Hi guys, I've just started playing this amazing game. It is kinda like MTG and WoW:TCG, but fast paced. Is FREE and you can earn every card on the game by winning gold defeating other players or the IA, with not paying a single dollar. There are a lot of strategies, and the activity is huge, lots of tournaments, strategies discussions, balance discussions, etc.

You can play online, by creating a room or using matchmaking system, that usually takes 2-3 seconds to get a game from your level. Activity is really high.
Also, you can earn Shadow Crystals to buy boost packs or pre-builded decks.

The best thing is, that you can play it on PC, in iOS or Android plataforms, with the same account. I really liked that stuff.

1.- Getting Started
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1. Choose Your (First) Platform

Shadow Era is free to play and available on a wide variety of platforms, so you can seamlessly switch between them with a single player account. For this reason, it doesn't matter which platform you choose to start off with, so you might as well pick whichever is most convenient for you right now:

Web browser
iPhone/iPad/iPod
Android
PC
Mac
My personal favourite is the iPad version because the game looks gorgeous and the user interface is very slick, but I have also used the Mac application and the web browser version on Chrome and Firefox.

2. Choose an Email Address and Password

This is pretty self-explanatory, but I'll offer some advice anyway.
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3. Choose Your (First) HerO
You are now presented with ten Hero cards to choose from (there are 20 Heroes in total). You can flick through them by clicking on the cards to the side of the central one.
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The Hero you choose here will depend on a few factors:

If you are planning to buy or earn some in-game currency right away, the Hero you choose now will have little significance, since you will soon collect all of them with minimal effort/expenditure. Just pick whoever you like the look of.

If you are undecided about the game for now, and you are not sure if you will be expanding your collection quickly, I recommend picking Eladwen Frostmire or Boris Skullcrusher.

Note: You can only get Human Hero decks when signing up. Shadow Hero starter decks can only be obtained later.

4. Become Familiar With Your Deck
Each game you play will involve you and your deck of cards, which you build from your collection. Before each game, you are free to make whatever deck changes you want, providing you have the required cards in your collection. Let's see how this works now.

From the world map screen, which should currently be in front of you, toggle the main menu with the icon at the top middle position, and choose DECK.

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You will now see the Deck Builder, where you can click on each card in your current deck (the one that came free when you signed up) to see it more closely.

If you have played Magic: The Gathering or World of Warcraft TCG before, the card meanings should be relatively intuitive to you. If you've played any other collectable card games before, the cards should still make some kind of sense to you.

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2.- Classes
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Warrior

Mage

Hunter

Priest

Rogue

Wulven

Elemental

The Warrior, Mage and Hunter classes are available to both Humans and Shadow. The Priest and Rogue are only Human classes, while Elemental and Wulven are only shadow classes. Below you can view those icons and which class each represents.

3.- Learn the fundamentals
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- List of Abilities, conditions and basics
- Shadow Era FAQ
- Shadow Era Dictionary

4.-Updated Heroe Guides for new players.
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Amber Rain + Show Spoiler +

LINK

Boris Skullcrusher + Show Spoiler +

LINK

Eladwen Frostmire + Show Spoiler +

LINK

Nishaven + Show Spoiler +

LINK

Gwenneth Truesight + Show Spoiler +

LINK

Victor + Show Spoiler +

LINK

Jericho Spellbane+ Show Spoiler +

LINK

Zhanna Mist + Show Spoiler +

LINK

WTF is..

If you really like TCG's, you should give it a try.

WEB: http://www.shadowera.com/
FORUM: http://www.shadowera.com/forum.php

Soleone

Canada80 Posts

February 20 2012 18:48 GMT

that game looks really good! i remember checking it out like a year or so ago, but it has come a long way since then it seems! if they even gonna print the cards and have $140,000 in funding for that then it must be pretty solid. i'm definitely gonna look into this more.

RoosterSamurai

Japan2108 Posts

February 20 2012 21:18 GMT

I'll give it a try. Recently got out of MTGO, so playing something free will help me with TCG withdrawal.

OoFuzer

Chile436 Posts

February 22 2012 00:06 GMT

1.5 patch is incoming with new cards and balance!

Project Psycho

United Kingdom329 Posts

February 22 2012 00:23 GMT

lets be honest here nothings going to be better than MTG, there is only so many things you can do with TCG's and MTG has done it all already, over and over again.

Wesso

Netherlands1245 Posts

February 22 2012 00:35 GMT

On Feb 22 2012 01:23<span style='color:#d20000'> (11 min)</span> Project Psycho wrote:
lets be honest here nothings going to be better than MTG, there is only so many things you can do with TCG's and MTG has done it all already, over and over again.

I agree in most aspects, but I do think MTG made a design mistake in including lands, and that the "mana" system of this game (and duel masters) is superior. Lands make for mana flood and screw, which aren't fun for anybody. MTG is still by far the best TCG don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan.

OoFuzer

Chile436 Posts

February 25 2012 03:35 GMT

anyone played it?

RoosterSamurai

Japan2108 Posts

February 25 2012 04:23 GMT

I've played it and got to level 6 but deck building is incredibly slow and I'm not about to spend any money on this.

Solbard

Norway18 Posts

February 25 2012 04:27 GMT

Have played it quite a bit. Mostly on iPad, but some on the phone as well. It's a quite good TCG, and a lot cheaper than MTG.

It's also managed to stay relatively complex strategically while having immensely reduced the amount of needed touches and touch precision needed to play it, compared to for example MTG. Thus it is very playable on even a comparatively tiny phone screen.

If you like TCGs I highly recommend checking it out. After all, it's free as long as you're not in a hurry to get extra cards. If you're curious TotalBiscuit did a "WTF is..." on it a while back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbh0kWHg1H0

Absurd Bunny

168 Posts

February 25 2012 05:50 GMT

#10

I have 2 questions, by the way this game is really fun.
1. What is the gold used for, can it buy booster packs too?
2. How can you get all the cards for free without using real money?

OoFuzer

Chile436 Posts

February 25 2012 07:08 GMT

#11

On February 25 2012 14:50 Absurd Bunny wrote:
I have 2 questions, by the way this game is really fun.
1. What is the gold used for, can it buy booster packs too?
2. How can you get all the cards for free without using real money?

Go to Merchant, and then click on "buy" tab. There you will see all available cards, and you can buy them with gold.
Also, you can get Shadow Crystal by doing offers for free!

I extremly recommend to NOT buy boosters. Use your Shadow Crystal to buy ELEMENTAL decks, and then sell it all for gold. You can get ~1800 gold, and with that buy good uncommon cards for your deck.

Erzz

Canada184 Posts

February 27 2012 23:05 GMT

#12

On February 25 2012 13:23 RoosterSamurai wrote:
I've played it and got to level 6 but deck building is incredibly slow and I'm not about to spend any money on this.

On the PC at least you can drag and drop cards from your collection into the deck, rather than clicking the card then clicking add. It doesn't take very long at all doing it this way.

Zeke50100

United States2220 Posts

February 29 2012 23:32 GMT

#13

On February 28 2012 08:05 Erzz wrote:

Show nested quote +

On the PC at least you can drag and drop cards from your collection into the deck, rather than clicking the card then clicking add. It doesn't take very long at all doing it this way.

I started going insane whenever I accidentally hit "Clear" because all 30 of my cards would just disappear (currently just grinding against the AI for Gold and Crystals, since offers aren't working for me), until I made the magical discovery that you can just drag cards by holding them. Not quite as good as Dueling Network's system, but good enough.

I went the nubzy way and started out with the two mages (started with whoever the human mage is, then picked up the Shadow Mage starter deck).

OoFuzer

Chile436 Posts

February 29 2012 23:55 GMT

#14

you are from USA, log in using PC and do the Netflix offer. 1100 shadow crystals for free.

Pufftrees

2449 Posts

March 03 2012 00:55 GMT

#15

Man this is a nice suprise, extremely fun and a great gaming interface. Good for people looking for a nice strategy game.

Pufftrees

2449 Posts

March 04 2012 07:08 GMT

#16

Been playing this all weekend, very addicting. Perfect for people trying to get away from Magic the Gathering or those who just don't want to shell out lots of money on cards.

You can download the PC version for free, the games are INSTANT queue. Very balanced, if you think you are good strategy card game... come test your wits.