Skill

*The most basic element of each strategy-oriented deck is a clockwork combination of skills. So let's talk about what these skills are, how we divide them into three basic types and what crafting is. After this lesson, you will have everything you need to create a unique deck that suits your style best. And, who knows, maybe you will create the greatest deck in Earthcore? Let's give it a try!*

## Card Types

Basically, there are two types of cards in Earthcore: **Recruits** and **Heroes**.

### Recruits

Recruits are the basic cards. Almost every single Recruit has a certain skill. You can have as many specific Recruits as you can find, but you can only put three copies of them in your deck.

> *Some Recruits actually have no skills at all! Usually these are Goblin - the weakest creatures in the world of Earthcore. At the beginning of your adventure, your deck will have some of those weaklings, but don't worry. You'll get rid of them real soon and find some fresh and powerful Recruits to take their place!*
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### Heroes

Heroes are unique and powerful cards - each one of them has three slots that can hold a set of three different skills. This is what makes them the deadliest cards in the game, so the more Heroes you have, the greater the strategy possibilities arise on your horizon.

> *Some Heroes start with all three skill slots empty and you can create any skill combo you imagine - or any that you currently have the proper cards for. However, others are equipped with a certain skill that you won't be able to remove at any time. That leaves you with only two remaining slots to take care of.*
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The trick is to create a deck with a combination of Recruit and Hero cards that construct a coherent, versatile strategy. We will tell you all about how to craft your Heroes in a while - but now let's talk skill types, so you can get to understand how they work, before you actually use them.

## Skill Types

There are only four types of skills in Earthcore: **Manual**, **Instant**, **Passive** and **Chant**. An efficient deck usually uses a mixture of these four groups. An efficient deck usually uses a mixture of these four groups. SO let's take a quick look at them.

### Manual

A manual skill can be used by a player only during his turn. After it has been spent, it cannot be used again. If the card goes back to the owner's Hand however and then is played once more, all of its skills are restored and are ready to be used.

### Instant

This kind of skill is always activated automatically after it is played from Hand. Remember this rule, because sometimes it may not be in your best interest to play the card in a certain situation.

### Passive

Just as with instant skills, you don't have to activate passive skills. Their effects are persistent and are activated automatically when specific requirements stated in skill description are met.

### Chant

A Chant skill is the most distinct type of all skills. It pretty much works just like a manual skill, but it can only be activated after it has been played on your Chant Slot. You can play only one Chant card on your Chant Slot in a Round. You can also use just one Chant skill per Round, so make it count.

## Skill Activations

As you already know, the skills are what makes the Earthcore a deeply strategic game. However, you can't just use all of them at once - that would make too much of a mess! So, the thing that regulates the battles and makes the duels fair and smooth are the skill activations.

> *Additional skill activations will be used only if you have no basic skill activation.*
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There are basic and additional skill activations and you need to have one of these to use a manual skill or a Chant skill. In each turn beyond the first one, you get one basic skill activation, which you can use to activate any manual or Chant skill. If you already used the basic activation, you can count on additional activations to use your skills some more. However, these activations are not element neutral.

> *You can check your current activations on the lower-right part of the screen. Instant and passive skills trigger automatically, so you don't need to count them in,*
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You can get these additional activations with cards like Fire Totem, Earth Totem or Water Totem. These cards have instant skills, so any time they are played from your Hand, you gain an additional skill activation.