SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained – Hou Yi

SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive back story of lore. From the Greek to Hindu, each week we’ll look at two characters from a major pantheon and provide a quick recap of their history and in what capacity their digital incarnation will represent on the field of Hi-Rez Studios’ new MOBA.

Lore: Houyi, aka Hou-i, Shenyi, and even simply Yi, is the famed archer husband of Chang’e, Faerie of the Moon, and is one of the more prolific deities of Chinese mythology. Often portrayed as the god of archery Hou Yi is seen as coming to aid all of mankind. His skills were requested by none other than Yao, the Emperor of China after the ten Sun-birds began to grow tired of their divine routine. Rather than appear alone each day the sun birds ventured out. Together. Their combined heat scorched the world, dried up lakes and decimated crops. The Emperor had to protect his subjects. Hou Yi, the renowned archer, was given the blessing of Dijun, the God of the Eastern Heaven, to frighten his mischievous sons.

Upon seeing the destruction wrought by the mischievous god kins Hou Yi lost his cooling. He descended upon the Sun-Birds in his fury. His shots landed true bringing ruin and death to his targets. Upon the death of the ninth Emperor Yao begged he stop or leave the world in complete darkness. Terrified by his fury the sole remaining Sun-Bird has behaved ever since, rising and setting on time. Although he lost his cool at the sunfire of the Sun-Birds Hou Yi was revered as the savior of mankind. Dijun, however, was not happy at the deaths of nine of his descendants.

The bloodlust unleashed by envisioning the decimation from the misconduct cost Hou Yi much. He was cast from the heavens and stripped of his immortality. Dijun theorized that if he revered mortals so much to murder his sons he could live amongst them as fragile as they are. Mortality did not stop him from adventure. Hou Yi continued traveling the world in search of renewed immortality. Some say he found it when he crossed paths with Chang’e instantly asking for her hand in marriage.

In-Game: Hou Yi has the uncanny designation of being a Hunter with high area damage and high single target damage. Despite the dual roles expect to play Hou Yi as you would most carry gods; remain safe, plucking away at those pushing you and focus on farming, well-timed assists and holding your own. Hou Yi’s mobility can easily be used defensively with actives to maintain his mortality.

Juggling the two possibilities make for an interesting ADC character. That doesn’t necessarily mean a difficult one to mastery outside of cookie cutter builds perfected by those before you to be used against an expected opposition. Physical Damage and Attack Speed are core stats making The Executioner and Titan’s Bane easy selections. Slip in your favorite snowballing item, like Devourer’s Gauntlet, and a strong early game will land you if not a win, then strong personal stats.

Further reading:

• Hou Yi on Wikipedia
• Chinese Mythology on Wikipedia

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Head over to SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained for details on all of the playable characters.