parry the Soldiers' attacks, they will perform the Parry animation if a Soldier's attack connects during the Hero's extended Parry frames.
* When not in Guard mode, A Hero's attack combos will have predetermined directions from which they will attack from, some choosing the widest of attacks while others choose less favoured directions for clearing.
	+ Heroes can enter Guard mode to determine the direction of these attacks against Soldiers.
* While Heavy Attacks are more likely to take out more soldiers than a Light Attack, this does not apply for all Heroes and their possible combo chains.
	+ Be wary of stamina cost when using light or heavy attacks, as attacking soldiers will cost stamina just as in normal combat.
* For some Heroes, Zone Attacks are more efficient in taking out a clump of Soldiers. Other Heroes' Zone Attacks may be better suited when combating other Heroes. Because Zone Attacks cost a lot of Stamina compared to normal combo attacks, they should be used when there is Stamina to spare.

Soldier behavior depends on whether or not there are other soldiers nearby. If alone, soldiers will be passive and throw single attacks before backing off and waiting before throwing another. When in large groups, soldiers will be much more aggressive, throwing two to three strike combos even when faced with a Hero.

While soldiers are not dangerous in and of themselves, they can cause a multitude of problems for Heroes. While allied Soldiers will move out of your way, enemy soldiers will not. This can hinder a Hero when a player tries to cross the map, or trap them when trying to dodge an enemy's attack or escape from them. Soldiers can even block moves such as a guardbreak, causing you to guardbreak the soldier instead and be open for an attack from the opposing Hero. Even though their attacks inflict minimal damage, you will still flinch and cannot perform critical actions such as revives or executions when there are enemy Soldiers around.

Take into mind too, your own Soldiers can provide the same trite to opposing Heroes. If you are running to escape an enemy, running through a line of your own soldiers is almost guaranteed to end the chase. You can even use your own soldiers to your advantage when battling an opponent as the soldiers will now hinder them instead of you.

### Dominion

Soldiers are crucial in Dominion, as they are the moving force in one of the three point objectives, Point C for the Shard and Point B for every other map. The two armies will battle each other on the central capture point. If the battle for the central point favors the enemy too heavily, the soldiers may even begin retreating. Even without Hero intervention, one army will drive the other off the capture point. When one team gains control of the center objective the opposing team will spawn a larger group of soldiers while the team holding the point will spawn fewer soldiers. This will eventually drive off the current holders of the point and return it to neutral and the cycle repeats.

Killing soldiers will count as hard points for the match.

On certain maps, pairs of dueling Soldiers will appear at certain points of the sidelanes at the start of the match. While Heroes can choose to intervene on these duels, the Soldiers will eventually resolve with one side winning before returning to the skirmish happening at the center point.

### Skirmish

In Skirmish, typically together with Captains or Shield Captains, Soldiers from both sides litter the field, with more spawning whenever a group of soldiers have been killed. While they award points and can cause damage, unlike in Dominion, they are much less of a threat.

### Campaign

Soldiers appear in every major Campaign battle, and can be found engaging in smaller skirmishes. They may be in smaller groups along with Captains, or in larger amounts in Dominion-type fights. They often control an enemy zone or archer point, along with Heroes and Captains.

## Trivia

* While there are female voices for soldiers, there are no female models for soldiers.
	+ However, this may be because the Soldiers' armor hides any and all distinguishing features, although less believable for the Viking and Knight Soldiers who all have beards.
* There does not appear to be any animation for the mouths. Though this is less noticeable for the Samurai due to wearing something to cover the mouth, for the Vikings and Knights during cutscenes will yell, cheer, and give commands without ever moving their lips.
	+ This was later changed, giving them mouth animations during cutscenes and even guardbreaks.
* If they are killed via being pushed off a cliff they will begin a dying animation and bleed slightly before falling defeated.
	+ If you push around a Soldier, Pikeman, Archer or Captain for long enough, they will die. This is to prevent them from straying too far from their original path or location.
* When using the Arrow Storm or Catapult feat against them, Soldiers will raise their shields in anticipation, though this does not protect them from the arrows or catapult.
* During events, Soldiers are often (if not always) redecorated for the event.
* Prior to the Sakura update, the designs on the shields of each faction's Soldiers were uniform with no variance.
* Prior to Marching Fire, there were special (and stylistic) kill animations that Heroes would initiate when attacking Soldiers, with Light Attacks picking them off one by one, and Heavy Attacks swinging wide to clear many. Some Heroes had methods of clearing Soldiers that had different levels of efficiency compared to their current counterpart.
	+ The Developers decided to remove these animations as some kill animations were too long/inefficient, to the point that players would enter Guard mode to kill Soldiers (notable Heroes being Aramusha and Shaman). In some cases, the differences in kill animations between Heroes caused their own end of game balance issues.
		- It is also speculated that this change was also meant to divert manpower away from minion kill animations to other assets.
	+ Youtuber XDeadzX has a video online available that has been archived for public viewing here.
	+ As the Story Mode is not affected by live balance updates, the special kill animations can still be witnessed for certain Heroes by playing the Story Mode.

## Gallery

* Knight
* Samurai
* Viking