Any tips for new players?

[La Flame]

I heard about this game from MoistCr1TiKaL and I thought I would try it out as I love the idea of creating your own superhero.

 

That being said, is there anything I should be aware of before starting my first playthrough?

 

(P.S. This is my first time playing an MMORPG)

[FFFF]

• Game play is designed around the journey not the end. The most fun you'll have is the journey to level 50, not after level 50.
• Experiment. Try out a number of archetypes and power sets. Some will grab you more than others. Don't really worry about money (influence) because enhancements don't really play much of a factor until level 10+.
• Team up. This game has one of the absolute best teaming mechanisms among MMOs, and you can get a better understanding as to why some players like to play controllers, defenders, corruptors.
• Spend time in making up a costume and a bio. This isn't your typical sword and fantasy MMO. You are a hero, and the more you get into it, the more fun it will be.
• Ask for help. The help channel or most of the public channels will be filled with people who can point you in the right direction, if not give you more direct aid. This game is full of veterans and people who somewhat embody superhero virtues like helping others.

[Skyhawke]

1. Play hero or villain side first. The Going Rogue choice in the character creator will take you to Praetoria, which is a lot harder on new players who don't understand mechanics. 

 

2. In Atlas Park and Mercy Island, you can find these women in black skirt/suits that are the Pay To Win vendors. They have a lot of free goods that will be a monumental help early on. You can get 5 really good enhancements that will last you til level 21, some extra melee and ranged attacks, a rocket jump pack, various running types (used with Sprint will make you very zippy and able to jump fairly high). AVOID the double xp boosters. It's tempting, but play through normally at least once to progress and learn at an even pace. 

 

3. Go to this thread 

and get the vidiot maps overlay. 

 

4. Once you have that and are in Atlas/Mercy, run around (with your spiffy new extra run and jump powers) and get all the exploration badges. This will give you the Long Rang Teleporter power and Atlas/Mercy as a  destination. That way, no matter what you'll always be able (as long as it's off of cooldown) to get back to a safe zone. Also, when you hit new zones, grab at least one of the exploration badges there and you get that as a location for your teleporter.

 

5. In Atlas (unsure about redside), you can get what's called the Orobouros Teleporter right at the start instead of having to wait/ask for one to be dropped near you. To get it, go into CIty Hall, hang a right, go down the stairs, go to the last door on the right and head towards the elevator that just happens to have one of those awesome exploration badges in front of it. Go down the elevator, go forward and jump down to the floor. You'll see a big portal. Go through and when you zone in, you'll have the Orobouros power. It won't pop into your tray like the Long Range version, you'll have to click on the "Power" tab on your powers tray and click it to make it pop into your tray. Orobouros isn't exactly a zone, but it has missions once you're high enough level, is a hub for a lot of people putting endgame stuff together and you can access missed missions via one of the pilalrs of ice and flame. Also, you can use it as a travel hub since it can reconnect you to several zones. If for no other reason, it's worth getting as an extra means of convenient travel. 

 

6. At level 5, you'll get a contact (Twinshot for heroes and Dr Graves for villains). Do their mission arc. At level 10 and again at level 15, you'll get another little arc from them. Each arc introduces you to new aspects of the game and gives mini tutorials on most things you need to know. They're also pretty neat. 

 

7. During those prior mentioned missions, you'll be sent to a University to learn about inventions. There's a guy in each (when you walk in, look to your left and you'll see him) that will start the invention tutorial. You'll get to make a free invention origin enhancement. These are nice because they don't degrade in usefulness as you level past them.

 

8. Merit Rewards. Every so often, you'll get merit rewards. From story arc completions, from doing Take Force/Strike Forces and from getting all exploration badges in a zone. These can be spent for various rewards. I personally hoard them until I have enough to buy what are called Archetype Origin Enhancements. These are for the various Archetypes and will confer set bonuses as you  slot more into the same power. 

 

9. When you finish a mission, don't backtrack your way out. Unlike other MMOS, you get to pop right out of a mission when done. On your compass (top middle screen by default) you'll see a blue button next to Mission Complete. Click it!

 

10. Remember above all: Have fun! This game rules and here's hoping you and all new players get to have those first time moments the rest of us did and build fond memories from!

Edited January 9 by Skyhawke

[JasperStone]

• You have a ton of character slots- Powersets within Archetypes can behave very differently, so experiment.
• Explore the options>Menu, especially keymapping, so you can set up how your keyboard and mouse work with the game. You can save this and then upload it for each character. Eventually, you can learn how to make keybinds, macros, etc. 
• The UI is flexible too ... set it up how wish
• Play the tutorial. As a first-timer, it will help with game mechanics, etc.
•  Character Name  - You can change it at any time; names may be taken, so you may need to be creative. 
• Be mindful of copyright infringement. Big no no. An homage is fine, the more clever the better 🙂
• Bio - I take my time on the bio. Usually, I just have the name and let the story behind the character develop. It can be short and sweet, or epic. Your choice.

 

Edited January 10 by JasperStone
typo

[Sovera]

Check my signature for tips.

 

Don't fuss about meta, this is very much a game to play around having fun with alts.

 

Solo or teaming from level 1 onwards is a thing so don't hold back or chip at enemies.

[cranebump]

I’m just going to provide the immediate steps. Number one: play hero side first. Number two: play the hero side tutorial called outbreak before entering the game through Atlas Park. Once you get to Atlas Park, play through the story arcs presented to you beginning with Matt Habashy. When you open up the contact named Twinshot, Play through her ARC as well. This will get you familiar with the basic stuff as you are learning the game. I would honestly avoid running on a large team until you've played the game solo for a while at the lower levels. However, running as a duo or trio, with a couple of friendly veterans might not be bad since they would answer questions for you on the fly.

 

Try to take it in bite sized chunks. Most of all, though, have fun! If you end up on Torchbearer, feel free to look me up. My global is the same as my forum name. In the meantime, have a great run and welcome!

Edited January 9 by cranebump

[Skyhawke]

You'll probably see chat zip by and acronyms and abbreviations being used a lot. This is a handy page for knowing what in the world people are saying. 

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Definition

[Skyhawke]

Biggest tip of all? Don't get discouraged. You can do amazing against one set of enemies and get wiped by another. Learning who does what and how to deal with it will become a very handy skillset. 

 

Also, if you take a powerset with knockback in it, you HAVE to go back to a starter zone at some point and knock gray con enemies off of rooftops. Trust me on this one, it's ridiculously therapeutic. 😁

[Oubliette_Red]

Don't be afraid to muck about in your settings, there are quite a few things you can do to improve your graphics, make the UI appear to you liking and set controls like mob targeting.

Also, you can find more tips in this thread.

There are also various help threads down in 'Tools, Utilities, & Downloads' and 'Guides' sections of the forums.

 

[Shenanigunner]

While it's a few years old, newcomers might find this list of things that are useful but not terribly evident or well-documented helpful:

• The GSNOTTY (Gunner's Stuff No One Thought to Tell You) List

I think it's all up to date. Need to review it soon.

[Oklahoman]

Avoid @Snarky

[Scarlet Shocker]

1 hour ago, Oklahoman said:

Avoid @Snarky

Difficult to do. Nobody see him coming (because he closes the lid)

[cronus]

If you need help with money you can send an in-game email to @Yomo and they will send you $100 million influence

[Shenanigunner]

Quote

Biggest tip of all? Don't get discouraged. You can do amazing against one set of enemies and get wiped by another. Learning who does what and how to deal with it will become a very handy skillset.

 

While differentiated foes have become much more common in games, CoX was unusual — and is still subtle — about varying foes having varying power sets. In particular, running into your first mez/hold/sleep lieutenants can be a humiliating experience., A level 20 isn't always a level 20, is what we're sayin' here.

 

Quote

Also, if you take a powerset with knockback in it, you HAVE to go back to a starter zone at some point and knock gray con enemies off of rooftops. Trust me on this one, it's ridiculously therapeutic. 😁 

 

I have spent FAR too much time taking Burn or other powerful AoE alts to Perez Park, finding the biggest mobs, and "stomping ants." It just never gets old.

 

Edited January 10 by Shenanigunner

[Oubliette_Red]

As I reminded someone last night, don't ask in Atlas Park if "anyone is running a fire farm in AE".

 

[FFFF]

2 minutes ago, Oubliette_Red said:

As I reminded someone last night, don't ask in Atlas Park if "anyone is running a fire farm in AE".

 

 

For veteran players, I'd recommend taking off LFG, broadcast, General and Help and putting them into their own tab.

 

This isolates 'Sitter LF FF' spam which honestly is kind of pitiful to see in Excelsior/Everlasting public channels, and immersion breaking.

[Shenanigunner]

9 minutes ago, Oubliette_Red said:

As I reminded someone last night, don't ask in Atlas Park if "anyone is running a fire farm in AE".

 

"LEvel 3 blaster lf DFB"

"LEvel 3 blaster lf DFB"

"LEvel 3 blaster lf DFB"

"LEvel 3 blaster lf DFB"

[Ironblade]

On 1/9/2024 at 3:12 PM, La Flame said:

(P.S. This is my first time playing an MMORPG)

That's good.  You won't be coming in with preconceived notions like "Every team has to have ONE tank, ONE healer and some DPS."

 

There are FIFTEEN 'archetypes' (commonly referred to as 'classes' in other games).  Each character has a primary powerset and a secondary one.  In each category you will have at least seven options and as many as two dozen.  So, a blaster could use Archery, Assault Rifle, Beam Rifle, Dark Blast, Dual Pistols, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast or seven other choices.  Each has a different combination of damage type, animations, secondary effects (knockback, slow, damage over time, etc).  My point is that there is an INSANE number of options.  You might start with a scrapper and decide melee damage stinks and then do an ice blaster and feel it's amazing.

 

Offhand, I would say to start with a relatively durable character so you aren't frustrated by dying a lot while you learn the game.  I started with a broadsword/regeneration scrapper.  Other good options would be a brute, stalker, tank or sentinel.  What these all have in common is that one of their powersets is a defensive set (i.e. designed to keep you alive).  With a tank, the defensive set is primary so they are very tough but lower damage.  A scrapper reverses that.  A blaster has the highest damage but they are 'squishy' (easy to kill).

[Water]

If you want to play the game - stay out of AE.  ( a level 50 player asking "where is the Hollows" is known to be inferior in game knowledge)

 

Otherwise, get to level 50 in AE in a few hours and have all the abilities you can which you have have no idea how to use nor how they work and what effect they have.

 

Have a solo character from your 1000 character slots to run Blue, Red and Gold sides using the 'disable XP' (general) option from the menu so that you can experience a lot of the game.

 

Use drops for slotting and save your merits until you reach lvl 47 (where you can slot lvl 50 Invention Origin enhancements for set bonuses)

 

Ultimately - play and learn your way (whatever anyone of us says)

 

Base building - Watch all of this channel by Dacy. - https://www.youtube.com/@DacysBaseBuilding/videos

 

 

Edited January 11 by Water

[Techwright]

Newbie tips (with links to Wiki info):

 

• ENHANCEMENTS: Read up on Enhancements.  Acquire them by battle-won drops (no pick up necessary), vendor purchase, trading with other players, or purchase through one of the Auction Houses (called Wentworths on blue/hero side, Black Market on red/villain side, and...I forget the gold/Going Rogue side terms.)  Enhancements 3 levels higher than your current level can be used, and certain enhancements cease to function after 3 levels lower than your level, so be prepared to replace them or use the  Upgrade button.
• UPGRADE BUTTON: Homecoming has added an Upgrade button in the enhancement manage screen, and as long as you have the corresponding INF (cash) you can upgrade anything slotted to the highest level your current rank permits.  
• INF (cash) is the main currency in the game.  Each game side has a different word for it, but it's the same stuff under the hood.
• GOING ROGUE: It's probably best to not create a character for  gold/Going Rogue side until you've played in the red or blue sides for a while.  Gold side is fun, but it's morally gray choices combined with low population (it's more of a solo area, though you can team), and isolation from the other sides for many levels due to story reasons can be rough on a new player.
• TRAVEL OPTIONS: Homecoming has improved on the various means of travel between zones in City of Heroes.  There's quite a few ways including some hidden paths.  The most obvious ones are the monorail/train/tram stations, ferrys, helicopters and similar air and aquatic craft, and the doors in the edges of zones, particularly zones with War Walls (the game will eventually explain these walls).  The Homecoming Development team aided players by creating the Fast Travel "button", a type of accolade that you can drop into one of your powers trays.  It acts as a pop-up menu, allowing you to access a variety of travel abilities that would normally take up several spaces in your powers trays.  To acquire the Fast Travel, you have to tag all the explorations badges in a zone.  So if in Atlas Park, find all the exploration badges there, and in addition to the badge for accomplishing all that, you'll unlock the Fast Travel feature.  UPDATE:  I believe this has been changed to acquiring 10 exploration badges from anywhere to unlock the Fast Travel feature.  You'll find it under "Accolades" in your powers listings.  It is dark green.  Simply drag it to a spot on your powers trays, and click it to access it's special menu
• LONG RANGE TELEPORT: Upon opening the Fast Travel, you'll find several travel options including Ouroboros Zone travel and the "Long Range TP Zone Check" at the bottom. This latter one, when moused over, highlights sub-menus menus such as Paragon City and Rogue Islands.  These in turn have their zones listed.  Every time you find an initial exploration marker in a different zone, it will highlight and unlock that zone for you allowing fast travel to it via a teleportation.  Be aware that there is a recharge time.
• OUROBOROS: There's a special zone, Ouroboros, that links to several other zones (including the only means to get to some obsolete zones via a portal in the back) and occasionally to story-specific zones.  Access to the zone used to be level restricted but no longer is.  Ask in Atlas Park for someone to drop an "O-Portal" to allow you to get in, and get your own power tray access to Ouroboros, which is another way people travel quickly through the game, popping into the O, and exiting to one of several destinations.  (Be sure to grab the badge while there.  The marker is at the top of the structure.)  The Ouroboros access will add to the Fast Travel button once earned. 
• ALTERNATE TRAVEL: Other features under the Fast Travel may be grayed out, and will unlock either through something earned, such as Day Job badge rewards, or by acquisition from the P2W vendors.
• P2W VENDORS appear in key zones.  The tutuorial zones have them.  There's one in Atlas Park to the right side of the Atlas Statue, by the fountain.  Another is in Pocket D.  While you're visiting the P2W vendor, you'll likely want to grab everything free from them under the category "Prestige Powers".  Some are "either this one or that one" choices so be sure to read the descriptions.  There's some nice fighting powers there to help a novice character. You may also wish to grab the free Prestige Enhancements, which, though not as powerful as the Single Origin enhancements sold at standard vendors, do provide some nice procs up until level 22.  Lastly, you'll likely want to look at the Temporary Powers at the P2W vendor.  There's many useful things, like jetpacks, that cost the game currency INF, but there's also free experience boosters under Temp Powers/Buffs/Experience Boosters.  One hour each, and you can requisition up to eight at a time.  Although jetpacks cost something, I like to keep one as an emergency travel spare, just in case my travel powers are ever interrupted.
• FORT TRIDENT: Within the first major blue-side zone, Atlas Park:  If you look to the buildings to the east of the Atlas Statue, there's a building with a large Freedom Corp banner.  The door directly across from the City Hall is actually entrance to the "secret" Fort Trident sub base.  Within you'll find all manner of things, including Back Alley Brawler who acts as a trainer.  It's not far from the Atlas statue, making it a good trainer for those occasions when you can barely see the Ms Liberty trainer due to a mob of trainees.  Near BABs (as he's nicknamed) is both an enhancements vendor and an inspirations vendor.  All the Blue-Side Task Forces have a setup option there, there's crafting tables, B.O.T.L.E.R., and several other things.  Take a look around when you have a chance.
• BABs TIP: Back Alley Brawler also serves as a trainer at the edge of a very small park in the southwest corner of Atlas Park (the man gets around).  However, there is no enhancement vendor nearby this one.
• HAZARD ZONES:  Atlas Park has War Wall doors to two hazard zones: Perez Park and The Hollows.  New players should take the term "hazard zone" seriously.  These are meant to be more challenging, and should be approached in a group if you're new, preferably with a seasoned vet or two to help level the playing field.  The Hollows has one of the more interesting storyline payoffs in the early game, as you hunt down an Outcasts leader: Frostfire.   Due to their nature, one cannot just enter the hazard zone doors.  You have to click on one of the guards just inside the entrance area to confirm you want access.  There are other hazards zones in the game, including some PvP zones.

 

 

Edited October 23 by Techwright
updating documentation after game changes

[American Decoy]

Don't spill your drink in the keyboard.  Otherwise, take it easy, enjoy the game, don't worry, and "chat" with all your new friends.

[Snarky]

Stop and kill the roses. 

[Skyhawke]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

Stop and kill the roses. 

 

That's why I can never find them for Praetor White!

[UltraAlt]

On 1/9/2024 at 3:12 PM, La Flame said:

I heard about this game from MoistCr1TiKaL and I thought I would try it out as I love the idea of creating your own superhero.

 

That being said, is there anything I should be aware of before starting my first playthrough?

 

 

[Nemu]

Listen to Pandas. They are berry berry wise.

Edited January 11 by Nemu