Welcome!

First of all, welcome to what we believe is currently the greatest DCG (Digital Card Game) and player community available. The Might & Magic franchise is pretty old, and there have been a lot of games out there using characters from this franchise. Most of the heroes in Duel of Champions (DoC) have a back-story/lore which is based on older games. DoC itself is a Ubisoft game that is nearly an year old, and is the game for you if you like DCGs with multiple gameplay elements and a little bit of complexity and strategy in dueling compared to other games.

Why this guide?

Though less than an year old, there have been drastic changes in the DoC structure, gameplay, card types, series and economy. There are a few guides written by Ubisoft programmers and community mods themselves, but are horribly outdated. Even the in-game guide is outdated when it comes to card economy. While existing players could adjust on their own, it can be disheartening for the newcomer to have no real entry-level guidance. So here it is! Hope it aids you.

Prerequisites

You will be needing a Ubisoft UPlay account to play DoC, even though you play via steam. Your Steam friends will unfortunately be separate from your DoC friends since it will be using the UPlay friend list. If you are someone who already has a UPlay account, but has not signed up yet, do not sign up until you reach the referral info section.

With this, we start this guide in order of Player's familiarity level. We have tried to keep the info pretty concise and it wouldn't take up too much time to read all sections; we would really suggest to read through everything. We have tried to avoid repeating info already present in the in-game guide, and have mentioned where reading it would be a nice idea.

Bare Basics

The game of Might & Magic: DoC has 6 factions, each with its unique heroes and creatures (and neutral creatures used by all heroes) and 7 schools of magic that you can use based on which schools your Hero has mastery in. Each faction offers a different play-style and the game is pretty decently balanced faction-wise and card-wise. Even at the top-most Pro levels, the factions are nearly equally prevalent and as your skill level increases, you will find each Hero to offer a unique deck and playing style.

Most of the basic functions of a duel are easily learned by doing the tutorial campaign that begins on first start-up, taking harldy 5-mins, but good enough to begin. Once you finish the introduction, the game will ask you to choose a faction; do try out multiple factions to see what kind of play-style suits you. You should totally check out the in-game guide's "Factions" section at this point.


Once you choose the faction, you get a starter deck of that faction consisting of 59 cards. However, you shouldn't worry much about the faction selection; when you do a ranked/unranked duel with other players, you get a free starter deck of a faction when you beat an opponent of that particular faction for the first time (though we would totally suggest playing unranked). Thus, winning at least one match against all 6 factions leaves you with 7 decks, your own faction being acquired a second time by winning a duel against it. You should do this at the earliest to get the other starter decks so you can try a variety of play styles and heroes, and cards in general.

Referral System

IMPORTANT : If you have yet not signed up for DoC, we highly recommend using a friend referral link. Using that link, you will get all 6 factions' starter decks from the start, thus leaving you with 13 decks in total when you're done beating all sections (instead of 7). That is a cool extra 350 cards; though as a beginner you might feel it's not that great a thing since you get those decks anyway, the total number of cards matters too. It will be clearer later, when you will make decks and use the infernal pit. Also, you get a load of starting gold bonus.

If you have already signed up but don't mind starting over, (you will have to make a new UPlay account, so players already having UPlay accounts with many games might not want to do this - we did warn you at the top, though) you should totally use a referral code and restart. If you have spent less than 4 hours in game, or played less than 10-15 duels, we strongly advise you to start over to use a referral. It is more than worth it; both of us had put in 30+ hours before we came to know about the referrals, and are still feeling the pinch of those 350 cards.

Feel free to browse the web for a refferral code or use one of ours
https://signup.duelofchampions.com/portal/index/DOC_world_02_0010_06_200_12_0614_00?refId=YFC439
https://signup.duelofchampions.com/portal/index/DOC_world_02_0010_06_200_12_0614_00?refId=FRK44Y

More Basics

Once you have finally started the game, hopefully with the aid of a referral link, you should learn the card basics a bit more rigorously. Try different starter decks in unranked duels and keep reading the "Game Interface" and "Card Details" subsections of the Beginner's Guide" section. Once you have won against all factions once and have a basic idea of what everything you see means, you can move to the next level and learn more about the game.

Now that you know how the game works, what all the symbols on the cards are and what the basics of dueling are, it's time to learn a few delicate but important details.

Card Series

This is one of the most confusing aspects of DoC and has become of great importance recently; the fact that it became substantial only a few months ago is why it is so confusing. However, it is quite simple; it is just like newer version of a software.

The original DoC had 224 cards, in what is now called as "Base Set I". Then, 4 expansion series were introduced over the months, which brought a total of ~440 new cards to the table. By the player trends and pro-matches, it was apparent that some card combos were in fact, quite OP (Over-Powered) unless you had the specific cards to counter it, which is not exactly a good balance mechanic. So, a new "Base Set II" of 300 cards was formed mainly using cards from the 5 older series and leaving out such OP combo cards. After Base Set II, 2 new expansions of 100 cards each have been released. The card series of any card can be seen be seen at the bottom left of a card, where a symbol will tell you the series it belongs to.

3) Redeemable Codes - There are free codes floating around the net which give free boosts, gold, and packs. I will add an additional section to this guide with codes which work. Most are expired so they can be a small pain to find.

4) Easy achievements - I will add another section to the guide with easy achievements you can complete for free boosters/gold/packs/seals.

5) Campaign - You should now try completing the campaign but make sure to beat each area with one of every deck type for tons of gold (for booster packs) and a free booster pack per area. *notes-This is dramatically easier if you did the refer a friend system. The tutorial should also be completed*

6) Exp/Gold boosts - You get the same exp/gold from duels no matter your level is when you use them, so earlier is better. Also note that each boost lasts an hour and will only count down that hour while you are in a match.

7) A lot of new players are using decks consisting of 200 or so cards. Try and limit your deck to 75 and less. As a new player you should try using a deck with 59-62 cards to pull what few good cards you have more often.

-----------------------------------------------------The Wall--------------------------------------------------

The Wall is a reference to the point in which players feel they can only advance by spending cash and these are tips to hurdle over or dodge around it.

1) Daily Quests - If you click on the double swords towards the top of your screen you will see three boxes in the upper left corner. By completing these quests you will eventually unlock daily quest slots which will help you earn gold and other neat rewards.
*Note/tips* -For daily tournament win complete a jackpot win as it is free entry and will still reward you with the ticket.

2) Daily Log in - This takes under a minute to do, and the rewards get better towards day 7 (including free wild cards which allow you to get any card in the game).

3) Do Not Play Swiss Tournements - This is the end game, unless you have a daily quest telling you to do this you should avoid it for now. This is the literal late game, if you jump in you will face players who took months/years/$$ to reach the endgame. It will make you feel weak and underpowered and for some this is the main source of 'The Wall'. If you wish to learn more about this read the cash section below.

4) Achievement hunt - This is a fun time killer and has a rewarding end goal.

5) Find a friend or two - This is major, having someone to share your joy with rare pulls is half the fun of a card game for me personally.

-----------------------------------------------Personal opinion/Cash--------------------------------------

I am a free to play player and I have 1,416 cards. It is not much but I have only been playing for roughly a month. I work 20 hours a week and I am a full time student, because of this I spend not a single cent from my checks and every 6 months I go roughly one grand deeper in debt from tuition. If I had the money I would have boughten one box of which ever set I own the least amount of cards from for the variety and to support these devs.

If you have any advice you feel new players should know about feel free to comment or message, these are sections i'm considering adding to the guide as well.
A) Inferno/Altar of Wishes guide
B) Decent deck builds made from just the starter decks
C) Easy achievement section (with pictures and explanations of the easy achievements).

!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~Thanks for reading~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!
Credits* (Anyone who adds a good idea or tip will be thrown into the credit bundle)
Myself
tAnt0 - Boost duration

*This guide is open for suggestions and will take feedback with an open mind. The guide will be in order of how new of a player you are.

CD-Action-Play-MMDoC
(working 8/7/2014)
TH4NK5-70K-D0C-F4CEB00K-L3G1ON
(working 8/7/2014)

Feel free to message me if you find more cards that are working or if one of these is no longer working.

This section is meant for people who are stuck on puzzles. This will contain spoilers so be careful while browsing.

---------------------------------------------Cassandras Puzzle-------------------------------------------------

1) Attack and suicide with the harpy

2) Raise Might (Fist symbol) by 1

3) Summon your blood caller and sacrifice your Crusher and Tainted Orc

4) Attack with DreamWalker

5) Celebrate Victory

Video Guide -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlIVlfcp9OQ

---------------------------will add more, just got stuff to do real quick---------