How to play: step-by-step guide

1. The goal

Both players start with 3,000 health in standard matches (campaign bosses have more health depending on the region). The first player to reduce the opponent to zero wins. Online, an opponent can also concede, disconnect or run out of turn time repeatedly, which ends the match in your favor.

2. Starting the match and your hand

Before the first turn the deck is shuffled and each player draws 5 cards. At the start of each of your turns your hand is refilled back to 5 cards, so playing many cards never leaves you empty-handed next turn. A deck has exactly 20 cards; when it runs out, discarded cards are reshuffled.

3. Energy (mana)

Every card has an energy cost shown in its corner. The player who goes first starts with 1 energy; the second player starts with 0 and gains +1 on their first turn, so both sides have the same energy in the same round. Each turn your maximum energy grows by 1, up to a cap of 10, and refills completely. Unused energy does not carry over.

That is why the first rounds are decided by cheap cards (cost 1 and 2) and the late rounds by expensive cards and combos. A good deck runs about six cards costing 2 or less so it never stalls early.

4. Card types

• Attack: deals direct damage. Damage hits the shield first, then health.
• Defense: grants shield, which absorbs damage before health. Some defenses occupy defense slots on the board.
• Magic: healing, shield or damage effects with more flexible costs.
• Summon: powerful creatures, usually expensive, with high damage.
• Equipment: reinforcements that mix shield and damage.
• Legendary: the rarest cards; they also trigger the Finisher combo.

5. Shield and healing

Shield is your first line of protection: all incoming damage reduces shield before it touches health. Healing restores health up to your starting maximum, never above it.

6. Combos

Playing certain element sequences in the same turn triggers a combo on top of the cards' own effects. For example Fire + Air triggers Firestorm (Burns enemy for 2 turns (400 dmg/turn)), Fire + Earth triggers Volcano (+600 immediate damage and +400 shield) and Light + Shadow triggers Eclipse (500 piercing damage + recover 500 health). There are also Elemental Fusion (three cards of the same element), Blizzard (Water → Air → Water or Air → Water → Air), Counter Strike (a defense followed by an attack) and the Finisher (a Legendary closing a three-card sequence).

Only one combo triggers at a time, following the priority Finisher > Fusion > Blizzard > dual combo > Counter Strike. The in-game Codex lists every combo with exact values.

7. Sudden death

Online, long matches do not drag on: from turn 16 every damage and healing value gains +10% per turn, stacking up to 5× the original. In practice, the player ahead on health near turn 16 must play carefully, and the player behind gets a real chance to turn the game around.

8. Online turn timer

Against other players each turn lasts 30 seconds. When time runs out the turn ends automatically; timing out repeatedly counts as a loss. Before the first turn a 5-second confrontation screen shows both players and the randomly drawn battlefield.

9. Tips for beginners

• Spend as much energy as you can every turn: idle energy is lost advantage.
• Keep a defense card when the opponent has high energy and a full hand.
• Build element pairs that form combos and play them in the same turn.
• Read the battlefield rule at the start: a favored element is worth +4%.
• In the campaign, beat the early enemies of each region to learn the champion's style before facing them.