Last Update: 4/17/07
Hero Online
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.
As of July 31st 2006, Hero Online had its official release and is no longer in beta.
Publisher: Commercial
Features
Hero 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 3 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.
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 3 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.
System Requirements
Intel Pentium III 800MHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 2GB Hard disk drive, Video 1024*768 32 bit color, Graphic card Geforce2MX or higher, Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
Downloads
Downloads for Hero Online
