Post by Mizuki on Aug 20, 2011 19:47:11 GMT 8
Introduction
Warstorm is a TCG (trading card game) and this means it’s a game that uses cards representing spells , artifacts ,heroes ,units and various monsters in order to defeat the opponent . For wining in trading card games the most important factor is strategy , then comes luck , using an appropriate combination of cards enables you to defeat easily your opponent , but you can’t always calculate all possible factors that might come up.
So let's begin by explaining the cards.
Card Anatomy
This one represents a Hero card , starting from top we have:
Faction and Border - On the left upper corner is the faction symbol and of the faction the card belongs and differs together with the card border color from faction to faction (Undead, Human, Elf, Neutral, Demon, Orc)
Card Name - At the top is written the name of the cards with colors based on its tier (explained later)
Card Type - Then right under is the type of the card ( hero , cavalry , infantry etc ).
Units, Artifacts, Spells - At the right side of the card there are three circles , those exist only on hero cards and indedicate from top , the number of the units the hero squad can provide , then the number of artifacts the squad can have and the last circle represents the number of spells one squad can have.
Ability Name and Description - Now close to the lower section to the card are written the abilities a that card can possess ( not all cads have abilities ).
Icon - Right next to the abilities text is an symbol that indedicates the origin of the card.
Ready Value - On the left lower corner that number indedicates the ready value of the card (time in turns the cards needs to stay in the staging are before it enters the battlefield.
Attack and Health - On the right lower corner there is the health value each card possess , and right next to it is the attack value.
Tiers
There are 7 tiers of cards. Each tier is assigned a color. When we say T7, that is a tier 7 card. The color of the card title will let you know which tier it is.
T7 - Fabled
T6 - Legendary
T5 - Epic
T4 - Rare
T3 - Uncommon
T2 - Common
T1 - Basic
Each card in the game comes in 2 versions (except T1) taking the lowest version of the card, you add 3 to the tier and that is the better version. So a T4 card has a T7 card version, a T3 has a T6 version and so on. The only difference between the 2 versions is the READY value. The higher tier card has a ready value of 2 less. That is the only difference BUT it’s a HUGE difference.
Notice that T4 cards are called "rare" which means they are rare. You may have a 5-10% chance to get 1 or maybe 2 in each pack. T5,T6,T7 are much harder to get than that. The chance of getting a T5 is about the same as getting a T4. With the T6 and T7 cards ,it is more like you might get 1 card out of 10 packs (or even worse).
Faction
There are 5 different factions of cards containing units, artifacts and spells only used by those factions and and a neutral faction that enables the use of its cards from the other factions.
Humans are a pretty balanced race, with lots of magic and strong melee units. Balanced isn't always a winner, but it can shore up it's weaknesses usually.
Elves are based on life regain, poison, and archery. Lots of healing/regeneration and archers. Weakness is low health and
not a lot of power outside of poison. Not a single flying unit either (Matimilopeotryx is the only hero).
Orcs are powerhouse team. They are very slow, but they can take and deliver the big hits. Like elves, they don't have a flying unit (Matimilopeotryx is the only hero), but they have enough anti-air.
Undead are based on life stealing and reanimation mostly. Reanimation can keep units coming back repeatedly (or 50% of the time to be more exact) meaning you have a near endless army. Drain keeps units alive much longer than normal, unless they take a big hit to kill them early.
Demons are based on 2 principles, fire or mass armies. Fire slowly kills the opponents monsters. Within Demon there are actually 2 smaller factions, Imps and Summoners. You can create devastating "mini armies" out of these. Singularly, they aren't so bad, as most of them have low health or damage or both.
Neutral . It is not exactly another faction but in that category of cards belong some cards that can be used by all kind of factions containing units , artifacts and spells.
Forming a Squad
A squad is formed by total 7 cards 1 hero card and combination of six cards including units, artifacts and spells . The combination is based on each hero card requirements . One squad can contain cards from only one faction or some neutral cards and doesn’t allow the usage of different faction cards in the same squad .
You can form up to 12 squads that you use them in battles and you can destroy them and reform them whenever you like ( cards won’t disappear after a deletion of a squad ).
The Battles
Battles can be performed with 1 ,2 3 or 4 squads and does not require the use of squads of the same faction . Using different faction squads sometimes may be helpful cause some cards possess some abilities that are requiring for activation the presence of a card of a specific faction in battlefield , so feel free to mix the factions .
The Battle Mechanics:
All your cards are piled where is written <your deck> and then they start being uncovered in the staging area until their ready value reaches zero , then they are able to enter the battlefield where they can attack and use their special abilities . For spell and artifact cards things are a bit different , spells do not enter the staging are rather being activated , as for artifacts if no units or heroes in battlefield will wait on the reserve until some unit/hero cards deploy and then they are equipped on the first card that doesn’t have any artifact on it . On the left are two moral bars that differ based on how many squads you are using ( 20 morale for 1 squad battle , 25 for two squads , 30 for 3 squads and 35 for 4 squads ) . Units in the battlefield attack each other in turns indedicated by the turn marker decreasing their opponent health and if they have enough damage they manage to destroy them . Destroyed cards enter right after the graveyard , where they stay there till the end of the game unable to be used , unless the be returned to the battlefield due to the effect of some abilities or spells .When cards attack the opponent player but don’t have an opposing card they damage the morale bar of the opponent instead.
A player can achieve an win with two ways:
1) Destroy all the opponent cards
2) Decrease opponents morale bar. Morale can be decreased with use of some artifacts, abilities, spells or direct damage from units.
Special Situations:
There are situations that the cards where if one or more cards stay in battlefield for both sides and are unable to kill the opponent cards or damage the opponents morale . This situation would lead to an eternal battle , for that reason warstorm developers entered one factor : After turn 65 both enemies will have and increased by every turn decrease of morale due to fatigue of the battle till someone’s morale reaches zero.
The LONGEST possible battle can last 129 rounds , but to reach that you need specific morale gaining squads for both you and your opponent .
There are some cards the have a lose morale ability , where you lose morale when they enter battlefield , in some situation it can happen when one of this cards to enter when both of you and the enemy have low morale and this cards decreases the opponents morale by attacking to zero but in the same time decreased you own morale to zero when entering, in this situation you win the game despite the fact that your morale is also 0 .
Campaigns and Territories
There are several campaigns that allow you to take control of some territories . Those territories give you a daily gold income ( it is rather low though ) , if you control all nine free accessible territories you daily income is 900 gold per day and 2100 gold if you have bought the purchasable campaigns .
Fighting the computer opponents in campaigns helps you understand the variations of the abilities and shows you some interesting card combinations .
Once a day one of your territories is gonna be attacked by barbarian invasions and in order to take all the income you have to regain the territories . But sometimes they are hard battles .
Some people complain that they have hard time on campaigns and barbarian invasions , my advice to them is : Use faction slayer cards
There are several cards with the ability called “slayer” , that ability enables them to instantly kill a card of a specific faction (even Flying !!!!) , so before the battle when you see on the battle preview which factions you are going to battle with , you can chose the right slayer squads in order to macerate the opponent cards .
The existing faction slayers are :
Ancient paladin ( human) > undead slayer ( not available)
Anden bladeslayer ( elf ) > orcslayer (available during one event )
Anden orcblade (elf) > orcslayer ( available at single card shops and through gifting )
Norag hunter (orc) > demon slayer ( available at single card shops and through gifting )
Cerebrus (demon) > undead slayer (available at single card shops and through card gifting)
So my advice each time you see one slayer card in the shop buy the card it is worth the price . Make squads using only slayers and finish the campaigns you had problems completing
There is also a "secret" in the premium campaigns. The elf emissary missions only costs 10 WScash, its the cheapest. For any premium campaign, you will end up with 60,000 silver total when you finish it and a bonus card that is T4. If you REPLAY a premium campaign by buying it again, you get the 60,000 silver plus 1 random T6 or T7 card. Since the elf campaign is the cheapest, its the best way to do this.
Where to get each card
As I said from the card symbol introduction the symbol next to the ability indedicates where you can get each card so each card comes from a different collection the following image shows the different symbols and with this way you can understand where to search for each card.
The achievement cards are cards rewarded when completing specific achievements.
Missing cards
Several low tier , old achievement and some higher tier cards have been removed from the packs at the present and are not available . Some people posses them though because the earned them before they were removed or they transferred them from old warstorm game when zynga bought the game.
Gifting
Each day you gain the ability to send to each one of your friends one free gift. What I recommend is to send the Silver/WS cash or mystery card gift to the friends and avoid the other cards gifts.
That way you send cards to your friends (gift cards come from the Goody Bag collection)
So having many friends to send you daily gifts increases the chance you get a high tier card .
Ask a card
In the right lower corner of the main warstorm screen there is a option that says ask for card , this option is similar to send a gift with the difference that you are asking your neigboors to send you a card of specific category . IMPORTANT some people avoid cause they think that the cards they get that way come from the card collection of their friends , so they “steal “ cards , that is not true , those cards come from goody bag and it’s a gift
So having for example 25 friends and you receive 25 mystery gifts from them and you ask for card from all of them for card you get 25+25 = 50 cards per day ( though mystery gift is not available every day).
Inviting friends
By inviting friends in game you can get some pretty rare cards like Matimilopeotryx.
I think that you get up to 26 card rewards (so you can invite up to 26 friends?) not sure , haven’t tested it out .
IMPORTANT : when you see the invite friend message the reward is delivered to you the next day and half day after you see the new friend invite request and reward .
SO INVITE NEW FRIENDS ONE BY ONE SO YOU CAN GET THE REWARDS, IF YOU INVITE ALL TOGETHER YOU WILL GET ONLY 1 REWARD.
Share Rare Card
In your battles, sometimes a bonus card appears, which can be of the following:
From left to right:
*Wandering Bard and Drums of Despair is not included in the image. You can still check them out in-game.
You can share up to 3 pieces of that bonus card (whichever appeared) for your friends to grab.
Cards can be shared and claimed also through TREASURE STASHES, an option where you chose one 5 cards and the rest you share them with friends. Sometimes some good T5 heroes appear there.
Suggestion for New Players
The cheapest faction packs are the elf cards they cost 5000 gold and they contain some dependable cards that can help you finish the first campaigns . What is very worthy is to buy one of the prebuild squads the most powerful are the raging dragon, maximum heal and bloodthirst squads , if you save up for one of them or for all of them they can supply you with some strong cards to help you complete the campaigns.
I started with 1-3 elf pack purchases then bought the pre build squads and then I started to buy different factions packs / expert packs – I completely avoided the novice pack and when I earned enough WS cash I started the premium campaigns first and then started buying mercenary packs and monster packs .
You don’t earn that much from battles rather , than repeating premium campaigns , daily quests and gifts.
This game needs patience cause finding a good card need luck gather up cash and spend it wisely each time and in time with a lot of trading and gifts you will get good cards and squads .
Elf squads are the most dependable in early game they have good archers on later game you might change your preferences and make your own custom squad combo .
This game is all about variety , strategy and luck so good luck on the game and be patient .
About the Guide and Author:
This guide is original made by Lockas, and is modified by Mizuki.
Warstorm is a TCG (trading card game) and this means it’s a game that uses cards representing spells , artifacts ,heroes ,units and various monsters in order to defeat the opponent . For wining in trading card games the most important factor is strategy , then comes luck , using an appropriate combination of cards enables you to defeat easily your opponent , but you can’t always calculate all possible factors that might come up.
So let's begin by explaining the cards.
Card Anatomy
This one represents a Hero card , starting from top we have:
Faction and Border - On the left upper corner is the faction symbol and of the faction the card belongs and differs together with the card border color from faction to faction (Undead, Human, Elf, Neutral, Demon, Orc)
Card Name - At the top is written the name of the cards with colors based on its tier (explained later)
Card Type - Then right under is the type of the card ( hero , cavalry , infantry etc ).
Units, Artifacts, Spells - At the right side of the card there are three circles , those exist only on hero cards and indedicate from top , the number of the units the hero squad can provide , then the number of artifacts the squad can have and the last circle represents the number of spells one squad can have.
Ability Name and Description - Now close to the lower section to the card are written the abilities a that card can possess ( not all cads have abilities ).
Icon - Right next to the abilities text is an symbol that indedicates the origin of the card.
Ready Value - On the left lower corner that number indedicates the ready value of the card (time in turns the cards needs to stay in the staging are before it enters the battlefield.
Attack and Health - On the right lower corner there is the health value each card possess , and right next to it is the attack value.
Tiers
There are 7 tiers of cards. Each tier is assigned a color. When we say T7, that is a tier 7 card. The color of the card title will let you know which tier it is.
T7 - Fabled
T6 - Legendary
T5 - Epic
T4 - Rare
T3 - Uncommon
T2 - Common
T1 - Basic
Each card in the game comes in 2 versions (except T1) taking the lowest version of the card, you add 3 to the tier and that is the better version. So a T4 card has a T7 card version, a T3 has a T6 version and so on. The only difference between the 2 versions is the READY value. The higher tier card has a ready value of 2 less. That is the only difference BUT it’s a HUGE difference.
Notice that T4 cards are called "rare" which means they are rare. You may have a 5-10% chance to get 1 or maybe 2 in each pack. T5,T6,T7 are much harder to get than that. The chance of getting a T5 is about the same as getting a T4. With the T6 and T7 cards ,it is more like you might get 1 card out of 10 packs (or even worse).
Faction
There are 5 different factions of cards containing units, artifacts and spells only used by those factions and and a neutral faction that enables the use of its cards from the other factions.
Humans are a pretty balanced race, with lots of magic and strong melee units. Balanced isn't always a winner, but it can shore up it's weaknesses usually.
Elves are based on life regain, poison, and archery. Lots of healing/regeneration and archers. Weakness is low health and
not a lot of power outside of poison. Not a single flying unit either (Matimilopeotryx is the only hero).
Orcs are powerhouse team. They are very slow, but they can take and deliver the big hits. Like elves, they don't have a flying unit (Matimilopeotryx is the only hero), but they have enough anti-air.
Undead are based on life stealing and reanimation mostly. Reanimation can keep units coming back repeatedly (or 50% of the time to be more exact) meaning you have a near endless army. Drain keeps units alive much longer than normal, unless they take a big hit to kill them early.
Demons are based on 2 principles, fire or mass armies. Fire slowly kills the opponents monsters. Within Demon there are actually 2 smaller factions, Imps and Summoners. You can create devastating "mini armies" out of these. Singularly, they aren't so bad, as most of them have low health or damage or both.
Neutral . It is not exactly another faction but in that category of cards belong some cards that can be used by all kind of factions containing units , artifacts and spells.
Forming a Squad
A squad is formed by total 7 cards 1 hero card and combination of six cards including units, artifacts and spells . The combination is based on each hero card requirements . One squad can contain cards from only one faction or some neutral cards and doesn’t allow the usage of different faction cards in the same squad .
You can form up to 12 squads that you use them in battles and you can destroy them and reform them whenever you like ( cards won’t disappear after a deletion of a squad ).
The Battles
Battles can be performed with 1 ,2 3 or 4 squads and does not require the use of squads of the same faction . Using different faction squads sometimes may be helpful cause some cards possess some abilities that are requiring for activation the presence of a card of a specific faction in battlefield , so feel free to mix the factions .
The Battle Mechanics:
All your cards are piled where is written <your deck> and then they start being uncovered in the staging area until their ready value reaches zero , then they are able to enter the battlefield where they can attack and use their special abilities . For spell and artifact cards things are a bit different , spells do not enter the staging are rather being activated , as for artifacts if no units or heroes in battlefield will wait on the reserve until some unit/hero cards deploy and then they are equipped on the first card that doesn’t have any artifact on it . On the left are two moral bars that differ based on how many squads you are using ( 20 morale for 1 squad battle , 25 for two squads , 30 for 3 squads and 35 for 4 squads ) . Units in the battlefield attack each other in turns indedicated by the turn marker decreasing their opponent health and if they have enough damage they manage to destroy them . Destroyed cards enter right after the graveyard , where they stay there till the end of the game unable to be used , unless the be returned to the battlefield due to the effect of some abilities or spells .When cards attack the opponent player but don’t have an opposing card they damage the morale bar of the opponent instead.
A player can achieve an win with two ways:
1) Destroy all the opponent cards
2) Decrease opponents morale bar. Morale can be decreased with use of some artifacts, abilities, spells or direct damage from units.
Special Situations:
There are situations that the cards where if one or more cards stay in battlefield for both sides and are unable to kill the opponent cards or damage the opponents morale . This situation would lead to an eternal battle , for that reason warstorm developers entered one factor : After turn 65 both enemies will have and increased by every turn decrease of morale due to fatigue of the battle till someone’s morale reaches zero.
The LONGEST possible battle can last 129 rounds , but to reach that you need specific morale gaining squads for both you and your opponent .
There are some cards the have a lose morale ability , where you lose morale when they enter battlefield , in some situation it can happen when one of this cards to enter when both of you and the enemy have low morale and this cards decreases the opponents morale by attacking to zero but in the same time decreased you own morale to zero when entering, in this situation you win the game despite the fact that your morale is also 0 .
Campaigns and Territories
There are several campaigns that allow you to take control of some territories . Those territories give you a daily gold income ( it is rather low though ) , if you control all nine free accessible territories you daily income is 900 gold per day and 2100 gold if you have bought the purchasable campaigns .
Fighting the computer opponents in campaigns helps you understand the variations of the abilities and shows you some interesting card combinations .
Once a day one of your territories is gonna be attacked by barbarian invasions and in order to take all the income you have to regain the territories . But sometimes they are hard battles .
Some people complain that they have hard time on campaigns and barbarian invasions , my advice to them is : Use faction slayer cards
There are several cards with the ability called “slayer” , that ability enables them to instantly kill a card of a specific faction (even Flying !!!!) , so before the battle when you see on the battle preview which factions you are going to battle with , you can chose the right slayer squads in order to macerate the opponent cards .
The existing faction slayers are :
Ancient paladin ( human) > undead slayer ( not available)
Anden bladeslayer ( elf ) > orcslayer (available during one event )
Anden orcblade (elf) > orcslayer ( available at single card shops and through gifting )
Norag hunter (orc) > demon slayer ( available at single card shops and through gifting )
Cerebrus (demon) > undead slayer (available at single card shops and through card gifting)
So my advice each time you see one slayer card in the shop buy the card it is worth the price . Make squads using only slayers and finish the campaigns you had problems completing
There is also a "secret" in the premium campaigns. The elf emissary missions only costs 10 WScash, its the cheapest. For any premium campaign, you will end up with 60,000 silver total when you finish it and a bonus card that is T4. If you REPLAY a premium campaign by buying it again, you get the 60,000 silver plus 1 random T6 or T7 card. Since the elf campaign is the cheapest, its the best way to do this.
Where to get each card
As I said from the card symbol introduction the symbol next to the ability indedicates where you can get each card so each card comes from a different collection the following image shows the different symbols and with this way you can understand where to search for each card.
The achievement cards are cards rewarded when completing specific achievements.
Missing cards
Several low tier , old achievement and some higher tier cards have been removed from the packs at the present and are not available . Some people posses them though because the earned them before they were removed or they transferred them from old warstorm game when zynga bought the game.
Gifting
Each day you gain the ability to send to each one of your friends one free gift. What I recommend is to send the Silver/WS cash or mystery card gift to the friends and avoid the other cards gifts.
That way you send cards to your friends (gift cards come from the Goody Bag collection)
So having many friends to send you daily gifts increases the chance you get a high tier card .
Ask a card
In the right lower corner of the main warstorm screen there is a option that says ask for card , this option is similar to send a gift with the difference that you are asking your neigboors to send you a card of specific category . IMPORTANT some people avoid cause they think that the cards they get that way come from the card collection of their friends , so they “steal “ cards , that is not true , those cards come from goody bag and it’s a gift
So having for example 25 friends and you receive 25 mystery gifts from them and you ask for card from all of them for card you get 25+25 = 50 cards per day ( though mystery gift is not available every day).
Inviting friends
By inviting friends in game you can get some pretty rare cards like Matimilopeotryx.
I think that you get up to 26 card rewards (so you can invite up to 26 friends?) not sure , haven’t tested it out .
IMPORTANT : when you see the invite friend message the reward is delivered to you the next day and half day after you see the new friend invite request and reward .
SO INVITE NEW FRIENDS ONE BY ONE SO YOU CAN GET THE REWARDS, IF YOU INVITE ALL TOGETHER YOU WILL GET ONLY 1 REWARD.
Share Rare Card
In your battles, sometimes a bonus card appears, which can be of the following:
From left to right:
- Barbarian Warrior - Human, Infantry. 8/6 RV, 2 ATK, 5 HP. Berserk
*Wandering Bard - Human, Infantry. 8/6 RV, 1 ATK, 5 HP. Protect, Heal. - Corpsefire Mage - Human, Infantry. 8/6 RV, 0 ATK, 3 HP. Zap 2, Undead Ally.
- Estian Warcat - Human, Beast. 6/4 RV, 4 ATK, 1 HP. Block.
- Flamebow - Elf, Archer. 8/6 RV, 2 ATK, 4 HP. Archery, Demon Ally.
- Unicorn - Elf, Beast. 8/6 RV, 2 ATK, 4 HP. Heal.
- Stitch Troll - Orc, Beast. 10/8 RV, 3 ATK, 5 HP. Regenerate, Undead Ally.
- Wall of Flesh - Undead, Barrier. 8/6 RV, 0 ATK, 8 HP. Regenerate 2.
- Hell Cow - Demon, Beast. 8/6 RV, 1 ATK, 6 HP. Firebreath.
- *Drums of Despair - Neutral, Artifact. 8/6. Demoralize, Gain Morale.
*Wandering Bard and Drums of Despair is not included in the image. You can still check them out in-game.
You can share up to 3 pieces of that bonus card (whichever appeared) for your friends to grab.
Cards can be shared and claimed also through TREASURE STASHES, an option where you chose one 5 cards and the rest you share them with friends. Sometimes some good T5 heroes appear there.
Suggestion for New Players
The cheapest faction packs are the elf cards they cost 5000 gold and they contain some dependable cards that can help you finish the first campaigns . What is very worthy is to buy one of the prebuild squads the most powerful are the raging dragon, maximum heal and bloodthirst squads , if you save up for one of them or for all of them they can supply you with some strong cards to help you complete the campaigns.
I started with 1-3 elf pack purchases then bought the pre build squads and then I started to buy different factions packs / expert packs – I completely avoided the novice pack and when I earned enough WS cash I started the premium campaigns first and then started buying mercenary packs and monster packs .
You don’t earn that much from battles rather , than repeating premium campaigns , daily quests and gifts.
This game needs patience cause finding a good card need luck gather up cash and spend it wisely each time and in time with a lot of trading and gifts you will get good cards and squads .
Elf squads are the most dependable in early game they have good archers on later game you might change your preferences and make your own custom squad combo .
This game is all about variety , strategy and luck so good luck on the game and be patient .
About the Guide and Author:
This guide is original made by Lockas, and is modified by Mizuki.
