Welcome to Gods Unchained, and welcome to card games! Gods Unchained is a 1 vs 1 turn-based card game which can be summed up as easy to learn but hard to master.
This post covers the fundamentals of the game to get you started, and should be considered a working document which will be appended over time.
Before a game
Before you begin a game of Gods Unchained you will be prompted to select a god and deck of cards. Each god has a unique set of cards to choose from, and all decks have access to a shared pool of cards known as neutral cards.
Each deck contains 30 cards. You can have up to 2 copies of the same card in your deck, unless it’s a legendary card where you can only keep one. There are pre-built starter decks which we recommend new players start with!
Game start
You begin a game by selecting a god power.
God powers are unique abilities that are attached to each god, and can be used once every turn.
After you have chosen a god power you will be presented with cards from your deck. This is your starting hand. At this stage you have the option to sculpt your starting hand of cards, if you click a card you will be able to replace it with a random card from your deck – this process is known as a ‘mulligan’.
Both players start with 30 health and a bag of tricks. The player who goes first gets a small bag of tricks, and the player who goes second gets a large bag of tricks. This is because it is generally considered advantageous to go first in a card game.
Your turn
The turn indicator on the right of the board lets you know if it’s your turn.
At the beginning of each turn, you will draw 1 card. You can have a maximum of 9 cards in your hand.
You can play cards on by dragging them onto the board, or you can use your god power by clicking on it.
If you have no cards to play, simply end the turn by clicking on the turn indicator.
What is Mana?
Mana is the primary resource in Gods Unchained and is required to play cards or god powers.
Every turn players have a certain amount of mana which can be spent, and your Mana pool is refreshed at the start of every turn. Each game begins with both players having only one mana, with one additional mana unlocked every turn. After turn 5, mana begins to unlock at a slower rate.
Each card has a mana cost reflected on the top left-hand corner. You can only play a card if you have enough mana available to cover its cost. Once you play a card, available mana is reduced from your pool.
Combat
So, now for the fun part 🙂
At any point on your turn, if you have a creature on the board you can choose to attack with it. To do this, simply drag the creature you want to attack with onto either an opponent’s creature or god.
Each player can have a maximum of 6 creatures on the board at any time. The creature will deal damage based on its attack value.
When a god or creature takes damage, it will lose health.
If a creature attacks another creature, the defending creature will also deal its attack value to the attacking creature and if a creature reaches 0 health, it dies and is sent to the void.
The Void
Each player has a void, which is where any spell you play or creature that dies will end up. If your opponent ever plays a card and you miss what was played, a handy tip is to look in their void to see the card. Sometimes creatures and cards can be brought back from the void, so make sure you keep a close eye on it!
Winning the game
To win a game of Gods Unchained, you simply must get the health of your opponents god to 0. You can also win the game if your opponent runs out of cards in their deck. Once they are out of cards in their deck, mana will start being locked, if their mana becomes completely locked they will lose the game.
Gods Unchained is a game with plenty of depth and strategy to learn. Now that you have the fundamentals, go out and play around! Good luck, and if you have questions come poke around in our Discord to chat with the community!