Being a superhero must be good (this does not count Spiderman). In the HERO System, you don't really worry about money, just Character points (unlike Spiderman, who worries about money, rent, bills, his job, Mary Jane, his daughter, etc. Not very heroic stuff unless you're Dan Quayle and/or Al 'Macarena' Gore). In Freedom Force, you only have to worry about three things: Prestige, Experience Points, and Character Points.

Prestige comes into play immediately when you play a campaign game -- the greater the prestige, the more heroes you can hire. In a way it works just like money, but superheroes don't use money as a medium of exchange (especially not if they're getting all that camera coverage) so the game uses Prestige instead. Character Points rank with Prestige as being the important thing in the game. Without character points, your characters do not "level-up" and thus remain a shadow of their former selves until they have the points to spend on new powers or improving old ones. However, character points cannot be gained unless a hero has enough experience. Experience points increases a hero's character points by a cumulative 600 for every 600 experience points gained.

In short, you can say the whole point system is a 1:1:1 system, but as you'll soon find out, Prestige and Character Points are not the same as Experience Points. Unless you have a hero that is really, really, really great, I suggest you stick with the game plan and tough it out like the rest of us. There is one (or two) part(s) of the game that will make use of a specifically designed hero to reap in massive amounts of Prestige. Refer to the Customization section for this little trick.

Basically, there are four different types of cannisters of residual Energy-X that have different effects when used. These are the game's main goodies. While they are not particularly well-hidden, some of the more important ones like Experience and Prestige are sometimes well hidden and are easily missed if you don't spend time scanning the whole map. Cannisters cannot be picked up and thrown, but they can be knocked back (they are also indestructable). This is useful when you see a cannister in a location one hero cannot get to (usually one who can't fly or levitate) and you have another hero who can fly. Use the flying hero to attack the cannister with a ranged attack that does knock-back to shove the cannister to the ground without destroying a building (which penalizes your prestige).

Energy-X Cannister, Purple ('Energy')
These cannisters are fairly common. When a hero uses this cannister, their energy reserves are maximized instantly, and for the duration of the power-up, their energy recovers as if they had an energy statistic of 10. This makes the possibility of using continuous overpower attacks possible on some super-villains. The effect though, is fairly short. It lasts for about five to ten seconds real time at most, so pause, issue the overpower command and watch the sparks fly -- just be sure to turn it all off before the effects run down or your hero will be left defenceless.

Energy-X Cannister, Red ('Health')
This is one of the more useful cannisters, and despite the usefulness they are quite uncommon compared to the energy cannisters -- there's never one when you need it the most. Using this cannister will restore all of a hero's health (as if he used 'Heroic Remedy') instantly. Keep an eye out for these in each stage before you stir up trouble, that way you know where to head to if one of your heroes takes a severe beating.

Energy-X Cannister, Green ('Experience' or 'XP')
A rare find. Which ever hero uses this cannister gains an additional 300 experience points once the current mission is over. This only applies to the hero that used the cannister, not anyone else (although there is a way to get around this, see the secrets section). Use it for the hero who needs that extra boost (Law and Order come to mind immediately) and who is lacking in the My-Life-as-a-Super-Hero-in-Patriot-City department.

Energy-X Cannister, Gold ('Prestige')
The rarest of them all. This cannister holds an extra 100 prestige points to be awarded to the team once the mission is over. Maybe it's the fame from turning brightly glowing radioactive cosmic isotopes to your government, but who cares how this works? Give me the prestige; I can use it to impress the news chick on Channel 4. There is a way to quadruple this rare find if you are willing to skip to the secrets.

Thrown Objects
Many objects can be picked up and thrown at baddies: cars, tree trunks, large rocks, explosive fuel drums, and giant mushrooms. Of course, your hero has to be strong enough to pick them up or it will do you now good. The intrinsic weight of each object and the strength of your hero determines what objects can be thrown and how far they can toss them. Don't worry about the carnage you wreak -- very seldom does such damage penalize your prestige. Using the stuff to defeat the badguys increases your prestige more than it costs you if you do collateral damage. Thrown objects break after repeated tosses and when they do, they break up, or in the case of volatiles, explode. When trying to pick up objects as weapons, keep in mind your hero's strength and the mass of the object in question. Strength 5 characters (El Diablo) cannot pick up many things a Strength 6 character can (Minute Man, Ant) like cars for example.

Layeth-the-Smackdown-on-your-candied-ass Objects
Some objects cannot be thrown, but they can be swung like oversized bats. If you still have that Minuteman mission running, the narrator will instruct you about it as soon as you leave the park. The damage though, is not all that great against super-villains unless your hero has the "Heavy Swinger" attribute. Objects break after repeated swinging, so be ready to switch back to using your hero's own two hands. Almost any hero can take up an object and swing it -- even the very "weak" heroes like Mentor (Strength 4).