King of Duels is the new TCG #NFT game on Hive, probably the first real-time multiplayer game on this blockchain. The game is pretty similar to Yu-Gi-Oh! so if you have played it or know the rules, you are good to go. For those who don't know the rules, I will explain a little about the cards and the game mechanics.

In KOD, there are three main types of cards: Champion, Rune and Ambush.

Champion cards have Power and Resistance points and are used in the center of the board. Power Points represent its attack, while Resistance is its defense. The Champions fall into two types:

Once per turn, you can place a Champion on the field, in one of two different ways: Deploy - play a Champion from your hand in face-up attack position; Fortified - play a Champion from your hand in face-down defense position. Some Champions have a green crystal on the bottom of the card (as in the "Samurai Legendario" card above), in this case it is necessary to Promote it by sending another Champion from your side of the field to the graveyard so that it can be deployed or fortified.

Also, you can place Champions on the field by a special action called Reinforce, which is unlimited. However, it is only possible to reinforce Champions as a result of some card's effect.

Rune and Ambush cards are used at the bottom of the board. They are essentially effect cards, with a wide variety such as increasing a champion's Power, drawing additional cards, or negating an oponent's attack.

Runes can be Tactic, Support or even a special type called Assembler that is used to play a Champion Assembly from your extra-deck (better skip this for now). I won't go into detail on the types because you only have to read the description of the card and it is self explanatory, all you need to know is that the Rune can be activated or prepared (face down on the Rune/Ambush Zone) directly from the player's hand during his turn.

Ambush, on the other hand, MUST be prepared first so that only then, starting on the opponent's next turn, can it be activated. In this 1st edition of cards, Ambush has only reaction effects to the opponent's combat.

How does the game work?

Before looking for a duel, the player must create a deck of 20 to 30 cards in the Deck tab, choosing freely among the cards he owns. The order of the cards does not matter, since they will be automatically shuffled for each duel.

Each player starts with 5 cards in hand and 8000 Life Points. The objective of the game is to reduce the opponent's Life Points to zero. Players in KOD take turns to perform their actions, each consisting of a few phases. In a simplified way, the main phases you need to know for now are:

1. Draw Phase: the turn player draws a card from his deck.

2. Primary Actions: the turn player can do most actions such as deploying, fortifying and promoting a champion, changing its combat position, activating hero and rune effects, or preparing ambush and rune cards.

3. Combat Loop: the turn player can use his attack position champions to attack his opponent's champions. Each champion can attack once by default. In this phase, what matters for the champion in attack position is his POW, and for the one in defense position his RES. The damage calculation depends on a few points:

• If a champion attacks another champion in attack position, the champion with the lower POW is destroyed (or if equal, both are destroyed) and the controller of the destroyed card receives damage to his Life Points equal to the difference in POW between the champions.

• If a champion attacks a defense position champion and has more POW than the opponent's card has RES, the opposing champion is destroyed, but he takes no damage; if the defense position champion has more RES, then the attacking player receives damage equal to the difference, but neither champion is destroyed.

• If your opponent has no champions in his Champion Zone, he loses Life Points equal to the total POW of the champion that attacks him directly.

4. End of Turn: change the player's turn.

Play2earn

Check out the whitepaper for more detailed information.

There will be weekly rewards through chests containing NFTs or non-NFT cards and Talismans (item used to craft non-NFT cards into NFTs) or $KOD tokens. How much you will earn depends on two factors:

First one is the Dueling Points. This is the equivalent of the CP in Splinterlands, but only affects the maximum amount of $KOD tokens you can earn per chest. The second factor is your League. There are 5 leagues in KOD: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Emerald and Diamond. The higher leagues have more and better chests, after all, KOD is a play2earn competitive game. To earn, you have to play and play wisely.

But if for some reason you can't or don't want to play, you can still earn by supporting other players as KOD encourages Scholarships. Within the game, you can create a password with which Scholar can log into the game without you having to give him your keys, so you have nothing to worry about your assets.

What should you buy to start playing?

The game is scheduled to be released on September 19, but presale have already begun, and it is possible to purchase Starter Decks, Packs with NFTs, some cosmetics and promotional Packs from partnerships with other Hive communities such as #THGaming and #Hashkings. You may need $KOD to buy most NFT cards.

What you should buy obviously depends a lot, but some considerations are worthwhile.

You start the game with some cards Free2Play. While it is true that you can win using these cards, it is not very likely since they are too weak. The ideal for low investment is to buy at least one of the Starter Decks. The cards in this pack are not NFT, but it cost only $10 and have a solid base to start building your own deck. Moreover, it also gives you 200 DP, which is a great cost/benefit, making it even interesting to buy both starters.

As for the NFT packs, right now on the presale 12 packs are being sold for $20, but starting on the 19th they will cost $24. So if you are thinking about buying some NFT cards, now is probably the best time. The Hashkings and THGaming packs are also great options as they contain an exclusive NFT and have very low supply.

Open Test on September 10

The game has been going through some tests to minimize bugs and be completely ready for release. This Saturday we will get another chance to test the game, starting around 22 UTC. This is the best opportunity to see if you enjoy it and to prove different strategies before buying the Devourer or Samurai packs.

So stay tuned on KOD Discord, watch this Website Walkthrough video... and, if you want, use my REFERRAL LINK to register in the game: just enter your Hive username and click on Keychain.