Fans of the acclaimed Fable series will be happy to learn about Battlehand as many of the developers of Fable worked on it. With a complex collectible card system and intense RPG action, Battlehand will keep plays players on their toes, and demand perseverance from them to claim victory. This game is not for the faint of heart with a challenge as the game shows no mercy to its players in the later levels. Despite this, the game is rewarding and will provide hours of fun and excitement for those who decide to prove their mettle against the game.
What Is Battlehand?
Battlehand is a Collectible Card Game Role Playing game (CCG RPG). Players earn characters that are common tropes from RPG games, such as grumpy wizards, giant knights in full-plate armor, and elves with mastery over archery. These characters can only fight using the card system in the game, which allows the characters to access attacks, spells, skills, and other abilities to help them with battles. With an easy system to pick up and play, but challenging battles that keep players on their toes, Battlehand is a game that is sure to please hardcore fans of RPGs and card games.
Why Players Love Battlehand
Challenge And Nostalgia
Developers of Fable made Battlehand, so the trip back down memory lane will appeal to fans of those games with the RPG action born in that series. Aside from nostalgia, Battlehand is a game filled with challenge and provides no hand-holding for players, with some levels decimating them from the first turn. While this might turn off some players, it will not disappoint those who seek a challenge and thrive in punishing games.
Multi-Player And Extra Battles
The campaign is there to tell the story, but also prepare players for online modes, where players can fight each other with their chosen teams, and compete in rankings. Besides that, there are extra battles that offer great challenges to the player, making sure that there is always something more to conquer.
Luck Is A Factor
As any game with a collectible card system, the game will inevitably force the player to choose between eight cards for their characters, and only four will be available at the beginning of a turn. Sometimes the card needed will appear, and other times, the cards dealt will lead to defeat. This keeps battles from becoming stale and players must consider different strategies to do well under all circumstances.
Micro-transactions Can Be Avoided And Aren't Exploitative
Battlehand includes micro-transactions like all other mobile games, but rather than making them a necessity at the beginning, replaying levels to get new cards and in-game currency is simple. Aside from this, most of the items in the game can be earned via in-game missions and are even given as bonuses as part of the campaign mode. It's possible to play through the campaign without spending a single cent with enough luck, dedication, and perseverance to see it through to the end which is more that can be said for games that try to squeeze money from their players.
How To Play
Combat Controls
When in battle, there will be three choices a player can make. From left to right, they can switch the character they're commanding to the other one on the field, they can choose a card, or they can choose a heroic ability. If the card is an attack card, it must be dragged to an enemy to be activated. If the card is a support card, it must be dragged to a controlled character to be activated. After a character participates in enough combat in the battle, their heroic ability can be activated on their turn.
Flow Of Combat
Every card will show a number on its top left corner, which shows how many turns until their ability activates. A more powerful attack normally takes extra turns to activate and can leave the characters open to attack. Enemies have this same counter next to their health bar, so it's important to plan strategies accordingly.
Combat Information
If there is something in the battles that the player doesn't understand, such as an enemy, or the ability of a card, they can tap the thing in question to learn about it. Doing so will also show what a specific enemy is planning for their turn, which is vital for planning proper strategies.
Strategies & Tips
Power Up Your Cards And Characters
Characters and their abilities can be powered up using gold and collecting booster cards. Sometimes, you will enter a battle you cannot win because of the power of your characters and skills. The game will rightly suggest to power up your characters and attacks using booster cards and gold, both of which can be purchased via micro-transactions, or earned after battles. You can replay previous battles to grind for gold and cards if you don't want to spend money. It's also suggested that you watch an ad before battles to attain double rewards. This opportunity refreshes every ten minutes.
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Use The Bounty Board
The Bounty Board is another thing you can use to earn free rewards. By assigning one of your playable characters to a bounty, they will return with extra cards and currency to use in battles. In addition, it is also possible to assign a character to a Bounty Board mission and still have them take part in battles. The best use of the Bounty Board is to send the right character(s) for the job that the bounty board asks for.
Understand The Element Matchups And Effects
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There are five elements in the game that are all weak or strong against another element. The best way to imagine it is like a circle where what comes from behind is what that element is weak against, and what it's following is what it's strong against. The elements in the order mentioned are fire, earth, air, spirit, and water, where water is strong against fire, but weak against spirit, fire is strong against earth, but weak to water, etc. Understanding these can give you a major advantage against the enemy, and know which attacks will do the damage needed.
Besides this, elements also have extra damage effects that happen over time once afflicted. However, not all of them are as simple as damage over time, so it's best to know which ones will do the effect you need. Effects can only happen with elemental based attacks, meaning that understanding the elements will help you understand what your characters can do and experience. An important note to remember is that the extra effects of one element will not affect a character of the same element. For example, the Earth element has the extra damage effect of poison, but Earth characters and enemies are immune to it.
Understand Card And Enemy Perks
Depending on how powerful an enemy is or how powerful you've made a card, Perks will appear. Perks add extra damage and bonuses to attacks, such as stuns, turn interruptions, and non-elemental status effects. Perks also add extra bonuses to support spells, such as extra shields or healing, and removal of negative effects. Enemies can also activate these perks depending on how powerful they are and can cause trouble for your characters. Tap the enemy to see the effect their perk will have and plan your moves accordingly.
Use The Elemental Version Of A Card
Every time a new character is added to your party, they won't have access to their elemental attacks right away. However, by training them and finding the items for them to unlock their skills, they can access the elemental version of their attacks. It is possible to have two cards of the same attack, but one is charged with an element. Unless it is impossible to boost that card to where it is equal to or greater than the current ability, then the card with the element must take priority to have the advantage in combat.
Understand Heroic And Monster Abilities
Heroic abilities are available to your characters after they have taken part in battle enough, similar to an ultimate meter in other games. Heroic abilities are either massive attacks that affect all enemies and do extra damage based on the elements, or support abilities that have beneficial effects, such as shortening the turn requirement for cards, or healing and reviving allies. Monsters have access to similar abilities, so it's best to remember that while you have a great ability waiting to be unleashed, so too does the enemy.
Do the Quests
Quests are extra challenges that the game throws at you. Most of the starting quests are simple, such as changing your in-game name from "Player" to another name of your choosing and completing battles under certain requirements. They'll naturally get more difficult as the game goes along, but the extra rewards are what's needed to make it to the end of this brutal game. This goes double for the daily quests, which can give immense bonuses once all five of them have been completed.
Overall Rating
Battlehand is a monster of a game, and it is a total blast. For fans of RPGs, Card games, and those looking for a challenging and luck-based experience should look no further. The challenge might prove too daunting for players who can't handle it or don't have the patience for it. However, the rewarding feeling of claiming victory after overcoming adversity comes right at the start and the game keeps coming until the end. With an intuitive card system, a charming system and intense battles, this is one mobile RPG that's worth spending hours to master. We give this game our rating of 10/10.
