This is a simple card game engineered around having zero learning curve. Just draw cards and hope you don't bust. The tutorial will demonstrate this, but I'm including it here for people who haven't purchased the game but are curious about the gameplay.

The deck has 60 cards numbered 2-7 in 10 "suits:"

• Anchor
• Hook
• Chrystal Ball
• Saber
• Chest
• Key
• Cannon
• Kraken
• Mermaid
• Map

All 10 2s are discarded into the discard pile at the start of each game, and the remaining 50 cards are placed in a draw pile.

Players take turns attempting to collect cards into their hands by drawing from the draw pile into the "river." After each draw, they can choose to draw another card or to collect the river into their hand. If any card drawn matches a suit of another card in the river, then the entire river is discarded.

Once the draw pile is depleted, the game ends and the players total up their highest values for each suit. Highest score wins.

The game gets progressively more complex as new card "suit abilities" are unlocked. A new suit ability will be unlocked every time the player ranks up in XP.

• Anchor: Collect cards drawn previously even if you bust
• Hook: Play a card from your hand back into the river to re-use its special ability
• Chrystal Ball: Show the next card in the draw pile
• Saber: Play a card from your opponents hand back into the river as long as you don't already have that suit in hand
• Chest: Combine with key
• Key: Combine with chest and get double the river cards (drawn from the discard pile at random)
• Cannon: Discard a card from your opponent's hand
• Kraken: You cannot pick up the river until you play at least 2 more cards
• Mermaid: Re-use the special ability of any card in the river
• Map: Pick one of 3 randomly selected discards and play it in the river

After unlocking all 10 special abilities, the "traits" will start to be unlocked as the player continues to rank up:

• Master Gunner: Cannons discard every card of one suit in your opponents hand
• Mystic: Oracles (chrystal balls) reveal the next 3 cards in the draw pile
• Navigator: Maps now allow you to choose any card in the discard pile
• Treasure Hunter: You now collect twice as many discards if you complete a chest/key combo
• Swordsman: Sabers now allow you to play any suit from your opponent's hand
• Safe Harbor: Anchors and the next 2 cards drawn into the river will be protected from busting (as long as they don't cause a bust)
• Scavenger: Cannons now remove a card from your opponent and put it in your hand
• Beastmaster: Krakens force your opponent to draw 4 more cards into the river
• Golden Scales: Mermaids in your hand are worth +5 of their face value (7-12 points)
• Fisherman: Krakens no longer force you to draw into the river, and they are banked immediately
• Captain's Hook: Hook cards now allow you to re-play 2 cards from your hand
• Casanova: Cards replayed using Mermaids are banked immediately, and an opponent's "Siren" trait is null and void
• Miser: Hook cards and their corresponding re-played cards are immune from busting
• Misfire: If the opponent draws a cannon, they must discard one card from their hand (highest value of their choice of suit)
• Parry: Any saber drawn by the opponent must be used to play a Kraken from your hand or it will be discarded immediately
• Sirens: When your opponent draws a mermaid, they must choose one card from the river to discard instead of re-play
• Plunderer: Key/chest bonus cards come only from your opponent's hand instead of the discard pile (still selected at random)
• Davy Jones' Locker: Any cards in the river when your opponent busts go to your hand instead of the discard pile (immune cards are still immune)

When level 15 is reached, the player can use two traits simultaneously, and you can see how some of these traits play on each other nicely. Check the end of this guide for a listing of all the ranks and unlocks in the game.

On top of the standard game rules, there are custom rules for many of the matches in the game's tournament listing:

• Thieves: Busted cards go to the opponent's hand (same as the Davy Jones' Locker trait but for both players)
• Bounty: All cards are totalled into the score instead of just the highest value in each suit
• Sudden Death: First player to 50 points wins automatically
• Deckhands: -5 points are counted if any suit is empty
• Natives: Pairs of matching numbers bust instead of pairs of matching suits
• Underwater: The human player must finish with a score less than 60 to win
• Fog: The draw pile no longer shows how many cards remain, and each player's hand is no longer visible to their opponent
• Plunder: Key/Chest combos draw from the opponents hand instead of the discard pile (same as the Plunderer trait but for both players)
• Kraken: Kraken cards force players to draw 4 instead of 2 (same as the Beastmaster trait but for both players)
• Below: Sabers and Cannons take the lowest ranked cards from the opponent's hand instead of highest ranked

The traits that are best for winning each match are highly dependant on what traits the opponent is using and what custom rules are added to the tournament.

Abilities are unlocked as follows:

• Level 0: Cannon suit ability unlocked during tutorial
• Level 1: Sword suit ability
• Level 2: Oracle suit ability
• Level 3: Map suit ability
• Level 4: Key & Chest suit ability
• Level 5: Anchor suit ability
• Level 6: Hook suit ability
• Level 7: Kraken suit ability
• Level 8: Mermaid suit ability
• Level 9: Master Gunner trait
• Level 10: Mystic trait
• Level 11: Navigator trait
• Level 12: Treasure Hunter trait
• Level 13: Swordsman trait
• Level 14: Safe Harbor trait
• Level 15: Second trait slot
• Level 16: Scavenger trait
• Level 17: Sir Lovesword avatar
• Level 18: Beastmaster trait
• Level 19: Golden Scales trait
• Level 20: Madam Margot avatar
• Level 21: Fisherman trait
• Level 22: Captain's Hook trait
• Level 23: Le Corsaire avatar
• Level 24: Casanova trait
• Level 25: Miser trait
• Level 26: Zahara avatar
• Level 27: Misfire trait
• Level 28: Parry trait
• Level 29: Scurvy Pete avatar
• Level 30: Sirens trait
• Level 31: Plunderer trait
• Level 32: Gunnie avatar
• Level 33: Davy Jones' Locker trait
• Level 34: Seamus avatar

XP Required for each level:

• Level 0: 0 (+100)
• Level 1: 100 (+100)
• Level 2: 200 (+100)
• Level 3: 300 (+125)
• Level 4: 425 (+125)
• Level 5: 550 (+125)
• Level 6: 675 (+125)
• Level 7: 800 (+125)
• Level 8: 925 (+250)
• Level 9: 1175 (+375)
• Level 10: 1550 (+500)
• Level 11: 2050 (+625)
• Level 12: 2675 (+625)
• Level 13: 3300 (+750)
• Level 14: 4050 (+750)
• Level 15: 4800 (+875)
• Level 16: 5675 (+875)
• Level 17: 6550 (+875)
• Level 18: 7425 (+1000)
• Level 19: 8425 (+1000)
• Level 20: 9425 (+1000)
• Level 21: 10425 (+1125)
• Level 22: 11550 (+1125)
• Level 23: 12675 (+1125)
• Level 24: 13800 (+1250)
• Level 25: 15050 (+1250)
• Level 26: 16300 (+1250)
• Level 27: 17550 (+1375)
• Level 28: 18925 (+1375)
• Level 29: 20300 (+1375)
• Level 30: 21675 (+1500)
• Level 31: 23175 (+1500)
• Level 32: 24675 (+1500)
• Level 33: 26175 (+1500)
• Level 34: 27675 (+2000)
• ...
• Level 100: 159675 (+2000)

To reset the game's statistics, you need to turn off "cloud sync" by right-clicking the game's icon in the Steam Library and then selecting "properties." Then navigate to the second tab (marked "updates") and uncheck the box for "enable Steam cloud synchronization for Dead Man's Draw." Then navigate to the folder "C:\Users\[UserName]\Appdata\Local\deadmansdraw" and backup and delete the files there.

After disabling Steam's cloud sync (see above), edit the file:

C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\deadmansdraw\SaveData.json

In any text editor and find the following:

• "CheatTraitsUnlocked":false, and set it to "true" to unlock all traits
• "FeatureTraitsUnlocked" should be "true" before you can use traits (before level 9)
• "FeatureSecondTraitUnlocked" should be true to unlock the second trait slot (before level 15)
• "AvatarSeamus":true unlocks Seamus' avatar (all avatars are listed there)
• "CardAbilitiesEnabled":false turns off all card suit abilities
• "Level":34 will set your player level to 34 (but not unlock traits or avatars; just suit abilities)
• "GatheringACrew":2 will mark the first tournament "Gathering A Crew" as completed (IMPORTANT NOTE ON NEXT BULLET)
• "GatheringACrew-challengelastdefeatedenemy" and "GatheringACrew-challengelaststartedenemy" MUST NOT be set to -1 (either 0 or more depending on how many enemies there are in that tournament)
• "GatheringACrew-0":70 sets the score from the first opponent (Gunnie) to 70
• "GatheringACrew-stars":3 sets the first tournament to 3 stars

Be aware that modifying this file could make the Steam achievements no longer work for you unless you reset them.