Hogs of War/Promotions

This page will go over all of the single-player game hog promotions there are (multiplayer promotions are covered in the Multiplayer appendix accessible from the main Hogs of War page), their stats, uses and drawbacks. Any equipment listed has infinite uses unless specifically stated after it, e.g. Grenade (x3).

Grunts

 * Health: 50
 * Equipment: Bayonet, Rifle, Grenade (x3)

Grunts are your basic squad members. All eight of your hogs begin like this (even though you never use all eight). They are pretty pathetic, but are good enough to get you through the first few missions or so. When promoting them, you are required to select a career path for them, which cannot be changed afterwards. That hog will then proceed through each of the three levels of that career. You should aim to upgrade all of your five active hogs to at least Level 1 of a particular career as soon as possible as Grunts are really not that useful - it takes a perfect Rifle/Grenade combo just to kill another Grunt, let alone effectively deal with even a Level 1 promotion like a Gunner or Scout.

Level 1: Scout

 * Health: 75
 * Equipment: Knife, Rifle, Poison Gas (x1), Pickpocket (x1), Hide

Scouts are a pretty poor initial promotion. The only thing that does any more damage than the Grunt's weapons is the Knife, which does 5 points more damage than the Bayonet. Posion Gas does 15 damage on impact, and then 10 damage to the infected hog each turn afterwards, until they die or pick up a health crate, which is worse than the Grenade. Hide is only useful in a select few missions, and Pickpocket can't be used enough times to do any real damage, and there's nothing worth stealing during the part of the game when you're most likely to have these. However, all hogs on this promotion path cannot be seen on the mini-map, and cannot be targeted by homing weapons as such.

Level 2: Sniper

 * Health: 90
 * Equipment: Knife, Sniper Rifle, Poison Gas (x1), Suicide (x1), Pickpocket (x2), Hide

Snipers are an enormous improvement over Scouts. The Sniper Rifle will be a useful weapon throughout the game if and when your big weapons run out, being able to accurately deal 40 damage over all ranges. Other than that, you get an additional Pick Pocket use, which now becomes useful because by the time you have a Sniper the enemy will have at least one thing worth pinching. You should never ever consider using Suicide - it might do 60 damage if you use it next to an enemy hog, but because it is a waste of a valuable hog, and your Survival Bonus, it's simply not worth it.

Level 3: Spy

 * Health: 120
 * Equipment: Knife, Cattle Prod (x3), Sniper Rifle, Poison Gas (x1), TNT (x1), Pickpocket (x3), Hide

Spies are very useful in a lot of missions. Spies are often a real pain to kill, especially if they are enemy ones. Suicide has been swapped for an ever-useful TNT charge, and you get a third Pickpocket use. By the time you have a Spy (or Spies, for that matter) there are many uses for Pickpocket, as well as the Spy's decent offensive capabilities and immensely cool costume:


 * You can potentially steal Flamethrower, Mortar, and Airburst uses from enemy Pyrotechnics.
 * Pickpocket can steal Pickpocket uses from enemy Espionage pigs, effectively giving you enough uses to render them completely useless.
 * Surgeons/Medics have a wide variety of healing equipment up for grabs.
 * Commandos/Heroes/Legends have a collection of the best equipment in the game.
 * Well-placed TNT charges can use the landscape to instantly kill even enemy Heroes (i.e. into a minefield or off the edge of the map).
 * Cattle Prod can knock enemies a significant distance and inflict 25 damage in the process.

Level 1: Gunner

 * Health: 75
 * Equipment: Trotter, Pistol, Bazooka

Gunners are pretty decent first-level promotions, and their upgrades are useful too - providing you can aim weapons well. If you can't, it's unlikely you will ever achieve full potential with a Heavy Weapons pig. The Bazooka can do 40 damage on a direct hit and it has a blast radius, and infinite uses. But I would advise you steer clear of Heavy Weapons big unless you're good at using things like Bazookas, Airbursts and Mortars.

Level 2: Bombardier

 * Health: 90
 * Equipment: Trotter, Pistol, Bazooka, Mortar (x3)

Bombardiers are Gunners with 15 extra health and 3 Mortar shots. As the Mortar is incredibly hard to aim and a very unpredictable weapon damage-wise, the Bombardier isn't that much of an improvement over the Gunner. However, it gets much better when you upgrade one to....

Level 3: Pyrotechnic

 * Health: 120
 * Equipment: Trotter, Pistol, Bazooka, Flamethrower (x3), Mortar (x5), Airburst (x1)

Pyrotechnics can easily become very useful if used properly. The Airburst is an easier-to-use, more effective Mortar. On top of that, the Pyrotechnic gains the Flamethrower, which isn't tremendously useful against single enemies, but is a very effective anti-vehicle weapon if used at point-blank range, capable of dealing almost 100 damage to one.

Level 1: Orderly

 * Health: 60
 * Equipment: Knife, Rifle, Grenade (x3), Healing Hands (x3)

Orderlies are basically Grunts with a Knife instead of a Bayonet and three uses of Healing Hands. Although combat-wise an Orderly is virtually no better-off than a Grunt they can heal hogs. Healing Hands has the advantage of being able to be used as many times as you like in one turn, allowing you to restore 60 health total and then go on to damage the enemy. These Hogs are integral for maintaining your all-important Survival Bonus.

Level 2: Medic

 * Health: 80
 * Equipment: Knife, Rifle, Grenade (x3), Healing Hands (x3), Medicine Dart (x3), Medicine Ball (x3)

Medics are still at a health and combat disadvantage over other pigs but their healing capabilities greatly increase. 3 Healing Hands and a Medicine Dart allows for 100 health restoration in one turn, and Medicine Ball, although less useful, can heal multiple targets at once. Medicine Dart also has the useful "vertical shot" trick outlined in the weapons page, but Medicine Dart (or Ball) does not have the draw of Healing Hands for being able to be used multiple times in one turn.

Level 3: Surgeon

 * Health: 120
 * Equipment: Knife, Rifle, Rifle Burst (x3), Grenade (x3), Healing Hands (x3), Tranquiliser (x1), Medicine Dart (x3), Medicine Ball (x3)

This is where the combat disadvantage of the Medic is rectified. This promotion adds a full 40 health, as well as Rifle Burst, capable of 45 damage on a single pig, and Tranquiliser which is a godsend. Surgeons are able to save your Survival Bonus and act as a powerful fighting tool at the same time. In terms of overall usefulness the Spy and Pyrotechnic are sometimes more useful, and all of them are pretty bad compared with the Saboteur, but the Surgeon is still incredibly useful.

Level 1: Sapper

 * Health: 80
 * Equipment: Trotter, Shotgun, Mine (x3), TNT (x1)

Sappers are easily the best first-level promotion - their first turn allows them to deal 70 total damage, as well as causing chaos with the knock-around from their explosives. The Shotgun is not nearly as effective over range as the Rifle or Pistol is, but at close range can easily deal its maximum 30 damage. This line of pigs is very much a close-quarter-combat and anti-vehicle specialist, but they have more base health up to Level 2, and more importantly, can see mines.

Level 2: Engineer

 * Health: 100
 * Equipment: Trotter, Shotgun, Mine (x3), TNT (x2), Shrapnel Grenade (x3), Suicide (x1)

Engineers get a second TNT charge (a third too, if you count Suicide, which sucks, and you should never use) and 3 Shrapnel Grenades, which are excellent on buildings (if you can get them to land right next to them), although not as useful on clusters of personnel like their name might suggest. This additional weaponry adds to their anti-vehicle potential as well as allow them to sustain their high damage output for longer.

Level 3: Saboteur

 * Health: 120
 * Equipment: Trotter, Super Shotgun, Mine (x3), TNT (x3), Shrapnel Grenade (x3), Suicide (x1)

The only real reason why you would want this pig is for the Super Shotgun, and maybe its mine-seeing capabilities and 3 TNT charges. The Super Shotgun is easily the best close-range anti-personnel weapon in the (main) game, capable of blasting enemies insane distances across the map, even up and over mountains or, as you will very quickly learn from this guide, off the edge of the map for an instant-kill. Failing this, into minefields or water. The Saboteur is significantly more deadly in close-range than any other pig in the game, and their repertoire of explosive weapons makes them able to dish out a lot of damage for a long time.

Level 4: Commando

 * Health: 130
 * Equipment: Knife, Machine Gun (x1), Sniper Rifle, Medicine Dart (x3), Cluster Grenade (x1), Poison Gas (x1), Bazooka, Airburst (x1), TNT (x1), Jetpack (x1), Hide

All Level 3 pigs upgrade to Commando, and their health/loadout is no different, regardless of what you promoted them from. Whereas the Commando loses its specialised edge of the class it was promoted from, which can be very useful towards the end of the game, they gain the ability to be effective at all ranges, and thanks to Jetpack, the ability to see mines, and the new ability to swim underwater without losing health, become significantly more mobile. The TNT is useful in many circumstances, the Cluster Grenade and Machine Gun useful against groups or structures, the Sniper Rifle and Bazooka serving as good all-range weapons, and even covert weapons like Poison Gas and Hide, all with the additional draw of being able to heal others and themselves with Medicine Dart.

Level 5: Hero

 * Health: 150
 * Equipment: Sword, Heavy Machine Gun (x1), Sniper Rifle, Medicine Dart (x3), Cluster Grenade (x1), Posion Gas (x1), Bazooka, Airburst (x1), TNT (x1), Jetpack (x1), Self Heal (x1), Hide, Special Ops (x1), Airstrike (x1)

The Hero is the promotion after Commando, and is much better. Sword and Heavy Machine Gun are the upgrades of Knife and Machine Gun respectively, and on top of that the Hero gets Self Heal (costs a turn but restores 50 health), Special Ops (costs a turn but allows them to parachute to anywhere on the map) and the infamous Airstrike, which is extremely powerful.

Level 6: Legend

 * Health: 200
 * Equipment: Sword, Heavy Machine Gun (x1), Sniper Rifle, Tranquiliser (x1), Cluster Grenade (x1), Poison Gas (x1), Bazooka, Airburst (x1), TNT (x1), Jetpack (x1), Special Ops (x1), Airstrike (x1), F-Rain Airstrike (x1)

Unfortunately the Hero is the highest promotion your pigs can get, but in the main game you will fight 5 of these super-pigs in the final mission. With a full 50 more health and the addition of Tranquiliser and F-Rain Airstrike, these pigs are lethal at all ranges and take a very long time to kill. Also, the loadout above is not certain - as you can never obtain these pigs, and the computer doesn't/can't use some of the weapons, you can't be sure. However, they will use Tranquiliser and F-Rain Airstrike, which appears to be the only additions to their loadout over that of the Hero.