How to Play HeroClix: The Basics
Necessary Vocabulary
point value
How much a HeroClix figure "costs" to put on your team.
point total
How many points each player gets to build his or her team of heroes. These are usually in 100-point increments, like 100, 200, 300, etc. You can build a team that matches the point total exactly, but you cannot exceed the point total.
action token
A marker of some kind (usually a gaming bead or die) that helps remind you which heroes have already acted.
push
Make a character act two turns in a row, which makes the character take 1 damage after other actions resolve.
team symbol
A little graphic on the back of the character's dial, which tells you what group the character is part of. Some heroes do not have team symbols.
terrain
The types of ground your heroes play on. HeroClix maps can have several different types of terrain, which affects gameplay; see Terrain section below for more.
To play, you need at least 2 six-sided dice (d6s), and a small collection of heroes. But how do you turn your collection of pieces into a team of any sort?
How to Build a Team
There is a number on every HeroClix figure's base, like 51, 35, 104, etc. This is the character's point value. Every game of HeroClix starts out with a point total, which you must build within to play. Say, if the point total of a game was 200 points; you couldn't play the 251-point Superman in that game, because he exceeds that threshold of points. You can make up a team of any type of heroes you want and nearly any point value--just make sure that all the point values of the different pieces add up to 200 or less for that game.
Gameplay
In HeroClix, you can only make a certain number of actions every turn. "Actions" include moving a hero and attacking. To figure out how many actions per turn you can do, divide the point total by 100. For instance, if you're playing a 100-point game, you can only make 1 action per turn; if you're playing a 500-point game, you can make 5 actions per turn.
When you have a character on your team act, afterwards the figure must be marked with an action token. That hero can move or attack next turn, but will be pushed if you have them do so. (Doing two attacks back to back would tire me out, too!) The exception to this is if the character has Willpower (purple on Defense), a special power that acts like Willpower, or has the Power Cosmic or Quintessence team ability--all of these prevent pushing damage.
Terrain
On most HeroClix maps, lines of differing colors show where bushes and trees are, where buildings are, etc. Just like in the movies, your heroes can fight in the middle of a city where they're all on top of buildings, or in the middle of a forest where every tree is a place to hide. These lines denote where different types of terrain are, and each type of terrain can be used to strategic advantage.
The following list shows what color lines mark which type of terrain:
- Red: Elevated terrain. You have to use a ladder or stairs to get up to it, unless you have Leap/Climb or you fly. If you're standing on the edge of elevated terrain, you can shoot and be shot by grounded characters.
- Yellow: Indoor terrain. The yellow line indicates where a building's interior walls are, so you can differentiate between blocking terrain indoors and blocking terrain outdoors.
- Green: Hindering terrain. This terrain gives +1 to a character's defense at range, and any characters with Stealth cannot be seen while on Hindering. If a grounded character moves into Hindering terrain, they automatically stop. Once in Hindering Terrain, characters can only use half their normal move value. Think of it this way--it takes a while to crawl through bushes or over desks.
- Blue: Water terrain. Characters moving through water use only half their move value (because the characters have to wade through the water rather than run)
- Brown: Blocking terrain. Blocking terrain, like walls and rocks, blocks line of sight between characters. Blocking terrain cannot be crossed indoors except by Phasing characters, but flying and Leap/Climb characters can get over it while outdoors.
- Dark Pink: Starting area. This is the place where you and your opponent put your teams at the beginning of the game. You can't put objects in your start area.