Age of Empires 4 experiments with fantasy biome in Season 4 update
Age of Empires 4 will receive a big update on February 16, 2023, with the start of Season 4, which is titled Enchanted Grove. Alongside a host of balance changes, new map types, a fresh game mode, and other content, the patch adds a new type of biome to the real-time strategy game – the titulary Enchanted Grove.
It contains new kinds of trees with glowing purple leafs and lantern-like fruits as well as little Will’o Wisps circling around nutritious berry bushes, evoking a fey vibe. The Enchanted Grove also features a brand-new Gaia creature, the Enchanted Stag – a majestic white animal that is deeply rooted in medieval folklore. Players can hunt this elusive king of the grove down to claim the Golden Stag Monument to customize their Town Centers with.
This is the first time Age of Empires 4 tries an experiment like this, adding fantasy elements to its historical core. Accompanying this new biome are fantasy-style portraits and coats of arms for players to use on their profiles.
Age of Empires 4 Season 4 update: new maps
Three new map generation types are being added to the game with the Season 4 update:
- Four Lakes
- Continental
- Marshland
Microsoft
Age of Empires 4 Season 4 update: new game mode
Age of Empires 4’s Season 4 update adds the Nomad game mode to custom and skirmish games. Instead of a Town Center, some Villagers, and a Scout, this mode drops you into a match with just three Villagers and a bunch of resources.
Players also start in random locations, making this a potentially very chaotic and exciting mode to mix things up with.
Your first Town Center will be free and available to build without the tech usually necessary for it.
Age of Empires 4 Season 4 update: balance changes
General
- Fixed a bug where melee units couldn’t attack on broken wall segments and would stand idle.
- Fixed a bug where placing a palisade gate sometimes create a gap in the wall.
- Fix a bug where landmarks could remain standing if destroyed while under construction.
- Fixed Fishing Ships temporarily stopping when they are re-ordered to garrison in a Dock.
- Influence based effects such as the ones from the Abbasid’s House of Wisdom and Holy Roman Empire’s Emergency Repair influence can now only be extended with fully constructed buildings rather than building stamps.
- Fixed an issue where units sometimes spawned on the wrong side of a unit production building if the rally point was placed too close to the building.
- Relics will now stay on top of bridges and walls when dropped
- Relic respawns on the nearest land after being lost in the ocean on a transport
- Changed the event-cycling behavior to now only focus on Attack notifications.
- Elite Army Tactics, Heavy Maces and Two-Handed weapons extra damage now properly apply to charge and spear wall weapons.
- Idle units will now do a better job of finding good targets to attack. This is especially improved when raiding farms as units will now continue to hunt farmers instead of torching farms.
- Unload Garrison ability can now be rebound to a different hotkey.
- After repairing a farm or resource drop-off building, villagers will now automatically gather from the farm or nearby resources.
- Reverted the change to Boar retaliation behavior with feedback from the PUP: the Boar no longer only chases the attacking unit and will instead target the closest unit nearby when attacked.
- Fishing boat gather rates:
- Deep Fishing reduced from 1 to 0.9.
- Rus Deep fishing reduced from 1.9 to 1.71.
- Shore Fishing increased from 0.66 to 0.7.
Developer Note: We wanted to lessen the impact of deep fishing to open up additional strategic opportunities on maps with water. Increasing shore fish gather rates is aimed at making these resources more effective in general for boats as well as creating options around defensive tech-based plays.
Walls
- Palisade Walls
- Cost increased from 5 to 7 Wood.
- Health reduced from 1500 to 1250.
- Rus Improved Palisade Wall
- Health reduced from 3000 to 2500.
- Build time reduced from 7 to 3 seconds.
- Stone Walls
- Health reduced from 3500 to 3000.
Developer Note: Walls are extremely cost effective at shutting down aggression. We are adjusting them to make sure they fill the intended role of being speedbumps that give you time to reposition and react to enemy attacks.
Trade Balance Adjustments
- Reduce gold generated by trade by 10%.
Developer Note: When comparing gold generation from traders vs villagers we found that traders are more effective so we’ve reduced it to create a more compelling choice between the two economic units. We’ll continue to refine trader gold generate rates in future updates.
- Monks now only heal at 50% speed when their target is in combat.
- Villager formation catchup speed reduced from 100% to 40% to match all other units in the game. This will effectively make raiding groups of retreating villagers easier.
- Fixed an issue where the secondary UI panel isn’t accessible when selecting a group of mixed unit types.
- The villager’s build menu now correctly resets when clearing the selection.
- Fixed a bug where the UI would incorrectly tell you to repair an enemy’s landmark.
- Fixed cattle not dying when the “you monster” cheat is used.
- Fixed villagers restarting their build animation after re-issuing the same build command.
- Fixed villagers looking like they are gliding if spammed with attack orders to hunt a wolf.
- Fixed a rare case where defensive structures would stop firing at visible targets within range.
- Updated various tooltips for techs and landmarks to correct inaccuracies.
- All units will no longer fire additional shots after hunting any harvestable Gaia. This means that Scouts will now correctly fire two arrows when hunting Deer, instead of three.
Siege
- Field Constructed siege units no longer get stuck in berry bushes.
- Bombard
- Wood cost reduced from 400 to 300
- Great Bombard (Ottoman)
- Wood cost reduced from 600 to 450
- Cannon
- Wood cost reduced from 400 to 300
- Ribauldequin
- Wood cost reduced from 400 to 300
Developer Note: These siege weapons were feeling too expensive considering how quickly they get killed by anti-siege and melee units. Reducing wood costs helps differentiate them from their predecessors in earlier ages.
- Battering Ram
- Siege Workshops can now produce Battering Rams for all civilizations.
- New Technology – Lightweight Beams – Imperial Age
- Increase Battering Ram attack speed by +40% and reduces their field construction time by -50%.
Developer Note: We wanted to give rams better late game scaling and allow for more attacks from multiple angles.
- Fixed a bug where siege units could get stuck in their unpacking animation if their target was too close.
Abbasid Dynasty
House of Wisdom Landmark
- This building is now a Home Market Destination that can be traded with.
- Trade Wing
- Spawns 3 Traders once construction is complete.
- Military Wing
- Spawns units based on the age you complete this wing: 1 Archer & 2 Spearmen in Feudal, 2 Camel Riders in Castle, 3 Handcannoneers in Imperial.
- Camel Rider Shields moved to the Stable.
- Composite Bows moved to this wing in the castle age. Cost reduced from 700 gold 300 wood to 350 gold 150 wood.
- Economic Wing
- Added Fertile Crescent Technology, costs 25 food 75 gold. Reduces wood and stone cost of economic buildings and houses by 25% .
- Moved Fresh Foodstuffs to Town Center.
- Fresh Foodstuffs villager cost bonus reduced from 50% to 35%.
- Culture Wing
- Preservation of Knowledge bonus reduced from 30% to 20%. Reduction now applies to age up costs.
- Research time reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.
- Fixed a bug where golden age wasn’t reducing research times properly.
- House of Wisdom now displays additional build menu in Caster Mode.
- Faith Technology
- Faith renamed to Proselytization.
- Monk Convert ability that unlocks with it has been renamed to Proselytize.
Naval
- Teak Masts naval technology cost decreased from 300 gold/200 wood to 150 gold/100 wood, research time decreased from 40 to 30.
Chinese
Landmarks, Buildings, and Technology
- Astronomical Clocktower Landmark
- Can now produce the Clocktower Battering Rams with bonus health.
- Fixed a bug where Granaries wouldn’t generate taxes when technologies were researched there.
Units and More
- Song Dynasty
- Villager production speed bonus reduced from +35% to +25%
- Nest of Bees will finish its current volley if its target dies or moves out of range. Previously, it would stop firing immediately in those cases.
Delhi Sultanate
Landmarks, Buildings, and Technology
- Compound of the Defender Landmark
- Contains the following defensive technologies that ignore age requirement:
- Village Fortress
- Research time reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes and 45 seconds
- Boiling Oil
- Court Architects
- Slow Burning Defenses
- House of Learning Landmark
- Reinforced Foundations technology allows villagers and infantry to garrison in houses and fire garrison arrows, houses gain +50% HP.
- Tranquil Venue technology healing per second increased from 1 to 2.
- Lookout Towers technology now also adds +1 weapon range to Outposts.
- Hearty Rations technology moved from Imperial Age to Castle Age.
- Hisar Academy Landmark
- Acts as a Madrasa and Food generation increased by 20%.
- Palace of the Sultan Landmark
- Now trains the new unique Sultan’s Elite Tower Elephant, a mounted Elephant with two Handcannoneer riders.
- While activated, the Palace of the Sultan will train an Elephant every 200 seconds.
- You can garrison Scholars into the landmark to speed up production, with 4 scholars reducing train time down to 90 seconds.
- Mosques
- Garrison slots increased from 3 to 5.
- Dome of Faith now acts as a Mosque.
- Village Fortress Technology
- Research time increased from 3:45 to 5:00.
- Fixed Lookout Tower technology not affecting outposts built after researching the technology.
- Zeal Technology
- Now adds a gold glow to affected units.
- Buff effect no longer stacks.
- Fixed a bug where buff was giving much less attack speed than intended.
Units
- War Elephant
- Cost reduced from 600 food 400 gold to 400 food 350 gold.
- HP reduced from 1400 to 850.
- Armor increased from 4/2 to 4/5.
- Tusk damage increased from 30 to 50.
- Spear damage increased from 20 to 25.
- Tusk Siege damage gains +100 vs buildings.
- Tower Elephant
- Tusk Siege damage gains +50 vs buildings.
- Armored Beasts Technology
- Now grants War Elephants +25% HP and +4 Ranged armor.
- Siege Elephants
- Technology renamed to “Howdahs”.
- In addition to equipping Tower Elephants with crowssbows, grants +30% HP and +4 Ranged armor.
- Fixed a bug where Elite Tower Elephants and regular Tower Elephants were both selected with a double click.
- Scholars
- Cost reduced from 150 to 130.
Developer Note: As the in combat healing nerf hits Delhi the hardest, we wanted to compensate them by making it easier to add in scholars.
- Scholars which are garrisoned in a Mosque will now have their automatic healing ability toggled on when leaving the hold.
Naval
- 50% Extra HP on fishing ships.
- Manuscript Trade production speed bonus per scholar increased from 20% > 30%.
- Fixed an issue where Fishing Ships would not benefit from ranged damage Blacksmith upgrades.
English
Landmarks, Buildings, Trading, and Technology
- Abbey of Kings Landmark
- Now can Crown a King, a cavalry leader with a lesser version of the Abbey’s aura.
- Costs 150 food and 150 gold.
- Only one King may be trained at a time.
- Heals nearby out of combat units for 2 HP every second.
Developer Note: Previously, while it was possible to get a lot of resource value out of the Abbey of Kings, it was often cumbersome in later stages of the game. Now, this option to mobilize the Abbey in the form of a King gives players the ability to engage with aggressive strategies while still getting value out of the Abbey.
- Council Hall Landmark
- Changed from producing Longbowmen and their technologies to all Archery Range units and technologies.
Developer Note: While the Council Hall is useful in Feudal Age, it’s utility later in the game is limited. The option to quickly produce crossbowman should open the door to more strategies with English in the Castle and Imperial ages.
- Fixed an issue where Council Hall hotkeys did not respect Archery Range key bindings.
- King’s Palace Landmark
- HP increased from 2500 to 5000.
- Fixed an issue where English King’s Palace does not respect player key binds for Town Center correctly.
- White Tower Landmark
- Now trains units, researches technologies, and builds emplacements 100% faster.
- Berkshire Palace Landmark
- HP increased from 5000 to 6500.
- Effect changed from projectiles have +50% range and double the amount of base arrows to all projectiles now have 15 tiles range.
- Arrows from the Berkshire are now incendiary and deal increased damage.
- Berkshire Garrison Arrow base damage increased from 10 to 12.
- Berkshire Standard Arrow base damage increased from 12 to 14.
Developer Note: We want to create a more compelling choice between the Wynguard Palace and the Berkshire Palace. This change makes the Berkshire Palace more effective at locking down a position and more dangerous to fight underneath for the opponent.
- Wynguard Palace Landmark
- Now produces 4 distinct armies.
- Wynguard Army
- No longer trains 1 Spearman, 1 Man at Arms, 1 Knight, 1 Longbowman, and 1 Trebuchet.
- Now trains 2 Spearman, 2 Crossbowmen, and 1 Trebuchet.
- Cost and train time unchanged at 100 food, 100 wood, 200 gold, and 75 seconds.
- Wynguard Raiders
- Still trains 3 Horsemen and 3 Knights.
- Train time increased from 20 to 25.
- Wynguard Rangers
- Train time reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
- Damage increased from 10 to 12.
- Health increased from 110 to 125.
- Attacks slightly faster, attack speed changed from 1.65 to 1.62 (matches longbow).
Developer Note: We wanted the Wynguard Raiders to be a more valuable option based on your feedback from the PUP.
- New: Wynguard Footmen
- Footmen – Train time decreased from 60 to 50.
- HP increased from 190 to 280.
- Corrected an issue where Wynguard Footmen and King could not be selected with military shortcuts.
- Fixed a bug where Wynguard Footmen and Man At Arms were both selected with a double click.
Developer Note: Previously, the discounted Trebuchet overshadowed the other options at the Wynguard. Now, each army presents a different opportunity for the English player. The Rangers and the Footmen are powerful new units for the late game.
- Enclosures gold generation time increased from every 3.5 second to every 5 seconds.
- Fixed a text bug for Network of Castles to report the correct attack speed value from 25% to 20%. Same for Network of Citadels bonus, text corrected from 50% to 40%.
- Reduced the values of Network of Castles from 20% to 15%.
- Reduced the values of Network of Citadels from 40% to 30%.
Developer Note: Network of Castles and Citadels attack speed bonus is effectively being changed from 20% / 40% to 15% / 30% as the bonus was simply providing too much power.
Units and More
- King
- Corrected an issue where His Grace would not take extra damage from Crossbowman.
- Setup Camp Ability
- Updated help text clarity on requirement that Setup Camp cannot be activated if already within one.
- Fixed a bug where English farm influence lingered after nearby mills were destroyed.
French
Landmarks and Technology
- Chamber of Commerce Landmark
- No longer provides additional resources to Traders.
- Automatically trains one free Trader for each economic technology researched.
- College of Artillery Landmark
- Royal Artillery bonus damage increased from +20% to +30%.
- Can research Gunpowder and Siege technologies: Chemistry, Siege Works, Greased Axles.
- Works 50% faster.
- Unlocks the Artillery Shot ability on all Cannons:
- Loads the Cannon for an Artillery Shot, next shot has greatly increased Area of Effect but no bonus against buildings.
- Red Palace Landmark
- Now activates an Arbalest weapon on all Keeps and Town Centers.
Naval
- Hulk ranged armor increased from 3 to 4.
Holy Roman Empire
Landmarks, Buildings, and More
- Meinwerk Palace Landmark
- Now holds two technologies unique to the landmark.
- Riveted Chain Mail: Spearmen and Horsemen +2 melee armor, costs 75 food 175 gold.
- Riveted Chain Mail removed from the Barracks.
- Steel Barding: Knights gain +2 armor, costs 200 food 500 gold.
- Fixed an issue where Regnitz Cathedral Landmark does not correctly follow hotkey rebinds for Monastery.
- Fixed an issue where the emplacement discount bonus did not apply to naval arrowslit emplacements.
- Fixed a bug where the Prelate Inspire ability cooldown could be skipped.
Malians
Landmarks, Buildings, and Technology
- Mansa Quarry Landmark no longer displays as a Resource Production unit.
- Farimba Garrison Landmark and Fort of the Huntress Landmark footprint decreased from 5×5 to 4×4 so that it matches the size of all other landmarks in the game.
- Farimba Garrison
- Fixed an issue where Javelin Throwers and Archers that are upgraded while in queue at Farimba Garrison Landmark could take up more population than intended.
- Corrected an issue where Archers couldn’t be further upgraded at the Landmark if first upgraded at the Archery Range.
- Gold reduction bonus reduced from 20% to 10%.
- Fort of the Huntress Landmark
- Fixed an issue where the Fort of the Huntress preferred Rams as targets over other units.
- Griot Bara Landmark
- Corrected tooltip on amount of bonus displayed on the Siege Festival from 100% to 50%.
- Technology Tree
- Now mentions that Malian Villagers have a specific bonus for Cattle.
- Added a missing bonus for cheaper veteran unit technologies to the tech tree.
- Added a missing bonus that describes Malians ability to reduce research times of future technologies based on successful trades from Traders.
- Malian wonder footprint and structure size increased from 5×5 to 6×6 so it matches the size of all other wonders in the game.
- Houses health increased from 400 to 500.
- Local Knowledge Technology.
- Moved from Imperial Age to the Castle Age.
- Cost reduced from 200 Food 500 Gold to 100 Food 250 Gold. Research time reduced from 90 to 60 seconds.
- Manuscript Trade Technology
- No longer affects the Naval Arrowslits technology.
- Now applies to the Boiling Oil technology.
- Fixed an issue where the Malian Pit Mine could be built on top of a structure built over a depleted gold deposit.
Units
- Musofadi Warriors
- Damage decreased in the Feudal Age from 9 to 8.
- Bonus damage increased from 9 to 10.
- Damage decreased in the Castle Age from 12 to 9.
- Bonus damage increased from 12 to 15.
- Damage decreased in the Imperial Age from 15 to 12.
- Bonus damage increased from 15 to 18.
- Health regeneration increased to 2 HP per second starting in the Feudal Age
- Known issue: Unit help text will be out of date.
- Deer are no longer startled by and run from units in stealth
- Enemy buildings and Gaia no longer reveal units in stealth
- Fixed visual issue with Cattle garrisoned in a ranch
Naval
- Coastal Navigation move speed duration increased from 10 seconds to 25.
- Hunting Parties naval technology now also gives arrow ships +20 bonus damage when attacking fire ships.
Mongols
Landmarks, Buildings, and Technology
- Kurultai Landmark
- No longer requires the Khan nearby to apply damage buff.
- Damage buff properly applies to bonus damage.
- Aura radius increased from 7.5 to 10 tiles.
- Khaganate Palace Landmark
- Automatically rallies a random army from across the Mongol Empire and its dominions:
- 3 Elite Rus Knights
- 2 Warrior Monks
- 5 Elite Horse Archers
- 1 Nest of Bees
- 5 Elite Palace Guard
- 4 Elite Mangudais
- 1 Hui Hui Pao Trebuchet (Massive Trebuchet with greatly increased range and damage).
- Train times are scaled based on the unit, but in general spawn much faster than the previous 90 seconds.
- Mongol Silver Tree Landmark
- Fixed an issue where Mongol Silver Tree Landmark does not correctly follow hotkey rebinds for Market.
- Increased double trader production cost on Silver Tree from 90 > 120.
- White Stupa Landmark
- Now contains Ovoo technologies.
- Mongol Packed Landmarks
- Corrected a help text issue when converting into a packed cart.
- Mongol buildings now show additional build menus in Caster Mode.
- Fixed a bug where Improved Textiles upgrade hotkey binding wasn’t functioning properly.
- Ovoo influence range now shows correctly during selection stage on larger stone deposits.
- Using the Select all military buildings hotkey no longer selects packed Mongol Prayer Tents.
Units
- Mangudai
- Decreased move speed from 1.62 to 1.56.
- Siha Bow Limbs technology requirement increased from Castle Age to Imperial Age.
- Damage decreased from 7/9/10 to 5/6/8.
- Now attacks faster, attack speed from 1.25 to 0.88 (dps should remain relatively unchanged against unarmored targets).
Developer Note: This unit was tweaked to be less effective in large team games where the mobility and fire on the go is extremely potent. We don’t normally balance units specifically for team games but it was such an outliner in power we felt changes were necessary.
- Signal Arrow changes
- Khan Signal Arrow range increased from 25 to 35.
- Whistling Arrows cost reduced from 100 food 250 gold to 50 food 125 gold.
- Whistling Arrows (Improved) cost reduced from 350 stone to 175 stone.
- Activating the Khan’s Scouting Falcon ability no longer cancels the Khan’s current commands.
- Fixed a bug where Early Horsemen had less charge damage than their base weapon
- Fixed a bug where dark age spearmen had 12 torch damage instead of the intended 10.
Ottomans
Landmarks, Buildings, and Technology
- Fixed the Twin Minaret Medrese Landmark sometimes trapping units in the generated berry bushes.
- Mehmed Imperial Armory Landmark
- Can now be toggled to produce Battering Rams.
- Istanbul Imperial Palace Landmark
- Fixed an issue where it was possible for the Landmark to repeatedly stack its bonus effect when killed and repaired.
- Sea Gate Castle Landmark
- Fixed an issue where Traders could not garrison within the Landmark.
- No longer loses its ability to buff Traders when another landmark is destroyed.
- Incendiary Arrows Technology
- Corrected an issue where Archers and Crossbowmen would lose their fire arrows after upgrading to a new tier.
- Corrected an issue where Archers and Crossbowmen could attack with melee weapons after upgrading Incendiary Arrows.
- Ottoman Grand Galley
- Adjusted help text to reflect that the ship contains garrison slots after converting into a Military School.
- Fixed when Sea Gate Castle loses its ability to buff Traders when another landmark is destroyed.
- The sound effect for when Vizier Points are ready to be spent is now linked to Sound Effects Volume in game settings.
Units
- Corrected an issue where Janissaries had .25 seconds of wind-up time in their attacks.
Developer Note: Normally this wind-up time would be included in the attack speed, but we decided to keep this as a minor attack speed increase.
- Mehter now correctly activate and apply their aura after being ungarrisoned.
Naval
- Grand Galley attacks much faster, attack speed changed from 5.75 > 4.
- Imperial Fleet naval technology production speed and move speed bonuses to gunpowder ships increased from 15% to 25%.
Rus
Landmarks, Buildings, and Technology
- Kremlin Landmark
- The Kremlin may now Levy Militia to the Landmark Town Center.
- Levy Militia Ability cost reduced from 100 to 40 food. Units spawned reduced from 6 to 2 Militia.
- Levy Militia Ability now requires supplies to be used, with each Levy costing 1 supply.
- The Kremlin gains +1 supply every 60 seconds automatically and for free.
Developer Note: You gave feedback in the PUP that the Militia levy ability could be used too easily for early aggression. We’re addressing this by reducing the lifetime of the Militia by 10 seconds as well as reducing the amount of Militia you can gain immediately when reaching the Feudal Age. It will now take 2 minutes to field 6 Militia after building the Kremlin.
- Abbey of the Trinity Landmark
- Saint’s Reach effect increased from +3 range to +5 range on Warrior Monks blessing activation.
- Saint’s Reach and Improved Blessing merged into one tech, renamed to Fervor.
- Fervor: Improve the range of Saint’s Blessing by +5 tiles and the damage granted by +1.
- New Technology: Saint’s Veneration
- Provides +100 HP to Warrior Monks.
- Cost 425 gold.
- Available in Imperial Age.
- High Trade House Landmark
- Deer spawn time reverted from 45 to 60 seconds.
- High Armory Landmark
- Technologies in the High Armory have been updated (base effect for nearby workshops stays the same).
- Fine Tuned Guns
- Effect changed from +20% Bombard Attack Speed to +20% Bombard Damage.
- Now adds 60 bonus damage vs infantry for bombards.
- Tech cost increased from 150 wood and 350 gold to 200 wood and 500 gold.
- Siege Crew Training
- Effect of instant pack/unpack now also applies to Bombards.
- Still applies to Mangonels and Trebuchets.
- Wandering Town
- Effect decreased from +100% damage to +50% damage.
- Now also grants 2 healing per second in combat to rams.
Developer Note: The High Armory sees a lot of use for its discount aura, but since the nerf to Banded Arms the unique technologies are not used as much as we’d like. These changes provide additional utility to the other technologies.
- Spasskaya Tower Landmark
- Health increased from 8000 to 10000.
- Fixed a bug where construction of this landmark granted the Siege Crew Training upgrade for free.
- Wooden Fortress Arrowslits
- Corrected an issue with help text that referred to incorrect weapon range and emplacement requirements.
- Boyars Fortitude
- Cost reduced from 500 Gold, 200 Food to 250 Gold, 100 Food.
- Research time reduced from 90 to 60 seconds.
- Health bonus to cavalry increased from +20 to +30.
- Blessing Duration technology renamed to Divine Light.
Units and Naval
- Streltsy Unit
- Corrected an issue with the Static Deployment ability where it was possible for it to trigger for a brief moment despite moving.
- Rus Deep fishing reduced from 1.9 to 1.71.
- Rus Shore fishing increased from 1.19 to 1.26.
- Rus Improved Palisade Wall
- Health reduced from 3000 to 2500.
- Build time reduced from 7 to 3 seconds.
For more on the game, check our Age of Empires 4 cheats guide.
