Creating a Hero

Before you can play City of Heroes, you will, of course, need to create a hero. Once you’ve selected a server, just click on one of the blank Create Hero slots on your screen. The game will then walk you through the multi-part hero creation process.
Origin

Your Origin is the source of your powers. Were you born with them, or did you study for long months and years to perfect them? Or perhaps you acquired them after some encounter with mysterious forces?

Statesman's Tip: In gameplay, your Origin determines which Enhancements you can use, and where you can find them, as well as determining the identity of your first contacts. Your Origin has no effect on which power sets you can select, or how you advance in play.

You may select one of five available origins.

Mutant

Perhaps your parents were exposed to strange radiations, or maybe it’s just the next leap forward in evolution, but your powers were encoded into your genes before you were born.

Science

Exposure to chemicals, radiation, or some other scientific process has left you changed, with new and mysterious abilities far beyond the mass of humanity.

Technology

Unlike science heroes, whose bodies have been permanently changed by exposure to natural forces, as a technology hero you carry unique and advanced devices that allow you to produce superhuman effects.

Natural

Your origin involves no mysterious forces or secret discoveries; you have simply used your remarkable talents to train yourself to the very pinnacle of human potential.

Magic

“There are more things in heaven and earth” … supernatural forces are abroad in the world, and either through training and discipline, or simple chance, you have become a human nexus for them.

Archetype

Your archetype determines the nature of your powers. This choice will actually determine which power sets you can select for your primary and secondary powers.

Statesman's Tip: Selecting an archetype, which will determine the powers you can wield in play, is the single most important decision you will make about your hero. Make sure you select an archetype and power sets that harmonize well with your personality and playstyle.

You may select one of five available archetypes.

Blaster

The Blaster specializes in delivering massive damage at range. They have very little defensive potential, other than the ability to keep the enemy at arm’s length.

A Blaster can solo successfully, if he remains aware of his situation at all times, but this archetype really comes into its own in groups, where Defenders, Scrappers and Tankers can take the brunt of the enemy attacks, freeing the Blaster to use his offensive potential to its fullest.

Controller

The Controller specializes in manipulating the actions of foes, causing them to stand immobile in battle, or controlling their movements, or even turning them against their allies. This is perhaps the most challenging archetype to play, but potentially one of the most powerful. Controllers have very little defense against enemies not under their direct control.

A Controller who wishes to adventure solo must do so with extreme caution. The archetype really comes into its own as part of a group.

Defender

The defender’s powers specialize in healing allies, in increasing their abilities (“buffing”) and in decreasing the abilities of foes (“debuffing”). The Defender has little offensive or defensive punch of his or her own, but can radically increase the effectiveness of even the smallest team-up.

More than any other archetype, the Defender is specialized for group play, and ill equipped for solo adventuring, however the tremendous usefulness of the Defender’s powers should guarantee that they will always be able to find a team-up to adventure with.

Scrapper

The Scrapper specializes in hand-to-hand combat. A single scrapper should be a match for several foes of equivalent level. Scrappers do not deal in ranged damage, instead going toe-to-toe with the enemy.

Their balance of offensive and defensive potential makes Scrappers by far the best suited archetype for solo play. In team-ups they are useful as front-rank fighters, but often find themselves a bit overshadowed by the more specialized Blasters and Tankers.

Tanker

The Tanker is the “big man” of the super team, combining massive defense with a powerful, but not-exceptionally-quick offensive punch.

Tankers make effective solo heroes, at their own deliberate pace, but they are also in demand by teams, where their function is to keep enemy attacks off the lightly defended Blasters, Controllers and Defenders.

Power Sets & Starting Powers

Once you have selected your Origin and Archetype, you may choose your primary and secondary power sets and your starting powers.

Your choice of power sets is determined by your Archetype.

A power set is a group of nine related powers. The powers in your chosen power sets will come available throughout your heroic career. The powers at the top of the list are, in general, more basic and therefore become available earlier, while the more exotic powers at the bottom of the list will only be available later in your career.

Statesman's Tip: Remember that as you progress upwards in level, your powers will grow along with you. The powers at the top of your power list, that you pick up early in your career, are not the least effective powers in your set, they are the most basic. Many heroes find themselves relying on their starting powers as much at the higher levels as they did when they were first starting out.

Your primary power set will form the cornerstone of your combat strategy. Upon character creation, you may select one of the two top powers in your primary power set.
Your secondary power set will support your primary powers. Upon character creation, you may use the top power in your secondary power set.

Gender and Build

On the next screen you will select a gender and build for your character. There are three basic body types to choose from, Female, Male and Huge — “Huge” is a male figure with superhumanly powerful muscle development.

Once you select your basic body type, you can customize your hero’s figure with two sliders. The Short — Tall slider allows you to set your hero’s height anywhere from around 4’ to over 7’. The Athletic — Muscular slider allows you to set their muscle development from a slender, graceful figure to a more massive and muscular one.

Costume

Creating a unique costume for your hero is one of the most enjoyable tasks of character creation. Although there are literally millions of possible unique costume combinations, the costume design process is fun and easy if you just take it step by step.

First, select your hero’s skin color, and a primary color and accent color for his or her costume. Remember, you can go back and redo any choice you make as your design vision changes.

Now just work your way down, starting with the head (where you can choose from a wide variety of hairstyles, masks, helmets, glasses and more exotic choices), through the upper body (torso, gloves and belt) to the lower body (trunk and boots). The costume design screen allows you to rotate the figure at will by clicking on the curved arrows, and to zoom in on your hero’s head and torso for an up-close look. Take your time, explore the possibilities, and you are virtually guaranteed a cool and unique hero at the end of the process.

Name and Extras

Your final required choice in the character creation process is to give your character a unique name that reflects their powers, appearance or personality.

Statesman's Tip: Remember that a short, easy-to-spell name will help your fellow heroes communicate with you through /tells and other communications options. Is the name you wanted already taken? Let comics tradition come to your rescue. If you can’t be Bongo Man try Bongo Master, Bongo Boy, Bongo Lad, Captain Bongo or even Bongoman.

On the same screen where you enter your name, there are optional areas where you can enter a brief character history, and even a characteristic battle call (“It’s Bongo Time!” “Bon-GO!”).