New Player Guide - Getting Started

Welcome to Duelyst!

If you’ve played a collectible card game or turn-based strategy game before, getting started in Duelyst should come naturally.

However, we know gamers come from all different game genres and backgrounds, so we're here to teach you the basics!

Your primary objective is simple: Reduce the enemy General's health to zero.

Do this while preserving the health of your own General - fight using a deck of powerful spells, mighty artifacts, and an army of deadly minions!

Card Types

There are three types of cards you can acquire in Duelyst

Minions are creatures that can be summoned on the battlefield to attack your enemies. Summon an army to contest the board and assert your dominance over the enemy.

Spells are immediate one-time effects that include enchanting your minions, dealing damage, or drawing cards. Spells are uniquely tied to their Faction and they’re critical to victory.

Artifacts are powerful items that your General can equip on the battlefield. You can equip up to 3 Artifacts at a time, each providing special utility or firepower to your General.

Card Anatomy

All cards come with a Mana Cost, found in the blue hexagon at the top left corner of the card.

Mana in Duelyst is refilled at the start of your turn, increasing your maximum by one until you reach 9 Mana - the more expensive the card is, the stronger the impact!

Minions and Generals have Attack and Health values as well. The Attack value is found on the left-hand side in yellow, while Health is found on the right in Red.

Any special abilities or properties a card has can be found in the bottom center of the card, located underneath the card's art.

Learning about the Card Collection

You start with a collection of basic cards. These cannot be crafted or disenchanted, but you can gain more basic cards for each faction (including extra Generals) by leveling that faction up.

There are four levels of rarity (White-Common, Blue-Rare, Purple-Epic and Orange-Legendary) that can be found in Spirit Orbs, each orb guarantees one Rare or better card.

A total of five cards are unlocked from opening one Spirit Orb. They can be bought with gold and are also offered as rewards for events such as Gauntlet, Tournaments and Boss Battles.

The more you play Duelyst, the more gold you'll acquire and the more Spirit Orbs you can open - keep playing until you can open or craft them all!

Deck Building Tips

Deckbuilding is a rich and complicated part of Duelyst. Featuring six different factions and three unique Generals per faction, the possibility of deck archetypes are countless!

You can view your decks by clicking on Collection button on the game’s main menu screen. In here, you'll find the tools needed to create custom decks!

A deck consists of 40 cards: one card is your General, the other 39 can be chosen from the cards in your collection.

Let's do some basic deck building! Start by picking your General: each General can choose from their faction's cards and neutral minions. 

When deck building, you can have up to three copies of any non-General card, as long as you have those copies in your collection.

While building your first custom deck, keep in mind your Mana Curve. In Duelyst, you'll want a strong staple of starting minions (around 9 minions from the 2 Mana category) to secure the board in the early game.

Afterwards, make a downward slope towards the late game. Don't put too many expensive cards into your deck, or you may find yourself skipping several turns! As you learn how to contest the board and ramp out to the late game you can start to tinker around with your Mana curve.

Another important aspect to keep in mind is balancing your spells to your minions. Since Duelyst plays on a battlefield, maintaining a presence with minions is critical. Minions will do most of the legwork in terms of fighting in Duelyst, so don't neglect to have a strong lineup!

We hope this helps get you started in Duelyst, if you're looking for a simple guide for how to play the game, please check this guide here or wait for the next edition of the New Player Guide!