Note: This guide will update as more information becomes available. If this guide was helpful to you please consider using my referral link and buying some packs.

Bear market got you down? Playing copious amounts of Hearthstone to compensate for all the time you used to spend on crypto? I know I am, almost the whole year has been pretty slow on the crypto side of things for yours truly, that was until I stumbled upon a project that got me interested in the crypto space by combining my love of crypto with my love for Hearthstone, and that is Gods Unchained.

I am not here to sell you on this, the bulk of this post will be to talk you through the games mechanics as if you were coming straight from Hearthstone. Lucky for you the game shares a lot of mechanics and design choices from Hearthstone, so you will be up and going in no time. So let’s talk cards:

Normal Card Acquisition

· Once the game releases the dev team plan on providing a base set of free cards to support the games free to play status. The base set will apparently be about 250 cards.

· The “Genesis Set” is the first set of Gods Unchained cards to be released, this is a set of 380 cards (377 realistically obtainable cards and the 3 one of a kind Mythic cards) you will need to buy these with Ethereum through the site, here. If you are new to crypto and blockchain in general and want to get started, you can also follow my video guide on how to buy Ethereum and then use it to buy card packs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEEgLEAaPTU

· No dust mechanic, however you can trade the same card of the same rarity for the next rarity level above it (more on rarity a little later). E.g. 5 Shadows of the same card will craft you a Gold and 5 Golds of the same card will craft you a Diamond.

· An auction was run for a one of a kind Mythic card, Hyperion, pictured below. The card ended up selling for a whopping 146.279 ETH. Whether there will be more of these in the future or not remains to be seen. However this will be a high rollers chance to secure one of a kind cards of which they will be the sole owners of.

Looks pretty Mythic alright

Promo Card Acquisition

Unlike Hearthstone, Gods Unchained will have ways to obtain cards outside of standard released sets, otherwise known as Promo cards if you are familiar with more traditional TCG’s. Below is a list of all known promo cards and ways to get them.

· Golden Blessed Chimera (Inactive) — You can enter the Golden Blessed Chimera giveaway event and gain a minimum of 5 entries to get this limited edition promo card. Unfortunately this event has now ended and those who signed up are now waiting for the distribution of the card.

· Etherbots Promo Set (Active) — Former players from Etherbots (game by the same company who are producing Gods Unchained) can trade 5 parts for a special promo card pack. Each promo pack grants 5 cards from a set of 16 total promo cards, if you were not an Etherbots player, you can still buy parts off the marketplace and redeem five “GU Eligible” parts for 1 card pack once it is released. Additionally buying a “Lambo” or “Ancient Protector” part will grant you an exclusive promo Legendary card (note both parts are fairly expensive right now). Checkout the Etherbots marketplace for more.

· Opensea Raider and Rare Blitzer Promo Cards (Pending) — These can be found on the promotions page on the Gods Unchained website. This will likely go live once trading goes live for using the marketplaces on OpenSea and Rare Bits websites.

· Lights Bidding (Inactive) — This was a promo card given to those who placed a bid on the Hyperion Auction. The bid had to out bid the highest current bid in the auction in order to count.

· First Phoenix (Inactive) — A reward for those who bought card packs within the first few days of the pre-sale.

All Promo Cards. The Shadow Banisher is the only Etherbots promo card we have seen so far.

Card Rarity

· Rarity is the same: Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary.

· An extra Rarity Mythic is introduced for one of a kind unique cards, however these cards will be banned from tournament play.

· Shiny rarity cards are present in the game, while HS has only Gold, this game has, in order of increasing rarity; Shadow, Gold, Diamond. Your odds of getting a particular shine in a pack are (5% shadow, 1% gold, 0.2% diamond).

·Shiny cards also have a “Purity” value assigned, it is purely cosmetic for the true collectors out there, the higher the Purity the better. The value is totally random and for now is not part of the default web GUI but will be present once the game is released. If you want to check the purity value of your cards right now have a read through this guide by Reddit user GooseG17.

Some users on the Discord are starting to now get Diamond Legendries, this one from User “mrock”, goodluck getting these rare gems!

Deck Building

· Basics are same as HS, 30 cards in a deck, duplicates allowed up to x2 except for legendries which have to be x1, you know the drill.

· Each God has God specific cards that can be used only by that God (like Hero Specific cards).

· Cards are either Creatures, Spells or Relics (Weapons). The Layout of the card is the same, mana in the top left corner, attack on the bottom left and hp on the bottom right. Relics will have durability instead of hp which deplete on every use.

· Mythic cards cannot be played in standard format (tournament) play, more details on this mode of play are still pending.

· As you go building you might find HS equivalent cards thrown in the mix, some even have card graphics that are extremely similar to that of the HS equivalent. So if you have some ideas based on HS you might be able to implement them if you find these such cards.

Special Armour, Strong and Shiny! *ting* *ting* *ting*

God Overviews

The Gods work similar to the Hero equivalents in Hearthstone, the team has published in depth articles breaking down each God and their powers. For this section I have included the Hearthstone equivalent hero for each God and the relevant articles from the dev team about each God and all their God powers (note: some are still pending release):

· God of War (Auros) — Warrior

· God of Nature (Aeona) — Druid

· God of Light (Thaeriel) — Priest

· God of Death (Malissus) — Warlock

· God of Magic (Elyrian) — Mage

· God of Deception (Ludia) — Rogue

In Game Mechanics

· God powers are your Hero powers in this game, this depends on which God you choose.

· One God can choose from four basic God Powers, mana cost will vary depending on the chosen power.

· Each God also has 1 Ultimate power which can be used only once in a game, you can choose either 1 of the 4 basic powers to be used as many times as you want, or use this Ultimate power that can only be used once in the match. Mana cost will vary per Ultimate power.

· There are cards that can change your God Powers much like the transformation cards in HS that also produce a battlecry (Roar) affect at the same time.

· Each God also has 1 Ultimate power which can be used only once in a game, mana cost will vary per Ultimate power.

· The mana mechanics are a bit more complex, you start with 1 mana and it will increment each turn until a total of 9 mana. The key difference is that in the later turns it takes multiple turns to unlock 1 more mana crystal, the mechanics of how it works is as follows:

Mana Crystals 1–5 — Increment after 1 turn (like Hearthstone). Mana Crystals 6 and 7 — Require 2 turns each to unlock. Mana Crystal 8 — Requires 3 turns to unlock. Mana Crystal 9 — Requires 4 turns to unlock.

· Draw one card every turn.

· A God has 30 health.

· The board can hold a maximum of 6 minions (down from 7 in HS).

· “Bag of Tricks” is the coin mechanic in this game to balance the first turn advantage. It is a 0 cost card with the following effects “Foresee 1, Refresh one Mana Crystal, Heal 2 Health to your God”. Some key differences is that; 1) it does not break the mana crystal limit like in HS and 2) The player who goes first gets one Bag of Tricks, and the player who goes second gets two Bag of Tricks.

· There is a 50 turn limit to prevent any scenario of a abnormally long game.

· Fatigue starts when your deck is empty (as it should), when the player tries to draw a card from an empty deck, they gain 4 mana locks. If a player ever has all mana locks and they try to draw a card from an empty deck they lose the game.

· If you have a full hand you will not draw a card, in other words you cannot burn cards like in HS by overdrawing your opponent. This mechanic allows an option to play around fatigue by preventing the card draw but you have to maintain a full hand.

· Creatures can be of a certain tribe (type), similar to pirates, murlocs, mechs, dragons etc… in Hearthstone. Use these types to build decks around and buff each other.

· The Void is your graveyard mechanic, creatures and generated tokens go to this when destroyed.

· If your card is “Obliterated” it does not go to The Void.

Our First look at God Powers (Pictured on the left) and The Void (Pictured on the right)

Card Mechanics

For this I will do straight comparisons to the Hearthstone equivalent, i.e. expect them to work exactly the same:

· Frontline = Taunt

· Blitz = Rush

· Roar = Battlecry

· Afterlife = Deathrattle

· Neutralize = Silence

· Deadly = Poison

· Leech = Lifesteal

· Sleep = Frozen

· Hidden = Stealth

· Protected = Divine Shield

· Spell Boost = Spell Power

Here are a few extra ones to take note of:

· Flank — Ignores Frontline (Taunt) and can attack face as long as they are not the first to attack that turn.

· Burn — Creatures of Gods with Burn will take damage at the end of the turn.

· Twin Strike — Like Windfury, but with a twist that one attack must be on a creature to get the second attack.

· Control — Will only activate if there is another creature on the board of the right tribe (type).

· Soulless — Creatures with this obliterate on death and do not enter The Void.

· Confused — 50% chance to attack a random enemy instead of the target creature.

· Backline — You can only attack these creatures if there are no other regular minions (with frontline or without) on its side of the board.

· Regen — At the end of each turn the minion will gain X health where X is the regen value.

· Ward—Blocks the next effect from a Spell or God Power, so Ward: 2 would block 2 Spells or God Powers.

· Runes — Some cards generate “Runes”, there are three runes, each cost 2 mana and have the following effects:

Rune of Fire — Deal 3 Damage Rune of Life — Heal 6 to target creature and your God Rune of Sight — Foresee 2, and Draw a Card Rune of Strength — Give +2/+2 and Frontline to a friendly creature

· Enchanted Weapons — Some cards give “Enchanted Weapons”, these are 2 mana Relics (Weapons)

Curative Cudgel — Blitz. Afterlife: Heal 3 to your God. (2/2) Sterling Spear — Blitz. Flank. (2/3) Glassblade Gladius — Blitz. Whenever you attack, give a random friendly creature +1/+0. (1/3)

· Delve — This works similar to Discover however the Devs have not decided on how many cards it will show (it’s 3 in Hearthstone), the main difference will be that it pulls the card from that zone into your hand where as in Hearthstone the card is copied.

· Anim—Some cards summon “Anims”, this is a pool of 2 mana medium statted minions which are as follows:

Iron Anim— (3/3) Protected Anim — Protected. (2/2) Concealed Anim — Hidden for 1 turn. (3/2) Heavy Anim — Frontline. (2/3)

· Refresh — Increases your mana by X amount, cannot break the mana crystal limit, an example of this can be found on the Goddess of Nature’s God power “Animal Bond”.

· Foresee — View X amount of cards at the top of your deck (e.g. the God of Magic power “Clear Mind”) and choose whether to send them to the bottom of your deck. You can choose specific cards to send to the bottom or you can choose to send all of them at the bottom. It can also be accompanied by an extra mechanic such as to draw a card from the foreseen selection (E.g. the God of Magic Ultimate power “Metamancy”).

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That’s all for now, remember to check out the game here if you haven’t already, I will attempt to keep this guide up to date for as long as possible during the lead up to the game.