How to Play Gods Unchained – Beginner’s Guide and Review

Last Updated on February 1, 2023

Blockchain gaming is one of the most exciting new advancements to come out of the industry in quite some time. Now, for the first time ever, players of all ability levels can earn an income playing games as they are rewarded in the form of rare NFTs and digital currency. So, how does this work? Well, rather than having your in-game items stuck inside walled gardens that stop you freely moving your assets in and out of the game, NFT technology allows players to take the items they have earned, won, or discovered onto the secondary marketplace where they can sell them to other players (or investors). 

One of the most popular games that adopts the play-to-earn model is Gods Unchained, which has over 80,000 actively weekly players (as of January 2022). If you’re looking to get involved but don’t know where to begin, this guide will bring you everything you need to know about the massively popular game, including the ways you can make money, and how the gameplay works. Let’s get into it.

What is Gods Unchained

Developed in 2018 by brothers James and Robbie Ferguson (who are both self-proclaimed crypto fanatics), Gods Unchained is an online trading card strategy game that is in many ways similar to fan favorites such as Hearthstone and Magic The Gathering Arena. 

In its essence, the game works like this; players buy, build, and collect cards that they can use to construct decks to battle against other players. At the base level, Gods Unchained may seem like a simple game, but it gets extremely complex the deeper you dive into the strategy and the synergy between cards and decks. (more on this later).

Surprisingly, global gaming audiences spent $54 billion on additional in-game content in 2020, but the vast majority have nothing to show for their spending outside of the gated environments in which these games exist. Gods Unchained intends to stir things up by granting players complete control over in-game assets. 

It accomplishes this by allowing players to mint cards and other assets on the Ethereum network as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which provide players with true, provable ownership over their items. In addition to this, the immutable nature of NFTs and the blockchain means that not even the  Gods Unchained developers are able to adjust the value of cards or take them away from players. In other words, players now have an unprecedented degree of power and influence over their assets (and the gameplay).

Gods Unchained NFTs

Gods Unchained is built upon the Ethereum network, which means that all of the cards and in-game items that players acquire come in the form of ERC-721 tokens (NFTs). These are the most common form of NFT at the time of writing, and can easily be held in any compatible Ethereum wallet, and sold on most marketplaces/exchanges. When you earn cards (NFTs) in Gods Unchained, you can either add them to your collection to play with, or you can sell them for the native in-game currency, the GODS token. 

Gods Unchained (GODS) Native Token

The GODS token is the native currency that is used within the game. It is an ERC20 token that you can use to craft NFTs (cards), purchase packs from the Gods Unchained Marketplace, or earn more rewards by staking your tokens in Immutable X. The GODS token also represents voting power within the Gods Unchained ecosystem, which means that holders of the token can participate in governance proposals that influence the future developments of the game. It’s like becoming a shareholder in the game that grants you access to a seat at the board. Of course, the more tokens you possess, the more influence you will have.

There is a maximum number of 500 million GODS tokens. 

For those of you wondering what Immutable X is, it is the world’s first layer two for NFTs built on Ethereum. It was built by the same team behind Gods Unchained and gives players access to zero gas fees, instant trades and scalability, apps, and marketplaces, all of which vastly enrich the user experience and make the game more enjoyable.

Weekend Ranked

Before we show you the ropes on how to play the game, you need to know how “Ranks” works. In short, there is a weekly ranked event that runs every Friday 5 am PDT/4am PST – Monday 5 am PDT/4am PST. During this event, players worldwide do battle in the Arena where they compete for glory and prizes (packs and GODS tokens).

Due to the game constantly being updated and improved, the format for the weekend ranked league tends to go through a variety of iterations. With that said, to enter into the tournament, all you need to do is queue up in a Ranked Constructed lobby and play matches as normal.  The prizes you can win are based on how many wins you can earn in your first 25 games (per weekend), your current rank, and whether or not you have a wallet linked to your account.

How to Play Gods Unchained

Now that we have got that out of the way, here is a step-by-step guide on how to play Gods Unchained. Before we get into the game itself, here are the steps you need to follow:

• Visit the Gods Unchained website and complete account registration
• Download and install the application
• Confirm your account via your email address
• Run the application (usually named Immutable) and sign in
• Now it’s time to get started!

Play through the tutorial 

Just as with any new game, the tutorial is the best place to get to grips with the gameplay mechanics. However, if you are already familiar with digital card games such as Hearthstone and Magic, then you can consider skipping this part. However, bear in mind that you will receive three core packs upon completion of the tutorial. 

A quick overview of the cards

• Mana – How much mana it will cost to play the card
• Strength – The damage effect this card possesses
• Health – The amount of health this card possesses
• Ability/Spell – A description of the special effect this card will have

A quick overview of the board

• Remaining cards – The number of cards you have left
• Your hand – The cards you can choose from on your turn
• God health – The remaining health of your god (begins at 30)
• God power – Your god power
• Mana wheel – Displays your current level of mana
• Enemy god

Choose your deck and loadout

When you load the game, you will be given a welcome set of cards that contains 70 unique cards (two copies of each). With these cards, you can build a deck and do battle with other players, or vs the CPU.

A single deck consists of 30 cards and each one is aligned to one of the six gods. These gods are the main characters that you can choose from, and each of them has its own distinct set of abilities God Powers (once per turn) and Ultimates (once per game). The choice of gods are as follows:

• God of Light
• Goddess of Death
• God of War
• Goddess of Nature
• God of Magic
• Goddess of Deception

Once you have decided which character to play, select “Choose Deck,” and you will be taken to the screen where you can edit your decks. Now, this is where the skill element comes into play. Here, you must craft a deck where the cards synergize with each other to create a powerful force that will overcome your opponents. But, you can save that for another time.

For now, the game will present you with six starter packs (one for each god) so you can get going right away. Now it’s time to get into the match.

Choose your God Power

When you load into a match with your chosen deck, you must choose the “God Power” you want to use in the game. This can be used once per turn, and you cannot change it, so choose wisely.

The mulligan phase

At the beginning of the game, you will be shown three cards that will make up your starting hand. Here, you can replace the cards you don’t want to use. In general, it is recommended to remove the cards that are higher mana (five or more) since you won’t be able to use them until later on.

Bag of Tricks

Each player is given a “Bag of Tricks,” which allows them to access one extra mana point during a round in the battle. In order to balance the game, the player that goes first only gets access to one “Bag of Tricks” per match, whereas the player that goes second gets three. Use them wisely.

Attacking explained

In order to attack, you must drag the card from your hand into the battlefield. Remember, you can only play a card that you have enough mana for. When you put a card into the battlefield it will remain dormant for one turn (unless it has a special ability). This means you won’t be able to use it or attack your opponent until the next turn.

Once your turn is up, hit the “End Turn” switch on the right-hand side.

How to win

In order to win a game of Gods Unchained, you need to reduce the health of the enemy god to zero. There are various ways you can do this, such as with spells, creatures, your god power, and other special abilities that you will discover throughout the game.

Level up and gain rewards

Now you know everything you need to get started and play, it’s time to get out there and show them what you’ve got (while earning some money in the meantime)! Currently, there are three games modes, these are:

• Solo – Against the CPU
• Ranked – Play against players online and climb through the rankings to earn rewards
• Direct Challenge – Call out your friends and battle them

As you progress through the ranks you will be rewarded with increasingly valuable items, cards, and packs. With these items, you can forge more powerful decks and defeat higher-ranked opponents, which, in turn, will lead to more rewards. 

Finally, if you want to see some of your Gods Unchained rewards converted into real-world currencies, then you can always mint your cards as NFTs and sell them on the Immutable X marketplace, or you can sell any Gods Tokens you have earned on any compatible exchange. Good luck!

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