Franco Abrina
Honor of Kings is a 5v5 MOBA game on mobile platforms that has actually been out for a long time, but only for a select few regions. After a really long time, the game has finally been released globally and now, everyone can play it. In this guide, we will quickly go through everything you need to know about this global launch and what to expect from the game itself!
Everything You Need to Know About Global Launch Guide
Before we get into more details, I’m going to assume that you are already familiar with the concept of a MOBA and are just wondering what distinguishes this from the many others in the market right now.
Well, I’m going to be completely honest with you, it is very similar to League of Legends / Wild Rift. If you have played either version of that game before, you are going to be incredibly comfy in Honor of Kings.
There are a few minor differences, though it is mostly your cookie cutter MOBA. Let’s start this off by talking about the map and what twists to expect with it.
Honor of Kings’ Map
Honor of Kings uses a traditional 5v5 MOBA map layout, meaning that there are three lanes and a jungle on each team’s side. The game has specific names for each lane, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll just call them the top, middle, and bottom lanes.
Each lane has three turrets, with the last one being placed in the inner part of the base. One thing somewhat unique to this game is that the outermost turret has a protection buff that lasts for the first four minutes of the match.
This protection buff greatly decreases the damage done to it by heroes. Because of this, the start of the game will mostly revolve around only last hitting minions for gold and potentially getting early kills.
Map – The Jungle
The jungle, as with other MOBAs, is where one player in the team typically spends the majority of their time in with the occasional ganks in vulnerable lanes.
Similar to League of Legends, there is a special blue and red enemy in each team’s jungle that each grant a unique set of buffs.
The blue buff gives the wielder decreased cooldown rates and faster mana regeneration throughout its duration. The red buff, on the other hand, allows you to deal bonus damage and slow down your target. The jungler will typically get both of these at the start before going for an early gank.
One unique thing about this game is that there is a special neutral minion that both the top (river sprite) and bottom (firehawk) lanes can take advantage of in the early game, as well as the jungler. These provide you with a decent chunk of gold, if you can get it before the other team does.
Jungle – River Boss Creeps
Along the river, you can find a pair of boss type creeps that will get upgraded after the 10 minute mark of the match. The following are the two creeps and their enhanced versions:
- Overlord – The overlord spawns on the upper portion of the river, and it grants a team-wide gold and EXP drop on death. Killing it will enhance your team’s minions for the next two waves.
- Tyrant – The tyrant can be found on the lower portion of the river, and killing it will grant the Tyrant’s Arrival buff to the team, as well as bonus gold and EXP. The buff grants a chain lightning effect on your normal attacks and abilities.
- Shadow Overlord – It has a similar effect as the regular overlord, but it also grants the one who deals the final blow an active ability. This allows you to spawn a Shadow Vanguard that will rush down a single lane.
- Shadow Tyrant – It has a similar effect as the regular tyrant, but the buff now has an added bonus of 10% extra movement speed, which is increased by 5% when out of combat.
Finally, a Tempest Dragon will spawn in either the tyrant or overlord camp at exactly the 20 minute mark. It grants an insanely strong buff to the team that kills it, though most matches tend to end before it shows up.
Basic Gameplay Mechanics
As with most other MOBAs out in the market right now, the laning phase basically revolves around farming minions and leveling up abilities. One key difference that you might not be used to is the ability to buy items without recalling.
Unlike some games, you can actually purchase stuff anywhere in the map, as long as you have the gold to do so. A recommended item build will automatically show up in the upper right corner of the screen whenever you can afford to buy something.
Ultimate abilities also have a much shorter cooldown than what you might be used to in other titles. Because of that, the game heavily incentivizes aggressive playstyles.
There are also various roles that certain heroes fit into. Since the meta for games like this shift around a lot over time, we won’t go into much detail there as these things can get outdated really quickly.
Generally, though, you want the solo laner at the top lane, while the marksman and support stay at the bottom lane. As to which specific characters can do these roles, that’s up to you to figure out and explore, though they are labeled accordingly.
And those are the main key differences thatsets Honor of Kings apart from the other games in the genre, with some other more advanced features unique to it as well. While you’re here, go and check out our complete guide on Diao Chan as well to start learning one of the heroes!
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