Tutorial
Archmage is a fantasy turn-based card game. The game consists of rounds. Round consists of turns. In most cases one round consists of only one turn, but some cards allow player to make additional turns in the same round. In one turn a player can play one card. Then the next turn follows. After end of player's round it's his opponent's round, where he gets to play card(s). This way the players play the game - always one playing cards and the other one waiting for the next round where he can play cards. The cards themselves modify some attributes of the game (such as tower and wall height, resources ...).
In the center of the screen you can see card history. There are no cards there at the beginning of the game, but later it will hold the card(s) recently played by you and your opponent. Above card history is the notice which informs you which player's turn currently is.
To play a card, you need touch the screen and move card to up. After you release finger card will be played. For discard card you need move card down. For win you need build you tower more than 100 or destroy enemy tower
How to play
Single Player Mode
To begin a match in Single Player mode against the computer’s AI, select the BATTLE button from the main screen. Doing so will immediately open a game window consisting of six (6) cards in your hand, along with your Tower, Wall, and Resource stats. You will always play first.
Turns
Gameplay begins with the player going first. On the screen are six cards, these are the cards in your hand. Along the left hand side of the screen are your resources; these will be explained later. They are used to pay the cost to play the cards from your hand. You must either play (by swiping up) or discard a card (by swiping down) on your turn. If you swipe up on a card it will play it and deduct the cost from your resources. Whatever card actions will occur, and then the opponent takes their turn. Play then alternates back and forth. A winner is determined when a player either builds their tower to one hundred (100) or destroys their opponent’s tower by reducing it to zero (0).
Resources
There are three categories of resources. You maintain a Quarry, Magic and Dungeon. The resources are used to pay the cost of playing cards.
When viewing the three resource boxes, the large number represents your Production number and shows you how many will regenerate each time your turn begins. The smaller number written along the colored stripe represents the amount of actual resources you currently have on hand.
- Quarry produces Bricks
- Magic produces Gems
- Dungeon produces Recruits
Generally speaking, the color of the resource box (I.E. red for Quarry, blue for Magic, green for Dungeon) will be reflected upon certain cards that require that particular resource to play. This way you can easily match which cards pertain to which resource necessary to play it.
Tower and Wall
Each player starts out with a Tower and a Wall. The Tower is the life of a player: If a Tower reaches zero (0) you lose the match. The opposite is true though, if your Tower reaches one hundred (100) or more, you automatically win the match.
Your Wall acts as a protective shield, any damage will be dealt to it first. If any damage is leftover, the remainder will be inflicted upon their tower.
Keep in mind there are some cards, even in your own deck, that can cause your Wall to increase, decrease, or simply be traded with your opponent’s Wall.
Cards
There are several facets to a card such as the following:
- Name - The name of the card is written along the top.
- Action - The card action text is listed in the center/body of the card. This details what will happen if that card is played.
- Cost - Along the bottom, in circular buttons the cost to play the card is indicated. The colors pertain to which resource, and the numbers detail how much of that resource is necessary to play the card and perform its Action on your turn. Red refers to Bricks, Blue matches with Gems, and Green points to Recruits. If the cost button is a neutral gray, then that means it requires that number of resource from all three at once.
- Totem - Each card has a totem that it represents such as Life, Death, Magic, Quarry, Fire, Zoo, Earth.
Cards are used to altar the game so that you ultimately end up with a winning tower or you destroy your opponent’s tower. When you play a card by swiping up you pay its resource cost, and the action text is carried out, removing the card from your hand. If you discard a card by swiping down, it is immediately discarded from your hand and shuffled back into your deck.
A brief look at the totems themselves.
- Life - These cards generally quickly multiply your resources or tower as well as the coveted get last played cards and switch with enemy. Cards are reasonably priced.
- Death - These cards can do massive damage to either wall or tower as well as increase or decrease all resources at once. Very powerful and expensive to play.
- Quarry - The quarry totem is loaded with quick easy ways to build up your wall and your resources. It will also give you some return firepower to the enemy wall. Cards can be very cheap to reasonably priced.
- Magic - The magic totem is more directed at building your magic quickly so you can increase your tower more quickly. It can also boost resources and your ability to survive longer matches. Cards can be very cheap to reasonably priced.
- Zoo - The zoo consists of your entities and mostly use recruits. This totem focuses mainly on damage targeted at your opponent. There are a couple of expensive high damage cards which target an enemy dungeon that are highly valued. These cards are moderate to expensive to play.
- Fire - These cards include moderate to heavy destruction upon enemy tower as well as heavy resource drops including the power to discard different types of enemy cards to your strategic advantage. The coveted Your Cards Burn in Fire card is included in this totem. Cards are reasonably priced.
- Earth - These cards combine the resources from both the quarry and the dungeon in order to manipulate resources, damage, or even the prized theft cards which let you steal cards directly from your opponent’s hand. Cards can be very cheap to reasonably priced.
Options
Game options for single player are listed within the Menu button. Here you can select your starting tower and wall positions along with how many of each resource you’ll begin a match with. You can also tweak what values determine a win along with selecting different background scenes and vibration and visual effects.
Multiplayer/Network Mode
To play in Network Mode, against other players, you must press the NETWORK button from the main screen. This will connect you to the Archmage network and from there you can either join one of the waiting challenges or you could choose to start your own.
If you choose to start your own match it will ask you if you want to use the basic deck of cards, the extended deck or your own custom built deck. You can also choose to create a private match where you can assign a password required to join.
Lastly you select which type of battle it will be, either a regular match, or one that is strictly based off of whoever loses their tower first. When a match is played, the person who created the match always goes first. From there, the rest of the game play is pretty much identical to Single Player Mode, above.
Deck Building
Half of the fun of Archmage is the ability to customize your own deck of cards. You must choose a minimum of 50 cards to be in one’s deck. Only one of a particular card can be in your deck.
When you’re building your deck you can choose to sort through the different totem filters at the top to locate desired cards more easily.
Coins and the Improvements Shop
Coins are obtained by winning matches. The higher ranked someone is above you, the more coins they will pay out if you win the match. The lowest amount of coins you can win for a single match is 1 Copper.
When you get 10 Copper, they are automatically traded in for 1 Silver. When you get 10 Silver they are automatically traded in for 1 Gold. Coins are used to purchase a variety of upgrades and bonuses in the Improvements Shop. To enter the shop, simply click on the picture of coins and it will bring up the items for sale.
The Leaderboards
There are two Leaderboards, the weekly and the top 20 all time highest scorers, based off of games won. Check where you place and compare it to the top players!
The Chat Lounge
Unwind and get to know your fellow mages in our chat lounge which is always open. Scroll up to find out what conversations you’ve been missing out on as well.
Game Menus/Navigation
Here is an overview of each game menu and button, what they lead to and what they are for.
From the main screen: BATTLE- Enter into a single player battle TUTORIAL- Open up the QUICK START TUTORIAL NETWORK- Switch to the network screen for multiplayer options EXIT- This button shuts down the Archmage program OPTIONS- This button, disguised as a pair of cogs, opens the options menu. MUTE- This button, pictured as a speaker, will mute all game sounds MENU- Not an onscreen button, but if you press your phone’s menu button it is identical to pressing the OPTIONS button
Through the menu, you can: -decide on how cards arrive to your hand -select the difficulty of the AI for Single Player mode -custom build your deck -send in a donation (Russia only at this time) -open a seperate, single player only OPTIONS menu