Novice Guide to Star Realms

Overview

An introduction to the game itself, a guide to buying DLC, and gathered tips from the community.

Introduction

Star Realms is a deckbuilding card game designed by a pair of Magic: The Gathering pro players.

Note that a lot of this information is available on the official guide located here[www.starrealms.com].

Deckbuilders were designed as a counter to collectible card games in which the rarest, most powerful cards were also the most expensive, essentially letting the players who spent the most money on the game end up winning most of the time (called “The Chase” by Wil Wheaton).

Instead of building your personal deck of cards outside the game, deckbuilder games have you build your deck of cards as part of the gameplay.

For a more in-depth look at various other deckbuilding games, TvTropes[tvtropes.org] has a good article on them.

• At the end of your previous turn, you will draw a hand of five cards from your personal deck.
• These cards grant you three resources, or let you perform an action such as drawing an extra card.
• When it is your turn, you will play the cards in your hand in any order and gain the three resources.
• Trade is used to buy new cards from the trade row that will be added into your deck.
• Attack is used to attack your opponent’s authority or their bases.
• Authority is your own personal “life point” score – the first player whose authority reaches zero loses the game.
• The Trade Row consists of five cards (plus the Explorer, which is a ship always available for purchase). Players spend their Trade points to acquire cards from the lineup, drawing new cards to replace purchased cards.
• Upon ending your turn, collect the cards in your hand and add them to a discard pile. Your opponent may look at your discard pile at any time. Re-draw five cards from your personal deck into your hand. When your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile and it becomes your new personal deck.
• Stations that are destroyed are added to the discard pile upon their destruction.

Click here[www.starrealms.com] for the official summary.
Official Rules – Part 1[www.starrealms.com]
Official Rules – Part 2[www.starrealms.com]

Buyer’s Guide to Star Realms (digital)

• Play against an Easy AI using the Core Deck (which can be fairly challenging for a while, mind you).
• First chapter of the campaign unlocked.
• All purchases will unlock on the mobile versions as well.
• The final mission of the first campaign is the Pirates of the Dark Star solo scenario as described in the next section.

• Required for online multiplayer.
• Required for Pass & Play (relevant for mobile versions).
• Second chapter of the campaign unlocked.
• The final mission of the second chapter of the campaign is the Nemesis Beast solo scenario as described in the next section.
• Required for Medium/Hard AI difficulty.

• Unlocks Gambits, which are either passive or scrap abilities (remove the gambit card from play entirely and gain a specific benefit).
• Unlocks Chapters 3 and 4 of the campaign.
• Gambits are dealt randomly, two per player.
• Merc Cruiser: 3 Trade vessel with 5 attack that may change its faction every time it is played to trigger ally abilities.
• The new bases allow you to use their bonus if you play a base that round. Starbase Omega, Starmarket, Fortress Oblivion, and Breeding Site are all more effective the more the enemy kills your bases (and thus lets you trigger their effects when they’re deployed)
• The Blob’s Battle Screecher is capable of clearing the entire trade row when played, allowing you to eliminate the opponent’s needed cards.
• Is missing the Security Craft card from the physical promo card pack. Security Craft is part of the Promo Pack 2 instead.
• Uses different artwork than the physical cards.
• Personal Opinion: The promo cards are pretty fun but the gambits themselves feel either underpowered or overpowered.

• Consists of a variety of new cards with varying abilities.
• Unlocks Chapter 5 of the campaign.
• Some like the Trade Raft are similar to existing ships (the Survey Ship) from a different faction and cost.
• Personal Opinion: The cards don’t offer anything that’s particularly new, and some are just clones of existing cards with a different faction. It’s not a bad expansion but not one that changes the gameplay significantly. I personally am unsure what to think about cards that let you buy other cards for free (Customs Frigate lets you do that a little too easy in my opinion; gameplay-wise, leave it to the tougher-to-acquire Megahauler and the allied Blob Carrier) and cards that are clones of existing cards (so each card remains unique and exciting to get), so it’s not for me. Don’t let my opinion stop you though, this and Fleets & Fortresses are fan favourites and staples for competitions.

• Unlocks Chapter 6 of the campaign.
• Events are drawn from the trade deck and, when in the trade row, immediately activate and affects both players (in rare cases, both players in different ways).
• Players are often punished for being unable to follow the instructions on the card (ex: Black Hole: Each player may discard two cards. For every card less than two cards that the player discards, that player loses 4 Authority).
• Adds an element of randomness to the game that is under the control of neither player, unlike Gambits.
• Personal Opinion: They’re okay and add some randomness to the game. The randomness makes Events a poor choice for competitions, but are a good way of spicing up a game that feels that it’s gotten a little old. In general, Events accelerate the pace of the game. If you’re on the back foot, you can use trade row scrapping to try to get events to fire in your favour. If you’re already winning, try to not trigger events.

• Unlocks chapter 7 of the campaign (DLC says 6, but that text is copied for Events as well)
• Heroes are low-cost characters played in the trade deck.
• When scrapped they offer a small bonus as well as a team bonus, thus allowing the activation of ally abilities with only one card.
• They are basically like stations that do not protect you, cannot be destroyed, and their effect only triggers when scrapped.
• Personal Opinion: Like Events, they can prove to be annoying but do add some variety. Their low cost helps reduce those times when you just can’t buy anything with the one trade point you have left over.

• Very similar to the Bases & Battleships expansion.
• Lots of card manipulation: the Cargo Launch card lets you draw a card and…does nothing else (unless you scrap it). The Customs Frigate card lets you acquire for free any cost 4 of less card and put it on top of your deck.
• Personal Opinion: Again, similar to existing cards. Would not recommend for a first purchase, but if you enjoy the game then go for it. I personally don’t like cards that let you acquire other cards for free and cards that are clones of existing cards (so each card remains unique and exciting to get), so it’s not for me. Don’t let my opinion stop you though, this and Bases & Battleships are fan favourites and staples for competitions.

• A potential replacement for the base game, Colony Wars follows much of the same rules as the base game. The most significant changes I’ve encountered are that most of the Blob’s trade row scrapping cards are here, as well as Star Empire’s economy cards.
• Personal Opinion: A favourite of mine in both digital and paper forms. Definitely worthwhile.

• If you liked Gambits from the base game, here are a few more to play with.
• Due to the way the digital copy scraps cards permanently (and does not track scrapped cards), there are a few app-only versions of Gambits.
• Triumphant Return (paper only; pay the price of a scrapped card to put it in your hand; Scouts and Vipers cost 0) is replaced by Glorious Return (app only; pay the price of a cost of a card in your Discard Pile and put it into your hand; Scouts and Vipers cost 0)
• Black Market (paper only; Add an additional space to the trade row above Black Market. Once per turn, the player who revealed Black Market may acquire a card from this space for one less than its trade cost. Otherwise, it functions as a normal trade row space for all players.) is replaced by Gray Market (app only; Choose a faction; cards of that faction cost 1 trade less for this turn).
• Personal Opinion: I was never much of a fan of Gambits, so I decided to skip this one.

• Unlike Year 1 Promos, there are no high-cost cards here. Most are in the 2-4 cost range, with the Merc Battlecruiser being the most expensive card at 6 trade.
• The Trade Federation Bounty Hunter is notable for having one of the highest attack values of any Trade Federation card.
• Also included is the Security Craft promo card.
• Personal Opinion: Unlike most people, I didn’t mind the Year 1 Promo Cards, so I picked up this one fairly quickly.

• Contains cross-faction ships which count as two factions for allying abilities.
• The Assault Pod, for example, is a combination Blob/Star Empire ship that activates both Star Empire and Blob ally abilities. Likewise, its ally ability can be activated either by a Star Empire card or a Blob card.
• Other cards have separate ally abilities. My personal favourite card, the Alliance Frigate, does 4 damage on its own and an extra 3 if partnered with a Star Empire card, and heals for 5 if paired with a Trade Federation card.
• Cross-faction cards are generally weaker than their standard counterparts, but are great for players who like ally abilities.
• Personal Opinion: Did I mention the Alliance Frigate is my favourite card?

Buyer’s Guide to Star Realms (digital, cont’d)

• Unlike the previous Heroes pack, these named Heroes provide bonuses as soon as they are acquired, as well as when you scrap them.
• There are 8 such heroes, a weaker version and a stronger version of each; unlike the previous Heroes they aren’t balanced by cost, so for example there is no Machine Cult hero that costs 3.
• These heroes are notably more expensive than the previous pack.
• Each of these heroes is named after a famous Star Realms tournament winner.
• The exception is the Blobs. Apparently no one wanted their name attached to a squid monster.
• Personal Opinion: While I don’t really feel like having tournament winners in my Star Realms decks, I can’t disagree with their gameplay effects. Gameplay-wise, this is what heroes should have been doing in the first place.

• Has even more cross faction cards.
• Personal Opinion: Nothing groundbreaking here; just more cross-faction stuff. Most of the cards seem economical in flavour, such as the Alliance Transport which is an economy version of the Alliance Frigate.

• Provides an alternate win condition – shown at the beginning of the round are three mission cards that provide bonuses when you complete them.
• Completing all three missions will win the game, as will actually killing your opponent (Authority to zero).
• You can only complete one mission per turn (so no auto-winning all three mission cards on Turn 3). If you accomplish multiple missions simultaneously, pick which one.
• Personal Opinion: Your mileage may vary. It provides a fair amount of spice to stale games, but since you don’t know what your opponent’s objectives are, it’s difficult to play in a way that prevents them from winning. It might feel like the AI cheats by suddenly accomplishing three missions back to back. Stations become extremely important as most objectives are either Allied cards (play one ship and one base of a faction) or are base related (have two or more outposts in play, for example).
• Personal Opinion (Cont’d): A mission win can feel like a come-from-behind victory, but a mission loss can also feel like the opponent was cheating by having all the right mission cards.

• Provides new double-ally abilities. Some new abilities require two other cards of the same colour to activate.
• Encourages players to think more about colours.
• Personal Opinion: Some of these are rather fun and powerful, like the Infested Moon potentially drawing 2 cards plus four straight damage.

• Finally fills in the remaining double faction cards.
• Personal Opinion: See above for my thoughts on dual-faction cards. Did I mention the Alliance Frigate is my favourite card?

Buyer’s Guide to Star Realms (physical)

Personal opinions and expansion details are above. There are however some differences that should be noted.

• The default box is just enough to fit the base game and the rulebooks. You can only just squeeze in maybe one more expansion if you remove the rulebooks.
• Putting the default deck in card sleeves will make the cards too thick to be stored in the standard box.

• Contains the physical copies of the gambit cards and the Mercenary Cruiser cards.
• Notably, also contains two solo challenges, allowing you to play Star Realms solo.
• Also contains two co-op versions of the same challenges, allowing you to play Star Realms cooperatively with twice as many people as you have decks (a four player co-op game requires two decks of Star Realms, for example).
• Even if you don’t like the gambits in competitive games, you can try using them in co-op/solo games to adjust the difficulty.
• Both challenges – Pirates of the Dark Star and the Nemesis Beast, scrap one of the edge cards every turn, move each card in the trade row down to replace the scrapped card, and then draw a new card. The drawn card’s faction determines the enemy’s special ability for its turn.
• Nemesis Beast: Both the Nemesis Beast and the player start with 50 Authority. The Nemesis Beast keeps track of every card it eats and gains one attack point for every card consumed.
• Pirates of the Dark Star: The pirates only start with 25 Authority and the player starts with 75. The Pirates do not gain attack strength every turn, but instead cause damage double the cost of the card drawn to replace it (three times in case of a Blob card; an 8 cost Blob World card causes 24 damage.)
• Personal Opinion: The Nemesis Beast is considerably harder.
• Unlike the digital copy, does not contain the promotional cards, which must be ordered separately.
• The Pirates of the Dark Star and Nemesis Beast challenges are included with the digital version as the final missions of Chapters 1 and 2 respectively. You cannot play them co-op in the digital version.

• The Security Craft is in the Year 2 Promo pack on the digital version, but is included in Year 1 for the physical version.
• Also contains a copy of the Merc Garrison card – with a different art style than if you get it with the Star Realms flip box.
• Strangely, the Starmarket has a cost of 5 in this pack, but a cost of 4 in the digital version.

• Cards are much more varied with differing effects.
• A standalone expansion; contains enough cards and the starting decks of Vipers and Scouts to allow for two players, or four players if you combine this deck with the core deck.

• Two separate expansions with an emphasis on cross-faction cards.
• See above for notes on these two expansions. Same as the digital version.

• A new type of card with an objective (Have two or more bases of the same faction in play) and a reward (draw two new cards).
• A player who completes three missions wins the game.
• With the physical copy, you can always deal more missions if three is too few, or fewer if three is too many.
• Armada: Play 7 or more ships in the same turn. Reward: Draw a card, and acquire an Explorer for free and put it in your hand.

• Additional gambits. Look at the Card Gallery for particulars.
• Does not contain any more challenges like the first set of gambit cards.

• A second set of hero cards, this time with some tournament winners featured. Same contents as the Digital version above.

• Contains a few modified rulesets for use. Good way of mixing up gameplay that isn’t as random as Events.
• Buyer’s Market: At the end of each player’s turn, place one counter (using dice, coins, etc.) on the most expensive card(s) in the Trade Row. Cards cost 1 trade less for each counter on them.

• Much like Colony Wars in that it is a self-contained expansion.
• Contains four starting decks; if you already have the base game and Colony Wars, that’s enough for 8 players (in theory; as far as the rulebook is concerned, 6 players is the maximum)
  
• Contains specialized Authority counting cards (shown right, as seen on The Dice Tower Youtube channel); rather than Authority coming in cards of 1, 5, 10, and 20, these new cards use the edges of the cards to track authority using just two cards.
• Contains 8 challenges that can be played solo or co-op, including the Nemesis Beast and the Pirates of the Dark Star as seen in the Gambits expansion as above; if you’re like me and don’t like Gambits but want those challenge cards, this is what you’ve been waiting for!
• The challenge cards have different dimensions than the normal cards and are slightly longer; this will most likely impact your efforts to sleeve them.

• Currently being shipped out to Kickstarter backers; my local games shop intends to stock these expansion packs around mid-November.
• Consists of multi-faction decks led by a specific leader. Includes some that aren’t mentioned in the Unity expansion.

• Each leader has a different starting hand, different starting authority, and may be aligned to a faction.
• Each leader has a different starting hand containing modified Vipers and Scouts, as well as faction aligned starter ships specific to them (Imperial Talon, Stellar Falcon, Welder Drone, etc.)
• Each commander has their own sets of gambits (2 each)
• Each commander will also have a dual faction 8-cost ship that can be purchased by any player.
• Outside of the 8-cost ship listed above, none of the leaders have trade row ships or bases. You must buy the two Unity expansions listed above for that.

Where can I see all the cards?

[link]

[link] (more complete than above, which is missing a few cards)

OR

Community Strategies

Notice: There may be conflicting information in this list, as these points are gathered from the community (and sometimes edited by me for clarity).

• There are three main factors to consider in the game: Life gain, Scrap, and Damage.
• Life Gain cards restore your authority when you play them (typically Trade Federation/Blue).
• Scrap cards will scrap your starting deck in favour of superior cards (typically Machine Cult/Red)
• Damage cards focus on dealing large amounts of damage (typically Blob/Green or Star Empire/Yellow)
• Life Gain beats Damage and loses to Scrap
• Damage beats Scrap and loses to Lifegain
• Scrap beats Life Gain and loses to Damage.
• Don’t be afraid to not buy if no cards will strengthen your deck.
• If you’re losing, you need to encourage variance, (you might just pull the lucky hand you need!) if you’re ahead, you don’t want variance.
• Don’t become faction-blind; always buy the best cards available based on what’s in your deck. Making your deck “worse” by buying off-faction is okay if it also makes the enemy’s deck “worse” by depriving them of the bonus.
• While powerful, don’t go out of your way to constantly activate faction bonuses. You won’t even care that you didn’t get 2 extra damage when you cause a boatload of damage to the enemy anyway.
• Marrying yourself to one faction leaves victory up to the randomization of the trade row. You have much more control than that.
• Most games last four or five decks (not hands). If you buy trade on deck 2, that card won’t come out until deck 3 and the card that buys won’t be out until deck 4.

• Cards that give economy – Freighter, Cutter, Supply Bot, Trade Pod – are all excellent purchases in the early game.
• Most cards of cost 6 or higher are called “bombs” and can often sway the tide of the game. Either pick them up yourself or use a trade row scrapping power to neutralize them.
• Explorers can be useful early-game when the trade row consists of nothing but high-cost items, but they quickly lose their benefits once real trade cards enter the fray. Fortunately, you can always scrap them for 2 damage. Don’t keep Explorers in the end-game, and don’t go crazy buying them.

• Trade Federation cards have a lot of powerful ally abilities. Trigger them whenever you can.

• A Recycling Station works really well with Machine Cult scrap cards. Activate the recycling station to get rid of Scouts and Vipers, and then use the Machine Cult cards to eliminate them permanently.
• The Recycling Station is almost always a good buy, and helps you cycle through the junky cards in your deck very quickly.

• Don’t underestimate Blob Wheels and especially the Hive, their damage can stack up.
• Rams hit really hard for seven damage if you trigger their ally ability. Even without, five damage is very good for its cost.
• Especially in the expansions, Blob cards are excellent at eliminating cards in the trade row without buying them. This pairs well with ships like the Megahauler, which can only target ships.

References

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