Hero Online

Hero Online
File:HeroOnline2.jpg
Developer(s)	Netgame
Publisher(s)	Mgame USA Inc.
Platform(s)	Windows 98/ME/2K/XP
Release	2006
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	MMO

Hero Online is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game produced by Netgame based on a story written by three generations of Chinese novelists. Hero Online is free to play with cash shop items available, much like Legend of Ares, another MMORPG created by Netgame, or RuneScape, created by Jagex, and many other MMORPG's. The player, when creating a character, is not only able to choose the gender of his/her character, but what kind of weapons their character will be using. These weapon proficiencies may or may not affect the job class people will choose when they reach a certain level for job change. Each of the four characters specializes in his or her own weaponry. For example "The Ruthless Blade" is currently the only character in the game with the ability to wield a bow.

As of July 31st 2006, Hero Online had its official release and is no longer in beta.

Story

Long ago, an ambitious ruler of China, after unifying the country and ending chaos, sought immortality. This ruler, Qin Shi Huang, did whatever he could to obtain the status of a god, sacrificing over 500 youths and spending his entire life for this goal. Yet like all mortals, he was nevertheless captured by death, and his entire life-work became shambles with his burning palace.

Much later, following the fall of Qin Shi Huang's dynasty, darkness shrouded the land in the form of Twelve Demons. While many great houses joined forces to purge the land of the Demons, they all met swift doom, leaving the land bare for the Demons to ravage. The Buddhist monks then summoned all the demon hunters of the land to do battle, but to China's dismay, failed. Even the Shaolin monks, legendary in their power and prowess, could not lift a finger against the Unstoppable Dozen.

Amidst the broken hope, a mysterious hero emerged. In a display of military genius, he lured the Twelve Demons into a carefully devised trap where 3,000 of his best men engaged the Twelve in combat. Even then, the battle took 10 long and arduous days, resulting in the death of all 3,000 of the hero's men. But their sacrifices weren't in vain, for the Twelve Demons had been defeated.

As to why they had attacked in the first place is still unknown, although it is rumored that they were after Qin Shi Huang's greatest possession, the Thousand Year Treasure.

Still, their tyranny was eradicated and the hero became renowned as The Great Dragon, the greatest fighter of all time. For 20 years, he established peace and justice throughout the land, leading a great house of warriors from all over the country.

The land once again fell into turmoil, however, when The Great Dragon was found in his wife's arms, dead. She was found eerily whispering to herself, "They're back... the Twelve of them have returned..."

News of the hero's death spread like wildfire across the land, instilling unbearable panic in its wake. How could the hero have been killed by his wife? What would happen to the land now that's he's dead? What did she mean by "The Twelve"? While the whole murder remained shrouded in mystery, one thing was absolutely clear in everyone's minds:

If "The Twelve" were the Demons, then the land would once again be in grave danger, and a new hero would have to arise.

Gameplay Features

Online official artworkHero Online has many special features, such as quests written by various martial art novelists (and many created bet Netgame themselves), and a storyline written by Kum Kan, featuring unrealistic fighting skills like walking on water or flying over walls. Many other skills can still be discovered further along in the game. There is also a reward system that keeps track of how many monsters a player kills from log in to log out, resulting in rewards consisting of items, exp, and rank. Currently, there are 10 Dragons (servers) that players can play on. Characters are interchangeable between Dragons.

Stats

A character's stats are based upon three essential attributes:

Strength: Raises attack power, carrying capacity, and HP (character's health or "hit points" bar).

Dexterity: Raises all physical defense, dodge rate, accuracy, and critical hit rate.

Intelligence: Raises skill damage, skill defense, and Chi (character's skill bar).

Along with HP and Chi, characters also have Internal Damage, which when accumulated causes irregularities in the character's stats, such as defense and attack damage. Internal Damage is often caused by critical hits by the enemy.

Leveling

The leveling system is unique in that it fuses the normal leveling of other MMORPGs with the ranking of traditional martial arts, utilizing "Kyu" and "Dan" to depict levels. 1 Kyu equals one level while 1 Dan equals 10 Kyus or levels. Thus, a character with a level of 2 Dan and 8 Kyu would otherwise be known as level 28.

Player vs. Environment (PvE)/Player vs. Monster (PvM):

Starting from the central city, Dragon Castle, players are required to venture out into other maps and defeat monsters for quests and for leveling. Players can fight monsters alone, or can party with up to a total of 6 people.

Player vs. Player (PvP):

Players can also participate in battles with other players, establishing karma and honor with the more you participate. Karma and honor have to do with the manner in which you kill your opponent, and they appear as titles next to your name. For example... civilian, thug, and novice are all titles associated with karma. Nameless, unknown, and skillful are titles associated with Honor. Karma is received or lost in battles from bounty hunting while honor is affected by faction battles. There are also PvP zones where anyone can attack anyone else freely. There are consequences, of course, to being defeated, such as experience and money loss.

Karma

When a player accumulates enough bad karma and is killed, there is a possibility for that character to be sent to "The Rock," a prison camp where the player cannot leave unless he or she works off their bad karma. This can be done either by bribing the warden, or doing manual labor, which consists of killing monsters and picking up the certificates they drop. Certificates can be genuine or fake, and only the real ones reduce your karma. Also, a player with exceptionally bad karma is unable to speak to NPCs or utilize the shops/bank in Dragon Castle and other normal camps. They can, however, use the facilities at a certain "Bandit Camp."

Bounty Hunting

Players can place a bounty on another player's head, paying money for other players to go and retrieve that bounty. Karma is built through this system.

House:

Players can create a house (or guild) at level 40, and invite anyone at any level. Fighting and killing members of other houses helps increase or decrease your honor rank. When the person is invited, they gain an affilation with one of the sides (Zhuang or Shao). To make a house costs 5 million, and this can be done in Dragon Castle with House Manager Yeo.

Player Skills

Players gain certain skills depending on what job they choose at lvl 10; the job that you do choose dictates one of the two jobs that will have to choose (or not at all) at lvl 50.

Taken from http://hero.netgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42806

Warrior - Bearers Of Power

At 1 Dan 0 Kyu - receive

Active Skill - Prayer Of Player

Passive Skill - Vigor Of Bear Skill

Prayer Of Player increases player's attack and defense.

Vigor Of Bear Skill increases player's stamina.

At 5 Dan 0 Kyu - Become either Musa or Champion

Musa's skills

Prayer Of Defense - Increase player's defense

Weaken Defense - Decrease target's defense

Champion's skills

Prayer Of Offense - Increase player's attack rate

Weaken Defense - Decrease target's defense

Hunter - Tamers Of The Wilds

At 1 Dan 0 Kyu receive

Active Skill - Howl Of Tame

Passive Skill - Hardness Of Tortoise Skill

Howl Of Tame - Tame animals.

Hardness Of Tortoise Skill - Increase player's defense.

At 5 Dan 0 Kyu become either Tracker or Ranger

Tracker's skills

Cry Of Defense - Increase player's defense or nearby allies' defense.

Cry Of Perfection - Increase player's attack rate, accuracy, dodge rate.

Ranger's skills

Doom Of Attack - Decreases target's attack rate.

Increase Perfection - Increase player's attack rate, accuracy, dodge rate.

Physician

At 1 Dan 0 Kyu receive Active Skills - Touch Of Heal, Touch Of Detoxify, Touch Of Paralysis, Touch Of Cleansing

Passive Skill - Wisdom Of Owl

Touch Of Heal - Heal player.

Touch Of Detoxify - Cure player of poison.

Touch Of Paralysis - Cure player of paralysis.

Touch Of Cleansing - Cure internal injuries of player.

Owl Of Wisdom - Increase player's defense and chi.

At 5 Dan 0 Kyu become either Surgeon or Combat Medic.

Surgeon's skills

Touch Of Protection - Increae skill defense of player.

Touch Of Wide Heal - Heal player.

Touch Of Great Cleansing - Cure player of paralysis, poison, confusion.

Touch Of Lasting Heal - Heal player over time.

Combat Medic's skill

Curse Of Protection - Decreases the taget's skill defense.

Curse Of Torment - Poison or paralyzes enemies.

Curse Of Disturbance - Heal player.

Assassin - Stealth Killer

At 1 Dan 0 Kyu receive

Active Skills - Move Of Disguise, Move Of Seek, Extortion

Passive Skills - Talon Of Hawk

Move Of Disguise - Become invisible.

Move Of Seek - See players in invisible.

Extortion - Drains a percentage of the damage deal to Player's health.

Talon Of Hawk - Increases player's accuracy and dogde rate.

At 5 Dan 0 Kyu become either Shinobi or Slayer.

Shinobi's skills

Decreased Speed ? Decreases enemies speed.

Decrease Agility ? Decreases enemies accuracy and dodge rate.

Move Of Rendering ? Invisible for a longer time.

Move Of Skill Defense ? Increase Skill Defense.

Slayer’s skills

Move Of Speed - Increases player speed.

Move Of Agility - Increase player’s accuracy and dodge rate.

Move Of Great Great Disguise - Invisible for a longer time.

Move Of Protection ? Increase defense.

Maps:

Ho-Nam:

             / Central Highlands - Great Mine

Dragon Castle - Venom Swamp - Cave of Ruin

             \ Spirit Spire 

Sa-Chun:

                               / Crimson Sky
               / Silent Valley - Crystal Summit - Deserted Temple

Southern Plains - Central Island - Mudo Island

               \ Bamboo Mountain - Stone Valley
                                 \ Tranquil Vale

Brief Description of each area

Dragon Castle - This is where everyone starts and many people usually come back here either for quests or to make a house/guild. There are wolf cubs and monsters lvl 1-7 (wolf cubs - thieves) here.

Central Highlands (referred to Mystic Hill on the website) - This is the place to venture to after training to about lvl 8 or 9. There are monsters from lvl 7-19 (black wolves-renegades.), although there is the Ancient Warrior there who is a lvl 20 monster.

Great Mine - This is the place where people go to mine, which is a lvl 50 skill. Lvl 50 monsters (Spiders) are usually around there to stalk on unsuspecting novices.

Venom Swamp - This is the place to go to after the Highlands. Monsters as well as Reindeers, Flying Lions and Snow Tigers are abundants here- you can easily train from here until lvl 30. The first Cryptic Puzzle takes place here as well.

Cave of Ruin - (Also known as Viper Swamp Cave) While most players are around the lvl 30-40 area, there are two areas for levelling. This is one of them, and there are easy monsters in the form of lvl 29 bats up to lvl 40 Great Bats. But Bloody Swordmans are probably the greatest incentive to train here.

Spirit Spire - (Also known as New Haven on the website) This is the place that determines whether you will stay in the game or not, as this is known as a grinding area. There are quite a few monsters here, including Black Leopards, Viragos and up to lvl 40 monsters in the form of a Corrupt Monk.

Southern Plains - This is where the real fighting takes place. The main attraction here are the higher level equipment, as well as PvP in terms of houses 'known as Hero Battle' and there is also a portal to the higher level areas such as Mudo Island.

Central Marketplace - The Central Marketplace is a large marketplace where players can setup shops and leave their characters to stand there so that items can be sold. Also there is a tavern and Blacksmith, as well as a player arena where single people can fight each other under controlled conditions. The Central Merketplace can be reached through any Tavern anywhere for the price of a 1000 gold.

Pets:

Only Hunters have the ability to tame pets. The two pet classifications are Combat Companions and Mounts for swift travel. What Hunters can tame depends on their level and taming ability. For example, Hunters can tame Black Wolves at 1st Dan, Grey Bears at 3rd Dan, Hawks at 4th Dan, and Tigers at 5th Dan. Besides a Horse, each class also has its own unique class mount. Only Warriors can ride Flying Lions, only Physicians can ride Snow Tigers, only Assassins can ride Great Wolves, and only Hunters can ride Reindeers. Pets also level on their own, evolving into impressive beasts as they reach higher levels. Combat pets level by fighting along side the player. How much xp the pet gains is based on the number of hits the pet makes every three minutes. Similarly, Mount-type pets level as you ride them in combat. The mount acts as "tank" (taking damage that would otherwise go to the player) and the amount of xp it gains is based on how many hit the player makes in three minutes, while mounted.

Crafting:

The crafting system in Hero Online is done by Blacksmith Jang in Dragon Castle. By strengthening your items, they become stronger and are endowed with certain stats and abilities. Each time you strengthen an item, it receives a +number next to its name. For example, an item that's been strengthened twice will have a +2 next to the name. The types of stats and abilities the item gains depends on the mineral it is strengthened with, which can be picked up from monsters and quests. Such minerals can enhance dodge rate, hit rate, maximum damage, defense, etc etc. A new item named the Sky Dragon Scale has been added to the Hero Tavern, which allows you to retrieve your weapon if the strengthening fails. However, this does add -1 to the enhancements (a +3 would go down to +2, for example).

Hot Keys:

F1 - F5: Quick Slot Switch

1 - 8: Quick Slot Use

C: Opens Character Window

I: Opens Inventory Window

B: Opens Skill Window

P: Opens Pet Window

G: Opens House Window

Q: Opens Quest Window

W: Switch Weapons

S: Pick up nearby items

Alt: Display nearby item names

V: Select nearest target

A: Attacks selected target

Enter: Start/End Chat Cursor

H: Display Hot Keys Menu

T: Pet Quick summon

Due to a new patch being installed on Wednesday, October 25 ,2006 players now have the option of switching controls on there keyboards and controlling their characters with W,A,S,D keys or other keys.

Characters

Hero Online has four characters that you can choose when creating your character. Though there is little customizability in the choice of characters, you have the option to choose your characters based on their weapon. More detailed customization is also available later on in the form of items.

The Ruthless Blade: His weapons are the one-handed sword, two-handed blade, and bow.

The Elegant Mystic: Her weapons are the spear, rod, and gauntlet.

The Piercing Eyes: Her weapons are throwing knives, one-handed swords, and two-handed blades.

The Overseer of the Sky: His weapons are the spear, axe, and rod.

Job Classes

Starting at level 1 Dan, players are allowed to choose a class. The skills that you will obtain will depend on the job you choose. At 5 Dan, players can choose a second promotion.

Physicians: Focuses mainly on status effects and healing.

Second Promotion:

Surgeon: Utilizes defensive skills to heal/protect herself and her allies.

Combat Medic: Utilizes offensive status affecting skills to break down her opponents.

Hunter: Tames monsters to be pets, which can be traded to other players. He is also excellent at crafting.

Second Promotion:

Tracker: Seems to focus more on defensive skills.

Ranger: Seems to focus more on offensive skills.

Warrior: Uses skills that boost his/her attack or defense.

Second Promotion:

Champion: Is able to boost his own attack and decrease his opponent's attack.

Musa: Is able to boost his own defense and decrease his opponent's defense.

Assassin: Employs life drain and stealth skills to defeat opponents.

Second Promotion:

Shinobi: Loves to decrease the speed and agility of her opponents.

Slayer: Loves to increase his/her own speed and agility.

External links

For more detailed information, visit:

• Hero Online official Website
• Hero Online Fanlisting & Dedication