1. As soon as you spawn on the server - you will be greeted with numerous signs - basic rules / guidelines of the server, these are very important and should be read.
2. After you get out of the spawn area - you have numerous choices on what to do first.  The most obvious and best answer is to find a nice spot in the wilds and get acquainted with the server. Later you can move into a township for some more social interactions.
3. Gather coin and amass riches.  You have the option to gather coin, there are numerous ways to collect coin in Herocraft
3.1 The first and most appealing is to slay monsters.  Monsters have a set percentage to drop coin and the amount can be little to a lot.
3.2 The second way to get coin is to mine for materials to sell to other players
3.3 Do odd jobs for other players, which includes digging, protecting, creating, etc.
3.4 Mine gold ore and smelt it into bars to sell to Township banks - the rate changes from day to day or week to week depending on the economy.
3.5 View the bounty board by doing /bounty list and accept bounties, hunt down and kill players to acquire the bounty reward - it ranges from 100c to 10000c - depending on what player sets the bounty.
3.6 Take your chances at the daily lotto - it usually costs minimal amount of coin but make sure to always /lottery buy!
4. After you have amassed your riches, its now either time to join a township or to start one with friends, the choice is up to you!
5. After realizing that there are some townships that you utterly despise (or love!) you find that you must defend your areas against natural dangers or greedy players, make sure to build up enough armor/weapons to fend off a few armies.