## Welcome to Storm Wars! This guide is meant help newer players answer basic questions about how to play, and succeed at, the game. If you have questions not answered here, feel free to leave them in the thread or ask in the game’s chat. _[The Storm Wars Analytics Guide](http://tinyurl.com/SWAG-public) is the best utility for in-depth analysis of cards._ _If you want to link to or share this thread, you can use this shortened URL: http://bit.do/stormfaq._ * * * **INSTRUCTIONS ON LINKING A MOBILE (or secondary) DEVICE** You can play Storm Wars with one account on all of your different devices. To do this, you must follow these steps:   1. **Log into your main account on your main device.**   2. **Enter the Settings menu (the Settings button is at the bottom-right on the main menu page). Click on "Link Accounts" and then on "Get Link Code."**   3. **Your Link Code will appear in yellow text. Write this code down carefully - you have to get every letter and number correct or it won't work. Note that link codes are *not* case-sensitive.**   4. **Go to the device you want to link, such as your mobile phone. Download Storm Wars and start the game. *You must start the game up as if you are about to play a new account. Select a hero as if you are about to start playing.***   5. **Once you have control again on your new device with your new account, go into the Settings menu again. Click on "Link Accounts" and then on "Enter Code."**   6. **Enter your Link Code exactly as it appeared on your other device. Now you will be prompted to have the new account erased, and your second device will be given access to your original account.**   7. **You can now play on either device any time you like!** --- **TOP NEWBIE QUESTIONS**   Q. **Which Hero should I pick starting out?**   A. _Laertes is easier to use at first and the more popular choice._   Q. **Should I save my Gems?**   A. _Storm Wars is very free-player friendly, and you can easily get a lot of free Gems daily. It really helps to buy a couple premium packs early on so you can beat up on the early campaign levels, and worry about saving Gems later._   Q. **What is the best place to grind Hero experience?**   A. _The Endless Dungeon on the south side of the Campaign Map._   Q. **What is the best place to grind for coins?**   A. _Arena battles._   Q. **What is the best way to earn free Gems?**   A. _Fight in the Coliseum every day._   Q. **What should I spend Gems on?**   A. _The most popular purchases are more treasure inventory slots, more deck slots (in army screen), and expansion packs. The 50-Gem packs are also popular._   Q. **Can I find Expansion set cards in normal packs?**   A. _No, Frontiers is the current expansion and only drop in Frontiers set packs. Dragons is an older expansion and only drop in Dragons packs. If you read this FAQ you will learn that it is better to focus on Core set cards first, then move on to the expansions, because as a new player, the drop rate of useful things per Gem is much better in the Core set._ * * * # **Table of Contents** Post 1   **1. General Game Info**   **2. What to do First: Playing the Campaign**   **3. Managing Heroes and your Army (or Deck)** Post 2   **4. How does “Treasure” Work? – Currency and Earning Income**   **5. What to do Next: The Arena**   **6. The Coliseum – PvE with Players’ Decks** Post 3   **7. What to Buy in the Shop**   **8. The Endless Dungeon – Experience Grinding**   **9. Combining Cards - A Great Way to Get Legendaries** Post 4   **10. Crews (aka Player Guilds)**   **11. Crew Rewards**   **12. Draft Tournaments - Fun For Newbies and Veterans** Post 5   **13. Hero Equipment** * * * # **1. General Game Info**  Storm Wars is a digital online-collectible card game in the style of Warstorm and Tyrant. The strategy is in building good decks and choosing the correct deck for the opponent. Battles run automatically. The tutorial will take you through a battle and some other basic information. Notably, it can be a bit confusing / difficult to start out learning how to build your deck (called your Army) and how to progress as a new player. That’s what this FAQ is for! Use it if you are stuck, and in general to learn how to play the game intelligently and successfully. Our dev team also is friendly and tries to be present in chat as often as possible. And we will respond to your questions and concerns if you just ask. * * * # **2. What to do First: Playing the Campaign**  The basic storyline of the game takes place on the world map (pictured above) that you can drag and drop or zoom with your mouse. You have a flying ship that you can use to travel from node to node to fight battles. Each campaign node has 5 battles, and when you beat them you usually get a decent prize of resources and sometimes some extra units for your army. PRO TIP: It is smart to advance as quickly as you can through the campaign so you can take advantage of those prizes! You also will unlock new Heroes, who are the leaders of the armies you build, by completing campaign missions. Whenever you beat a node on the world map for the first time, you will gain access to several other adjacent nodes. Use this to advance to harder nodes and get better prizes. Also, you can **_replay_** nodes at a harder difficulty level after you’ve cleared them. Each node has 3 difficulty levels and you earn 1 star for each difficulty level that you clear completely on any node.  If you want to replay a node on an earlier difficulty level you have to do that **while currently at Level 1/5** of the node, and by clicking on the **Change Difficulty** button (shown above) that appears on mission screens. If you are past 1/5 on a mission, for example at 3/5, you _cannot change the difficulty level_ until you’ve cleared that difficulty level first, even if you are replaying it. Don’t worry about this though, since replaying missions is not an effective way to grind for gold and experience anyhow.  Reading the story as you go along, it should be pretty clear where to go "next" although much of the time you will have choices as to which quests to play next. Overall, you will eventually beat all the missions on the main island of Atlantea and start heading west towards the Shipyards. You may notice that you can scroll around the world map as well ... did you discover the Dragon Isles yet, northwest of Atlantea? There may be more quests than you realize if you haven't explored a bit. PRO TIP: If you're burning through Campaign levels early, be mindful of the fact that you have a limited number of chest slots in your Treasure vault. (See section 4 of this FAQ for more information on Treasure). During the first playthrough of the Campaign -- that is, on the first star of difficulty -- all the chests you find will open instantly. However on higher star levels you will get more advanced chests that require a delay to open, and must be stored. Don't miss out on valuable Treasures by planning badly! * * * # **3. Managing Heroes and your Army (or Deck)**  You can access your army any time from the Main Screen by clicking the Army button (shown above). In army view you can add and subtract units from your army — which are the cards that go into your deck and which are drawn randomly in the next battle. You can also attach and detach Equipment to your Hero by clicking on the two Equipment slots next to your Hero's portrait. Equipment is covered in greater detail in its own section of this FAQ below, but it basically works like a small bonus to Hero skills. Each piece of Equipment enhances a skill slightly on the Hero. Top players are careful to make sure they have good synergy between Hero, Equipment and units (cards) in all of their decks. PRO TIP: Any unit whose faction type matches the Hero's faction type gets a **Morale Bonus** of +1 Life. This means it can be a lot more effective to use Atlantean units with Atlantean Heroes, and so on. Keep it in mind once you start building more advanced decks! You can change your Hero itself by clicking on it in the Army screen. As Heroes win battles, they get experience points and level up, and their special skills improve. Plus, they get more life points (so you can soak more damage) and they can _use more cards in their decks_, which is not a consistent number from Hero to Hero. Some Heroes are more tanky and will have lots of life and cards, and others will have fewer. PRO TIP: You can change Heroes without changing the rest of your deck. If you change to a Hero who can't use as many cards as the old one, some of your cards might automatically be removed from the deck. Beware of this!  One of the important strategies to know about in Storm Wars is that Heroes have really different special abilities, and the decks that pro players build around them are therefore very different. Since you can always see what Hero is leading an army you are about to fight, this means you can choose to use a Hero (and deck) that matches up well against the opponent. One cool thing to remember is that you can use the Number Keys on your keyboard (1, 2, 3 etc.) to switch instantly between your already-designed decks before you enter fights. This is very useful for effective grinding. PRO TIP: Just because another player has a Hero at a higher level than yours *doesn't necessarily mean* that the player is more advanced than you. When you unlock a new Hero, it will start at a much lower level than your other Heroes probably have reached. By the same token, if you see a player using a low-level Hero be aware that it might be a rather advanced player simply trying to level-up a less-used Hero.  At first, you should just put the strongest cards in your Army, with your strongest Hero. But over time you will want to start focusing on synergy. Most top players have several different decks they use, which they choose based on their opponents. In the above example, Kiri is the selected Hero and the deck is being built using Wolfpack creatures. Kiri works really well with Beast-type creatures like wolves. It’s always a good idea to experiment with new cards that you find! You can also use [the SWAG](http://tinyurl.com/SWAG-public) to look up the different strengths of cards and statistics on the different factions, in order to get a better understanding of how they work.  Your **Defense Deck** is also an important part of PvP gameplay. Whatever deck is selected to be on defense will be used when other players attack you, either in the Arena or in the Coliseum. If you don’t have a specially designated defense deck, then whatever deck you currently have selected will be used for your defense. Since many decks are better on offense, however, a lot of players do like to build a deck for defense and then assign it. To assign a defense deck, click on the Options button beneath the Hero image and then choose the blue Set Defense button (shown above). This deck will remain as your defense until you remove it, or until you assign another defense deck in its place. Note that this options screen is also where you can choose to name your decks (to keep track of which is which) and select special premium card backs you may have purchased from the game shop. Premium card backs will be shown off whenever another player battles against your deck!  PRO TIP: You can see all of the cards in the game, even the ones you don't own, by selecting the "Show All" option from the Sort menu (shown in the above image). You can also always right-click or hold-down-click on a card to get more information on it, whether in your Army screen or right in the middle of a battle! Use this when your opponent plays a card you don't recognize.

# **4. How does “Treasure” Work? – Currency and Earning Income**  In Storm Wars there are two basic currencies: Gold Coins, and the premium currency Gems. Gold Coins are earned after every successful victory, and Gems are earned for achievements and as special prizes for regular events. More on that below. Gold Coins and Gems are listed in the panel at the bottom of the screen. Other valuables are stored in the Treasures subscreen, which you can find by clicking the Treasures button from the main menu. There are three tabs in the Treasures subscreen. The first is for chests (shown in the above image). You start out with 4 slots available to collect chests; many players advise that unlocking extra chest slots early is smart, to be able to grind for rewards effectively as soon as possible. The second tab is for Treasures that you find within chests, and the third is for Equipment that your Hero can use. After every battle you win, you will receive some gold and some experience for your Hero, and about 70% of the time you will also find a chest full of treasure. The type of chest you might find will vary depending on the battle you won. Better chests contain better items, but also take a certain amount of time sitting in your inventory before they can be opened. Chests follow this rubric:   I. **Wooden Chest**    …contains about 100 gold coins and sometimes contains a low-level item. Can be found after any standard battle and is opened instantly when found.   II. **Steel Chest**    …contains about 300 gold coins and usually contains a low-level item. Can only be found after certain Campaigns are beaten the first time through. Also is opened instantly when found.    III. **Silver Chest**    …contains about 400 gold coins and usually contains a low-level item. Can be found after any standard battle and requires a 2-hour countdown to open.   IV. **Gold Chest**    …contains about 1000 gold coins and always contains a mid-level item. Can be found after any standard battle and requires a 4-hour countdown to open.   V. **Epic Chest**    …contains anywhere from 1000 to 3000 gold coins and always contains a mid- or high-level item. Can be found a few times in Campaigns and then only after Arena battles and requires an 8-hour countdown to open. The Treasures that chests sometimes contain also go into their own section of your Treasure vault menu. You can click the tab and browse the Treasures there. These items can be used to give special advantages, like viewing the entire deck of an opponent before having to fight him, or refreshing your tries in a tournament or group PvP event. Some items can be sold directly for Gems. And some can be traded in for more cards, even including cards that can't be found in Core set packs! For example, in the above image, the “Powerful Scroll” found inside a Silver Chest will give the player 1 random uncommon card *from any standard set* instantly when used. * * * # **5. What to do Next: The Arena**  Many battles in Storm Wars are casual PvP battles, where your deck faces up against the AI playing another player’s deck. The Arena is the place where many of these battles happen, and it’s the place where you can get the best overall prizes if you are grinding for income. (Note that the best place to grind for Hero experience is the Endless Dungeon on the Campaign Map).  The Arena has a few parts, the most important of which for a new player is the **Arena Chest**. The Arena Chest is a special chest that you can see at the top-left of the Arena screen (shown above). You can open this chest once every 8 hours, and it gives Treasure comparable to a Gold chest (so quite good). You are allowed to open the Arena Chest if you win 5 battles in the Arena once the timer has reset. This should always be your top priority when you have just logged in the first time for the day at Storm Wars.  In general you will always have the option to fight decks of players who are close to you in strength. Since you can see the Heroes they are using, you can choose a deck that will match up well against them to score points and climb the rankings. There are two different scoring systems in the Arena, and each one is relevant for earning prizes. These are: I. **Overall Arena Rank (Fame Level)** – This is written in the top-center of the screen and goes up whenever you win any Arena battle. You will gain levels gradually over time, and a prize of 2000 Gold Coins every time you advance a level. Otherwise the stat carries no weight; but it may be used later on for entry to special events when more content is released! II. **Crowns (Arena ELO)** – The Arena itself runs on “Seasons” which last exactly one week. At the end of every season a new prize pool of Gems is handed out to players based on their overall standing in the Arena ELO table. Arena ELO is calculated based on how many Crowns the player has earned by winning Arena fights. You can see players’ current Crowns levels when you view them in Crews as well (see section 11 for more info on Crews). PRO TIP: **Tournaments** are a special type of minigame which will be discussed in their own section. They are fun for everyone including new players, because we use a drafting format (so veteran players have no material advantage). Tournaments are also one of the best ways to acquire Hero Equipment (described in section 13). For more information on Tourneys, look at section 12 of this FAQ. * * * # **6. The Coliseum – PvE with Players’ Decks**  The Coliseum is on the west side of Atlantea on the Campaign Map. You can access it as soon as you've beaten the Orc Encampment mission, which is available to new players almost immediately. Every day (every 22 hours to be exact), a new set of 30 warlords appears in the Coliseum to challenge you to battle! You fight increasingly difficult opponents as you go along. You have 30 tries to beat 20 of the warlords. When the Coliseum closes at the end of the day (when the timer is up), you will receive a prize of 1 Gem per warlord you've beaten, plus a special bonus of 5 Gems if you max out 20 victories (for a possible total of 25 Gems per day). The Coliseum may _look_ like it’s PvP but it’s actually PvE. The way it works is that when you enter for the first time every day, the game takes a snapshot of the decks of many other players, and it uses those decks for the warlords you will fight. However, as of that moment the opponents are fixed (so if they change their decks it won't affect your opponents in the Coliseum). Even though other players may also fight in the Coliseum, each player has his own instance fighting against static decks, so you never have to worry about other players beating your deck and counting against you. This also means that every single player, if he spends enough time, can achieve the top prize daily (although it can be a bit of a grind!)  There is no penalty for losing fights, and you will gain gold and experience for victories as usual. This is generally a great place to practice, and to earn some Gems, while you are waiting for chests to open in your Treasures screen or want to take a break from grinding other content. PRO TIP: The Coliseum is the minigame that pro players use to grind for Gems daily. Once you have a decent deck and some patience most players can earn upwards of 150 Gems a week this way!

# **7. What to Buy in the Shop**  Of course, the most important part of being successful in this card game is getting new cards! You will find them in the Shop, where you can also purchase Gems for real-world currency ($) or stock up on treasure items. There are two basic ways to get cards from the Shop, and they are _both_ very useful to know about. The Singles section of the Shop sells single cards, with prices increasing based on rarity, and the Packs section of the Shop sells packs of cards with prices increasing based on how likely you are to receive rare cards in those packs.  It’s actually always a smart idea to take a look at the singles shop from time to time, whether you’re new or a veteran. New players can use the singles shop to buy cards that upgrade their decks without waiting to have 2000 coins for a new and random pack. Veteran players can use the singles shop to buy epic cards especially that they need to finish their decks (if they haven’t received them randomly in packs). The singles section is good, but actually the packs section is even more useful. This is where you will make the majority of your purchases. The different packs break down as follows:  **Regular Shop Packs** **Silver Pack** – 2000 Coins – 3 cards - [Core Set] Three completely random cards from the Core Set. When you are new, this is a very good pack to buy. Most players spend their first 20 to 30,000 gold on these packs. The uncommons and rares you will receive will help you just as much as any epics you might be lucky enough to find. All cards in the Core Set can be found here, but there are no guarantees. **Gold Pack** – 9000 Coins – 5 cards with R - [Core Set] _Note: the Gold Pack only appears in the Shop once a player has reached Fame Level 6 in the Arena._ Veteran players with big card sets usually spend their gold here. The drop rate for epics is about 5 times that of the 2000-coin Silver pack, which makes it a _slightly_ better buy for epics, but only slightly. For new players it’s may not be worth it right because you get so many fewer cards for the same price. Once you are comfortable with your collection size, though, you may want to think about buying these with your saved up coins. **Platinum Pack** – 50 Gems – 5 cards with E - [Core Set] A pretty straight-forward pack. You always get an epic, and that’s always a good thing. You can technically get more than one if you’re really lucky. And if you're *really* lucky you can even pull a legendary card straight out of this pack! If you are a premium player who bought a bunch of Gems and you want to build your collection fast, you may consider purchasing a bunch of these so you start out with a strong collection. Of course you could also buy Expansion packs (described below). Your choice entirely.  **Starter Decks** – $14.99 – 20 cards with EEEE - [All Sets] A quick way to get started, Starter Decks are designed to have a strong set of cards that already have been chosen for good deck synergy. At 20 cards, they are playable as a deck. The cards come from all existing sets, and since the deckbuild is fixed you can be sure to get certain cards you may be want. You can inspect the card list for any of these by clicking the "More Info" button from the shop screen. PRO TIP: Starter Decks, like other packs, can be bought an unlimited number of times each.  **Expansion Set Packs** **Dragons Pack** – 15 Gems – 3 cards with R - [Dragons Set] When a new expansion comes out, it starts out only being available in special Expansion packs, like this one. Dragons is the game’s first expansion and contains powerful cards with fun mechanics. Since it's the older expansion, now that the new expansion Frontiers has arrived, Dragons packs have received a 40% discount. It still has the same great drop rate though! You are guaranteed at least a rare, and you can also find epics and legendary cards straight out of the packs. **Frontiers Pack** – 25 Gems – 3 cards with R - [Frontiers Set] Frontiers is the latest expansion of Storm Wars and features new cards with new mechanics. The 25 Gems cost is standard for the current expansion, and is worth every last Gem when you start pulling some of the epics and legendaries that other players are still struggling to collect! * * * # **8. The Endless Dungeon – Experience Grinding**  On the south side of Atlantea, you will find the Endless Dungeon. This is a level you can replay an unlimited number of times, where you can get gold and chests, level up your Hero, and generally fight not-very-difficult AI battles. You can access this special minigame once you've conquered Skyview Tower, which is just 2 missions beyond the game's starting point (so new players will have access to this dungeon quickly). The Endless Dungeon is notable because it’s easier to grind than the Arena, but of course the rewards are less. For one thing it is impossible to receive an Epic Chest after a battle in the Endless Dungeon. You can however sometimes receive Wooden, Silver or Gold Chests. Individual battles also only award 50 coins each as opposed to the higher rates in the Arena. The one exception to this trend however is in Hero experience: Each battle in the Endless Dungeon awards 750 experience points to your Hero upon a victory. This makes the Endless Dungeon the best method to grind Hero experience that is currently available in the game. * * * # **9. Combining Cards – A Great Way to Get Legendaries**  Combining cards is a good way to obtain some of the rarer cards you might have otherwise missed by buying random packs. Card combinations are available only for some cards, but many of the top cards in the game are obtainable this way. Every single Epic card in the game can be turned into a Legendary version of itself this way too. After you’ve saved up some Epics, don’t miss this opportunity to maximize your deck strength!  Cards that can be combined are demarcated with a little yellow “plus” icon at the top-left of the card face (shown above). To get to the card combining menu, you’ll need to navigate to your Army screen and then click on the combine button near the bottom-right. The button has the same yellow plus icon shown on it, on top of two cards. (Once you click this button you can toggle back to view your army by pressing it again — it will have morphed into a sword-icon button).  Combining cards requires 4 copies of cards of a lower rarity, plus a few Gems, in order to make one copy of a higher-rarity card. At first it may seem like the Gem prices are steep, but in fact the prices are all good deals in terms of card values that you will pay for by buying packs. It is also possible to combine cards that don’t match into a random other card of the same rarity. This is called a card “Gamble” and can be done for free (you don’t have to pay Gems, but you lose the cards themselves). Card combinations can be broken down as follows:    **4 matching commons + 2 Gems = 1 uncommon**    **4 matching uncommons + 6 Gems = 1 rare**    **4 matching rares + 30 Gems = 1 epic**    **4 matching epics + 200 Gems = 1 legendary** Card “gambles” can be broken down as follows:    **4 unmatching commons = 1 random common**    **4 unmatching uncommons = 1 random uncommon**    **4 unmatching rares = 1 random rare**    **4 unmatching epics = 1 random epic**

# **10. Crews (aka Player Guilds)**  Crews are Storm Wars’ version of guilds or clans. A crew is a group of up to 20 players who have formed a “team” that will fight against other teams of players for pride and special prizes. Crew battles take on a unique form of PvP when compared to the Arena. You access crews from the Crew button on the main page. To join a crew that is open to the public, you can simply click the join button on the main crew listings page. To join an invitation-only crew, you will need the Crew’s Captain to send you an invite by name. The invite will appear in your game messages box and you can join just by clicking the join button contained in the message. If you are currently in a crew when joining, you will instantly leave it to join the new one. Captains can select whether crews are public or invite-only from their settings panel.  Crews are ranked on a standard ELO system that is adjusted based on victories or defeats at the hands of other crews (and depending on the other crews’ rankings of course). The system is traditional in that the scores do not reset every week, unlike in the Arena. A crew’s ELO score can be seen in the crew listings if you are not in one, or in the Rankings tab if you are. You can see your own crew’s ranking at the top-left of the screen (denoted by the trophy symbol). You can also inspect the different members of each crew by clicking the View button in the crew’s listing in the Rankings tab. Each week all members of each high-ranked crew are given a reward bonus based on the crew’s ELO rankings, just as players are given individual awards in the Arena. The reward can include Gems and Honor Points. The crew itself can also receive Skulls for a high placement. Crew leaders can declare attacks on other crews. Once declared, the battle wages for 11 hours. Each crew can be involved in one offensive battle and one defensive battle simultaneously; so if another crew is already under attack, your crew will not be able to attack them. You can see the active crew battles from the Battles tab (shown above).  In a crew battle, each player is given 6 attacks that can be used at any time during the battle. Each attack will target the defense deck of a random player from the opposing crew. Once selected, the defending player can only be switched by spending a Rare Coin. However, as an attacker you can see the opponent’s hero before you decide which deck to attack with, giving you the advantage anyway. Players get 6 attacks in both offensive and defensive crew battles.  Players can refresh their attacks back up to 6 by using a special item called a Glowstone. Up to 3 Glowstones can be used per battle, for a total of 24 possible attacks by one player. Glowstones drop in chests like any other item, and can also be purchased from the game Shop for a few Gems each. Once the battle timer runs out, the number of victories for each side is tallied, and the higher number wins (tie goes to the defending crew). ELO points are adjusted accordingly. The winning crew also receives a crew chest, which has prizes very similar to the Arena chest.  Players within crews can be one of three ranks. The crew’s Captains are the leaders, and they have access to all crew powers. Captains can invite new players, remove all other players, change the crew messaging, delete messages from the crew message center, declare battles, and more. Players can also be assigned the “Quartermaster” role, which is a secondary officer that can remove lower-ranked players and declare battles. The standard player role with no special powers is the role of “Mate.” All new players start in this role until promoted by a Captain. Most crews will have only one or two Captains, a few Quartermasters, and a lot of Mates. It all depends on how your team feels like organizing itself! Any combination is possible. PRO TIP: If a crew’s Captains become inactive for more than 5 days, Quartermasters can “Mutiny” and take over the crew (to prevent crews from going dead). If there are no Quartermasters, standard Mates can take over. * * * # **11. Crew Rewards**  Of course Gem rewards are nice, but there are several other ways in which players are rewarded for being in an active and successful crew -- including access to unique cards! Obtaining these special prizes depends on earning both Skulls and Honor Points in crew battles. The two currencies are quite different and function in a nuanced way that encourages loyalty to single crews amongst players but that also incentivizes crews to compete for higher rankings.  **Skulls** Skulls are a prize given to crews, not to individual players. Every time a crew wins a battle, it gains two Skulls, and if a crew loses a battle it gains one. If a crew beats another crew that is ranked at least 250 ELO points higher, it gains 4 extra Skulls. Skulls are also awarded at the end of the crew season, alongside Gems for players. The number of Skulls a crew owns corresponds directly to which reward cards it has unlocked. Each reward card unlocks at a different threshold; once a crew reaches that amount, every single player in the crew has access to that reward card. This is even true for newer players who may have joined the crew after the rewards were unlocked!  **Honor Points** Honor Points, unlike Skulls, are awarded to individual players. Each crew rewards card costs a few Honor Points to buy. So, even if a player joins a crew that has many advanced rewards cards unlocked, that player must accumulate Honor Points to be able to buy copies of those cards. Importantly: When a player leaves a crew, *he does keep all of his Honor Points*, but he will not be able to spend them for a 5-day waiting period in any new crew he joins. This system ensures that players want to stay loyal to their crews, and it protects crews by making the rewards they unlock with Skulls more accessible to players who have been in the crew longer and helped earn those Skulls.  In addition to these other rewards, players also get to open a Crew Battle chest after every team victory. This chest is very similar to the Arena chest in terms of prizes. Score! * * * # **12. Draft Tournaments - Fun For Newbies and Veterans**  Tournaments are accessible from the Arena tab. They are a fun way for new players and veterans to compete on even footing, and earn some unique prizes. All tournaments in Storm Wars are "draft" tournaments, which means that players will use a deck made out of randomly available cards instead of their own collections. Because of this, no one has a material advantage and victory is more about skill (and a bit of luck). PRO TIP: You can always see what tournaments are coming up and when by clicking on the tournament Schedule button. The next three tournaments will be shown.  Each player who enters a tournament will have a chance to face off against the other players in the tournament, trying to rack up wins as he goes. Each player gets 25 tries to score as many wins as possible. When the tournament ends, a player gets a prize box based on how many wins he ended up with. Tournament entry costs 10 Gems, but the minimum prize is actually worth 10 Gems, so tournaments are always a solid investment! This FAQ's next section 13 (below) describes Hero Equipment and Equipment Boxes in more detail. The prizes are as follows: **0-14 Wins**: Silver Equipment Box - (worth 10 Gems) **15-19 Wins**: Gold Equipment Box - (worth 25 Gems) **20-25 Wins**: Epic Equipment Box - (worth 60 Gems)  The first thing to note when entering a tournament is the ***Tournament Rules***. Each tournament has its own special set of restrictions based on card factions and rarities. For example, in the above image, the tournament starting at 3:02 allows cards from all factions, but only rare and better; whereas, the tournament starting at 11:02 only allows Atlantean and Nameless Horde cards, but of all rarities. All possible combinations of factions and rarities may appear in the rules, so each tournament implies a different deckbuilding strategy that players will learn as they progress. When a player enters the tournament, before he starts fighting he must choose cards for the deck he will use in the tournament. This is called ***drafting*** cards. To do this, the player will select cards one at a time until he has selected 25 total cards, forming his deck. For each selection, four different cards will appear on the screen, and the player has to choose just one of them. The cards are completely random, but will always follow the tournament rules; so if the rule is that only Atlantean and Spider People cards are allowed, then all of the choices will be cards either from the Atlantean or Spider People factions. Because the card selections are random, there is an element of luck involved. Some players might have better choices than others. However, there is also a lot of strategy in figuring out which cards to draft so that they synergize well with each other and give the player the best chance to win against others' decks.  Once a player has finished drafting his deck of cards, he will be prompted to select a Hero also following tournament rules. All eligible Heroes will be available regardless of whether the player has unlocked them in his personal account. And, all Heroes will be at experience level 20 for the tournament battles, regardless of whether the player has the Hero currently at that level. PRO TIP: Drafting tournaments are a great way to experiment with cards and Heroes that you don't already own. Remember that all the cards you draft are only temporary and you don't keep them. So, you don't have to worry about choosing cards that you "need" for your collection. Try experimenting to learn the ins and outs of new mechanics!  In a tournament, each player is allowed to fight 25 total battles. Once a player drafts his deck, he can start fighting tournament battles ***immediately***. Keep in mind that this means that some players might complete their 25 battles even before other players join! During tournament play, the other players in the tournament will appear as optional opponents, much like in the Arena. A player simply chooses his opponent, and the two decks the players drafted will face off against each other. The list of available opponents will only reset once all opponents that appear have been fought. If a player does not want to risk fighting a particular opponent, he can use a Rare Coin (found in chests) to refresh his opponent list.  Tournaments run every 4 hours. They can be joined by anyone, any time except during the last 30 minutes of a tournament's life cycle. While a tournament is still running, you can check different players' scores in the Rankings tab of the Arena, under the Tournament header. You don't have to be enrolled in the tournament to view this. Prizes are awarded immediately after the tournament ends, and players will find the rewards in their mailboxes. Don't forget that you have to open your mail to be awarded your prize!

# **13. Hero Equipment**  Hero Equipment is a special type of item that can be equipped to decks just like cards. Equipment has varying effects usually amounting to a buff of the Hero's powers; for example a piece of Equipment might grant the Hero a few more life points, or it might grant him an extra attack once every few turns. Two pieces of Equipment can be used in each deck. Like cards, Equipment has five levels of rarity, getting more powerful as the rarity increases. These levels are just like cards: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary. Heroes can use any piece of Equipment of any rarity, without limitation by faction or Hero level.  Absolutely all Equipment is found in Equipment Boxes. The Equipment Boxes themselves are standard Treasures which will appear in the Treasures tab of the Treasures screen (see above). The four types of Equipment Boxes are Wooden, Silver, Gold and Epic. Each Box contains exactly one Equipment of the corresponding rarity (Wooden = Common, Silver = Uncommon, etc). PRO TIP: About 10% of the time an Equipment Box will contain a piece of Equipment that is one level of rarity *higher* than the Box type. This is how a player can obtain Legendary Equipment even though there is no Legendary Equipment Box. There are *three* places you can get Equipment Boxes:   1. **Equipment Boxes can appear as random prizes in all chests.**   2. **Equipment Boxes are the standard reward for placing well in Tournaments.**   3. **Equipment Boxes can be bought directly from the game Shop.** Equipment is attached or detached from a deck exactly the same way that cards are added or subtracted. Go to the Army screen and look for the two Equipment slots beside your Hero's portrait at the top-right. Click one of these to attach or detach a piece of Equipment in the slot. Keep in mind that you can't use the same piece of Equipment simultaneously in more than one deck. PRO TIP: Like cards, opponents will not be able to see which Equipments are attached to a deck when matching up against it. Therefore Equipment is sometimes used by advanced players to provide unexpected combinations with their chosen Hero. For example a typical slow Hero can be enhanced with speed-increasing Equipment, making it harder for opponents to outrush their deck.  Equipment is a bit harder to come by than cards, but the good news is that if you get extras you don't want, *all equipment, even Commons, can be sold for Gems!* To sell an Equipment, simply navigate to the Equipment tab on the Treasures screen, click on the Equipment in question, and press the Sell button. Equipment sale prices are as follows:   Commons sell for **1 Gem** each   Uncommons sell for **2 Gems** each   Rares sell for **4 Gems** each   Epics sell for **8 Gems** each   Legendaries sell for **20 Gems** each New Equipments are added into the game quite regularly, so keep your eyes peeled!

I think you can get Epic Chests from the campaign, I’ll keep an eye on that because I think I’ve already opened two without doing any PvP. PS: let me know if you need more reserved room, I can delete this post if needed :D PS2: confirmed, you can get an Epic Chest from the latest of the second star missions (Treespeaker) at Heart of the Glen.

This is a great help, Sir Valimont! Thanks. We have a [Storm Wars page here](http://stormwars.wikia.com/) too, if you’d like to contribute to it.

Yes, you can get Epic Chests as a reward from the campaigns.

“Sell this rare coin for 100 gold or save it for later on…” What can I do with it later on?

> *Originally posted by **[itsacpl](/forums/32949/topics/640060?page=1#posts-10526939):*** > > “Sell this rare coin for 100 gold or save it for later on…” > > What can I do with it later on? It’s a mystery … maybe nothing ever. You never know what the dev team will come up with! :)

I never even noticed that text. I guess I’ll start saving them, lol.

Updated the FAQ: • Replaced images for Coliseum and Endless Dungeon as they had been moved; correspondingly updated text as well. • Added more details and images for Expansions section. • Added section 10 on Card Combining.

gamble price has been reduced to 0/1/4 gems as of today’s patch

i played for few days now, like the game,. reminds me of card game few years back from facebook,. i play this game online and offline as any other game,. but today,.when i m back to online again,. my gem shows -22,. it is now -9 as i am progressing claiming gems from fight to fight

> *Originally posted by **[Ben\_RandomNumber](/forums/32949/topics/640060?page=1#posts-10551205):*** > > gamble price has been reduced to 0/1/4 gems as of today’s patch Updated. Thank you.

Please do not faq please F.A.Q . or FAQ the lower case is misleading the younger generation in this great nation.

I updated the Newbie Questions to include info on Rare Coins. Please note … since so many people continue to ask about this.

When you’re watching a top battle replay, is there any way to tell which player is defending? For example is the top player always the defender. EDIT: Maybe also worth mentioning how to reset Coliseum. Only way I know is to go back to the main menu and return refreshing your opponent.

I died on turn 83 because “TURN 83: THE GODS ARE ANGRY!”*??*?

If you take into consideration that 5x basic packs give 10 more cards (that sell for a minimum of 50 gold each) than 1 silver pack does, then basic packs are a better buy than silver packs. Some people will still prefer to buy silver packs because there is less luck involved on if you get a rare or not, but assuming average luck, in the long run basic packs are always a better buy.

> *Originally posted by **[Ben\_RandomNumber](/forums/32949/topics/640060?page=1#posts-10571623):*** > > If you take into consideration that 5x basic packs give 10 more cards (that sell for a minimum of 50 gold each) than 1 silver pack does, then basic packs are a better buy than silver packs. > > Some people will still prefer to buy silver packs because there is less luck involved on if you get a rare or not, but assuming average luck, in the long run basic packs are always a better buy. Ben, I would have to disagree. I’ve been buying basic packs for a while and been remembering the rare and epic count. As of now, I’ve gotten 20 rares and 0 epics in 114 packs. Which is much worse than if I were to buy silver packs since I may have gotten more than one rare in a pack or an epic in a pack and is less than the minimum amount of rares I could’ve gotten.

> *Originally posted by **[primetimewizard](/forums/32949/topics/640060?page=1#posts-10572520):*** > > *Originally posted by **[Ben\_RandomNumber](/forums/32949/topics/640060?page=1#posts-10571623):*** > > > > If you take into consideration that 5x basic packs give 10 more cards (that sell for a minimum of 50 gold each) than 1 silver pack does, then basic packs are a better buy than silver packs. > > > > Some people will still prefer to buy silver packs because there is less luck involved on if you get a rare or not, but assuming average luck, in the long run basic packs are always a better buy. > > Ben, I would have to disagree. I’ve been buying basic packs for a while and been remembering the rare and epic count. As of now, I’ve gotten 20 rares and 0 epics in 114 packs. Which is much worse than if I were to buy silver packs since I may have gotten more than one rare in a pack or an epic in a pack and is less than the minimum amount of rares I could’ve gotten. Based on what Storm said in chat, you should, on average, get the same number of rares and epics for every 5 basic packs as you do for every 1 silver pack. Keep in mind you’re using a small sample size. Personally, I’ve gotten 2 epics from basic packs in the last day so… (also a small sample size). I’m simply going on what Storm stated about the packs, and doing the math of “if you sell back the extra common/uncommon” to make up the difference in gold cost.

Questions about Packs: 1. Dragons Pack: You say that “The drop rates for Epics are a little worse than standard set packs”, but what is this mean? And i see Legendary Dragons and Legendary is not equal Epics, because it has a different color(red) so whats about that? How many Packs you need to buy to get a single Legendary? Is it even possible for a free player who started **after** they tweaked everything? Because the truth is…: **i don’t really have Gem income** and even if i get daily 1 from this Pack i really don’t think that i ever get a Legendary. Its just a feeling, but i don’t think i should ever get a Dragon Pack…. Although the stupid part of this is that it has the best cards, BUT i’m not interested in uncommon cards at all, even if they are cool n everything. xD So “buy a tons of them” is not possible and not even worth it atm for free. You wait more = you have a cr\*p deck longer. Maybe some p2w on the top and some who was here from the beginning can “afford” that, but i’m sure i can’t. 2. Faction Packs: Basically i have the same question: How often i can get Rares/Epics from it? **Did anyone do any math and count with the Packs? I’m really interested about the drop chances. Another thing i’m interested in is that i “heard” that getting Epics from at least Silver Packs(but maybe from any Packs) is not even random and if you doesn’t have the luck, after a while you get one 100% of the times. At how much Gold spent this occurs 100% of the times if this even exists?** Thanks for the answers. Sorry if it was answered before somewhere. Sorry for not asking on the chat, but i hate chatting, it takes too much time investment on ppl. :D

> *Originally posted by **[LordCarl](/forums/32949/topics/640060?page=1#posts-10578153):*** > > Questions about Packs: > > 1. Dragons Pack: You say that “The drop rates for Epics are a little worse than standard set packs”, but what is this mean? And i see Legendary Dragons and Legendary is not equal Epics, because it has a different color(red) so whats about that? How many Packs you need to buy to get a single Legendary? Is it even possible for a free player who started **after** they tweaked everything? Because the truth is…: **i don’t really have Gem income** and even if i get daily 1 from this Pack i really don’t think that i ever get a Legendary. Its just a feeling, but i don’t think i should ever get a Dragon Pack…. Although the stupid part of this is that it has the best cards, BUT i’m not interested in uncommon cards at all, even if they are cool n everything. xD > So “buy a tons of them” is not possible and not even worth it atm for free. You wait more = you have a cr\*p deck longer. Maybe some p2w on the top and some who was here from the beginning can “afford” that, but i’m sure i can’t. > > 2. Faction Packs: Basically i have the same question: How often i can get Rares/Epics from it? > > **Did anyone do any math and count with the Packs? I’m really interested about the drop chances. Another thing i’m interested in is that i “heard” that getting Epics from at least Silver Packs(but maybe from any Packs) is not even random and if you doesn’t have the luck, after a while you get one 100% of the times. At how much Gold spent this occurs 100% of the times if this even exists?** > > Thanks for the answers. Sorry if it was answered before somewhere. Sorry for not asking on the chat, but i hate chatting, it takes too much time investment on ppl. :D Don’t know the exact drop rate on epics in dragon packs, but it’s definitely less than 50% – which means a plat pack is a higher drop rate for epics. A gold pack for 20 gems guarantees 2 rares while a dragon pack for 25 gems guarantees one rare – which means the drop rate on rares is considerably less for dragon packs… My personal experience is about 1.5 rares per dragon pack, 1 epic per every 5 or so dragon packs, and one legendary per every 15 or so dragon packs. I’ve never drawn a legendary from other gem packs, but I’ve bought very few of them since they were added. Based on what other people have reported in chat – my luck on dragon packs seems to be fairly close to average. Storm has said the drop rate on legendary cards is as close as possible to equal per gem spent for all packs that cost gems. Storm also explicitly stated that for any given basic pack there is a 20% chance it will have one or more rare+ and that for those basic packs that do contain 1 or more rare+ the rate of multiple rares and the rate of epics is the same as in a silver pack.

This is just an approximation:   • 1 epic in 5 expansion packs   • 1 legend in 25 expansion packs