The Necropolis in Olden Era feels very close in spirit to Heroes III, but the faction has been noticeably reworked. It's not a castle that crushes you with endless skeletons and upgraded vampires. In the new version, Necropolis is built around game tempo, map control, and constant resource exchange in the player's favor. While other factions win individual battles, Necropolis wins the entire game as a whole. The longer the game goes, the stronger the undead army becomes—this hasn't changed from the third installment, but the way it forms has changed radically.

General Overview of the Castle and Main Advantages of the Faction

As in the classic Heroes, the necromancer resurrects the killed army and thus grows his own, so the tactic is based on not losing your creatures and accumulating a large army from neutrals. Only in Heroes III, only skeletons were resurrected, and liches with an artifact, but here you kill a level 5 creature, and a level 5 creature is resurrected for you. Therefore, the strategy boils down to not looking for stacks with a large number of weak creatures, but building a clearing strategy to kill the strongest possible, but without losses.

Because of this, Necropolis is incredibly strong on large maps. While other factions deplete troops in battles, the undead army only grows after most fights.

The second important point is army transformation. Through the Undead Transformer, the player can convert creatures into undead, of the same level as the one put in, unlike the skeleton transformer, which only made skeletons or dragon skeletons. Combined with diplomacy, this turns the map into an endless source of units. This works especially well through the hero King-of-Kings. On high difficulties, experienced players literally collect neutrals, as well as creatures from other castles, and turn them into their army.

The third strong point of the faction is battle tempo control. Necropolis has many tools for slowing down and exhausting the enemy. Web, sleep, debuffs, lich resurrection, vampirism—all this allows winning battles with minimal losses.

At the same time, the faction has serious drawbacks. Necropolis has weak starting damage. Until you get skeleton archers or good magic, many battles go poorly.

But if the game drags on at least until the second month, Necropolis begins to turn into a powerful weapon.

Best Necropolis Heroes

Currently, Necropolis has several heroes that really stand out.

Onkos

Specialty: Skeletons

This is the most versatile starting hero for most maps. His strength is built around skeletons and a faster snowball effect (collect more army - clear more - army grows faster, etc.). If you want a confident start without risk, this is the best choice.

Onkos shines through an early upgrade to skeleton archers. This combo is currently considered the foundation of most successful Necropolis starts. Even many Western guides call Skeleton Archers the faction's main early power spike.

Marl

Specialty: Web

A very strong tempo hero through Web. His task is not in the late game, but in dominating the first weeks. Marl is excellent at clearing neutrals without losses and allows faster capture of mines.

On maps with many early battles, Marl can be even stronger than Onkos.

Funerella

Specialty: Necromancy

The most dangerous hero for long games. If the game goes into the second month, Funerella scales monstrously. Her potential is unlocked through maximizing necromancy and a long series of battles.

This is not the best starting hero for a beginner, but one of the strongest for an experienced player.

Mage

Specialty: Arcane Magic

The best magic hero of the faction. Through Arcane Magic, he can turn tough battles into free ones. Especially good against strong neutrals and in PvP.

King of Kings

Specialty: Diplomacy

One of the most interesting Necropolis heroes. His value is built around diplomacy and creature conversion. In the right game, he can generate absurd armies without direct costs.

But this is a very map-dependent hero. If the map is poor in neutrals or the game is aggressive, he performs worse.

Tactics for the First Months

Necropolis wins the game with the right actions in the first two weeks. They will give you the first army and the ability to break neutral stacks without losses. Then, with a fast tempo, you accumulate an army. If you enter the second month with good tempo, the faction starts scaling automatically.

The most common mistake is quickly building up to Vampires or other high tiers (especially since they are quite weak). In practice, early Skeleton Archers are almost always more effective. They sharply reduce army losses and speed up map clearing.

At the start, you should only take safe battles. Necropolis hates trading units to zero. Every lost pack of skeletons or ghosts slows down your "snowball".

The first days usually look like this:

The main goal of the first week is to minimize losses and start building an army, especially skeleton archers, so it's better to upgrade the skeleton building on the first day, immediately hire a second hero, give all skeletons to the first hero, and upgrade them to archers.

It is very important to understand that the Necropolis economy does not always hinge on gold. Many players have already noticed that Arcane Dust has become one of the most problematic resources for the faction. It blocks important upgrades, magic, and castle development.

The second week usually revolves around one of the directions:

either mass Skeleton Archers, or a fast rush to Vampires, supplemented by army scaling through the "Undead Transformer".

Experienced players almost always hire a second hero as early as possible. His task is logistics, resource gathering, and army delivery. In Olden Era, this is critical. One hero cannot do everything. If you are playing as the hero "King of Kings," you need a third hero who will constantly run between the main hero and the castle, converting joined units through diplomacy into Necropolis warriors.

It is very important not to try to clear the entire map in a row. Necropolis is especially strong when every battle brings profit to the army. If a battle leads to heavy losses, it is better to postpone it.

General Strategy for Playing the Castle

Necropolis is not about a fast all-in. It is a faction of accumulating advantage.

At the strategic level, the game revolves around several principles:

First—constant army expansion through external sources. Necromancy, diplomacy, creature transformation, and resurrection should work simultaneously.

Second—minimizing losses. If a conditional Dungeon faction can afford to trade part of the army for tempo in territory development, Necropolis prefers to win "in the black."

Third—pressure through enemy exhaustion. Necropolis feels very comfortable in long battles. Vampires drain health, liches resurrect, control magic breaks the enemy's tempo.

On large maps, the faction becomes especially terrifying. The more objects and neutrals, the faster the army scales.

In PvP, Necropolis is especially dangerous against inexperienced players. Many underestimate the growth rate of the undead and start pressuring too late.

But the faction also has vulnerabilities.

Necropolis does not like fast aggressive attacks—in the early stages, the castle is too weak. If the opponent comes very early with a strong tier-3 or tier-4 stack, the undead may start having problems.

In addition, the army has mobility issues. Many units are slow, and the lack of good damage is felt very strongly.

Therefore, the main task of the player is to delay clashes between the main hero and the opponent as long as possible.

Unit Overview and Development

Skeleton / Skeleton Swordsman / Skeleton Archer

The foundation of the entire faction.

Regular skeletons are only useful as cannon fodder. The real power begins after upgrading to archers. Skeleton Archers are currently considered the key unit of the early game.

They allow you to clear the map almost without losses. Huge stacks of skeletons combined with necromancy quickly turn into a snowball.

Most strong Necropolis builds currently revolve around them.

Ghost / Spirit / Phantom

The best assistant to archers (skeletons and liches). Firstly, they also replenish very actively, since neutral stacks are mostly level 1-2. And in general, this is a top unit—flies far, has vampirism that works in the positive, i.e., 30 ghosts attack swordsmen and ghosts become 35, swordsmen respond and kill 3 ghosts, leaving 32. At the end of the battle, the "extra" ghosts will not remain in the army, but no one removes the counterattack better than them, and since they quickly become numerous, this is an excellent unit both at the start and at the end of the game.

Undead Pet / Barghest / Armored Hound

A very underestimated unit. Thanks to summon mechanics and generating value through ally deaths, it can bring huge advantages in long battles. Some abilities allow literally creating additional skeletons during battle.

Gravedigger / Death Merchant / Houndmaster

A mid-tier unit of the faction. Decent utility, but rarely becomes the core of the army. The only plus is ranged attack, given the high tier, it can provide damage without losses.

Lich / Plague Lich / Crimson Lich

One of the best Necropolis units.

The main reason is the ability to resurrect and magical support. Liches allow the army to win tough, drawn-out battles.

The only problem is that they require protection. Many players already complain that the faction is too dependent on liches and does not have an ideal tool to cover them.

Dread Knight / Incarnation of War / Empty Reaper

The main striking force of the army. Very dangerous in mid-game and late-game.

If the army survives to a good number of death knights, the pressure becomes colossal.

Vampire / Noble Vampire / Vampire Scholar

One of the strongest units of the faction.

Vampires traditionally remain a nightmare unit for neutrals. Vampirism allows winning battles with minimal losses, especially against melee armies.

But in Olden Era, they are no longer as imbalanced as in Heroes III. Some players even consider moving vampires to a high tier for balance reasons.

Castle Building Strategy

The main mistake when playing Necropolis is quickly building expensive units. In practice, a strong start looks different.

First comes the development of the economy and Skeleton Archers. Then the player looks at the map and only then chooses a direction.

If the map is aggressive and resources are scarce, it is more profitable to strengthen the early army and magic.

If the map is rich, you can rush to Vampires or Liches faster.

The market is almost mandatory now. Olden Era is heavily tied to the scarcity of specific resources. Sometimes you may have 20 thousand gold and a complete halt in development due to a lack of one resource.

The Mage Guild is also more important than it seems. Necropolis is very dependent on control magic.

Town Hall is usually built without greed. If you try to rush to expensive tiers too early without an economy, the castle starts to choke.

Necropolis in Olden Era is one of the most complex and at the same time coolest factions. The castle is not about brute force. It is about the mathematics of advantage. Every victory should strengthen your next army. Every week should increase the gap between you and your opponent.

If you play carefully, avoid unnecessary losses, and use necromancy correctly, by the middle of the game Necropolis begins to feel like an avalanche. The opponent may win individual battles, but gradually simply drowns under the growing undead army. That is why many experienced players already consider Necropolis one of the most dangerous factions in Olden Era on large maps and in long games.

Of course, it should be taken into account that the game is in early access and there may be further balance changes.