"Besides the four basic hero statistics, a hero can learn and advance in secondary skills. These skills give the hero abilities like farther movement over land or sea, learning high level spells, or improving his skill with the catapult in castle sieges."
—Heroes II manual
Secondary skills are special abilities available to the heroes in the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Every time a hero levels up, they get to choose between two, three, or four skills that provide the hero with a bonus of some sort. It's also possible to get new skills from adventure map structures. Each skill starts at the basic level, but the hero can also take the same skill again to improve the bonus.
All heroes start with a few secondary skills, depending on their class. In some of the games, different heroes of the same class may also start with different secondary skills. Secondary skills were first available in Heroes II.
Heroes II[]
- For the Heroes II skills, see Category:Heroes II skills.
In Heroes II, there are 14 secondary skills, and each hero can learn up to 8. Three skill levels are available: basic, advanced, and expert.
Heroes III[]
- For the Heroes III skills, see Category:Heroes III skills.
In Heroes III, there are 28 secondary skills, and each hero can learn up to 8. Three skill levels are available: basic, advanced, and expert.
Heroes IV[]
- For the Heroes IV skills, see Category:Heroes IV secondary skills.
In Heroes IV, there are 9 major secondary skills, and each hero can learn up to 5. In addition, each of the major skills have three subskills, and a hero can learn all three of them. Most of the major skills requires that the hero takes a few levels in specific subskills to reach grandmaster level.
Both major and subskills have five skill levels: basic, advanced, expert, master, and grandmaster. Leveling any two major skills high enough will allow the hero to become an Advanced Class based on the skills leveled, granting a passive bonus.
Heroes V[]
- For the Heroes V skills, see Category:Heroes V skills.
In Heroes V, there are 12 major secondary skills, and each hero can learn up to 5. There's also a class-specific skill, available to all members of that class, that doesn't use up one of the hero's skill spaces. Also, the barbarians can't learn many of the major skills available to the other heroes, but they have their own skills as replacements. For example, instead of light magic, they can learn Shatter Light, and instead of sorcery, they can learn shout.
Major skills have three skill levels: basic, advanced, and expert. Each of the major skills have several subskills, and a hero can learn three, one for each skill level in that major skill. A hero with advanced sorcery can learn two subskills, while a hero with expert sorcery can learn three. Subskills don't have skill levels.
Heroes VI[]
- For the Heroes VI skills, see Category:Heroes VI Hero Abilities.
In Heroes VI, heroes can choose to learn any skill available to their class in a talent tree menu, rather than choosing between randomly-selected ones. Some skills have others as prerequisites, and some are only available to a particular class, but other than that, they are free to choose as they please. They can still only select one secondary skill per level.
Additionally, each faction has a special factional skill, which is known by default to all heroes of that faction. Each faction's skill is an activated ability that charges up in combat through certain game actions.
Heroes VII[]
- For the Heroes VII skills, see Category:Heroes VII skills.
Olden Era[]
- For the Olden Era skills, see Category:Olden Era skills.
In Olden Era, there are 23 secondary skills, and each hero can learn up to 8. Each faction also has a specific skill that all of their heroes start with that no other faction can learn. Secondary skills have three skill levels: basic, advanced, and expert. Upon leveling a skill from basic to advanced, the hero selects one of three mutually-exclusive subskills to improve the skill's effect. The same is done when leveling to expert, between two subskills from a more powerful selection.
Like other HoMM games, Olden Era features a development tree for hero's secondary skills. Each class has its own chances to learn or develop certain set of skills. The Steam Community user named Doombringer had investigated the game files and came up with the spreadsheet with respective chances (as of October 9th 2025). Follow external link for more information.
Certain combinations of secondary skills allow a hero to obtain an Advanced Class.