Duelyst Review Guide

This is a review guide for Duelyst

Main

A very interesting game with all the problems of a Pay-To-Win game. Duelyst is a battle board card game where 2 players race to drop their opponent's generals hitpoints to 0. You spawn minions, cast spells and equip artifacts to try to control and/or burst the opponent to death. Choose from 5 races, each with 3 heroes for a total of 15 heroes.

Conclusion, try this game, it's not bad. However, caveat emptor, do note the P2W business model. With the crafting system added in, it is possible to keep on getting repeat cards. That way they are basically selling you Spirit. Best price is $49.99 for 40 Orbs.

01/10/16: The ♥♥♥♥ kind of grinded me down after a while. Rare cards were easier to get before the Denizens patch but now it's kind of a negative feeling when you see Commons and repeats, so I'm taking a break from this game for now.

06/12/16 : They stopped giving 100 gold per day and limited it at 90. The number of players have dwindled dramatically.

01/02/17 : Boss Battles are included. Duelyst gives 1 free card just for logging in. They have a Bloodborn Orb business model. 300 gold for a Bloodborn Orb that has 3 unowned cards. It costs $2.99 per Orb and $19.99 for the whole Bloodborn set. I changed my review to "No". After looking at the Battle Pets, it's obvious that Duelyst has fallen into depravity and given up on the game. E.g. Slo, 0-cost 1/4 with Provoke. Monthly quests means complete 15 quests.

01/08/17: Slight changes. The expansion orbs for Bloodbound is 300 gold for 3 cards you do not own. Unearthed Prophecy is 100 gold for 5 random and 1 guaranteed rare, copies allowed. Boss Battles are removed. Bandai Namco is now the new publisher, though I wonder if there will be any difference. Rarity creep is still inherent in the game with legendary spells creating a far greater impact than normal. There are 74*6 + 192 Neutral Cards = 636 Cards in total. For every deck, you have 266 unique cards to build your deck with. Due to the hero constraint, you are limited to playing with approximately 41% of the total cards. Duelyst has transferred over to Bandai Namco.

17/11/17: Gamer population is gone. Based on Twitch Streams, 21 USA, 5 Canada, 2 Brazil, 1 Germany, 2 Mexico, 2 Russian, 2 Belgium, 1 UK, 1 Israel, 1 Sweden, 1 Singapore. The only players left are those hardcore players that have played over 1000 games and have a few 100 win medals. The latest update has a new Build mechanic and the sales of Orbs have reverted to 100 gold per Orb for all units. There is no longer a 300 gold buy.

31/03/18: My hypothesis is that once you get to the higher ranks. The system will force you to start first and start with no 2 cost cards.

25/05/19: Checked in to see what's up. No updates anymore. It's just a new monthly boss. The latest one is Harmony-Dissonance. Easy to beat with the Eclipse creature card.

PROS

1. Nice Art
I like the artwork a lot. Christophe Ha, former Blizzard Overwatch character concept artist, and Anton Nadeev, the environment concept artist, do pretty good work.

2. Strategic Element
Placing your troops in different locations matter. Being 1 square away can make all the difference between losing and winning.

3. Asymmetric Factions
Different cards, different abilities. 6 different factions, each with 2 different heroes for a total of 12 different strategies.

4. Puzzles
Very fun and challenging to think about how to complete a puzzle. The daily challenge is fun to do.

5. Lore on Card
Each card has a tiny piece of a story. One card connects to another card. E.g. Scion's Wish to Pyromancer

31/07/17
6. Terrain Effects
I love this. Each race is now able to create their own special terrain. Previously, only the Abyssian could create Shadow Creep

Abyssian - Shadow Creep: Deals 1 damage to any enemy minion/General standing on it at end of turn

Songhai - ???

Lyonar - Hallowed Ground : Heals 1 Life for any ally/General unit standing on it at end of turn

Magmar - Primal Flourish : All friendly minions standing on it gain "Grow: +2/+2"

Vetruvian - Exhuming Sand : Summon a 2/2 Iron Dervish when you summon a unit from the action bar

Vanar - Blazing Spine Wall : 3/3

♥♥♥♥

1. Pay To Win
Want that specific combo deck? Pay. Best price is $49.99 for 40 Spirit Orbs. Orbs are what you call packs. Each pack has 5 "random" cards. This is the greatest weakness of any TCG. Budget decks have much lower odds winning compared to money decks. Money decks with tons of rare cards are a severe advantage.

2. Repeat Cards
It is possible to get repeats in multiple packs as the solution is to disenchant them.

3. Rarity Creep
The rare cards seriously have abilities that are far superior. One famous example used to be the Battle Sisters. For a low cost of 4, you could draw 2 Faction cards.
https://i0.wp.com/cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/723013/16096031/09393fe4-32fc-11e6-9cb5-2e55deba1b32.jpg?ssl=1

However, to get this card, you currently need to unlock 6 rares of the core set, which is really silly.

4. No Trading System
You want that specific card? Pony up the cash. There is no way to trade that card.

Have an excess card? You can't give/trade it away. It has no value except for disenchanting for crafting.

5. Crafting System
It was recently implemented and did not exist in the alpha. If you want a card, you can grind your♥♥♥♥♥off getting enough spirit to craft that card. The cost for crafting is as follows.

Common (White) - 40 Spirit
Rare (Blue) - 100 Spirit
Epic (Purple) - 350 Spirit
Legendary (Gold) - 900 Spirit

5. Grinding
To get 1 Orb (1 pack of 5 "random" cards), you need 100 gold. It's much easier to farm than Hearthstone but it's still approximately, 1 pack per day. Normally, you would need to play at least 4 games with a specific Faction to earn 2

Play 4 games with 1 Faction - 25 Gold
Play 4 games with 1 Faction - 25 Gold
First Win of the Day - 20 Gold
Welcome Back Play 3 Games - 20 Gold
Puzzle Challenge - 5 Gold
2 Wins Reward - 15 Gold

This table should just about get you past the 100 gold limit. The crafting system mentioned earlier coupled with the ability to get repeats really dilutes the value of your cards.

06/12/2016: The gold gain is no longer 100 gold per day.

01/02/2017: Gold gain is now possible with 100 gold and 1 free common card per day.

6. Imbalanced due to turn order
Starting first is usually worst, in my opinion. The system is similar to Hearthstone where you begin with 1 less mana crystal. Going first also means you are 1 step further away from the middle mana spring.

7. No Neutral Spells
Why are all the spells locked up based on faction? Why are there only neutral minions? Where are the neutral spells?

8. Wasted first turns
Sometimes, based on the Random Number Generator and turn order, you can't curve your cards, which means playing a 2, then a 3, then a 4 and so on and so forth. There are many times where you start out first and have no 2 cost card.

Sure, you can change your strategy and wait for more mana but this feels forced instead of being a choice.

9. Battle Pets [Expansion Pack]
With the new expansion, Denizens of Shenizar, the RNG has been greatly increased with Battle Pets. Battle Pets attack opponents "randomly", which probably means they wrote an alogrithim for who they want to win the game.

10. Mystery Crates
This is flat out gambling for skins. You get a key if you get ranked high enough or if you get buy it. It's the same thing with Team Fortress. I really dislike it.

12. Super Unbalanced
First player starts with 2 mana, second player starts with 3.

After the first 3 turns
First player : 2+3+4 = 9 mana
Second player : 3+4+5 = 12 mana

After the first 5 turns
First player : 2+3+4+5+6 = 20 mana
Second player : 3+4+5+6+7 = 25 mana

As you can see, the maths always favours the second player who also has a free mana well. What cards can be played is also limited. If you start with 2 mana, you can only ever play 2 mana cards.

13. Overpowered Battle Pets
The math for the Battle Pets stats are ridiculous. It's so broken. E.g. Yun, a 3 mana 5/4 Battle Pet. Ion, a 3 mana 2/3 Battle Pet with Range, that does twice the damage to Generals. A normal 3 cost ranged unit is only 2/2 and adds 20% to summoning Mechazor.

14. Hand Draws
The game only allows you to redraw 2 out of the 5 cards. Why you can't redraw your entire hand? Just to prevent consistency?

15. Low Player Population
It started out with a large fanbase but it seems the fans are leaving due to issues like rarity creep.

16. Account Losses When Server Rollbacks/Updates
As with my account, when the server made a rollback, I lost most of my progress. Cards went missing as well. Unlike the traditional medium, there is no physical backup when the cards are removed from your account. You just lose everything.

17. Random Wins
There's a card called Bloodsworn Gambler with the following ability, "Each time this minion attacks, it has a 50% chance to attack again, attacking a random enemy." You can hit the enemy 5 times if the RNG gods love you. The subsequent attacks ignore Provoke or Wind Stopper and can hit any enemy on board. Only the first (the "normal") attack can be counter attacked. The attacks continue even though Gambler is already dead killed by a counter attack. The attacks only stop when Gambler doesn't hit the 50% chance.

I have a replay at https://play.duelyst.com/replay?replayId=-L8voQ0DtsV65VfvAtDL

NEUTRAL

1. Patch Changes
Sometimes, the patches create major nerfs/buffs. E.g. Shadow Nova used to cost 7, with each Shadow Creep dealing damage equal to the number of Shadow Creep on the board. Now, it costs 4, with each Shadow Creep dealing 1 damage. I'm fine with this as games do need to be balanced but it is not a good thing.

2. 2 Card to 1 Card draw per turn
Personally, I preferred the alpha version of drawing 2 cards per turn. The reason is that it is usually more difficult to do a comeback victory with just 1 card. Based on what I understand, they stopped it because the hand size limit is 6 and drawing 2 cards per turn would cause cards to overflow for certain races like Vetruvian.

3. Lore
Personally, I like reading it but the game doesn't emphasize the lore much.

4. Skins
I like games where they sell skins instead of trying to affect the gameplay with a P2W system and rarity creep. However, in this one, there is a P2W model.

5. Lots of Similar Abilities to Hearthstone/Magic the Gathering
Nothing really wrong with this as most abilities have become basic thoroughfare. However, I would like to list the similiarities for all to know.

Taunt (Hearthstone) - Provoke (Duelyst)
Silence (Hearthstone) - Dispel (Dispel)
Battlecry (Hearthstone) - Opening Gambit (Duelyst)
Death Rattle (Hearthstone) - Dying Wish (Duelyst)
Charge (Hearthstone) - Rush (Duelyst) - Haste (Magic the Gathering)
Windfury (Hearthstone) - Celerity (Duelyst)
Bond - Tribe (Magic the Gathering)
Sentinel - Flip cards (Magic the Gathering, 2/2 creature) combined with Secrets (Hearthstone)
Flying (Duelyst) - Flying (Magic the Gathering)
Stun (Duelyst) - Freeze (Hearthstone)
Forcefield (Duelyst) - Divine Shield (Hearthstone)
Rebirth (Duelyst) - Regenarate (Magic the Gathering)

I have yet to find similarities for some, they tend to be map dependent
Airdrop
Ranged
Infiltrate
Deathwatch
Blast
Frenzy
Zeal
Blood Surge
Backstab

6. Summoning Sickness
Strange that every game seems to inherit summoning sickness. I can understand how it can lead to instant death but why no one changes summoning sickness is odd

SUGGESTIONS

1. Price Barrier
Do note that Duelyst has a paywall for competition. People who have no money can't play with a full set. They can only play with what they have grinded.

2. Final Move
If Duelyst ever reaches a point where you realise that the paywall prevents new entrants from coming in and your player population drops to near zero, do consider this suggestion. Open up all the cards to everyone. No more rares, no more grinding, full everything. Then sell players fancy skins and animations at <$2 each to recoup. At no point must you consider creating a gameplay mechanic differential that is due to money. If you think the current business model is sustainable, then forget I ever said anything.

3. Other Mechanics
I can think of quite a few mechanics for Duelyst but I'll skip this for now.

NOTES

Counterplay Games was set up by Keith Lee, lead gameplay programmer for the Ratchet & Clank series at Insomniac Games, and later as lead producer for Diablo III at Blizzard Entertainment and Eric Lang, a board game designer for Fantasy Flight Games and CMON, http://www.ericmlang.com/.

Duelyst is written purely in Javascript.