Beginner's Guide

0:01 The fastest way to learn Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is to play the tutorial or an easy stand-alone scenario, choose the town native to the terrain you start on, build the Town Hall on day one, hire two or three heroes but give all the troops to one of them, and flag the Sawmills and Ore Pits near you before anything else. The official guide promises the basics come quickly ("couldn't be simpler"), then adds: "Mastery is another issue altogether", because the game "always rewards players who plan carefully and pay attention to details" (Prima guide, p.1). Every tip below comes from that guide, the official strategy guide for The Restoration of Erathia (1999), unless another source is named. Ubisoft's gameplay overview of the 2027 Remake, shown here, puts it the same way: "Easy to learn, yet endlessly rewarding to master." Where to buy and how to install the game is on How to Play Heroes 3 Today.

Quick facts

Choosing a scenario and difficulty

New players should start with the tutorial; The Shadow of Death's manual says, "If you have never played one of the Heroes games before, we highly recommend that you play the tutorial", found under New Game, Tutorial (p.6). The fan-made, unofficial Horn of the Abyss updated its own in-game tutorial in version 1.8.1 (Aug 25, 2026).

After that, pick a stand-alone scenario from New Game, Single Scenario, ideally a Small or Medium map with few players (see Maps), or start the first campaign, Long Live the Queen, whose first map is set to Easy (Prima guide, p.289). Difficulty decides your starting money and how well the computer plays:

Sources: Prima guide, pp.5, 171, 181-184.

0:19 Before the game starts, Advanced Options lets you choose your town, hero and bonus in most scenarios. The guide's advice: choose "the town native to the terrain near your starting position", since creatures fight better on native terrain; know that the Tower and Necropolis "are difficult to build when resources are scarce" while the Stronghold is "the best choice when you'll face combat early on"; and otherwise simply pick the town that suits your style. For the bonus, take the Gold or the Wood and Ore: a random artifact "may or may not" help (p.5). The nine towns are on Towns. SergiuHellDragoonHQ's HD Edition footage (Apr 20, 2017, no commentary) shows that screen for the scenario Key to Victory, with each color's starting town, hero and bonus and the difficulty choices.

The first day

1:19 Build the Town Hall. It raises your town's income to 1,000 gold a day, and each town can build only one structure a day, so the first build matters (Prima guide, pp.3, 122). Then recruit what your town's dwellings offer, hire a second hero at the Tavern, and start exploring: the map around your town is hidden until a hero uncovers it (p.187). In the same footage, the town screen of a Castle town opens on its Hall, which lists each building with what it does: here the Citadel, "including a 50% increase to base creature growth".

The first week

3:35 The guide offers two build orders for week one (Prima guide, pp.122-123):

The fast route builds income: with a Fort, Tavern and Village Hall already standing, it reaches the Capitol on Day 1 of Week 2. The balanced route is "a more cautious approach" that has three or four dwellings producing when the new week starts. Creatures appear on Day 1 of each week, so what you build in week one decides your second-week army (pp.122, 192). The Remake's overview poses the same choice: "rush to build a Capitol for extra gold supply", a new Mage Guild level, or "a new dwelling to recruit before an enemy strikes your town." Detailed orders for each town are on Town Build Order.

Heroes and armies

1:25 Hire two or three heroes early, but not more: each costs 2,500 gold. Move all the troops onto one hero, your "general", and send the others out as scouts with only your fastest creature, so they travel far (Prima guide, p.187). A hero's daily movement is set by the slowest creature in the army (p.97). Norovo's beginner tips video (Dec 23, 2020) adds a trick: movement is worked out at the start of the turn, so slow creatures handed back after the turn has begun do not slow the hero; he puts a hero whose slowest creature has Speed 3 at about 75% of the movement of one whose slowest has Speed 11 or more.

1:49 Feed the experience to your general. When a scout finds a pass guarded by weak monsters, let the general clear it; scouts should leave treasure chests for the general to take as experience. One or two high-level heroes are worth more than several medium ones (pp.101, 187-188). If a scout loses a battle or retreats, hire it back from the Tavern before the week ends: it keeps its levels and artifacts (p.189). Classes, skills and specialties are on Heroes. In the HD Edition footage, Christian reaches level 2 as a Knight, gains +1 Attack and is offered a choice of two secondary skills.

Exploring and resources

Explore around your town quickly, collect loose resources and flag nearby mines. If a hero has movement left for only one, flag the mine: the loose pile will wait, and the mine gives you an extra day of output. Wood and Ore build almost everything, so Sawmills and Ore Pits come first (Prima guide, p.187).

Not every monster needs killing. A group blocking a pass into your territory keeps enemy scouts out, so leave it if you do not need what is beyond (p.188). Right-click a monster group to see roughly how many there are before you attack (p.102). If you take a second town far from home, do not pour resources into it; upgrade its hall for gold and treat it "like a resource mine" (pp.123, 188). The map's rules, from movement to the Grail, are on Adventure Map.

8:10 When you are ready to push out, Norovo's tip is to follow the roads: players' main towns are almost always linked by them, especially on random maps, and a main hero who stays off-road too long gives opponents time to push across the map.

Combat basics

Battles are fought on a hex grid, each stack acting in order of Speed, and the guide's core rules for winning cheaply are (Prima guide, pp.174-178):

• Turn on View Hex Grid and Movement Shadow in the combat options, so you can see every stack's reach.
• Shoot before you fight hand to hand, all shooters at one target.
• Each stack normally strikes back only once a round, so attack the same enemy with several stacks: only the first takes the counterstrike.
• Use Wait to let the enemy come to you, then strike first.
• Do not use auto combat: the computer then plays your army by its own rules.

0:25 Norovo's first tip for beginners is "never underestimate the power of the one stack": split a low-level stack into single creatures with the Shift key, and use them as shields while your shooters work, to absorb the retaliation of a big enemy stack, or to pull enemies the wrong way. One stacks keep your losses down, which he calls one of the most important things in the game.

Every rule, from morale and luck to sieges, is on Combat.

Magic basics

8:36 Build Mage Guild I early if your main hero has no Spell Book: magic-oriented heroes start with one, but others must buy it at a Mage Guild for 500 gold, and the guide suggests building Mage Guild I on the first turn for a hero who will be away for weeks, since a book bought then holds five spells at once (Prima guide, pp.62, 107). Each hero casts one spell per combat round (p.170). A hero without the Wisdom skill gains nothing from Mage Guild III or above (p.107), and Mysticism keeps a caster useful far from town by restoring spell points (p.8). Barbarians, "the purest of the might-oriented Heroes", are built for fighting rather than magic (p.30). See Spells and Magic and Secondary Skills. Norovo adds that a Mage Guild refills spell points at the start of your next turn, not at once, so a hero who may be besieged before then should save the points he has.

Common mistakes

• Spreading your army over many heroes. The guide's plan is one general with all the troops and light scouts (Prima guide, p.187).
• Hiring too many heroes. At 2,500 gold each, they drain the gold you need for buildings and troops (p.187).
• Recruiting level 3 and 4 creatures a few at a time. The guide suggests letting them stockpile to 30 or more first (p.192).
• Filling every garrison. Keep a gold reserve and leave creatures in the dwellings until a town is threatened (pp.191-192).
• Sailing through a Whirlpool with a big weak stack. You lose half of your weakest stack, so carry a single cheap creature (p.99).
• Losing a town for a week. A player with no town for seven days in a row is out (p.100).
• Starting a campaign's next part from New Game. Continue campaigns with Load Game, or the later campaigns will not unlock (The Shadow of Death manual, p.11).

Where to go next

9:27 Once a few scenarios are won, the Strategy Guide covers the mid-game and end-game, Creatures lists every unit's stats, Artifacts the treasures to look for, and Campaigns the stories to play through. To play against people, see Multiplayer. Norovo ends his tips with the reminder that having fun matters more than playing perfectly: you can win "using general principles instead of memorizing specific tricks."

Frequently asked questions

What is the best town for beginners in Heroes 3? The official Heroes of Might and Magic 3 guide does not name one best town: it advises choosing the town native to the terrain around your start, warns that the Tower and Necropolis are hard to build when resources are scarce, and calls the Stronghold the best choice when you will fight early. Otherwise it suggests picking the town that suits your style.

What difficulty should I play Heroes 3 on? New Heroes of Might and Magic 3 players should start on Easy or Normal, where they begin with 30,000 or 20,000 gold and the computer builds only every other turn. From Hard up the computer builds every turn and fights at full strength.

Is Heroes 3 hard? Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is easy to learn but hard to master: its official guide says the interface "couldn't be simpler", but that the game rewards careful planning and "punishes those who play haphazardly." The tutorial and the Easy difficulty make the start gentle.

How do you win faster in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, put all your troops on one main hero, flag mines early, build your town's halls for income, and attack enemy towns on Day 7 so their new week of creatures is yours. On Easy and Normal the computer often attacks armies it cannot beat, which lets a strong hero wipe out its troops.

What should I build first in Heroes 3? Build the Town Hall on day one in Heroes of Might and Magic 3; the official guide then suggests either Mage Guild I, Blacksmith, Marketplace, City Hall, Citadel and Castle on the way to a Capitol, or two creature dwellings and a Citadel for a bigger army in week two.

How many heroes should I have in Heroes 3? The official Heroes of Might and Magic 3 guide suggests two or three heroes early in a game: one main hero with the whole army and the others as fast scouts. Each extra hero costs 2,500 gold.

Sources

• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, Prima Publishing, 1999, pp.1, 3, 5, 8, 30, 62, 97, 99-102, 107, 122-123, 170-192, 289
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death User Manual, The 3DO Company, 2000, pp.6, 11
• Horn of the Abyss changelog, HotA Crew, read Oct 21, 2026
• Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake - Gameplay Overview Trailer, Ubisoft, Aug 26, 2026 (video)
• Heroes 3: 14 Beginner Tips & Tricks to Instantly Improve Your Play, Norovo, Dec 23, 2020 (video)
• Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD Edition - 4K GAMEPLAY, SergiuHellDragoonHQ, Apr 20, 2017 (video)