Having recently achieved my third level 50 character, it seems about time I finally wrote a guide sharing some of the information I've absorbed. This guide shall attempt to describe the various tasks and abilities which are available to heroes as they level. I'm not an expert at CoV; some of the information will be useful to villains, but the guide is definitely written from a hero's point of view.
The various sections are divided by level. The level heading is merely the first, not the only, level at which you can begin doing the task(s) listed.
Level 1
Atlas Park and Galaxy City are your purview. You are also able to hunt in the lowest level hazard zone, the Sewer Network (accessible via Atlas). If you go there, or any other hazard zone, be part of a hunting team. Soloing in a hazard zone is, well, hazardous.
Level 5
1) The Hollows opens up. A contact will most likely introduce you to Lieutenant Wincott in the Hollows near the Atlas Gate, and he will give you missions there. He will even give you mission if no contact has sent you to him. You don't have to accept any missions from Wincott; introduce yourself to him, then just go back to the contact that sent you; that contact will give you more missions. Traveling around a large hazard zone like the Hollows to do missions can be very dangerous. Have fun! If it seems too hard, you are free to wait a couple levels and come back.
Beware the
Hollows Trap. Some players never develop their other contacts until completing the missions offered by the four Hollows contacts. They miss a lot of non-Hollows content available from 5-15.
2) Kings Row is now part of your purview. It is often useful to get a contact there, to buy inspirations from if nothing else.
Level 6
You can choose your first "pool power". Power pools are common to all players. (Kheldians cannot access certain pools, however.) Most players should plan on at least 5 pool powers by the time they turn 20. You will want a travel power from the Flight, Leaping, Speed, or Teleport pools. The actual travel power won't be available until level 14; prior to choosing the travel power, you will need to choose a pre-requisite from the travel pool you desire. For example, Combat Jumping is a great pre-requisite power prior to actually getting Super Jump at 14.
Most players will also want three powers from the Fitness Pool. The primary power in this pool is Stamina, and I recommend most players plan their build so as to get Stamina at 20. This requires choosing two other Fitness powers first, from Swift, Hurdle, and Health.
Level 10
1) You can form a supergroup should you so desire. See the contact in City Hall, Atlas Park.
2) You can begin sidekicking younger players, which makes building an effective team a simpler process. (Your trainer won't mention this until level 11, but you can indeed sidekick at 10.)
3) You are now grown-up enough to receive debt when defeated. Don't fear debt though; even with debt you still gain experience, at half the normal rate. The other half goes to pay off your debt. If you have a lot of debt (or need extra influence), you can exemplar to a lower level and work off debt at a fast rate. Once debt is paid off, you will gain extra influence. Whether you have debt or not, you will not gain experience while an exemplar.
4) Steel Canyon and Skyway City are now part of your purview. Develop contacts there.
Level 12
You can begin buying Dual Origin (DO) enhancements from stores in Steel Canyon and Skyway City. These are twice as effective as the training enhancements you had been using prior to this point.
Sometime between level 10 and 14 you should strive to get "the Fortune Teller mission", which grants the Spelunker Badge. This Badge is part of an accolade called the Atlas Medallion. Having this accolade is greatly desired, because it increases your endurance permanently by 5%. An early contact in Steel or Skyway will offer you this mission. If he doesn't, keep choosing new Steel or Skyway contacts as soon as they are offered. One of them will be "right".
Level 14
If you had taken one of the first two powers in a power pool, you can take the third one now. A large percentage of players get their travel power at level 14.
Level 15
Patrol Bloody Bay, the lowest-level PvP zone. You do not need an introduction to the contact (Agent Eckman) within Bloody Bay. By spending 5 minutes performing the patrol he offers (assuming you don't have your three mission slots full), you gain a temporary power, Hyper Stealth. The power is good for 30 minutes, which only count while you have the power on. Thus it can last for quite a while. Not only that, you can renew Hyper Stealth as long as the contact will speak to you -- about nine levels.
My thanks to Dr. Automaton for the following explanation on another renewable temporary power available in Bloody Bay, the Shivan Shard.
[ QUOTE ]
This temp power allows you to summon a powerful Elite Boss Shivan Decimator pet to help when things get tough. Speak with the Scientist in your base and he will give you an Ore Extractor. Visit each of the six meteor fragments in the zone and use the Ore Extractor to obtain a sample. Once you have all six, head for a firebase. Once you (and maybe some friends) defeat all the firebase's automated defenses, enter the base and use the terminal inside to create the Shivan Shard. Returning to the Scientist will grant you the temp power.
[/ QUOTE ]
Level 20
1) Get your cape. See the City Representative in Atlas Park.
2) Get a second costume. Visit the Icon Store in Steel Canyon, and the manager will give you a mission to protect his store by hunting Tsoo.
3) Patrol Siren's Call, the second available PvP zone. No introduction is needed for Agent Brinson. See him, perform the patrol he offers, and receive the second temporary concealment power, Combat Invisibility. Again, this lasts for 30 minutes of ON time, and is renewable for approximately nine levels.
4) See Stephanie Peebles in Striga; no introduction is required. She is located outside her tavern, about 460 yards northeast of the ferry. Do all of her missions and you will receive one of the best temporary powers, Wedding Band. This provides 20% resistance to all damage types, and lasts for two hours of ON time. I.e., with judicious use you have extra damage mitigation that can last many, many months. Unlike the temporary concealment powers, Wedding Band is not renewable.
5) If you have taken two powers from a power pool, you can take the final one now. A large percentage of players choose Stamina from the Fitness Pool at this point in their careers.
6) Talos Island and Independence Port are now part of your purview. Develop contacts there.
Level 22
You can begin buying Single Origin (SO) enhancements from stores in Talos Island and Independence Port. These are twice as effective as the dual origin enhancements you began using at level 12.
Level 24
You can take part in the first respecification trial. Teams begin in Independence Port. Respecification (commonly referred to as "respec") allows you to rechoose all your powers and their slotting. The only things you cannot change are your origin, archetype, and primary and secondary power sets. I.e., if you were a mutant claws/dark scrapper prior to respec, you will still be one after.
Jane Hallaway is the contact who sponsors the trial. She is located very near the Valor Bridge marker, about 2/3 of way west across zone from the Green Line train station.
Level 25
You can visit mayor Gordon Bower in Croatoa (actually, Salamonca) and begin a series of missions with he and his friends. No introduction is required; he is located 58 yards north of the hospital marker.
Random thoughts on Croatoa, Striga, and the Hollows
Croatoa was considered a hazard zone for several weeks, with a clearance level of 25 required for entry. It has a top-level design similar in many ways to the Hollows and Striga Isle. Each of these three zones is "linear" in the sense that there are four total contacts within the zone. When you finish one contact, they introduce you to the next. The mission sequences are the same for each character who runs the "zone arc", although there may be minor order differences of mission from a given contact.
With the exception of the Hollows, you can gain some nice temporary powers by doing missions in the zone. From Striga you can gain the afore mentioned Wedding Band as well as Holy Shotgun Shells (shotgun which does extra damage to Banished Pantheon), Warwolf Whistles (summons a warwolf to fight on your behalf for 5 minutes), and EMP Grenades (for stunning foes). From Croatoa you can gain a Bow and Arrow and an Iron Sword, as well as a few other zone-specific powers.
In order to complete the Atlas Medallion, you will actually want to do all the missions of the third Striga contact. He'll have you perform missions with vampyres -- lots of vampyres, easily granting you the Slayer badge. Spend some more time in Striga hunting warwolves (Silver Bullet badge), and you'll have almost everything you need for this accolade.
I do not consider Croatoa or Striga as "traps" in the same sense as the Hollows. Even doing all the Hollows missions is not bad, just make sure you spend time outside the Hollows also.
Level 30
1) Get your aura. See the City Representative in Atlas Park.
2) Get your third costume. Visit the Icon Store in Independence Port, and the manager will ask you to protect her store by hunting Crey.
3) Patrol Warburg, the third available PvP zone. No introduction is needed for Agent Goddard. See him, accept the patrol he offers, and receive the third temporary concealment power, Hyper Phase. Again, this lasts for 30 minutes of ON time, and is renewable for approximately nine levels.
With concealment powers available for "free", I do not recommend the Concealment Pool powers. If you do want powers from that pool, I suggest waiting until your late 20s. (Combat Invisibility is not renewable past level 29.) Since you can attack with Combat Invisibility (and not the Concealment Pool Invisibility power), the temp powers are a better choice all around.
4) Do your origin-based store mission. Level 30-40 enhancements are available from a special contact ("store"). Your contact is in Brickstown if you are of magic or science origin. Otherwise, your contact is in Founders Falls. Before the contact will sell you enhancements, s/he will ask you to do a mission. You can actually do the missions for all five contacts, but the only one you really need is for your own origin.
5) Brickstown and Founders Falls are now part of your purview. Develop contacts there.
Level 34
You can take part in the second respecification trial. Teams begin in Founders Falls. Captain James Harlan is the contact who sponsors the trial. He is located about 217 yards north of the Natural Store marker.
Level 40
1) Get your fourth costume. Visit the Icon Store in Founders Falls, and the manager will ask you to protect his store by hunting Nemesis.
2) Peregrine Island (PI) is now part of your purview. Develop contacts there. You will continue to have level 40+ contacts in Founders Falls, however.
3) Do Ghost Falcon's mission in Peregrine Island. Once you do his mission, he will sell you all types of SO enhancements, levels 40-50.
4) Visit General Hammond just inside the portal of Firebase Zulu, the first of the Shadow Shards. He will give you an errand to run; when you complete it, he will be another source of level 40-50 SO enhancments. Unlike Ghost Falcon, General Hammond will continue to offer you missions.
The Shadow Shards are a series of shattered worlds. Firebase Zulu is always accessible from in the northmost building of the Portal Corporation, PI. From Firebase Zulu, you can access the other Shadow Shards.
5) Until now, arch-villains (AVs) have been a relatively rare occurrence. This is no longer the case; if you have not been reading your mission statements carefully, now is the time to start!
Level 41
You can now begin choosing powers from an epic power pool. While several epic pools will originally be available, once you choose an epic power, you can no longer choose powers from other epic sets. You need not choose any epic power at all; in my opinion tanks and especially scrappers have better choices available in their primary and secondary sets. On the other hand, defenders, controllers, and blasters all have some sort of armor available in their sets. Thus I believe these archetypes should strongly consider choosing from an epic power set.
Level 44
You can take part in the third and final respecification trial. Teams begin in the Rikti Crash Site. The contact who sponsors the trial is Major Richard Flagg. He is located near the two entrances (between the gate to Crey's Folley and the portal to Peregrine Island).
Your earned respecs accumulate. If the developers should grant players a free respec, it replaces any unused free respec, but not any of the earned ones.
Level 47
You can earn and begin using Hamidon enhancments (HO) by taking part in "Hami raids" within the Hive. The raids are large, player-organized affairs sometimes involving 50 or more players. Hamidon Pasalima has become something other than human, and incredibly powerful. To gain even one of these enhancments will involve teamwork, strategy, and likely multiple defeats during the process.
Most HOs are level 50. Since you can enter the Hive at 45, technically you can get an enhancment at that point. If you are really lucky, you can possibly earn a lower level one as a sidekick. The advice I've seen from most people is just to wait until 47 so you can use any HO that happens to drop for you.
A Hamidon Enhancement (HO) has the same strength as an SO; the difference is each HO improves two characteristics at once, such as accuracy and damage.
Level 50
You stop gaining experience, but the journey is not over. You can continue fighting arch-villains, gain more accolades, take part in task forces and trials, instruct eager new players, explore places you likely never saw before, and just continue having fun. And oh yeah, now you can create new epic characters, either a peacebringer or warshade. Or both!
Hazard Zone Base Entrance Level
* Sewer Network: 1
* The Hollows: 5
* Perez Park: 7
* Boomtown: 10
* The Tunnels: 12
* Faultline: 14
* Striga Isle: 20
* Terra Volta: 20
* Dark Astoria: 21
* Crey's Folly: 30
* Eden: 33
* Abandoned Sewer Network: 36
* Rikti Crash Site: 40
* The Shadow Shards
*** Fire Base Zulu: 40
*** The Chantry: 40
*** Cascade Archipelago: 40
*** Storm Palace: 44
* The Hive: 45
PvP Zone Base Entrance Level
* Bloody Bay: 15
* Siren's Call: 20
* Warburg: 30
* Recluse's Victory: 40
Trials and Task Forces
There are other guides and sites which provide detailed information regarding trials and task forces. I would not be offering anything new. Something of my own that I can offer is the difference between Trials and Task Forces. Trials are generally shorter than task forces. Their final mission will be performed without an active map. In task forces, the map is always active.
Here is a link describing most trials and task forces:
*
Wiki CoH Task Forces
Two very difficult trials not mentioned in the Wiki article are:
*
Sewer Trial (level 36+)
*
Eden Trial (39+)
Maps, Badges, and Accolades
Again, this type of information is better provided by those who focus on it.
*
Maps
*
Badges and Accolades
*
Another Badge Site
-- Many thanks to all who helped me with this guide while it was under Beta review within the General Discussion - CoH forum.
{edit to fix links}
