Cards are the most important part of BattleForge. Cards represent units, buildings and spells that can be summoned on the map. Each faction has their own set of cards, with their own advantages and disadvantages. Before starting a match, a player must first select up to twenty cards to make a deck. The cards in the deck will be the only cards available to the player during the match.
Power Cost and Orb Requirements
Each card requires a certain amount of power to be used. You can see the amount of power required for each card at the top right corner of the card. Here you are also able to see how many orbs and which color of orbs you need in order to use this card.
The amount of power required for the Northguards card is 50, shown in the top right corner. (shown as 'Power cost' on the image)
You can see the orbs required for this card below the power requirement in the top right corner. This card requires one blue orb. (shown as 'Orbs' on the image).
Damage
The damage that a card can deal is displayed in the bottom left corner of a card. The number shows the amount of damage the card deals in approximately 20 seconds.
Units can either deal melee, ranged or special damage, shown by a sword, bow or star icon respectively. Melee or ranged units additionally gain a 50% damage bonus against a certain size of enemy units, denoted by a letter next to the symbol. Units with special damage instead often have a special damage bonus such as Siege, increased damage against frozen units or poison-like abilities. Some special units simply get no damage bonus.
The letter "S" means the card does 50% more damage against small units.
The letter "M" means the card does 50% more damage against medium units.
The letter "L" means the card does 50% more damage against large units.
The letters "XL" mean the card does 50% more damage against extra large units.
Life Points
This heart icon is displayed on units and buildings but not spell cards. The life number shows how much damage the unit or building can take before being destroyed. The letter next to the heart icon on unit cards displays which size they are.
The letter "S" means they are a small unit.
The letter "M" means they are a medium unit.
The letter "L" means they are a large unit.
The letters "XL" mean they are an extra large unit.
Card Charges & Squad Size
Every card has a certain number of charges. This is the amount of times the card can be played before the card goes on charge cooldown. The amount of charges is listed near the bottom of the card's artwork, in the middle of the card. The amount of card charges can be increased by charge upgrades.
Small (and sometimes medium) units are summoned in a squad. If this is the case, the card has 'x2', 'x4', or 'x6' listed after the charge count. A squad is controlled the same way as you would control a single unit, but the squad members can die individually and can even be revived through healing spells. (Squad members cannot be revived from the passive regeneration gained from standing near friendly buildings.)
It is important to note that the damage and life points listed for a squad card are the sums for entire squad. Divide the damage and life points by the squad size to find out the stats of a single member.
The example Northguards card has five charges, and each time the card is played a squad of six Northguards is summoned. Each Northguard deals approximately 75 damage every 20 seconds and has 110 life points.
Charge Cooldown
If you spend the last charge of a card, the charge cooldown will be equal to half the power cost in seconds. For example, the Northguards card recharges in 25 seconds if its charges run out. The charge cooldown will only add a charge if the card has zero charges, it will not add more until you spend that new last charge.
Spell Cooldown
Most spell cards additionally have a spell cooldown that prevent a player from just spamming all their available charges at once. The spell cooldown will be listed at the end of the spell description. When you spend the last charge of a spell card, the charge cooldown is often longer than the spell cooldown is. In that case the spell cooldown does nothing.
Abilities
Abilities are listed in the text box on the bottom half of the card. You can mouse over the card to see what each ability does.
Some cards have no ability. In that case the ability box will just list a short flavor description of the unit. This flavor description has no effect on gameplay. For the example Northguards card the flavor description is 'Brave Defenders'.
Rarities & Editions
The bottom right icon on a card shows the card's rarity and the edition that the card is from. A card's rarity and edition have no effect on gameplay.
Rarity
In BattleForge there are four different card rarities. A card's rarity determines how often it appears in Booster Packs, and how expensive its Card Upgrades are.
A bronze icon means the card is common (C). There are 171 common cards in the game.
A silver icon means the card is uncommon (UC). There are 152 uncommon cards in the game.
A gold icon means the card is rare (R). There are 145 rare cards in the game.
A diamond colored icon means the card is ultra rare (UR). There are 71 ultra rare cards in the game.
Edition
Four different card editions (sets) have been released for BattleForge. The icon shows which edition the card belonged to, but in Skylords Reborn all different editions are obtained from the same booster. (Note: the icon isn't always diamond colored. It can also be bronze, silver or gold depending on its rarity.)
Card Upgrades
You can collect and apply Card Upgrades to your cards. This may improve their stats, cost or abilities. Some cards even gain competely new abilities when upgraded. Each card can be upgraded up to three times.
Legendary Cards
Legendary cards require no specific orbs, are very power-expensive and no duplicate legendary units or structures can be played at the same time. This includes legendaries summoned by allies or enemies.
There are a total of 23 Legendary cards.
Promo Cards
Promo cards are premium versions of normal cards that have been fully upgraded to level three including their charge upgrades. They have different and shinier looking skins than their normal versions, but they still cost the same to play and have the same stats as a fully upgraded normal card.
There are a total of 16 Promo cards.