Spellweaver Quick Getting Started Guide

How to get the most out of Spellweaver's quest and battle rewards system right off the bat.

Getting started

If you've stumbled upon this guide but haven't read my review, go here first to learn why you should play this game!

- Create your account with this link to earn 75000 gold: https://spellweaver-tcg.com/signup/?code=KQJSGS
OR
- Within one hour of creating your Spellweaver account, use my referral code KQJSGS ("Redeem key" in the Main Menu) to get 75 000 gold. (Or someone else's. I don't care, just use one.)

- You can play from Steam or by installing the standalone client after you create your account at the link above*.

- Extra-special promo for December 2020, you can get all cards from the first season (Valiant Dawn) plus the first three card releases from the ongoing season (Ancients Rising)!!!
https://games.steelseries.com/giveaway/1500842831/spellweaver-valiant-dawn-full-playset-giveaway (not available in all countries, but a VPN with a server in the US will do the trick - some other players report Hungary working for them)
This promo "fills up" your collection but won't give you cards you already have, so you want to use it before other promos.

- Be on the lookout for promos, these ones that give you free decks that include some rare cards are still valid as of November 2020:
https://www.mmogames.com/giveaways/spellweaver-wrath-of-shamans-giveaway/
https://eu.alienwarearena.com/ucf/show/1924200/boards/contest-and-giveaways-global/Giveaway/spellweaver-zombies-deck-packs-key-giveaway

- You can pick any starter deck, as all of them are capable of beating the initial quests to unlock the other ones (I've tested it myself recently with a new account). Which you should do as soon as possible, since that also unlocks the quest regions and will allow you to complete several of those at a time.

- Universal deckbuilding tip: always include a single copy of Valley of the Ancients in every deck. Then, if you make sure to use Divine Offering as often as needed to always have two shrines in hand, you're pretty much guaranteed to be able to play a shrine every turn.

- Some PvE matches later down the line might seem impossible, but the AI is actually not that smart, they are definitely beatable using a customized deck built from starter cards. And by that point you'll have a few more good cards of each color to use.

Here you have some guides about creating good decks with your starting cards (somewhat outdated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu2JeiS8gdM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtaJjaio3KQ

Queen Alyenna in particular can be a tough cookie to crack, tips here (somewhat outdated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6scMPaEgaJw

- New quests appear on the map every 8 hours on spots you have unlocked. You can only pick one quest per region. You can decline a quest if you have a hard time completing it.

The quests that give you uncommon or rare cards are particularly good, as they always give you cards you're not done collecting (i.e. don't have four of). Until you've got all cards of the given rarity of course.

- As soon as you hit level 6 try your hand at playing Ranked. The rewards are pretty high (x5) even if you lose, as long as you do your best and don't concede early (thankfully, botting or dragging out the game doesn't work in this game).

- Get to level 13 as fast as you can to unlock the Academy and get a Rare or Epic quest every 3 days, with substantial rewards. Note that rare or epic quests can also show up at regular quest spots on the map.

- The game will regularly give you a Hero Pack with a new hero and some good cards, every five levels I believe until you've got them all.

- Expansion cards: the latest set Ancients Rising is being released a few cards at a time. Those cards are a bit harder to get, you can get those from Draft (not Ghost Draft) tournaments, Novelty Packs, Premium/Foil packs or by an outright purchase of the module with gold (which you can grind) or crystals (real money, or rarely from quests).

- Campaign cards: You can buy the campaign to enjoy the story and get 4 of all new cards once you complete it, but it's not mandatory. (If you do so, be aware that the campaign is pretty challenging and that you'll lose some fights until you adapt your deck to each specific enemy.) All new cards from the campaign show up in the usual packs along with all other cards in the game.

- For deckbuilding inspiration and something to work towards, there are usually some interesting posts on https://www.spellweaverdb.com/

- The unfortunately incomplete (slighly outdated) wiki[spellweaver-tcg.wikia.com] can still be a good help to understand the base mechanics of the game.

- When you unlock Trials (equivalent of Hearthstone's Arena) you can try it out, but be aware that it requires good knowledge of all the cards, and that you might face very good players. You need to go at least 3-3 to break even. Expect to lose some gold initially. This video series can help (again, slightly outdated): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyS7AvGtjRX-5nZ0SXYUHQfTWT6KnTy0d

- Crafting: whatever you do, don't unbind your cards for crafting until you have excess ones (more than 4 of each, or more than one for heroes). I saw a very frustrated new player who did that. Crafting is more like a last resort help or icing on the cake in this game to get the occasional missing card. Save it for rares/epic/heroic cards, you'll get all the commons and uncommons soon enough.
If you are very, very patient, only unbind cards when you can do so for full value because they were just nerfed (this assumes you watch updates to the game closely). Unbinding foil cards you got from quests this way is the most lucrative way to get shrines for crafting. Note that even if you use this system, it's never worth keeping more than 8 copies of a card since you only ever get to unbind 4 copies of a nerfed card at full price.

- If you plan to spend money to support the game or collect cards faster, premium packs are pretty cool as they guarantee you won't get useless copies of a card, i.e. if you have a card x4 you won't get a fifth one unless you've already got all cards of that rarity level. Useful to get those last cards for your collection. Someone made a detailed analysis[digitalcardgamers.com] of what would be the optimal way to get the full collection for a paying player (possibly outdated).

Personally I played for many months for free and got a nearly full collection before deciding to put some money on the game, more as thanks than as a necessity, so don't think that spending money is necessary to play. Unless perhaps you're in a big hurry to get to the top of competitive events.

*Steam takes a huge cut from your in-game purchases, so if you want to support the developers, better to make purchases through the standalone game client you can download from https://spellweaver-tcg.com/download/

Community

- As of November 2020 the player base is small but active and dedicated, with a regular Masters tournament with cash prizes that gets casted on the official Youtube channel.

- It means long queue times for some game modes, so you really want to advertise in global chat that you're queuing in Friendly/Ranked/Trials or that you need more players to start a Tournament.

- These days discussions take place mostly on Discord, and to a lesser extent on Reddit:
https://discord.gg/kuMTPWh
https://www.reddit.com/r/Spellweaver/

- Jotto's Youtube channel is not updated very often but has quality content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmIj8gNlSJQyW7T4XYouCDA
He also usually does a stream to comment on new card releases and try to predict their effect on the meta:
https://www.twitch.tv/mg_jotto

[UncleYar]

Thanks for letting me know, removing it right now.

[Souji]

Thanks
The code doesn't work any longer

[UncleYar]

You welcome :) ! Make sure to do the Halloween missions while they're available, the rewards are pretty amazing.

[Jonic]

Thank you man for all those tips ! I'm not a really a Hearthstone fan but more likely a Solforge one . Wanted to find a good card game and I just came to this game just yesterday and i love it for now. It kind of refreshing to restart playing a card game