(shouting)

The Eternal Card Game: Magic the Gathering meets Hearthstone

do you like them video games? what about those there romhacks? well pop on in here and talk about them then! what are you waiting for?!
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AlchemistHohenheim
Posts: 352
Joined: 15 years ago

The Eternal Card Game: Magic the Gathering meets Hearthstone

Post by AlchemistHohenheim »

So, Eternal is a free-to-play collectible card game for PC and mobile devices by Dire Wolf Digital that I really like. As is hopefully conveyed by the thread title, the simplest way to describe the game would be that it's pretty much Magic: the Gathering with Hearthstone-esque visual presentation.

I've been mulling over making a thread for the game since it went into open beta late last year, but kept putting it off because typing up a post to explain what the game is and why you should pay it any consideration in the first place seemed a little daunting. Well now the game is on the verge of releasing its first major expansion set, Omens of the Past, and I feel like it deserves whatever exposure I can give it so I'm doing it anyway. Here's a basic rundown, I'm just kind of assuming basic familiarity with Hearthstone to save myself even more typing:

Game mechanics in contrast to Hearthstone
- 75-card standard minimum deck size.
- Cards are divided into five different color-coded factions with their own themes, strengths and weaknesses (Red/Fire, Blue/Primal, Green/Justice, Yellow/Time, Purple/Shadow). You can mix and match these factions however you want (even including all of them, if you choose), provided your deck includes enough of the appropriate type of Power cards (contrast with Hearthstone where the cards you can use are inherently limited by your chosen Hero).
- Like Magic, and unlike Hearthstone, your mana pool doesn't increase automatically each turn. You instead have to draw and play the aforementioned Power cards to get more mana and be able to play cards with a higher cost. To accommodate this, the game mandates that at least 1/3 of your deck consist of Power cards.
- The general dynamic of attack/defense is reversed relative to Hearthstone (e.g in Hearthstone the attacker must choose which targets to attack, while in Eternal the attacker declares what cards they will attack with and then the defending player declares what cards they will defend against those attacks with, if any).
- Hero Powers aren't a thing (though you actually can equip your generic avatar with weapon cards that allow it to directly attack units, until said weapons break).
- Units will recover all of their health at the end of a turn, so if you want something dead you need to be able to kill it in a single turn.

Game modes
Single Player
- Campaign: Story mode, beat scripted AI opponents to earn cards that can only be obtained through completing campaigns.Tutorial campaign is free, additional ones must be purchased either with in-game gold or Gems (the real-money currency of the game). Currently there's only one other campaign, Jekk's Bounty, which costs 20,000 or 1000 gems ($10).
- Gauntlet: Fight 7 AI opponents of increasing strength to earn increasingly valuable rewards. Lose once and your run is done and you have to start over. Costs nothing. 7 wins will get you three silver chests (~750 gold and 3 uncommon cards).
- Forge: Think Hearthstone's Arena mode, but vs AI instead of PvP. Select one of three random cards until you've assembled a deck of 40 cards to face seven AI opponents with increasing rewards based on how far you get. Unlike Gauntlet, you're allowed to lose once here (two losses ends your run). Costs 2500 gold or 250 Gems ($2.50) per run. 7 wins grants you two gold chests (~1000 gold and 2 packs). Every card you use to make your deck for this mode is permanently added to your collection afterwards, regardless of how well you do.

Multiplayer
- Events: This is brand new. Pay gold or Gems to enter developer-sanctioned promo events to earn card packs.
- Ranked: Play PvP matches against other players to earn ranking points and try to move up through the in-game leagues. You get a Silver chest for every three wins (the first two each give a Bronze).
- Draft: The PvP Arena equivalent. Cycle through card packs, choosing one card at a time, until you've drafted 48 cards. Then you use those cards to construct a deck and play against other Draft players for increasing rewards. You're allowed to lose twice in this mode (three losses ends your run). Costs 5000 gold or 500 Gems ($5) per run. 7 wins grants you three diamond chests (~6000 gold, 3 packs, 3 "premium" cards). Just like Forge, you get to keep every single card you pick during the deck-building phase.

Quests
Every day you log in you'll be assigned a quest (deal x damage with this type of card, play x number of these types of cards, etc), unless you already have three active. You have the option to re-roll one quest per day. Rewards for completing a quest are usually two silver chests, rarely you might get one that's worth one gold chest instead.

Chests
The rewards for winning in Eternal. They come in four flavors:
- Bronze: Contains approximately 50 gold and 1 common card.
- Silver: Contains approximately 250 gold and 1 uncommon card.
- Gold: Contains approximately 500 gold and 1 card pack.
- Diamond: Contains approximately 2000 gold, 1 card pack, and I believe 1 "premium" card.

There is a 10% chance of any chest (except Diamond ones) randomly upgrading itself to the next tier up when you try to open it (e.g a bronze chest can turn into a silver one, silver into gold, gold into diamond). Though not common, it is entirely possible for this to happen consecutively (a bronze chest could hypothetically turn into a gold or diamond chest if you get really, really lucky).

Card Packs and Rarity
They contain 12 cards, with one guaranteed to be either Rare or Legendary rarity, and 100 Shiftstone (think Arcane Dust). If buying from the in-game shop, they cost 1000 gold or 100 Gems ($1). You generally shouldn't be buying them from the in-game shop, though. Draft and Forge runs are much more cost effective. The rarity hierarchy is as follows: Common (gray circle on the bottom of the card), Uncommon (green circle on the bottom of the card), Rare (blue circle on the bottom of the card), and Legendary (shining orange diamond on the bottom of the card and slightly different card shape). There are also "premium" versions of every card that are basically just fancy animated/holographic versions. They're worth a lot of Shiftstone for crafting purposes if you don't care about fanciness.

And...I think that pretty much covers the major points.

Too long; didn't read
It's like Hearthstone with more free-form deck-building options, and is quite generous for a free-to-play game. I encourage everyone to at least check it out. It's good and pretty well-balanced.

Links
Official website
Steam store page
Google Play
Apple App Store
Twitch stream directory
Reddit
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