How to Play

Astral Rivals is a tactical card battler where you command units on a grid-based battlefield. Build decks, summon creatures, cast spells, and outmaneuver your opponents in strategic combat.

When building a deck, you choose a Hero as your starting Champion, a Castle as your base, and a Relic — a powerful artifact that grants a passive bonus from the very start of battle. Your Hero and Castle are placed on the battlefield at the start of each match — lose either one and you lose the game!

You'll face 22 unique AI opponents — the Major Arcana — each with their own playstyle, deck preferences, and tactical personality. Learn from The Empress in the tutorial, then challenge increasingly difficult opponents on your path to face Eris herself.

Flow is the resource that powers everything in Astral Rivals. You need Flow to summon units, cast spells, equip items, and activate abilities.

• You gain Flow automatically at the start of each turn
• Unspent Flow carries over to the next turn (banking)
• Each card has a Flow cost shown in its corner
• Some cards, abilities, and Relics can generate extra Flow

As the battle progresses through Astral Cycles, your Flow economy grows:

Gold is a secondary resource earned through combat. When you deal the killing blow to an enemy unit, you earn Gold based on that unit's bounty value.

• Each unit has a Gold on Kill value set on its card
• Only the player who lands the killing blow earns the Gold (like last-hitting in MOBAs)
• Killing your own units does not award Gold
• Gold persists across turns — it never decays or resets
• Structures, hero units, and tokens can all have Gold bounties

Gold is used to activate powerful special effects and abilities on certain cards. Unlike Flow, Gold is never used for basic summoning — it unlocks premium card effects.

Battles in Astral Rivals follow a cosmic rhythm called Astral Cycles. Each cycle represents the passage of time on the battlefield, alternating between Sun (day) and Moon (night) phases.

The cycle phase shifts as turns pass, creating dynamic battlefield conditions. Time your powerful cards to align with favorable phases for maximum impact!

Combat takes place on a 15×15 tile grid. Each tile can hold one unit (though some large units span multiple tiles), and the terrain type affects movement and combat.

Your Castle starts on one side, your opponent's on the other. The space between is where battles are won and lost!

Different tiles have different properties:

Use terrain to your advantage! Funnel enemies through chokepoints and control key positions on the map.

Units also have an EFF (Effectiveness) stat. Unlike ATK and DEF which govern basic combat, EFF determines how powerful a unit is when using special abilities, cards, and equipped items.

A unit with high ATK but low EFF excels at basic attacks. A unit with high EFF but low ATK is better suited for casting spells and activating powerful effects. Build your team accordingly!

Some powerful units are too large to fit on a single tile. These multi-tile units occupy a rectangular footprint on the board — for example, a massive ogre mage or dragon might take up a 2×2 area (4 tiles).

Plan ahead when fielding multi-tile units! You may need to move your own units or even demolish your own walls to create enough space for them to pass through narrow corridors. Their power comes at the cost of maneuverability.

Combat in Astral Rivals goes deeper than simple ATK vs DEF. Both attack and defense come in multiple manifest types, each representing a different form of power:

A unit might have high Slash ATK but low Magic ATK. Similarly, armor might provide strong Crush DEF but weak Void DEF. Exploit enemy weaknesses and shore up your own!

Some effects summon Neutral Units onto the battlefield — creatures owned by neither player. These feral entities act on their own during the Battle Phase, interleaved by speed alongside both players' units.

Neutral units provide no vision to either player. You can only see them if your units have line of sight to their tile. Both players can attack and target neutral units with spells and abilities.

Killing a neutral unit awards Gold to whichever player lands the killing blow. Hero units also earn EXP from defeating them — making neutral units valuable targets worth fighting over.

Traps are placed face-down on board tiles during your Main Phase. They remain hidden from your opponent and trigger automatically when specific events occur at their tile — such as enemy movement, attacks, or summons. Traps can come from cards in your hand, but also from unit abilities and other effects.

• Traps activate at Speed 2 in the chain system
• Two types: Mechanical (physical devices) and Magical (arcane wards)
• One trap per tile per player — but both players can trap the same tile
• Traps are hidden from opponents unless detected by units with Trap Detection
• After triggering, most traps are consumed and removed from the board

Relics are not cards — they are powerful artifacts selected during deck building that provide a passive bonus from the start of the game. Each deck has one relic slot — choose your relic wisely to complement your strategy!

Before each battle, you can customize your deck in the Deck Builder. Your deck is your toolbox — the cards you bring determine your options in battle.

• Decks contain 60-100 cards plus a starting Hero and Castle, and a Relic
• You can include up to 4 copies of each card
• Balance units, spells, equipment, and sockets
• Consider your Flow curve — mix cheap and expensive cards
• Build around synergies and win conditions

Some rules govern what you can include:

New players start with pre-built decks designed to teach core mechanics. As you progress, you'll unlock more cards and can experiment with custom builds. The demo includes 80+ cards to mix and match!

You can only see enemy units within your units' vision range. Areas outside your vision are hidden in fog — enemies could be lurking anywhere!

• Each unit reveals a certain area around itself
• Some units have extended vision (scouts)
• Your Castle and Champion provide vision around themselves
• Units can be concealed even on tiles you can see — via bushes, stealth, or invisibility
• During Moon Phase, all units lose 1 vision range (minimum 1) — plan accordingly!

Bush tiles provide natural concealment. Units hiding in a bush are invisible to enemies unless an enemy unit is adjacent to the bush or inside the same connected bush cluster.

• Move a unit onto a bush tile to hide it from enemy vision
• An enemy unit adjacent to the bush (within 1 tile) will reveal your hidden unit
• If an enemy enters the same connected group of bush tiles, all units in that cluster are revealed

Some units possess stealth — a powerful concealment that hides them from enemies even on open ground. Stealthed units are hidden unless an enemy is adjacent (within 1 tile) or has a special detection ability.

• Stealth can be innate (a card property) or granted by abilities and effects
• Temporary stealth is lost when the unit attacks or takes damage
• Innate stealth (from the card itself) is never lost
• Enemy units with Stealth Vision can detect stealthed units at range, not just by adjacency

Invisibility is an even stronger form of concealment. Unlike stealth, invisible units are not revealed by adjacency — enemies must have a specific detection ability to see them at all.

• Invisibility is granted by spells and special abilities
• Only units with Invisibility Vision can detect invisible enemies
• Invisibility is lost when the unit attacks or takes damage
• Without detection, invisible units can move freely across the battlefield unseen

Units with the Trap Detection keyword reveal hidden enemy traps within their vision range. Without a detector, you won't know a trap is there until it fires!