Hero Realms digital has some differences for the physical game, here I will explain what those are and why those changes were made.

Characters in Hero Realms

Players familiar with Hero Realms physical will know that in the base game, both players play with the same starting deck, and no skill or ability. Later on, we introduced Character Classes, asymmetrical starting decks, each with a different skill, ability, and health total. These were expanded when we released the cooperative campaign, and players were able to upgrade their characters as they played cooperatively or against each other.

In the digital game, players will level up their characters as they play in different game modes, upgrading their deck, abilities, health, and facing more challenging opponents.

Each character is treated separately from the others. They each level up on their own and face similarly matched opponents. You will see which character you are playing against at the start of and during the match. These classes give the players the ability to upgrade and customize their characters, and distinguish the Hero Realms and Star Realms play experiences.

The characters and their upgrades aren’t exactly the same as their physical counterparts, and as the meta develops, we may buff or nerf specific class options. Our goal is to make all options appealing, and affected characters will have the ability to re-customize their choices.

Health Cap and Fatigue

The most significant change we’ve made in Digital Hero Realms is the addition of the health cap. This means that players cannot go above their starting health (this increases as you upgrade your starting health).

One issue we ran into during the beta was that some games would go very long, especially in Cleric vs Cleric match ups, but not always. We want Hero Realms games to be short enough that players can expect to start and finish a game in one session.

Aside from the health cap, we wanted extremely long games to have a definite end. If games last more than 40 turns, players will start to take damage until the game ends.

Digital Shortcuts

In our digital games we want the experience to be intuitive and elegant, and that often means clicking less buttons to get the same thing. Just like in Star Realms digital, if your opponent makes you discard cards you choose which cards to discard on your own turn instead of your opponents. Similarly, most champions and ally abilities will activate automatically instead of requiring the extra tap.

Lastly, if multiple effects would change the way you acquire a card, only the most recent one applies. For example, you cannot combine Heist and Deception to acquire a card out of your opponent’s discard pile into your hand.

AI Game modes

Duel

The standard game mode. Play against the AI with your offline characters. Choose your difficulty and get matched against a random character of the same level. Earn xp as you play to level up your characters.

Pit Fight

Unlike in Duel where you slowly progress with a character, Pit Fight has you create a new character from scratch. Every win levels you up, and a loss ends your run. See how far you can go!

 Campaign

Play through the campaign, altered scenarios, with your offline characters. Just like in Duels, you earn xp as you play through the scenarios.

Online Game modes

In all of the online game modes, you will choose which online character you want to play with, and you will earn xp for that character as you play matches with it.

Player vs Player

Play online against another player, or against your friends.

As you win or lose games with your character, that character will move up and down in rank, and the matchmaker will pair you with opponents that are similar rank and character level.

You also have the option of enabling down leveling. Think of this like Quick Match in Star Realms. If there’s a lower level opponent of the same rank waiting, it will pair you together and bring your level down to match theirs for the match.

Cooperative

Play in preset scenarios together with another player, or with your friends. Heal your allies, and help fight the minions on their side of the board as you work together to defeat the boss!