Paladins is Hi-Rez Studios' free-to-play team hero shooter, out of beta since May 2018, and it is no longer being developed. Hi-Rez halted active work on Paladins and the original SMITE on 6 February 2025 during a restructuring that cut a large share of its staff, and the game has been in maintenance mode since. Servers are still up: Steam concurrents in August 2026 average roughly 900 over a rolling 30 days with 24-hour peaks near 1,500, against an all-time high of 60,712. Balance is frozen, so any tier list from 2025 onward is still accurate.
Starting Paladins 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?
Paladins is a fps game built around Five-card loadouts capped at 15 points and Talents chosen before the match starts. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Damage: hitscan poke | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Damage: projectile burst | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Flank: dive assassin | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Front Line: shield anchor | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Support: main healer | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Damage: projectile burst. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Support: main healer 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 Five-card loadouts capped at 15 points
Each champion equips exactly five cards, and each card can be set from rank one to rank five, with the total ranks in a loadout capped at 15. Cards come in Armor, Weapon and Ability types, so a loadout is a choice about which three of your abilities you are actually committing to.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Five-card loadouts capped at 15 points works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Frog Isle
A Siege map with a raised central point and multiple approach lanes, one of the earliest maps in the game and still one of the most balanced. The side routes make it a strong Flank map without abandoning the Front Line.
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 Viktor's Assault Rifle: it's the most accessible early upgrade. A hitscan rifle with a large magazine and the most conventional first-person shooter feel on the roster. Viktor is the champion most often recommended to players coming from other shooters because nothing about the aiming is exotic.
Step 4: Understand Talents chosen before the match starts
Every champion has three Talents, picked alongside your loadout at the start of a match. Talents change an ability's behaviour rather than nudging a number, which is why the same champion plays like two different characters depending on the pick.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Stone Keep
A large Siege map with a wide open central point and long sightlines into it. Hitscan Damage champions and long-range Supports gain more here than anywhere else, and diving across the open middle usually ends badly.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Five-card loadouts capped at 15 points
Each champion equips exactly five cards, and each card can be set from rank one to rank five, with the total ranks in a loadout capped at 15. Cards come in Armor, Weapon and Ability types, so a loadout is a choice about which three of your abilities you are actually committing to.
Talents chosen before the match starts
Every champion has three Talents, picked alongside your loadout at the start of a match. Talents change an ability's behaviour rather than nudging a number, which is why the same champion plays like two different characters depending on the pick.
The in-match credit shop
You earn credits during the match and spend them on items across four categories: Defense, Utility, Healing and Damage. Each item has three ranks. Cauterize, which cuts enemy healing, is the item most matches are decided by and the one new players skip.
Four champion classes
Damage champions handle sustained output and shield breaking, Flanks dive the back line, Front Line champions hold the objective and soak, and Supports heal and debuff. A team without a Front Line loses the point, and a team without a Support loses the fight after the first trade.
Siege point-and-payload rounds
Siege runs in two phases. Both teams fight over a central capture point, then the winner escorts a payload toward the loser's spawn while the loser tries to stop it. First team to four points takes the match.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Skipping the item shop entirely, especially Cauterize, and then blaming the Support for the enemy tank not dying
2. Spreading loadout points evenly across five cards so that no card reaches a rank where it changes anything
3. Instant-locking a Flank on a team that already has two, then losing the point because nobody can hold it
4. Diving the enemy Front Line as a Flank instead of the Support, which trades your nine seconds for their two
5. Expecting new champions, balance patches or content updates; Hi-Rez ended active development on 6 February 2025
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Five-card loadouts capped at 15 points and Talents chosen before the match starts
- Choose Damage: projectile burst as starting role
- Clear Frog Isle main content
- Acquire Viktor's Assault Rifle or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Stone Keep
- Buy Cauterize by the second team fight in every single match. Anti-healing is the item that decides whether your damage sticks, and a team that skips it will out-damage the enemy all game and still lose the point.
- Concentrate your 15 loadout points into cards affecting three abilities rather than spreading one rank across five cards. A rank-one card in Paladins is close to no effect at all, so five weak cards is functionally an empty loadout.
Tips for New Players
- Buy Cauterize by the second team fight in every single match. Anti-healing is the item that decides whether your damage sticks, and a team that skips it will out-damage the enemy all game and still lose the point.
- Concentrate your 15 loadout points into cards affecting three abilities rather than spreading one rank across five cards. A rank-one card in Paladins is close to no effect at all, so five weak cards is functionally an empty loadout.
- Check the enemy Talent choices on the scoreboard during the opening ride to the point. Talents change how abilities work, so the same enemy champion can require a completely different approach between rounds.
- Ride your mount from spawn every time. Walking back after a death is the single most common reason a team loses the first capture, and the mount is free.
- Buy Wrecker against shield-heavy compositions and Haven against burst Damage. Both are cheap at rank one and the AI-adjacent habit of buying the same three items every match costs more games than aim ever does.
- As a Flank, target the enemy Support first and leave before their Front Line rotates. A Support kill wins the fight; a Front Line kill you spent nine seconds on gives the enemy team free time on the point.
- As Front Line, use a shield to break line of sight rather than to absorb chip damage. Cassie and Viktor cannot damage what they cannot see, and a shield spent on poke is a shield you do not have during the actual engage.
- Learn one champion per class rather than five in one class. Paladins locks you into a team composition at select, and a player who can only play Flank is a liability in roughly a third of games.
- Treat every guide and tier list published from February 2025 onward as current. Development stopped that month, so the balance patch you are playing on is the last one, and older guides are the ones that need checking.
- Queue during peak evening hours. With a 30-day average near 900 concurrent players on Steam, off-peak queues in some regions take noticeably longer and produce wider skill spreads in the resulting lobbies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Paladins shutting down?
No. Hi-Rez ended active development on 6 February 2025 and moved the game into maintenance mode, but the servers are still running and the game is still playable. There is no announced shutdown date. What stopped was new champions, balance patches and content updates, not the service itself.
How many people still play?
On Steam in August 2026, the 30-day average sits around 900 concurrent players with 24-hour peaks near 1,500. The all-time Steam peak was 60,712. Console populations are counted separately and are not visible on Steam charts.
Is Paladins free to play?
Yes. The base game is free with a rotating champion roster, and champions can be unlocked with in-game currency or bought as a bundle. The card system was reworked years ago to remove the pay-to-win complaints that dogged the closed beta.
How do loadouts work?
You equip five cards and distribute ranks between one and five across them, with a hard cap of 15 total ranks per loadout. Cards are Armor, Weapon or Ability type. You also pick one of three Talents at the start of each match, which changes how a specific ability behaves.
What are the game modes?
Siege is the main mode, played as a capture point followed by a payload push, first to four points. Team Deathmatch runs to 40 eliminations and Onslaught is a ticket-based fight over a central point. Ranked play uses the Siege ruleset.
More Paladins Guides
- Paladins Paladins Overview
- Paladins Best Builds
- Paladins Tier List
- Paladins Walkthrough
- Paladins Tips & Tricks
- Paladins Weapons Guide
- Paladins Combat Guide
- Paladins Boss Guide
- Paladins Maps & Locations
- Paladins Crafting Guide
- Paladins Classes & Characters
Similar Games
If you enjoy Paladins, check out these related guides:
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- Apex Legends Beginner's Guide: fps game with similar mechanics
- Rainbow Six Siege Beginner's Guide: fps game with similar mechanics
