Players in Heroes of Newerth control a single character from a third person perspective, in the world of Newerth. HoN focuses on hero control and development, and removes many of the common features of classic real time strategy games, such as base management, resource collection and single-player missions. The goal of the game is to work together in teams of five in order the take over the opposing team's base. Players gain experience over time through the elimination of enemy creeps and obtain gold over time in order to purchase new equipment. Hero characters max out at level twenty-five and are only able to carry six pieces of equipment. Defense towers are set up in the top, middle, and bottom rows of each team on the map. Players must work their way through each tower and eventually take over the base. The team who destroys the opposing team's base first wins the match. As of patch 0.3.4.0, there are currently thirty-one heroes on the Legion side, and thirty-one heroes on the Hellbourne for a total of sixty-two heroes. S2 Games has stated that one more additional hero will be added before release, and will continue to make heroes beyond release.