Whats next for EXODE? New Cards revealed!

Things are moving fast for eXode right now. Every day we have new cards and mechanics revealed. There's still no exact date when Booster opening and play with your own cards will happen but we are pretty close, so I'd expect to see it happen no later than June. Today I'm once more going to take a closer look at some of the newly revealed cards and discuss what their implication for the game could be. I'm really enjoying the current card-reveal-spree and I hope you do to!

In case you haven't heard about eXode I'd advise you to first read the articles analyzing their games manifesto or their first playable Alpha version. You'll find all the basic information about the game there. I'm constantly covering the development of eXode, so if you want to learn even more about the game I have a lot of articles to keep you entertained for quite a while. In short words, eXode is a decision making game powered by the Hive blockchain. It's made up of a fast paced Evacuation and more laid back Colonization stage. The game is strongly focused on tradable cards that can enhance your playthrough in many ways. But now lets have a closer look at some of these brand new cards!

The Cruise Ship Captain is one of the Origin cards that can be found in Alpha Edition Boosters. Origins are like Starters in other CCGs. They determine your "base deck" and also what cards you are allowed to add to it. Being a Civilian you are only allowed to add cards with either the Civilian or the Versatile trait. There are several more Origins to be found in Boosters, but the Cruise Ship Captain is the one I like most. Not because of his power level or because of the unique traits he brings, but simply for the creativity he showcases. As eXode detailed in their games manifesto the game is about telling a story and I love the story his Origin brings. The Cruise Ship Captain is no hero, no hardened soldier, no merciless pirate. He's just a captain of a civilian space ship who happened to be at the wrong station at the wrong time.

Or maybe he was just at the right station at just the right time. If you choose to use this origin you are going to be humanities only hope for survival and you just might be able to save more civilians from certain doom than any other Origin could even dream of saving. The Cruise Ship Captain not only allows you to house more passengers on your ship, he also helps you to get them to safety faster. He's so different from the Military Origins we've seen before, it's simply amazing. If you use him for Evacuation you might end up with twice or even thrice the number of rescued passenger onboard your ship. You still have to fight for your lives worth and not having access to Military personal is not going to make it any easier. But if you succeed, you'll end up with a colony that has more citizens than military colonies might have even after several months worth of colonization.

So far we haven't seen too many ship cards revealed so the "Taurus" Class Transport is a breath of fresh air. First of all I have to say that I really like the art of this card and all ship cards revealed so far in general. The artists really understand how to create different styles that are still all looking like a design that would actually be built. The Taurus definitely shines when it comes to rescuing as much cargo as possible during evacuation. It allows for only 4 crew and 2 equipment sets but it has room for a whooping 9 cargo. If memory serves right this is the biggest cargo hold we've seen so far. What really makes this transport special though is the Stabilized warp trait.

During evacuation one of your main goals is to get your hyperdrive upgraded and ready to make it to safety before the aliens blast you from the skies. For every piece of cargo you bring to your ship your chance to successfully make it to warp is reduced by 1%. So if you are anything like me and love to stack up as much cargo as possible you'll end up with a hefty penalty to actually making it out alive. That's where Stabilized warp comes to action. This trait completely negates the reduction of success change caused by your cargo. So no matter how many crates you load to your ship, you'll always have the highest chance to make it to safety.

This amazing trait is coming at a price though. First of all the Taurus has the Nomad Fleet modifier so you need an Origin that has Nomad Fleet. The bad news is - there currently is no Origin with that trait. So you'll first need to get your hands on a card that grants that trait to your chosen Origin. Once you've managed to do that, you can go with the Taurus. With its low crew capacity of 4 though you'll only be able to bring a handful of crew members with you. So while you could load as much cargo as you want, bringing that cargo onboard and protecting those hauling the cargo from hostile crew will be quite a challenge. Balancing this out will be pretty intense and I thus assume the Taurus to be a high risk high reward card that's only really going to pay off if you have the right character cards to build a crew focused on making the most of it.

Now the Ionguard Defense Fleet is something completely new and a kind of card we haven't seen before. During Evacuation there's a space battle going on around the station you are trying to evacuate from. You don't directly interfere in the fight but it basically works like this: The aliens start their attack and fight against the human ships docked at the station. Both the aliens and the Federation send in reinforcements until the aliens will ultimately win the upper hand and destroy the base and all ships docked there. Ideally you'll be long gone when this happens. While you can't fight in this epic battle yourself, you can use cards to influence the battles outcome.

The Ionguard Defense Fleet is exactly such a card. If you use it it summons 3d6 Ionguard Frigates and 1d6 + 3 Ionguard Battlecruisers. These additional ships can make quite a difference in the space battle. While it's highly unlikely (if even possible) that the human forces will win the fight in the end having those ships around will buy you some valuable minutes to load more cargo or rescue more passengers before you have to fire up the hyperdrive. The intercept chance provided by these ships translates to a reduced risk of being hit by the aliens. Every time an alien ship shoots at you your intercept chance is checked. If you are successful the attack will fail, otherwise you'll be hit. So if you have a good roll, the Ionguard Defense Fleet will (at least temporary) reduce your risk of being hit by the aliens by 30%-40%!

Having access to cards like this will make your Evacuation go a lot more smoothly than without any help. There's a random chance that additional Federation ships warp in to defend the station but having additional backup freely available to you can only help your cause.

That's all I have on new cards today but if eXode keeps revealing new cards at the current pace I'll be back with another article really soon. 

Since I really like the game and want to help its development, I'm doing a litte Referral incentive program: All you need to play the game is an origin pack which is currently sold at 8$ each. If you join using my referral link you'll get 2 boosters for free from eXode and I'll send an additional booster your way. Each booster contains 5 random cards chosen from more than 200 unique cards in the Alpha collection. They are currently sold at 2$ each. Boosters can contain beauties like this ship here:

As always, thank you all for reading and please let me know what you think about the game in the comments. See you all next time.