Alignment

Overview

Alignment, introduced in the Going Rogue expansion and the accompanying issue release, is the way the game distinguishes between hero, villain, and everything in between.

Alignment Missions and Morality Missions allow changes to a character's alignment; each alignment level can access Tip and Morality missions that can sway the character's alignment. Alignment Missions are accessible even to those who have not applied a Going Rogue code to their account or purchased the Alignment System "expansion" from the Paragon Market, but they cannot obtain Morality Missions to reaffirm or change their alignment. If they receive a Tip after earning ten Alignment points for a given alignment, which would normally be a Morality Mission to change or reaffirm an alignment, it will be converted to a normal Alignment Mission.

If an ineligible player teams with another player who is completing a Morality mission, that first player will not receive any progress or confirmation toward changing or affirming their alignment. It will be treated just as if they were completing any other regular mission.

Bug! Assisting in completing another character's Morality Mission before obtaining ten Alignment Points will empty out a character's Alignment Points and force them to start over at zero, while not resetting the daily Public Fame count, effectively postponing a character's alignment change or affirmation by however many points were lost.

Alignment Types

True Alignments

Heroes and villains who do not fall or redeem themselves have access only to the appropriate hero or villain zones and their alignment's Praetorian content. There is not a badge for staying hero or villain that is revoked if they ever fall or are redeemed.

Heroes who reaffirm their alignment (including City of Villains archetypes who have become hero alignment) by doing Hero Alignment Missions and Hero Morality Missions are granted access to a special lounge called Fort Trident, where they can spend Alignment Merits to purchase Invention Origin Enhancement Sets, including "Purple" sets (previously only available very rarely through defeating enemies of level 47 or above). Fort Trident has copies of most of the Signature Heroes, allowing characters to teleport to their location in the "real world" to start their Task Forces.

Likewise, villains who reaffirm their alignment (including City of Heroes archetypes of villain alignment) by doing Villain Alignment Missions and a Villain Morality Mission are granted access to a special lounge called The Crucible, where they can spend Alignment Merits and teleport to the villainous Strike Force contacts.

Due to reaffirmation requiring the completion of a Morality Mission, "True Alignment" is only available to those who have purchased Going Rogue.

Falling and Redeeming

• A hero becomes a vigilante before becoming a villain.
• A villain becomes a rogue before becoming a hero.
• Vigilantes and Rogues have access to both Paragon City and Rogue Isles zones.
• A character gets to keep their badges when switching alignment.
  • Sometimes badges will change names/descriptions to match a character's current alignment.

Praetorian Alignment

A character may start at Level 1 in Praetoria. During the course of its career, they will choose to assist The Resistance or the Loyalists. Neither the Resistance, nor the Loyalists equate to "good" or "evil", but are more a matter of "us" versus "them" than the "hero" versus "villain" which is typical through-out Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. The character will be presented with the opportunity to switch which side they fight for at key points in the story. They even have the opportunity to go "undercover"; a Praetorian can only ever go undercover for the faction they originally selected at the end of the tutorial (and so must do the tutorial if they want to go undercover).

The Resistance alignment and Loyalists alignment each have two factions within them.

Arguments can be made to compare the various factions of the two Praetorian alignments to Primal Earth alignments. Each Praetorian faction has similarities to more than one Primal alignment. The only time the game makes a distinction between them is for the Valentine's Event, which treats both of the Resistance factions as Heroes and both Loyalists factions as Villains.

The Resistance

Warden

The Wardens, while opposed to Emperor Cole, hold life to be valuable. They make every attempt to reach their goals with as little loss of life as possible. This is not to say that they will not kill, but for the Wardens it is more of a last resort.

Crusader

The Crusaders are more extreme than the Wardens. They believe in winning the fight at any cost, regardless of how many lives it costs. Many of The Crusaders are motivated by revenge, others simply see killing as a means to an end. Most of them believe that they are fighting for a good cause and do not view themselves as evil, but some of them care little about the true cause of the Resistance, and use it merely as an excuse to wreak havoc.

The Loyalists

Responsibility

Those Loyalists who follow the path of Responsibility support Cole, but do everything they can to protect the citizens of Praetoria in the process. They believe in maintaining law and order within the city, but they do not abuse their power. They tend to be selfless for the most part and represent the idea that not everyone with The Loyalists is bad.

Power

Those Loyalists who follow the path of Power support Cole and all that he stands for, however they use their positions to gain more power, prestige, fame, and fortune for themselves. Much like The Crusaders, they hold life to be of little value, especially the lives of members of The Resistance. If there is something to be gained from it, they will not hesitate to kill, and will not lose any sleep over "collateral damage".

Life After Praetoria

The moral choices made up to this point will have no impact on the character's final choice of alignment after leaving Praetoria. Regardless of whether the player followed the Wardens, Crusaders, Power, Responsibility or a combination of these, he or she will be able to choose to be either a hero or a villain.

Badges

You will not lose any badges due to alignment changes. However, certain badges will have their names changed if you choose to cross over.

Primal Earth Alignment Badges

Hero

	Ear to the Street	Complete a Hero Alignment mission
	Gallant	Complete a Hero Morality mission	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.
	Heard the Call	Maintain a Hero alignment for 7 days	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.
	Ascended	Shift alignment from Villain to Hero	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.
	Come Full Circle	Return to your original alignment of Hero	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.

Vigilante

	Streetwise	Complete a Vigilante Alignment mission
	Above the Law	Complete a Vigilante Morality mission	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.
	Fearsome	Maintain a Vigilante alignment for 7 days	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.

Villain

	Inquisitor	Complete a Villain Alignment mission
	Dastardly	Complete a Villain Morality mission	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.
	Frenzied	Maintain a Villain alignment for 7 days	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.
	Descended	Shift alignment from Hero to Villain	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.
	Come Full Circle	Return to your original alignment of Villain	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.

Rogue

	Well Informed	Complete a Rogue Alignment mission
	Scoundrel	Complete a Rogue Morality mission	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.
	Trickster	Maintain a Rogue alignment for 7 days	Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Alignment System. or Requires Going Rogue.

Praetorian Alignment Badges

Requires a VIP subscription. or Requires Create a Praetorian. or Requires Going Rogue.

	Moral High Ground	Choose Loyalist or Resistance morality five times
	Resistance Member	Choose a Resistance outcome in a moral choice mission
	Loyalist	Choose a Loyalist outcome in a moral choice mission