When you first create a character in Champions Online, you start in a tutorial area that will demonstrate the basic mechanics of this excellent game engine. In this guide I will try to tersely describe some important elements of the game and describe the areas you can level in from first to twentieth level. It is meant to be a fast read and a direct guide, with some elements mentioned but not expanded upon.
Some new game play mechanisms for the genre have been introduced by Champions Online and taught in the tutorial zone. One new game mechanism is introduced in the tutorial, whereby you regain lost energy by using an ‘energy gaining’ attack power. This energy gaining power is placed in the first slot, which is also an auto-attack slot. Once you begin attacking with this power, it will continuously fire even if you use other powers. You can also configure it to be on ‘all the time’, which is not the safest setting but it can be convenient during early levels. Be sure you pickup some objects and toss them at enemies, it’s another new game mechanism that is pretty fun to do and it can be strategic in PVP by knocking adversaries from their flight. Charging powers by holding down the keys can not only increase the effect of a power, but change it’s properties as well. Blocking is achieved by holding down SHIFT and is useful both in PVE and PVP. For PVP, Blocks can be broken by adding the ‘Challenge’ power advantages to your powers.
The ‘tutorial’ as I refer to it, is the zone you begin with directly after you create your character. I won’t go through the tutorial, or describe how to play it. One noteworthy part of the tutorial is the choice at the end. Right before the tutorial zone ends, after the Ironclad cinematic, you will leave the Champions HQ and find yourself in front of two of the Champions Online heroes of lore; Witchcraft and Ravenspeaker. Depending on which one you talk to, you will be airlifted to different starting zones. Speak with Witchcraft to go to the Southwest Desert, or talk to Ravenspeaker and you will be airlifted to Canada. Once you speak with one, the other will not be available to talk to (for missions). Once you complete the mission with either hero, walk down the stairs and board the helicopter to your chosen destination.
Personally, I like the Southwest Desert and it seemed like the quests are easier with less traveling. It’s also the zone that has the mid level content. Canada has beginner level content (levels 5 – 8 or so) but then anywhere else in the zone is 25+ which means you leave the zone anyways.
As soon as you arrive in your first zone, look around for the Powerhouse and head straight for it. By this time you are done with the tutorial, you should be level 5 and eligible to receive your first travel power. The Powerhouse is where you will learn additional powers, traits, and your first travel power. Below is a pic of the Powerhouse in Millenium City, but they all look very similar.
Once you land in Southwest Desert, look around the airlift area and then head for the Powerhouse as viewed below. The area will be aggressive but you can run past them and/or hold block while doing so.
Once inside the Powerhouse, pick your travel power and another power. Right above the entrance to the powerhouse is a walkway, this is where you want to go next to acquire your missions for this area. In order to get up to the walkway, you enter via a door in the entryway/exit to the stronghold area. The entryway is shown above in the pic, dead center. Available missions are shown with large yellow exclamation marks on your minimap. Here is another closer pic, with the doorway highlighted:
For this area, you pickup some fairly easy missions, and maybe one or two that require a team. The final mission is the one that sends you into a vault to takeout your first boss villain. The area only has a few missions and is short. Before entering the vault, you will need to craft an item (for anti-radiation) and team up with others. Be sure you finished all the missions from this area before entering (and finishing) the vault assault.
After using your new antirad item and defeating the villain, you will see a cinematic and exit the vault. Coming out of the vault, you will find the shield surrounding the fortress has been lifted and you have new missions available. You should be around level 7 or so at this point. The missions in the ‘new’ fortress zone will continue to take you further away from the base, including into a haunted area north of the fortress. Once you have completed all of the fortress and surrounding area missions available (and it is large number of missions) you should be around level 10 – 12.
Important Note: Your first power training point can be spent on adding whatever power you want to your powerset, but your second time gaining a new power training point should be used to purchase the Regeneration power as explained in this post. This is an important part of leveling quickly in Champions Online. Without the innate healing power from Reneration, you will level slower and probably die too often. Other powers that mitigate damage are not a substitute for healing, although they are nice. Whichever other powers you decide on, I recommend taking some type of area effect power early on so that you can clear your way through the missions quickly, and without having the Regeneration power it is even more dangerous to use an AOE type power. The regeneration power scales as you level, and it is still important to have later.
At this point, you will need to venture to Millennium City by using the shuttle (the airplane on the pad) back at the fortress. Once in Millennium City you can collect several quests by circling the Powerhouse entrance and exploring the city proper. The missions at that level will send you west of Millennium City, near the prison and further west. These missions should allow you to reach level 15 or so. After finishing all of those quests, you now go back to Southwest Desert and look further to the northeast of the fortress on the zone map. There you will find Snake Gulch. Below is a pic of part of the Southwest Desert zone map, showing Snake Gulch. The bottom left corner city is your starting area inside the fortress:
Snake Gulch and the Project: Stein VIPER Nest area (as shown on the map with the viper flag) should allow you to reach level 16 or so. Once you reach level 16 – 18 and finish all the missions in this town, you will need to go back to Millennium City.
For Level 17-20 you can do the missions just north of Millennium City. They will send you to various spots further north and northeast of Millennium City. The area in the pic below shows a portion of the Millenium City zone map, with the city center in the bottom center of the pic.
There are NPCs on the ground along the street with the X’s that give several missions. Also note that while walking or flying around you will see a notice (simply a button, like all other interaction buttons) on the bottom center of your display. Some missions will be offered simply for being in the right area.
These missions in total should allow you to reach level 20 in Champions Online.
It’s hard to believe that Champions Online has been out for a full month now! We’re hard at work on a ton of upcoming features and content, but we thought we’d take a minute to look back on this past month, as well as give you a peek as to what’s coming up in the future of Champions. 
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