Getting Started

Welcome to the Heroes & Generals (H&G) getting started guide!

Heroes & Generals consists of two major parts. One part is the Heroes, a multiplayer first person shooter. The other part, Generals, is a massive multiplayer real-time strategy game. This can be a lot to absorb, so this page exists to assist in the learning curve.

The Generals part of the game requires high-ranked soldiers, so it's limited to the more experienced players. Therefore, in this tutorial, we will be focusing on the Heroes part of the game. Don’t worry though, if you follow this tutorial, you will be a General in no time!

Technical Requirements
Once you are sure your machine meets the necessary hardware/driver requirements which can be found here, you need to register an account. Registering will give you the username and password needed to log into the game. You can register by visiting this page.

Downloading
If you are logging in for the first time or if the war has recently ended, you will need to choose a war. At present, there is only one war. But when there are more players online, more wars will be available to join.

Character Interface
Once you logged in the game and chose your first soldier, you will see the main interface or "Heroes" tab which includes numerous options.



Let us go through all the numbers and buttons.


 * 1) Bulletin. The most recent game news and articles are shown here.
 * 2) Heroes tab. Here you can change your loadout, customize your soldier, buy weapons, get into a battle and many many other things.
 * 3) Generals tab. As soon as you reach Player Level 10, you will be able to open the Generals tab which includes the RTS War map. More info about War down below.
 * 4) Progression tab. In progression tab you can see on what Player Level you are on, the higher the level the more gamemodes and soldier types you unlock.
 * 5) Store tab. In the store you can purchase a lot of things such as weapons, vehicles and camouflages. bundles and many more things
 * 6) Player level. This just redirects you to the progression tab. See No.4 for some info.
 * 7) Currency. Heroes and Generals has 3 types of currencies, on the left-hand side there are the Credits, on the middle there are the Warfunds and on the right-hand side there is the Gold.
 * 8) Credits are the most common in-game currency earned through playing the FPS. With credits, you can purchase almost everything in the game - including new soldiers and veteran membership.
 * 9) Warfunds are the second type of in-game currency. It is earned and used in the War effort. You are able to earn Warfunds by playing War battles once you reach player level 10.
 * 10) Gold. This kind of currency can be purchased with real money and can be used everywhere. Also, you receive free 4 gold after finishing your first battle each day.
 * 11) Player username, Faction icon and veteran membership status.
 * 12) Player's username. No further explaination.
 * 13) Faction icon. The faction that you will join on war will be displayed here.
 * 14) Veteran membership status. Once you purchase Veteran Membership, you will see its current status. By clicking on the line, you will receive full information about your veteran membership.
 * 15) Notifications, Messages and Friends list
 * 16) Notifications. Here you will receive important notifications: weapon repair costs, battle summary, and more.
 * 17) Messages. You are able to send and receive instant private messages with online players or send and receive mail that can be received even while offline. A small number on the icon will indicate any new messages received.
 * 18) Friends list. Here you can see which of your friends are online and invite them to your squad. As well as adding new ones.
 * 19) Options. Here you find all kinds of settings and helpful links.
 * 20) Faction fliter. By clicking on one of the 3 faction images you can sort your soldiers by faction.
 * 21) The name of a soldier. You can always customize your soldier by changing his name for some Credits.
 * 22) Experience. It displays amount of experience that your soldier needs to get new rank. You can also click on the rank icon to open "ranks" window for more information.
 * 23) Equipment points. Weapons and extra ammunition take up equipment points, that means you can equip a limited amount of ammunition and guns, for Infantry the equipment points are 10, for a recon soldier its 7, but on paratroopers, fighter pilots and tank crewmen its only 6.
 * 24) Field maintenace. Field maintenace is the penalty counted in seconds which prevents the player from re-deploying instantly, the more good and deadly weapon a soldier has the more time it takes to re-deploy him.
 * 25) By pressing these buttons you can see weapons, combat badges, vehicles, camouflage and assault teams currently equipped on your character.
 * 26) List of equipment that is owned by your soldier or able to purchase.
 * 27) Equipment depot. Once you promote your soldier to General, all his equipment will be placed here. You can spread equipment among other soldiers but they have to meet the requirements of particular equipment.
 * 28) Soldier filter. You can filter your soldier list to only display one type.
 * 29) By pressing these buttons you can see weapons, combat badges, vehicles, camouflage and assault teams currently equipped on your character.
 * 30) Player's soldiers. Here you can select one of your soldiers and go to a battle.
 * 31) Weapons list. Here you can see current set up of your soldier. You can change soldier's set up by using the "drag and drop" function. Players without veteran membership have 3 slots instead of 4.
 * 32) Next unlocks and Ribbon overview
 * 33) Next unlocks. By playing the game, you will unlock a lot of stuff. The closest unlocks are shown in here.
 * 34) Ribbon overview. By clicking on the ribbon overview button you can see all of your ribbon's progressions, you can also buy and use a ribbon booster to unlock something faster.
 * 35) Soldier filter. You can filter your soldier list to only display one type.
 * 36) Badges. Here you can equip badges for better soldier performance. Players without veteran membership can equip only 1 badge instead of 2.
 * 37) Game chat. You can always chat with other players or create a specific chat room and use it with your friends.
 * 38) Squad settings. Here you can adjust your squad, like adding a new name and adding friends.
 * 39) Your squad. Here you can see some information for your squadmates and also invite some friends, full info about squadmates can be accsessed by clicking the icon No27. More information about squads.
 * 40) TO BATTLE! button. The main button which allows you to join battles.

Time to Squad Up and Go to Battle!
Looking to join a battle? Click on the TO BATTLE! button in the bottom right corner to open the Map & Filter selection.

Squads
More info on Squads and Squad Leader.

Squads in War
In war, unlike in staged battles, you have the ability to queue up for specific battles. In order to do so, you have to open the war map, look at the ongoing battles (burning cities or burning points in between cities) and discuss with your squad which one you would like to join. There are several criteria that have to be fulfilled to be able to join as well as a way to increase your chance of getting in. More information on that: Joining Specific War Battles

Game Modes
As mentioned at the beginning of Time to Squad Up and Go to Battle, you gradually unlock more game modes as you level up your Player Level. There are two categories of game modes: Staged Battles and War Battles. Both categories feature all game modes and all maps.
 * You gain progress in the player levels by increasing your score which is done by playing the action game with any kind of soldier.
 * For a more detailed look at the game modes and mechanics of the Action game view the Action Rules.

Assault

 * The lines from which the attacking team assaults vary. In war battles, this depends on connections from adjoining cities to the current city (if any), and whether Assault Teams have been sent.
 * Once a point is captured, the controlling team can spawn in a connected spawn area.
 * Certain vehicles like tanks, fighter planes and infantry support vehicles can only be spawned near an objective (e.g. 01) or an access point.
 * If the time limit (30 minutes) runs out while one team is holding one of the objectives, the game will enter sudden death. Whichever team captures all objectives first, wins the game.
 * Assaulting is generally harder than defending.
 * Every soldier type may participate if the corresponding resource, or assault team, is available.
 * Battles generally last for around 30 minutes.
 * Read more about this game mode: Assault

War Battles
War battles are set up by players. Though not everyone can set up war battles, all players with a player level of 10 or higher can join war battles.
 * To set up a war battle, players have to send their own resources (assault teams) which is done on the war map as part of the Generals portion of Heroes & Generals.
 * Only players with at least one soldier above level 12 can purchase, equip and deploy assault teams.
 * More about the Generals portion: Strategy Game

Joining Specific War Battles
Apart from letting the match-maker find you a battle, you are able to choose your own battles on the war map. In order to do so you first have to choose a faction for which you want to fight for the duration of the current war. There are several conditions that have to be fulfilled to be able to queue for a specific battle:

=How to fight=

You shoot the enemy. You capture the objective. You coordinate with your teammates. Also, don't forget to whistle.

Controls
Here are some of the more useful controls. You might want to use these in your first battle. See also Action Game Controls - a full list of game controls.

Important Controls
 * M = Map (right mouse click to zoom in/out). Use this to see where you are in relation to the objectives.
 * F = Whistle (this can be used to signal teammates when on foot). You can use this to ask a teammate in a vehicle to wait for you to board.
 * Mouse Wheel = Camera Angle / Position (used when in a vehicle)
 * B = Binoculars (requires you to have binoculars equipped) Binoculars are used by soldiers to better survey the battlefield and help spotting enemy units.

Spawning
You can spawn near any point your team has captured.

If you like to spawn as another type of a soldier (ex. tank crewman) and the desired resource is available, you can select the other soldier through your soldier list.

Assault Team Spawns:


 * {| class="wikitable"


 * Pilots spawn in a plane.
 * Paratroopers must choose a capture point as destination where their transport planes will fly to, then will spawn in the plane, and be able to jump out when it reaches the point, (or before, if needs be) unless the para planes have ran out. If the team resources have ran out of transport planes, then paratroopers will spawn the same way as regular infantry.
 * Tank Crewman can spawn in a tank near the main objectives or access point, or as a passenger in a tank driven by a friendly tanker.
 * Infantryman can spawn in Terrain Vehicles, Motorcycles and Infantry Support Vehicles.
 * Select aux.gif
 * }
 * }

General strategy for infantryman
There are different ways to play this game as infantry. As we know, infantry is the main core of an army and without it it's impossible to win whether you attack or defend. Condition - Capture: You can help your team by pushing with them or defending the last conquered point. Both actions are equally important because you can't capture the next point if you lose the previous one! If your teammates are moving forward and you stay behind camping, trying to find someone to kill, "You are not helping your team", "You are not going to get much experience, credits or points to unlock ribbons". Sometimes killing enemy soldiers is a little useful towards victory as it drains the enemy spawn tickets/lives (lives from the assault team). You do not get a lot of experience for killing soldiers (outside of a capture zone) but it does help you leveling up your gun and unlocking new guns.

Situation and Instruction: You spawn at C1 with your teammates and you have C2, C3 and C4 ahead. One guy to capture C2, the others move straight to C3. Half will guard it and the other half will fight their way to C4. This can be changed by planes and tanks, maybe easy or maybe harder. It's hard to see good team play. If you spot good players or squads, try to work with them.

You spawned at random spawn point and you see the road to the next capture point is blocked by heavy defense. Use any mean of transport to go around that defense to either get to the next capture point from behind or weaken their defense by taking out soldiers and vehicles (tanks, etc.).

=Tanks, Mines and Planes=

How to deal with Tanks

 * Tanks rear and side armor tend to be weaker than the front armor. Weapons like Anti-Tank rocket launchers and certain Anti-Tank grenades can only penetrate certain milimeters thick armor. So it is always a good idea to approach a tank from the side or rear.
 * Each tank has its own weakspots, try to get to know them and shot at their weakspots. It will guarantee a higher chance of penetration and let you destroy enemy armor more efficently.

How to deal with Planes

 * Use trees to cover your advances. Roads are easier for vehicles but good pilots will always spot you on a road
 * Get into cover when you hear the plane's engine sound getting closer
 * Use flanking manuvour to avoid being seen

=A successful career= Different Soldiers

The game has a variety of classes, which you can see in the picture below. This section covers the main roles of each class and some player-made variations that are common.

Player level

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" ! With the new Player level system you can earn quite a bit of Gold, Credits and Warfunds. For more Information: Player Level

Money Making



There are a lot of ways to earn credits in the game but the best class is usually infantry due to their flexible approach to capturing objectives and destroying vehicles.

Credits


 * If you are trying to earn credits make sure to use as few modifications as possible on your guns to make the most credits.
 * Anti-tank roles are a good way to make credits, but be careful as using anti-tank weapons ineffectively can cost you!
 * The higher rank you are the more credits you will earn, so using more experienced soldiers can help you buy equipment for your newer characters.
 * As a beginner, you primary income most likely will be from your rank salary. Rank salary is measured by the hour and earned by total time spent alive in each game.
 * Capturing objectives and getting kills will earn you more money as well.
 * Getting more credits is also based on your Score ingame ex. you can get alot of score by capturing.

If you decide to equip scopes on any of your guns keep in mind they are fairly expensive to maintain, so make each shot count

Warfunds


 * Warfunds can be earned by commanding your troops in combat on the war map (General's tab in the menu).
 * You can earn them by playing war battles and destroying high value targets such as tanks, planes and other vehicles.

Gold


 * Gold is the premium currency in Heroes and Generals and can be bought through the store.
 * Once per day, you can earn 4 gold for simply participating in a battle.
 * Sometimes gold is given during giveaways or during special events, so check you inbox!

You can read more information about ranks and salary here.

=Infantry=

Infantry is the backbone of any army and is always used in larger quantities than any other class in the game. Infantry has access to a very big variety of weapons and vehicles, so you always have different choices in terms of how you want to make that particular infantry character as you should make many of them for different roles (anti-tank, infantry sniper). You have a lot of possibilities with loadouts as well. Essentially, infantry does pretty much everything from defending objectives to attacking them, though always infantry will win the matches not any other class.

Tank crewman
Tank crewman's task is to support the infantry's advance, but a tanker's main objective always is to destroy other tanks in the battlefield and then support his team's infantry. As a tank crewman, you should always consider having a wrench with you to repair your tank and a pistol, later, on, to defend yourself from those people who want to destroy your tanks. Try to learn different tanks exports while you are in battles.

Fighter Pilot
Fighter pilots essentially have the same job as a tank crewman would have. Their main objective is to destroy enemy planes first, then provide air support for the advancing infantry. It is recommended as well to carry a wrench on your pilot. Do not be discouraged by how hard it is to learn to fly at first you really have to give it time.

Your plane has a choice of using High Explosive rounds or the Armour-piercing, composite rigid ammunition. Now, the high explosive rounds are best used for ground targets and supporting infantry, but the armour piercing are more effective against the planes and the tanks on the ground. But, don't worry, you will always have your normal Machine gun on your plane with 1000 rounds to shoot down other planes.

Controls and Throttle More in depth

Paratrooper
Paratroopers are light infantry that jumps from the transport planes to objectives to capture them and then essentially defend and move to the next objectives. Paratroopers have some special equipment depending on what faction you're playing in the game.

Recon
Recon's job in the game is to try and spot enemies for his team and hold down areas if possible with his sniper rifle and the 8x Unertl scope. As recon, remember to relocate often after killing enemies because they will try to hunt you down.

=Tips=

Overall Tips

 * Simply Enter Battle and let the fun begin! From the get-go, your Infantryman will be equipped with your chosen faction's unique semi-automatic rifle.  It can be a very powerful weapon and here are 5 Tips on how to get the most out of your Semi-Auto Weapon from Reto.Circinus.
 * Each Hero can be a different adventure. On your way, you will unlock exciting new modifications, weapons, and vehicles - each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages.  You can even develop special abilities with badges to enhance your Heroes.  The choice is yours!
 * The in-game Economy in Heroes and Generals is an important and valuable aspect of the game. Everything (except Warbonds) has been made purchasable with in-game credits so nothing is locked behind a pay-wall beyond your reach.  Keep in mind that higher ranked soldiers earn a greater base salary and that your actions in-game influence the credits you will earn as well as the credits you will use to repair your equipment.  For example, capturing objectives will earn you more credits while over-usage of explosives and modified equipment can cost you in repairs.
 * The base salary only applies when you are active in a battle. So, being AFK or unhelpful in a game is not only hurting your team, you'll be missing out on credits you could have been earning by being active and helpful to your team.
 * Pricier items are not necessarily upgrades over more affordable items. Each different item you acquire on your journey adds diversity and adaptability to your game play.
 * For more information on how to make credits, take a look at these 5 helpful tips from Reto.Circinus!
 * Just because Specialist Classes are unlocked at a higher Player Level, it does not necessarily mean they are more powerful than Infantry in every way. You will need to learn what classes are best used in what situations, how to use each class, and adjust accordingly.
 * Once you enter battle, you will only have access to the weapons currently equipped on each of the characters you entered the battle with. Therefore, it can also be beneficial in the long run to create multiple characters of the same class with different loadouts so that you are able to adjust on the fly depending on the situation.
 * Here are a few more helpful tips for Getting Started from the great Reto.Circinus.

Gameplay Tips

 * When moving from one objective to the other, it could be beneficial to avoid high-traffic areas that may have anti-vehicle mines, or may be in the sights of a tank or Recon.
 * Do not wait too long for people to get onto a single jeep. Airplanes will target Vehicles with large amounts of people!
 * The best way to get onto vehicles (even while moving at high speeds) is to Jump and spam E(or your 'Use' key) as they're passing by. With some practice, you can get into fast moving vehicles very effectively.
 * Make friends and use them. A team of six uncoordinated people with every resource can easily be beaten by a team of six coordinated people with nothing.
 * After capturing a point, avoid simply moving on to the next one. Enemies may contest your point, which can ruin your progress.
 * Become familiarized with the weapons that work well in certain situations.
 * Use combat badges that compliment your play style - don't equip a Nimble badge if you aren't sneaking up on anyone!
 * Do not throw anti-personnel grenades at tanks - it doesn't damage them, but they will be alerted to your position.
 * Swimming is a time-heavy endeavor, and can put you in risky situations. Only swim if you have to, or find another way to cross water. You can also use an amphibious vehicle to get several teammates across for a coordinated flanking effort.
 * Don't stand on top of or next to enemy tanks being targeted by friendly Airplanes or friendly Tanks, or you may be teamkilled!
 * Use transport vehicles to speed up movement of the team.
 * When using a Vehicle, add Supply Crates to help your team deal with Tanks or infantry!
 * Utilize the Bicycle, a free and common transport method. If you are deep in enemy territory, you can't spawn in a vehicle. So, take one and ride away!
 * When in any vehicle, press CTRL (or whatever key is bound for Crouching) to duck from enemy fire. Keep in mind, however, if you are in a turret you cannot fire, nor can you enter third person.


 * More tips can be found Here

Frequently Asked Questions and Other Helpful Information
For the full list of Frequently Asked Questions and other helpful information, please visit the official Heroes and Generals subforum linked here.

Heads-Up Display
Here is a link to a news post detailing the GUI/HUD

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