The road back
The Fracturing broke the land. You travel the roads that survived, shaping your deck as you go. Combat runs in real time, and tactical pause lets you inspect the fight and queue one action.
Save and resume an expedition
While playing a saved character, open Settings. Choose Save and quit to close the game or Save journey & return to title to stay at the title screen.
Choose Resume journey on the title screen to pick up where you left off. If you saved during a fight, it opens paused. Check your hand and any queued action before you unpause.
Check Journey Embers in the saved journey summary on the title screen before you resume. If an older save shows “This update resets your Embers to 0 on resume,” those Embers reset when you choose Resume journey.
To play someone else, open Characters, select a saved character, and choose Play selected. Each character keeps their own journey. When you return to the first character, you can pick up their expedition where you left it.
To finish the run now, see end an expedition as defeat.
If your expedition ended in defeat, see what carries forward after defeat.
Choose your first two disciplines
At character creation, choose two disciplines. Each gives you an ability that costs Gold and five starting cards. With five General cards, that makes a 15-card starting deck. Select a pair to preview its cards before you begin.
Compare the starter builds, first Fractals, and card picks
Ember Spear + Soul Mend
Try this pair if you want damage and a way to recover. Ember Spear hits an enemy and applies Burning. Soul Mend restores Health to a living ally. Use the starting-card preview to compare Coalbrand and Faint Gleam.
Rime Shackles + Dreadbolt
Try this pair if you want to slow a foe and strike back. Rime Shackles hits an enemy and applies Hamstring, which slows its action readiness. Dreadbolt hits harder when you are missing Health. Compare Pale Needle and Graveglint in the starting-card preview.
Reopen Waykeeper tips
With a character selected, open Help or Settings, then choose Your Waykeeper & remembered tips. Select a tip to open it again. Tips you've already read show Read beside their title. If a tip won't open during an encounter, try again from the map.
Turn off Contextual tips to stop tips from opening automatically. You can still choose a tip from the list. To hide the companion beside your character in battle, turn off Show Waykeeper beside me in combat. The two switches work independently.
See Read the fight for the combat basics.
Read the fight
Pause early. Check the enemy’s next action and read the card before you commit. If the card asks for a target, check who it will hit. The enemy leader is normally a legal target even with summons on the field. Resume to let the queued action play.
See how much Health you recover after a fight
Choose or leave a victory reward
Choose or leave a victory reward
On the Victory screen, check Already earned for your XP, Embers, Crowns, and any Health you recovered. You keep these if you leave the extra reward behind.
If Crowns appear among your reward choices, claim that offer to receive the amount shown. New offers give 2 to 5 Crowns. A Crown offer saved before this change can still give up to 8.
You can claim one additional reward. Hover over an offer to inspect it. With Auto-confirm on, selecting an offer confirms your choice. Turn it off to review your selection before pressing Claim selected reward.
- For mixed or item offers, choose Leave reward to continue without taking the extra reward.
- For card-only offers, choose Skip card reward.
- If your bags are full, make room in a compatible bag and try again. If an exit is available, you can also continue without the extra reward.
Some rewards must be claimed before you can continue, including your first equipment choice.
Watch three clocks
Silver pays for cards. In ordinary combat you gain one Silver and draw one card on separate clocks every eight active seconds. Gold powers learned abilities and gains one charge every 30 active seconds. Combat timers stop during tactical pause. You can hold resources and cards for a better opening.
Build a two-card plan
Pick one card that sets up a condition and another that benefits from it. For example, apply Exposed before playing a card that rewards hitting an Exposed target. Read the condition and the target together before spending the second card.
Choose what carries forward
Gear and learned disciplines can shape later journeys. Most cards and gear modifications found during a run belong to that run. When a Fractal choice opens, read the change and its unlock cost before committing.
Read your run progress and adventure history
Open Character and select Progress. The Current run panel shows your continent, location and, where applicable, the stage at that location. The stage number counts fights at that location. Encounters won counts victories across your whole run, including city fights. Continents cleared counts continents you reclaimed.
The Crown total is what you have left to spend. The card count is the size of your current run deck. Earned shows the Embers and XP gained during this run. For lifetime XP and the XP needed for your next rank, look under Rank & experience.
Open Adventure history under Rank & experience to see completed adventures, newest first. If your current journey is suspended, resume it to see its run totals. Older records may have fewer details.
End an expedition as defeat
To end your current expedition, open Menu and choose Lay down your life… under Expedition. Read the loss and carryover summary, then choose End expedition as defeat to finish the run and open settlement.
An unfinished battle pays no rewards. At settlement, you can spend Gilt Remnants to keep eligible cards. If a reward choice is already open, finish it before trying to end the expedition.
If you open the confirmation during combat, Keep fighting closes it and restores your previous pause state. To return later, save and resume your expedition.
What happens after defeat
Defeat ends your expedition. If a settlement opens, review your card offers before preparing a new adventure.
What carries into your next journey
You keep learned disciplines, mastery, discoveries, permanent gear, and card unlocks already in your shared library.
Unspent Journey Embers, Fractal and Constellation upgrades, temporary cards and gear, and inlays expire when the journey ends. If you reclaim a continent and continue the same journey, your build and remaining Journey Embers carry forward.
See your choices after reclaiming a continent
Review your card offers
In Journey settlement, hover over a card to read it and click it to select it. The price below each card is in Gilt Remnants. Cards marked Owned · shared library are already unlocked.
Use the discipline and rarity filters to browse. Cards you select still count toward the cost when a filter hides them. Return to All disciplines and All rarities to see every offer, or choose Clear selection to start over.
Check Available, Selected cost and After purchase. If you go over budget, click a selected card again to remove it. With an affordable selection, choose Buy selected unlocks to add those cards to your shared library for future decks. You can also finish settlement without buying anything.
Trade Crowns for Gilt Remnants
Finish and prepare to start again
When you are done, choose Finish settlement and read the confirmation. It tells you what happens to any unused Gilt Remnants. Your purchased unlocks stay in the library. Choose Continue after defeat or Prepare a new adventure when it appears to open adventure setup.
Inspect your current expedition deckEdit your next expedition deckPreview your starting deckRepair an inherited deck with duplicatesOrganize shared decks with profile tagsDelete a shared saved deckLearn a third discipline
Finish a pending journey settlement
If the game asks you to claim rewards before starting a new adventure, look for Journey settlement on the character home screen. Check Originating character and the run number to see which journey the offers came from. A settlement can come from another local character. Card unlocks you buy go into the shared library.
Review and buy any card unlocks you want, then choose Finish settlement…. Read the confirmation to see what happens to unused Gilt Remnants. You can finish without buying cards. If another settlement appears, finish it too before starting a new adventure.
Inspect your current expedition deck
Open Character, then Deck. Choose Run deck to see the cards in your current expedition, including cards you added along the way. Choose Next-run starter to see the starting cards configured for your next expedition.
Set the rarity filter to All rarities to see the full list. Hover over a card or move keyboard focus to it to read it. Select the card to hold its preview in place, then choose Enlarge for a bigger view. Choose Unpin to browse by hovering or moving focus again.
During battle, use Hand, Draw pile, Discard or Faded to see where your cards are in that fight. See Check your card piles for how those piles work. To change the cards you start with next time, edit your next expedition deck.
Edit your next expedition deck
Use Personal Library to put permanently unlocked cards into a saved deck. Editing a saved deck leaves your current expedition deck and learned spells as they are.
Open a saved deck
In Prepare your expedition, choose Inspect / edit shared decks. You can also open Character, then Deck, and choose Personal Library · edit NEXT-RUN deck. Pick a saved deck or choose New deck to start a draft.
Swap cards in the library
Click a card in the library grid to add it. If the deck is full, use the minus button beside a card in the deck list to make room. Changes save as you go. A new deck needs 15 different owned cards before you can take it on an expedition.
Choose it before you set out
Back in Prepare your expedition, select the saved deck under Starting Deck and check the preview before choosing Begin expedition. If setup marks a deck incomplete, reopen it to check for missing, duplicate, or unavailable cards.
Preview your starting deck
In Prepare your expedition, pick a saved deck under Starting Deck. Hover over a card name or move keyboard focus to it to read the card. If you see Next group, use it to browse more groups. The arrows beside the card counter step through the deck one entry at a time.
Select a card name to keep its preview open. Choose Unpin to browse by hovering or moving focus again, or choose Enlarge to read the card at a larger size.
To change the cards in the deck, choose Inspect / edit shared decks. If you see an incomplete deck or unavailable cards, see Fix unavailable expedition choices.
Choose your reward preferences
Repair an inherited deck with duplicatesOrganize shared decks with profile tagsMake room for a saved deckDelete a shared saved deck
Repair an inherited deck with duplicates
If Personal Library shows Inherited duplicate snapshot preserved, you can leave that deck as it is. The original 15-card list can still start an expedition if all its cards are owned and available.
To revise the deck, remove extra copies with the minus button in the deck list. Then add different owned cards from the library grid until you have 15 unique cards. Card changes save as you go. Once you remove a duplicate, the editor only lets you add cards that are absent from the deck.
Choose the finished deck under Starting Deck in Prepare your expedition. If setup still reports unavailable cards, see Fix unavailable expedition choices.
Choose your reward preferences
In Prepare your expedition, use Reward Preferences to favor card rewards from disciplines you have learned. Choose your opening cards separately under Starting Deck.
Pick Primary, Secondary, or Off
You can choose up to three disciplines in each group. Primary gives a discipline a larger share of the card reward rolls than Secondary. For example, one Primary and one Secondary show 15% Primary and 7% Secondary. These are chances to roll from those groups, so an individual reward screen may show neither. Leave a discipline Off to give it no extra weight.
Read the reward mix
General draws from the general card pool. Unrestricted can draw from the wider pool of eligible cards. Leaving preference slots empty gives General a larger share. You can leave both groups empty.
Check your choices on the map
Your choices lock when you begin the expedition. On the continent map, select Reward preferences to see your locked Primary and Secondary lists. To change them, return to Prepare your expedition before your next expedition.