Deckbound Heroes

** This is an open beta - you can currently experience core gameplay and deck building **

Ahead of the release of Deckbound Heroes, you can build decks and play some game features in our open beta.

Build a deck and test it out in a game. See what sort of decks your opponents are building. Try a number of decks in one map, or play one deck in a variety of maps. The maps have different mechanics, so no one deck is ideal.

Get a grasp of the game and deck building and get a head start on your opponents. Discover what the deck builder has to offer.Welcome to the Deckbound Heroes open beta!
Deckbound Heroes is a turn-based strategy game played with collectible cards. There’s no RNG or card draw and decks are built against a points limit. Play over a series of maps in a skills-first take on the CCG format.

Deckbound Heroes is in ongoing development. Based on the response that we’ve had during alpha and closed beta, we’re ready to open up access for all players.

We’re doing things that haven’t been done before and we care about doing them properly. What we deliver to you during the open beta is solid (hence, not being in Early Access) but it’s not finished, so we’d appreciate your support in getting involved in our community and playing the game.

We care very much about player ownership and experience. We will not be doing card resets (we can’t anyway, as Deckbound cards are permanent digital assets) so we’ve staged the release of abilities and features over the open beta to suit this approach. Below is a summary of where we’re at now, what we’re currently working on and what’s in store for the future.This is what we have in the game right now:

• Free starter packs – you’ll need Deckbound cards to play games. All users get free packs.
  
  
• Demo abilities – we’re early on in the roll out of incepted abilities, so you can use special demo abilities on your Hero cards to get started.
  
  
• Dulfaet’s Landing & Kraetan’s Refuge maps – each map has different mechanics. These are the first two of five that we’re launching at the start of the beta.
  
  
• Deck building – a new, web-based deck builder for the open beta. You can use this to build a set of decks, tag cards and explore abilities.
  
  
• Multiplayer games – match against opponents online.

You can view your cards on the genesis map when you open packs


Build decks with your cards and formulate a strategy


Beat your opponent by taking control of the map's outpostsImportant informationThere are 224 “core” hero abilities in the demo set (the first block of cards contains 3000 hero abilities). Demo abilities have a slightly higher points cost than their naturally incepted equivalents. Demo Hero card abilities will be available until we’ve rolled out 70% of the full set of 3000 hero abilities.

The first batch of 500 Hero card abilities will be added to the inception map over the course of March. If you have cards in your collection with these abilities ready to use, we’ll send you a notification letting you know they’re ready to play.

Starter card packs and cards you purchase are tied to your Deckbound account and can be accessed from any machine or game client by logging in with your email address. You can access the deck builder and collection manager from a web browser so you can explore your collection when away from your gaming machine.

Starter card packs are yours to keep, but there will be restrictions on trading them. We’ll announce more details on this as we work toward card trading during the course of the open beta.Upcoming:

• Abilities & card types – over the course of the open beta we’ll be rolling out all 4 card types (Hero, Structure, Minion and Rune) and adding incepted abilities to the full map of ability locations (there are 3000 Hero card abilities on the map for example, the first 500 of which will be added in the first month of the open beta).
  
  
• Card levelling & XP – to coincide with the rollout of the incepted abilities on Hero cards, you’ll be able to accumulate XP in game and level up your cards, unlocking new abilities.
  
  
• Card swaps – the card swap system allows you to add swap cards to your deck that can be swapped between matches. The second player in a game also gets a free card swap at the start of their first turn.
  
  
• More maps – we have a total of five maps launching in the first phase of the open beta, each with different mechanics and all requiring different deck choices to best utilise their features.
  
  
• Art backs – unlock art backs by getting achievements and participating in events and promotions. Art backs can be applied to the cards in your collection and form a permanent part of a card’s history.
  
  
• Rankings, achievements and leaderboards – we’ll be adding friend-based leaderboards, global rankings and in-game achievements over the early stages of the open beta.
  
  
• Match play and matchmaking – as well as the match play system (playing a match over a series of maps with the same deck), we’ll be adding a friends list, player invites and map preferences to the matchmaking system, so you can configure and play games according to your preferences.
  
  
• Single player – an extensive, customisable, single player campaign system that will allow you to play through the challenge content we create, as well as create your own AI opponents and decks.
  
  
• Deities & heroes – each deity has a different deck template and dictates which heroes can be picked for that game. Deck templates allow you to use different types of cards (for example, some include more Structure card slots than others), build your decks around your deity preferences and see the impact of your choices with different in-game characters and animations.

In the future:

• Card augments – augments are awarded through play and can be used to modify your cards. Ability selector, spindle shift and value modification augments allow you to tweak and modify your cards.
  
  
• Trading – trade your cards, card packs, augments and art backs with other players. Optimise your collection by trading with other players.
  
  
• Nomad pool – borrow cards from the nomad pool to try them out. Lend your unused cards to the pool for other players to try them out and level them up.
  
  
• Team play – form and join teams, play in specially configured ranked matches and competitive events.
  
  
• Cross platform play – you can already play across Windows and Mac clients, but the iOS and (later) Android versions of Deckbound Heroes will allow you to play against desktop players.
  
  
• Other games – use your Deckbound cards in other Deckbound games. The second Deckbound game will go into open beta later in the year.
  
  
• More card blocks – Deckbound cards are issued from “blocks” of abilities, once we’ve rolled out the 4 cards types to the first block, we’ll start to work on the next block of abilities.
  
  
• Curiosity cards – the curious and eminently collectible “fifth” Deckbound card type, not playable itself but allows you find hidden aesthetic features of the game and unlock special achievements and rewards.