Duelyst is a f2p pixel art ccg made by Counterplay Games. The game is a mix of fire emblem/hearthstone/chess and it takes place on a 5x9 grid.
Duelyst currently has 6 different factions with 2 generals (heroes) each and each general has their own unique bloodborn spell (hero power).
The game has 3 types of cards: spells, minions and artifacts. Spells can only be played on your turn and a majority of them have unlimited range. Bloodborn spells counts as spells when used, so cards that interact with spells will trigger.
Minions can only be placed near your general or another friendly minion unless the card says otherwise, they also come into play exhausted except for minions with rush. Once exhaust is over, minions can move around and attack on the board.
Artifacts is essentially gear for your general. All Artifacts comes into play with 3 durability and gets equiped on your general. Whenever the general takes damage, your Artifacts lose 1 durability. When the durability reach 0, the Artifact is destroyed. Max equip at the same time is 3, if you try to equip more, the oldest Artifact gets replaced.
For laddering the game uses ranks and divisons. rank 30-21 is Bronze, 20-11 is Silver, 10-6 is Gold, 5-1 is Diamond and the last divison is S-rank. When you get into a new divison you can not drop back to the previous one until the reset at the end of the month.
Each day you get up to 2 quests that each give around 25-30 gold, you can also replace each quest once per day, a daily win bonus that gives you 25 gold. You gain gold for every 2 wins, 15 gold for the first 7 times (14 wins), after that it drops down to 5 gold per 2 wins. If you complete everything you gain around 180-190 gold everyday and a pack is 100 gold, so it's very generous and easy to start building up the collection.
Gameplay
Each player starts the game with their general in play. All the generals have 2 attack and 25 health and you win the game by dropping your oppenents generals health to 0. All minions and generals can move 2 steps in a line or 1 step diagonal, however they can not attack then move. Player 1 starts on the left with 2 mana and gets to go first, Player 2 starts on the right with 3 mana and goes second.
In the center of the board there is 3 mana spring tiles, each tile can only be used once. When you stand on it with a minion or general, you gain 1 extra mana until the end of the turn. Early game is all about contesting the mana spring tiles and not let your oppenent grab them for free, there is alot of scary cards that can get rushed out if a player manages to get 2 mana spring tiles on the same turn.
Bloodborn spells has a 2 turn cooldown and they start on cooldown, the cooldown goes away when you reach late game (max mana). Player 1 would be able to cast it at 4 mana, 6 mana, 8 mana and every turn after that, while for player 2 it would be 5 mana, 7 mana, 9 mana. All of the bloodborn spells costs 1 mana.
Card Collection
Each faction has 2 generals, 35 faction specific cards and there is around 120 neutral cards to pick from. Cards comes in 5 rarities: basic(unlocked from the start or leveling a faction up), common, rare, epic and legendary. Decks are 39 cards + the general so 40 in total and you can have up to 3 copies of any card in it. At the end of each month, 4 neutral cards(one of each rarity) gets added into the game.
There is a few ways to gain cards for your collection: Spirit orbs, Gauntlet, ranking rewards and crafting.
Spirit orbs is Duelysts version of a card pack, you get 5 random cards with atleast one rare, legendary drop rate is at around 1 every 4 or 5 packs. You can buy them for 100 gold each or spend real money.
Gauntlet costs 150 gold to enter. In Gauntlet you pick a faction and build a 30 card deck. You are presented with 3 cards, pick one and it gets added into your Gauntlet deck, the last card you pick is always the general. You can go up to 12 wins or 3 loses, You will always get 1 Spirit orb and some gold/spirit as a reward. At 3 wins you have more or less gone even, 7 wins gives you a Gauntlet ticket that lets you enter the next one for free. 12 wins gets you either 3 cards of random rarity, Gauntlet ticket, Spirit orb, big amount of gold/spirit or it can give you 2 cards of random rarity, Gauntlet ticket, 2 Spirit orbs and gold/spirit.
At the end of each month you gain a reward depending on what divison you are in. You get the monthly epic if you hit silver, epic and legendary for gold divison, epic, legendary and rare for diamond, all 4 for S-rank + a random legendary. You also always get gold and spirit.
You can disenchant cards that you do not want/need for spirit and use that to craft new cards. The ratio is 3 copies of the same rarity gives enough spirit for a new card of the same rarity except for epics.
Gain a headstart
You can use my in game name (king4aday) as a referral when you sign up or in the settings menu (aslong as you have not played a ranked game) and you get 100 gold for free, you can also add me as a friend and play vs me in a game to gain a free pack.
Another way to get some easy gold is to start out by doing the solo challenges + it teaches you the different mechanics and keywords of the game.
i just get gold rank in 2 days every season and then dont play till next season. i have saved up 3k gold coins but dont have good s-rank worthy decks its a rly good game i like it more than HS
On June 30 2016 00:43 ChunderBoy wrote: i just get gold rank in 2 days every season and then dont play till next season. i have saved up 3k gold coins but dont have good s-rank worthy decks its a rly good game i like it more than HS
Why don't you use the gold? its more than enough to get a S-rank deck.
On June 30 2016 00:43 ChunderBoy wrote: i just get gold rank in 2 days every season and then dont play till next season. i have saved up 3k gold coins but dont have good s-rank worthy decks its a rly good game i like it more than HS
Why don't you use the gold? its more than enough to get a S-rank deck.
waiting for the day expansions come out like HS, i dont plan on spending any money on card games
I liked the game a lot but kinda stopped playing once the patch happened to switch card draw from 2 cards to 1..... Did it turn out for the better in the end? It made the game feel a lot slower to me but I didn't really give it that much of a chance.
On July 02 2016 20:29 Liquid`Jinro wrote: I liked the game a lot but kinda stopped playing once the patch happened to switch card draw from 2 cards to 1..... Did it turn out for the better in the end? It made the game feel a lot slower to me but I didn't really give it that much of a chance.
I think the draw change made the game better, there is a lot more viable decks and cards now because of that change. I don't know how long you played after that change but the game became faster, to a point where some decks killed you within 4-5 turns.
On July 02 2016 20:29 Liquid`Jinro wrote: I liked the game a lot but kinda stopped playing once the patch happened to switch card draw from 2 cards to 1..... Did it turn out for the better in the end? It made the game feel a lot slower to me but I didn't really give it that much of a chance.
I think the draw change made the game better, there is a lot more viable decks and cards now because of that change. I don't know how long you played after that change but the game became faster, to a point where some decks killed you within 4-5 turns.
Very little, I went on a bit of a Hex binge shortly after then didn't play any games for the past couple of months because of work/training.
Maybe I'll give it another shot during my vacation.
On July 02 2016 20:29 Liquid`Jinro wrote: I liked the game a lot but kinda stopped playing once the patch happened to switch card draw from 2 cards to 1..... Did it turn out for the better in the end? It made the game feel a lot slower to me but I didn't really give it that much of a chance.
I think the draw change made the game better, there is a lot more viable decks and cards now because of that change. I don't know how long you played after that change but the game became faster, to a point where some decks killed you within 4-5 turns.
Very little, I went on a bit of a Hex binge shortly after then didn't play any games for the past couple of months because of work/training.
Maybe I'll give it another shot during my vacation.
Well, it's a pretty good time to try it again. An expansion will come soon.
Prismatic cards coming within the next 7-8 days, basically Duelysts version of shiny cards. There is also loot crates coming soon that drops new skins, emotes etc.
On October 01 2016 15:39 Capped wrote: Downloaded it but i cant get over just how copycat it feels in comparison to hearthstone, everything except the movement board is almost a 1:1 reskin.
I think the copycat stuff is actually mostly superficial things. For some reason Duelyst indeed did do a 1:1 reskin of quests, opening packs, the announcements at the start of the battle and even emotes (though I like the fact GLHF is one a lot).
I'm just struck by the many little intelligent changes they've made. Here are some:
1: You draw cards at the end of your turn. Makes a tonne of sense in a game where you have to wait for your opponent to move - you can spend their whole turn thinking about what to do.
2: The mulligan every turn. It's difficult to get across how much this reduces luck and increases skill.
3: Hero powers are actually powerful. Instead of something you use when you've got no ideal play, they are a big part of deck strategy and gameplay - and are appropriately restricted because of that.
4: The faction mechanics are wonderful. Backstab, Infiltrate, Zeal, Growth, Rebirth....these all open up so many options for play and counterplay.
5: The fact you deal damage to minions attacking you. Losing the board is bad in any game like this, as your opponent can make favorable trades against your newly summoned minions. But at least they don't also get to deal unanswered damage to your face.
TLDR: I haven't been this impressed with a game in a long time.
I probably got 6 or 7 legendaries (the cards with the orange hues?) from just opening the 20 free packs from humble bundle, but yea the game's pretty fun.
Yeah if you looked at the srank winrates vetruvian wasn't even a problem. Ephemeral didn't need to be nerfed either but the loss of 2 stats isn't as big
At least I have argeon and cassyva to deal with all the Reva bs
Started playing again (stopped roughly a month before they changed the system to drawing 1 card per turn) and boy a lot of things changed. What didn't change is that Song still gets rated as the strongest race, despite the changes to lantern fox and the more situational hero ability. Also my budget Lyo has a way better winrate than my abyssian, despite abyssian having easily 3x as much spirit invested. Their core 2, 3 and 5 drops are just all insane and cheap.
The new patch seems to have made Songhai a lot more manageable. Still enjoying this - excited to see what they have prepped for the expansion in December.
On November 07 2016 04:48 Klowney wrote: I don't think songhai is the best faction atm, but maybe it's because I run 3 copies of Nightwatcher.
Nightwatcher shouldn't bother Song much, out of my head it counters tusk boar and that's pretty much it. Inner focus should still work, which is after all the card that makes songhai as strong and bursty as it is.
Turn1 mystic had Reva as the sole highest tier deck listed before it got the mid november nerfs.
Honestly down in high silver/low gold people don't play Song much, the few songs I encountered were poor or bad or both. Then again most ppl in silver and low gold are.
On November 07 2016 04:48 Klowney wrote: I don't think songhai is the best faction atm, but maybe it's because I run 3 copies of Nightwatcher.
Nightwatcher shouldn't bother Song much, out of my head it counters tusk boar and that's pretty much it. Inner focus should still work, which is after all the card that makes songhai as strong and bursty as it is.
Turn1 mystic had Reva as the sole highest tier deck listed before the got the mid november nerfs.
Honestly down in high silver/low gold people don't play Song much, the few songs I encountered were poor or bad or both. Then again most ppl in silver and low gold are.
The decklist was different when I said that, it was beating the old Reva decklist all the time but I never tested it against the new decklist.
What deck are you running? I've always wondered how you'd construct a midrange deck to beat song. Rush and heal work both fairly well, but night watcher doesn't really fit into either. I guess he isn't terrible in Lyo-heal, but it's also so specialized that you are likely very slot limited.
I played it for a couple weeks several months ago and while the art style is not exactly my favorite, I have to admit the gameplay was fucking solid. Also there were some really difficult puzzles in solo mode that were really fun.
Pretty sure there were no hero powers at that time tho (?)
On November 29 2016 00:02 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: I just started playing this game and I'm really enjoying it! Reminds me a lot of a positional version of Magic: the Gathering, similar to FF Tactics
Why anyone (I'm looking at Square Enix in particular, of course) isn't making an FFT successor right now is beyond my understanding.
I can play other modern tactical games, there just is that flavor to FFT that's unmatched. One of my favorite games of all time. But sometimes the gaming industry just decides on its own that people don't want this type of game right now .
I found Duelyst, along with several other newer digital card games, to all be better than RNGstone. Namely Elder Scrolls Legends (didn't expect anything going in, but it's actually good), Faeria, and Eternal. Although out of those 4 I would not say Duelyst is the best. I'm leaning towards Eternal for that, although they are all solid and that's a really tough call.
There are also some other decent ones such as Hex: Shards of Fate, SolForge, and Infinity Wars, although I'm not quite as high on those. I'm probably forgetting a few others but these are the major ones that I could recall.
On November 29 2016 01:31 Fatam wrote: I found Duelyst, along with several other newer digital card games, to all be better than RNGstone. Namely Elder Scrolls Legends (didn't expect anything going in, but it's actually good), Faeria, and Eternal. Although out of those 4 I would not say Duelyst is the best. I'm leaning towards Eternal for that, although they are all solid and that's a really tough call.
There are also some other decent ones such as Hex: Shards of Fate, SolForge, and Infinity Wars, although I'm not quite as high on those. I'm probably forgetting a few others but these are the major ones that I could recall.
have u tried runescape chronicle, it's got interesting game mechanics
On November 29 2016 00:02 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: I just started playing this game and I'm really enjoying it! Reminds me a lot of a positional version of Magic: the Gathering, similar to FF Tactics
Why anyone (I'm looking at Square Enix in particular, of course) isn't making an FFT successor right now is beyond my understanding.
I can play other modern tactical games, there just is that flavor to FFT that's unmatched. One of my favorite games of all time. But sometimes the gaming industry just decides on its own that people don't want this type of game right now .
100% agree. Have you played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? It's a spin-off, and also has a sequel, FFTA2: Grimoire of the Rift. I highly recommend both.
On November 29 2016 00:02 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: I just started playing this game and I'm really enjoying it! Reminds me a lot of a positional version of Magic: the Gathering, similar to FF Tactics
Why anyone (I'm looking at Square Enix in particular, of course) isn't making an FFT successor right now is beyond my understanding.
I can play other modern tactical games, there just is that flavor to FFT that's unmatched. One of my favorite games of all time. But sometimes the gaming industry just decides on its own that people don't want this type of game right now .
100% agree. Have you played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? It's a spin-off, and also has a sequel, FFTA2: Grimoire of the Rift. I highly recommend both.
I actually played FFTA before discovering the PSX FFT when I got a PSP. I really loved FFTA but FFT was still the more memorable of the two for me. Really the perfect mix of freedom of mechanics (some jobs were so original and overpowered), story, music, graphics. A good thing I played FFT while older and FFTA younger, and not the opposite, imo. Haven't gotten to play FFTA2 though. I played Tactics Ogre too, probably the most similar non-FFT branded game.
Modern TRPG that I liked: recent Fire Emblems, Banner Saga. But always something missing in those games...
On November 29 2016 00:02 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: I just started playing this game and I'm really enjoying it! Reminds me a lot of a positional version of Magic: the Gathering, similar to FF Tactics
Why anyone (I'm looking at Square Enix in particular, of course) isn't making an FFT successor right now is beyond my understanding.
I can play other modern tactical games, there just is that flavor to FFT that's unmatched. One of my favorite games of all time. But sometimes the gaming industry just decides on its own that people don't want this type of game right now .
100% agree. Have you played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? It's a spin-off, and also has a sequel, FFTA2: Grimoire of the Rift. I highly recommend both.
I actually played FFTA before discovering the PSX FFT when I got a PSP. I really loved FFTA but FFT was still the more memorable of the two for me. Really the perfect mix of freedom of mechanics (some jobs were so original and overpowered), story, music, graphics. A good thing I played FFT while older and FFTA younger, and not the opposite, imo. Haven't gotten to play FFTA2 though. I played Tactics Ogre too, probably the most similar non-FFT branded game.
Modern TRPG that I liked: recent Fire Emblems, Banner Saga. But always something missing in those games...
I haven't played Banner Saga, but I really like the Fire Emblem games... especially the fact that ally deaths are permanent, which is a huge deal and forces me to think a bit more strategically.
On November 29 2016 01:31 Fatam wrote: I found Duelyst, along with several other newer digital card games, to all be better than RNGstone. Namely Elder Scrolls Legends (didn't expect anything going in, but it's actually good), Faeria, and Eternal. Although out of those 4 I would not say Duelyst is the best. I'm leaning towards Eternal for that, although they are all solid and that's a really tough call.
There are also some other decent ones such as Hex: Shards of Fate, SolForge, and Infinity Wars, although I'm not quite as high on those. I'm probably forgetting a few others but these are the major ones that I could recall.
Picked up Eternal because i feel it's basically MTG with Hearthsone UI and weapons. Let's see how long does the MTG nostalgia last to keep me interested
On November 29 2016 01:31 Fatam wrote: I found Duelyst, along with several other newer digital card games, to all be better than RNGstone. Namely Elder Scrolls Legends (didn't expect anything going in, but it's actually good), Faeria, and Eternal. Although out of those 4 I would not say Duelyst is the best. I'm leaning towards Eternal for that, although they are all solid and that's a really tough call.
There are also some other decent ones such as Hex: Shards of Fate, SolForge, and Infinity Wars, although I'm not quite as high on those. I'm probably forgetting a few others but these are the major ones that I could recall.
Shadowverse has seen some play recently as well. Upgrade mechanic (2vs3 of them) on cards to balance out going first and second. Seems to have pretty distinct classes and an interesting challenge system that is close to Hearthstone Arena deck drafting.
New expansion is called rise of the bloodborn and it's supposedly based around bloodborn spells. Around 40 cards from what I heard and coming out this month.
Do crates ever carry top-tier/ rare cards that otherwise couldn't be found in the game, or do crates just carry aesthetic items and pictures? Just wondering how "pay2win" the game is... Can I eventually create a top tier deck if I grind out games and quests but spend $0?
Crates only contain cosmetics like skins or emotes and prismatic cards, which is just a shiny version of a normal card. If you focus on a single faction and deck + play a decent amount, you can get an s-rank tier deck within a month depending on what deck you go for and some luck with packs.
Yeah, I wouldn't call it pay2win. The board add replace mechanic adds enough skill that you can compete in S-rank at F2P level with some grinding. Or drop 20-30 dollars and do it much faster. Particularly if you focus on a couple of factions, the grind is fine.
However, like any CCG, if you want top-tier decks for every faction, then you'd be spending a pretty high amount.
Thanks everyone! I'm still in silver but I grinded out each faction to at least level 11 and I'm staying on top of my daily quests. I don't know if it's a dick move or not, but I also just constructed a simple Abyssian Mechazor deck and I won 12 of my last 15 games super easily. Even managed to summon him on my second turn one time lol. I took Abyssian for the lasso and death spells in case an annoying enemy minion drops early, while I spam draw cards, and it's pretty easy mode when you're still bad at the game and playing against bad people who don't know how important dispel can be.
It seems like the cardinal rule to drafting well in Gauntlet, according to that guide, is to always take Dancing Blades and to always watch out for an enemy Dancing Blades. I've seen the card used a fair bit but it never really made or broke the game for me or my opponent. Why is it so good? Just because it has an OG of 3 damage if cast next to an enemy minion?
How does the expansion of Denizens of Shim'zar work alongside the original Duelyst cards? Are they completely separate decks and can't be integrated? If I buy Shim'zar orbs, can I supplement my regular deck with those new cards? Do I have a separate ladder and stats for the expansion? It seems like they all appear in my Collection Crafting options, so I'm under the impression that I can combine any cards between the regular and expansion packs.
It seems like the cardinal rule to drafting well in Gauntlet, according to that guide, is to always take Dancing Blades and to always watch out for an enemy Dancing Blades. I've seen the card used a fair bit but it never really made or broke the game for me or my opponent. Why is it so good? Just because it has an OG of 3 damage if cast next to an enemy minion?
Because its a) a common and b) you get the stats of the best-stattet 4-drop (4/6) plus a 3.dmg OG for 5 mana total. So its a super value play and thanks to being a neutral common you can expect to see that every matchup, so it's a good general rule to mind Dancing blades when positioning/summoning your minions.
How does the expansion of Denizens of Shim'zar work alongside the original Duelyst cards? you can mix and match both
Are they completely separate decks and can't be integrated? no
If I buy Shim'zar orbs, can I supplement my regular deck with those new cards? yes All factions got new goodies, some profited moar (Vetruvian) than others (vanar). So, depending on the faction(s) you play, it might be more worthwhile to buy ShimZar orbs
Do I have a separate ladder and stats for the expansion? no, its the same ladder
It seems like they all appear in my Collection Crafting options, so I'm under the impression that I can combine any cards between the regular and expansion packs. Exactly
Is there an easy way to tell in the middle of a game what faction (or neutral) a card belongs to? It comes up occasionally like that battlecry kill neutral guy, and I feel dumb because I keep looking for some kind of logo or coloring to tell me, but I'm not finding it....
It's annoying to google cards all the time mid turn.
Anyway, game is very well put together, >>>> hearthstone and the other f2p streamlined card games. I'd still rather play mtg but the grid based tactics element is definitely a lot of fun.
^The artwork is often a bit of a giveaway. But some neutrals definitely look like they belong to a faction.
I assume you mean Soboro @neutral removal?
@rise of the bloodborn A lot of the new cards are pretty broken. I guess Magmar needed a buff, but Rancor is just straight up bullshit. I don't want to have to specifically deal with a 2 mana minion with an extra card every time, no other 2 mana minion makes me.
@gauntlet guide: I don't see dancing blades that often. It's a great card, no doubt, but with the increased number of cards thanks to shamzir it's become less often and it's not straight up game winning or loosing. I assume the guide predates shamzir.
On November 29 2016 00:02 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: I just started playing this game and I'm really enjoying it! Reminds me a lot of a positional version of Magic: the Gathering, similar to FF Tactics
Why anyone (I'm looking at Square Enix in particular, of course) isn't making an FFT successor right now is beyond my understanding.
I can play other modern tactical games, there just is that flavor to FFT that's unmatched. One of my favorite games of all time. But sometimes the gaming industry just decides on its own that people don't want this type of game right now .
100% agree. Have you played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? It's a spin-off, and also has a sequel, FFTA2: Grimoire of the Rift. I highly recommend both.
I actually played FFTA before discovering the PSX FFT when I got a PSP. I really loved FFTA but FFT was still the more memorable of the two for me. Really the perfect mix of freedom of mechanics (some jobs were so original and overpowered), story, music, graphics. A good thing I played FFT while older and FFTA younger, and not the opposite, imo. Haven't gotten to play FFTA2 though. I played Tactics Ogre too, probably the most similar non-FFT branded game.
Modern TRPG that I liked: recent Fire Emblems, Banner Saga. But always something missing in those games...
I think FFTA2 is a lot worse than FFTA, but it's not a terrible game. I really loved FFTA, but didn't try out FFT (yet).
FFTA is abusive as hell btw. It's a great game when you play it casually and more and more understand what's op and why, but when you know what's op before starting the game and plan your playthrough accordingly the game gets tedious until you got your op stuff and boring afterwards. I don't think I've ever seen a game where it's that drastic.
For FFTA2 they removed the system that created the "abuse" only to implement another one that does the same again. You suddenly get the free mega-equipment-for-everyone-spot and what was a very easy game before quickly becomes a "send one character in to clear the level".
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