Speaking of archers with stats and weapons, allow me to talk about my favorite romhack archer, as well as my favorite unit in Four Kings.
Ava.
Now, why is Ava epic, in my opinion?
- Ava is an archer with stats, in a game where being an archer with stats is useful. Four Kings has notably powerful enemies, and getting two-shot by them is very common. In fact, the hack is rather notorious for not giving you a lot of units that can tank. As such, being able to avoid counters is a useful trait, and Ava naturally has that. Even if the enemy has a 1-2 Range weapon (not uncommon; mages and Tomahawk users are frequent), she can use a Longbow to get around that problem, or in the lategame, a Brave Bow.
- Ava is very fast, so she can double and kill a lot of enemies. The tools she has access to help her with that quite a lot, too. The hack’s variant of Short Bows is brave, so every archer has a D-rank tool that lets them hit twice, even if they don’t double. Ava is fast enough to quadruple with them, securing an ORKO against most enemies. And the ones she can’t kill easily with physical damage (such as armors), she can kill with her personal weapon, the Mystic Bow, which targets Resistance.
- Ava has utility outside of combat. She is one of your Thieves, and the hack features stealables and/or locks to open on every map, so she always has some thieving tasks to complete. Apart from that, once she promotes, she gains access to staves, including a personal staff that gives an ally the Ninis’s Grace effect. Her Magic is not bad, either, so her healing with staves is solid, should you want to use her as a healer. I’ve personally found her a lot more useful as a combat unit, because she does have the stats to kill things (especially fliers, of course) in the lategame, but the staffing option is there.
- Ava has 6 Movement and good terrain data, much like the Thief class. That is so nice to have. It increases the flexibility of positioning quite a lot, especially considering the fact Four Kings does not let every unit Shove, like some other hacks do.
- The game’s balancing ensures that Ava always has a variety of advantageous matchups and useful contributions, if you use her well. There is a number of enemies she can eliminate with a Short Bow before they can counter her, as well as a number of armors she one-rounds who are less convenient to kill with other units. She can also kill some enemies with siege weapons across 2-tile walls, if she uses a Longbow – and in general, there is usually a way to have her player-phase action be useful on any given turn.
- Her weaknesses are not that much of a problem to work around. Ava’s greatest shortcoming is that her Defense is terrible and her HP, while alright growth-wise, is not great. However, this can be worked around. She does get one-shot by Tomahawk enemies, but if you invest an Angelic Robe into her, this stops being a problem – and I found that a good investment, because it expanded her range of options. Apart from that, in the lategame, many enemies use brave weapons, which she cannot tank – however, it’s not like you would want to be tanking brave weapons with your archer, who can’t counter even if they survive. And Ava is easier to place outside of enemy range than other infantry units, because she has 7 Movement after she promotes, while maintaining her superior terrain data. Besides, you can simply have Ava avoid getting countered when she attacks on player phase – Longbows help with that, as does attacking enemies who aren’t carrying a 1-2 Range weapon.
- Finally, Ava has good Resistance, and while Resistance can sometimes be a meme stat, it is definitely not a meme stat in Four Kings. Enemy mages hit hard, and a TON of maps have Bolting (or other siege enemies) on them. Four Kings is also a game where your non-Ava Thief notoriously has 0 Resistance, forcing him to use Pure Water or receive an Angelic Robe (or else he will get one-shot by siege tomes). Ava doesn’t have this problem – she can tank a siege tome anytime, and she doesn’t get popped by a mage if she engages one on player phase and he can counter her. This means she can safely walk into the range of siege tomes and not be expected to die instantly, vastly improving her flexibility. There are some maps where enemy stealables (or other Thief objectives) are located within range of a siege tome, and Ava can work around that more easily than the other Thief. Besides, not a lot of units in Four Kings have good Resistance, especially not physical ones, so Ava having that trait is nice in general. While her low HP might prevent her from withstanding too many magical attacks, if you invest a Robe into her like I do, she might be able to survive a couple, which is genuinely an accomplishment by Four Kings’ standards.