How to play
Easy to pick up: play monsters, attack, and bring your opponent from 20 Life to 0. Here's everything else, from the Vault Dial to ranked.
The basics
Play monsters, attack with them, and bring your opponent from 20 Life to 0.
- Decks are exactly 20 cards: up to 2 copies of a card, or 1 copy of Legendary and rarer cards.
- The first player starts with 3 cards and skips their first draw. The second player starts with 4.
- You can have up to 5 monsters in play and 10 cards in hand.
- Run out of cards and fatigue sets in: 1 damage, then 2, then 3, and so on.
- A battle that reaches 60 turns ends in a draw. It almost never happens.
Energy and the Vault Dial
Cards cost energy. At the start of each round, the Vault Dial rolls how much energy both players get, and the range climbs as the battle goes on. Next round's roll is shown in advance, so you can plan for it.
End your turn with energy left over and you keep up to 1 for your next turn.
| Round | The Dial rolls |
|---|---|
| Round 1 | 1 to 3 energy |
| Round 2 | 1 to 4 energy |
| Round 3 | 1 to 5 energy |
| Round 4 | 2 to 6 energy |
| Round 5 | 3 to 7 energy |
| Round 6 | 4 to 8 energy |
| Round 7 | 5 to 9 energy |
| Round 8 | 6 to 10 energy |
| Round 9 | 7 to 10 energy |
| Round 10 and later | 8 to 10 energy |
Monsters and fighting
A monster can attack once per turn, starting the turn after it's played. When two monsters fight, each deals damage equal to its Attack to the other, and a monster with no Health left is destroyed. You can also attack the enemy player directly, unless a monster with Guard is in the way.
Many monsters do something when they're played, when they attack or when they fall. Their keywords say how:
| Keyword | What it does |
|---|---|
| Guard | Enemies must attack this monster before anything else. |
| Charge | Can attack the turn it's played. |
| Trample | Damage beyond what destroys the defender hits the enemy player. |
| Iron Hide | Takes less damage from attacks, by the number shown. Abilities still deal full damage. |
| Burrow | When played, gains +1 Health for each other Dweller you control. |
| Lantern Lure | When played, choose an enemy monster. It must attack the lurer at the start of its next turn. |
| Frenzy | Gains +1 Attack every time it attacks and survives. |
| Feed | When played, eats your weakest other monster (tokens first) and gains a bonus. No bonus if there was nothing to eat. |
| Last Breath | Happens when the monster is destroyed. |
| Ebb | When played, returns another of your monsters to your hand, so you can play it again. |
| Rally | When played, the other monsters of its tribe get stronger. |
Surge
Each player has a Surge meter with 6 pips. It fills by 1 when one of your monsters is destroyed and by 1 each time you take damage. When it's full you can unleash your power once, and the meter empties.
Because it fills from losses, whoever is behind gets it first. Your power comes from the tribe you have most of in your deck.
| Power | Tribe | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Dig In | Cave Dwellers | Your monsters get +1/+2. |
| Mire Grasp | Swamp Brutes | Deal 4 damage to an enemy monster. |
| Stampede | War Beasts and Titans | Deal 2 damage to the enemy player, plus 1 for each monster you control. |
| Soul Drain | Wraiths | Deal 3 damage to an enemy monster and restore 3 Life. |
| Tidal Blessing | Sea Wyrms | Restore 5 Life and draw a card. |
Arenas
Every battle is fought in one of 8 arenas, and each one has a rule that bends the usual plan. The arena is shown when the battle starts and stays on screen throughout.
Ember Caldera
Every third round the caldera erupts, dealing 2 damage to every monster.
Hold back small monsters before an eruption, or bait your opponent into overcommitting.
Drowned Ruins
High tide: monsters with 2 Attack or less get +1/+1 when played.
Cheap monsters become sturdy. Flood the board early.
Storm Spire
When you end your turn, lightning strikes a random enemy monster for 1 damage, or the enemy player if they have none.
Monsters with 1 Health will not last. An empty board leaves you open to the storm.
Bone Orchard
The first time one of your monsters is destroyed each turn, a 1/1 Bone Wisp rises in its place.
Trading is rewarded. Every board keeps coming back.
Mirefen Bog
Deep mud: no monster can attack the turn it is played, even with Charge. Guard monsters get +1 Attack.
A slow, defensive battle. Guard walls hit back harder.
Crystal Hollow
Resonance: from round 5, every card costs 1 less.
Big monsters arrive early. Save your expensive cards.
Blood Colosseum
The crowd roars: when monsters fight, both deal 1 extra damage.
Every fight is bloodier. Big monsters trade down fast.
Moonlit Altar
Lunar power: Surge fills twice as fast.
Expect two or three Surge powers each. Save yours for the right moment.
Ranked battles
Ranked battles open after your first win against a computer opponent. You play a real person near your rating, live, one move at a time. If nobody is free within 15 seconds, the game offers a computer stand-in instead, always marked "(stand-in)".
- You have 75 seconds a turn. Miss 3 turns in a row and you lose the match.
- If your opponent leaves for 45 seconds, you can claim the win.
- A win pays 80 coins and a loss or draw pays 25. Leaving a match early pays nothing.
- Everyone starts at a rating of 1,000. One match moves it by up to 32 points: beat a stronger player and you gain more.
| Rank | From rating |
|---|---|
| Bronze | Start |
| Silver | 1,100 |
| Gold | 1,250 |
| Platinum | 1,400 |
| Diamond | 1,550 |
| Champion | 1,700 |
Building your collection
Decks. Build a deck card by card, or pick one or two tribes and let the deck builder make one for you, with a sensible spread of costs and at least 2 Guards.
Shards. Break spare copies down into shards, then use shards to make a standard copy of any card you're missing.
Fusion. Melt spare copies of a card into a finer frame for it. Fusion changes the look only, never the stats, and your opponents see it in ranked.
- Gilded: a glowing gold border.
- Radiant: an animated aura, and a special entrance in 3D battles.
- Prismatic: a shimmering rainbow frame.
The market. Sell spares and buy the cards you need from other players, for coins. See the pack odds for what comes out of a pack.