We have spent the last handful of weeks talking about starter decks, card types, special prizes, mechanics and more. I think it is time we dig a little deeper into how to play Neopets Battledome Trading Card Game! I will outline the flow of a turn and break down each phase for you. The four phases of your turn are Draw, Train, Prep, Battle.

Draw

At the start of your turn, including your first, you will simply draw a card from the top of your deck and put it in your inventory (this is the name for the cards in your hand). That’s it! That’s the draw phase.

Train

After you have drawn a card from your Draw phase, you will enter the Train phase. In this phase you may choose one Codestone from your inventory and attach it to your Neopet. You do this only once each turn and your Neopet cannot exceed 5 Codestones. The number of Codestones on your Neopet dictates its level. 1 Codestone = Level 1, 2 Codestones = Level 2, etc. That concludes the Train phase.

Prep

We have Drawn and Trained, it’s now time to Prepare. During your Prep phase you may play one card from your inventory with a level requirement equal to or less than your Neopets level. In Defenders of Neopia, this includes Paint Brushes, Faeries, Legends, Equipment, and Potions. So, if your Neopet is Level 3 (has 3 Codestones attached) you can play any one card from your hand with a level requirement of 3 or less. Here are a couple of cards you might want to play on your first turn after attaching a Codestone:

Exploding Potion Art by Charlie Winslow (@gobo.z)
The Breadmaster Art by Shamine Athena King (@quartervirus)

You may notice I haven’t mentioned Food cards yet. That’s because Food cards break the rules a little bit… Your parents told you to never play with your food and the same applies here. Food does not count as a card played for the turn! Which means you can play as many as you want, at any time (unless stated otherwise), even on your opponent’s turn. Food cards are a flexible tool for you to use whenever you need them.

Here is Hubert who will grab you any “Hot Dog” card and a couple of options you might grab. The timing flexibility on Food makes cards like Hot Dog of Justice and Teeny Hot Dog shine and give you ways to interact beyond just your turn.

Hubert Art by Kade Murphy (@squeedge)
Hot Dog of Justice Art by Kade Murphy (@squeedge)
Teeny Hot Dog Art by Kade Murphy (@squeedge)

Now that you have played your card for the turn, it’s time for the last phase!

Battle

The time has finally come… You have spent your turn training and preparing for this moment. It’s time for your Neopets to Battle! This phase of the turn can be broken up into a handful of steps: Gather attack dice, gather defence dice, roll dice, compare agility, and then calculate damage. Let’s break down each of these.

Gather Attack Dice – This step includes adding the attacking players Neopets base attack, attack boosts from Codestones,and all other modifiers from any cards played this turn, equipment, faeries, painted Neopets, etc. Gather that many dice (maximum 10) and keep them handy.

Here are a couple cards that will add to your Attack values. Don’t forget to add any modifiers that you might have from cards like Kauvara’s Marvellous Potion you played during your Prep phase!

Sword of Domar Art by Karine Ellen Berno (@ellenent.art)
Kauvara’s Marvellous Potion Art by Charlie Winslow (@gobo.z)

Gather Defence Dice – Now that the active player has gathered their attack dice, the defending player will do the same thing but with their defence die (also to a maximum of 10).

Roll Dice! – Both players have gathered their attack and defence dice… let’s roll! Both players will roll their dice simultaneously and compare the results. For the attacking Neopet, dice results of 1, 2, or 3 are failed attacks, dice results of 4 or 5 are successful attacks, and dice results of 6 are critical attacks. Critical attacks are successes that cannot be blocked!

For the defending Neopet, dice results of 1, 2, or 3 are failed blocks and 4, 5, or 6 are successful blocks. Remember, critical attacks from the attacking Neopet cannot be blocked even if the defending player also rolled a 6.

Compare Agility – Now that both players have rolled, there is one very important step that can really change the outcome of the battle. During this step, players will compare their Agility values to each other and one player might get to reroll dice based on the difference. For example, if the attacking Shoyru has an Agility of 7 and the defending Acara has an Agility of 5, then the difference is 2 in the Shoyru’s favor. This means the attacking player may reroll up to 2 dice for a chance at better results. If they do, they must keep the new results. If the two Agility values are equal, no player will reroll.

Calculate Damage – So we’ve gathered all our dice, rolled, and even rerolled! We have reached the final step of Battle: damage! The way damage is calculated is by comparing the number of attacks against the number of blocks. For example, if the attacking player rolled 6, 4, 4, 3, 1 that is 1 critical attack and 2 successful attacks. If the defending player rolled 5, 3, 2, 2 that is 1 successful block. We know that the critical attack cannot be blocked so that is a guaranteed 1 damage. Then you compare the normal attacks and blocks.

Each successful block cancels out a single successful attack. In this example, that means the defending player blocks 1 of the 2 successful attacks, letting another 1 damage through. That is a total of 2 damage dealt this battle. Make sure to keep track of the damage on each Neopet since they can only take so much before being knocked out!

You might even have a way to reduce the damage taken with cards like Red Scorchstone. This is an equipment that you play on your turn and then can later cash it in for some protection on your opponent’s turn.

Red Scorchstone Art by Sophie Scruggs (@sophieascruggs)

If one of the Neopets is knocked out from taking damage equal to or exceeding its total hit points, the round ends and there are a couple more steps to complete before moving on to the next round.

End of Round

When a Neopet is knocked out, the attacking player wins that round and the round ends. The winner of that round places their Neopet face up in their Round Results area, the defeated Neopet is placed face down. Then each player will send all their Equipment on their side of the Battledome to the discard pile and all Faeries are put into their respective player’s Void. Players do get to keep all the cards in their inventory, as they will come in handy for the next round! The new round will begin, the next player in turn order will draw and the game continues as normal until a Champion is declared. If that was the second round that a single player has won, the game ends and the player with 2 round wins is the Champion of the Battledome!

There it is! That’s what an entire turn of Neopets Battledome Trading Card Game looks like. We know you might have some more questions and we would love to answer them! Join us Friday April 19th on Twitch at 10:00am PST (1:00pm EST) for more gameplay discussion. Until then… see you in the Battledome!

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