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CRĐ's Beginner Guide #01 - What the Tutorial Doesn't Teach You

Hi All,

I'm CRĐ and if you'd like to know more about me check out my Introduction Post in my blog.

This is the first part of my Beginner's Guide and this section is aimed at brand new players who have just finished the in-game tutorial. I recommend you read this post before heading into ranked or casual to keep from getting frustrated at a few points the tutorial doesn't mention.

If you haven't played the tutorial yet or you don't know what GU is idk how you got here on this community, but just in case.

Gods Unchained is a web3 Trading Card Game, which means that the stuff you get in the game (Trading Cards) are really owned and controlled by you on a decentralized blockchain. In GU's case it's on a Layer2 of the Ethereum Blockchain, but I'll talk more about that in a later post... because all that matters at first, is do you like the game? So head over to the Gods Unchained Website download the client and then play the three missions of the tutorial! No web3 knowledge necessary.

What's in the Tutorial

Fake cards and lies! That's what's in the tutorial!

All of the card art is a card in the game, and most of the names are cards that exist. But in the first and second mission very few cards have the correct stats. Some are modified for simplicity in the tutorial, and some have had balance changes that don't take effect in the scripted play of the tutorial.

In the third mission most of the cards are accurate and in the game today BUT you probably don't own ANY of the cards you played. New players are given two copies of 70 different cards and none of the cards you have in Mission 3 are included in The Welcome Set.

Don't be like me and jump into ranked games with the Death Starter Deck and expect your deck to play anything like the Third Mission leaves you to believe.

Keywords

The Tutorial Teaches you 10 of the ~40 keywords in the game. If you want to be good at this game you must know them all, there is a timer in PvP that isn't in the tutorial and you won't have time to read cards to know what they do.

Check out the Glossary on the Gods Unchained Support Page for a good list of them, there are some wikis around with other lists but it seems to me none of them are maintained so I'll list here the ones from the Tutorial, and the ones I feel are most important to emphasize for new players.

  • Creature means a card with strength and health on the board, it specifically means NOT A GOD.
  • Character however means a creature OR a God

This is very important to understand as you build your deck and read your cards. If a card says "Deal damage to a character" it means you can directly deal Face Damage to your opponent helping you win the game. On the other hand if a card says something like "Heal a creature" you can't heal your own face!

There are three card types in Gods Unchained

  • Creature the most obvious card type, with strength and health, it is placed on the board and stays there until something removes or kills it.
  • Spell these cards have no Strength nor Health, they instantly perform their action and then are removed from gameplay (Though their effects can persist.)
  • Relic these cards look similar to creatures because they have a Strength, but instead of health they have Durability. A relic is equipped to your God, and allows your God to attack like a creature (and sometimes it gives other crazy abilities).

It's important to remember if you use your God with a relic to attack a creature that creature WILL do damage back to your God. However, if a creature attacks a God with an equipped Relic, the God will NOT deal damage back to the creature.

These two got me confused early on:

  • Summoning Sickness: A creature (or God with a Relic) can't attack or use an ability on the turn it's summoned.
  • Sleep: A sleeping creature is unable to attack or use it's ability, creatures lose sleep at the end of their controllers turn.

These two keywords and effects are different, but in gameplay they both show the same Zzz animation above the creature's head. Don't be like me and waste many Roar effects that say Remove Sleep on creatures with summoning sickness. The only way to be able to move a creature the turn it's summoned is an effect that says Give Blitz or Give Godblitz

  • Blitz means a creature (Or God holding a Relic) can attack a creature even though it has summoning sickness. BLITZ CAN'T DEAL FACE DAMAGE!
  • Godblitz is a full immunity to summoning sickness and the Character can attack a creature or God (Face Damage).

The key to understanding the mechanics of this game are to take the spells very literally. Once you understand the basics like:

  • Roar is a spell that happens when a card enters the battlefield
  • Afterlife is a spell that happens when a card dies or leaves the battlefield (Unless the spell that kills them uses the keyword Obliterate or transforms them into something else.)

The most important thing is to read the card carefully and understand things like deal damage to each creature really do mean each creature, don't assume it means each enemy creature. Assumptions like this get a lot of new players into trouble.

What's not in the Tutorial?

Gods and Their Powers

In the tutorial you meet 4 of the 6 Gods in Gods Unchained. Each God is associated with a domain as you'll quickly see when you go to build your first deck.

![Source Gods Unchained Client > WORKSHOP > DECK BUILDER](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/churaudo/23w2af4JapwrbWJoAPqRNkEtW6HDKdDns5UoFKpwuAWCwAEw75DgmihfqhseqkQmgnQbD.png)

There is also a Neutral Domain and in these cards you can use in any deck with any God.

![Source: Gods Unchained Client > WORKSHOP > COLLECTION > CARDS > FILTER BY](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/churaudo/23tRrXYqgMvt5qeQ1vSfkofaURvbqj6udVh4qmrfECwCfxTLLq6PzZYJesAtseV9zj37a.png)

In your welcome set you get:

  • 24 Neutral Cards
  • 8 Cards specifically for Death, Deception, Light, and War
  • 7 Cards specifically for Magic and Nature

On your first Non-Tutorial game the first thing the game is going to ask you when you connect is to select one of three God Powers for your God. A God power is a unique spell (or in some cases a summon) that can be cast once per turn with no card, at a varying mana cost.

These powers have been changed and balanced a lot over Gods Unchained's life so a lot of the information out there is not up to date. Check Out: All God Powers in Gods Unchained By @agrante for a comprehensive and updated list.

Mulligan

Mulligan is an old golf term meaning your friends give you another a shot without counting it after you had a particularly bad stroke of luck. It's used in card games as a mechanic to help bring fairness and predictability into a game with Random Number Generation.

After you choose your God Power you will be shown three cards in your deck, this is your first hand. If you go first, you will be able to replace a card three times, if you go second you can replace a card four times.

As a new player your basic rule of thumb should be to replace the most costly card until you have no more 4 mana or greater cards. Once all your cards are 3 mana or less just think to yourself "Can I use this now?!" If not, Discard.

![In Game Screenshot - I ended up replacing all three of these.](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/churaudo/23tkmmmZexhmMSyWicXfPoagK1z6PPUHuY7uWmCSGnY5pBLLD11g7YxHdd5We4AyqC4BE.jpg)

It is a general tip of a "good deck" to have as many duplicate cards as possible. We'll talk more about this in the Deck Building guide, but for now just know that for all cards except Legendary cards (more on that in the next guide) you may have up to two copies in your deck. In Gods Unchained your deck must be exactly 30 cards. The reason duplicates are recommended is because if you are playing with 15 unique cards than the cards you see every game will be more reliable and familiar than if you have 30 unique cards. So think of it this way, if a card is good enough to be in your deck once... it's good enough to be in your deck twice.

The Mulligan emphasizes this because when you replace a card, you won't see that card appear again in the mulligan. But, if you haven't replaced it yet it is possible to have two copies of the card in your mulligan at the same time.

If you're finding your starting hand frustrating in more than 30% of your games, you need to look at your "Mana Curve" and include More cards 1, 2, or 3 Mana.

If you want some nerdy statistics on the likelihood to see a card in your Mulligan Phase check out this post by @e1i.

Mana Pips

Mana Pips are the shiny triangles by your mana wheel that are briefly explained in the third mission. Mana pips will temporarily unlock one mana slot, you get one if you go first, but get three if you go second. Because of this some decks have an advantage going second.

![Source: My Mana Wheel](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/churaudo/23vsG1RCZdKbXUwSzjkJqAt3DsEpBQpDXiidNZZmbrfCtiLzRv9uLzL2sTzcYg9WJeXC7.png)

In the picture above you can see that I have 5 Mana Gems all available, also take note that the 6th, 7th, and 9th, Mana Gems are segmented.

For the First 5 turns You get one mana per turn, but then it starts to slow down.

2 Turns for 6 and 7 Mana
3 Turns for 8 Mana
4 Turns for 9 Mana

Because of this the Mana Pip can only be used on turns 1 - 4, 6, 8, 11, and 15. Be careful because the game WILL let you waste it.

Here is an example of me wasting a Mana Pip on turn 5, using all my Mana, and then using the Pip correctly on Turn 6.

![Wasting and then using a Pip](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/churaudo/Eoc61o73jUUc6BKG2FUE357ECHg9eLyf7SZrWFYnXbw8GRtHzvz7x7pttZ383a7NPqf.gif)

Remember this mana scaling in your Mulligan phase because 6+ cards are going to take a long time to use...

  • 6 Mana at Turn 7
  • 7 Mana at Turn 9
  • 8 Mana at Turn 12
  • 9 Mana at Turn 16

How long can you survive?

Favor and the Sanctum

If you look back at my Mana Bar in the previous section, you'll notice a little tree icon and six points there. This is called favor, and it's one of the biggest info gaps of the tutorial.

How do I get Favor?

You gain favor by doing a Favor Action! Go figure!

There are three things you can do to generate these favor points:

  1. Attack your opponents God AND deal damage*
  2. Destroy an enemy creature without attacking it
  3. Destroy an enemy creature with a surviving attacking creature

*Notes:

  • Attacking a God with a strength of 0 does NOT gain favor.
  • Spells and God Powers doing damage to a God does NOT Gain favor.
  • Attacking a God with your own God (using a relic) DOES gain favor.

If you do one of these things on the first or second turn, you get 1 or 2 points respectively, and 3 points per Favor Action turn 3 and after.

So if you attack your opponents God with six 1/1 creatures, you might only do 6 damage to their face... But on turn 3 or later you'd gain 18 Favor points.

Why do I want Favor?

There are cards with text on them that add additional mechanics with favor, but we'll save that for a later tutorial, in your first games the reason you want favor is to Buy Cards from the Sanctum.

And to be clear, these are in-games points, not a currency. Buying a card means to put it in your hand during that game, it doesn't mean to add it to your deck or collection.

![Notice the cards on the right colorizing as my favor increases. Click on it to spend favor.](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/churaudo/23tS36iKXbdePpUpQc564u81J4QSBtfzXpo8HbZ6RMhiCLMTWXnd2YFDxbsmwf9Wvsuyb.gif)

The Sanctum is a shared pool of 3 cards (at a time) that you and your opponent can both purchase from with favor points. Sometimes it is wise to buy a card you don't intend to play simply to deny your opponent the ability to play it.

When you buy a card from the Sanctum it is added to your hand as if it were a card in your deck that you just drew. You can play it immediately if you have the mana for it, or hold it to use on another turn.

After a player buys a card that slot in the sanctum remains empty for his turn, and the next card in the rotation is placed their before the start of the opposite players next turn.

Once you get some games under your belt It's worth reading and learning all the cards in the Sanctum, because they are from a limited list and have set rotations and they will start to become familiar to you. I'll cover this in full detail in a later post, for it's just important to understand how to gain and spend favor!

What Next?

So if you've really just completed the tutorial, and then read this post...

Build a Deck

I'll do a post on deck building soon, if you're totally lost follow these tips:

  • Use Nature and include 2x Charging Oryxs
  • Make sure you have at least 20 creatures in you deck
  • Make sure you have at least 15 cards 3 or less mana

If you can't wait for my next post check this great Deck Building 101 by @Copperpitch, it's old and some of the cards have been changed while others you won't even have, but Copper Pitch is an Amazing TCG player and the theoretical points he makes are all still very much valid.

Play AI

The AI is terrible, so don't play many... But the first few battles against the AI give you some free packs which is always good.

As soon as Solo Mode stops giving rewards stop playing it completely unless you are testing out a deck or mechanic.

Play Ranked > Casual

The only two rewards you should be concerned about your first week of playing is experience points (more free packs) and star points (will discuss next post). Ignore the Flux and the GODS for now, but I'll explain them soon.

The algorithm seems to care more about a fair game in ranked mode than casual, so I found that for the first four or five ranks my opponents were much easier in ranked than casual.

Playing both ranked and casual will get you Experience points which ups your level, and gives you free packs. It's the first reward grind you get, but also know that at any level your first 18 Games of the Weekend enter you in a small tournament, and if you win enough of them you'll get some free packs mid-week of the following week.

Read My Next Post!

CRĐ's Beginner Guide 02 - Don't Sleep on the Star Store

  • Brief Web3 Explanation
  • Gods Unchained Progress and Rewards
  • "Your" Cards

Give Me Feedback!

Comments or Questions are always welcome, but the main thing I'd like to know is would this exact same content in video form be more useful?

Cheers,
Chú Râu Đỏ

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