Ubisoft Montreal shipped For Honor on 14 February 2017 built around the Art of Battle, a melee system where every guard and every attack lives in one of three stances: top, left or right. The 18 mission campaign runs three chapters against Apollyon and her Blackstone Legion, and multiplayer has grown past 30 heroes split between the Knights, Vikings, Samurai, Wu Lin and Outlanders. Marching Fire added the Wu Lin in October 2018 along with Breach, the four against four castle assault mode.
Starting FOR HONOR can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
FOR HONOR is a action game built around Art of Battle three stance guard and Revenge meter. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Role
| Role | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Knights | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Vikings | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Samurai | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Wu Lin | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Outlanders | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Vikings. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Outlanders as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Art of Battle three stance guard
Guard, light attacks and heavy attacks all sit in a top, left or right stance, and an incoming attack only lands if your guard is not already covering that side. Assassins drop their guard after a moment rather than holding it, which is the trade for having a Deflect the other classes do not get.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Art of Battle three stance guard works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Citadel Gate
A Knight castle map under assault by a battering ram, split into the Gatehouse, the Battlefield and the Barracks. The three areas are very different fights, with the open middle favouring reach heroes and the interiors favouring anyone who can push others off ledges.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Kensei nodachi: it's the most accessible early upgrade. A two handed Japanese greatsword with the longest reach among the Vanguard heroes, ending its chain in an unblockable top heavy. The reach lets a Kensei punish attacks that whiff outside everyone else's range.
Step 4: Understand Revenge meter
Blocking, absorbing hits and fighting outnumbered fill a meter that, when triggered, knocks everyone around you off their feet and grants both damage resistance and extra damage. Piling four players onto one is the fastest way to hand that player a free Revenge activation and lose the fight.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Temple Garden
The Samurai map most players name as the best looking in the game, with open lanes and clean sightlines between zones. Its layout makes rotations quick, so a team that captures two zones can defend both.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Art of Battle three stance guard
Guard, light attacks and heavy attacks all sit in a top, left or right stance, and an incoming attack only lands if your guard is not already covering that side. Assassins drop their guard after a moment rather than holding it, which is the trade for having a Deflect the other classes do not get.
Revenge meter
Blocking, absorbing hits and fighting outnumbered fill a meter that, when triggered, knocks everyone around you off their feet and grants both damage resistance and extra damage. Piling four players onto one is the fastest way to hand that player a free Revenge activation and lose the fight.
Stamina and exhaustion
Attacks, dodges and guard breaks all cost stamina. Empty the bar and you move slower, stagger when you block and cannot dodge at all, which is why strong players spend a fight baiting swings rather than trading them.
Feats earned through Renown
Renown builds from kills, assists, minion clearing and zone captures, and it unlocks four tiers of Feats during a match. A tier four Feat can end a Dominion round outright, so clearing the minion lane is worth more to the scoreboard than chasing a duel across the map.
Gear stats disabled in duels
Gear stats only apply in the four against four modes. Duel, Brawl and ranked play strip them out completely, so a high reputation account has no numerical advantage over a fresh one in a one against one match.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Ganking a player whose Revenge meter is already full, which knocks the whole team down and reverses the fight
2. Switching heroes every few matches, so the fundamentals never accumulate and no punish becomes automatic
3. Chasing kills across the map in Dominion while the minion lane and zones go uncontested and Feats stay locked at tier one
4. Attacking into a block until stamina hits zero, then being staggered and killed during the recovery
5. Assuming gear stats matter in Duel, then blaming losses on equipment in a mode where all gear stats are switched off
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Art of Battle three stance guard and Revenge meter
- Choose Vikings as starting role
- Clear Citadel Gate main content
- Acquire Kensei nodachi or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Temple Garden
- Watch the opponent's guard indicator rather than their animation. The Art of Battle resolves on stance, so an attack coming from their right side is blocked by putting your guard on that side regardless of how the swing looks, and reading animations will make you late every time.
- Never commit an attack into a full Revenge meter. Activated Revenge knocks everyone around the player down, grants damage resistance and boosts their damage, so the correct answer to a teammate who has fed someone Revenge is to back off and let it expire.
Tips for New Players
- Watch the opponent's guard indicator rather than their animation. The Art of Battle resolves on stance, so an attack coming from their right side is blocked by putting your guard on that side regardless of how the swing looks, and reading animations will make you late every time.
- Never commit an attack into a full Revenge meter. Activated Revenge knocks everyone around the player down, grants damage resistance and boosts their damage, so the correct answer to a teammate who has fed someone Revenge is to back off and let it expire.
- Spend the first fifty hours on exactly one hero. For Honor has more than 30 heroes with distinct chains and punishes, and the fundamentals of guard switching, parry timing and stamina management transfer far better than a shallow knowledge of five movesets.
- Clear the minion lane in Dominion. Zone B is worth points and Renown, and Renown is what unlocks your tier three and tier four Feats. Players who ignore minions spend the whole match with tier one Feats while the opposing team is calling in artillery.
- Learn one punish per hero you fight rather than a full matchup. Knowing that a parried heavy gives you a guaranteed heavy of your own is worth more than memorising an entire chain tree, because that punish appears in every single fight.
- Fight near ledges deliberately, not accidentally. Environmental kills ignore health entirely, so heroes with a bash or a throw win fights on Citadel Gate and River Fort that they would lose on flat ground, and standing with your own back to a drop hands that same advantage away.
- Manage stamina like ammunition. Attacking into a block costs stamina and gains nothing, and an exhausted player staggers on block and cannot dodge, which is a free heavy attack for the opponent. Stop swinging at roughly a quarter bar and recover.
- Play ranked Duels to improve fastest. Gear stats are disabled in Duel and Brawl, so wins and losses reflect the mechanics you actually control rather than the equipment you happen to have equipped.
- In Breach, protect the ram rather than duelling on the walls. The attacking team only progresses while the ram advances, and a four against four fight away from the objective is a stall that always favours the defenders.
- Turn off attack indicators only after you understand them, never before. The indicator is the intended information channel, and players who hide it early to look advanced simply stop learning which stance each hero opens from.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many heroes does For Honor have?
More than 30, spread across the Knights, Vikings, Samurai, Wu Lin and Outlanders. Each hero belongs to one of four classes: Vanguard, Assassin, Heavy or Hybrid, and every Outlander released so far is a Hybrid.
Which hero should a beginner pick?
Warden, Kensei or Lawbringer. All three teach stance switching, parries and guard break punishes without relying on hero specific stance systems, and all three remain competitive at high skill levels rather than being training wheels you outgrow.
Does gear give paying players an advantage?
Not in one against one play. Gear stats apply only to the four against four modes such as Dominion and Breach; Duel, Brawl and ranked play disable them entirely, so those modes are decided purely by mechanics.
Is the single player campaign worth playing?
As a tutorial, yes. The 18 missions across three chapters follow Apollyon and the Blackstone Legion and force you through each faction's mechanics, which is a gentler introduction than being dropped into Dominion against reputation 40 players.
What is the difference between Dominion and Breach?
Dominion is a four against four zone control mode with a minion lane in the middle, played to 1000 points. Breach, added with Marching Fire in October 2018, is an attack and defend castle assault where attackers escort a battering ram and then fight through to kill the defending Commander.
More FOR HONOR Guides
- FOR HONOR FOR HONOR Overview
- FOR HONOR Best Builds
- FOR HONOR Tier List
- FOR HONOR Walkthrough
- FOR HONOR Tips & Tricks
- FOR HONOR Weapons Guide
- FOR HONOR Combat Guide
- FOR HONOR Boss Guide
- FOR HONOR Maps & Locations
- FOR HONOR Crafting Guide
- FOR HONOR Classes & Characters
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- Monster Hunter Wilds Beginner's Guide: action game with similar mechanics
