If you only play standard ranked matches, you’ve probably missed the best Age of Empires secrets: cheat-only units, bizarre developer jokes, hidden campaign references, and treasure spots that quietly reshape the opening minutes of a game. The biggest discoveries are Photon Man, Cobra Car, Furious the Monkey Boy, AoE1’s ridiculous super-units, and the treasure routes tucked into Age of Empires III’s maps.
This guide focuses on the PC versions, especially Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, and Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. Some secrets are practical, some are pure nonsense, and a few are best experienced in a private lobby rather than inflicted on an unsuspecting ranked opponent.
The fastest way to uncover Age of Empires secrets
Before hunting, separate genuine hidden content from ordinary game mechanics. A relic behind a neutral camp is a map secret. A cheat unit is an Easter egg. A developer reference in a campaign is environmental storytelling. The distinction matters because most famous Age of Empires secrets aren’t activated by discovering a particular tile; they’re triggered by typing a phrase or choosing an unusual scenario-editor object.
In a single-player game, press Enter, type the code exactly as shown, and press Enter again. Cheats normally need to be enabled when creating the match. In Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, open the scenario or skirmish setup and tick Allow Cheats. Campaign behavior varies, and activating cheats can disable achievements, so keep a clean save before experimenting.
For physical map secrets, use a scout or Explorer, switch to a wider zoom level, and check the edges of the playable area. AoE2 relics are usually placed in monasteries’ line-of-sight puzzles: hills, forests, and neutral buildings can conceal the shortest safe route. In AoE3, treasure guardians are deliberately positioned to punish a careless Explorer, so bring a hero ability, a War Dog, or a few early units before challenging high-value camps.
| Secret type | Best game | How to find it | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheat unit | AoE1 and AoE2 | Enable cheats, then enter the exact code | Low in single-player |
| Relic route | AoE2 | Scout hills, forests, and neutral structures | Medium |
| Treasure camp | AoE3 | Send the Explorer toward guarded pickups | Medium to high |
| Scenario joke | AoE2 and AoE3 | Inspect campaign maps and editor objects | None |
That same method works outside this series, too. Steamoz’s guides to Eternal Destiny secret locations and Everspace 2 hidden rewards use the same principle: look for content that rewards exploration rather than simply following the objective marker.
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View on Steammoz Store →Age of Empires’ funniest hidden units and codes
Photon Man is the original sci-fi ambush
In Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, type e=mc2 trooper and the game gives you the Photon Man. It’s a modern soldier carrying a laser rifle, an absurd visual break from priests, chariots, and Stone Age infantry. The unit is deliberately overpowered for a normal early campaign, but it still has to travel across the map and can be surrounded if you treat it like an invincible hero.
Photon Man is most fun as a scouting experiment. Spawn one near a hostile settlement, watch how quickly it deletes lightly armored units, then compare the result with a standard Chariot Archer. The joke works because the unit’s technology is so wildly out of place. It also shows how the original developers used cheat codes as a toy box rather than a serious balance layer.
Medusa turns villagers into a cursed army
The AoE1 code medusa gives villagers a bizarre death-and-resurrection behavior. When a villager dies, the replacement can return as a different military unit, producing a chaotic chain reaction across the map. It’s one of those codes that sounds useful until you realize it destroys the normal economic rhythm: your lumber, food, and gold workers stop being a reliable workforce.
Use Medusa in a custom scenario with a small population cap. That makes the transformation easy to follow and prevents the match from becoming an unreadable swarm. It’s also a good reminder that old Age of Empires cheats were often experimental rulesets, not polished bonus modes.
Bigdaddy and pow are pure 1990s nonsense
bigdaddy creates a black sports car with a mounted weapon, while pow produces a baby riding a tricycle and carrying a surprisingly dangerous weapon. The units are not balanced alternatives to cavalry or archers. They’re interactive jokes, built for the moment when you want to watch an ancient army get flattened by something that clearly wandered in from another game.
Try bigdaddy against massed infantry on an open map. The car’s speed makes it effective at kiting slow targets, but walls, forests, and cramped settlements reduce its value. That contrast is part of the joke: the code feels unstoppable until the map itself becomes the counter.
| Code | Game | Reward | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| e=mc2 trooper | AoE1 DE | Photon Man | Testing ranged damage and campaign chaos |
| medusa | AoE1 DE | Transforming villagers | Experimental scenario battles |
| bigdaddy | AoE1 DE | Armed sports car | Kiting slow armies on open terrain |
| pow | AoE1 DE | Baby on a tricycle | Pure Easter-egg destruction |
| steroids | AoE1 DE | Extremely fast gameplay | Speed-running a sandbox match |
For the full historical context, the official Age of Empires site is worth checking before assuming a code belongs to the sequel. AoE1 and AoE2 share the series’ tone, but their cheat lists and unit behavior are not interchangeable.
Age of Empires II hides its best jokes in plain sight
Cobra Car is more useful than it has any right to be
In Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the classic code how do you turn this on creates the Cobra Car. This fast ranged vehicle fires automatically and can tear through early armies, making it vastly more practical than most joke units. It still isn’t a replacement for a real composition: massed siege, conversion, or a fortified choke can make the car’s pathing miserable.
The hidden lesson is map control. Cobra Car is strongest when it has room to circle targets and weakest when enemies force it into narrow passages. Spawn several on Arabia, attack from two angles, and you’ll see why speed matters more than raw attack in an open fight. Try the same experiment on Arena and the result changes dramatically once walls and buildings restrict movement.
Furious the Monkey Boy is a tiny boss fight
Type i love the monkey head in AoE2 and you’ll receive Furious the Monkey Boy. It’s a small, fast unit with an enormous attack value for its size. The unit is famous because it looks harmless until it reaches a building or villager. In a sandbox, it can erase targets before a conventional army has time to react.
Don’t confuse it with a normal frontline fighter. Furious is a raider and a joke unit, not a durable tank. Use it to test how quickly a settlement responds to a sudden high-damage threat. The most entertaining counter is a ring of walls: the monkey’s power doesn’t help much if it can’t reach the target.
Wololo is an audio Easter egg with real tactical roots
The monk’s “Wololo” chant is both a gameplay sound and one of the most recognizable memes in PC strategy games. It signals a conversion attempt, but the conversion is not guaranteed. A monk needs line of sight, range, and time to complete the attempt, and repeated conversions become less reliable against the same unit for a short period.
That’s why a genuine monk ambush feels like an Easter egg even when it’s completely legitimate play. Hide monks behind a forest, let the enemy army pass, then convert the most expensive unit first. A converted Trebuchet, Bombard Cannon, or Elephant can swing a fight more dramatically than a cheap infantry kill. If you want to hear the original sound and learn the broader history, consult the official Age of Empires II page.
Other AoE2 codes worth testing
to smithereens creates a Saboteur, a unit designed to rush into enemies and explode. furious the monkey boy is another direct way to spawn the monkey unit, while torpedo 1 through torpedo 8 instantly eliminate a player in the corresponding slot. Those last codes are useful for testing scenario victory conditions, but they’re obviously not appropriate for competitive play.
AoE2’s strangest secret is how naturally these jokes coexist with serious systems. A code like marco reveals the map, and polo removes the fog of war. Together, they let you inspect the exact logic behind relic placement, neutral camps, shoreline routes, and hidden reinforcement triggers in campaigns.
Campaign maps reward players who ignore the arrow
Age of Empires campaigns are packed with optional discoveries, though they don’t always advertise them as Easter eggs. In AoE2, objectives often point you toward a decisive battle while the map quietly offers relics, abandoned settlements, side armies, or neutral buildings that make the next phase easier.
Scout the edges before triggering major objectives
Many campaign scenarios change after you destroy a marked building, rescue a hero, or enter a particular zone. Before triggering that event, sweep the perimeter with a fast unit. This matters in missions where reinforcements arrive after an objective: an unexplored corner may contain a relic or a neutral resource pile that becomes difficult to reach once the enemy starts raiding.
Use the campaign’s named hero as a clue. Joan of Arc, Saladin, Genghis Khan, and Barbarossa scenarios frequently place the hero near the intended route, while optional rewards sit off the road. If a path looks too obvious, check the opposite side of nearby cliffs and forests. The maps are designed around readable lanes, so even a small break in terrain can signal a side route.
Relics are hidden information, not just gold income
A relic generates a steady trickle of gold inside a monastery, but its real value in a campaign is strategic information. A relic location tells you where the map designer expects exploration, and securing one can reveal safe staging ground for monks, siege, or a forward Town Center.
In standard AoE2 rules, a monastery holds relics and monks carry them. Five relics placed in your monasteries eventually trigger the relic victory condition, but campaign objectives usually override that win path. Don’t waste time chasing a relic if the mission requires destroying a wonder or escorting a hero. Take it when the route is safe and the gold supports your next technology spike.
The scenario editor is the real secret archive
Open the AoE2 scenario editor and inspect units that never appear in a normal civilization roster. You can place cheat units, special heroes, decorative objects, and campaign-specific units to build your own Easter-egg hunt. The editor also lets you attach triggers to timers, unit deaths, or map locations, which is how many custom scenarios create apparently “hidden” events.
For a clean experiment, create a 100-by-100 map, hide a single Cobra Car behind a forest, and set a trigger that reveals it when a scout enters a zone. Then add a message, a small enemy patrol, and a reward chest made from a neutral building. This turns a cheat into a genuine secret-location puzzle rather than a code demonstration.
Players who enjoy this kind of discovery may also like Steamoz’s Empires of the Undergrowth leveling guide, which treats map control and resource timing as a scavenger hunt rather than a simple grind.
Age of Empires III’s best secrets are treasure routes
Age of Empires III changes the formula. Instead of relying mainly on cheat-unit jokes, it hides useful rewards in treasure camps scattered across the map. Your Explorer is the key: he can reveal the fog, defeat guardians, collect treasure, and use abilities that make early exploration safer.
Read the guardian before committing
Treasure guardians vary from small wildlife to dangerous human units. A low-health Explorer should never charge a camp simply because the reward looks valuable. Pull the guardian away from the treasure, use the Explorer’s ranged attack when possible, and kite around terrain. If the camp contains several guardians, let a starting military unit absorb attention while the Explorer finishes the objective.
Treasure rewards can include food, wood, coin, experience, settlers, or temporary bonuses. Early food is especially powerful because it accelerates Villager production and the first age-up. Experience can be even better if it pushes your Home City shipment forward, giving you military support before your opponent expects it.
Use the first minute to plan a route
Don’t send the Explorer randomly. Identify two nearby camps, prioritize the reward that matches your opening, and return before the opponent can punish your exposed economy. A food-heavy build wants a fast experience or food treasure; a coin-dependent technology timing benefits from coin; a wood treasure can support an early house, market, or military building without delaying Villagers.
| Treasure reward | Best opening | Why it matters | Main warning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food | Fast age-up | Supports continuous Villager production | Guardian may delay the Explorer’s return |
| Wood | Early military building | Funds houses and infrastructure | Less valuable if your build is coin-starved |
| Coin | Tech or cavalry opening | Speeds age-up and expensive units | Doesn’t replace a stable food income |
| Experience | Shipment-focused build | Delivers a powerful Home City card sooner | Weak if the map requires immediate defense |
| Settler | Greedy economic opening | Creates a lasting Villager lead | Risky if the camp is heavily guarded |
Age of Empires III also hides flavor in its Home City cards, campaign dialogue, and unusual units. Some references are easier to notice when you replay missions after learning the standard objective order. Pay attention to named commanders, shipment descriptions, and map landmarks; the game often telegraphs its historical jokes through text rather than a dramatic cutscene.
Which secrets are actually worth using?
Not every Easter egg improves a match. The best ones teach you something about the game’s systems. Cobra Car teaches pathing and mobility. Monk conversions teach timing and line of sight. AoE3 treasure teaches risk-versus-reward scouting. Photon Man teaches nothing about competitive balance, but it remains one of the funniest ways to break a campaign open.
| Secret | Practical value | Entertainment value | Recommended mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| AoE1 Photon Man | Low | Extreme | Single-player sandbox |
| AoE1 Medusa | Low | High | Custom scenario |
| AoE2 Cobra Car | Medium | Extreme | Private skirmish |
| AoE2 Furious the Monkey Boy | Low | Extreme | Scenario testing |
| AoE2 relic routes | High | Medium | Campaign and ranked play |
| AoE3 treasure camps | Very high | High | Every serious opening |
For ranked play, focus on the non-cheat discoveries. Learn the likely relic zones on Arabia, scout the forward gold and stone before committing to a rush, and practice monk positioning behind your main army. In AoE3, memorize treasure patterns and guardian types on your preferred maps. Those secrets are not gimmicks; they’re small advantages that compound over the first five minutes.
A practical secret-hunting checklist
- Enable cheats only in a test match. Save your campaign and ranked settings first, because achievements and statistics may not behave normally after cheats are activated.
- Test one code at a time. This makes it easier to identify whether the unit, resource change, or map effect actually triggered.
- Explore before objectives. In campaigns, sweep the edges and side roads before destroying the target building or entering the marked zone.
- Use the editor to verify rumors. If someone claims a hidden unit or secret trigger exists, reproduce it in a blank scenario rather than trusting a clipped video.
- Record the map seed. AoE2 and AoE3 map generation can move resources and treasures, so a discovery may not appear in the same place twice.
- Watch performance while zooming out. Large cheat-unit armies can stress CPU simulation more than GPU rendering. If your game stutters, Steamoz’s PC crash and FPS troubleshooting has useful general cleanup steps.
The next time you launch Age of Empires, don’t rush straight into the familiar build order. Type how do you turn this on in a private AoE2 lobby, search the outer edge of a campaign map, or send your AoE3 Explorer toward a treasure camp you normally ignore. The series’ best secrets aren’t buried behind impossible puzzles. They’re hidden in the gap between following the objective and actually looking around.
For patch notes, official support, and current Definitive Edition information, use the official Age of Empires support center. Just remember the golden rule: use the outrageous codes for laughs, and use the exploration habits for wins.