Gwent is a popular little game among adventurers, merchants, blacksmiths, etc. It's like the YU-GI-OH! in the world of The Witcher, but featuring the characters from the world of The Witcher itself. It climbed the ladder from a mini-game and break through the world of The Witcher to become its own game and it has become quite successful to the point where CD PROJEKT RED held a Gwent tournament with $25,000 prize pool.
The Arts
I played this game since its early stages back then, and stopped playing after a while, and I must say there are so many noticeable additions and improvements in this game. The most noticeable improvement is the UI—the more aesthetically-themed UI—that certainly looks way better than the last time I played. There was only like brown planks everywhere.
But now each faction have their own themed board, most of the cards have been changed—both the arts and the effects—which, I suppose would require everyone to learn again, everything is pretty much been overhauled.
Geralt breaks the fourth wall, again.
But it’s weird that I was Lv. 1 again. The first time I signed in again Ciri and Geralt took me to the short tutorial like I've never played Gwent before, accompanied with their banter that makes Geralt sounds like he never played Gwent before while he has challenged every soul across the Continent.
Well, fine by me. I was rewarded 2 kegs of cards for starter after I followed the amusing short tutorial brought to me by The Girl Who Leapt Through Portals and Medieval Adam Jensen, although I didn't ask for it.
The Collecting
You can get more cards by purchasing card kegs sold by Shoop, a troll that is so passionate in running his shop and in Gwent he scream "WOOOAAAAAAAOOOOWWWW" when I open a keg while it only contains some average or sh*tty cards. Each keg contains 5 cards. 4 are totally random (could be of any factions and rarity), and you can choose one of the three given cards for the fifth card.
How do you add more cards to your collection? Unlike Geralt, we can't go around asking Walmart cashier for a game of Gwent... Or, can we? So this is where microtransaction comes in. You can purchase the keg with Ores, the in-game currency if you don't want to use cash.
What do the Wild Hunt do in case of emergency? Eredin Bréacc Glas.
I'll get hammered for this.
Good thing is, it's very easy to earn Ores and Scraps, and fairly easy to get the cards that you want. In the end of each match, if your opponent send you a "GG" message you'll get either 5 Ores or Scraps. 9/10 players did in my experience so far.
Basically, you get rewarded by doing most of the things everyday. Daily quests, completing tier (playing a specified amount of matches of the day), and the rewards are enough to buy kegs so often. Collect 100 Ores and Shoop will scream for you again.
You can also turn your unwanted cards into Scraps, which you can use to unlock cards individually and not randomized. Goodest cards you get. Human deserve it!
The real temptation here is the Premium version of the cards. They are the same cards but are animated and has unique lines and SFX. It's just feels good to have your cards look more 'alive'.
To get these you'll need either doubled amount of Scraps or Meteorite Powder, the hardest currency to get. But I have a couple of Premiums already, still, without spending money, and I'm only in Lv. 10. So everyone can have everything.
The Playground
There's Casual mode where newcomers (or everyone) will mostly play in. But actually, better play in the Challenge mode first to know a bit of each faction, earn easy Ores, and get Leader cards. Arena, a new mode hosted by Gaunter O'Dimm where you build a deck from the entire randomized Gwent collection. It's more challenging because you'll play a deck you're not used to.
There's also Ranked mode, where I play every time after I reached Lv. 10 to climb the ladder, only to check the Leaderboard afterwards and humiliate myself.
Nice weather, huh?
Right now I think I have too much cards already and I think I should stop getting more cards and master what I currently have in hand. I mostly play Monster faction because there's currently a Monster VS Skellige event with nice rewards for each 10 wins. I've won 20 times now with Monster, titled Tyrant and rewarded 100 Meteorite Powder.
Gwent is great to have some quick 10-15 minutes competitive matches after you play your main competitive games. But I didn't expect to find myself enjoying a card game this much. With all the changes CDPR have made I find myself getting into it more than before instead.
And I think it's cool that the developer made goofy cards like that Roach glitch and the cow that spawn a powerful Chort when killed. It's like they're enjoying fans' jokes with them. I think I might write about some tips for this game later. Thanks for your time to read my post, Steemian! Now if you'll excuse me, I got 8 more matches to go.
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DISCLAIMER: All artworks in this post (except for the cited ones) are belongs to me and I don't allow you, your partner, your cassowary, or your waifu to use them without my consent. Think I'm a smug? Fine by me. Happened before. Hate it if it happen again.