City of Heroes Emote List

Most people know how City of Heroes allows its players to express themselves through the game’s unrivaled character creator. Costume design is not the only outlet for expressive heroes or villains, though. City of Heroes also has an extensive series of animated emotes through which Heroes or Villains can express their distaste, surrender to a superior foe, give out scores at a costume contest, or just jam to some music.

This guide will serve as a quick reference to all the animated emotes in the game, as well as provide an overview of some of the coolest and most useful emotes on the list. To use any of the emotes in-game, simply type /em followed by one of the commands listed. Emote commands are not case sensitive.

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For all those heroes on patrol, eager to spot villainy from afar, there is the “binoculars” emote. With this command, your hero (or villain, if you’d rather search for potential prey) will pull out a large pair of binoculars and search the skyline.

For the villain eager to lure heroes into a false sense of security by hiding his (or her) true strength, there is the “cower” emote. By

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typing /em cower, your character will enter a huddle of terror, giving the impression of weakness where there is of course none to be found.

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Here’s a common situation. Say you’re out wreaking havoc with one of your villain buddies and he decides that it would be fun to knock over a bank while you’ve already got your heart set on stealing some nuclear waste from a nearby power plant. What’s a pair of villains to do? Just use the “cointoss” emote, call heads or tails, and your destiny will be decided.

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Ever get bored of waiting for a contact to show up and find yourself near water? Well, now you can use the “fishing” emote to pass the time. Simply type it in, and your character will produce a fishing pole from that magical place where his battleaxe goes when he’s not using it. Try your luck in the rivers and fountains of Paragon City, though I have to admit actually catching anything is quite rare.

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Say a particularly well-dressed female hero sprints past you and you can’t find the words to express your admiration for her incredibly well-designed costume. What’s a lonely hero to do? Well, with the “score10” emote you can let your true feelings show in a completely non-creepy or stalker-like manner! It’s a win-win, she knows you find her attractive and she knows you can count to at least 10. The cool thing about this emote is that you can replace the number 10 with any digit 1-10, so it’s useful for all sorts of occasions.

So you want to go AFK and need a subtle way of expressing the fact that you’re currently occupied elsewhere without making it too

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obvious? Lucky for you, there’s the “newspaper” emote. Simply type /em newspaper and your in-game hero or villain will produce a copy of the Paragon Times and appear to be scouring it for information about criminal or hero activity. Now you can appear interested and well-informed while you run off for a bathroom break!

Check out page 2 for the full list of emotes, including all the songs you can play on your boombox and the emotes you can use mid-air.

For those curious to experiment with the rest of the City of Heroes emotes, here is the full list of commands:

AFK, Afraid, Akimbo, Angry, AssumePositionWall, AtEase, Attack, BatSmash, BatSmashReact, BeatChest, BigLaugh, BigWave, Binoculars, Boombox, Bow, Bowdown, Burp, BuzzOff, Camera, Cellphone, Champion, Cheer, Clap, Clipboard, Coin, CoinToss, Cower, CrossArms, Crouch, CurseYou, Dance, Dice, Disagree, DontAttack, Drat, DropBoombox, Drum, DrumDance, DrumLow.

ELaugh, ElegantBow, EvilLaugh, Explain, FancyBow, Fear, Fishing, Flashlight, Flex, Flex1, Flex2, Flex3, FlexA, FlexB, FlexC, FlipCoin, FlippingCoin, FloatBooks, Frustrated, GoAway, Grief, Hand, Handsup, Hi, HoldTorch, Howl, Huh, JumpingJacks, Kata, Kneel, Laptop, Laugh, Laugh2, LaughToo, Lecture, Ledgesit, Lotus, MartialArts, MilitarySalute, Muahahaha, Newspaper, No, Nod, Noooo, OverHere, Panhandle, Paper, PeerIn, Point, Praise, Protest.

RaiseHand, Researchm ResearchLow, Roar, Rock, RollDice, Rooting, Salute, Scared, Scissors, Score1, Score10, Score2, Score3, Score4, Score5, Score6, Score7, Score8, Score9, Shucks, Sit, Slap, SlapReact, Slash, SlashThroat, Smack, SmackYou, Sorry, Stop, Surrender, Talk, TalkToHand, Tarzan, Taunt, Taunt1, Taunt2,, TauntA, TauntB, Thanks, ThankYou, TheWave, ThreatHand, Thumbsup.

Victory, VillainLaugh, VillainousLaugh, Waiting, WallLean, Wave, WaveFist, Welcome, What, Whistle, Wings, Winner, Wounded, Yata, YataYata, Yes, Yoga, YoureWelcome.

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BB, BBAltitude, BBBeat, BBCatchMe, BBDance, BBDiscoFreak, BBDogWalk, BBElectroVibe, BBHeavyDude, BBInfoOverload, BBJumpy, BBKickIt, BBLooker, BBMeaty, BBMoveOn, BBNotorious, BBPeace, BBQuickie, BBRaver, BBShuffle, BBSpaz, BBTechnoid, BBVenus, BBWahWah, BBWindItUp, and BBYellow.

Finally, there are the flying emotes. These commands should be used while your hero or villain is hovering above the ground:

FlyPose1, FlyPose2, FlyPose3, and FlyPose4.

And that’s all of them! I recommend trying most of them out at least once and then adding a few favorites to your crime-fighting (or perpetrating) repertoire. Most City of Heroes Veterans will tell you that expert use of animated emotes can really add a whole different dimension to the game. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the skies above Paragon City.