From City of Heroes Wiki

Overview

Con System is short for Consideration System. It is a color coded way to 'consider' how difficult it will be to defeat a particular target.

The Con System changes the color of your target's name based on its relative level as well as its rank. This is called the Con color; some may refer it as Con rank, or Con level.

Con Colors

In addition to the colors, there are in some cases small arrowheads (triangles) that appear below the target's name. These are to assist players who may have trouble distinguishing the colors.

Con Total	Color	Example	Arrows	Description
-4 or less	Dark Gray		None	An entire order of magnitude less powerful that you. Even in very large numbers enemies of this power level aren't likely to present a challenge.
-3	Light Gray		3 Down	Significantly less powerful than you. No contest.
-2	Green		2 Down	Substantially less powerful than you. Should be easy.
-1	Blue		1 Down	Less powerful than you. Can be dangerous in groups, or to non-combat-oriented characters.
0	White		None	About your same power level. Depending on your Archetype and Powers, you may be able to handle several of these at once, or you may find a single enemy a challenge.
+1	Yellow		1 Up	A bit ahead of your power level. Combat-oriented characters should engage solo with caution, avoiding them when they’re in large groups.
+2	Orange		2 Up	Substantially ahead of your power level. Only characters skilled in combat should attempt to engage solo, and then only with extreme caution.
+3	Red		3 Up	Significantly ahead of your power level. Should not be engaged one-on-one.
+4 or more	Purple		None	Far ahead of your power level. Do not engage one-on-one. Purples near your level may be successfully engaged in groups.

Rank

Rank refers to Underlings, Minions, Lieutenants, Bosses, Elite Bosses, Archvillains and Heroes, each of these has a different modifier that will change the Con color.

The Con Color is determined by subtracting the critter's level from your combat level and adding their rank.

For critters with no rank (such as pets), you can use the con color to determine their rank. Take their con color's numerical value and add the difference in your levels.

Example

Quick Reference Conning Chart

Notes

• (Giant) Monsters will always con purple to everyone no matter what level they are. This includes Monsters that are NOT spawned inside of instanced missions. All Devouring Earth Monsters in The Hive, The Abyss, Monster Island and Peregrine Island con purple to all characters.
  • An exception to this is Sally, whose level ranges from 27 to 30.
• There are 2 shades of grey for targets conning -3 and -4. However, the cutoff for rewards is between -4 and -5. You do not earn XP, Inf, or drops from defeated foes 5 or more levels below you.
• Conning errors do occur, examples:
  • Elite Bosses con the same as regular bosses, +2, even though they are much more difficult.
  • Critters spawned from Rikti Portals often have a con +1 that of normal.
  • Malta Auto Turrets con as Lieutenants, even though the Operation Engineer that put it there is a Minion.
• With the release of Issue 10, the individual Rikti spawned from Rikti World Invasion event portals are level-less. They always con at even level to the player, with modification for rank being the only difference - for example, a Guardian (minion) will con white, while a Headman Gunman (lieutenant) will con yellow (+1 level for rank) and a Vicious Rikti Monkey (underling) will con blue (-1 level for rank).