Game Modes

Tap Battle on the hub to open the Arena. Modes are grouped into Solo, Competitive and Online, and filter chips at the top narrow the list. Any run you haven't finished (a Tournament, Arena Draft or Delve) sits at the top as Continue.

Modes at a glance

Rewards every AI battle pays

On top of any mode's own prize, every battle against the AI pays a base reward:

• Win: 50 coins, plus a grade bonus (S 120, A 80, B 50, C 30, D 15), and 100 XP.
• Loss: 15 coins and 40 XP.
• Grade: 60% how many Soul Points you kept, 40% how fast you won (6 turns or fewer is full speed credit, 18 or more is none). S is 90+, A 75+, B 55+, C 35+. A loss is always D.
• Surrendering pays nothing: no coins, XP or quest progress.
• Quick-play limit: Practice and other quick-play wins pay full coins for your first 5 wins each day (reset at 00:00 UTC), then a quarter. XP is never reduced. Story, Daily Trial, Tournament, Arena Draft, Dungeon Delve and online play don't count toward the 5.

Practice

"Duel the AI at your own pace: no stakes, no clock." The best place to test a deck or learn a matchup.

1. Your deck: any legal deck. It remembers your last choice.
2. Your opponent: one of the 18 Auto-build plans (Fire Aggro, Shadow Toxin, Wyrm Solitary…) or Surprise me for a random plan each match. It shows your recent record against that plan.
3. Challenge: Warm up (Starter deck, Easy AI), Balanced (Seasoned deck, Normal AI; the default) or Push yourself (Boss deck, Hard AI). Or Customize challenge to set deck power and AI skill separately.
4. Match rules: play with this week's twist (on by default) or standard rules.

The AI builds its deck from the whole card pool, not just cards you own. Practice counts toward your career and quests and pays the usual quick-play rewards.

The Weekly Twist

Each week, Practice and quick play get a twist that changes the starting Soul Points and the turn limit. It changes every Monday at 00:00 UTC, rotating through three:

Twists never change rewards, and never apply to Story, Daily Trial, Tournament, Arena Draft, Dungeon Delve or online play.

Opponent dossiers

Every opponent you face gets a dossier: their portrait and a line of dialogue, your head-to-head record, streak, last five results, your best deck against them and their favourite element. Open them from your profile, the Practice sheet or Match History, and use Challenge to rematch.

Match History and replays

Your 20 most recent matches are saved to your account. Filter them by mode and result, watch a replay move by move (at 0.5× to 3× speed), view or copy your opponent's deck, open their dossier, or rematch the same foe with the same decks.

Puzzles

"An authored board, one rule to master." The Tactician's Archive holds 48 hand-made puzzles, each a single turn on a fixed board with a fixed hand. Make your moves, then press End Turn to check your answer. Reset restores the board, and the lightbulb gives a hint.

• Goals: "Win this turn", "Survive the foe's next turn", or "Defeat the marked unit", sometimes "…and keep this unit standing".
• Collections: Tactical foundations (12, start here), Targets & protection (9), Survive the reply (9), Order of operations (9) and Position practice (9).
• Daily challenge: one puzzle from the library each day (changes at 00:00 UTC). Replays are unlimited.
• Rewards: puzzles don't pay coins or XP. Solve all 48 to earn the Puzzle Master title.

Daily Trial

"One duel. Make it count. The same foe and draw for every duelist." You get one attempt per day (00:00 UTC), with your own deck, against a foe, AI level, modifier and shuffle that are identical for every player that day. Entering spends the attempt, so a forfeit counts.

Streak: win on consecutive days to grow your streak. A loss, forfeit or missed day resets it. Each win pays (on top of the normal battle reward):

Coins grow by 25 each day up to 325. Streak achievements: Thrice Tested (3 days: 400 coins, 50 gems), Unbroken Week (7 days: 200 gems, 150 Motes) and a hidden 30-day one.

Dungeon Delve

"A seeded single-life descent: three themed floors, rising curses, a phased boss, and loot all your own." Bring your own deck. There's no daily limit, but you only get one life: lose any floor and the run ends.

• Curses are the Daily Trial modifiers: Iron Soul, Swift Hand, Brittle Soul or War Footing.
• Delve Chest: after floors 1 and 2, choose one of three cards to keep.
• The boss surges: at two thirds of its Soul it gains +2 Aether and its units +1 Attack; at one third, +3 Aether and +1 Defense.
• Clear all three floors for a Legendary Pack. Cards you already own become Motes.

Tournament: The Gauntlet

"A single-elimination gauntlet: win out to be crowned." One free run per day, with your own deck. Fall once and you're out, but you keep everything already won.

• 4-Round Gauntlet: "A swift four-round climb to a boss." Up to 850 coins and 15 gems, plus a Legendary Pack for clearing it.
• 8-Round Gauntlet: "The full eight-round road." Up to 2,900 coins and 105 gems, plus a Legendary Pack.
• The free run is shared between the two brackets. Opponents get tougher each round: round 1 is always Easy and the back half is Hard.
• Achievements: Gauntlet Champion (first win: 150 gems, 1,000 coins and a title) and Grand Champion (10 wins).

Arena Draft

"Draft a fresh 30-card deck three cards at a time, then run it through 8 escalating foes. The run ends on your 3rd loss." One free draft per day, against the AI. The entry is only spent when you finish drafting and press Enter the Arena.

• Drafting: 30 picks, each a choice of 3 cards. Every card in the pool is equally likely to appear, whatever its rarity. Copy limits and the 3 Mythic cap still apply.
• Daily theme: rotates through Open Arena (every card), six element days (Day of Embers, Tides, Stone, Gales, Umbra and Radiance) and a showcase for each set.
• Three lives: a loss costs a life but you still move on to the next round. Survive round 8 with a life left and you're champion, even with a 6 and 2 record.
• Per round won: 80, 140, 200, 260, 320, 380, 440 and 500 coins, and 0, 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 gems (up to 2,320 coins and 105 gems).
• Champion: a Legendary Pack, and keep any one card from your drafted deck forever.

Ranked Ladder and Quick Match

Ranked is where you play other people for rank points (RP). Quick Match in the Arena and the Ranked screen's Quick Match button use the same rated queue: "Rank points are on the line."

• Rating: RP moves by an Elo-style formula, so beating a higher-ranked player is worth more. Win streaks add a bonus of up to +10. RP never goes below 0.
• Match purse: win 120 coins and 6 gems, loss 30 coins, draw 60 coins and 2 gems (draws don't move RP).
• Ladder splits last 28 days. At the end you're paid for your peak tier that split ("losses later on can't shrink it"), then you keep half your RP.
• Matchmaking looks for a rival within ±200 RP and widens the search every 10 seconds.
• Card levels never matter online. Everyone plays with base stats.

Use View Leaderboard on the Ranked screen for global and friends standings.

Draft Duel

"No deck needed. Once you are matched, you and your rival each draft a fresh 30-card deck from the full catalog, three choices at a time. Then you duel with what you drafted. Casual: rank points are never at stake." It pays the normal online coins and gems and counts for online quests. Drafted cards aren't kept.

Play a Friend

Challenge anyone on your Friends list. As the host you set the rules: turn timer (off, 30, 60 or 90 seconds), starting Soul (20, 30 or 40) and turn cap. Your friend picks a deck and taps Accept & Duel. Invites last 5 minutes.

Friend matches are unrated: "Friendly match · unranked". They don't pay coins or gems, but do give XP and count for online quests.

Delve Together (co-op)

"Invite a friend to share the descent: alternate turns against the boss, and each of you keeps your own loot." Two players share one side of the board and one Soul total, each with their own deck and hand, taking turns while the AI plays the boss.

• Three floors and one shared life, but every floor is the place's boss deck.
• No curses, no boss surges and no between-floor chest.
• Each player rolls their own loot from the solo table (coins and a card per floor). It's credited the next time you open the game.
• If your partner drops, you can cover their turns.
• Co-op chat presets: Focus the boss, Save your removal, Big turn coming, I have this lane, Hold your blockers, Go for lethal!

Daily activities

Daily Trials (quests)

Three small goals each day (00:00 UTC) from a pool of 22, shown on the hub banner. You get one free swap a day to replace a trial you don't like. Each claim also gives 50 XP and 50 Covenant XP.

Daily Fortune

"A reliquary is set aside for you each dawn, and a grand one each week." Press and hold to break the seal. Return each day to fill the week's track: the seventh day is blessed. See Progression for what's inside.

Card of the Day

The hub's Daily Card Spotlight features one card each day, the same card for every player. It shows the card's rarity, set, a one-line tip on how to use it, and whether you own it or which of your decks it's in. There's no reward; tap it to read the card or craft it.

Aether Jack

A card table against "the House", reached through a door on the Daily Fortune screen. It's on the web (and Android) only, not in the iPhone app.

• The game: the shoe holds 24 cards, four each of 1 to 6. Get closer to 12 than the House without going over. Exactly 12 holds automatically. The House draws while it's under 10 and holds at 10 or more.
• Your moves: Summon (take a card), Hold, Double Down (first decision only: stake 25 more, take exactly one card, then hold) and Insure (only when the House shows a 6: a 12-coin side bet that its hidden card is also a 6, paying 6 to 1).
• Stakes: 25 coins a hand. A win returns 50, and a tie gives your stake back.
• Practice or House coins: Practice uses play coins and never touches your wallet. House coins are your real coins, need an account, and stop for the day once you're 500 up or 500 down.
• The House's ladder: career wins of 10, 25, 50, 100, 150 and 250 each unlock one of six sleeves, and 20 to 400 hands played unlock six alt arts. On iPhone the same sleeves are sold for gems instead.

Hallowfall event

The Lantern Wake, the autumn event, has its own slide on the hub carousel. It's a collection of 80 seasonal alt arts plus playmats and sleeves, bought one at a time. The Hallow card set itself is in normal packs all year. See Cosmetics for the full price list.

What resets when

All times are UTC. "Dawn" in the game means 00:00 UTC.