Honor of Kings is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in which the player controls a character with unique abilities and competes to defeat
non-player characters and opponents to gain
experience points and gold. With experience points, players can unlock their characters' abilities or further augment the power of their existing abilities. The highest level that each hero can reach in the game is level 15. Each level up not only improves the attribute values of the character players control but also gives them a skill point to upgrade their skills. There is a character called "Jiang Ziya" in the game who can use his unique "Fengshen" skill to remove the level limit for himself and another character. However, after level 15, he can only improve the attribute values of the character. Gold can be used to purchase items at the shop that uniquely change specific attributes of the character. To win a game, players need to knock down the enemy's defensive structures, called turrets. Victory is achieved by destroying the opponent's base crystal, located within the enemy team's base. Specific gameplay mechanics vary depending on the game mode chosen. Experience and gold are also earned across matches and applied to player accounts. Accounts start at level 1, with level 30 being the maximum level. Upon leveling up, users receive bonus in-game awards. Leveling up also unlocks certain summoners' abilities that can be applied to every hero the summoner uses. Gold can be used for a variety of purposes, such as purchasing new heroes.
Types of damage Physical damage is the most common damage in the game and appears with damage numbers in red. Physical damage can be decreased by armor.
Magical damage appears with damage numbers in purple. Magical damage can be decreased by magical resistance.
True damage is the most powerful damage. This damage cannot be reduced by armor; it can be only decreased by damage-decrease buffs or skills. Damage numbers appear in white. Shields that block true damage are possessed by only a few characters, and show up as a yellow section on the healthbar.
Critical damage deals massive damage in crit chance (percentage %); it can be physical, magical or true damage.
Game modes Honor of Kings has a variety of game modes, with a majority of them focused on competitive matchmaking. Without a network connection, players can play the stand-alone mode. With a network connection, players can choose a variety of battle modes, in which players can either face off against each other in
player versus player matches (including 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 5v5) or participate in various
player versus environment adventure modes. In each of the player versus player modes, there are options to battle AI (computer) opponents. The AI can be set on easy, normal, or hard difficulty. Also, players can open 'rooms' where they can invite and battle a friend or recent battle teammate or opponent. There is also an option to open a 'draft room' for a 5v5 in which everybody is invited by someone else in the room.
Rift of Kings (5v5) Rift of Kings (known as Hero's Gorge in the international release) is the most commonly played game mode. This mode is used in KPL competitions, the ranked game mode using the same game map (see Ranked below). Ten players, each controlling a hero, are split into two opposing teams of five. The teams start on opposing ends of the map, with the victory conditions either being to destroy the enemy's defense turrets in order to reach and destroy the enemy nexus base. To destroy the enemy nexus base, teams must destroy defense turrets, which are situated on the three main lanes—the top "clash" lane (对抗路), the middle lane (中路), and the bottom "farm" lane (发育路)—used to reach the enemy's nexus base. Nexus bases can restore health points slowly but defense turrets cannot. Heroes are protected by minions, which are periodically sent from the team's base. Without the protection of minions, heroes can be damaged by turrets. Turrets prioritize enemy minions within their vicinity, but will immediately target enemy heroes if they attack allied heroes within the turret's range. Each player can increase their hero's level and gain coins by killing enemy minions, heroes, or wild creatures situated between lanes, a wild area known as the 'jungle' (). Some creatures in the wild area also have certain
status effects benefits ('buffs') which increase their hero's attributes. There are five kinds of buffs: blue, red, tyrant, overlord, and tempest dragon (the strongest). For example, the blue buff is used to regenerate or improve mana, a resource which many mages and assassins use. The red buff is used to decrease the moving speed of the enemies, and it also deals a few 'real damage' (i.e., it cannot be blocked by shield and defense points), which is useful for warriors and marksmen. Both types of buffs last for 80 seconds.
Ranked matchmaking (5v5) Once a player's account reaches level 6 and owns at least 5 heroes, they are able to participate in ranked matchmaking. There are a total of 7 large matchmaking tiers, namely Tough Bronze, Order of Silver, Glory of Gold, Noble Platinum, Eternal Diamond, Master Star, Super King, Peerless King, King of Glory, and Legendary King in ascending order. Each large tier is further subdivided into several smaller tiers, denoted by their respective
Roman numerals in descending order. In the Bronze and Silver tiers, there are three smaller sub-tiers each (called Bronze III–I and Silver III–I); the Gold and Platinum tiers have four sub-tiers each (called Gold IV–I and Platinum IV–I); the Diamond and Master tiers have five sub-tiers each (called Diamond V–I and Master V–I). The King tier uses a star system to determine rankings. If King players reach to 25, 50, or 100 stars, they are automatically up to Peerless King, King of Glory, or Legendary King, respectively. The Legendary King is the highest tier for players to reach. Players are able to join matchmaking either solo, or in groups of 1, 2, 3, or 5. Groups of 5 will only be matched with other groups of 5, and the same applies to groups of 3. The game's matchmaking system will match appropriate teammates and opponents according to the player's rank and win rate. However, there are segment requirements for teams to participate in qualifying. With the exception of five, the player of the highest rank cannot exceed the player of the lowest rank by more than two rank. In each ranked game, stars can be gained or lost depending on the outcome of the match. Winning the match grants the player 1 star, while losing deducts 1 star. There are 3 stars in Bronze and Silver, 4 Stars in Gold and Platinum, and 5 stars in Diamond and Master in each smaller tier. If a player wins a match and max out their stars, they will be promoted to the next smaller/larger tier; losing with no stars in a small tier will deduct more stars.
Top Match This mode is full of experts and highly technical players; participation requires a rank above Super King star one. Top Match players are not allowed to group with players of other ranks in the game. The nicknames of players are disabled and replaced by "Top Player" 1 to 10.
The Match seasons, Honor-point system and Eagle-Eye Players The Honor-point system introduces a secondary method to stars. For instance, points may be earned in every match by not disconnecting in the middle of matches. Once earned, points will automatically be used to prevent the deduction of a star once; the points will return zero after star protection. In other cases, the player could be promoted to an 'Eagle-Eye Player'—someone who checks other players' in-game performance and punishes bad behavior—by maxing out points in the Honor system and doing a few tasks. Matchmaking rankings are reset periodically, with every reset being known as a competitive 'season'. Each season lasts approximately 3–4 months, with season awards being given to players according to the highest tier achieved. Each season has two skins that need to pay for the VIP award. Season points in the season portal will grant players season tokens (used to buy chests or skin chips, only usable in a single season), free skin chest, diamonds, and other special effects. The rank achieved at the end of a season is also used to calculate the starting rank for the next season. The rank will drop depending on how many stars a player has.
Battle of Changping (3v3) The basic rules are similar to other game modes, with a total of 6 players (3 on each team). However, unlike other 5v5 game modes, there is only one lane to the enemy's base, with two wild areas to either side. Each team has two defense turrets, different from three in normal 5v5 mode. The victory conditions are the same as normal 5v5 game modes.
Mo Zi's Lane of Gear (1v1) This is a
single combat mode with only 2 players facing each other. In this mode, there is only one defense turret, and no wild area except river soul. Players only need to destroy their opponent's single turret to win.
Arcade modes In this section, there are multiple game modes containing different buffs and playing methods.
Infinite Brawl (5v5) The basic rules are similar to Valley of Kings; however, this game mode has a faster pace. The defense turret has lower health, and the minions move faster. Every hero starts at level 2 and can gain gold and levels faster. The average game time is ten minutes. Buffs are created randomly every two minutes, such as the cooling down time of abilities shortened by 40%, the damage of abilities increased by 30%, the movement of heroes increased by 150 points, or the attack speed of the turret decreased by 50%. Additional abilities include a hook, which can drag an opponent to the player's side, and invisibility, which is removed when the player fights or goes near an opponent. This game mode requires players to dynamically adjust tactics according to buffs to achieve victory.
Dreamland Clash (5v5) In this mode, the game randomizes heroes. Players can spend diamonds to reroll a new random hero, putting the unchosen one into a selection pool from which their teammates can choose. If the player leaves the spawn area, they will not be allowed to buy weapons until respawn. The arena only has one middle lane and a path that can generate healing or buffs. As time goes on, the path will collapse and there will be one main lane to fight on. The minions are slightly different as well. Some minions have a healing sign; if killed by a hero, it drops a healing prop. When a player destroys their opponent's second turret, special minions with more attacking damage are generated.
King Chess (8 players) In this mode, there are eight players in total. Each turn, players are presented with five random cards representing different heroes, for which players can pay gold to purchase the heroes and place them on their own chess board. More powerful heroes cost more gold. Each hero starts with one star, and having three same heroes grants this hero two stars. The maximum star level is three. After each player places their heroes on the board, there are fights of heroes between two players, with the defeated player losing health points. The fights take turns until the last player stands. The ranking system is similar to Ranked Matching (5v5).
Fiery Mountain Battle (5v5) This arena is circular and divided into three main lanes (top, middle, and bottom). Each player will spawn in either location A or B randomly. Each player starts with 800 initial gold, level 2, and an additional ability of fireball. Locations 1, 2, and 3 will spawn jungle creatures. Outside each lane is filled with lava which slows and damages players. Each game has a time limit of ten minutes; the first team to reach thirty kills wins immediately. The additional ability of fireball causes no damage, but has a knockback effect. This game mode has three kinds of random buffs, including 30 seconds of control-free effect, increasing movement speed, and increasing cooldown speed by 40%. The respawn time for each player is 15 seconds and the respawned player will be placed randomly within the arena.
Special modes Some are rarely appear in arcade modes, such as awakening brawl or snow racetrack. These modes are only playable on special days, such as 55 Gaming Day or during the
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Characters Players may choose between a wide variety of heroes, each with special abilities, cosmetic skins and backstories. There are a total of 125 heroes, generally classified as either Tank, Fighter, Assassin, Mage, Marksman, or Support. Some heroes originated from the mythical story of China (such as
Pangu), while others are famous people from Chinese history (such as
Guan Yu). The game also has its own heroes (such as Luban No.7) based on its original story. When controlling a character, players can listen to famous quotations that express the character's personality. Many of these are excerpted or adapted from classical poetry or popular movies. In
Arena of Valor, most Chinese characters are replaced by American and Japanese heroes, including
Batman,
The Flash, and Jinnar. The more recognizable figures that remain, like
Sun Wukong, are visually re-designed for Western audiences. Currently, there are three
Arena of Valor heroes (Allain, Ata, Butterfly) which have been transferred to the global server of
Honor of Kings, with Allain being transferred to the Chinese server as well. Additionally, Ata replaces
Zhu Bajie from the Chinese server to avoid causing offense with the portrayal of pig characters in video games. ==Development==