Archers

* Knights
* Samurai
* Vikings

**Archers** are a subtype of Soldiers that appear in the Campaign, Breach, Arcade, and some of the opening cutscenes in dominion.

## Appearance

There are archers for all three factions and are identifiable by the unified design of their helmets and body armor. All archers wield the same kind of bow and arrow. When approached into melee combat, they will draw a short sword (a wakizashi in the case of the Samurai).

* Viking archers seem to wear padding or leather armor over their clothes, while wearing spangenhelm helmets with leather that covers the mouth and the neck.
* Knight archers wear leather over their chest, with cloth and belts about their design and a single metal knee plate on their right knee. Cloth acts as a hood and mouth-cover for them.
* Samurai archers wear a stylized *kimono* and *hakama*, with an *igote* sleeve on the left arm and visible leather gauntlets. Cloth covers their mouth as they wear an *amigasa* hat.

Keep in mind that these changes are purely aesthetic. All archers behave the same way.

Like the Soldiers, Archers are noticeably dwarfs in comparison to the Heroes of each faction, with even the smallest of Heroes (ie. Peacekeeper, Nobushi) standing a bit taller. This may be justified by the fact that after The Cataclysm, 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 hold a physique like the others.

## Combat

When present on the field of battle, Archers will shoot down Soldiers or other Archers with flaming arrows. And while they can shoot at Heroes, their arrows only deal a bit of damage. However, with each arrow causing hitstun to their target, when in a group, they can stagger a Hero and chip away at their health fast enough that they should not be ignored.

When approached into melee range, they will draw their melee weapon and start to act like a shield-less Soldier. Just like Soldiers, it only takes one hit to kill Archers.

### Campaign

In Campaign, Archers appear mainly at Archer Points and sidelines, covering for their own allies. They often are used as an objective, requiring the player to clear the point to allow allied forces to proceed. In this mode, they do use their swords for self-defense. They also are seen in many cutscenes.

### Arcade

In Arcade, Archers support enemy heroes in combat, pelting the player with flaming arrows. As mentioned above, they will chisel away a player's health and their attacks cannot be blocked.

### Breach

Breach Archers act differently than their Campaign counterparts. In Breach, Archers will only appear at Archer points with three Archers at each point. All three Archers must be killed before Archers from the opposite team will spawn and take their place. The Archers will not target heroes and will only attack the Pikemen. Archers are especially useful due to how they can greatly damage the Pikemen with a single shot, capable of wiping out a squad of them in a few volleys.

They do not use their sword behavior in this mode, even when confronted face-to-face with an enemy Hero.

## Trivia

* Although they are present during certain opening cut-scenes (together with closing cut-scenes before they were removed) of a Dominion match, Archers will not appear in the gamemode.
* It can be inferred that a squad of Archers are firing from off-map when using feats related to raining arrows, such as Arrow Strike and Arrow Storm.