<link="topic:heroes">Heroes</link> in the Age of Mythology campaign, as agents of their respective gods, are difficult to kill. A hero reduced to one hitpoint will fall in battle. When this happens, you will hear the voice of Athena announce "A hero has fallen." However, the hero is not dead, and as such you will rarely lose a scenario because a hero has been lost. Instead, the hero falls unconscious, but will stand up and regain hitpoints as soon as all dangerous enemy units or buildings have been cleared out of the area. The hero may risk falling in battle again until they are healed or their hitpoints return to a reasonable level.

In single-player or multiplayer Random Map games, heroes that are killed are really dead, though others can be trained to replace them.