Beginner Tips and Tricks for Stormbound: Kingdom Wars
CCGs like Hearthstone and Shadowverse are already hard enough to learn with their wide variety of cards and mechanics that can, from one moment to another, completely shift the tables of a match and turn an easy win into a crushing defeat. To get good in these games, you not only have to be familiar with your own deck and strategies, but also with your opponent’s cards in order to predict their moves and adapt accordingly. Stormbound takes the learning curve one step further by combining elements from multiple genres to create a unique experience.
All of this can seem quite daunting, especially if you’re a newcomer and don’t know exactly how to play. However, when it comes to these types of games, you must first learn to crawl before you walk. To this end, we’ve decided to write a guide with a few useful tips and tricks that can help you out as a beginner to learn the intricacies of the game. If you’re just getting started in Stormbound, keep these tips in mind.
ALWAYS Play a Card
Stormbound borrows many elements from other CCGs, including the mana system in Hearthstone. Every card you place on the field has a mana cost, and you can only play cards as long as you have enough mana. Luckily, this resource regenerates completely at the beginning of every turn and also increases its maximum limit by 1 point.
In this sense, one of the best and most simple ways to optimize your performance in this game is by using all your mana, or as much as you can, in every single turn. Unlike games like Legends of Runeterra, where excess mana can accumulate at the end of every turn, passing your turn without acting in Stormbound doesn’t give you any benefits at all; it just makes you waste a turn. You don’t even get to draw a new card on the next turn if your hand is maxed out.
Remember that, if you don’t have a usable card in your hand due to mana constraints, you can swap one card out for a chance of getting a better one. You can swap your cards by picking them up and dragging them to the left of the screen. In this sense, even if you don’t have a usable card, you should definitely make a habit of swapping your cards regularly, unless you absolutely can’t spare a card currently in your hand and would rather wait until the next turn.
Stand Your Ground
In Stormbound, you can deploy cards only on the parts of the field that you control. As your units move forward, your territory will increase, allowing you to place soldiers closer to the enemy base. However, when your units are destroyed, and the enemy marches closer to your base uncontested, your territory will decrease accordingly.
One of the best ways to keep the pressure up at all times is by controlling the field, which you can achieve by always having units deployed and avoiding getting wiped out. For this purpose, even the weakest units are useful since they can help to hold your ground if your stronger soldiers fall in battle. In this sense, a good strategy is to often deploy several weaker units first, and then dump your mana on deploying the stronger soldiers once you’ve established proper dominance.
It’s worth mentioning here that, when it comes to standing your ground, buildings are excellent choices. While these types of units can’t move, they often have lots of health and require lots of effort to destroy. Meanwhile, as long as they’re standing, they can prevent your territory from decreasing, even if your characters get destroyed. Some of these buildings can also spawn soldiers every turn, making them great tools for maintaining pressure on the enemy.
Do Those Daily Quests and Play Through the Campaign Missions
One of the best ways to get good at Stormbound, and in any other card game, is by collecting as many cards as you can. This is because, while the current meta might favor certain compositions, all it takes is one content update or small tweak to make old cards obsolete and open the way for new metas. In this sense, the more cards you have in reserve, the more adaptable you’ll be in case of meta shifts.
One of the fastest ways to get new cards in Stormbound is simply by purchasing boosters in the store using real money. However, for those who are looking to get the full experience as f2p players, completing the daily quests is the next best thing as you’ll get booster packs with cards for every single quest you complete. Similarly, completing story missions will net you extra cards for the corresponding faction (i.e you receive Ironclad cards for completing Ironclad missions, and so on.)
Now, we know these CCGs are basically all about the PvP. However, if you want to stand a chance against the toughest players, you’ll need to expand your repertoire of cards by spending some time completing the PvE content. Keep in mind, however, that some daily quests involve actually playing and winning in PvP, so they’re not always as boring as they may seem.
Know the Basic Strategies of Every Class
As we mentioned above, winning in Stormbound is not just about having a good strategy yourself, but also about familiarizing yourself with the opponent’s deck so that you can always adapt and react to their moves, and prevent them from using their best plays.
There are five different classes in the game, all of which offer a few different play styles and strategies. For instance, Ironclads are great for aggro or control decks, while Swarms are great mostly for aggro, and Winter Pact is more about defensive strategies and powerful counterattacks, and so on. By simply identifying the enemy’s faction, you can prepare accordingly to counter the strategies that they are most likely to use. Check out our class article to learn more about the strategies of every class in Stormbound and how to counter them.
These are some of the most important tips for getting started and progressing in Stormbound. If you have any other useful pointers, feel free to share them in the comments below and help everyone out!
