Age of Wonders 4 The Eldritch Leviathan: Evermore Guide

How Do You Stop the Eldritch Leviathan?

Evermore can end while you’re still exploring its hidden islands. In Age of Wonders 4 the Eldritch Leviathan threatens the entire realm through emerging body parts, roaming Ethereal armies, and an awakening countdown. To win alongside Merlin, keep at least three Leviathan Landmarks pacified for five consecutive turns—or defeat Symon.

The creature’s arrival turns city placement into a victory mechanic. Powerful armies help you survive, but controlling the provinces around its landmarks is what lets you create the Astral anchors needed to contain it.

Evermore belongs to Secrets of the Archmages, which introduces three Story Realms. Its Leviathan storyline follows Merlin’s return to the shattered seat of the Circle of Deogai.

Story spoilers follow, including the Mysterious Mage’s identity and the choice to betray Merlin.

Official page: Age of Wonders 4 (paradoxinteractive.com)

Prepare Before the First Landmark Appears

Start by completing The Broken Circle at the Broken Throne near the center of the map. Once the first Leviathan Tentacles erupt, this objective becomes unavailable.

Image: Steam / Triumph Studios

Approaching the Broken Throne completes the objective and offers a choice between:

• A Tier III Ethereal unit that appears at your Throne City.
• A large Mana reward.
• Cosmic Resonance for your ruler, granting +2 Protection according to a spell’s affinities whenever a spell is cast in combat.

Choose the unit if you need immediate military strength, or take Cosmic Resonance if you want a lasting benefit for your ruler.

Plan Cities Around the Containment Objective

An Astral anchor requires three provinces adjacent to a landmark, all belonging to one city. A single city can pacify only one landmark.

Plan several cities that can reach separate emergence sites. Do not rely on one sprawling central city to contain both the western Tentacles and the Tail.

Keep expansion resources available for the aftermath of an eruption. The initial emergence hits adjacent provinces with Cosmic Wake and replaces their existing features with Astral Rifts, so early improvements around the mountain are exposed to destruction.

Use Shrouded Isles Without Losing Your Position

Shrouded Isles offer equipment, Knowledge, and additional Rally of the Lieges options. Several nearby gates are already breached, allowing you to collect their Arcanum rewards without a fight.

Useful rewards include:

• Fangir’s Arcanum: Omnifracturis, a Tier IV Magic Orb with Mana Drain, plus access to the Fractured Worm through the Rally of the Lieges.
• Yaka’s Arcanum: the Tier IV Yaka’s Fury weapon and Phoenix recruitment through the Rally.
• Arachna’s Arcanum: Spider Monarch’s Leg and Scourge of Winter recruitment through the Rally.

Keep your main force close enough to return when the mountain warning arrives. Exploring another island is less urgent than securing the first containment site.

When the Leviathan Awakens

The Into the Storm event marks the immediate danger. Cosmic Wake strikes again, and you receive a three-turn objective to investigate a horseshoe-shaped Mountain Province west of the Broken Throne.

Image: www.paradoxinteractive.com

The difficulty settings use the following schedule:

Difficulty	Into the Storm warning	Interval between later landmarks
Easy	Turn 33	15 turns
Normal	Turn 29	12 turns
Hard	Turn 24	10 turns

Send a nearby unit to investigate within the three-turn window for a Knowledge reward. Approaching the mountain triggers the first Tentacles eruption, exposing Astral Void and devastating neighboring provinces.

Investigating the mountain does not pacify the landmark. You still need the surrounding city territory and control of the area.

One turn after the first landmark appears, the Mysterious Mage reveals himself as Symon, Merlin’s former apprentice, and declares war on Merlin’s alliance. Symon discovered the Leviathan centuries earlier and has grown tired of keeping it asleep.

Up to four additional landmarks emerge after the initial Tentacles. On Hard, the shorter interval leaves less time to establish each city and clear its neighboring provinces.

Leviathan Landmark Locations

Use the Broken Throne as your central reference point. The clock positions below describe each site’s general direction.

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The emergence sites occupy unusually large Mountain Provinces before the corresponding body parts appear.

Emergence order	Landmark	Approximate location
1	Leviathan Tentacles	Around 9:00, between the Broken Throne and Serena’s Gate, slightly southwest of their midpoint
2	Leviathan Eyes	Around 4:30, roughly halfway between the Broken Throne and Nekron’s Gate
3	Leviathan Tail	Around 9:00, farther west than the initial Tentacles, in the water south of Serena’s Gate
4	Leviathan Tentacles	Around 2:00, roughly halfway between the Broken Throne and Nimue’s Gate
5	Leviathan Eyes	Around 12:00, between the Broken Throne and Reskar Scapeshaper’s Throne City near Tempest’s Gate

Scout these approaches before committing your expansion. For each planned containment city, identify three reachable provinces that directly border its intended landmark.

Remember the western geography: the initial Tentacles and the Tail lie in the same broad direction, but they are separate objectives requiring separate cities.

How to Create Astral Anchors and Win

Active landmarks periodically send Ethereal armies against Merlin’s alliance. Pacifying them requires both territorial control and military cleanup.

For each landmark:

1. Use one city to annex at least three adjacent provinces. Provinces split between different cities do not satisfy the requirement.
2. Clear Ethereal Marauders from those provinces.
3. End the turn with the required territory clear to establish the Astral anchor and pacify the landmark.
4. Repeat with other cities at separate landmarks.

Do not count three bordering provinces across your whole empire and assume the objective is complete. Check which city owns each province.

The Two Competing Victory Conditions

Merlin’s alliance wins when either condition is met:

• At least three landmarks remain pacified for five consecutive turns.
• Symon is defeated.

Symon wins when either condition is met:

• At least four landmarks remain active for five consecutive turns.
• Merlin is defeated.

You do not need to pacify all five landmarks to win with Merlin. Once three are contained, protect those positions through the required five-turn stretch.

Watch Merlin’s territory as well as your own. Allied expansion can contribute to containment, and losing Merlin ends his side’s campaign even if your empire remains strong.

Handling Evermore on Hard

Hard compresses the expansion schedule while leaving you exposed to attacks from several directions. Keep your army movements tied to specific objectives: defend a city, clear an anchor’s provinces, or attack Symon.

Protect the Provinces That Matter

Station forces where they can intercept Ethereal Marauders near your anchors. Chasing an army far from the containment sites can leave the provinces you need undefended.

Reserve enough military strength to protect your Throne City while your main force operates near the Leviathan. Nekron occupies the southeast, creating another threat to the player’s southern starting region.

If Nekron survives into the Leviathan phase, he gains Gift of the Old Blood for his race and goes to war with both Merlin and Symon. Do not assume his hostility toward Symon makes your border safe.

Use Bound Gates to Reposition

A bound Shrouded Gate can be moved into your domain for 100 Mana. Gate relocation can help move forces between distant parts of your territory.

Bind useful gates with a hero before you urgently need them, and preserve Mana for relocation. Position armies inside the connected isle before moving its gate to bring them closer to a threatened domain.

Repair Hostile Terrain

Nekron’s territory includes extensive Sunless terrain. Bring a terraforming option if your living faction intends to occupy and develop those lands.

Restore the Land, from the Tome of Fertility, provides a way to improve devastated territory for expansion. Use terraforming along routes toward planned containment cities, where additional usable land supports the objective.

Evermore’s Unbound Tomes trait removes Affinity requirements for Tomes. Other requirements still apply, including the need for two Tomes of the previous tier when selecting a Tome above Tier I.

Symon’s Offer and the Story Rewards

After you pacify two landmarks, Symon offers you a chance to change sides.

Accepting makes you allied with Symon and puts you at war with Merlin. The Ethereal Marauders also become non-hostile to you. This changes which side you must help win, so make the decision before committing further forces to Merlin’s containment effort.

Refusing keeps you with Merlin and earns a choice between:

• Tome of the Cosmos.
• A large amount of Research.

Choose the Tome if you want access to its magic; choose Research if you want to advance your existing research plans.

Victory unlocks Symon, Nekron Almighty, Reskar Scapeshaper, and a new version of Merlin distinct from his Eldritch Realms incarnation. Evermore also has different endings depending on whether you remain loyal to Merlin or join Symon.