AI difficulty

Computer opponents in Dawn of Embers come in six difficulty tiers. Every tier runs the same AI: what changes is how early it attacks, how large and how organised its attacks are, how strong its economy is, how quickly it reacts, and how hard it goes after Pillars.

Choosing a difficulty

• The lobby has a difficulty setting for the computer opponents, and each computer seat can be given its own tier. The default is Normal.
• The tiers are Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard and Brutal.
• In the demo, the hardest tier available is Normal. Hard, Very Hard and Brutal are greyed out in the lobby.

The tiers at a glance

Tier	First attack	How it attacks	Army	Economy
Very Easy	Not before 20 to 30 minutes	Small waves, units arriving one by one	At most 8 soldiers	Banks 60% of what it gathers
Easy	Not before 15 to 20 minutes	Small waves, units arriving one by one	At most 14 soldiers	Banks 80% of what it gathers
Normal	Not before 10 to 15 minutes	Waves march together as a group	No limit	Normal
Hard	Not before 5 minutes	Small, frequent waves that keep coming	No limit	Banks 15% extra
Very Hard	Not before 2½ minutes	A rush, then steady waves	No limit	Banks 35% extra
Brutal	As soon as its first wave is ready	Large, heavy waves	No limit	Banks 75% extra

• First attack is the earliest moment the AI may send an attack wave. It still has to have the army for one. On Very Easy, Easy and Normal the exact time is picked at random inside the window at the start of the match, so it cannot be learned by heart. The same map seed and seat always give the same time.
• Economy is a bonus or handicap on every load the AI's workers bring home. It does not change how fast they work. From Hard up, the AI gets more out of every trip than a human player does.
• Army counts every non-villager unit, siege engines included.
• Before its first attack, and between waves, the AI still defends its own base when it is attacked.

In more detail

Attack waves

An AI keeps a home guard and gathers the rest of its soldiers into waves. A wave leaves when enough soldiers are free; each later wave waits for a few more than the last.

Tier	Home guard	First wave leaves at	Each later wave
Very Easy	1	3 soldiers	+1
Easy	2	4 soldiers	+2
Normal	4	6 soldiers	+3
Hard	4	5 soldiers	+1
Very Hard	5	6 soldiers	+2
Brutal	10	12 soldiers	+6

• Very Easy and Easy send each unit off on its own, so a wave arrives strung out and fights as it arrives.
• From Normal up, a wave of 4 or more units marches as a group and arrives together.
• Hard's small growth is what keeps its pressure on: its waves are small enough to fend off, but they keep coming.
• Brutal is not a faster Very Hard: it waits for a much bigger army before each push, so its waves come less often but hit much harder.

Army make-up

Every tier aims for the same rough mix: mostly infantry, then ranged units, with some cavalry and siege. The tiers differ in how strictly they follow it:

• Very Easy trains whatever it likes, at random.
• Each tier above follows the mix more closely. Brutal always trains whatever its army is shortest of.

Economy and building

Tier	Villagers it aims for	Buildings under construction at once	Builders per site
Very Easy	8	2	1
Easy	12	2	2
Normal	20	2	3
Hard	26	3	4
Very Hard	32	4	5
Brutal	40	5	6

• The AI always keeps some spare housing so it is not blocked by its population limit.
• Once it has as many villagers as its tier aims for, an AI that can afford one of its buildings twice over builds another copy of it. A rich AI therefore keeps adding buildings.

Reaction speed

The AI thinks in steps. Higher tiers think more often, so they notice an attack, a free worker or a chance to build sooner.

Tier	Very Easy	Easy	Normal	Hard	Very Hard	Brutal
Seconds between decisions	4	3	1.5	1	0.75	0.5

Callings and Disciplines

Every computer opponent picks a Calling and spends all 20 Discipline points at the start of a skirmish. The Calling suits the kind of army the AI likes to build.

• Very Easy and Easy always make the same choice.
• Normal picks one of a few set plans, chosen by the map seed.
• Hard picks with a preference for the plans that suit its army.
• Very Hard and Brutal do the same, then shift up to 3 points between Disciplines, so their builds are not always identical.

The same map seed and seat always produce the same choice. Computer opponents in story missions do not pick.

Pillars

How hard the AI goes after Pillars depends on its tier.

Tier	Finds a Pillar	Sends mages	Fights over it
Very Easy	Never: it ignores Pillars	No	No
Easy	Only near its own base	No	No
Normal	In a wider area around its base	Up to 10, from a mage building it already has	No
Hard	Anywhere on the map	10	Yes, with half its free army
Very Hard	Anywhere on the map	12	Yes, with 60% of its free army
Brutal	Anywhere on the map	14	Yes, with 70% of its free army

• Any tier that looks for Pillars also learns of one when its mages or soldiers come within about 30 metres of it.
• From Hard up, the AI prepares before the Pillar appears: it starts training mages, and builds a mage training building if it has none, so that its mages are ready when the stone rises.
• The AI gives up on a Pillar it can no longer charge in time.
• "Fights over it" means the AI sends soldiers to kill the enemy mages charging the stone.

What the AI knows

• The AI does not have to scout to find you. It picks its attack targets from everything within a very large distance of its base, which covers the whole map on every map size. Very Hard and Brutal have no limit at all.
• The AI may place buildings on ground it has never explored. See Fog of war.

Resigning

A computer opponent that has lost all means of fighting back, while an enemy army still stands, resigns after about half a minute. See Victory conditions.

Not in the game

• There is no adaptive difficulty that adjusts to how you play.
• The AI does not get extra starting units or resources on any tier: its bonus comes only from what its workers bring home.
• A strategic advisor for the hardest tiers exists as a setting in the game's data but does nothing yet.