Capacities

Capacities can be though of as a unit's skills; they provide a wide range of effects, and while most of them are passive, a number have more active uses. Every unit in the game has at least one capacity inherent to it, but more can be added to a unit by equipping it with different weapons, accessories, and some unique pieces of armor. While weapons tend to focus strictly on in-combat effects, the capacities available from accessories and armor have more varied effects, and can sometimes copy another unit's inherent abilities.

Heroes also come with their own additional capacities. On top of having one of the four levels of the Spying capacity - which is what enables heroes to infiltrate cities - they also have access to capacities that can be considered General or Governor capacities, which help the hero in either of those roles. While many of the General capacities can be replicated with insignia accessories, the Governor capacities are completely unique to the hero that has them, and should be taken into consideration when selecting a hero to assign as Governor to a city.

Standard Accessories
These are the capacities granted by the general-purpose accessories that can be acquired by any faction over the course of the game, either by progressing through the technological eras, or researching the appropriate technology. While Insignias can only be equipped on heroes, the other types of accessories can be equipped by any unit.

Standard Naval Accessories
These are the capacities granted by the standard naval accessories, aka Officers.

Standard Guardian Accessories
Capacities granted by the four basic Guardian accessories, the Gemstones, which are all available as soon as a Guardian is researched.

Unique Accessories
These are the capacities granted by unique accessories, which are usually gained by completing a specific quest or searching ruins.

Unique Naval Accessories
There are three unique naval accessories, and while the Optomismatic Device and Pedagogitor can be attained either through quests or searching ruins, the Everlasting Bo'sun and only be acquired by completing the Global Quest "There is Something Out There...".

Standard Weapons
Weapon capacities tend to focus on a specific effect in battle, and all weapons of the same type have the same capacity, though at varying levels depending on the quality of the weapon. The capacities usually come in three different levels, with the first and second level only being present on Tier 1 and 2 Iron, Titanium, and Glassteel versions of the weapon, while Tier 3 Iron, Titanium, and Glassteel, as well as every Dust, Adamantian, Palladian, Mithrite, and Hyperium version of the weapon will have the third level of the capacity.

Standard Naval Weapons
Capacities for Naval weapons work similarly to those for land units; every weapon of the same time (excepting unique weapons) grants the same capacity at a different level. However, in this case the capacity increases through four levels depending on the materials used: 1 for Iron, 2 for Titanium and Glassteel, 3 for Adamantian and Palladian, and 4 for Mithrite and Hyperium.

Standard Guardian Weapons
Each of the five guardians comes with three weapons they can equip,each of which has its own unique capacity.

Unique Weapons
There are a number of unique weapons in the game that can be acquired through quests or searching ruins, and while most of them have capacities that match their material and tier, some of them are a little different.

Unique Naval Weapons
As with the other unique weapons, these naval weapons can be acquired either by completing quests or searching sunken ruins. However, these weapons generally provide capacities much different from the weapons they're based on.

Capacities from Armor
While the vast majority of armor doesn't provide any capacities, there is a small number of unique armor pieces that do. Since the amount is so small, the armor for land and naval units will be listed in the same table.

Inherent Unit Capacities
With the exception of the Fanatic, every unit in the game has at least one capacity inherent to it, and many have multiple. The following is a list of all the inherent capacities in the game, and which unit(s) have that capacity. In the event that all units from a given faction share a capacity, only the faction's name will be listed.

Hero Capacities
On top of the standard unit capacities that most heroes have, every hero has a number of skills that are exclusive to heroes. All heroes have the Last Stand capacity and a level of the Spying capacity, but they also typically have two capacities that can be considered either General or Governor capacities. General capacities usually provide attribute bonuses to an army that hero is leading, while Governor capacities increase the FIDSI output of the cities they are in charge of.