New User Guide

The goal of the game is to create interesting and powerful decks to battle against challengers from all over the world.

## Starting the Game

#### Choosing your Faction

When you log in for the first time you will be asked to choose a faction. The faction you choose will determine your starting deck.

Your choices are:

1. [Cassandra, Seeker of Light] under the flag of the Haven Empire. If you choose Cassandra, you will start the game with a basic Haven Deck.
2. [Garant, Seeker of Discord] under the Inferno flag. If you choose Garant, you will start the game with a basic Inferno Deck.
3. [Seria, Seeker of the Lost Souls] under the Necromancer flag. If you choose Seria, you will start the game with a basic Necropolis Deck.

#### Daily Rewards

Once you have picked your Faction, and the first thing you will see when you log in for the first time each day is the daily rewards window. You are offered a prize, and you can either collect it right away or stash it to get a better prize the next day, and you can do that for 7 days to get every week a really nice prize in Gold , Seals  and Tournament Tickets . If you miss one day you'll lose everything you stashed and start over.

#### Codes and Free Cards

1. You can register by cliking that link, that will get you all the base decks from the beginning ( you will get one more of the one you choose after the tutorial and one each after beating them during the game ).
2. There is quite a few codes going on the official facebook and twitter of DoC.

## Building an Army

Every army consists of:

* 1 Hero card
* 8 Events cards
* Between 50 and 200 cards, a mix of Creatures, Fortunes and Spells in any proportion.

The first step is to choose your hero.

Your hero will determine the Spells you can use. Each Hero has access to a number of schools of magic. All Spells from any of those Schools can be used in your deck.

You Hero will also determine which Faction your army belongs to. The rest of the cards (Creatures and Fortunes) used in your deck must be either from your Faction or Neutral.

Your Hero will also determine your starting level of might , magic  and destiny  as well as your initial life.

You can have up to 4 copies of most of your cards in your deck. Your deck can only contain a single copy of each Unique card however.

## The Battleground

The objective of the game is to bring your opponent's hero’s life to zero before your hero is defeated. To achieve this goal, you will be deploying Creatures, casting Spells and taking advantage of Fortunes and Events.

When the match begins, each player draws 6 cards. Each of those cards has a cost in resources  in the upper left corner. Each card also has a requirement Level in Might , Magic  and/or Destiny  before being usable.
Creatures normally have a requirement in , Spells in  and Fortunes in .

Each turn consists of an Supply Phase and an Action Phase.

#### Hero

Your hero can perform one action each of your turns. Generally, the list of possible actions for a hero is:

* Increase the level of ,  or  by one.
* Draw a card.
* Use his/her special ability.

#### Creature Types and Deployment Rules

The Battleground contains 16 positions where creatures can be deployed. Each player has two vertical lines called the back line and the front line, made up of four horizontal rows, making for a total of 8 battleground positions for each player to place their creatures.
Melee creatures can only be deployed on the Front Line. Shooter creatures can only be deployed on the Back Line. Flyers can be deployed on either Line.

When a Creature attacks, it deals damage equal to its attack  value to the defending Creature or Hero. If the defending Creature survives the attack, it deals damage equal to its retaliate  value to the attacking Creature. When a Creature’s remaining life is zero or less, this Creature is destroyed, removed from the battleground and put in the graveyard.

Creatures can only attack enemy Creatures in their row. If there are two enemy Creatures in that row, Flyer and Melee Creatures can only attack the Creature in the enemy’s Front Line, while Shooter Creatures can attack either one, as you choose.

A Creature can only attack the enemy’s Hero directly when there are no enemy Creatures in front of it.

#### Spells and Fortunes

Spells can be played during your action phase to help your army and hinder your enemies. They have a resource cost, and your Hero must meet the required magic level to play them.

Fortunes are similar to Spells, but generally have effects that twist the rules of the game to your advantage. To play a Fortune card, your Hero must have a high enough destiny level.

Each Spell and Fortune has a sub-type of 'instant' or 'ongoing'. An 'instant' Spell/Fortune means its effect will trigger instantly and one time only. The duration of an 'ongoing' Spell/Fortune can vary from one turn to permanent.

#### Events

Each player brings eight Event cards to the match. Those sixteen Events are shuffled together and the first two are placed on the battleground. At the end of each turn, the leftmost event is removed from the battleground, the rightmost is moved in its place and a new one is drawn to replace it. When the Events deck is empty and a new one needs to be drawn, they are re-shuffled. A player may use each of the two currently available Events each turn, no matter who brought them, even if the opponent has already used the Event during their turn. Choose your Events wisely though - they can help your opponent too.

#### Buildings

Building can be placed on any battleground position you control. You cannot have more than one building at any location, but you can have a creature and building at the same location.

## Turn order

Each turn consists of an Supply Phase and an Action Phase.

#### Supply Phase

In this phase, before anything else occurs, those four steps are done automatically:

* Empty resources: Your current resources are set to 0.
* Increase production: Your resources production is increased by one.
* Produce resources: Your resources production total is added to your current resources.
* Draw: Draw a new card from your library.

Anytime that you have to draw a card and your library is out of cards, you lose one life for each card missing.

#### Action Phase

You can do any number of the following actions, in the order you want:

* Every Creature that was already there at the start of your turn can either attack or move, once.
* You can cast Spell cards from your hand, depending on your  level, by paying their cost in .
* You can play Fortune cards from your hand, depending on your  level, by paying their cost in .
* You can deploy Creature cards from your hand, depending on your  level, by paying their cost in . These Creatures cannot attack or move this turn.
* You can use each Event card once, paying its activation cost if any.
* You can use your Hero once.

When the current player finishes their Action phase, their turn is over. The other player becomes the current player and follows the same phases.

## What are the Game Modes?

When you click the **Play** button at the top of the screen you will be taken to the **Classic Duel**, which pairs you up against other players of your skill level (ELO) for straight forward duels. This is where you will get your constant flow of gold and experience points.

Once you have reached 200 ELO, the tournament mode will be unlocked. The Tournament button will take you to the different tournament modes. Depending on what day it is, the official tournament will either be a **Jackpot Tournament** or a **Swiss Tournament**.

The Jackpot Tournament will allow you to fight against other players one by one: you start off with 0 points and gradually work your way up the leaderboard if you can. You gain less gold for each duel as most of it is put into the global Jackpot. The higher up the leaderboard you go, the higher the percentage of the jackpot you will win at the end of the day!

The Swiss Tournament will allow you to enter an 8 player group. You will then fight 3 duels, and the best 2 players will get a nice prize. There will also be a lucky prize given to one of the players who comes 3rd to 8th place. To enter a Swiss tournament you need Tickets that can be bought in the shop. YOu can also create your own **Custom Tournaments** if you want to practice the Swiss Tournament, but these have no rewards.