Honor of Kings on GameLoop: Setup, Controls, and What to Know First
Honor of Kings is made by TiMi Studio Group, a Tencent subsidiary — the same parent company that built GameLoop. That relationship matters: official emulator support, in-catalog installation, and no risk of account flags for playing on PC.
TiMi Studio Group developed Honor of Kings (王者荣耀), and GameLoop is Tencent's official PC gaming platform. Playing HoK on GameLoop is not emulator workaround territory — it is how Tencent designed the PC path for this game. The global version of Honor of Kings, which launched internationally in 2024, is available in GameLoop's Game Center catalog, installed and updated through the same channel as any other title.
This guide covers the controls setup that most new PC players miss, and the keymapping configuration that actually makes the game feel right on a mouse and keyboard.
Install
- Open GameLoop and search "Honor of Kings" in the Game Center.
- Install. GameLoop pulls the Play Store version directly — no APK needed.
- Sign in with your TiMi / TiMi ID or the account linked to your existing progress. Cross-platform sync is built in; your level, heroes, and skins transfer from mobile automatically.
- If you play on mobile without an account linked, create one before switching: Profile → Account → Link Account in the mobile app. Anonymous progress cannot transfer to a new device.
First launch downloads additional assets and may take a few minutes beyond the initial install. Let that complete before your first match.
The controls issue to fix first
Honor of Kings uses a virtual joystick for movement — a circle on the left side of the screen. As with any joystick-based game on GameLoop, the default WASD binding maps keys to raw direction inputs that the game reads as eight fixed angles. Movement snaps between cardinal and diagonal directions rather than flowing continuously. This is noticeable and will affect positioning in teamfights.
The fix is the same one used for Mobile Legends and Brawl Stars: replace the default WASD binding with a D-pad overlay.
In GameLoop's keymapping editor (keyboard icon in the side toolbar): delete the WASD movement binding. Add a D-pad element from the control palette, resize and position it over the left side of the screen where the movement joystick appears, and assign W/A/S/D to the four directions. This converts the key presses into joystick analog input rather than raw direction events. Movement becomes fluid.
Camera behavior on PC
Honor of Kings locks the camera to your hero by default. Unlike PC MOBAs such as League of Legends or Dota 2, you do not use the mouse to pan the camera during play. Your hero is always centered. The mouse in GameLoop controls your aim direction for skills that require manual targeting.
This is a significant design difference from CODM and most action games on GameLoop. Your mouse position does not rotate a camera — it sets the direction of directional skills when you activate them. For auto-aim skills and basic attacks, the game targets the nearest or most recently selected enemy automatically.
The minimap in the bottom corner is fully clickable to move the camera view. You do not need to map a separate "focus camera" key.
Keymapping
| Action | Suggested key |
|---|---|
| Move | D-pad → W/A/S/D |
| Basic attack | Left mouse button or Space |
| Skill 1 | Q |
| Skill 2 | W |
| Ultimate | E |
| Battle spell (Flash, Heal, etc.) | Shift or F |
| Recall | B |
| Buy item / open shop | B (hold, or Tab) |
| Toggle minimap camera lock | Click the minimap |
For directional skills — abilities where you draw an arrow or click a target location — the mouse sets the direction after pressing the skill key. Press Q, then move the mouse to aim, then left-click to confirm. Some players prefer to bind skills with immediate cast (smart cast): in the in-game settings, enable Quick Cast to fire skills in the direction your character is already facing without the confirmation click.
Skill cast modes
Honor of Kings has two cast modes for directional skills:
Normal cast: Press the skill key → a targeting indicator appears → click to confirm. Gives you full control over direction. Better for skill shots and AOE placement where precision matters more than speed.
Quick cast: Press the skill key → skill fires immediately in the last-moved or aimed direction. Faster execution, worse for precise placement. Best for self-targeted skills (heals, shields) or for heroes with narrow, fast-moving skill shots where hesitation costs more than misaiming.
You can set different heroes to different cast modes. Quick cast works well for assassins and dashes; normal cast suits mages with terrain-dependent AOE abilities.
Performance settings
Honor of Kings is more demanding than Clash of Clans or MLBB but lighter than CODM.
GameLoop settings: 4096 MB RAM, 60fps target. GPU emulation: Auto or OpenGL, depending on your hardware. If you see rendering artifacts (flickering character outlines, broken shadows), switch from OpenGL to DirectX 11 in GameLoop settings.
In-game graphics: Navigate to Settings → Graphics in the main menu before entering a match. Set frame rate to 60fps. For graphics quality: Medium or High on most PC hardware. Ultra/Max is available but increases loading times between matches noticeably on systems without SSDs. The visual difference between High and Ultra is most apparent in hero spell effects — if your system handles it, it is worth switching.
If you notice input lag specifically during teamfights with multiple AOE effects on screen, lower the effects quality one step. The frame rate matters more than effect fidelity in a MOBA.
What actually improves on PC
Minimap reads are better. Honor of Kings matches are fast — games run 15 to 20 minutes. Missing a rotation or failing to track the jungle is punishing. On a monitor, the minimap is larger relative to your field of view than on a phone screen, and teammate icons and enemy pings are easier to distinguish at a glance without stopping gameplay.
Skill shot aim is more consistent. Directional skills like Marco Polo's volleys or Diaochan's chain become more accurate with a mouse than with a thumb joystick. The mouse separates movement control from aim direction, which is not possible on a touchscreen.
Text communication in chat. The in-game quick-chat wheel covers most calls (push top, defend base, retreat), but when you want to coordinate a draft pick, discuss a strategy, or respond to teammates in real time, a physical keyboard is faster than the phone's on-screen keyboard.
Multitasking between matches. GameLoop runs in a window. Between matches — during champion select, during the waiting lobby — you can switch to other applications without suspending the game. On mobile, this risks a disconnect.
Common problems
Cannot find Honor of Kings in the Game Center: The game may be listed by its regional name. Search "Honor" — the catalog result shows "Honor of Kings" with the TiMi logo. If it still does not appear, check that your GameLoop region is set to match your account region in GameLoop settings.
Lag or rubber-banding during matches: Honor of Kings servers are region-locked. If you created your account in a different region from where your PC is located, you will connect to the original region's servers, incurring cross-region latency. Switch regions in the game's Settings → Account → Region menu if that option is available, or use a network tool to reduce path distance.
Skill buttons overlap in the keymapping editor: GameLoop places multiple action buttons on the right side of the screen for HoK. Resize the D-pad for movement to cover only the joystick area. Assign skill keys (Q/W/E) to smaller tap buttons over the three skill slots. If buttons overlap, the wrong action fires. Zoom into the keymapping editor to separate them precisely.
The game logs me out after a few minutes: You are signed into GameLoop's emulator with a different account than your HoK account. Open GameLoop Settings → Account and confirm which Google or TiMi account is active, then sign into Honor of Kings with the same one.
Hero auto-attacks fire without pressing anything: GameLoop has a "smart auto-attack" assist enabled by default for some game profiles. In the in-game settings, navigate to Controls → Auto Attack and set it to manual. This gives you full control over when basic attacks trigger.
Screen freezes but audio continues: This is a GPU memory issue in GameLoop. Lower the graphics quality one step and ensure GameLoop has access to at least 4096 MB of RAM in its settings. If the problem continues, switch the rendering engine from OpenGL to DirectX 11 in GameLoop's main settings panel.