Faeria, the rather good free to play turn-based card battler has a final release and now official Linux support

Cool will try it out today

I will give it a try!

Awesome, I've invested alot in Hearthstone, and the meta there kinda sucks at the moment. I will try this now!

Edit: a bummer it's on steam only, I cannot get online in Steam at work because ports are blocked ^____^' Guess it's HS for me then!


Last edited by buenaventura on 8 March 2017 at 6:28 pm UTC

Tried it during beta and somehow didn't sit well with me. Don't get me wrong, it's a very fine game, but feels more built for rush then control decks, playing control makes games last long. Somehow it didn't hook me, but maybe I'll give it another chance at some point.

downloading it right now.

Just played the first couple of tutorial missions. I really like it so far and will definitely play more!

It runs without problems on my Laptop with Intel graphics - definitely a plus!


Last edited by Kohrias on 8 March 2017 at 10:18 pm UTC

Tried it during beta and somehow didn't sit well with me. Don't get me wrong, it's a very fine game, but feels more built for rush then control decks, playing control makes games last long. Somehow it didn't hook me, but maybe I'll give it another chance at some point.

I love the game. The devs were very responsive during Early Access and changed balances of cards quickly, especially in the last few months and weeks. The meta in Faeria is now the best in it's history. Very many decks are viable - from rush to midrange to control. Pretty amazing. But you have to learn to counter rush. There are some good guides for that and other stuff on Faeria's new community website "The Hub": Faeria.com/the-hub

Out of the many card games now available I would say Faeria is the one where luck has the least amount of impact so it's very strategic but not as deep and hard as chess of course.

How does this game compare with Duelyst? Has anyone here tried both and could give some feedback?

I've been playing the browser version of Duelyst for a while now, and have also invested a few dollars, but I'd be interested in checking out Faeria too if it has a similar depth to it.

How does this game compare with Duelyst? Has anyone here tried both and could give some feedback?

I've been playing the browser version of Duelyst for a while now, and have also invested a few dollars, but I'd be interested in checking out Faeria too if it has a similar depth to it.

The main difference with Duelyst, IMO, lies in the deckbuilding. Duelyst is similar to HearthStone, where you choose a specific faction and have to make your deck with its cards. In Faeria, there are not factions but colors and you can mix up them as much as you want. It's closer to Magic: The Gathering on this point. Of course, the more colors in your deck, the more it will be difficult to manage your resources in game to play your cards, but it's perfectly viable to play decks made with one, two, three or even the four colors. It's a bit as if you could mix the factions in Duelyst to build a deck (BTW, I think Counterplay plans to experiment with this).

Faeria is also pretty generous with rewards and gold to get packs, more than Duelyst (which itself is more than HearthStone) and it's quite easy to build a decent collection without putting money in the game.

On the tactical side, I haven't played Duelyst enough to really compare both games. It always seemed to me that games in Duelyst were more oriented towards a gameplay that favors power creep. Faeria is easier to apprehend IMO.

How does this game compare with Duelyst? Has anyone here tried both and could give some feedback?

I know Duelyst only by watching some streams on Twitch.tv. But in addition to abelthorne's perfect explanations I only want to add the most obvious difference:

In Faeria you first have to place lands on the board before you can summon minions on top of them. This simple mechanic adds to the strategic depth. So the cards have different requirements before you can play them: You need enough "mana" ("Faeria" ) and you need the right amount of land types (powerful cards need e.g. 5 lands of the same colour) and you need the land at the right spot of the board so that the card/minion you want to play actually has an impact on the board.


Last edited by Micromegas on 9 March 2017 at 1:36 am UTC

How does this game compare with Duelyst? Has anyone here tried both and could give some feedback?

I've been playing the browser version of Duelyst for a while now, and have also invested a few dollars, but I'd be interested in checking out Faeria too if it has a similar depth to it.

The main difference with Duelyst, IMO, lies in the deckbuilding. Duelyst is similar to HearthStone, where you choose a specific faction and have to make your deck with its cards. In Faeria, there are not factions but colors and you can mix up them as much as you want. It's closer to Magic: The Gathering on this point. Of course, the more colors in your deck, the more it will be difficult to manage your resources in game to play your cards, but it's perfectly viable to play decks made with one, two, three or even the four colors. It's a bit as if you could mix the factions in Duelyst to build a deck (BTW, I think Counterplay plans to experiment with this).

Faeria is also pretty generous with rewards and gold to get packs, more than Duelyst (which itself is more than HearthStone) and it's quite easy to build a decent collection without putting money in the game.

On the tactical side, I haven't played Duelyst enough to really compare both games. It always seemed to me that games in Duelyst were more oriented towards a gameplay that favors power creep. Faeria is easier to apprehend IMO.

Wow, I think I might reconsider, the mana thing is what I miss the most from MtG in HS, its so silly that it just goes up, and that you cant mix colours. Ah, I wish they had a browser version!

Edit: Perhaps one can run it in an emulated Android device later, like with genymotion?


Last edited by buenaventura on 9 March 2017 at 7:38 am UTC

Ah, I wish they had a browser version!
Edit: Perhaps one can run it in an emulated Android device later, like with genymotion?

I'm not really following: are you talking about Faeria? Because Genymotion is made for playing Android games on PC and it's already a PC game, not Android. Or maybe you're looking for an "inverted" Genymotion, i.e. a way to play the (PC) game on your Android device? If so, there is no such thing and, as you pointed out, there's no browser version like Duelyst provides.

(As a sidenote, Duelyst has a browser version because it's a "web" game, made with HTML+JS; the desktop version is only the game packaged within a standalone browser. Faeria is made with Unity AFAIK, so not easily portable to a web version.)

Faeria only has a desktop version right now (Linux + MacOS + Windows, through Steam only). There are plans for a mobile version, but tablets only I think. The iPad port is currently in open beta in some specific countries (Belgium at least). When it's released, Abrakam will focus on the Android port.


Last edited by abelthorne on 9 March 2017 at 9:14 am UTC

"Faeria, the rather good free to play turn-based card battler has a final release and now official Linux support"

Carefully nuanced with "rather" to not overdo it, so british. And let's cram the entire article into the headline - that's classic Liam. Never change, dude. <3


Last edited by Beamboom on 9 March 2017 at 9:05 am UTC

"Faeria, the rather good free to play turn-based card battler has a final release and now official Linux support"

Carefully nuanced with "rather" to not overdo it, so british. And let's cram the entire article into the headline - that's classic Liam. Never change, dude. <3

We're so used to blatant, hype-filled adverts masquerading as impartial reviews (or else pure hate-pieces for the giggles) that an informative, honest article is a rarity. And a headline that isn't clickbaity? What heresy is this?

Gotta love/hate the Intertubes.

Ah, I wish they had a browser version!
Edit: Perhaps one can run it in an emulated Android device later, like with genymotion?

I'm not really following: are you talking about Faeria? Because Genymotion is made for playing Android games on PC and it's already a PC game, not Android. Or maybe you're looking for an "inverted" Genymotion, i.e. a way to play the (PC) game on your Android device? If so, there is no such thing and, as you pointed out, there's no browser version like Duelyst provides.

(As a sidenote, Duelyst has a browser version because it's a "web" game, made with HTML+JS; the desktop version is only the game packaged within a standalone browser. Faeria is made with Unity AFAIK, so not easily portable to a web version.)

Faeria only has a desktop version right now (Linux + MacOS + Windows, through Steam only). There are plans for a mobile version, but tablets only I think. The iPad port is currently in open beta in some specific countries (Belgium at least). When it's released, Abrakam will focus on the Android port.

My particular problem is that I cannot get online with steam at work (where I play card games for a living... I WISH), thus for me it would be nice playing the android version on my PC, because that presumable does not go through forbidden steam-ports that are blocked here.

My particular problem is that I cannot get online with steam at work (where I play card games for a living... I WISH), thus for me it would be nice playing the android version on my PC, because that presumable does not go through forbidden steam-ports that are blocked here.

Oh, ok. I don't think Faeria really requires Steam to work, it's mainly a way Abrakam chose to distribute the game. If you're able to download it (I guess you can do it at home and then just copy the Faeria folder that's in steamapps/common on an USB stick), you can run it from its directory. It doesn't launch the Steam client and the game doesn't have Steamworks integration anyway, so I guess it would work but you'll have to check.


Last edited by abelthorne on 9 March 2017 at 1:47 pm UTC

you'll have to check.

Awesome, then I might be able to play it! Great, HS is expensive. Any tips on how to gain a good collection, any noob mistakes to avoid when building it?

Any tips on how to gain a good collection, any noob mistakes to avoid when building it?

Since I've started playing the game (last august), things have evolved a bit: there was a good amount of gold to get with solo quests and I think the devs lowered it but I guess you still get quite enough. So you might want to start with these. (EDIT: looking at the 1.0 patch notes, I see that they changed the solo mode again, so I'm not sure of how it works now − as I've completed it a long time ago − but it's still a good idea to complete it first before really starting to play games.)

Apart from that, it's like HearthStone: do your daily quests and you might be able to get packs pretty fast.

Not sure how much competitive you want to play but if it's just for fun, you should be able to find decent low cost decks; check resources on the Faeria subreddit, faeria.com and playfaeria.com. At first, I wouldn't dust cards (unless you have more than three of them, or more than one for legendaries) to try to make the meta decks, just build your collection over time with what you get from packs. Unlike HearthStone, I don't think there are completely trash or "fun" cards that are intentionally designed as crap. Of course (and like HearthStone), people mainly play archetypes with cards that have the most value and there are tons of cards that are never played.

A good way to get a bit of free gold and packs too is to watch the official Faeria tournament on Twitch each month (except this march), you'll have a random chance to get prizes just by watching. It will take hours but you can just keep the Twitch tab open in your browser and do something else (you'll have to associate your Steam account to your Twitch one in the settings).

If you're willing to put a bit of money in the game, the currently discounted Steam pack can be interesting (but not really at full price).


Last edited by abelthorne on 10 March 2017 at 2:04 pm UTC

<helpful stuff>

Thanks, that sounds good! I like playing good decks, so I might invest some money in the future, but I will of course try it out first.

Edit: YAY! It seems to work without Steam, let's hope it needs no weird ports (trying from home now, next week I'll try at work). Awesome, looks nice! Is there a competetive scene to speak of?


Last edited by buenaventura on 10 March 2017 at 7:28 pm UTC

Edit: YAY! It seems to work without Steam, let's hope it needs no weird ports (trying from home now, next week I'll try at work).

It might need libs that are in the Steam runtime (and widely installed overall but they might not be on your work PC).

Is there a competetive scene to speak of?

Yes, though I'm not really into that and don't follow it that much. I know some pro gamers stream (you can probably find them on the Faeria subreddit or playfaeria.com). And as I said, there is a monthly tournament; you can find the details on https://esports.faeria.com/. Besides this, I'm not sure there are a lot of other tournaments, though, I guess the game is not well known enough yet.