Elder Scrolls Legends just released on iOS and Android today and in honor of that, I figured I'd create an OT since there wasn't already one. Some of the wording was taken from the Hearthstone OT (the games are similar with a few key differences).
If you like Hearthstone you'll probably enjoy Elder Scrolls Legends as well, and since its free to play, I encourage anyone interested to at least try it out. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I'm not familiar with how to create them in GAF threads.
What is it?
Elder Scrolls Legends is a free-to-play online Collectible Card Game based on the Elder Scrolls universe. The game is developed by Direwolf Digital, creators of the Eternal Card game (also a free-to-play online Collectible Card Game). Cards are given one of the following attributes Strength (Red), Intelligence (Blue), Willpower (Yellow), Agility (Green), Endurance (Purple, and Neutral (Grey) and each attribute tends to favor a certain style of play (i.e. Strength is more aggressive and Intelligence uses more spells). Decks are created using a minimum of 50 cards of at most 2 different attributes and neutral cards (i.e. you can create a deck with Strength, Intelligence and Neutral cards, but not Strength, Intelligence and Willpower cards). Earn Gold and a card for every three wins and use the Gold to buy booster packs in order to expand your card pool, or use the Gold to purchase a ticket to the Arena where you construct your own deck on the fly using a random pool of all cards in the game. There is no offline play, but there are singleplayer adventure modes.
Platforms
Steam
iOS
Android
Bethesda Launcher
Can I play for free
Absolutely. This game is far far more generous than Hearthstone. While the daily quests are similar to Hearthstone (each day you get a quest that you can complete for between 40-70 gold or a free pack), you get 15 gold and a random card for every 3 wins rather than Hearthstones 10 golds for every 3 wins. The arena rewards are also much more generous.
However, by far the best way to get a collection is through Twitch Drops. After linking your twitch account to your Bethesda account using the link below, simply watch any twitch channel streaming Elder Scrolls Legends and you will eventually win one of the three rewards below. It normally takes me about an hour of watching, and you don't even need to have it onscreen. I open a stream at work, minimize it, and in an hour I have a drop. You can also obtain these drops on the twitch mobile app. You will know when you have received a drop because you will get a whisper on twitch from Bethesda telling you what you've received. Next time you log into the game, you will have the reward. You can only obtain one drop every 6 hours, but come back 6 hours after you've obtained the drop and you can get another. Keep repeating and you'll have quite the collection soon enough.
600 gold
1500 soul gems
A random legendary card.
100 gold
100 soul gems
50 gold
Twitch drop link
To put this into perspective, a common card costs 50 soul gems to craft, a rare costs 100 soul gems, an epic costs 300 soul gems and a legendary costs 1200 soul gems. A pack of cards costs 100 gold, an arena ticket costs 150 gold, and each of the 3 parts of the Adventure costs 1000 gold. With twitch drops you can either get enough gold to buy 6 packs a day, a free legendary a day, or enough dust to craft a legendary and an epic of your choice each day.
Content
The game released back in March, but since then it's received the Dark Brotherhood Adventure which consists of 25 missions spread over 3 different chapters that cost 1000 gold each. These missions are single player and have you battling against the AI. Each of the chapters can also be bought for $7.99 USD or $20 USD for all 3 chapters at once. Completing these missions unlocks 40 cards that can only be obtained through this adventure.
Last month, it also received the Skyrim expansion. Instead of a PVE Adventure like the Dark Brotherhood, the Skyrim expansion added over 150 cards that can be obtained by buying skyrim packs of cards.
Getting Started
As a new player, the first thing to do would be to run through the story mode. It does a great job of teaching you the basics of the game and you also get a bunch of free cards and card packs for playing through it.
The game also gives you for free one of 5 precrafted decks. These decks are fantastic for beginners and are pretty decent. Once you start building up a gold
1) Buy the 4 other precrafted decks for 500 gold each. This will give you more variety in decks to use and gives you a ton of cards for a great price.
2) Buy the dark brotherhood adventures for 1000 gold each. These adventures are fun and give you cards that can only be obtained by buying these adventures.
3) Use some gold on both skyrim and core packs to start building your collection.
4) Once you've learned the game a bit, start playing arena. It costs 150 gold to enter, but you're guaranteed a card pack and some rewards even if you don't win a single game. As long as you win at least 1 game, the rewards will be worth the 150 gold.
5) Spend 1500 gold to purchase the Madhouse collection. These 10 cards can only be obtained this way. However they are very situational, so you really won't need them.
What makes this different from Hearthstone and other card games
By this point you're thinking this all sounds like a clone of Hearthstone. However there are two mechanics that make it very different.
Prophecies
Each hero starts with 30 gold. When the heroes health drops to 25 hp or below and each subsequent 5 hp mark (i.e. 20hp, 15hp, 10hp, etc), a rune breaks and the player whose hp dropped draws a card. If the card drawn is a prophecy card, the player gets to play it immediately. This creates some strategy around when to attack your opponent if you're going to break a rune since you'll be giving them a card and could be giving them a card they can play immediately.
Two Lanes
Unlike Hearthstone, there are two lanes, a normal lane and a shadow lane. The creatures played in one lane can not attack creatures played in the other lane (with certain minor exceptions). Additionally, cards played in the shadow lane gain cover the turn they are played and can not be attacked that turn.
Other Resources
Elder Scrolls Legends Reddit
GAF thread about the beta
Legends Decks - Great site for deck builds
This thread!
If you like Hearthstone you'll probably enjoy Elder Scrolls Legends as well, and since its free to play, I encourage anyone interested to at least try it out. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I'm not familiar with how to create them in GAF threads.
What is it?
Elder Scrolls Legends is a free-to-play online Collectible Card Game based on the Elder Scrolls universe. The game is developed by Direwolf Digital, creators of the Eternal Card game (also a free-to-play online Collectible Card Game). Cards are given one of the following attributes Strength (Red), Intelligence (Blue), Willpower (Yellow), Agility (Green), Endurance (Purple, and Neutral (Grey) and each attribute tends to favor a certain style of play (i.e. Strength is more aggressive and Intelligence uses more spells). Decks are created using a minimum of 50 cards of at most 2 different attributes and neutral cards (i.e. you can create a deck with Strength, Intelligence and Neutral cards, but not Strength, Intelligence and Willpower cards). Earn Gold and a card for every three wins and use the Gold to buy booster packs in order to expand your card pool, or use the Gold to purchase a ticket to the Arena where you construct your own deck on the fly using a random pool of all cards in the game. There is no offline play, but there are singleplayer adventure modes.
Platforms
Steam
iOS
Android
Bethesda Launcher
Can I play for free
Absolutely. This game is far far more generous than Hearthstone. While the daily quests are similar to Hearthstone (each day you get a quest that you can complete for between 40-70 gold or a free pack), you get 15 gold and a random card for every 3 wins rather than Hearthstones 10 golds for every 3 wins. The arena rewards are also much more generous.
However, by far the best way to get a collection is through Twitch Drops. After linking your twitch account to your Bethesda account using the link below, simply watch any twitch channel streaming Elder Scrolls Legends and you will eventually win one of the three rewards below. It normally takes me about an hour of watching, and you don't even need to have it onscreen. I open a stream at work, minimize it, and in an hour I have a drop. You can also obtain these drops on the twitch mobile app. You will know when you have received a drop because you will get a whisper on twitch from Bethesda telling you what you've received. Next time you log into the game, you will have the reward. You can only obtain one drop every 6 hours, but come back 6 hours after you've obtained the drop and you can get another. Keep repeating and you'll have quite the collection soon enough.
600 gold
1500 soul gems
A random legendary card.
100 gold
100 soul gems
50 gold
Twitch drop link
To put this into perspective, a common card costs 50 soul gems to craft, a rare costs 100 soul gems, an epic costs 300 soul gems and a legendary costs 1200 soul gems. A pack of cards costs 100 gold, an arena ticket costs 150 gold, and each of the 3 parts of the Adventure costs 1000 gold. With twitch drops you can either get enough gold to buy 6 packs a day, a free legendary a day, or enough dust to craft a legendary and an epic of your choice each day.
Content
The game released back in March, but since then it's received the Dark Brotherhood Adventure which consists of 25 missions spread over 3 different chapters that cost 1000 gold each. These missions are single player and have you battling against the AI. Each of the chapters can also be bought for $7.99 USD or $20 USD for all 3 chapters at once. Completing these missions unlocks 40 cards that can only be obtained through this adventure.
Last month, it also received the Skyrim expansion. Instead of a PVE Adventure like the Dark Brotherhood, the Skyrim expansion added over 150 cards that can be obtained by buying skyrim packs of cards.
Getting Started
As a new player, the first thing to do would be to run through the story mode. It does a great job of teaching you the basics of the game and you also get a bunch of free cards and card packs for playing through it.
The game also gives you for free one of 5 precrafted decks. These decks are fantastic for beginners and are pretty decent. Once you start building up a gold
1) Buy the 4 other precrafted decks for 500 gold each. This will give you more variety in decks to use and gives you a ton of cards for a great price.
2) Buy the dark brotherhood adventures for 1000 gold each. These adventures are fun and give you cards that can only be obtained by buying these adventures.
3) Use some gold on both skyrim and core packs to start building your collection.
4) Once you've learned the game a bit, start playing arena. It costs 150 gold to enter, but you're guaranteed a card pack and some rewards even if you don't win a single game. As long as you win at least 1 game, the rewards will be worth the 150 gold.
5) Spend 1500 gold to purchase the Madhouse collection. These 10 cards can only be obtained this way. However they are very situational, so you really won't need them.
What makes this different from Hearthstone and other card games
By this point you're thinking this all sounds like a clone of Hearthstone. However there are two mechanics that make it very different.
Prophecies
Each hero starts with 30 gold. When the heroes health drops to 25 hp or below and each subsequent 5 hp mark (i.e. 20hp, 15hp, 10hp, etc), a rune breaks and the player whose hp dropped draws a card. If the card drawn is a prophecy card, the player gets to play it immediately. This creates some strategy around when to attack your opponent if you're going to break a rune since you'll be giving them a card and could be giving them a card they can play immediately.
Two Lanes
Unlike Hearthstone, there are two lanes, a normal lane and a shadow lane. The creatures played in one lane can not attack creatures played in the other lane (with certain minor exceptions). Additionally, cards played in the shadow lane gain cover the turn they are played and can not be attacked that turn.
Other Resources
Elder Scrolls Legends Reddit
GAF thread about the beta
Legends Decks - Great site for deck builds
This thread!
