Ok, THIS is how you play:
Basics:
- Ace is Low (1), Jack Queen King are 11,12,13. Joker is somewhere between 13 and 15. Probably 14.
- Suit doesn't matter. Only colour does.
From FlyingStupid's comment below:
- You Click on a card in your hand
- THEN you click on a PART of a monster.
Monster Stats:
- Monster HP is at the top (this stays the same until you kill it)
- Monster's attack is at the bottom, and changes each round.
- Multiple monsters will appear side-by-side as the levels go on.
Turn order:
- Draw Phase (player and monsters)
- Discards
- Play select phase
- Player does damage
- Monsters do damage
Draw Phase:
- Every round, you will draw up to your maximum hand size (4)
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Damage you take:
Rules
- The bottom card is monster's attack
- Below the monster, is the number written out. This is the HP you are liable to lose from that mob this round.
- If you do nothing, you lose the sum total of all the monster's attacks from your health pool in the top left (starts at 30 Easy, 20 Hard)
- You can use cards of the SAME COLOUR as a monster's attack to block (or partial-block) the damage that round. To do that, you need to
- click on a card in your hand,
- then on the monster's bottom-most card.
- If you KILL a monster, you take no damage from it.
- Your HP transfers between encounters. Ie: if you take 2 damage from the first mob, you will be on 28 for the 2-mob round.
- Once your HP hits 0 (or below), Game Over. Start a new run.
Visuals:
- If you select a card from your hand,
- and it could be used to (partially) block a monster's attack that turn,
- then you'll see a grey shield appear next to the monster's attack value
- If you're going to block a monster's attack entirely that turn, the shield turns white, and number disappears.
Example:
If a monster has 9 of hearts as an attack, you'll see a -9 Claw marker under it. To block damage:
- click a bunch of red cards in your hand that add up to 9 or more
- then click on the monster's attack card
OR
- individually click on a red card in your hand
- then click on monster's attack card
- then keep repeating that until the damage indicator is 0-ed out
OR
- Put a card on top of the monster to kill it (removes the attack number instead of 'zeroing')
THEN
- Press Play Hand
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Killing monsters:
Rules:
- In a single round, you need to equal or exceed the monster's HP (top-most card)
- You have to use the OPPOSITE COLOUR of the monster's HP to damage it
- To attack, you
- click a card in your hand,
- then the enemy's top-most card
Visuals:
- If you click a card in your hand that will kill a monster, a grey sword will appear over its head
- If a card would only 'damage' a monster, but not kill it, this indicator will not appear
- If you select multiple cards, that together will kill a monster, this indicator will appear
- If the monster will die that turn, the sword over its head turns white. And its attack damage number disappears.
Example:
If the monster's HP card is 6 of hearts, you can
- click Jack of Clubs in your hand,
- then click on the monster's HP card,
- then "Play Hand"
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Discards:
Sometimes you won't have the right cards.
At this point, you can use one of your 'discard' chances.
To do so:
- Click the 'use discard' button
- (optionally) Click the cards you don't like in your hand
- note: replacement cards are drawn in to your hand
- (optionally) Click all the monster attacks you don't like
- note: replacement monster attack cards are drawn on to the monster
- also note: this could make it worse for you
- Press the 'discard' button to discard and re-draw selected cards.
This does NOT use up your turn, or move a round forward.
Discard chances last for the whole run! Use them wisely.
Visuals:
- Cards that can be discarded are 'highlighted'
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Strategy:
Basic:
- If you have cards that can kill monsters, do so.
- If you don't, try to block the damage instead
- If you still don't, weight up whether it's worth taking the damage, or trying to discard some cards to make the situation more advantageous to yourself.
Advanced:
I won't tell you how to play the game, but here are some extra tricks
Sleight-of-hand:
If you don't want to keep cards from your hand, but don't want to waste discards
You can
- Play
or
- just highlight at the end of the turn
cards you don't like. And they will be 'discarded' between turns 'for free'
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Card Counting/Fixing:
From the dev's comments
- Played cards go to the bottom of the deck
Meaning, you can not only -
have a good guess at which cards are about to come up
As well as strategizing about which cards you can/want/need to use.
But actually -
you can know which cards will come up for sure after a point (in theory. I'm not good enough for this)
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In closing:
I'm frankly blown away by the polish on this game, once you figure it out.
If I could improve one thing - it would be to somehow indicate to the player that once they've clicked a card, they also need to click on a monster part to activate it.
Maybe arrows indicating action, or force the player to "drag" the cards instead?
Maybe a confirmation window for "are you sure you want to end the turn without playing?", or the 'end turn' button being a 'skip turn' button if there are no attacks or defences selected?
I'm just spitballing