This is a great game. It falls into the roguelite deckbuilder genre, and it is one of the best games in that.

You start with some basic cards depending on your clan combination, your primary clan champion, and a set of randomised cards again from your clans. You go through a gauntlet of 7 rings, each with a fight, and 2 paths you can choose, each offering opportunities for upgrades. Standard concepts, like thinning your deck and focusing it apply too (you can remove cards a couple of different ways.) There are 2 types of cards, creatures and spells. Both feature 2 slots for upgrades (3 with the respective artifact). Each battle consists of enemy waves entering the bottom floor of your train, and each turn they attack your creatures on that floor, your creatures attack back, then surviving enemies move up a floor. You have 3 floors to kill them, if they make it to the fourth they damage your pyre, if your pyre reaches 0 health game over.

The basic concepts are simple enough, but there is a hell of a lot of nuance to everything here. The randomized seed of each run provides with unique sets of challenges and opportunities each run, as does the combination of all the clans each with 2 variants. At high levels (the game makes use of a progressive difficulty increase mechanic like slay the spire, but you can always play at lower levels than the max unlocked if you feel you need practice) the game is quite tough and requires good knowledge of mechanics and what your options each represent, but it is very rewarding and enjoyable, even if you lose.
I rank this game on the same level as slay the spire, which set the golden standard for roguelite deckbuilders, which speaks volumes for the quality of this game. It is heaps of fun, and even though I am not very good at it, I just keep coming back for more, with the goal of scoring a divinity kill with each clan combination (final boss of the dlc) Speaking of the dlc, I consider it mandatory, it offers a lot to the game, and there is no reason not to jump in the game with the dlc active straight away other than budget constraints. The main reason for that is that many of the strategies and tactics that work pre dlc, do not work that well post dlc, so you would be learning wrong things if you spend a ton of time playing without the dlc. At least that was my personal experience, having played a lot before the dlc released, and I know it is shared with a lot of the members of the community. Speaking of which, if you like the game, or have questions about it, the discord is full of friendly and knowledgeable people that can help.

All in all, I highly recommend this game, and I'm very keen to see where the devs go for their next game!

This is a great game. It falls into the roguelite deckbuilder genre, and it is one of the best games in that. You start with some basic cards depending on your clan combination, your primary clan champion, and a set of randomised cards again from your clans. You go through a gauntlet of 7 rings, each with a fight, and 2 paths you can choose, each offering opportunities for upgrades. Standard concepts, like thinning your deck and focusing it apply too (you can remove cards a couple of different ways.) There are 2 types of cards, creatures and spells. Both feature 2 slots for upgrades (3 with the respective artifact). Each battle consists of enemy waves entering the bottom floor of your train, and each turn they attack your creatures on that floor, your creatures attack back, then surviving enemies move up a floor. You have 3 floors to kill them, if they make it to the fourth they damage your pyre, if your pyre reaches 0 health game over. The basic concepts are simple enough, but there is a hell of a lot of nuance to everything here. The randomized seed of each run provides with unique sets of challenges and opportunities each run, as does the combination of all the clans each with 2 variants. At high levels (the game makes use of a progressive difficulty increase mechanic like slay the spire, but you can always play at lower levels than the max unlocked if you feel you need practice) the game is quite tough and requires good knowledge of mechanics and what your options each represent, but it is very rewarding and enjoyable, even if you lose. I rank this game on the same level as slay the spire, which set the golden standard for roguelite deckbuilders, which speaks volumes for the quality of this game. It is heaps of fun, and even though I am not very good at it, I just keep coming back for more, with the goal of scoring a divinity kill with each clan combination (final boss of the dlc) Speaking of the dlc, I consider it mandatory, it offers a lot to the game, and there is no reason not to jump in the game with the dlc active straight away other than budget constraints. The main reason for that is that many of the strategies and tactics that work pre dlc, do not work that well post dlc, so you would be learning wrong things if you spend a ton of time playing without the dlc. At least that was my personal experience, having played a lot before the dlc released, and I know it is shared with a lot of the members of the community. Speaking of which, if you like the game, or have questions about it, the discord is full of friendly and knowledgeable people that can help. All in all, I highly recommend this game, and I'm very keen to see where the devs go for their next game!