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The Elder Scrolls: Legends Tips, Cheats & Strategies: Your Ultimate Guide to Winning All the Battles

The Elder Scrolls: Legends is a new iOS game from Bethesda, which is based on the gaming giant’s popular Elder Scrolls series, but reimagined for mobile gamers. It is a strategy card game with a variety of modes, including story mode, where you can play solo against AI-controlled opponents and earn new Legends cards, decks, and packs, and PvP mode, where you can play against real players, may they be your friends or random players from around the world. Then there’s Legends gameplay, which, according to Bethesda, features a “divided battlefield with ‘lanes’ that deepen your strategy options.” Of course, you can upgrade cards as you keep playing the game, as well as take advantage of other features that make this quite a welcome entry in the TCG/CCG genre.

If you’re a veteran player of trading card/collectible card games, you should know that these games are rather deep, with a variety of mechanics to master, as well as all the strategizing you need to do in order to succeed in the game and beat more opponents. So with that said, we’d like you to check out our complete Elder Scrolls: Legends strategy guide, where we talk about everything you need to master in this game, regardless of how far along you currently are. And since we plan to discuss absolutely everything, this will be the first in a two-part series.

1. The Bare Essentials For New Players

Now if you’re new to the game, or to be a bit more specific, new to the TCG/CCG genre, matches in The Elder Scrolls: Legends come in two main forms. You can face an AI opponent or a human opponent, but regardless of whether you prefer story or PvP mode, each of you will have a deck of about 50 to 70 cards. These cards include creatures, spells, items which you can use to equip the creatures, and other related actions. They are all based on Bethesda’s previous Elder Scrolls titles, so if you’ve played these games on other systems, you will probably be familiar with the creatures, spells, and other Elder Scrolls-related items.

As for your goal in the battles, both sides will be represented by a corresponding avatar, and you and your opponent will both start with 30 health. Your objective is to get the opponent down to zero health before they get a jump on you and kill you by zeroing your health. When dealing out damage, you can do this by playing your creature cards, or by other cards that deal out damage directly when you play them. Damage ratings can be modified in a number of ways.

2. How Do Matches Start, And How Does Magicka Work?

When it comes to starting matches in this game, you won’t be asked to start out by default. One side will randomly be chosen to make the first move, and that means your computer or human opponent, depending on the mode you choose, may go ahead of you. But you don’t need to worry if you’re chosen to go second; you’ll receive a Ring of Magicka, which is an artifact you can tap once per turn, or no more than three times during a duel so you can get an extra Magicka unit. That’s a more than worthy “consolation prize” for the side that goes second, if you ask us.

During the turns in the game, both sides will get an additional Magicka point from the previous turn, and this goes on from turn to turn. Once again, cards can modify the amount of Magicka each side has at the start of a turn.

3. If You’ve Got The Magicka, You Can Play As Many Cards As Possible

Now if it’s your turn, you can do several things at any point, and do them in any order. First of all, you won’t have any limits to the number of cards you can play from your hand, just as long as you have enough Magicka to “pay” for playing the cards. At the start of your turn, you can draw one card, and there are different things you can do if you want to draw more cards. If it’s a creature card, you can drag it from your hand and into a lane, and if it’s an action or support card, you can move it onto the board. As some actions would require you to set a target, you can drag the action card in question onto the target card or your opponent’s image.

4. Other Things You Can Do During Your Turn

Aside from the above action, you can also use any creatures you’ve summoned and have them attack by dragging them, either onto the target card or the opponent’s avatar. Summoned creatures won’t be able to attack on the same turn they’re dispatched onto the board, unless they have the Charge keyword. You can also get an extra point of Magicka by tapping the Ring of Magicka, as we explained earlier. And if you’ve got a support card already in play, you can apply it onto a card on your side or the opposing side, all depending on the effect you’re looking for.

5. Explaining The Lane System And How It Works

The Elder Scrolls: Legends has some defining features that you won’t find in your average TCG or CCG. Your playing field will typically come with two lanes, and when you’re playing in standard story mode or PvP matches, the left lane and right lane will do different things. The left lane is your Clear lane, which means there are no special effects, and creatures you play in that lane can be attacked at any time. The Shadow lane is the one on the right, and any creatures played in the right will have the advantage of Cover. If a creature is in Cover, they will be protected from enemy creatures until the next turn, unless the creature has the Guard keyword, or if you have them attack right away, provided they have the Charge keyword.

6. Which Lanes Should You Play Your Cards In?

The lane system is truly an interesting one, and the good thing about it is that it forces you to strategize beyond the normal amount of strategy required in your average TCG or CCG. One thing you also have to remember is that cards are normally not allowed to switch lanes, and with that in mind, you may sometimes be well-covered in one lane, but very open to enemy attacks in the opposite lane. If you know how we tend to play games, regardless of the genre, you’ll know that we often favor defense, so if you’re a similar type of player, you need to have good coverage in both left and right lanes. But if you favor a more offensive style, there are times where your strength in one lane will still have you strong against the opponent’s lane, regardless of how strong their defense may be.

7. About Special Lanes

Aside from the standard Clear and Shadow lanes, there are other, more unusual lanes that will not show up in normal battles, but may show up in select story or arena battles. For the Campfire lane, any creatures summoned here can give keywords to other creatures on the same side (e.g. on your side or the opponent’s) and on the same lane. Next we have the Graveyard lane; creatures in the Graveyard lane can be resurrected as zombies. In the Hall of Mirrors, creatures played in this lane would automatically spawn a duplicate creature, provided there aren’t other friendly creatures around. Lastly, the Warzone lane would allow you to deal an extra point of damage against the opponent if you summon a creature in there.

8. A Breakdown Of How Keywords Work

Keywords are another unique feature in Elder Scrolls: Legends, and these can be best defined as special words that can serve as buffs, or on other occasions, as perks. So what are the Keywords, and how do they work? Read on, as understanding how they work could oftentimes be the difference between victory and defeat.

Breakthrough, for starters, allows excess damage to carry over onto an enemy avatar once one of their creatures has been defeated. Charge allows creatures to attack on the very same turn that they are put into play. Drain would allow damage dealt by creatures with this Keyword to be restored to your avatar in the form of restored health. Guard works by forcing an opponent’s creatures to attack any creatures with this Keyword, before they attack your other creatures or your own avatar/character. If you’ve got more than one creature in the same lane with Guard, an opponent’s creatures will be forced to choose among each of them. Lethal allows creatures to instantly defeat any creature, as long as they do at least one damage point. Think of this as a “critical hit” keyword. Regenerate would heal creatures 100 percent at the start of each turn. And Ward is like a force field that you can use only once; damage dealt to creatures that have Ward would remove the Ward, in exchange for leaving the creature undamaged. One important thing about Ward – this would refer to any sort of damage done when a creature that has it is on offense or on defense.

9. You Can Assign Keywords At Times

Typically, Keywords will be immediately in a creature’s card text. But you also have the option to give them to creatures with special effects that are already in play. Likewise, Keywords can be nullified by cards that have the Silence effect. That means you should take note of the Keywords opposing creatures have; do not attack them if you don’t know their keywords! In order to do this, all you have to do is tap-and-hold on a creature any time during a battle.

10. Runes Can Be The Ultimate Game-Changers

Imagine yourself in a situation where you’re down by a significant margin against your opponent, but somehow come from behind and steal the win from that opponent. Conversely, think of how heartbreaking it could be if you’re the one with the big lead, only for your opponent to erase your margin and beat you in the end. Both these things can happen, and it will all come down to the Runes you or your opponent may have. In your avatar, you will see five blue symbols within the circle that surrounds it. That’s where you’ll find your Runes, and they could literally change your game, allowing you to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

How do Runes work? In their most basic form, these contain cards from your deck that aren’t found in your draw pile. And once your health reaches a multiple of five for the first time – that would be 25 points, 20, 15, and so on – one of your Runes will be destroyed, and you will be able to draw the card found within it. But since that doesn’t exactly answer how Runes can be game-changers, this one might just do so – the special ability Prophecy. You can play this card in the middle of the enemy’s turn, all without having to spend even a unit of Magicka. Using Prophecy can allow you to make a fast and furious comeback, and make losing battles winnable. Then again, that too will apply to any opponent you face, and they may end up with even more powerful cards than yours.

11. Try This Simple Trick If An Opponent’s Rune Is Destroyed

When talking about Runes, it’s also important to remember that your opponent will draw a card after one of their Runes gets destroyed. In such a situation, you could go easy on them for the rest of the turn, instead of jeopardizing yourself at the hands of their Prophecy card. So if you’re close to defeating your opponent with only one 1/1 creature due to attack, while your opponent has only 11 or 6 health, for instance, you may want to avoid attacking them and dropping their health to a multiple of five. You can then try to launch a heavier-hitting attack once your next turn comes up, and you should – the last thing you want is for your opponent to play Prophecy once their health goes down to 15, 10, 5, or whatnot!

This completes our detailed guide for The Elder Scrolls: Legends. If you know additional tips and tricks for the game, be sure to let us know in the comment section!