Learn the Ways of the Force

“I need your help, Luke. She needs your help. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing.”
   –Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Hope

The Star Wars galaxy is yours to explore through the thrilling duels of Star Wars™: Destiny! As we’ve already explored, this collectible dice and card game for two players invites you to stage any battle that you can imagine between the saga’s most iconic heroes and most infamous villains. In every game, you’ll gather a small team of characters and battle your enemies for victory. The last player with characters left standing wins the game.

Our first preview explored the dice that form the heart of gameplay in Star Wars: Destiny. You’ll use these dice to gain resources, trigger special abilities, shield your characters, discard your opponent’s cards and resources, and most importantly, damage enemy characters. Still, you can’t win the game with dice alone. You’ll also have a thirty-card deck to support your characters and dice, and today, we take a closer look at the cards that appear in that deck.

Your Father’s Lightsaber

At the beginning of a game, your characters start in play, but the rest of your cards are contained in a thirty-card deck. To bring one of these cards into play, whether it’s an event, an upgrade, or a support card, you’ll need to take an action. You must also pay the number of resources shown in the upper left-hand corner of the card.

Event cards are played to have an immediate effect, and they are then discarded. For instance, you may play Don't Get Cocky (Awakenings, 127), which causes each player to draw two cards. This event costs zero resources, but you still need to spend an action to play it. Event cards never have dice, but these cards can still fill a critical role in your deck. Playing an event like Intimidate (Awakenings, 84) can open a hole in your opponent’s defenses, while Endless Ranks (Awakenings, 70) can rejuvenate your team and completely swing the tide of a battle in your favor.

The second type of card that you’ll encounter in your deck is an upgrade, such as Comlink (Awakenings, 61). These cards are played from your hand and immediately attached to one of your characters, although the color of the upgrade does not necessarily have to match the color of the character. Once in play, these upgrades enhance your character’s abilities—and if the upgrade card has a die, you’ll roll this die along with the character’s dice whenever you activate the character. Upgrades can be very powerful, but if the upgraded character leaves play, all of its upgrades are discarded! 

You pay two resources to play an upgrade on Rey. The Comlink and its corresponding die are attached to Rey. Then, because of Rey's special ability, you may immediately take another action!

The final type of card is a support card like the First Order TIE Fighter (Awakenings, 6). Once a support card is played from your hand, it remains in play, independent of your characters. Some support cards feature their own dice, which you can roll into your dice pool by activating the support, like you would activate a character. Other supports don’t have a die, but their effects can still support your characters on the field of battle. 

Through your deck of events, upgrades, and supports, you’ll be able to back up your team of characters, surprise your opponent, gain additional options, and bring more dice into play, giving you the means to accelerate your deck and move closer to victory!

Furthermore, while all of your cards can be played as usual, they also have a secondary purpose. As an action on your turn, you may discard a card from your hand to choose and reroll one or more dice in your dice pool. Because most dice have at least one blank symbol, there will be plenty of times that you can benefit from rerolling your dice. Even if you don’t roll blanks, rerolling your dice to get the results you want can give you a powerful advantage for the future.

Controlling the Battleground

After you’ve chosen your team of heroes and crafted your deck, there’s just one more card that you need to decide on. This card is your battlefield, and it forms the background and the setting for your entire duel. 

Both players will have their own chosen battlefield for their deck, and at the beginning of a game of Star Wars: Destiny, you will determine which battlefield is used for the game. Both players roll all of their character dice and tally the values rolled. The player who rolls the highest number chooses which battlefield will be used for the game. Importantly, you don’t necessarily have to choose your own battlefield—if your battlefield is chosen, you start the game in control of the battlefield, but if your opponent’s battlefield is chosen, you start the game with two bonus shields for your characters.

Both players roll off at the beginning of the game to determine which battlefield will be used. The top player rolls a total value of four, while the bottom player rolls a total of three. The top player chooses to use his own battlefield, and the bottom player claims two shields.

Though you determine control of the battlefield immediately at the beginning of the game, control will move back and forth throughout the game. As an action on your turn, you can claim the battlefield, taking the card and placing it in front of you. Claiming the battlefield guarantees that you will go first during the next round, which can be quite significant—if you need to strike before your opponent, the first player has a distinct advantage. However, when you claim the battlefield, you automatically pass on all of your remaining actions for the rest of the round, allowing your opponent to play freely. Balancing your plans for next round against your current tactics and deciding exactly when to end your turn are some of the most important decisions that you’ll make during your game of Star Wars: Destiny, and they can easily shape how the rest of the game plays out. 

The top player spends an action to take control of the battlefield, guaranteeing initiative for the next round, but automatically passing on all future actions for this round.

What’s more, there are plenty of battlefields to choose from, and each one has a unique effect that you can trigger when you claim it. For instance, you may set your duel in an Imperial Armory (Awakenings, 169), which allows you to play an upgrade at a reduced cost when you claim the battlefield. Or, you may face the dangerous environment of a Separatist Base (Awakenings, 173) on Mustafar, which reads, “Claim – Each opponent chooses and deals 1 unblockable damage to one of their characters.” You’ll want to choose a battlefield that plays into your strategy, but even in games where your battlefield isn’t used, choosing how to control the battlefield is a crucial piece of claiming victory.

Find Your Planet

There are countless planets in the Star Wars galaxy, and the duels of Star Wars: Destiny can rage across all of them. Choose a deck of supporting cards, claim your battlefield, and take your place in the saga! You can pre-order Star Wars: Destiny at your local retailer today.

Join us for our next preview as we give a visual walkthrough of a few turns and explore how the game plays out!