The rules

How to Play

Ten minutes to learn. The Glade will teach you the rest — the hard way.

Played cards before?

The short version

If duels, decks and mana are old ground to you, most of this page will be. So start here: the things Ambryx does differently from what you are about to assume. Everything below is the long way round.

In short: your board holds six minions, not seven — a seventh cannot be played. A warband is 25 cards, two copies of any card and one of any legend. Strike fires when the card is played, not when the minion attacks; Last Word fires when it dies. Retaliate N deals N back to whatever attacks that minion, even through a killing blow. And starting Health is per character — Aldric and Astrid 32, Eidara, Harald and Skarn 30, Tova 28. Lifesteal heals its owner's character when the minion attacks — never when it defends; Stealth hides a minion from attacks and targeting until it strikes (area damage still finds it).

The duel

One duel, one goal

A duel in the Gloaming Glade is a reckoning between two souls. Your goal is simple and absolute: bring the other character's Health to nothing before they do the same to you.

You fight with a warband — a deck of 25 cards — and with your character's own signature attack. Each turn you draw a card, your mana grows, and you spend it on creatures, spells and weapons. Creatures stay on the board and fight for you. Spells flare once and are gone. Weapons put the blade in your character's own hand.

Not every soul enters with the same strength. Aldric and Astrid stand at 32 Health, Eidara, Harald and Skarn at 30 — and Tova at 28, the frailest in the field. Mending is mostly hers: Eidara's roots restore her own Health on two cards, and Skarn can only drink back what his blades take.

25cards in a warband

10mana at most

6minions on your board

8cards in hand — excess burns

Before the duel

The warband and the first hand

A warband holds 25 cards: at most two copies of any card, and only one of a legend. Forge your own in the Warband Forge, or enter with a character's ready-made deck.

The duel opens with the mulligan. The soul that moves first is dealt 3 cards; the second is dealt 4, and a spark besides — a free card that lends a crystal of mana and a touch of their character's craft, to soften the cost of waiting. Look at your hand, throw back any cards you don't want, and draw fresh ones in their place. One chance. Choose what you keep.

Your turn

What a turn looks like

Mana rises by one each turn, up to ten, and refills completely. Spend all of it, every turn — the Glade does not reward thrift.

Draw & gather

You draw a card and your mana grows by one, then refills. Draw from an empty deck and Fatigue begins to bite — harder every time.

Act — in any order

Play cards, attack with your minions, loose your signature attack. Freely mixed, in any order you like, as long as the mana lasts.

End your turn

Pass the dusk to your opponent. Anything you didn't use is gone — unspent mana does not carry over.

How fighting works

A minion arrives drowsy — it cannot attack the turn it is played, unless it has Rush. From your next turn it may attack once per turn: any enemy minion, or the enemy character — unless a Guard stands in the way, and one usually does.

Each side stands in two rows of three. While your front row holds, the row behind it cannot be attacked. A minion in your front row can always reach their character; one in your back row reaches it only once no enemy minion stands at all. A Guard may only be placed in the front row — and a weapon that works the line swings by the same rule: front first, then back, the character last. A Stealthed minion counts for none of this: it neither holds a row nor keeps the character covered.

Combat cuts both ways. When two minions clash, each deals its Attack to the other's Health — send a 2/3 into a 4/5 and both walk away bleeding, or don't walk away at all. Attacking a character is safer: characters do not strike back — though Harald's wards answer on his behalf.

Your character can fight too — equip a weapon and swing once per turn, or spend 2 mana on your signature attack. Both are yours every turn — the signature attack never sits in your deck at all, and a weapon, once equipped, swings until it breaks.

The cards

Read a card at a glance

The blue gem is what it costs. The orange gem is its Attack, the red gem its Health — and on a weapon, the grey gem is durability: how many swings before it breaks. Spells carry only a cost — they spend themselves in the casting. A carved plaque at the card's foot names its kind, and a crystal above the name tells its rarity — a blue crystal for the rare, a purple for the epic, and a dragon's crest for the legend.

The plaque

Every creature has a tribe

That plaque along a creature's bottom edge names what kind of thing it is — Sworn, Beast, or Revenant. (A spell's plaque names its school instead.) Most cards never care which is which — but some hunt, feed, or bargain with one kind alone, so it pays to read it. Only the legends carry no plaque: a legend is not a kind of thing. It is only itself.

In short: Sworn — the living and the humanlike, from sellswords to smiths. Beast — everything alive that isn't a person: wolves, dragons, even walking trees. Revenant — the dead and the returned; deadness outranks whatever the body once was.

The words of power

Keywords

A handful of words appear on the cards themselves. Learn them and you can read any card in Ambryx. The last five arrived with the huntress, and all of them are about the ground.

In short: Guard — enemies must attack it first. Rush — may attack the turn it arrives. Strike — an effect the moment it is played. Last Word — an effect when it dies. Poison — destroys any minion it damages. Shield — absorbs the next hit entirely, then shatters. Retaliate N — deals N damage back to whatever attacks it. Lifesteal — heals its character for the damage it deals, but only when it attacks. Stealth — cannot be attacked or targeted until it strikes; board-wide damage still finds it. Trap — set on an empty enemy square; it springs when a body comes to stand there. Hidden Trap — the same, laid face down: they see the ground disturbed but cannot name what is set. Cache — set on an empty square of your own; it arms the next friendly body to stand there. Snared — held fast, missing its next attack, exactly as ice would hold it. Ranged — a bow: it shoots over the front line at any visible body or the enemy character, and nothing it shoots strikes back.

Beyond the keywords

The deeper words

Words you will meet in play rather than read on a card.

In short: Armor — absorbs damage before Health, stacks, never heals. Weapons — your character attacks, once per turn, until durability runs out; a bow is Ranged and draws no answering blow. Frozen — the minion misses its next attack (Astrid's cards call the same rule Snared). Silence — strips a minion of all its words and powers. Borrowing — an enemy minion fights for you until end of turn. Fatigue — an empty deck wounds you more with every draw. The Spark — a free card for the soul that moves second, once: a crystal of mana, and a touch of their character besides.

The characters

Signature attacks

Every character carries one attack that is theirs alone — 2 mana, once per turn, never in the deck, always in reach. It is the surest way to tell what a soul truly is.

Frost Bolt

Aldric, the Unbound

Deal 1 damage to any target. Small, cold, and always where it hurts.

Rootspring

Eidara, the Half-Rooted

Summon a 1/1 Seedling — one more body every turn, and her boards grow wide.

Emberbrand

Harald Ironward

Raise a ward: the next attacker takes 1 damage, and Harald gains 1 Armor. Wards stack, and attackers spend them one charge at a time.

Whisper

Tova, of the Quiet Hour

Deal 1 damage to any target, and restore 1 Health to Tova. A quiet trade, made every turn.

The Cut

Skarn, the Unburied

For one turn his edge grows keener and drinks: +1 Attack, and the swing restores 1 Health — a sip, never the whole wound. With empty hands the power is the blade — with a weapon drawn, it sharpens the steel he already holds.

Trapline

Astrid, the Smiling Snare

Set a Springsnare in an empty square on the other side: whatever comes to stand there takes 2 damage. She walks the same round every turn, and their board fills with places nobody wants.

Meet them properly on the characters page — who is good and who is evil is not written anywhere. That part is yours.

On your phone

Keep the Glade in your pocket

There is nothing to install. Save the game to your home screen and the Amberstone takes its place among your apps — one tap from the duel, full screen, no browser bars.

iPhone

Open ambryx-obscura.com/play in Safari. Tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.

Android

Open ambryx-obscura.com/play in Chrome. Tap the ⋮ menu, then Add to Home screen.

Tap the stone

The amber stone waits on your home screen. Tap it and the Glade opens full screen, like any other game in your pocket.

No download. No account.

You know the words now.

The rest is learned in the Glade — open it in your browser and play.

Play Free

Free · in your browser · Open Beta