Game rules
Game Mechanics
Turn Based
Destiny’s Divide is a completely turn-based game. Players can only play cards or use card/hero abilities once it is their turn to do so. Players have 90 seconds to complete each turn. They can use the “Extend turn” button a few times per game to extend the default timer. The turn will end automatically once the time expires. During their turn players can play cards, use abilities or attack in any order they wish. While strategically card/ability and attack sequencing matters, it is up to the player to figure out the best options.
Resource
Destiny’s Divide uses Energy as the main resource. Players will start with 0 energy and gain 1 energy per turn until they reach the maximum which is 8.
Players are free to use the energy available to them as they please, however the main cost of all cards is energy and once they spend the energy for the turn they can no longer play cards.
There are several cards that manipulate the energy generation or the available energy for the turn. Cards like “The Ripple in Time” will lock both players' energy to 5 for two turns. There are also cards like “Hush” that will reduce the amount of available energy for the next turn by 2 when played. Or cards like Magician of nin that will grant the mechanic “Cheat” which discounts the next card played by one.
Card Stats
Cards can have 4 main stats.
- Energy cost (top left of the card) - being, aura, spell
- Attack (bottom left of the card) - being only
- Defense (bottom right of the card) - being only
- Decay counter (middle right) - aura only
- Health (bottom right) - hero only
The energy cost indicates how much a card costs to play it. Attack and defence are the stats that determine how much damage a card can take before being destroyed and how much damage it deals to other cards or heroes.
Auras are cards that can never stay permanently on the board. Due to this they are generally very strong, but fleeting. This is indicated with a decay counter on the card to show how many turns it will be active in the game.
Attack
All being cards can attack the enemy hero, that is the main mechanic of the game.
Cards can attack other cards or the enemy hero at will at any time during the player's turn. There are cards that will prevent the player from attacking or redirect the attacks (ability “Guard”)
Card Abilities
There are four types of abilities:
- Base ability: Is the ability that is displayed in the cards main text box, it is usually a unique ability that only that card uses.
- Activated abilities: Are abilities displayed on the card with the color green. They are abilities that the player can use every turn. There are four activated abilities currently in the game and are given to about 30% of beings.
- Passive abilities: Contrary to activated abilities, the passive ones happen on their own. Either when the player plays the card (eg. Shield), when a certain condition is met (eg. Pack).
- Transcendent abilities: These abilities are reserved for Legendary and Transcendent rarity cards. They are some of the strongest abilities in the game, however they are also all passive abilities, that happen when you play the card (eg. Arcane), when a certain condition is met (eg. Spellward) or when a card dies (eg. burn).
Beings are the only type of cards that use all four of these.
Spells use base, passive and transcendent.
Auras use base, passive and transcendent.
Heroes use base.
Abilities are one of the main gameplay mechanics in Destiny’s Divide, the way players will use these abilities will determine the skill of the player.
Hero Abilities
Each hero has two abilities.
Base Active ability and Base Passive ability.
As an example let's look at the card below called “Matar, God of Power”.
Matar’s Base Active ability is “Double target being’s power”, players can use this ability at any time on their turn for free. They can do this once per game.
Matar’s Base Passive ability is “The first God you play costs 1 less”. This is a passive ability that will trigger on its own the first time the player plays a being with the sub-type “God”.
Afterlife
Cards that are destroyed are sent to the “Afterlife”, it is the equivalent of a “Graveyard” in other card games.
While the Afterlife is not heavily utilized in the game, there are a few cards that can bring cards back into the game once they have been destroyed. Most notably the hero Cazit’gul.
Sharedboard
The Sharedboard is a part of the board that is always revealed to both players.
When constructing their 45-card deck, each player will designate 3 cards from it to the Sharedboard. At the start of the game, their opponent will ban one of them. This way, each of them contributes 2 cards to the Sharedboard. Sharedboard cards can be changed between games versus the same opponent in best-of-2 or best-of-3 but they must originate from the original 45 cards in your deck.
During the game, at any point during their turn, players can play any of the cards in the Sharedboard by paying their energy cost.
This means that you can play both the cards you put in the Sharedboard, as well as the cards your opponent put there. This brings additional strategy to the game, as players can't blindly put your best cards into the Sharedboard, hoping to play them on their turn.
In a best of 3 format, the Sharedboard will bring a lot of nuance, bluffing, and interesting gameplay to the table. While it does bring some predictability, we introduced the ban phase for the Sharedboard to mitigate some of it.
When decks with opposing strategies, such as Control versus Aggro, are facing one another ,it is safe to assume that anti-aggro cards will be put in the Sharedboard by the control player and anti-control cards by the aggro player. To combat this, there are cards that directly interact with the Sharedboard and either destroy Sharedboard cards, or prevent you from playing them, so no one can completely rely on the cards in the Sharedboard.
While there are several approaches to building the Sharedboard, it will ultimately depend on the circumstance, the game state, and strategy.
There are even hero powers that move cards into the Sharedboard, such as Illsar Agno
Illsar Agno's ability is especially strong, as it essentially allows the player to steal one of the opponent's cards. They can use their hero ability, place the card into the Sharedboard, and play it themselves.
There are also cards like Hush that will prevent playing cards from the Sharedboard, so while Illsar Agno’s ability might be among the strongest, it is also very easy to disrupt.
Heroic Being
The Heroic Being is a being that is chosen when building the deck. It can be any being of any rarity. It is placed on the bottom left spot on the board and is always revealed.
In a best of 3 format the Heroic Being can be swapped with another being in the deck after each game.
Spells or auras can not be placed in the heroic being slot.
The Heroic Being gives players and their decks a bit more consistency. It also can be used to curve the deck correctly so the decks will be much more consistent in what they do. As with all mechanics in Destiny’s Divide, there are also cards that can temporarily prevent the player from playing the heroic being.
Since the Heroic Being is always revealed, it gives the opposing player counterplay opportunities.
Deck Building
There are several rules in building a deck in Destiny’s Divide.
The deck has to consist of 45 cards. Of which one has to be a Hero card, one has to be a heroic being card and 3 cards must be selected to be in the Sharedboard.
Additionally there is a limit of 2 transcendent rarity cards and 4 legendary rarity cards per deck.
You can also only have a maximum of 3 copies of any one card.
Progression cards count as 1 card. You can only have a maximum of 3 “Nether Progression” cards. The Nether progression cards are Black Phoenix, Nether, the Ancient Phoenix and Nether, the Phoenix God. You are only allowed a maximum of 3 copies between all of these cards. Progression cards have the same edition number.
There are no additional restrictions, all heroes can use all cards and there aren't any other restrictions regarding card types.