Marvel Heroes is a brilliant game but it’s also confusing for new players. I’d consider myself very experienced in these types of games but I had lots of questions and wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing. This guide should provide you with everything you need to know to get started.

Choosing A Hero

Unsurprisingly, the first thing you’ll need to do in Marvel Heroes is choose a Hero. At the start of the game and until you unlock certain currencies there is a limited selection available (10). These ten cover a variety of roles, from ranged to melee to physical fighter and spellcaster. Don’t worry about which to choose for too long because you’ll be able to switch Heroes once you reach a central hub. It turns out however that these starting characters are capped at level 10. If you choose to Uncap them, you won’t be able to level the default Heroes past level 10 until you purchase them. In this particular instance, I chose Hawkeye because I like ranged characters, and he has a snazzy bow.

The User Interface

Marvel Heroes has a similar interface to most dungeon crawlers. We’ve numbered the diagram below to explain it.

1. This is your menu option. It provides quick access to a variety of menu’s, including:

• Options (ESC)
• Missions (L)
• Character (C)
• Social Panel (O)
• Powers (P)
• Achievements (V)
• Roster (T)
• Store (X)

2. This is your chat window. Clicking on it will expand the window in a variety of ways. If you want to directly chat to someone or invite them to a party from the chat window, hold down Shift + Left Mouse Button on their name.

3. This is your health bar. It will naturally regenerate out of combat or in combat you can increase it using skills or health packs.

4. This is your main skills bar and includes all your active skills, with the green bar denoting your experience.

5. This is your stamina bar. Performing any skill will reduce this, it will however regenerate in combat.

6. This is your current mission. If you wish to progress the story you can click on this and your character will navigate towards where you need to be.

7. This is the buff panel that displays the current buffs your character is receiving from others around him.

8. This is the mission tracker and directly ties into number 6. It informs you of your current mission and and what stage you’re at.

9. This is an alert relating to your current status. These alerts vary with an exclamation mark (!) denoting a mission and a lightning bolt denoting Hero progression.

Combat and Movement

Marvel Heroes is, at the start, a forgiving game. The first few enemies you encounter on your first mission are easy and won’t cause you much difficulty. What I’d recommend is you rebind your attack keys. They are, by default, set to letter keys which just feels weird. You can change them in the options by pressing O. I set mine to keys 1 to 5. To attack enemies, just press your left or right mouse button and you’ll use your attacks. If you want to stand still and use your auto attack (rather than moving to the enemy) you can simply hold Shift + Left Mouse Button.

To move around the map, you can left click to a specific location or hold the left mouse button down, while moving your mouse cursor. If you want to dodge in a specific direction, place your mouse pointer where you want to dodge to and press A. Be aware that dodging and attacking will drain your stamina.

Skills

As you level up your Hero you’ll begin to earn points that you can spend on specific skills. Each Hero has different skills and each Hero has 3 specific skill trees they can spend these points in. In Hawkeye’s case, it’s Archery, Combat Skill and Trick Arrows. Once you’ve unlocked skills, you can open the Powers panel (P) and drag them onto your skill bar. If you want to change your Left and Right Mouse Button attacks, just click on those on your skill bar. If you ever want to Reset your spent points, you can use a Retcon Device that everyone starts with. To reset them more than once, you’ll have to obtain them by playing the game.

Missions, Storyline Chapters and Legendary Quests

There’s three types of mission content in Marvel Heroes: Missions, Storyline Chapters and Legendary Quests. You can access these by pressing L. Account Missions are side-content that you can complete at any time and which aren’t linked specifically to the story. NPC’s offering Missions have a question mark (?) above their heads. The Prologue and Chapters are all story related and often provided valuable rewards and experience, they are marked on the map by an NPC with a gold star above their head.

Currencies

You can find your currencies by bringing up your inventory (I) and selecting the currencies tab.  The main things you need to know are:

• Eternity Splinters are obtained as you play and can be used to purchase new Heros.
• Odin Marks are used to craft Legendary Weapons or items.
• Cube Shards are a dropped item you get from the daily missions in the green and red terminals. as it can be sold for 500 credits each. Alternatively, you can donate them to a vendor or crafter to level up their rank, at 500xp each. You can stack up to 50 shards in one slot.
• Credits are the money you earn from drops as you play
• G is the universal currency you buy from the in game shop, to unlock costumes and Heroes.

Other Information, Tips and Tricks

• If you’re ever unsure what to do, just head back to a Hub location. You can find these by stepping on the teleporter pads in most starting locations.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help in chat, by typing /social and then your message. The Marvel Heroes community is super helpful.
• All of the starting Heroes are a lot of fun so before you commit to one, try them all to see which you prefer the most
• Don’t worry about spending your Power points. You can re-specialise.
• Committing to a single Hero, so you can level them past level 10, shouldn’t take too much thought. You can buy extra Heros with Eternity Splinters or real life money. They work out around £10/$10 per Hero.
• Logging in every day provides you with free rewards!
• On your Power screen you can have different loadouts, with more loadsouts available for purchase via store credit.
• Melee Heroes such as Black Widow and Black Panther can be difficult to play in comparison to a ranged Hero. Don’t let that put you off: they’re very rewarding.
• You can expand your map by pressing Tab.
• If you ever struggle to find where to progress on a map, just remember almost all maps are square. Just look for the direction path that leads out of that square.
• Marvel Heroes is brilliant fun with friends and because it’s free, why not get them involved!