What is Heart of Eternal?
Heart of Eternal is a Split Deck Trading Card Game (SD-TCG) where you use cards to battle against your opponent. Victory is obtained by collecting Armour of God cards when you defeat your opponent’s characters or directly attack them.
How many people can play Heart of Eternal?
Heart of Eternal is a two player game.
Why Split Decks?
Split Decks are drawn from to give players more control over their playing strategies. It adds more variety and depth to the game while minimizing luck.
Deck Selection
The game can be played using the balanced starter decks or by creating your own deck with any combination of cards (as long as there are no duplicates). As a TCG, it is encouraged to build your own deck from the starter pack and eventually refine it through future expansions.
What is the purpose of Heart of Eternal
The point of Heart of Eternal is to become an Eternal Soul. This is done by collecting 7 AOG’s which are comprised of 6 armour pieces and a heart.
The Cards
OT & NT
The Starter Pack of Heart of Eternal contains 2 balanced decks of cards – OT & NT. This symbol is on the lower right of the card and it’s only purpose is to help with sorting cards into the appropriate balanced deck.
Character Cards
Starter decks contain 15 Character cards in each one that are used for battle. Characters are either Good (represented by Blue) or evil (represented by Green).
Attack/Defense Points
Shown in the centre of card next the sword and shield symbol are the attack and defense points of each character. Attack points are used on offense. Defense points are only used to defend an attack.
While you’re on offense, your character may initiate battle, and if you have more attack points than your opponent has defense points – you win that battle and gain an AOG! Your opponent (the defender) sends his character to the discard pile when character loses battle. If the defender has more defense points, they win and the attacker loses their character to the discard pile. *Note – Character attack and defense points can change during battle by the use of abilities and other cards. Attack/Defense points are not depleted after a battle (their values stay the same unless otherwise stated).
Elder Symbol
The Elder Symbol is located in the upper left corner of specific cards this means that this character is a higher ranking elder and cannot be used until you’ve collected 3 AOG’s.
Rarity Symbols
The card type symbol is located in the upper right corner of the card – this shows us how rare the card is and ranges from common to ultra rare.
Character Abilities
Some characters have abilities which help to improve your combat.
Usage Symbols
The usage symbol is located on the left side of the card and this indicates the use of the card’s ability. Each symbol represents either a continuous effect or one-time use. A continuous effect means that the effect does not expire until card/character is destroyed of removed.
Character Classes
There are 6 classes of characters represented by symbols on the left side of the card. A character’s class has pros and cons – so use them wisely. Currently the classes are: Ruler, Warrior, Beast, Charisma, Intellect and Spiritual. As Heart of Eternal releases future expansions these classes will grow and make deck building even more unique.
Adversity Cards
Adversity cards always have a negative consequence followed by a reward. Play them at anytime on either yourself or your opponent. Adversity cards may only be played if the negative conditions are met.
Dunamis
Dunamis cards can be used on characters to give them an extra boost. Every card has a good and evil side to them you can only use the half of the Dunamis card that is the same colour as the character to which it is attached. To further clarify, the left side of the card is always Good and the right side is always Evil. They must be played on your own characters unless the card has stated otherwise. If an attached Dunamis is still in effect when a character card is destroyed it is discarded.
Armour of God (AOG)
Armor of God are the rewards you receive from destroyed a character in battle. Collecting them is how you win the game. There are 6 pieces of armour and 1 heart in each set. AOG’s also contain minor abilities to assist players in their gameplay.
Its very important to know, AOG cards can only be obtained when you are on offense and destroy a character “IN BATTLE” or attack opponent directly.
Setup and Gameplay
Before you begin the game, separate your deck into 4 piles. AOG, Character, Dunamis and Adversity. Note* Please refer to rules or video for playing field layout.
Your Hand
To Start game draw 2 cards from each character, dunamis and adversity pile to make your hand. Additional drawn cards from turns initially go to your hand and can then be allocated accordingly.
You can use the cards in your hand during your turn to attack your opponent or replenish your field. You can only have eight cards in your hand at anytime. If you have extra cards when your turn ends, you will need to discard. To further clarify, cards in your hand can not be used during your opponent’s turn unless otherwise stated.
Field of play sections
The Barrier Zone
Use this space to protect yourself – cards are placed face down (horizontally) in this area until they are used. They are only 4 slots available so choose wisely. This is your final line of defense without it you will be subject to a direct hit. Only cards in the field or barrier can be used in defense. Barrier cards can not be removed from barrier unless they are played to the field.
Character Zone
This is where you place your characters. There are only 3 spots available so great care should be taken to prepare for battle. Characters in this zone are always “Revealed Characters” meaning that they are face up. You can only reveal 1 character to this zone per turn while playing on offense.
It is important to know that while you are on Defense you may reveal as many characters as you want as long as they come from your barrier zone.
It should be noted the defensive characters played from your barrier zone can immediately enter battle, but can not join an existing battle. Any character ability can be activated at this time regardless of being in a battle.
The Battle Zone
This is where you go to fight. Move the characters here to initiate a fight with your opponent.
Your Turn
During your turn you first – draw a card from one of the 3 draw piles unless you have a card that states otherwise.
Take an Action – play cards to establish proper attack or defense strategies. This step can involve multiple actions. For instance, you can activate an ability, play a dunamis, adversity or character card or simply put a card into your barrier. You may also choose not to take an action and pass turn to your opponent.
Attacking
As part of your actions, you may attack your opponent! This is done by playing characters onto the field and moving these characters into the battle zone.
The attacking player gets to choose which character they are going to attack. Use other cards to compliment the characters in battle. Each character may only attack once per turn unless otherwise stated.
If your
opponent has no characters in his field you may use any unused attacks to
directly attack your opponent. Your
opponent can reveal characters of his choice to defend these direct attacks
from his barrier zone.
You must be aware. You can’t attack your opponent directly within the first 3
turns. If you want to speed the game play – players can agree to ignore this
rule.
Defending an Attack
In the event that a defending character’s defense is higher than the attacking player’s offense the defender wins the battle. The Defender does not receive an AOG for this win. In the event of a tie, both characters are returned to the field but can not attack again this turn.
It should be noted that any character ability in affect when the character is destroyed ceases immediately.
Replenishing
Once you have completed attacking your opponent, you may prepare your defense by placing strategic cards in your barrier zone or field.
Winning
To win the game you need to be the first person to collect all 7 AOG cards. If players run out of cards first, the player with the most AOG’s wins the game.
The Building of a SD-TCG
The process of building of Tradable Card Game takes time. The first steps are to build a good foundation that includes a lot of the elements you want in your game. Heart of Eternal has the core elements in the starter decks that we believe will be enjoyable to play. That being said we have lots of ideas we wish to roll out in stages to continue to make this game every changing and fun to play for a long time. With each future expansion we hope to add cards that develop the different classes, the game mechanics and overall strategy of the game. We look forward to bringing these expansions to you, and thank you for your support and patience as we continue to make improvements to Heart of Eternal.