=PRIMER= CO for CoH Players

[sinister8088]

Champions Online for City of Heroes Players

- A Primer -

I just started playing this game a week ago, and thought I'd share this list as a primer to get people who are familiar with City of Heroes started in CO if they haven't tried it.  I know it's not City of Heroes.  If City came back, I'd drop CO like a bad habit.  But compared to DCUO, I can stomach this a little more.  For now, I'm a refugee.

I might be wrong about something above (particularly the Inspiration-like drops, I can't find where those are called in-game, they matter that little, I guess.)  Feel free to correct me and I'll revise the above as I can.

-- Sinister8088

Special Thanks to Kaiser Tarantula for a number of contributions to the guide.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Assumptions made throughout this guide: you're an Ex-City of Heroes player (I HATE saying that), and you're playing a Silver Account (F2P.)

This primer is meant as a brief introduction to Champions Online, and will not cover in-depth strategies, walkthroughs past Level 6, freeform builds, or other advanced topics.  If you want to learn more about any topic in this Primer, you can search it on the Champions Online Wiki, maintained by Cryptic.

To start, click on a subject below (links are in dark red.)

INTRODUCTION

• History of Champions Online from Cryptic IP Sale of City of Heroes to Today
• Game Setting
• Account Types

CHARACTER CREATION

• Character Slots
• Archetypes
• Freeform
• Costumes

BASIC PLAY

• Activity Button
• Energy Bars
• Powers and Fighting
• Travel Powers
• The Exit Button
• Dropping A Mission
• Concerning Autocomplete

MANAGING YOUR HEROIC ASSIGNMENTS

• Mission List
• Intro Mission
• Missions After The Intro
• Task Forces
• The Radio/Newspaper (Incidental Missions)

BASIC CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT AND MANAGEMENT

• Money
• Real-Money Transactions
• Questionite
• Powerhouse
• Leveling Up
• Debt

EQUIPMENT AND ITEMS

• Items
• Inspirations
• Enhancements
• Crafting
• Merits
• Badges

ERRATA - Miscellaneous topics that do not fit the above categories.  (Right Clicking, What's a Qularr?, Camera, etc.)

OTHER PLAYER GUIDES ON TITAN NETWORK

Information from other Ex-CoH players:

A Guide To Playing Champions Online - JRVthatsME

Thoughts on Freeform Characters and power comparisons - Kaiser Tarantula

Opinions on Defensive Passives - Kaiser Tarantula

From COH to CO: Proportion Sliders, Templates and Tips - Atlantea

Basic discussion for starting to play in CO compared to CoH - PinballDave (Not a guide, but a lot of questions answered you might be curious about.)

If you haven't found the topic of your interest and decide to write a guide to it on Titan Network, I'll be glad to link to it.  Just PM me or let me know on this thread.

[corvus1970]

I have found I can handle DCU a bit better than CO, but will openly admit it has more to do with the visuals than anything and the generally hokey" approach puts me off a bit too.

Also, I think after you have created one character, you can indeed skip the into the next time around.

[JaguarX]

good information, Sinister

[sinister8088]

I have found I can handle DCU a bit better than CO, but will openly admit it has more to do with the visuals than anything and the generally hokey" approach puts me off a bit too.

Also, I think after you have created one character, you can indeed skip the into the next time around.

I agree, I can tolerate it more with the sound off and me reading the subtitles.  The campy "cartoon slides" during FMV and cutscenes is still a bit offputting to me.  (Whiteout: Instead of animating an explosion in Issue 3, you show a slide of one?  Weak.)

But the game is starting to grow on me a little.  The community is of no comparison to City of Heroes, naturally, chat in public is almost non-existant in Millennium City compared to any shard of Atlas Park at a given time of day.  If there's any camaraderie in Champions, it's what we're going to bring ourselves it appears.

[blue storm]

Thanks for taking the time to put this one together... I'll use it while I wait for the return of our City !

[Kaiser Tarantula]

Let me offer a few corrections and clarifications:

Setting: The setting of Champions Online is an alternate-history Earth.  In this Earth, history has run much like our own, except for several alien and demonic invasions, and the existence of superpowered heroes and villains.

Most noteably is the July 22nd, 1992 Battle of Detroit.  Dr. Destroyer, one of the most powerful villains of the Champions universe, had his secret Detroit waterfront lair discovered by a group of students from Ravenwood Academy.  In retaliation, the egomaniacal megalomaniac activated his Meteor Magnet doomsday device, pulling a catastrophic meteor from orbit and sending it hurtling towards Detroit.  He also unleashed an army of his loyal Destroid battle-robots, as well as the giant monsters Grond, Glacier, and Mega-Terak (how he obtained the services of those three is still a mystery to this day.)  Spaceworthy heroes set off to obliterate the incoming meteors, while groundbound ones fought off the hordes of Destroids and monsters to invade Destroyer's lair and confront the madman himself.  When Destroyer was on the verge of defeat, he unleashed an orbital bombardment from a previously-hidden cannon satellite that obliterated both his lair, and the city of Detroit.

Detroit was rebuilt in the following years, and re-christened Millenium City.  Millenium City has become a popular hotbed of Superhero activity, and a trendy target for villains across the globe.  Millenium City is the 'hub' of the game - you're given your first missions here, and at level 15-16 you may leave for Canada (where an alien invasion, a resurrected god of death, the machinations of an egomaniac geneticist, and an uprising of psychically-linked terrorists have all run head-on into one another), or the Southwest Desert (where efforts continue to subdue the nigh-unstoppable giant Grond and the unending hordes of radioactive mutants that follow him, as well as stopping a VIPER incursion that has subverted a local theme park).  From there, the world (and possibly beyond!)

Stars: Stars stack up to 5, and are gradually restored over time in-game if you avoid dying.  You can donate in-game resources to charity to restore a star immediately, or purchase items with ZEN to restore all your stars at once.  Stars aren't absolutely important - each star is a 3% increase in the damage you do and the healing you produce, maximum of 15%.  If you have no stars, dying carries no additional penalty.  Sinister is correct that Stars do not come back if you spend time logged out.

Recognition Medals: There are 4 kinds of recognition medals.  MCPD Recognition (6-14), PRIMUS Recognition (15-30), UNTIL Recognition (31-40), and Silver Champions' Stars (specific Lv40 content).  Each functions kinda like reward merits in CoH.  You can earn them from defeating field and mission mobs, and you can select recognition medals as a reward from doing missions that would otherwise offer you a gear reward.  Recognition medals can be spent like a currency at Recognition vendors.  Aside from random-reward boxes for green-quality gear, Recognition medals can also purchase costume piece unlocks and travel power unlocks that are available nowhere else.

The Tutorial: Despite what sinister says, you don't have to do the tutorial... after the first time. Your first character is limited to specific costume pieces and will be forced to play through the tutorial zone.  Once you reach level 8, all the other free-to-play costume options unlock, and subsequent characters will have an option to skip the tutorial entirely.  However, badgers take note.  There are several perks (the CO equivalent of badges) that are lost forever if you do not do the tutorial - you cannot get Learn the Ropes, Stop the Invasion, Save the City, Ironclad Offensive, Vanquished Black Talon and Red Bug Down if you don't complete the tutorial.

RetCon: Respec.  A full RetCon of your character requires you to spend ZEN to get a RetCon token.  You can, however, perform partial RetCons with in-game currency.  The higher your level, the more RetCon will cost.  You can remove powers one at a time, in reverse order of acquisition (most recent power first) at the Powerhouse by talking to a trainer.  Speaking of...

Powerhouse, The: This place is where heroes can go to train and develop their powers in a controlled environment.  Talking to any trainer will let you spend any specification or advantage points you've earned by levelling, or select new powers if you've attained a level that offers a new power.  A special note here is that any level-up selections made while in the Powerhouse are not permanent and can be changed as much as you like for free until you leave.  When you leave the Powerhouse, any selections you've made are locked in, and can only be changed by paying for it.  The Powerhouse also has testing environments with practice dummies so that you can see just how your powers work via live testing, as well as a raceway & gymnasium for testing travel powers (and seeing how much you can lift), and a series of damaging lasers that you can use to test defensive powers.

SOCRATES and Missions: Contacting SOCRATES will show you whatever missions are currently available for your level range, but you never outlevel missions in this game.  Any mission you 'missed' can be obtained by visiting a contact in person.  Even if the contact is level 6, and you're sitting at the level cap of 40, you can go back and finish the mission later.

Equipment: You have six equipment slots - Offensive, Defensive, and Utility, with Primary and Secondary slots for each.  Equipment comes in slot-specific varieties, and what slot they fit into really doesn't tell you much about the equipment itself - a Primary Utility could wind up boosting the same stats as a Secondary Offense.  Primary Offenses tend to be flavored to look like gloves of some kind, Secondary Offenses tend to resemble bracers or armbands.  Primary Defenses typically look like armor or bandolier straps, Secondary Defenses resemble boots or helmets.  Primary Utilities are typically helmets, with Secondary Utilities are often eyewear, jewelry, or miscellaneous items.  What a piece of equipment looks like doesn't matter - it's not reflected on your character visually (that's controlled solely by your costume).

Crafting: Used to exist, doesn't anymore.  You can still earn points in one of three Investigation skills (Arms, Science, or Mysticism), but these skills are solely used to loot specialized containers in the world that require a certain level of Investigation skills to access.  Successfully opening these containers gives you Item Mods and possibly Catalysts.  Item Mods are upgrades that can be inserted into a slotted item's slots to increase its effectiveness.  You can also combine 5 mods of the same type and rank into a single mod of the same type of the next higher rank.  Combining mods has a chance to fail.  You can improve your chances of success by raising your Investigation skill, or by adding a Catalyst to the combination process.

About Archetypes: Sinister's statements of them are a bit overly critical - there's a bit more customization to archetypes than he lets on.  Your powers, combat role, inherent attribute, and super-stats are chosen automatically for you if you select an Archetype.  You also do not get multiple builds.

However, beyond that, you are not limited.  You may choose whatever travel power you like at level 6 and 35.  You can select whatever Advantage options your powers offer, within the limits of the advantage points you have to spend.  And you can select whatever Specializations are available within the trees determined by your Super Stats.  In addition, every Archetype has a couple levels where you'll have the choice between two similar powers, and you may select which to take.  Compared to a Freeform character, you have a lot less customization, but it's incorrect to say that there's no customization.

If you are PvP-oriented, it's important to note that there is a specific form of PvP dedicated solely to Archetype-on-Archetype combat.  While Freeform characters can break the game in ridiculous ways, you are guaranteed a more 'fair' fight by Archetype combat.

[sinister8088]

Let me offer a few corrections and clarifications:

Setting: The setting of Champions Online is an alternate-history Earth.  In this Earth, history has run much like our own, except for several alien and demonic invasions, and the existence of superpowered heroes and villains.

Most noteably is the July 22nd, 1992 Battle of Detroit.  Dr. Destroyer, one of the most powerful villains of the Champions universe, had his secret Detroit waterfront lair discovered by a group of students from Ravenwood Academy.  In retaliation, the egomaniacal megalomaniac activated his Meteor Magnet doomsday device, pulling a catastrophic meteor from orbit and sending it hurtling towards Detroit.  He also unleashed an army of his loyal Destroid battle-robots, as well as the giant monsters Grond, Glacier, and Mega-Terak (how he obtained the services of those three is still a mystery to this day.)  Spaceworthy heroes set off to obliterate the incoming meteors, while groundbound ones fought off the hordes of Destroids and monsters to invade Destroyer's lair and confront the madman himself.  When Destroyer was on the verge of defeat, he unleashed an orbital bombardment from a previously-hidden cannon satellite that obliterated both his lair, and the city of Detroit.

Detroit was rebuilt in the following years, and re-christened Millenium City.  Millenium City has become a popular hotbed of Superhero activity, and a trendy target for
<<TRUNCATED for space... you get the idea.>>

Corrections incorporated.  Thanks!
(I'm biased, I know... but it's mostly out of hurt from losing CoH, I don't hate Champions per se.  I didn't know the intro could be skipped after a character passes Level 8.)

[dwturducken]

Corrections incorporated.  Thanks!
(I'm biased, I know... but it's mostly out of hurt from losing CoH, I don't hate Champions per se.  I didn't know the intro could be skipped after a character passes Level 8.)

How about "Department of Corrections"

;D

[Empyrean]

I agree, I can tolerate it more with the sound off and me reading the subtitles.  The campy "cartoon slides" during FMV and cutscenes is still a bit offputting to me.  (Whiteout: Instead of animating an explosion in Issue 3, you show a slide of one?  Weak.)

But the game is starting to grow on me a little.  The community is of no comparison to City of Heroes, naturally, chat in public is almost non-existant in Millennium City compared to any shard of Atlas Park at a given time of day.  If there's any camaraderie in Champions, it's what we're going to bring ourselves it appears.

I have run hot and cold too, but it's growing on me.  Just when I get a little frustrated or underwhelmed, I discover something awesome that kind of blows me away.  While I wish it were less hokey, I like the panels, and, come on, it's based on comics (and I know whereof I speak, I've been a Marvel and DC comics fan since the late 70's when I was a little kid)!

[Kaiser Tarantula]

Oh, another couple corrections and clarifications I'd like to point out.

Costumes: When you start a character, you are given 1 free costume slot.  If you join a Supergroup, you get 1 free costume slot.  Gold players will gain additional costume slots as they level up, but Silver players do not.  Additional costume slots over and above these can be purchased in the ZEN store.  Gold players have the option to purchase accountwide costume slots.

Questionite: An alternate currency earned in game, directly exchangeable for ZEN.  The questionite-to-ZEN rate is player-driven, with those selling ZEN being firmly in control of the market rate.  Players may also, naturally, exchange ZEN for questionite, using the same system.

Questionite ore can be earned by playing adventure packs and comic series, picking up Boxes of Questionite from defeated Super Villain or higher enemies (each box will give you anywhere from 200 to 1500 questionite ore), and can also be earned in small amounts by defeating any enemy during a Questionite Hour event.

Questionite must be refined from ore to be used - each piece of ore produces 1 questionite.  You may collect any amount of ore you like, but you are capped to refining 8,000 questionite per day, to prevent people from glutting the market with questionite.

In addition to being exhanged for ZEN, questionite can also be spent directly on purchases from the Questionite Store, which functions like a secondary cash shop.  Since items in the Questionite Store are available nowhere else, not even the ZEN store, there is incentive to convert ZEN into questionite, for those who have a surplus of zen and wish to make Questionite purchases.

[sinister8088]

Oh, another couple corrections and clarifications I'd like to point out.

Costumes: When you start a character, you are given 1 free costume slot.  If you join a Supergroup, you get 1 free costume slot.  Gold players will gain additional costume slots as they level up, but Silver players do not.  Additional costume slots over and above these can be purchased in the ZEN store.  Gold players have the option to purchase accountwide costume slots.

Questionite: An alternate currency earned in game, directly exchangeable for ZEN.  The questionite-to-ZEN rate is player-driven, with those selling ZEN being firmly in control of the market rate.  Players may also, naturally, exchange ZEN for questionite, using the same system.

Questionite ore can be earned by playing adventure packs and comic series, picking up Boxes of Questionite from defeated Super Villain or higher enemies (each box will give you anywhere from 200 to 1500 questionite ore), and can also be earned in small amounts by defeating any enemy during a Questionite Hour event.

Questionite must be refined from ore to be used - each piece of ore produces 1 questionite.  You may collect any amount of ore you like, but you are capped to refining 8,000 questionite per day, to prevent people from glutting the market with questionite.

In addition to being exhanged for ZEN, questionite can also be spent directly on purchases from the Questionite Store, which functions like a secondary cash shop.  Since items in the Questionite Store are available nowhere else, not even the ZEN store, there is incentive to convert ZEN into questionite, for those who have a surplus of zen and wish to make Questionite purchases.

Added to the OP, thanks again. :D
Sorry about the delay, last days of work before Christmas hurts.

[sinister8088]

I have run hot and cold too, but it's growing on me.  Just when I get a little frustrated or underwhelmed, I discover something awesome that kind of blows me away.  While I wish it were less hokey, I like the panels, and, come on, it's based on comics (and I know whereof I speak, I've been a Marvel and DC comics fan since the late 70's when I was a little kid)!

Well, it takes Different Strokes I guess.  Wasn't raised on comics. :(

I guess I identified with action heroes on TV more as a child: Magnum P.I., Airwolf, The Fall Guy, The A Team, and to more campier tastes, Knight Rider (After all, William Daniels is the man!), Max Headroom and Sledge Hammer! [sic, the exclamation mark is part of the title.]  But I could temper my expectations on Whiteout: it is an Adventure Pack after all. 

[sinister8088]

I should have made two posts at the beginning... D'oh!

I've hit the single post ceiling (30,000 Characters.)  I can correct errors, but I can't add anymore.  Sorry, folks, I think that's all I can do.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

Regarding Questionite, you made one tiny mistake.

Mobs drop Questionite only during Questionite Hour events, and will drop questionite based on their rank (henchmen & villains 1-5, master villains 5-10, super villains and higher 10+).  Otherwise, Boxes of Questionite looted from Super Villain or higher-ranked enemies, as well as mission rewards from comic series, adventure packs, APB missions, and Rampage alerts are the only way to obtain Questionite.

[sinister8088]

Fixed! :D Thanks.

Considering how STO deals it out (end of mission bonus in most cases), that's even more rare.  I thought I was exaggerating on months of active play.  I guess not.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

Well, you're capped at refining 8,000 questionite a day.  If you do your daily APB (2,000 questionite), 1 run of Whiteout (2,000 questionite), and 1 Gravitar Rampage alert (1,500 questionite), you need only 2500 more questionite to hit your daily cap.  All of these are daily repeatables, and there's nothing stopping you from running Whiteout or Resistance again (or another Comic Series/Adventure Pack) to fill out the remaining daily cap.  Whiteout, in particular, can earn you up to 22 boxes of questionite with a full team on Elite difficulty.

In theory, you could make over 20,000 questionite a day without ever stepping out of the Ren Center except as your missions require; Whiteout x4 (8,000), Resistance x4 (8,000), Gravitar Rampages until you hit minimum rewards (4,500), Daily APB (2,000), for a total of 22,500 questionite.  It'd take you three days to refine it all if you did so.

All of these limitations are per-character too, as is your daily questionite refinement cap.  So if you have two characters, you can refine 16,000 questionite per day (8,000 on each).  Since ZEN is account-wide, if you spend all your questionite on ZEN, you can get approximately 80 ZEN a day by doing this (subject to exact exchange rates.)  Every character you have above the two freebies on a Silver account is another 40 ZEN you can earn per day.  Someone with 5 characters, capping their questionite earnings per day, can get approximately 200 ZEN/day without spending a single red cent.

That's $2 USD in ZEN right there.  If you're a gold member, this is even easier because you can freeform characters (potentially letting you solo adventure packs/comic series more easily), and you get several extra character slots by default.  Another benefit to subscribing.  Even if you're Silver though, you can get 2 character slots for 1,400 ZEN.  That would let you make 160 ZEN/day with farming questionite and using the exchange, which means that you'll recoup the money you spent in about nine days.  You could even earn the initial 1,400 ZEN outlay with just two characters in about 18 days,  so you're looking at about a month of solid work to get an extra pair of character slots and then recoup the ZEN spent on them.

It's very possible to unlock everything a silver character can get, without spending real life money, if you're willing to farm questionite up to your daily cap.

[sinister8088]

I will incorporate that into the guide.  For now, a brief interruption. XD

[sinister8088]

INTRODUCTION

History: (From Wikipedia) On February 28, 2008, Cryptic announced they had purchased the entire Champions intellectual property, licensing the rights to publish the 6th edition back to former owner Hero Games. The 6th edition books will synergistically allow players to adapt their Champions Online characters to the pen-and-paper roleplaying game.

On July 10, 2008, 2K Games announced they would be publishing the game. Registration for the closed beta testing period was announced on October 10, 2008. However, on December 17, 2008, 2K Games officially dropped the publishing of the game due to the takeover of Cryptic by Atari. Atari then developed and published the game along with the ongoing development of the Star Trek Online MMO.

Release was originally set for July 14, but on May 16, 2009, Cryptic announced that Champions Online would be delayed and the game was officially released September 1. Executive producer and design director Bill Roper cited that the team needed more time to implement important features that the beta test group felt were necessary at launch.

As announced by Cryptic in July, 2009, the game includes Micro-Transaction purchases. Most items initially available for purchase were vanity items that do not affect gameplay, such as costume pieces and in-game action figures. Items at that time that do affect gameplay were also accessible through gameplay only. All items purchased are available to all characters on the account.  (Note: These points were revisited with the Champions Online Free-For-All Launch.)

On July 20, 2009, a post on the official Champions Online Discussion Forum from a Cryptic online community representative addressed the lack of any announcements regarding plans to release Champions Online on Xbox 360. It stated that "it has always been, and still remains our intent to release on consoles, and as soon as we're able to share more information about it, we will", and alluded to unfinalized business deals with other, unspecified companies which prohibited the disclosure of more specific details. The community rep's post also noted that the Xbox 360 FAQ had been removed from the Champions Online website.  In a podcast interview for the gaming website vg247.com dated August 28, 2009, Jack Emmert elaborated on the issue, stating that the Xbox 360 version is "ready to go" but is facing an indefinite delay while awaiting Microsoft's approval, which is not readily forthcoming due to Microsoft's indecision on how to implement MMO's across Xbox Live.

On August 17, 2009, Cryptic opened up their Beta servers for access through August 25 to allow the community to test and trial the system as well as submit bug reports, and the game officially launched September 1, 2009. Those who pre-ordered the game gained instant access to the Open Beta on August 17, and some of those who pre-ordered (depending on their retailer) also gained access to an "Early Start" on the live servers beginning on August 28.

On September 1, 2009, Champions Online became available for purchase instores as well as shipped out from online stores. Pre-Order players were given until September 4 to enter their new product key to continue playing. The purchase included one free month of play and a special item specific to the retailer.  The game was originally available to paid subscribers only, but moved to the Free-to-play model on January 25, 2011, with a revamp of its character creation system (introducing pre-made character "classes" called Archetypes, and a revised Microtransaction store).

Setting: The setting of Champions Online is an alternate-history Earth.  In this Earth, history has run much like our own, except for several alien and demonic invasions, and the existence of superpowered heroes and villains.

Most noteably is the July 22nd, 1992 Battle of Detroit.  Dr. Destroyer, one of the most powerful villains of the Champions universe, had his secret Detroit waterfront lair discovered by a group of students from Ravenwood Academy.  In retaliation, the egomaniacal megalomaniac activated his Meteor Magnet doomsday device, pulling a catastrophic meteor from orbit and sending it hurtling towards Detroit.  He also unleashed an army of his loyal Destroid battle-robots, as well as the giant monsters Grond, Glacier, and Mega-Terak (how he obtained the services of those three is still a mystery to this day.)  Spaceworthy heroes set off to obliterate the incoming meteors, while groundbound ones fought off the hordes of Destroids and monsters to invade Destroyer's lair and confront the madman himself.  When Destroyer was on the verge of defeat, he unleashed an orbital bombardment from a previously-hidden cannon satellite that obliterated both his lair, and the city of Detroit.

Detroit was rebuilt in the following years, and re-christened Millenium City.  Millenium City has become a popular hotbed of Superhero activity, and a trendy target for villains across the globe.  Millenium City is the 'hub' of the game - you're given your first missions here, and at level 15-16 you may leave for Canada (where an alien invasion, a resurrected god of death, the machinations of an egomaniac geneticist, and an uprising of psychically-linked terrorists have all run head-on into one another), or the Southwest Desert (where efforts continue to subdue the nigh-unstoppable giant Grond and the unending hordes of radioactive mutants that follow him, as well as stopping a VIPER incursion that has subverted a local theme park).  From there, the world (and possibly beyond!)

Account Types: Like City of Heroes, there's tiers of membership --

• Silver Account = Free to Play.  2 Character Slots, Archetype Builds, and secondary access to Adventure Packs (Silver Players get new Adventure Pack content after Gold Players do on it's debut).
• Gold Account = $15 a month.  8 Character Slots, Archetype and Freeform Builds, and first access to Adventure Packs.  Also, a monthly stipend of ZEN points.
• Lifetime Account = Not available on City of Heroes: Pay $300 as a one-time fee to waive the monthly fee for Gold Access for the life of your account.  (Life of your account = You can downgrade a Lifetime Account back to Silver, but you will not get a refund.  Also, Cryptic makes no guarantees on the lifespan of the game, which is at your own risk.)

Like City of Heroes, there is a penalty from downgrading out of Gold back to Silver Account use.  See Freeform under Character Creation.

[sinister8088]

CHARACTER CREATION

Character Slots: you get two for free. Others cost $14 bucks, unless it's a Freeform character slot, then it's $50, or a monthly membership for $15 yields eight slots including the option to make freeform builds in any of them when rolling a new character.  Two non-freeform Character Slots cost 1,400 Z.

Archetypes: What Champions Online calls the basic hero setups.  Unlike CoH, where Archetypes are Blaster/Tanker/Scrapper/Controller/Defender, etc., in CO, Archetypes are character plans that has their power set, list of powers on level up, inherent stats (super stats) and base statistics chosen for you.   (This info is corroborated elsewhere if you doubt it for some reason.)  You also do not get multiple builds.

However, beyond that, you are not limited.  You may choose whatever travel power you like at level 6 and 35.  You can select whatever Advantage options your powers offer, within the limits of the advantage points you have to spend.  And you can select whatever Specializations are available within the trees determined by your Super Stats.  In addition, every Archetype has a couple levels where you'll have the choice between two similar powers, and you may select which to take.  Compared to a Freeform character, you have a lot less customization, but it's incorrect to say that there's no customization.

If you are PvP-oriented, it's important to note that there is a specific form of PvP dedicated solely to Archetype-on-Archetype combat.  While Freeform characters can break the game in ridiculous ways, you are guaranteed a more 'fair' fight by Archetype combat.
Additional Archetypes on top of the free eight choices costs 1,150 Z each, or you can access any of them in a Gold Account for $15 a month.  While Archetypes have a reputation for being milquetoast, they can't be as badly broken or cost as much money as an ill-planned Freeform build (made known below).

Freeform: If you're using a freeform character slot, you have a similar setup to City of Heroes where there's a multitude of options, (even across powersets: an Ice/Fire blaster is possible using nothing but primary powerset choices).  Unlike City there is no balancing or categorization of like powers to save you: you can possibly make a character that is COMPLETELY USELESS in Freeform development, as the CO Forums will routinely remind you of while reading up on Freeform use.  It sucks, but it does happen, and a retcon or a deletion is the only way to fix it.

To play your freeform characters when downgrading to a Silver Account, your freeform characters become locked.  Your options are: to convert them to an Archetype, to leave them locked until you subscribe again, to pay $50 per character to unlock them as Freeform slots, to get a lifetime subscription (if you have six or more Freeform characters, it's worth the price), or you can delete them.

Costumes: When you start a character, you are given 1 free costume slot.  If you join a Supergroup, you get 1 free costume slot.  Gold players will gain additional costume slots as they level up, but Silver players do not.  Additional costume slots over and above these can be purchased in the ZEN store.  Gold players have the option to purchase accountwide costume slots. (Single slot for one toon: 175 Z, Two slots account-wide: 565 Z.)

[sinister8088]

BASIC PLAY

Activity Button: Not in City of Heroes.  Press Z to activate things that a mouse would do in City of Heroes.  Z also calls up zone dialog, picks up items and confirms choices in dialogs.  If you're a mouse erudite, an Activity button will appear underneath your character you can click on instead of pressing Z, so relax.

Energy Bars: You know what the colors mean and what Endurance is (Energy in this game.) Notch on the blue bar is the Equilibrium point.  When at rest, you recharge rapidly up to the Equilibrium point.  The use of high-damage powers too frequently will decrease the Equilibrium point, so understand that it does move around a bit.  Collecting energy past the equilibrium point will result in energy loss between fights until you get into another fight, or the equilibrium is reached.

Powers and Fighting: Farewell to City of Heroes and the Dual-Blades/Street Fighting-esque Combo system.  But don't worry, in Champions Online, you have a little bit of variety in your play.  Some powers you select in this game use Charge-Ups and Sustains.  Your primary attack is known as an Energy Builder... and unlike CoH, you can block attacks at will.

• Energy Builder: This light damage attack is repeatable, costs no energy, and even better, recharges your energy after repeated use, even past the equilibrium point (as long as there's a target capable of receiving damage, you can use an Energy Builder).  You can have only one energy builder-type of power in your power choices at any given time.  For most Archetypes, it's usually your weakest, but quickest-to-use attack.  Note that the Energy Builder is a TOGGLE: press the attack button once, and you'll keep attacking over and over until you choose another power, or the enemy falls.
• Charge-Up: An energy meter appears in a Charge-Up when you hold down the power activation button.  Let it go for a charged up use of an attack or power.  You can also keep pressing it to deliver maximum damage/effect with the Meter filled up.  (Timing means nothing: letting it go on the notch marks doesn't matter.)  The higher the charge, the more energy used up on release.
• Sustain: In a Sustain Power, the bar is at maximum and the longer you hold it down, the longer the power persists until the Meter is empty.  The longer a sustain is used, the more energy is used in turn for less and less damage over time.
• Block: You can block incoming attacks at-will in Champions Online.  Simply press and hold Shift to do so.  You will also gain back some energy while blocking, though nowhere as dramatically as when using an Energy Builder.

Charge-Up and Sustain attacks tend to be the more exciting of the two, since these tend to be attached to Cone or AoE type attacks, but ON BOTH Charge-Up and Sustain powers, if you run out of energy, the power discharges and stops immediately, no matter how far up your bar is charged.  Also, the Energy Builder attack means that even in a short encounter, endurance drain that was common in City of Heroes doesn't have to be an issue in Champions Online.  The strategy in using such an attack is still present, as Energy Builders only return a fixed percentage of your energy per successful hit.  This is time your character can be vulnerable to high damage attacks.

Speaking of High Damage Attacks, there's a type of attack from mobs called a "Schtick Attack", where a cartoon bubble, spark or highlight appears in three stages over your character's head, usually ending in a word (like "Bang", "Pow", or some other onomatopoeic expression... yes, that's a word... Google it).  When the third part appears, a powerful attack will land on your character at full force.  This is a warning to your character that it is indeed time to block.  You'll get used to seeing them as you play and acting accordingly, but note that marching all by yourself into a group full of mobs that you know to be capable of those kind of attacks is usually a fool's errand, especially before Level 25.

Finally, note that while blocking, any unactivated or charging powers will cancel until you release the block, and that in PvP there are methods that opponents can use to disable your ability to block temporarily, so know that before going into a fight.  Also, block isn't a perfect shield: you will lose SOME HP no matter what you do.  Holding Shift down endlessly on a large enough collection of enemies or in a boss fight will still put you in harm's way.

Travel Powers: You get a free one at Level 6 (doesn't affect power choices).  Travel powers are mapped by default to the T key (can be remapped) and works with a little difference from City of Heroes.  Each power has three magnitudes of speed: slow (defaults to this when you are attacked just like CoH), medium, and fast.  Each mode moves to the next fastest one after 10 seconds of travel without getting hit.

Travel Powers are CHARGE-UPS.  Too long to wait to get the hell out of dodge?  Press and hold T to charge your travel power and use fast immediately.  You can have up to two travel powers on any given character.

How do I quit? Where's the Settings Menu?  Can I just log out?  Press ESC repeatedly until the Main Menu appears, then choose accordingly.  Also, on the Mini-Map, click on the Champions Logo button for a Palette Menu of any window not discussed in this primer.  If it has use in the game, it's listed there.

The Exit Button:  When done with a mission map, if you can't find an immediate exit in the boss room, you'll find yourself running all around to get to the door at times. 

Stop that: Just click on Socrates (Tiny blue head in the Mini Map) and choose Exit Mission.  This isn't as much of an issue, since the majority of missions are in City Zones and open-air maps.  (Adv. Packs/Comics: head back to the Jet, otherwise, Socrates still works.)  Remember leaving the map means resetting that Issue or Mission's objectives.  The AP Progress is not lost unless you drop the main mission from your list.  If you have unfinished mission objectives, leaving the map means you will start over on the completed objectives when you reenter the map.

Dropping a Mission: If you want to remove a mission from your Mission List, press L to open up your Log Window.  Click on the Active Tab and locate the mission in the list.  Click Drop to drop the mission.  It will disappear from your list, and your progress on the mission will be lost. (If it's in an arc, you can talk to the contact to regain it: if it's an AP/CB mission, you will need to start over from the first Issue.)

You will need to drop missions when it is no longer possible to complete it, for example, if you forget to rescue the Kitty in the Intro Mission and still have the mission on your list.  Or perhaps you have a holiday event that has expired.  Dropping it is all that can be done in these instances.

Concerning Autocomplete: Unless the mission is bugged, there is no Autocomplete feature in Champions Online.  Your only recourse is to leave (see above tip) and do something else.  If the mission is bugged, access Help (press ESC until you see the Main Menu), then choose Request GM Support.  Don't expect a live response: unless your character is stuck and cannot exit (or some variation of that: you are stuck on a map in a manner that logging in and out will not fix, or can't log in after exiting), they will refer it to someone to look at later.

[sinister8088]

MANAGING YOUR HEROIC ASSIGNMENTS

Mission List: Listed on the right hand side.  To make a compass point appear for them, click on the mission title in the list and in the next window, click Make Primary.  A transparent Arrowhead will point you to the door while travelling.  Also works if you're done with a mission and need to find the contact again.  A quicker way to do this when you have multiple missions is to double-click on the Number in the Mission List to make it primary.

Intro mission: You HAVE to do the Intro on your first character.  Sorry. (You are able to skip the Intro once a character on your account reaches Level 8.)

Sequence to get out of it as fast as possible if that's your preference (Mission titles to look for):  Welcome Wagon (Go talk To Sgt. McAvoy), Meet Socrates, Seeding Frenzy, Millennium's Mayor, Mayor's Mementos,  Mail to the Chief, Citizens Distressed, Silver Avenger Sandwich, Signal to Noise, Full Metal Jacket (if you're lucky, this mission could be almost over when you get there since it's a live in-zone event), and finally The Iron Clad Defense.

Your first character is limited to specific costume pieces and will be forced to play through the tutorial zone.  Once you reach level 8, all the other free-to-play costume options unlock, and subsequent characters will have an option to skip the tutorial entirely.  However, badgers take note.  There are several perks and associated free XP  that are lost forever if you do not do the tutorial - you cannot get Learn the Ropes, Stop the Invasion, Save the City, Ironclad Offensive, Vanquished Black Talon and Red Bug Down if you don't complete the tutorial.  Plus, you get to save a kitty.  (Please, someone think of the kitty.)

Don't worry about what level you are, the first time you enter The Powerhouse, you WILL be Level 6, even if the game makes you level 6 by force.

Missions after the Intro: SOCRATES (blue head icon in the Minimap, or find a glowing androgynous blue statue in any Millennium City zone) has links to missions from contacts throughout the game.  Contacting SOCRATES will show you whatever missions are currently available for your level range, but you never outlevel missions in this game.  Any mission you 'missed' can be obtained by visiting a contact in person.  Even if the contact is level 6, and you're sitting at the level cap of 40, you can go back and finish the mission later.

Task Forces: Champions Online offers issue sequences called Adventure Packs and Comic Series (Each mission is an Issue, another CoH term that has different meaning in CO).  This is their equivalent of a Task Force: a number of missions in a row, ending in a boss encounter.  If this is more of your cup of tea, head to the UNTIL Building (right next to Champions HQ outside of Renaissance Center) starting at Level 11 to get going, with a jet downstairs to help you get there quickly.  Just like a Task Force, a team would be a wise idea on these missions, although you can solo an AP (good luck).

The Radio/Newspaper (Incidental Missions): Next to the Mini-map, there's a red X (if you have it closed) that shows the On Alert! Panel – up to four missions available anytime, which work a lot like the Team Up Teleporter.  They're fast, easy, and some give an hour-long XP Boost.

[sinister8088]

BASIC CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT AND MANAGEMENT

Money: It's called Resources-- Global (G), National (N), and Local (L).  Similar to D&D's Gold system: 100 of a lower currency = 1 of the higher ones with Local being worth the least.

Real-Money Transactions (vis a vis Paragon Points): ZEN is the real-world currency used in microtransactions (formerly Cryptic Points or Atari Points).  You can buy ZEN in denominations of $10 each.  $10 = 1000 ZEN.  Like 96% of the F2P titles out there, there's no way to convert ZEN into cash or subscription time (not everyone is EVE Online.)  ZEN is account-bound, you can't trade it between players (past the ZEN/Questionite exchange, see below).

Moreso than in CoH (in my opinion) the Microtransaction side of business in CO is very prevalent.  You can play for free, but CO is not shy at all about your limits in doing so.  Also, unlike City of Heroes, it seems the average transaction for ZEN is closer to the $4.00 mark rather than the $2.00 mark: this doesn't mean that there is no items available for less than $2.00, but rather that most of the non-consumable, non-item purchases are at 490 Z and higher.

Questionite: (This currency isn't in City of Heroes in any form, so forgive the lengthy explanation) -- An alternate currency earned in game, directly exchangeable for ZEN (and vice-versa ZEN can also be turned into Questionite).  The questionite-to-ZEN rate is player-driven, with those selling ZEN being firmly in control of the market rate.  Players may also, naturally, exchange ZEN for questionite, using the same system, but the exchange rate to return Questionite to ZEN is separate than ZEN for Questionite (it doesn't happen often, but if you exchange it in haste and seek to exchange it back to its prior form, you can lose a small amount on getting it back.)

Questionite ore can be earned by playing adventure packs and comic series, picking up Boxes of Questionite from defeated Super Villain or higher enemies (each box will give you anywhere from 200 to 1500 questionite ore), and can also be earned in small amounts by defeating any enemy during a Questionite Hour event.  Questionite, like ZEN, is player-bound and cannot be traded past the ZEN/Questionite Exchange (you can't "gift" questionite to someone.)

Questionite must be refined from ore to be used - each piece of ore produces 1 questionite.  You may collect any amount of ore you like, but you are capped to refining 8,000 questionite per day, to prevent people from glutting the market with questionite.  (You can earn and keep more than 8,000 Questionite Ore, of course, and refine the balance up to 8,000 at the same time the next day.)  In addition to being exhanged for ZEN, questionite can also be spent directly on purchases from the Questionite Store, which functions like a secondary cash shop to support ZEN Purchases. 

Since items in the Questionite Store are available nowhere else, not even the ZEN store, there is incentive to convert ZEN into questionite, for those who have a surplus of zen and wish to make Questionite purchases, and a little ZEN goes a long way in that regard. 

As explained by Kaiser Tarantula, it is possible to get a regular flow of Questionite into your account with regular play: (Click to read)

Spoiler for Hidden:

All of these limitations are per-character too, as is your daily questionite refinement cap.  So if you have two characters, you can refine 16,000 questionite per day (8,000 on each).  Since ZEN is account-wide, if you spend all your questionite on ZEN, you can get approximately 80 ZEN a day by doing this (subject to exact exchange rates.)  Every character you have above the two freebies on a Silver account is another 40 ZEN you can earn per day.  Someone with 5 characters, capping their questionite earnings per day, can get approximately 200 ZEN/day without spending a single red cent.

That's $2 USD in ZEN right there.  If you're a gold member, this is even easier because you can freeform characters (potentially letting you solo adventure packs/comic series more easily), and you get several extra character slots by default.  Another benefit to subscribing.  Even if you're Silver though, you can get 2 character slots for 1,400 ZEN.  That would let you make 160 ZEN/day with farming questionite and using the exchange, which means that you'll recoup the money you spent in about nine days.  You could even earn the initial 1,400 ZEN outlay with just two characters in about 18 days,  so you're looking at about a month of solid work to get an extra pair of character slots and then recoup the ZEN spent on them.

It's very possible to unlock everything a silver character can get, without spending real life money, if you're willing to farm questionite up to your daily cap.

An estimated conversion rate from Questionite to ZEN is 200:1 (200 Questionite = 1 ZEN).  At the time of writing this, it's 188-192, but this should help you ballpark it.  Let's say you want 2 Character Slots (Non-Freeform) at 1,400 ZEN.  You have 684 ZEN from a $5.00 purchase, and 184 earned from Questionite conversion.  So you'll need 716 ZEN (1400-684 = 716), made from another 144,000 Questionite to unlock the slots (716 * 200 = 143200).

Mobs drop Questionite only during Questionite Hour events, and will drop questionite based on their rank (henchmen & villains 1-5, master villains 5-10, super villains and higher 10+).  Otherwise, Boxes of Questionite looted from Super Villain or higher-ranked enemies, as well as mission rewards from comic series, adventure packs, APB missions, and Rampage alerts are the only way to obtain Questionite.

Powerhouse, The: This place is where heroes can go to train and develop their powers in a controlled environment.  Talking to any trainer will let you spend any specification or advantage points you've earned by levelling, or select new powers if you've attained a level that offers a new power.  A special note here is that any level-up selections made while in the Powerhouse are not permanent and can be changed as much as you like for free until you leave.  When you leave the Powerhouse, any selections you've made are locked in, and can only be changed by paying for it.  The Powerhouse also has testing environments with practice dummies so that you can see just how your powers work via live testing, as well as a raceway & gymnasium for testing travel powers (and seeing how much you can lift), and a series of damaging lasers that you can use to test defensive powers.

Levelling Up: You can go to the Powerhouse to level up, OR click on the Lightning Bolt on your Power Tray to do it in-field.  At the Powerhouse, your choices can be changed until you leave the room and return to the city.  Outside of the Powerhouse, all choices made concerning the following are final. (Confirmation prompts remind you of this finality.)

   
• Powers: Are issued according to your Archetype and Build.  It's not every other level, and if you use one of the 23 Archetypes they are mostly chosen for you.
• Advantage Points: Are issued frequently.  Saving up Advantage points between level ups is wise, since there are Skills/Abilities (additional effects you can add to your powers) that are more powerful and cost 2-3 points.  Each power can only accept 5 Advantage Points to improve them, so use them wisely.
• Specializations: start to appear after level 10.  Each point can go to up to eight areas to improve further, with the bottom four areas needing five points before the upper areas are available.

Of note, Super Stats are highlighted in Yellow in most of these transactions, which if raised from spending Advantage Points will also help to improve your character's energy and damage use.

Debt: Champions Online's version of Debt are Star Points.  Every death means a loss of Star Points. Stars stack up to 5, and are gradually restored over time in-game if you avoid dying.  You can donate in-game resources to charity (Clue: one is in Renaissance Center next to the Tailor Pavilion) to restore a star immediately, or purchase items with ZEN to restore all your stars at once.  Stars aren't absolutely important - each star is a 3% increase in the damage you do and the healing you produce, maximum of 15%.  If you have no stars, dying carries no additional penalty. (Like CoH, once you accrue max. debt, nothing more can happen.)

Please note that signing off WILL NOT FIX lost Star Points.  Continuing to fight does.

Respec: It's called RetCon.  A full RetCon of your character requires you to spend ZEN to get a RetCon token.  You can, however, perform partial RetCons with in-game currency.  The higher your level, the more RetCon will cost.  You can remove powers one at a time, in reverse order of acquisition (most recent power first) at the Powerhouse by talking to a trainer.

[sinister8088]

EQUIPMENT AND ITEMS

Items: Character drops must be picked up: if you forget to pick them up, they disappear.  However, just like CoH, each drop is character locked when in Solo Play (no ganking).  UNLIKE City of Heroes, in Teams you can choose a gank-method to keep teaming interesting (Drops can be the earning player only, round robin, or free for all just like in World of Warcraft.)  The team leader makes this choice for the whole team.

Inspirations: Now they're little Power-up orbs called "Boosts" that your foes leave behind; they work immediately.  You can't keep them.  As soon as you touch them they're gone.  Each Power-up Boost is player-locked: another player can't gank them from you.  The work exactly like inspirations: a little percentage multi-stat boost that fades from 30-90 seconds later.  An icon of the boosts taken appear in the upper left beneath your character portrait with a clockwise timer to show the remaining duration.

A white "mystery boost" appears from time to time, which upon collection will light your character up with a color that tells what kind of Boost it gave you.  (It may grant multiple boosts... you just don't know what it will do until you touch it.  Thanks to Epelesker for clarifying a vague line on the CO Wiki.)

Enhancements: Nope, you get Equipment (see below).  Stats take care of your major character development, whereas Equipment (Attack, Defense and Support) provides easier upgradeable improvement of your character as you go mission to mission: separated into Primary and Secondary Equipment types, can be crafted (Fusion), Sold (Auction) or traded (Mail system). You have six equipment slots - Offensive, Defensive, and Utility, with Primary and Secondary slots for each.

Equipment comes in slot-specific varieties, and what slot they fit into really doesn't tell you much about the equipment itself - a Primary Utility could wind up boosting the same stats as a Secondary Offense.  What a piece of equipment looks like doesn't matter - just like City of Heroes, your equipped items are not reflected on your character visually (that's controlled solely by your costume).

Of note, Super Stats are highlighted in Yellow in these items, which if raised also help to further improve your character's energy and damage use.

Crafting: Used to exist in a larger sense but has been GREATLY scaled back.  You can still earn points in one of three Investigation skills (Arms, Science, or Mysticism), but these skills are solely used to loot specialized containers in the world that require a certain level of Investigation skills to access.  Successfully opening these containers gives you Item Mods and possibly Catalysts.  Item Mods are upgrades that can be inserted into a slotted item's slots to increase its effectiveness.  You can also combine 5 mods of the same type and rank into a single mod of the same type of the next higher rank.  Combining mods has a chance to fail.  You can improve your chances of success by raising your Investigation skill, or by adding a Catalyst to the combination process.

Merits: These are known as Recognition Medals. There are 4 kinds of recognition medals.  MCPD Recognition (6-14), PRIMUS Recognition (15-30), UNTIL Recognition (31-40), and Silver Champions' Stars (specific Lv40 content).  Each functions kinda like reward merits in CoH.  You can earn them from defeating field and mission mobs, and you can select recognition medals as a reward from doing missions that would otherwise offer you a gear reward.  Recognition medals can be spent like a currency at Recognition vendors and can also purchase costume piece unlocks and travel power unlocks that are available nowhere else.

Badges: CO equivalent is called Perks.  Some give XP, and there is no physical marker on Exploration Perks: some perks have requirements that involve more than one location, such as walking the length of a pipeline.  At the bottom of the Perk window are Perk Points: In the past, perk points had a purpose... a number of updates later they are all but useless – Ignore them, except as a de-facto "Badge Count".

[sinister8088]

ERRATA

Right-clicking: mostly does not work except for mouselook.  No idea why—it does on Star Trek Online, Champions' sister title.

Qularr: They're the same as Rikti. And there's other species... apparently Detroit/Canada is overrun with aliens.

Camera: In the Options Screen, choose "Chase" if you want it to behave like it does in CoH.  Otherwise, pressing and holding the left mouse button spins without reset, and pressing and holding the right mouse button spins both you and the camera in the method we all know fondly as mouselook (just like CoH, you can mouselook to turn and just use W and S to move forward and backward).

Supergroups: Champions HQ, which you get a brief look at in the Intro Mission, is the central point to form a Supergroup in Champions Online.  You need at least 5 people in a team to form the group.  Once you have the team, enter the HQ and talk to the Registrar at the front desk.

UNTIL: This is what City of Heroes had that was called Fort Trident – A central place for all Task Force contacts and a single way to access them (The Jet.)  This is where all Adventure Pack/Comic Series contacts are located.

PvP: The Arena in this game is known as Hero Games.  There is information on PvP at a Kiosk outside of the Jet Landing Pad in the upper NW corner of the Renaissance Center.  PvP Events are accessible in your menus through Queues, or just head to Renaissance Center and wait long enough in the Plaza for an invite.   Like World of Warcraft, players can challenge each other to a PvP Match in a city zone (especially at the Plaza) without affecting/involving non-interested characters.

Cutscenes:  Champions forces you to sit through most of them.  You can press ESC on a few of them, but the majority won't listen.

Playing a Villain, Vigilante, or Rogue? Sorry.  Right now, Champions Online is a hero-only title.  Forget about morality, you're all heroes.  There are "Reformed Hero" Costume Pieces, as well as costume sets for the Alien Species in-game, but you're still fighting the good fight.

Find people/join teams? Press O to open the Social window, where you can search for players, teams, supergroups, etc.  On the last tab, you can choose your search preferences such as no teaming, open teaming (anyone running the same mission when you enter a mission map automatically joins you), or closed teaming (behaves just like CoH: no invite, no team.)

Stop getting invites? To block team invites, click on the button to the right of the chat field, and choose Toggle Team Invites in the little popup menu.

Find a Global Name for a player?  Click on them, then in the upper left, right click their portrait next to your stats and choose Info.  The same context menu blocks a player or reports them on abusive behavior.  Also, the global name of a player is always displayed in chat in the form of "charName@globalName".  The Global name is always on the right hand of the @ sign in the full handle.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

Some small corrections I just noticed.  Most are minor.

The proper term for what you call a "sustain" power is a "Maintained" power.

Regarding the Qularr, they aren't quite the same as the Rikti.  Rikti are transformed humans from a parallel Earth (Rikti Earth.)  Qularr are genuine aliens; I'll go into them below.

In regards to aliens as a whole in Champions Online, there are several noteworthy species.


The Gadroon: The Gadroon first appeared on Earth in 1984, attempting an invasion of the planet, but were repelled by the combined might of Earth's heroes.  They would later try again in 1997, with the same result.  Today, they are currently invading Canada, having established a significant outpost in the Canadian Wilderness.  There, they are attempting to terraform the tundra into an alien subtropic 'grassland,' presumably similar to their homeworld.

Your average Gadroon is a stocky, frog-like humanoid.  They're typically no more than five feet in height, but can measure three to three and a half feet across the shoulders.  Their legs are short, but their arms are long and thick, often trailing down to the ground.  Their skin is usually green, with lighter tones closer to yellow- or tan-green on their lower jaw, chest, and abdomen.  Gadroon are physically stronger than humans, and can adapt to a wide variety of climates, but have poor senses.  Gadroon DNA is apparently incredibly complex compared to humans.  The Gadroon themselves are skilled geneticists, capable of using their own DNA to carry information, such as encryption keys for their technology to ensure that other species cannot access it.  Most Gadroon encountered will be either warriors or Gravitic manipulators, and as such they are typically equipped with blocky, thick metal armor, sometimes with a light-orange bodysuit underneath it.  Most Gadroon protect their lower arms with translucent energy shields that vaguely resemble glass, oddly enough with no visible emitters.  Gadroon weapons are often attached to the knuckles of one of their arms, poking out in front of the energy shield.

The Gadroon use brutal and unsubtle tactics, often utilizing their gravitic technology to decimate planets from orbit before dropping a large standing invasion force to subjugate any natives.  By their own words, they typically use methods such as "clear-crushing", "flash-burning" or "cavitating" a planet to eliminate threats and prepare a planet prior to taking it over.  The latest invasion, however, is different.  The Gadroon are actually using subterfuge and espionage tactics, something they've never done before.  On the infantry level, most Gadroon use energy blaster weaponry and their own raw physical might in combat.  Adepts and Shapers also use field projectors that allow them to surround enemies in a bubble of force, rendering them helpless until they can break free.  Gadroon wear high-tech armor, the most distinguishing feature of which is the translucent solid energy shields that cover their otherwise-unprotected arms.  Most Gadroon attack squads are backed up by a simple, poorly-armed robotic drone called an Observer.


The Qularr: In May of 1965, the Qularr first attempted an invasion of Earth by genetically-engineering creatures that would later go on to populate Monster Island.  After these creatures were subdued or destroyed, they attempted a conventional attack, but found themselves outnumbered.  They would later attempt a second, localized invasion centered upon Millenium City, drawn by beacons set up by Dr. Destroyer's Destroid Robots, lead by Black Talon.  The tutorial in CO covers dealing with this second invasion.

The Qularr are a race of insect/crustacean humanoids.  They have a spoken language, but it's unpronounceable to a human mouth (though a human can learn to understand it).  Compared to humans, the average Qularr is somewhat tougher and stronger owing to their exoskeleton/endoskeleton hybrid body structure, and they have a better sense of hearing and touch at the cost of weaker eyesight.  However, Qularr are not shy about engineering themselves to better suit their purposes, and Qularr leaders are typically much larger and more formidable, physically, than their underlings.  A Qularr Swarmlord can easily measure ten to twelve feet in height.

Qularr use a mix of energy weapons and organic technology, including purpose-bred combat organisms such as their Firebugs and Swarms.  Qularr are also adept at stealth technology - Qularr ships are typically hidden from sensors by cloaking fields until just before they attack.  Versatile and adaptive, Qularr have used an absolutely dizzying number of tactics in their skirmishes with Earth and its heroes, ranging from giant monster attacks in their initial invasions, to body-snatching, brainwashing, persuasion and manipulation, and even conventional infantry attacks.  It's rare to see the Qularr use the same tactic twice, almost as though they are 'testing' approaches on Earth.

It's known that the Gadroon and the Qularr are at war with one another.


The Roin'esh: Where the Roin'esh are from and what they're doing on Earth is largely a mystery.  What is known about them is that they are a race of bipedal roughly-humanoid aliens with potent shapeshifting capability.  Roin'esh are capable of dissolving into a gooey, slimy liquid form, looking like nothing so much as a mobile oil slick, affording them rapid movement and resistance to harm, although they seem incapable of attacking in this state.  Roin'esh "technology" mostly consists of organic extrusions of their own bodies, shaped into whatever weapon or implement that they need for the situation.  Roin'esh have been known to fight with energy blasts, toxic sprays, bladed limbs, or simply snaring a foe in sticky, gooey strands of their biomass and then hauling him into close combat.

The most frightening capability the Roin'esh have is their shapeshifting.  An adept Roin'esh shapeshifter can mimic a human being to the point of being visually indistinguishable from the real person, and can also mimic a person's voice near-perfectly, with concentration and effort.  Roin'esh have also been known to lie in ambush by disguising themselves as boxes or crates or other innocuous items, or simply spreading out their biomass into a thin film on the walls or floor, and then changing their coloration to camouflage themselves.  It takes thorough knowledge or advanced detection technology to ferret out a disguised Roin'esh.  Most terrifying of all, the most skilled of Roin'esh shapeshifters can even duplicate a superpowered being close enough to utilize that being's powers, albeit usually in a limited fashion.

In its 'native' form, a Roin'esh looks like a jet-black humanoid, standing 5-8 feet tall, with a smooth, chitinous carapace shaped to resemble armor.  Their faces typicaly have glowing green eyes, or sometimes a glowing blue-green 'faceplate'.  Generally, Roin'esh of higher rank have thicker, more elaborately-armored appearances, while their underlings are typically smooth-bodied and thinner.  Particularly high-ranking Roin'esh may shape a red 'loincloth' out of their mass, and wear red accents, to further set them apart from their inferiors.  Roin'esh typically have humanoid hands, unless they've temporarily reshaped their limbs into weaponry or tools.


Elder Worms: Tens of thousands of years ago, humanity was ruled by a species of ancient extraterrestrial psionic annelids.  The Elder Worms are the descendents of these creatures, hunting for the relics of their ancient culture in order to re-enslave mankind.  Elder Worms look like nothing more than giant, fang-mawed smooth-bodied worms.  Typically, they wear power-armored suits that provide them with arms and legs, jet propulsion, and potent defenses.  They primarily attack with telekinetic or telepathic powers, and are adept at summoning "Mind Worms" - psychic annelid projections that cannot move, but attack with vicious telekinetic bites.


Malvans: Does not make a physical appearance in CO, but are referenced numerous times.  The Malvans are an intergalactic race of what are apparently slave-traders.  Numerous species, including the Roin'esh, were once slaves of the Malvan Empire.  The Malvans apparently enjoy gladiatorial games - Drogen Lar of Dorvala, known to the people of Earth as Ironclad, was once a Malvan gladiatorial slave.


Mandaarians: Does not make a physical appearance in CO, but are referenced in it.  The Mandaarians are one of the few peaceful alien races to have made contact with Earth.  They are apparently very similar to humans, but are slightly shorter and more delicate of build, with pointed ears and catlike eyes that come in colors outside the human norm.  Not much other info is available in CO about them.  Mandaarians apparently have a large number of psionically-active individuals, and like humans, have been known to manifest superpowers.

[Thunder Glove]

Silver Champion Stars are also given out before level 40 by completing Alert-related missions.  Not the Alerts themselves, mind you, but once a day you can get a mission that requires you to complete the "Alert of the Week" - at the moment, the one with Hi-Pan and the dragon - and completing that mission (by completing the Alert) will give you a choice between a Silver Champion Star and a box of Vehicle parts as part of the reward.

So you can start collecting Silver Stars as soon as you're out of the Powerhouse for the first time (though I'd recommend not diving into Alerts that early, not until at least Level 15 unless you really know what you're doing)

[Mothers_Love]

Some Champions-lore which may help you in-game;

Places and Things

Heroes, Villains and Organisations

[JaguarX]

good stuff here.

[Lily Barclay]

Another sticky? Pushing too many yet?  ;D