How to stack the deck in Order & Chaos Duels - hints, tips, and tricks

As with any card-based game worth its salt, Order & Chaos Duels is not left wanting in the difficulty and learning curve departments.

If you're new to card-battling games, and to CCG (collectible card games) / TCGs (trading card games) in general, then you'll need a guide to get the most from Gameloft's new cardboard-centric take on the Order & Chaos universe.

Handily for you, that's exactly what you can find below.

I know, I know, we're too kind.

The fundamentals



Your aim in Order & Chaos Duels is to reduce the health points of your opponent's Hero card, shown on the left-hand side of the screen, to zero. You lose the game if the opponent does the same to you.

There are multiple ways of chipping away at your foe's health, but the most common and initially effective is through the use of Minions.

Minions are character cards that you place on any of the five spaces on your side of the play area. They reside there until their health falls to zero, at which point they're removed from play and discarded.

To summon a Minion, you'll need the correct amount of energy (the blue number on the card). The amount of energy you have is shown on the right of the screen. This resource is refilled every turn, but you can extend its maximum capacity, once per turn, by sacrificing cards to it.

Simply drag and drop a card you want to get rid of into the discard pile, and you'll see the maximum amount of energy increase by a point. I found it was beneficial to sacrifice at least one card per turn, as it's always useful to have more energy. Plus, the number of cards remaining in your hand isn't going to affect the game on the table.

It's also important to be playing plenty of cards, as the last thing either player wants is to leave a space opposite an opponent's card. If a card is unopposed in your rival's attack phase, he will strike the Hero instead - as mentioned earlier, if that number hits zero, it's Game Over.

So, by positioning cards on the playfield and sacrificing cards you don't need, pretty soon the field is awash with battles. Two opposing cards will attack each other until their health drops out. Once they have, the defending player will likely place another card there to replace it.

Know your cards



To give yourself the winning edge, you'll need to use spells and Hero abilities, as well as take advantage of the status effects most cards in your deck will come with.

This is why knowing how your cards behave is absolutely critical in concocting a winning strategy in battles. When you've selected the character with which you want to play at the main menu, the option to edit your deck pops up.

Make sure to spend some time tweaking and editing your deck here, reading the descriptions you see when you tap on the cards for a closer look.

Let's take one card by way of example and understand what that effect does, shall we...

Gnoll Mage is a Minion that requires 3 energy to summon, can deal out 5 points of damage, and has 7 health points. Those stats are pretty average. If you read the Gnoll Mage description, though, it's noted that its special ability is to Stun the opposing creature should its Attack be 7 or higher.

So, if you're smart, you'll always use Gnoll Mage against the heavier hitters, and while they're stunned, you'll get in a few attacks of your own. If an enemy card has high damage abilities but low health, Gnoll Mage is the man for the job.

This is the sort of stuff that you'll need to work out, plan for, and memorise so that you aren't just reacting to attacks. You'll want to get to know the spells you have, too, for all the above also applies to them.

General tips



You can make it through most of the first major island in the game relatively easily. Towards the end, however, you'll start hitting progress walls.

This is when you need to take the fight online and start winning battles for more money. You'll then spend this dough on more cards, improving your ranking, completing Missions, and learning new tricks from higher-level players.

Not that there's a single winning strategy to Order & Chaos Duels. It's impossible to formulate one way of winning for every single occasion, so make sure you keep experimenting, especially when you unlock a new type of card.

One general rule of thumb, though, is to minimise the number of cards left opposing you at all times, unless the card on the field has been significantly hampered by status changes during play. By doing so, you ensure that there are few aggressors deducting life points from your hero, which is obviously not something you actively want while playing.

As Pocket Gamer community member Jeroen pointed out in the comments section underneath our Order & Chaos Duels review, it's useful sometimes to have fewer cards than more. Though this may seem counter-productive (more is better, surely?), you actually stand more chance of picking a powerful card or a combination of useful cards that you need by limiting the number of cards in the deck, since they're drawn randomly.

Of course, you should also make sure to sign in at least once a day, for the dev has employed the age-old "come back and we'll give you free stuff" 'trick' here. It's worth doing, especially if you get serious about Order & Chaos Duels.

Got any tips to share? Let us and the rest of the PG community know them by leaving them in the comments section below.