 The Paragon Wiki Archive documents the state of City of Heroes/Villains as it existed on December 1, 2012.
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The Players' Guide to the Cities/User Interface/Help Window
The Help Window may be opened by selecting "Help" from the Menu Window.
This window provides a quick reference for almost everything in the game with topics ranging from combat to super group base construction. Select a general topic from the tabs at the top of the window. On the left side of the window you will see a list of terms that apply to that topic. Selecting any of these terms will display a more detailed explanation of the term on the right side of the window.
The contents of the Help window appear below. The text changes somewhat between Heroes and Villains, though the differences are minor. The Hero version is used in this article. Note: Much of this information is out of date. It is provided for reference purposes.
Combat
Bases
Contacts
Powers
Rewards
Social
User
Arena
PvP
Invention System
Flashback System
Ouroboros
You can reach Ouroboros via an Ouroboros Portal as long as you are level 25 or higher. You will receive the power to create Ouroboros Portals by being exposed to time travel either through completing certain missions or earning particular badges but you may enter Ouroboros via your own portals or the portals of others.
Within Ouroboros you can learn more about time travel and also use crystal pillars to Flashback to your past to replay past story arcs and other notable missions.
Flashback
Visit the Aspect of the Pillar crystals within Ouroboros to activate Flashback. All the missions available to you will be listed, grouped by level. Any story arc or mission you have already played will have a gold star in front of its name and the name will be in gold and everything else will be in white. Clicking on a name will show you the contact and the introduction to the mission. If you accept the mission you'll be taken to the Challenge Settings page. Once you've chosen your Challenge Settings the Flashback is underway! Clicking on the big crystal will always transport you to the mission contact.
Once you're in Flashback mode you can't invite anyone to your team and if team members leave the team they can't rejoin, so it's best to get any teammates invited before you set up the Flashback. While you're in Flashback mode your other contacts are unavailable to you so if you want to stock up on Inspirations, visit Mender Roebuck in Ouroboros.
Challenge Settings
You can increase the difficulty of Flashbacks and Task Forces by selecting Challenge Settings. By customizing these settings you can add a time limit, limit the number of allowed defeats, disable certain powers, weaken yourselves, strengthen the enemies, disable the Enhancements in your powers or prevent the use of Inspirations - in whatever combination you feel daring enough to try. Succeeding Challenges provides rewards (except on Flashback for single missions) depending on the settings and the level of the Story Arc or Task Force. Failing a Challenge does not end the mission, it simply forfeits the reward. At the end of the Story Arc a summary page shows you how you fared.
On the Challenge Settings page you can select the Gold, Silver or Bronze time limit (or leave the default of no limit). You can select from unlimited lives, or from zero to 5 defeats permitted during the Story Arc. You can disable Temporary Powers, Ancillary/Patron Powers, Travel Powers (which will prevent all travel-like effects including Speed Boost) or everything except for your Archetype Primary and Secondary powers. You can debuff yourself and any teammates, which will weaken your damage and make you more susceptible to enemy status effects. You can buff the enemies on mission maps, which will strengthen their damage (among other things). You can disable Enhancements, which will make all your powers perform as if you had no Enhancements slotted, including disabling any Invention Set Bonuses or similar things. Lastly, you can prevent Inspirations from being used.
Each of these categories works independently and they can all be turned on at once.
Day Jobs
About Day Jobs
Day Jobs reward your characters even when they aren't online. Day Jobs give your character additional badges, temporary powers and benefits when they log back in. They're also a great way to fill in gaps in a character's back-story and history. You can earn Day Job benefits by logging in, after logging out for a period of time, at any Day Job location.
Below is a list of some of the Day Jobs available for heroes:
| Day Job Name | Location to Logout |
| City Offical | City Hall (Atlas Park) |
| Law Enforcer | Police Station |
| Commuter | Train Stations |
| Shop Keeper | Store Lobbies |
| Intern | Portal Corp Lobbies |
| Caregiver | Hospital Lobbies |
| Professor | Inside Universities |
| Midnighter | Inside Midnighter's Club |
| Banker | Inside a Vault |
| Clubber | Pocket D |
| Fashion Designer | Tailor Lobbies |
| Mortician | Graveyards |
Each Day Job has a benefit associated with it; try out several Day Jobs to find the ones that fit your character. Explore Paragon City to uncover many more Day Jobs and the benefits they grant. You can learn more about Day Jobs by visiting the Day Job Recruiters in Atlas Park and Galaxy City.
Note: The following are the day jobs for Villains
| Day Job Name | Location to Logout |
| Demagogue | Arachnos Building (Port Oakes) |
| Arachnos Agent | Arachnos Bases |
| Pilot | Near Black Helicopters |
| Smuggler | Ferry Docks |
| Crey Employee | Crey Industries Building in Nerva |
| Painspecialist | Hospital Lobbies |
| Professor | Inside Universities |
| Midnighter | Inside Midnighter's Club |
| Thief | Inside a Vault |
| Clubber | Pocket D |
| Fashion Designer | Tailor Lobbies |
| Mortician | Graveyards |
Day Job Benefits
Day Jobs allow players to log out at a specific location, like a hospital or vault, and when they return to play they will gain a benefit of some kind. All of the benefits, other than badges and accolades, are temporary or have a finite amount of uses. However, logging out in the same area again will replenish the timer or number of uses left on a power. Most benefits take 10 days of logged out time to reach the maximum benefit from the rewards granted from Day Jobs. However, obtaining badges and accolades can not only improve the rate at which you gain additional time on your Day Job powers, but they can also increase the potency of them!
Day Job Badges
If a character is logged out (consecutively or non-consecutively) for a total of 21 days they will earn the badge associated with that Day Job. This will increase the rate at which the player gains the maximum number of uses, achieves maximum duration of the power, or it will increase the potency of the reward granted on the temporary powers awarded by Day Jobs.
Day Job Accolades
An Accolade is obtained by earning two Day Job badges that work in conjunction with one another. There are a large number of Day Job accolades to unlock which grant additional bonuses on top of those normally granted by your Day Jobs. These Accolades grant a character powers, which they can earn additional charges or usage time for, by logging off in either of the areas associated with the Accolade.
Below is a list of some, but not all, of the Day Job Accolades:
| Accolade Name | Day Job #1 | Day Job #2 |
| Police Chief | Law Enforcer | City Official |
| Security Chief | Law Enforcer | Banker |
| Scientist | Professor | Intern |
| Physician | Professor | Caregiver |
| Alchemist | Caregiver | Midnighter |
Once your character obtains a Day Job badge, check your list of Accolades for hints on what Day Jobs to earn next to earn your accolade.
Note: The following are accolades for Villains
| Accolade Name | Day Job #1 | Day Job #2 |
| Web Weaver | Arachnos Agent | Demagogue |
| Black Ops | Arachnos Agent | Thief |
| Crey Scientist | Pain Specialist | Crey Employee |
| Physician | Professor | Pain Specialist |
| Alchemist | Pain Specialist | Midnighter |
On Patrol
A character is considered to be “On Patrol” when they log out. The character will earn 1 bar of +50%% experience (when defeating enemies) for every 24 hours they are logged out. A player can earn up to 10 bars of +50%% experience this way. Periods of bonus experience are shown as a blue portion of your experience bar. One thing to note is that if a player has any experience debt, the debt will be removed first before any bonus experience is applied.
If your character has a number of bars of bonus experience that exceeds the number of experience bars you need to level up, then the +50%% experience bonus period will carry over to the next security/threat level.
Merit Rewards
Earning Merits
A character earns a number of Merit Rewards each time they complete a difficult or time consuming task. The following tasks grant Merit Rewards: Story Arcs, Task Forces, Trials, Raids and Giant Monster encounters. The number of Merits earned is relative to the average completion time for that task.
Tasks that require more man power and time will grant more Merit Rewards upon completion. Taskforces/Strikeforces and Trials grant the greatest number of Merit Rewards per hour while Story Arcs grant a lesser amount.
Merit Rewards and Tasks
Different tasks handle how they grant a player Merit Rewards differently. Taskforces, Trials and Raids offer greater rewards for the time involved to complete them, but completing the same task within 24 hours will reduce the number of Merits that the task would normally grant.
Story Arcs will award the player with Merit Rewards, but they offer significantly reduced rewards for the time involved to complete them. They, however, do not have the number of Merits awarded reduced if they’re completed multiple times within 24 hours.
Spending Merits
Merits can be exchanged for a large variety of rewards including random Taskforce and Trial recipes, random rare salvage, Single Origin enhancements and Invention Origin enhancements. Merit Reward vendors are located within each zone in a central location.
