Gods Unchained - An introduction and my thoughts on the game
I have for a little over a week been playing some Goods Unchained. A Play 2 Earn card game that takes some familiar aspects and gives them enough of a twist. Enough so that it still feels familiar yet new. Also worth noting is there is no cost to entry. And as far as I can tell, that is actually the case.
Goods Unchained an introduction
First of, let us get the similarity out of the way. If you have played Hearthstone from Blizzard, or one of the many games very similar to it. Then you will be familiar with this game as well. That is because much of the core of both games is the same.
You play as one of 6 different gods. Each of them has its own flavor and playstyle. You can then play using the pre-constructed deck of cards that go with the god you have selected. Or you can create your own deck, allowing you to experiment with creating combos or going for different themes with the deck.
The actual gameplay is fairly straightforward. You play vs another player. Each of your gods has 30 hitpoints. And the winner is the player who can deplete the other's hitpoints first.
You do this by playing cards from your deck. Each round you will draw one new card to your hand. You can then play as many cards as you like. As long as you can pay their mana cost. Each round you will also get one more mana to spend on cards.
There are two types of cards, the first is creature cards. They have their own hitpoint and attack values. And they stay on the board until they are killed off. These can be used to either attack the other god's creatures, or the god directly.
The second type of card is a spell card. These have an effect on them when you play them. And the effect is instant and then the card goes away. And the effect can range from doing damage, to drawing new cards or to making creatures stronger. Close to anything you can think of can be found on these types of cards.
You can also equip your god with a weapon. These can be used to attack directly, or they can have other effects to them that you can use. In a similar way to how spell cards work. Only here you usually can do the effect several times.
Also worth noting s that you can use your god's unique ability to gain a small advantage. Or to influence the tide of battle.
The things that set the game apart
There are some things that set the game apart from its predecessor Hearthstone. The main thing for me is that each god has 3 different powers to choose from. And this allows for very diverse gameplay. And their cost can also vary, from as cheap as 1 mana all the way up to 3 mana. Also, this allows you to tailor your decks to a specific god's power.
And I know that to some degree Hearthstone can let you alter your god's power as well. But as far as I know, this is primarily done through cards in-game. Meaning RNG plays a factor to when or if you can do this.
From left to right, emoji icons, Favour counter, Mana boosters (0 to 3), Available mana, and Mana counter
Another thing that set the game apart is the mana generation. Just like Hearthstone, you get 1 more mana for the first 5 rounds. But for rounds 6 and onwards, you only get a fraction of a mana. Mana 6 and 7 are divided into halves. Meaning it now takes 2 rounds to get the 6th and 7th mana respectively. And mana 8 and 9 are divided into 3eds. So they, of course, take 3 rounds respectively.
This might initially not sound like it would affect the game that much. But it is actually a rather big deal. It means that cards that cost 6 or more mana can pack a bigger punch. Without costing more mana. In a sense, if you like, think of it as this to better grasp what I am talking about.
If we translate it to hearthstone, this means that a card that cost 6 mana, translated to Hearthstone would cost 7. And a card that cost 7 would cost 9 in Hearthstone. And the power curve can of course follow that as well.
In Hearthstone the player who goes second gets the coin, spell card, as a way of compensating them for going second. This card, when played, give the player 1 extra mana for that turn only. While they kept the essence of this, they have also changed it and made it their own.
In Gods Unchained the starting player gets 1 of these cards while the second player gets 3. Also, they are not cards but boosts you activate. This has the effect that you do not get any spell card synergy for using them. Like you can in Hearthstone. And you are limited to using one per round.
The actual way they work in the game is slightly changed as well. They now add an empty mana, then refills one mana. This matters if you saved them for use later in game. As an example, if you use them on round 5. You will get ½ empty mana, and nothing else. If you use it after you depleted some of your mana you do get 1 mana refreshed. So you are not able to play a 6 mana card on turn 5. But you are able to play cards totaling 6 mana. I hope I made that clear enough.
The three cards available in the sidebar along with the Favour symbol in white. Cards you can afford are shown in color
They also have a sidebar with three cards. These cards are shared by the players in the game, and change from game to game. They can be bought with Favour. The cost varies from card to card. After a card is bought it gets replenished in between players' turns.
After you buy a card it gets added to your hand and can be played or kept just like any other card. But this addition adds an extra layer of options to the players. As there is often a card here that can help you out in a tough situation. If you have enough Favour to buy them that is.
You earn Favour, on your turn, if you kill an enemy creature. But you can also gain Favour if you damaged the enemy player directly.
If you are like me, a free 2 play player. Then you will have to get new card packs either from using your earned $GODS tokens. Or you can earn them from partaking in the event that appears to occur weekly and on the weekend. As well as from leveling your account.
The last thing that set the game apart is of course the fact that it is a Play 2 Earn game. And in the game, you will be able to earn $GODS token. These are the crypto for the game. Inside the game, you will also have two other currencies. One is for buying cards, there are a few cards that change daily or weekly you can buy. And the second currency is used, together with $GODS, to transform your cards into NFTs.
And that is where you can earn, potentially, more crypto from the game. By mining exes cards into NFTs and selling them.
If you think that this sounds like an interesting game that you would like to check out. I would greatly appreciate it if you would consider signing up using my referral code.
https://godsunchained.com/account/register?referral=UMNIcMwQdC
If you do, we both get 10 $GODS when you reach rank 6 and have verified your wallet. But if you just want to play the game and not use the code, that is of course also perfectly fine. Then you can just use this link.
If you have any questions regarding the game just ask away and I will try my best to provide you with some answers. I will also be doing a beginners guide shortly, where I go through some of the things I have learned from playing the game, and others.
If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
Picture provided by: Gods Unchained
Resources
Gods Unchained > Splinterlands
🤐