FOREWORD
I was surprised to be accepted as a CyBall community mod a little over a month ago, and I mentioned that I feel one of my strengths in a strategy game is to be able to break down pieces of the game and study it on a dissected state. Today I will be sharing with you some tips I wish I knew when I started, and will try to break down Tactic Cards!
If you've never heard of CyBall, continue reading this, but if you have, you can skip to the next part "BEFORE YOU BEGIN" after the first photo!
BASIC GAMEPLAY
To start off, if you haven't heard about CyBall, it's one of the hottest and newest Play-to-Earn strategy games out there! It takes 3 team members called CyBlocs, and its a lot about energy management and prediction, and picking which CyBlocs attack during a round called Key Events! Players need to choose which CyBloc plays in a Key Event, and the one with the higher stat calculation wins. You start each game with 4 Energy that you will use to play Tactic Cards. These are played during each Key Event, which can affect stats, energy, and general gameplay!
There are a total of six Key Events which are split into two halves. Note that your CyBlocs are restored from Exhaust (more about this below), and you draw a new hand during the second half/last three Key Events. They can either come in Solo or Tandem, which require either one or two Cyblocs to participate. Key Events also require a certain Skill to play, and each CyBloc has six skills - Tackling, Passing, Dribbling, Crossing, Shooting, and Physical - all with different values assigned. So if the Key Event is for Solo Tackling, you'd want to choose one CyBloc with the Highest Tackling value. If the score after the six Key Events are tied, you will enter Penalty Mode.
Penalty Mode is when you will have 5 tries to score as many goals as possible, and also have to block your opponents 5 shots. You can choose to shoot and block Left, Straight, and Right, and it's pretty much a guessing game. Whoever has more goals wins, but if it's also a tie, it will enter Sudden Death! The first person to shoot in Penalty Mode gets the attempt to shoot, and if they make it, they win!
CyBlocs are segregated into tiers called Classes - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Legendary which affect their overall stats. Traits are natural passive bonuses that is inherent to CyBlocs - each one having 1-3 Traits, all with different rarities as well. You can get into more in-depth reading about CyBall here: https://docs.cyball.com/
My next article will feature Traits and how to pick the ones that I feel are the best! Alright enough with the basics, let's tread on!
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Before we discuss Tactic Cards, here are a few things I wish I knew before I started CyBall:
- Exhausted Status - When CyBlocs play in a Key Event, they will get Exhausted for the next Key Event. Depending if you were able to Play a Tactic Card to avoid this, or if your CyBloc has the Trait "No Sweat", your chosen Cybloc will get -10 to all Skills. This makes manipulating Exhaust one of the biggest factors in the game!
- Skill Upgrades - I noticed that some players don't even know they can upgrade their Skills! Make sure to click Collection in the Main Interface, then click that "i" on the top right of your CyBloc, then you'll be brought to the Upgrade Menu! You get 1 point every time you level up that you can allocate to your chosen stat. How I like to play mine is to get each Stat to at least 30, then focus on the stat which your CyBloc excels at, but it will also largely depend on its Traits! Make sure you plan your gameplay around this as well!
TACTIC CARDS
Alright, let's keep pushing- stay with me! So a HUGE part of the game are the Tactic Cards. Being able to perfectly time, manage, and use these cards can bring you an early victory. However, completely messing up in the first few Key Events can already dictate a loss in the Second Half. First, let's take a look at all the Tactic Cards available!
- ENERGY CARDS
These Tactic Cards affect energy gain and manipulation. There is no limit to how much energy you can have in a match, but note that you need at least 1 energy to be able to play any of these cards. Normally, you'd want to be able to start the game with at least some energy gain, since there are six Key Events and you only start with four energy. Some powerful cards cost two energy as well, so you'll have to manage this especially if your opponent uses Energy Leak or Steal!
- GOAL KEEPER'S CARDS
These Tactic Cards affect your Goal Keeper's stats. GK's are there to provide a bit of output randomness to the game. When you begin a game, you will be prompted to choose a Strategy - Ultra Offensive, Offensive, Balanced, Defensive, Ultra Defensive. This Strategy will affect your GK's ability to possibly block your opponent's attack or shotstop. If the total Stats of the CyBlocs chosen to participate in a Key Event are close in value, there will be a chance for the GK to perform a block. Depending on your Strategy chosen, it either increases or decreases the amount at which GKs perform blocks. These Tactic Cards therefore add/subtract a fixed value to that block rate! The most effective way to use Perfect Save is when the Skill of your CyBloc is at least 10 lower or when you're sure you're going to lose a Key Event, no matter how high the opposing CyBloc's Skill is, it will automatically block that attempt. Goalkeeper Glitch is most effectively used when you're running an Ultra Offensive/Offensive strategy, as you want to decrease your opponent's GK shotstopping, while Improved Reflexes works best when youre running an Ultra Defensive/Defensive strategy. However it is important to note that even if you're not running with the said strategy, this is only a % and can also work for these two cards either Strategy.
- EXHAUST MANIPULATING CARDS
Remember earlier when we talked about Exhaust's nasty effect? Here's why. Can't Keep Up in my opinion is arguably the best card in the game. A -10 to all stat reduction for an entire half is absolutely devastating if you're able to play it in Key Event 1 or 4. The only way to counter this is with Supercharge Fuel or Energy Drink, but if you didn't draw any of these, it's going to be an uphill battle. It is VERY IMPORTANT to note two things:
If one player uses Can't Keep Up and the other uses Supercharge Fuel in the same round, only Supercharge Fuel will take effect! and
The worst possible time to play Can't Keep Up and Supercharge Fuel is in Key Event 3 and 6 because it doesn't carry over to the next half (from KE 3 to 4), nor does it have any effect in the last round (KE 6).
- RANDOMIZER CARDS
As you can tell, these cards mix up your opponent's strategy. These are best used when your opponent clearly prioritizes one particular stat when upgrading their CyBloc, and neglects to balance out their stats. When you see that your opponent is particularly strong in a certain Key Event and you're around 10pts lower than them, it would be a great move to play one of these cards - to either avoid them using a specific CyBloc using Comms Jammer, or from having a stat advantage over you using Tactical Foul.
- REDRAW CARDS
Personally, I never use these cards. Since there is no way of knowing if your opponent has a "good hand", I don't see any situation where using Force Update can be beneficial. Also, unless you have an extremely unfavorable hand, Update rarely has any use since whatever card you use during a round allows you to redraw another card from your deck. Also, this costs a turn and 1 energy to use, so unless you're in the situation where you are confident that you dominate a Key Event and have an absolute horrible hand, that's probably the only scenario when you will find update to be pretty useful. Again, since you draw a new hand in the second half, NEVER use these cards in KE 3 and 6 because they will have no effect and you will waste 1 energy doing so.
- TIER 2 STAT BOOST CARDS
These cards add stats to your total Skills depending on when you use them. Pretty self explanatory, but also very dependent on the situation. Adrenaline is just a +2 to the total regardless of the situation, Dominant Performance is a +4 but you'll need to be leading, and Comeback is +8 if you're under. You'll come to realize when we learn more about traits why these values are not so large since Traits can easily grant these bonuses as passives depending on the situation. Still, it could possibly alter the KE to your favor, but also be mindful of the Strategy chosen when using these cards!
- TIER 1 STAT BOOST CARDS
These ones are absolute game changers! Most, if not all, of the times these are used, will be a guaranteed goal on your end. You will just need to watch out for the next set of cards below, Randomizer Cards, or Perfect Save or it can utterly paralyze you for 2 energy. These are best used if you were able to use Backup Power or Second Wind prior, since energy is such a valuable resource. These cards mentioned above take up 5/25 (which means 20% chance) of the cards in the deck, plus there's also timing its use, so your odds are pretty good if you are able to play one of these without depleting your energy. The best way to use this in my opinion is when your opponent least expects it - usually during a round where they're in the lead and will lightly play an Exhaust/Energy card, or if you counted and know that they have 0 energy!
- SPECIAL CARDS
Last but not least, the Special Cards! These cards are absolutely devastating if timed correctly - especially if you're at a clear Skill advantage. You can expect your opponents to attempt some sort of stat boost card or maybe a Randomizer when they're at a disadvantage, or perhaps an Exhaust Manipulation card, and these two might be the best in the game to ensure that you can put a stop to that!
CONCLUSION
As you can see, there are so many ways to strategize against your opponent given these Tactic Cards. I personally have beaten lv20+ CyBlocs with my lv4 ones because I was able to outplay them using Tactic Cards! In my next article (written hopefully short after this one), we will get in depth with Traits and why in my opinion should be prioritized over Class when choosing which CyBloc to purchase on the market! I hope you enjoyed the loooong read and that it helped you understand why CyBall is a next level P2E strategy game that can take the metaverse by storm! Good luck!
Smol Disclaimer: All photos taken from in-game screenshots and meticulously, but horribly edited in MS Paint. Not an official CyBall sanctioned article as it includes personal views on certain matters mentioned in the article.