Advice for New Players?

[espectro]

9 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

 

Ma'am, this is a Wendys. 

Sir, this is an MMO. It’s a game but also a social Petri dish. You get to meet different types of people.

Some are weird and some don’t have much of a sense of humor. 

[Neiska]

8 hours ago, espectro said:

If you are a guy playing female characters in the ordinary game (not RP circles), be upfront about your irl gender.

You won’t add disappointed lesbians to your list of regrets. 

Male associate won’t tell you they thought they were playing with a “cool girl.”

You won’t have a conversation that ends with “you can’t blame a guy for trying.”

 

On the other hand, if your hustling for some fast xp max those sliders out and wear as little costume as the game permits.

Find a farmer with the huge body type, spikes, etc. and call them Daddy or something. 

 

What the actual Eff did I just read?

 

How about people play whatever the heck they damn well please, and if other people don't like it, well, too dang bad? Not their business.

 

And personally, I find it pretty telling where you could legitimately play something as ridiculous as you can imagine, someone chooses to zero focus on of all things, gender. Methinks thy intents might not be entirely genuine.

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

Don't sweat the small stuff (everything in the game is small stuff).

Don't eat yellow snow.

Don't spit into the wind.

Don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger.

And don't mess around with Him.

[espectro]

49 minutes ago, Neiska said:

 

What the actual Eff did I just read?

 

How about people play whatever the heck they damn well please, and if other people don't like it, well, too dang bad? Not their business.

 

And personally, I find it pretty telling where you could legitimately play something as ridiculous as you can imagine, someone chooses to zero focus on of all things, gender. Methinks thy intents might not be entirely genuine.

 

How about people answer the OPs question however the heck they damn well please, and if other people don’t like it, too dang bad? 

Everything I mentioned is related to something I or a friend experienced in game. The point is that this is an MMO and can lead to weird interactions. Actually, the most memorable part is the interactions. The post was not meant to be rage bait.

[Luminara]

Find @Snarky and join his teams.  All of his teams, and he'd appreciate it if you used different characters each time.  Preferably characters you have no idea how to play so he can learn from watching you.  And whenever possible, join low level Task/Strike Forces with @Snarky.  He loves when he has new people to play those with.  Just don't listen to anything he says, he's clueless.

 

Also, if you happen to run across @Yomo Kimyata, trade him any and all level 10 Interrupt IOs you have, he'll give you a million inf* for each.

 

[Neiska]

3 hours ago, espectro said:

 

How about people answer the OPs question however the heck they damn well please, and if other people don’t like it, too dang bad? 

Everything I mentioned is related to something I or a friend experienced in game. The point is that this is an MMO and can lead to weird interactions. Actually, the most memorable part is the interactions. The post was not meant to be rage bait.

 

Perhaps I should clarify. When I said "I suspect thy intents might not be entirely genuine" I was not referring to what you are playing in game, but I originally thought your post was tongue in cheek. Personally, I consider it poor form to try to lecture and control what other people play. Especially on things like genders. It's just a game/pixels. And call it a wild hunch that most people are not looking for romantic partners on City of Heroes, and I would even go further and say that such persons really were looking for more, shall we say, adult roleplay, which actually isn't allowed.

[Ghost]

14 hours ago, espectro said:

 

How about people answer the OPs question however the heck they damn well please, and if other people don’t like it, too dang bad? 

Everything I mentioned is related to something I or a friend experienced in game. The point is that this is an MMO and can lead to weird interactions. Actually, the most memorable part is the interactions. The post was not meant to be rage bait.

Are you saying that you (or your “friend”) were teaming with a female toon, and were flirting with them thinking they were female, only to find out they weren’t?

 

My advice to the OP wouldn’t be to announce your gender, it would be - don’t flirt with female toons you think are hot.

It never ends well.

🤭

 

[espectro]

17 minutes ago, Ghost said:

Are you saying that you (or your “friend”) were teaming with a female toon, and were flirting with them thinking they were female, only to find out they weren’t?

 

 

Nope. I’m saying that I’ve been on the receiving end of this while playing female toons. 

The easiest way to get them to stop is to tell them you’re a guy.

[Seed22]

On 9/30/2025 at 10:59 AM, Archaeological_Hawk said:

Veterans of COH — is there any advice you would give a new player? Something you learned the hard way, after years of experience with the game? What would that advice be? Anything helpful, no matter how trivial, post it here!

Get to the discord as fast as you humanely can for actually decent builds/accurate game info

[Ghost]

1 hour ago, espectro said:

 

Nope. I’m saying that I’ve been on the receiving end of this while playing female toons. 

The easiest way to get them to stop is to tell them you’re a guy.

Ahhh, gotcha.

You might also tell them to seek help.

[Maagic]

3 hours ago, Ghost said:

Are you saying that you (or your “friend”) were teaming with a female toon, and were flirting with them thinking they were female, only to find out they weren’t?

 

My advice to the OP wouldn’t be to announce your gender, it would be - don’t flirt with female toons you think are hot.

It never ends well.

🤭

 

Good advice! I'd go a step further and say don't flirt with anyone PERIOD if you can't SEE them and/or hear them. Even then be very careful. Better to just not do it in the first place. 

[Navy Spider]

Quote

don't flirt

 

This. 

 

For every moment you flirt, a Skul goes unkilled.

 

Don't flirt. Kill Skuls.

[JasperStone]

Join an active Super Group.

and/or

Build your own base - In a small base, you can have basically everything you need, outside of leveling up and access to the auction house. We have a thread here that can help. You can accomplish a great deal with just the basics.

• crafting
• costume editing
• storage
• buffs - to a degree
• teleportation to zones

Given in to altitis, you have a ton of character slots.

 

Use the Wiki - it is fantastic

 

 

[GM Crumpet]

On 10/1/2025 at 12:27 AM, Skyhawke said:

 

Also, you can outlevel certain rewards for a story arc, even if the book icon is there. Looking at you, Stephanie Peebles....

Depends if the arc is split. Then the second part is unavailable if you outlevel the contact

[Archaeological_Hawk]

I have made it to level seven.

 

This game is awesome, and I am having a blast!

[lemming]

On the OT flirting, if it's a RP, and both are ok, then sure.

I haven't run into this on HC at all.

Back on legacy, I had this exchange toward a char:

"You're sexy, I like tall women"

"Hey! Me too!"

Which killed that interaction.

 

I have more female characters than male and huge, though in real life, I would identify more as huge.

[Captain Fabulous]

On 10/1/2025 at 7:02 AM, mistagoat said:

Perhaps something else was at play but I have experienced Talshak refusing to give me his last mission when I hit 16 in Atta and preventing me from getting the merits for the arc. I had to repeat the arc through the crystal to get my merits.

It's a bug.

[Skyhawke]

5 hours ago, JasperStone said:

Join an active Super Group.

and/or

Build your own base - In a small base, you can have basically everything you need, outside of leveling up and access to the auction house. We have a thread here that can help. You can accomplish a great deal with just the basics.

• crafting
• costume editing
• storage
• buffs - to a degree
• teleportation to zones

Given in to altitis, you have a ton of character slots.

 

Use the Wiki - it is fantastic

 

 

 

Are you talking about having trainers in your base? If so, you can definitely have trainers in a base, just not the named ones you'll find ingame. 

[Skyhawke]

4 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

Depends if the arc is split. Then the second part is unavailable if you outlevel the contact

 

I'm thinking of the Ring of Peebles arc. I started it, got onto a TF, came back, was overleveled, but finished the arc out. I never got the Ring of Peebles temp power. From what I remember reading, it's a known thing and you have to Oro it to get the temp power. 

[Placta]

The monorail has different entrance and exit rooms. If you went to the wrong zone and want to get back on, you need to leave the room you're in and go back in the center room.

 

The tailor in Independence Port is very close to the gate to Kings Row and is easier for a lowbie to get to than the one in Steel Canyon. Of course, nowadays you can just go to the tailor in Pocket D, or RWZ, or Atlas, or talk to Ms Liberty, or have a tailor in your supergroup base, but it's still nice to know.

 

Whether an attack hits is entirely decided by hit rolls. Doesn't matter how slow those rocks thrown at you seem to be moving, you can't dodge them.

[Ironblade]

Like many other games, CoH has a 'team finder' system (click on LFG above the chat window).  What's different here is that no one uses it to join teams.

Everyone just uses server-wide channels like 'Looking for Group' (LFG) or global (cross server) channels.  For things that happen in a specific zone, sometimes they just use Broadcast in that zone.

 

The LFG tab is often used as a quick teleporter to the contact for a specific task force or trial, but that's pretty much it for that system.

[Psyonico]

2 hours ago, Skyhawke said:

 

I'm thinking of the Ring of Peebles arc. I started it, got onto a TF, came back, was overleveled, but finished the arc out. I never got the Ring of Peebles temp power. From what I remember reading, it's a known thing and you have to Oro it to get the temp power. 

I did the same thing with a toon 2ish months ago and got the ring.  I think I was 29 when I actually completed the last mission.

[Skyhawke]

I think I was low 30s. 29 is the barrier, I believe.  🤷‍♂️

[Archaeological_Hawk]

Meet my newest toon. His name is Human Booger.

[WuTang]

Play how you wanna play. This game is literally the most customizable there is.

 

Wanna zip to 50, be there in hours. Wanna slow roll, plenty of story and TFs and teams going. Want to solo, set the difficulty level to your fav and go at it. Need help ask, there are SO MANY good people here they'll trip over each other trying to get to you. Wanna RP, Pocket D will always have some going on (at least on Everlasting). Like alts, 1000 character slots per account. Like being original, so many power combinations and slotting possibilities that it's unlikely you'll come across an exact copy, same goes for costume. Wanna make INF! There are guides everywhere and heck there are some that throw millions your way without even asking.

 

Be kind and do what you do.

Edited October 3 by WuTang
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