Cards and rewards
One thing we haven't talked about in much detail is the different card types, how they work together and how you unlock and get new cards! Now that the launch is getting closer, we're really excited to share this update with you!
Card types
In Dragon Evo, you'll soon discover that there is a variety of different card types. Each card type has a specific (or several specific) purposes, and they all work together to form your deck and the cards you play in each game.
Your deck consists of two card types:
The hero card
This is the "leader" of your deck. This special card must survive at all costs - if you fail to keep your hero alive you lose the game. The opponent hero card is also your main target - killing the opponent hero wins the game. The hero card has an assigned slot on the board and cannot move from this slot - however, it can often attack from this slot as long as you use positioning to your advantage.
Regular cards
These are the other cards in your deck. Regular cards come in different categories: vehicles, items and creatures. Vehicles generally affect other cards in play - either yours or your opponents. They often have more health than your normal cards, but are vulnerable to fire damage. Item cards are also played onto free slots on the board but are usually discarded immediately after being played. Their main ability is to switch up or majorly alter the game situation. Lastly, the creature cards. These cards often stay on the board for two or more rounds, deal and take damage, and can be used for board control. You'll learn a lot about these cards, their different bonuses and abilities as you play the game.
As you progress in the game, you learn how to master and experiment with combining, timing the order and positioning of all your deck cards.
In addition to the cards you have in your deck, you can also use other types of card during the game. These all behave differently.
Building cards
These are special cards that you unlock as you play, and after being unlocked are available to build in any game. Building cards are like "blueprints" - after they have been unlocked, you can build any of them during the game on one of the two available building slots. Building cards generally provide automatic bonuses and actions after being built, such as additional firepower, gold generation or other attributes.
Action cards
These cards are consumable - that means they are permanently removed from your collection after they have been used. They are however easy to collect and you will normally have an abundance of different action cards to choose from during each game. You can use up to four different action cards per game, and they can be used to heal your creature cards, put out a building on fire or restore a cards special abilities if it is poisoned or stunned.
Event cards
The event cards are chosen at the beginning of each game, and they are played automatically at a random time during the game - either for you or your opponent. In the beginning you have two unlocked event cards and you unlock new event cards as you play. Once you've unlocked a new event card it is added to your collection and available to choose from at the start of each game. However - you only get to choose from three randomly picked event cards from your collection. Event cards majorly switches up the game rules for a short period of time - for example duplicating your cards as you play them, increasing or decreasing certain card attributes or even removing cards from your board.
Unlocking new cards
Unlocking and upgrading cards (more on upgrading cards in a different devlog) can be done using Research Points (RP) - an in-game currency that is earnt in one of four different ways:
Playing games
Each game you play will net you a certain amount of research points. Depending on your effort during the match you may be rewarded with extra research points - and if you win you get even more!
Single player story and adventures
The single player campaign and standalone adventures have special rewards such as research points if you win them. Take on extra hard missions for extra big rewards!
Completing achievements
Completing weekly, daily or one-time achievements will net you a nice research point reward. The more you play - and win - the better the rewards!
Selling cards
As you collect new cards you may realize you don't need certain cards. If you don't want to spend them to upgrade other cards, dismantling (selling) them will pay research points.
To unlock new cards you spend research points to buy unlock packs. An unlock pack will unlock one new card in one of four different categories: event cards, building cards, action cards or creature cards. When you unlock a new creature or action card you also get one copy of that card!
Unlocked event cards are added to your collection and immediately available to choose in the start of games, and unlocked building cards can be built immediately after being unlocked. When you unlock a creature card or action card, you also get a copy of that card.
Collecting cards
The unlock packs are how you unlock new cards to add to your collection, but one card of each is not enough! To get more cards, you open card packs. Card packs are available after each match you play, and at regular intervals when you log in. In addition, card packs are available as mission rewards, achievement rewards and bonus items.
Card packs cannot be bought for research points, but the cards you have unlocked are added to the draw pool for card packs. Each card pack contains 2-4 cards, and the cards you get in the card pack are automatically added to your collection and can be used in decks, in-game or to convert to research points.
Summary
Creating a fair system for collecting and unlocking cards is hard, but after a lot of testing, we truly believe this system will work for everyone. The more you play, the more you get - investing time in the game both increases your game skills, and the variety of your card collection.
Please let us know what you think, either in our forums or on Discord!