Hero Realms rules: how to play and how to win

Hero Realms quick rules

The goal

Hero Realms is a deck-building game. Everyone starts with 50 Health, and the goal is to bring your opponents’ Health down to zero. A player at zero is out of the game, and the last one standing wins.

Your deck and the Market

You start with ten cards: seven Gold, one Ruby, one Dagger and one Shortsword. Gold and the Ruby give you Gold, to buy; the Dagger and Shortsword give you Combat, to attack. In the middle, five cards are for sale, the Market, and a stack of Fire Gems is always available.

A turn

During your Main Phase, play any cards you want for free, use their abilities, acquire cards and attack, in any order. During your Discard Phase, unspent Gold and Combat are lost, your played cards and the cards left in hand go to your discard pile, and your Champions are prepared. Finally, draw five cards.

Acquiring cards

A Market card or a Fire Gem costs the Gold shown in its upper right corner. The card you acquire goes to your discard pile, and you’ll draw it later; in the Market, it’s replaced right away. You may acquire as many cards as your Gold allows.

Attacking

Each point of Combat removes one Health from an opponent, or deals one damage to one of their Champions. A Champion that takes damage equal to its Defense in the same turn is stunned and goes to its owner’s discard pile; otherwise, the damage goes away at the end of the turn.

Abilities

The primary ability of an Action or Item happens as soon as you play it. An Ally ability triggers as soon as you have another card of the same faction in play, once per turn. Sacrifice removes the card from the game for a big effect. Expend triggers by turning the Champion sideways, even on the turn it arrives.

Champions and guards

Champions stay in play from turn to turn. While you have a prepared guard, meaning an upright one, no one can attack you, or attack or target your Champions that aren’t guards: your guards must be stunned first.

Playing with more

With 3 players or more, in Free-For-All, anyone can attack anyone, and starting hands are 3, 4, then 5 cards. In Hunter, each player only attacks the player on their left. In Hydra, with 4, two teams of two each share 75 Health and take their turn together.

Beginner traps

A card you acquire can’t be played right away. Gold and Combat don’t carry over to the next turn, and neither does damage on a Champion: you must stun it in a single turn. An Ally ability only counts cards in play, not cards in your hand.

How to win Hero Realms

No points

There are no points in Hero Realms: everyone starts at 50 Health, tracked on the health-tracking cards.

Attacking and stunning

Each point of Combat removes one Health from an opponent without a prepared guard. A Champion is stunned if it takes damage equal to its Defense in a single turn.

Victory

A player at zero Health is out, and the last one standing wins. In Hunter – First Blood, the game ends at the first elimination: the player to the eliminated player’s right wins.

What Ludingo records

The winner, and for the record the game format and everyone’s remaining Health.

Example ending

Jake has 9 Health and a guard with Defense 4. Emma has 12 Combat this turn: she spends 4 to stun the guard, then the other 8 on Jake, who drops to 9 − 8 = 1. Next turn, a single point of Combat will do.

Common mistakes

• Attacking a player who has a prepared guard: you must stun all their guards first.
• Saving Combat or Gold for next turn: whatever isn’t spent is lost.
• Leaving damage on a Champion from one turn to the next: you must stun it in a single turn.
• Thinking a guard protects against “Stun all champions”: the effect doesn’t target.

How to set up Hero Realms

Setup takes about 3 minutes. The first player is chosen at random, and starting hand size depends on the number of players.