Prologue
When I came back in 2024, I didn't really know where to start. Everything has gotten so complicated, and I was genuinely lost in the game. Luckily, after a few attempts and being kicked quickly, I found my current guild and the leader - who turned out to be German - helped me out a lot, taking a lot of time to explain things. Brought me to PeakD. And so on.
Now, we finally have a New-Player Experience. One were we can actually get cards to play in real battles, too. No game-changing cards, but quite expensive ones, but the fact that you can play them in modern is important. Let's see what else is there.
First observation: It's fast.
Little hints here and there, click here, click there - done. The second chapter is not more than 5 clicks. And that's how quick I get my dopamine - and a new card. And glint, enough to get a common draw.
Second observation: Learning my mistake.
There are many stories about trade-masters teaching their students by having them do mistakes. That dwarf master called Magnus Flint is no different.
"Yes, master Flint, I do notice that it's not attacking but you told me to put it there!"
"Great, now fetch some monkeys, we need wrenches for the nuts."
Later on, it also uses the same to show how to switch positions of cards. That is an incredibly important part, as there are certain synergies released by putting cards next to each other, and some tactical points to consider, too.
Observation 3: It's rewarding on different levels.
I got more glint. Now I could already go to the Reward Shop and spend that glint on a common draw, and get my first real card. But the campaign hasn't explained the shop yet, just added a little hint towards the existence of that shop.
Observation 4: It's slow.
The introduction of new things is really step-by-step. In chapter five is when you get to know Armor. There is no way to get overloaded by information here, it's soft and sweet, serving wisdom with a little spoon directly into the new player's mouth. And that's good, there's no need to explain Painforge and Reckless to them just yet. They'll feel that eventually and become very confused - but thanks to this tutorial, they'll now the basics enough to review the battle, see what happened, and learn.
Observation 5: There's math!
Okay, an excel would've gotten even more love from me, but the fact that Speed is explained with the actual calculation is great. Speed is one of the most important factors in SPL, and under-estimated so many times. And it's important to know why my Flameblade is always missing Commander Slade. That will save a lot of frustration later.
Observation 6: It's not scripted, but it is.
You can actually lose, if you really want to. Then you failed the mission, because you didn't listen. Double-Smack from Master Flint.
Okay, I played really dumb to get there. Chapter 6, the speed chapter, I placed the ranged first even though Master Flint had told me to use the knowledge I had gained so far to put it in the back.
Otherwise, it didn't matter which melee I put front, I always won and the enemy ranged monster missed twice. I tried that two times with both melee first, same result.
Observation 7: It's like school, different teachers.
Hello Miss Owl! It's a little speciest to have the dwarf teach the "Hit hard!" part, but not the "Hit smart!" part, though. Dwarfs can be smart, too, you know.
That is a great summary. Abilities are incredibly complex and honestly quite hard to explain. The link to the support side is very helpful there, and yes, the command to bookmark it is very necesary to new players. Even I have to look things up there. I recently learned details about Craniax "Final Rest" that I didn't know.
Observation 8: It's exciting!
There are close-call battles. Not everything is a piece of cake. This is chapter 8. It's great to have that as a lot of battles really are that exciting, or even more exciting.
Conclusion
This will help. A lot. The new-player-experience just got a lot better with this. Of course, there are so many other things to learn, but at least the basics are there. And it's better than the last tutorial, by miles.
Creating a new set of cards just for this is brilliant, as it gets the dopamine rush going right from the start. I'll have a look at those cards later today, as this article is already long enough.
Time to spread the word about this!
Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it at least as much as I enjoyed writing :-D If you have any comments or feedback - please let me know! And don't forget to leave your own posts for me to curate. Thank you very much!
If you don't play the game yet, you can use my referral: Click here for referral :-)