I've been playing this game off and on since it launched in 2013, I've
always tried to help newer players when possible. This guide will try to
cover some of the common concerns I've seen from new players and help
get you started on your path to level 60.
To get started, you'll have to mosey on over to the
official Marvel Heroes website
to create an account. Once you've done that, it should bring you to a
page so you can download the game. (You can also download this on Steam
if you prefer) While you wait for the game to download and install, now
is a good time to
redeem any of the active
Promo Codes for the game. You can Verify your email while at your Profile to get a code to redeem for items; you
need to do this to use the chat.
Once you start the game you'll see a cinematic and will drop into action as Captain America. This is the Prologue/tutorial and it has pop up tips to help you learn some basics of the game. The prologue has been designed to let you play around with some different characters, so as you progress you will swap out to Black Widow and Hulk. (Note: If you are
trying to play with friend(s) you may have to get through the Prologue
before you can party up.)
After defeating your first boss, you will be able to swap to almost any hero in the game. You aren't committed to unlocking anyone just yet (you can try all but the latest released hero up to level 10), so feel free to check out whomever you may be interested in. Once you decide on a hero to use, you will continue to the last half of the Prologue - The Raft - and once that finishes you will be in Avenger's Tower and the normal game.
Hit
Escape and check out the options and keybindings, if you open your
Power page ('P') you can drag and drop powers onto the hotbar. I'd
recommend turning on Auto-Loot for Credits and Medkits under Gameplay
options. You'll see an option for Auto-Vaporizing loot, ignore that for
now, it automatically uses the Cybernetic Vacuum (default: 'J') which
sucks up
Slot 1-5 items and feeds them to your pet and/or converts them to credits. Another thing you will probably want off is
'Join party when entering instances' - this usually causes problems.
If
you redeemed the Promo Codes before starting, open your inventory ('C'
or 'I' should be the default keybinds). Here is my inventory after I opened
the Fortune Cards and boxes of boosts, using the Promo Codes as of
10/25/2015:
I happened to get lucky and got a Vision
pet from
one of the free Fortune Cards - you
could make accounts until you get a pet or other
desired loot in the card. Boosts are better saved for higher levels,
store them in your STASH once you get to Avengers Tower or in the
Team-Up inventory (access it by right clicking the Team-Up slot to the right of your health globe or hitting 'I' to get the Team-Up menu up)
Avengers Tower. is the first of the 'hubs' you will unlock. Here you will
find the STASH, vendors, the crafter, waypoints, etc.
You can also Uncap a
hero now by pressing 'T' and clicking Uncap on your hero of choice if
you are sure you want to unlock and
own that hero so they can be fully leveled to 60.
Every
account gets one free Uncap, letting you buy any hero except the very
latest released hero(es). In addition, on your 7th day of
logging in to the game you will get a
gift of 400 Eternity Splinters.
Splinters are the game's Free to Play currency you can use to buy
Heroes and Team-Ups and a few other things. They drop about once every 8
minutes of gameplay when fighting enemies around your level, and 400 ES
are enough Splinters to buy almost any hero in the game.
Adam
Warlock is the Splinter vendor and he can be found in hubs. (If you are
in Avengers, look towards the right of the STASH area to find him next
to some other vendors) I'd recommend checking out his inventory before
you use your Uncap to get a feel of the hero prices. For example, if I
was interested in Doctor Doom and the Hulk, I'd see that Doom costs 600
while the Hulk costs 400, meaning I should use the free Uncap for Doom
and use the Day 7 Splinters on Hulk. There are also a handful of heroes
that cost only 200 ES, such as current top tier hero Scarlet Witch.
(Note: Adam also sells Team-Ups, these are NPCs that fight alongside you
like mercenaries from
Diablo 2 and are
not playable! You do get a free Team-Up during the Story, and can always get
Pirate Deadpool too)
There have been some thoughts on who is best to unlock first:
- Your favorite hero, of course! There's really no wrong choices here, pick someone you like and have fun.
- Cyclops.
Cyclops has a Synergy bonus (perks unlocked when a hero hits level 25
or 50) of 10% experience, making it quicker to level for all future
heroes you play. (Cyclops costs 400 ES, so you could grab him with the
Day 7 gift and Uncap someone else)
- Uncap one of the 600 ES
heroes: Ghost Rider, Iron Man, Doctor Doom, Rogue, Doctor Strange,
Deadpool, or Spider-Man. By using your uncap on one of the most expensive
heroes you won't have to pay that much for them down the line.
- Uncap
who you want, use your free Splinters on Random Hero Boxes: The path
for those who don't really care who they play, Adam Warlock also sells
the Random Hero Boxes which cost 175 ES a piece and can give you any
hero in the game - even ones you already own. (If you get a dupe you get
a token to upgrade that hero's Ultimate power instead)
- You may want to consider unlocking a hero with a teleport movement power: Deadpool, Dr. Doom, Magik, Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch, Cable, Psylocke, Elektra, Kitty Pryde, Loki, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Silver Surfer, or Vision.
Again, there's really no wrong choices,
you'll earn Splinters as you play to get more heroes.
While you can't Uncap the new releases, most heroes cost 400 ES, meaning you
can buy them with the Day 7 gift.
You can
try almost every hero up to level 10, and you can switch to them to look
at their skill trees to see if they interest you.
Once you're all set with your uncap and Splinter purchases, you're ready to continue playing the game and make your way to 60!
(Continued...)
"Like wine, accounts of valor mellow with age; until Achilles dead 3,000 years stands peerless."
Comments
Unwanted Gear? Donate to the Crafter!
Items you pick up and don't need should be Donated to your Crafter, who can be found in hubs. The Crafter is account-wide, and even though it has many forms (Pym, Richards, Forge, Asgardian), it all goes to the same Crafter experience. The Crafter has many recipes only he can do, such as adding Costume Cores and Affixes to your costume.Save your Uniques, once your Crafter gets to 16 he unlocks Exchange recipes, trading in duplicate Uniques for credit chests lets you power level the remaining Crafter levels (max is 20) by donating the chests, and you then can Exchange for chests to power level the other vendors.
To help your Crafter level, you can donate your SHIELD Delivery Manifests (these can be found in the purple Gift Box icon under the minimap, their only purpose is to act as a receipt so you know what items you got when you logged in) for 1,000 experience a pop, and could also buy boxes of 200 medkits to donate them for 1,000 experience a stack. (The Enchanter is recommended to level next after the Crafter is done)
The Road to 60
It may take around 6-10 hours to get your first hero to level 60. You can shave some time off by using Experience boosts, but expect it to take about that long. There are all sorts of different game modes you can play to level in, all can be found in the Waypoint menu:- Story:
This was recently overhauled and you are supposed to be able to level
from 1-60 by playing the story alone. Playing through the Story is a
good choice as it rewards various perks such as bonus skill points,
Health, or Spirit from certain quests, but you can always go back and
get those. I'd recommend playing at least up to Chapter 3, so
that you can acquire the SHIELD Agent Team-Up to use.
- Patrols:
There are currently two Patrol modes, Midtown and Industry City. The
Story mode will introduce you to these if you are following it. On
Mondays, Midtown has a special event where bosses drop bonus boxes of
loot and experience, making Mondays a good time to level with Midtown.
- Terminals:
These unlock at level 20 and feature two difficulties: Green and Red,
Red is worth more experience but is harder. Every 20 hours you can
acquire a Cube Shard from each terminal on each difficulty. These Cube
Shards can be used to buy items such as Fortune Card Mark I from Clea, a
vendor found in hubs. The Fortune Cards she sells give you boosts as
well as chances at Pets or select costumes, so it is a good idea to farm
the Cube Shards each day.
- One-Shot Terminals: These also unlock
at 20 and are more difficult than Reds. These Terminals also have a 20
hour reset timer, except the reward Commendations - currency used for
endgame items - meaning it is a good idea to try and get these done
every day. (Note: Use your Mission Tracker to monitor the status on
these, certain parts are timed and you can fail them if you don't get
the objectives done. Don't worry if you fail, you can repeat these ad
nauseum and can just leave and start it again)
- X-Defense: A wave-based defense mode for up to 5 players. You can queue up for it and do other stuff.
- Holo-Sim: A wave-based survivival mode for 1-2 players. To queue solo, check the box that pops up when you go to queue.
- Legendary
Quests: These unlock at level 20 and reward good amounts of
experience, credits, and Odin Marks. Odin Marks are used to buy
Legendary items (300 Marks) and Blessings for artifacts (100 Marks
each). You will need these, so doing LQs is always a good idea.
- Shared
Quests: Every day you will get three SQs, one for Patrols, one for
Terminals, and one for One-Shots. These reward experience, loot boxes,
Odin Marks, and Commendations, so they are a good thing to run each day.
- Fire
and Ice PvP: I've actually never done this at low level, but I believe
it does give experience. Most people won't bother with it at low level,
so the queue may never fire off.
Since their inception, Legendary Quests have been recommended whenever people ask the best way to level. These are nice as they will take you to Story zones, Terminals, and Patrols (and some can be done in Holo-SIm instead ), plus you'll be earning Odin Marks to get your first Legendary item.Some tips:
Seer's Brilliance is the first Runeword you will be able to create at your Enchanter. It requires an Uru-Forged item and a Year and Lake rune. The runes are common drops and most veteran players will likely give them to you for free if you ask on chat. This Runeword has some perks that give bonus experience, making it a good choice for leveling. On Day 8 of your Login Rewards you will get a gift with the components to craft one of these.
Mole Man Medallion can be found starting around level 24, it can roll up to +2 Intelligene and +10% experience, making it ideal for leveling. You can get one from Mole Man in Midtown Patrol or from Mole Man in Chapter 4's Upper East Side.
The Omega system unlocks at level 30, there are some cheap nodes in the Psionics tree that give some bonus experience on kills. You can reset your Omega - and for that matter, skill points - at any time for no cost, so don't be afraid to spend them. The points are earned account-wide and each hero has their own to distribute.
Chapter 7's Mister Sinister quest rewards three 2-hour 50% experience buffs for each hero you beat him with. You can also get a supply of boosts by running Terminals for Cube Shards and buying the cards from Clea.
Most players will recommend using your Splinters to get Random Hero Boxes to start building your roster. This is a good idea and you can certainly unlock lots of heroes this way, but, man, does it suck when you get duplicates early on.
Every hero you level to 30, 50, and then 60 adds Hero Synergy experience for your account. It may be best to focus on one to level 60 first so you get the 30% boost for your other heroes. (Note: You keep the Synergies if you choose to Prestige a hero. Prestige starts you over at level 1 and gives you an extra default costume, a colored name for that hero, achievements, and access to the colored Iron Buddy Prestige pets Clea sells)
Once you hit level 60 - Congratulations! - make sure to click the ! box under your map for the quest to talk with Beast. This unlocks the Hammer Bay hub and the Influence system. You can earn 200 Influence a week and need to get 1,600 to max it out. (The code INFLUENCE can be redeemed for a box worth 200) You can get Influence through a weekly and daily quests offered in Hammer Bay, and there is also a 24-hour buff granted by one of the NPCs there which lets you earn Influence by killing enemies. It's not hard at all to hit the weekly cap, try to make sure you do so as the Influence vendor has things you will eventually need for the endgame, and leveling this will let you buy a pet for credits eventually.
(Continued...)
"Like wine, accounts of valor mellow with age; until Achilles dead 3,000 years stands peerless."
About Team-Ups
Team-Ups are NPC companions that have three modes you can use them on: they can fight by your side in battle as Companions, be used as a cooldown burst damage Assist power, or be set on Away mode, where they give you passive benefits and damage procs.'K' will summon them, 'I' or right-clicking the team-up slot to the right of the health bar will let you access their menu and inventory.
As long as they are equipped, Team-Ups will gain experience when you do. They don't take any experience away from you. Their maximum Mastery level is the same as yours, 60.
Each Team-Up can equip four different pieces of Team-Up gear, which have some innate affixes like HP regen and can roll random stats. These can be found in almost all of the same rarities as normal gear, and the top tier Cosmic Team-Up gear includes additional affixes such as "Heal your Team-Up for 100% of their HP when you use a medkit." (They discussed making Uniques for Team-Ups, but they have no been implemented)
Team-Ups have a 'mobile STASH' inventory that is shared between them all and can be accessed at any time by opening up the Team-Up menu. You can use this inventory even if you don't have a Team-Up yet.
Unless you buy one ahead of time, you will obtain your first Team-Up when you go through the Raft in the Prologue. A SHIELD Agent will join up with you.
You can buy more Team-Ups with Gs or Eternity Splinters. They are priced similar to playable heroes. Some variants can only be found in Fortune Cards, such as the HYDRA Double Agent, which is a variant of the SHIELD Agent.
In the future there is supposed to be a Synergy system for Team-Ups, similar to the Synergy system for heroes.
There are a few other Team-Ups you will be able to earn eventually without having to pay for them:
- Howard the Duck - There is an event called the A.R.M.O.R. Incursion which has an achievement named A.R.M.O.R. Defender, which rewards the Howard Team-Up. This is really simple to get progress on, each A.R.M.O.R. event has a Weekly quest to defeat certain types of creatures, you will get Howard after completing the weekly quest 4 times. The weekly quest sometimes is glitched and you can run it several times a week, rewarding extra credit towards Howard as well as the Ultimate Upgrade token.
- Agent Coulson - Another event is called Operation Omega, which runs about once a month. During this event week, you can obtain up to 100 Omega Files a day from logging in, doing the Holo-Sim daily quest, and doing the three daily Shared Quests, for a total of 700 per event if you do everything each day. Coulson costs 2,000 Files, so it will take about 3 events' worth to get him.
- X-Force Wolverine - Login a total of 200 days and this will be your reward. Your Login Reward total never resets, so you aren't punished for missing any days. (This Wolverine is a variant of Brood Wolverine)
- Pirate Deadpool - He can be acquired by completing a secret achievement chain. (Pirate Deadpool is a variant of The Deadpool Kid, they have different visuals as well as voice acting; Troy Baker voices the Kid and Nolan North does Pirate)
- King Thor - During the Odin's Bounty event you can farm Chests of Odin's Bounty. These chests have a low chance to reward an Asgardian Fortune Card, which has a chance of giving you the King Thor Team-Up. You can also get Blessed by Odin at any time - even when the event isn't running - when defeating a boss, which gives you an explosion of loot that usually has one of the cards. (King Thor is a variant of Beta Ray Bill)
Some Team-Ups will change their costume based on who you are playing. For instance if you are Spider-Man, the Spider-Man Team-Ups show up as Scarlet Spider instead. If you are using the Beta Ray Bill costume for Thor, the Beta Ray Bill Team-Up will be Classic Thor. Same if you try to pair the King Thor costume with King Thor.Just because a character is a Team-Up does not mean they won't ever be playable. She-Hulk was a Team-Up first before she became a playable hero, hopefully your favorites make it into the game soon!
(Continued...)
"Like wine, accounts of valor mellow with age; until Achilles dead 3,000 years stands peerless."
How do you get costumes/skins?
I almost forgot to add this (there was a SNAFU this morning and I had to re-write a lot of this), but this is, of course, probably the most asked question from new players after concerns about who to play.Costumes are purely cosmetic, you can use the Default costume if you prefer. They don't provide power or do anything like that besides change how your character looks. However, the Costume slot itself does provide stats, these are obtained by leveling the Crafter, who can attach Affixes and Costume Cores. You will need a level 10~ Crafter to be able to put on all four grades of Affixes as well as attach cores. The cores will start to drop around level 30. Each hero uses a different type of core, such as Activated X-Gene for mutants like Magneto.
Costumes do have a chance to drop during normal gameplay. The chance seems higher from bosses, but it is still very. very, very low. As I mentioned at the beginning I've been playing since 2013 and I have only seen one costume drop myself. Others get several, so you may be one of the lucky ones.
Most of the costumes can be bought with Gs only. They do Buy One Get One sales (buy a costume, get a random costume box) and up to 50% off sales. This year we have seen two sales for Taskmaster and Cable where all their costumes (and the heroes themselves and their personal STASH) were only 250 Gs each.
Enhanced costumes, such as Kate Bishop for Hawkeye, usually include different voice acting, animations, and/or visual effects. For instance, the Fear Itself Thing costume uses his weapon in some of his attacks, while the Alejandra Blaze Ghost Rider costume has a different motorcycle. Other heroes will usually say different lines to you as well. (These can drop and do go on sale with the others)
Some costumes can only be found in Fortune Cards. These are a gamble, but some of the cards do have a currency that works as a 'safety net' so you can buy the costumes from Clea. It costs 95 of the card currency, each card gives 1 currency when opened I believe. Card bundles sometimes go on sale up to 50% off. (Remember, Clea sells the Mark I cards for cube shards, those do have some costumes as possible rewards)
If you use the Prestige system (leveling your character from 1-60 again), each time you Prestige you will get a free Default costume for that hero. If your Crafter is level 20 you can craft any three costumes into one random costume for any hero in the game, including the Enhanced costumes. If you are very lucky you may get a critical craft, which gives two random costumes instead. Prestiging and buying the Mark I cards from Clea are good ways to build up extra costumes to use the 'blender' as the players call it.
Some achievements reward specific costumes or random costume boxes:
Alright, that should cover some of the basic and advanced ins-and-outs of getting started in Marvel Heroes as well as some of the features new players usually have questions about.
Hope you have fun!
"Like wine, accounts of valor mellow with age; until Achilles dead 3,000 years stands peerless."
Hightown?
They added a patrol area called Hightown as part of the 2016 update. This can be problematic as new playesr will get Legendary Quests for the Hightown mode without having it unlocked. You can either pay credits to reroll the quest or try to have someone invite you to the Hightown patrol mode (you need to be the same level range so if you both swap to level 1s it usually works best), which will unlock it for your account.Learn which items are rare items
I've seen numerous new players admit they had sold or donated some of the top tier artifacts to a vendor. Just the other night there was a new player that lucked out and got a Gem of the Kursed and was asking on Social chat if it was even good because he thought it looked bad. Maybe they were trolling, but most likely not as I have seen many newbies voice their opinion that it looks 'bad' and many others have sold or donated it thinking it was, somehow, a bad item despite the Gem being used as one of the four endgame artifacts for almost any hero.Here is a list of most of the boss drop artifacts and uniques. These, especially the uniques, are rare drops and usually powerful items.
Be very careful with valuable items!
An extension of the above, if you manage to destroy or lose something important, don't count on the Marvel Heroes Support team to restore it. Last night I was helping one of the new players I met in-game and dropping some items for him. I managed to destroy my stack of Coffers of Achievement when trying to get rid of something else, and Support said they were not able to restore them. I kind of knew that would be the result when writing the support ticket due to reading the horror stories on reddit, and it is not a good feeling, I can tell you that.The only items I can recall stories of them actually restoring are Costumes and maybe pets. Be careful!
Check out the upcoming updates!
It's always a good idea to have a feel for what is coming in the future of the game. Not everything will come out when planned and delays and changes do happen, but it's nice to know if, say, you want to play Iron Fist when he will be out so you can save Splinters or Gs for him.One of the community members has been maintaining a Future of Marvel Heroes thread that corrals information from the developers.
Upcoming Heroes for 2016
Nick Fury - TBABeast - TBA
Black Bolt - TBA
Team-Up Heroes:
At least two unannounced team-ups are scheduled.
"Like wine, accounts of valor mellow with age; until Achilles dead 3,000 years stands peerless."
Edit: Looks like they moved back the 400 ES to Day 7. Updating to reflect that.
Edit: They changed the SHIELD Agent team-ups location to the Raft, updated.
"Like wine, accounts of valor mellow with age; until Achilles dead 3,000 years stands peerless."