Suffering from very high pings for days on Honor of Kings? Get back into the game with these tips and tricks.
Ping is the blood of every online game. If you’re suffering from frequent high pings, you need to find the root cause and address it or else gaming won’t be a happy experience. In this article, we included some workarounds for network issues during mobile gaming.
Disclaimer: This article aims to guide users on how to find and address issues linked to high pings. We don’t claim that every cause and solution has been listed here. Contact your ISP if problems persist with your internet connection.
Ping, FPS, and Lag
When playing online games, stutters and freezes are likely blamed on three big words: ping, FPS, and lag, with the last being shouted often. But what do these three really mean?
Ping measures how fast a signal bounces back and forth between your device and the game server. FPS or frames per second measures how many frames a display can render in a second. The last word, lag, literally means falling behind and in gaming, a delay exists within the user’s actions and the game’s reaction.
Unfortunately, both ping and FPS can contribute to laggy gaming.
Higher or Lower Ping
Honor of Kings shows the estimated ping on the upper right corner. Focus on those numbers, often accompanied by a Wi-Fi or mobile data icon. They change color too depending on how high or low the ping is.
For HoK, you want the lowest possible ping for the smoothest performance. If it’s green, then the ping is good while yellow suggests an erratic connection. Red is a no-no because your character will freeze or stop-dance during a match.
High ping means that the device is taking so long to fetch data from the server. Low ping indicates that the data is flowing like water.
Then, how do you fix high pings? You need to find and fix the issues on your router or phone or both.
The Router
If you’re on Wi-Fi, the router is the one giving you access to the internet. The most common issue is bad connection, but here are some more culprits behind high pings and their possible workarounds:
| Factor | Reason | Possible Fixes |
| Hours of the Day | Lots of subscribers simultaneously using huge data can thin out the bandwidth. | Get a better internet plan or avoid peak hours. |
| Reception | The service is literally bad in your area. | Consider getting a different ISP. |
| Maintenance | ISP maintenance can slow down or even pause service for a time. | Switch to mobile data if you need to continue gaming during the maintenance schedule. |
| Router State | Routers can experience technical issues. | Try updating the software by contacting your ISP or have them physically replace the router with a new one. |
| Temperature | Too much heat can damage the router’s internals. | Put the router in a well-ventilated room. Get a fan to help it cool down. |
| Signal | Thick walls and distance affect wireless signals. | Play games in the same room as the router. Opt for 5.0 GHz Wi-Fi frequency if possible. |
Your router deserves some love too. Dust it often, keep it away from direct sunlight, and place it somewhere high so it can serve your devices better and longer.
Your Phone
Your phone can access the internet via Wi-Fi or mobile data. The convenience here is giving you an alternative when one fails in exchange for higher battery consumption. But either can become problematic or worse, both when you need them the most.
Here are some known phone factors that can affect ping and their possible fixes:
| Factor | Reason | Workaround |
| Wi-Fi Reception | Wi-Fi coverage has a range and your device must be within that range. | Get your phone within that range and make sure no thick walls are in-between. If the Wi-Fi icon on your phone shows full bars, the signal is excellent. |
| Mobile Signal | The strength signal of your SIM can affect the stability of mobile data. | Ensure that the signal bars are all full for the strongest mobile internet coverage. |
| Battery Level | Low power will force the phone to conserve its battery. | Charge the device. |
| Frequency | The frequency used by many devices simultaneously may slow down data speed. | If your router supports 5.0 GHz, use that for gaming. |
| ISP | ISP may encounter technical difficulties. | It’s either Wi-Fi or mobile data. If they’re the same ISP, connect to another ISP instead. |
Your Phone’s Hardware
Let’s say your ISP, router, and internet plan are all on point but your phone is a bit old. Then, there’s no more room for upgrades outside the device. You’ll need a newer handset for better connectivity.
The main reason is that most newer phones have updated hardware components, including those for Wi-Fi and mobile network. Even though they may have weaker processors, they may work better on mobile data and Wi-Fi than more powerful phones of three to five years older. Remember, the chipset dictates what wireless connections your phone can do, and newer releases are often better in this context.
There’s another possibility: graphics. If your phone is already stuffed, the resources are so thin that network management is an issue. High refresh rates, high graphics, max special effects, and more will eat out the CPU and GPU, so ping is the least of your problems.
Play games at 30 FPS on medium or low graphics to stabilize in-game performance. If the ping remains unsteady despite no issues with your ISP and devices, consider HoK’s own server having some trouble.
Check the game’s official website and social media accounts for the updates and comments from other users. It’s not uncommon for game servers to suddenly shut down, enter emergency maintenance, or encounter technical crises.
