Every Transformation In Age Of Wonders 4

Transformations are powerful spells in Age Of Wonders 4 that can completely change the way your build works. From turning your armies into tiny, powerful units, to transforming your hordes of soldiers into undead warriors, transformations are unlocked via the Tomes as you progress through the game.

This guide covers every available transformation spell in the game, as well as their pros and cons. Choosing the right Tomes Of Magic alongside a transformation can be very important in pulling off a winning strategy in AoW 4.

How To Transform Your Race

You can transform your race via the Tomes Of Magic. Transformations are divided into two categories: Minor Transformations which are available towards the start of the game, and Major Transformations that are available later in the game. You can stack Transformations, but you do need to take the necessary Tome Of Magic to do so, and some Transformations are incompatible with each other.

Every Transformation In The Game

These Minor Transformations are available in the first 1-4 Magic Tomes depending on the affinity. Here are all the transformations as divided by affinity alignment. Major Transformations are available in tier 4+ Tomes.

Astral Affinity Transformations

Astral Affinity is focused on casting spells in battles and on the world map, as well as building mana income to support larger mana-dependent armies.

Name	Tome	Effect	Guide
Magical Wards (Minor)	Tome Of Warding, Tier 1	+2 Resistance for Lightning, Fire, and Frost	Ideal for an early magic build, with the extra World Map casting points great for summoning units and casting spells to damage enemy armies.
Astral Blood (Minor)	Tome Of Amplification, Tier 2	Attunement: Fortune which grants a great Crit hit chance whenever you use a spell in combat.	A great magic build transformation to aim for if you've going down an astral/mage build.
Astral Attunement (Major)	Tome Of Astral Convergence, Tier 4	This grants Pass Through (allows every unit to walk through terrain/obstacles), as well as +1 Knowledge and Mana per population of your empire.	Pass Through is an excellent combat ability, allowing to flank and otherwise ignore obstacles. Extra Mana and Knowledge improves the rate of research and how many troops you can maintain.

Chaos Affinity Transformations

Chaos Affinity is all about gathering very cheap, very strong armies.

Name	Tome	Effect	Guide
Spawnkin (Minor)	Tome Of The Horde, Tier 1	Makes your units smaller, but improves base damage by 20%	Spawnkin is one of the best early-game transformations in Age Of Wonders 4 - granting your basic tier 1 units +20% damage is huge.
Reveler's Heart (Minor)	Tome Of Revelry, Tier 2	Grants 50% bonus morale	A horde of soldiers that never lose morale, despite losing (probably) more troops? Reveler's Heart is essential for a swarm build so your armies don't start to crumble.
Vessels Of Chaos (Minor)	Tome Of Pandemonium, Tier 3	10% damage for each of the target enemy's status effects, which can stack up to 3 times for 30% extra damage	The aim of horde builds is to increase the damage of tier 1 units, and this transformation can add up to 30% more damage if you're using status-debuffs - we're looking at the Sunderer's Javelin, or battle spells.
Scion Of Flame (Minor)	Tome Of Chaos Channeling, Tier 4	+ 4 Fire Resistance Vengeful Flames ability - deals retaliation damage to melee attackers Fiery Wake - sets ground on fire after unit walks on it Grants all units immunity to burning	This is a wickedly powerful transformation that turns your horde of tier 1 units into literal fireballs. Excellent for dealing with melee-centric opponents.
Demonkin (Major)	Tome Of The Demon Gate, Tier 4	Grants immunity to burning and faster movement on any Desolate terrain Units now have flying Frenzy which will increase your units attack damage each time they attack	Doesn't pair well with the Scion Of Flame transformation, but your units get cool demon wings and turn into multi-scaling units that can deal massive damage.

Materium Affinity Transformations

Materium is all about resistance and defense. Unlike the other affinities, there is no Major Transformation for Materium.

Name	Tome	Effect	Guide
Earthkin (Minor)	Tome Of Rock, Tier 1	Provides base +1 Defense Grants Rock Camoflague, which lets your units hide in rocky terrain Grants Rock Walk, which speeds your units up while traversing rocky terrain	Pretty standard transformation here without a massive buff involved, but +1 defense is strong at the beginning of the game.
Steel Skin (Minor)	Tome Of Transmutation, Tier 3	Provides +2 Defense and +2 Blight resistance, but -2 Lightning resistance	This is a situation transformation that can literally be the game-changer, depending on who you're fighting. Enemy player with a lot of poison-based units? Steel Skin is super effective.
Goldtouched (Minor)	+2 Resistance +1 Gold per population in your cities	Expand your economy with this easy way of granting extra gold across the board. Also good for dealing with magic-based enemies thanks to that resistance.

Nature Affinity Transformations

The Nature Affinity transformations are pretty combat-based, allowing unit buffs, damage buffs, and crit buffs.

Name	Tome	Effect	Guide
Animal Kinship (Minor)	Tome Of Beasts, Tier 1	When units are adjacent to cavalry or animals, they get: 10% damage and 10% crit damage chance	Excellent for an early nature rush, summoning animals and using cavalry to get the buffs.
Leafskin (Minor)	Tome Of Glades, Tier 2	Grants Forest Walk (faster movement over forest terrain) and Forest camoflague, which makes them hide in Forest	Movement bonuses over forest are great for rapid expansion, moving your leader quickly across the world map, and for moving armies.
Supergrowth (Minor)	Tome Of Vigor, Tier 3	Makes your units bigger, reduces number of models in each unit, but grants +10 HP and +1 Retaliation attack	This is a very powerful transformation, especially if you pair it with unit enchantments.
Gaia's Chosen (Major)	Tome Of Paradise, Tier 4	Grants units extra shock resistance/charge resistance, +3 Status resistance (against blight, weakend, etc), and +20 HP	Goes really well with Supergrowth and essentially turns your units into steadfast tanks that can eat a lot of damage and resist special attacks.

Order Affinity Transformations

Order Affinity transformations are all about creating powerful units with heavy spirit resistance.

Name	Tome	Effect	Guide
Anointed People (Minor)	Tome Of Sanctuary, Tier 3	+3 Status Resistance, +3 Spirit Resistance	Very specifically counters spirit damage & provides massive resistance against status debuffs. Situational transformation that can be very strong if used correctly.
Angelize (Major)	Tome Of Exaltation, Tier 4	Transforms units into the Celestial unit which grants +2 Spirit resistance but -4 Blight and Frost resistance Also grants units the Flying trait, which means they can traverse all terrain Grants Faithful, which reduces unit upkeep by 10%	In the right campaign, this is a very powerful transformation. Flying units are great for terrain traversal and flanking, and -10% unit upkeep across the board is great for scaling late-game powerful armies.

Shadow Affinity Transformations

Name	Tome	Effect	Guide
Joy Siphoners (Minor)	Tome Of The Doomherald, Tier 2	Units now steal 3 morale per hit	A great early to mid-game transformation that can cripple enemy armies, especially for multi-hit units.
Frostling Transformation (Minor)	Tome Of The Cold Dark, Tier 3	Provides 3 Frost Resistance Units are now immune to Frozen +10 morale on frozen terrain, as well as Arctic Walk, which increases movement over cold terrain	Ideal for a playthrough on a frozen map/when attacking enemies in cold lands.
Wightborn (Major)	Tome Of The Great Transformation, Tier 4	Transforms your units into the Undead (+2 Frost Resistance, +2 Blight Resistance, -4 Spirit Resistance, -4 Fire Resistance) Also grants -100% morale modifier Immune to poison Units also get Life Steal	An incredibly powerful unit transformation if used correctly - can be countered by spirit damage buffs, but life steal and morale boosts make this one of the best in the game.