Hey everyone,

Just to clear something up right away – I am not affiliated with Card Quest in any way, I just enjoy the game a lot and wanted to make a post to help others out with it.

Specifically, I wanted to make a guide to help people know whether it’s a game for them or not. Because it’s a dungeon-crawler-esque cardgame, many go in to it assuming it will be like Dream Quest or Slay the Spire, but it’s truly not like that at all. It's a fun and rewarding game, but there's been quite a few posts with buyer's remorse on this sub so I wanted to inform people as much as I could.

What this game IS

• Well constructed and rewarding. - This game is a wonderful dungeon-crawling card game. You have a character and they start out with base equipment, and equipment is what changes the cards in your deck. As you complete levels, you will unlock more equipment and class options, which will open up more playstyles. The game does a great job with differentiating playstyles, I think – the Fighter (especially once you unlock Paladin style) is methodical, tanky and slow. The Rogue hides from enemies and then chains lots of attacks in to deadly turns. The Hunter keeps his distance from enemies and goes for single, powerful shots. The Wizard deals lots of AoE damage. It’s a well-constructed game like that.

• A Roguelike. - Or perhaps a Roguelite. When you die, your run ends, and you start the next run at level 1. However, equipment and Styles you unlock are retained. You can also unlock a “checkpoint” in each world by beating all three path choices on the 3rd level. This makes later runs much less grindy.

• Very difficult - Most games in this genre tend to be hard, and this is no exception. You have to think about the enemy turns during your own turn, because you share an energy pool between offense and defense. Hand management is critical. This isn't a game to play when you're tired.

What this game IS NOT

• Dream Quest or Slay the Spire - This cannot be repeated enough. Part of the fun of those games is building your deck as you go – adding cards at shops, collecting artifacts, etc. In this game, your deck is mostly going to be static from the moment you start. When you beat a level and get a new piece of equipment, you can add it right away, but this changes the cards in your deck and isn't likely to synergize with what you're running, and is not a central feature of gameplay. Your goal is to think about which path you intend on taking, and building a deck that can get you there.

• Fast Paced - Dream Quest and Slay the Spire have kind of a "fast" quality about them. Everything in this game is methodical. You can only play as many cards as you have energy for, and you need energy both to attack and to defend, so you can't go all-out on attack most of the time. You also have to constantly be discarding cards, because you want to be able to draw in to your "answers", which you can't do if your hand is full. Energy management and hand management is a huge thing in this game, and it takes a lot of thought.

Lastly, if you've decided that this game is worth giving a try (I certainly think it is!) I'd like to throw out a few tips for starting.

• Do the Training levels - Even if you think you know how the play the game, completing the tutorial levels for each class will unlock a trinket for each one. These trinkets are low-value and will quickly be outclassed, but they'll help you a TON while you're gathering equipment.

• There are more than 4 classes - When you go to New Game and you're taken to the equipment selection screen, you can click on your hero image in the upper-left corner and find several sub-classes. The class description will tell you both what the class offers, and how to unlock them (usually by beating certain levels with certain equipment).

• Plan your routes - Some classes and styles deal with certain enemies better than others. For example, the Rogue has very low health and has trouble with enemies in Burnt Town (which cause damage on contact when you use melee attacks). So you need to build a deck around that if you're trying to get that unlock - either something with ranged attack or something that will let you perpetually hide (while the enemies burn themselves to death).

• Plan your turns - Being too aggressive in this game is almost always bad. You need energy to defend. Make sure you have enough available. Also think about your "win condition" cards and try to make sure you cycle through your deck enough to get them when you need them.

That's all I have. Thanks for reading along. Hope this helps someone make a decision - whether that's to buy the game, or to not buy it.