If you are a player returning after a long hiatus, all the changes happened to Duelyst can be intimidating. Here are described some of the biggest changes and some advice.
First it can be that you have to link your Duelyst account to your Namco account. How that works can be found here.
Having problems with creating a Namco account due a password error? This post offers some solutions.
Some countries like China got blocked. If you are playing from one of these countries, try to use the browser version, that should work.
This post helps you if you use MacOS and get the "Your graphics hit a snag" error message.
Banang explains some new changes after April 2016 in his video from January 2017:
Other changes which happened:
- Book Icon - This is a "lore notification" which you can click on the card to read a sample of lore attached. Next to the search bar there's a gear/cog button for additional settings, you can click on it to hide all the lore notifications.
- Purple Coloring - Prismatic Cards, which is Duelyst's attempt at Foil/Golden cards. The only thing they do currently is alter the card front into that purple you mentioned, and a small rainbow effect when played. They disenchant for more spirit (and cost tons more to craft). Most people here just DE them for spirit.
- Every faction now has 3 Generals. You can unlock the first alternate General by leveling up a faction up to level 11 and the second alternate General by winning 10 games with their faction. Generals have different Bloodbound abilities which could mean a completely different playstyle for that faction. (Keep in mind that there are also General Skins you can purchase in the Armory for spirit, they appear as separate cards in your collection).
- One new keyword Bond: Triggers a special effect when this Minion is summoned whilst at least one other minion from the same tribe is on the board.
- Another new keyword Blood Surge: Blood Surge is a keyword ability that activates any time you use your Bloodbound Spell.
- And a third new keyword Sentinel: Sentinels have two forms – when you first play your Sentinel minion it will appear on board as a Watchful Sentinel token, waiting to transform. Unless your opponent triggers the hidden condition listed on your Sentinel minion, it will remain a Watchful Sentinel token with no effect. Only your opponent can trigger your Sentinels on their turn, however only you know what they transform into!
- Trial and Destiny keywords, where your game plan gets a permanent boost if you complete the steps of the Trial. These happen to be on cards with the new Mythron rarity of which you can only have 1 in your deck. Also you get one Mythron card for free when you open your first Trials of Mythron orb and afterwards for every tenth (so 1.,11.,21.,31.,41.,51.,61.). You can also craft these Mythron cards for 1200 spirit and will get your spirit back when you opened enough orbs.
- The Intensify keyword, making cards gradually more potent each time you play a new copy.
- There are Buildings. When you summon a minion with the Build (x) keyword, it comes into play as a 0/10 Structure. At the beginning of your turn, your minion's build counter decrements by one: this occurs every turn until the build counter reaches zero. Once the build counter reaches zero, the Structure will transform into the minion you played from your action bar! At this point, the minion is fully active and can begin to move and attack. Read more here.
- They totally changed Mechs. Read more about that here.
- There are no keys anymore. If you get a crate you can instantly open it for free for its contents.
- You can purchase Orbs with Gold or Diamonds. Gold is only useful for buying Orbs or Gauntlet Tickets, which in turn creates more Orb and Gold (and hopefully Gauntlet Tickets). In other words, Gold = Orbs = Cards = Spirit. Keep in mind that anything you see in the Armory/Shop can be purchased with Spirit, so the game is actually F2P if you can hoard up enough gold.
- The ingame Watch Section for streamers doesn't work anymore. You can only find replays there anymore.
Some advice:
- Take it slow - you have 6 expansions to catch up on cards and things can get scary.
- Core is still the best investment for most players starting the game. So until you have a solid foundation of core cards, don't go digging into expansions. Here is a guide about what orbs of the newer expansions to buy if you came back from a hiatus.
- Join us on Twitch - you can earn free stuff with Twitch Drops. Just pick up a streamer and start watching. Most of the guys (like Scarzig, Hsuku, etc) are educational streams with a bit of memes.
- Here you get 5 free Mythron orbs! Thanks Steelseries for that promotion!
- Here you find an explanation how to get 3 free Core orbs and 1 common crate! Thanks Alienware for that promotion!