GWENT: The Witcher Card Game Mobile Beginner’s Guide

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game just arrived on iOS, and it’s likely to introduce a bunch of new players to the smash hit card battler. In case you’ve never heard of it before, it’s the standalone version of the card game first made popular in The Witcher 3.

In this guide, we’ll introduce you to how GWENT plays and provide you with a bunch of tips and tricks to help smooth over your first few hours with the game. It won’t quite make you a master, but our guide should help ease you into the experience a little more gently.

If you just want to learn mor about it – particularly how great it is – check out our full review.

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game Mobile – How it Works:

If you’ve played the likes of Hearthstone or Elder Scrolls: Legends before, you’ll have a good idea of how GWENT works. While it has its own mechanics and strategies, the basic formula remains the same: build your own deck of cards, find another player to battle online, and take it in turns playing your cards until one of you gives up or all cards have been played.

A match of GWENT takes place over up to three rounds, depending on whether there’s a need for a tiebreaker or not. To win a round you have to end it with a higher score than your opponent, and you have to win two rounds to win the whole match.

Each player has a deck of cards that they bring into battle with them. This deck can be a starter or a completely custom deck. Either way, a deck is made up of at least 25 cards and you’ll draw a selection of them at random during the first round, when you can swap up to three of them for a random alternative from your deck.

Once you’re happy, the round begins. Rounds are turn-based, with you and your opponent having the option to play a single card each round. Each card provides you with a certain number of points, and your score for that round is the sum total of points from all of the cards you’ve currently got placed on the board.

Cards can be attacked, lowering their points, or removed completely. You can also boost cards using special skills. Creating a synergy between the cards on your deck is key, though that’s not so important at this point as your starter deck is designed to have synergy. Instead, you’ll want to ensure that you understand how each of your cards interact with each other and try and form some rudimentary strategies.

Before we move onto tips, we should point out that you have a Leader skill that can help you turn a battle around. These vary from small boosts that come with a cool-down to single use powerhouses. It’s also worth taking a closer look at all of the cards in your deck, as each of them have various different effects that you might have missed.

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game Mobile Tips and Tricks:

• Take a close look at all of the decks and pick the one that suits your play style: After beating the tutorial, you’ll likely have an idea of the way you’d like to play. If not, that’s fine – either way, just take a look at the starter decks and see which one appeals.

• Do the same with your card to look for synergies: Looking at the decks is one half of the battle, the other is actually digging into the cards and checking what they actually do. Many cards in GWENT actually serve multiple different purposes, changing depending on if you place them in the frontline or backline, and what you place them next to. Look for synergies.
• Customise your deck to remove the cards that don’t synergise: If you really don’t like certain cards in your deck, you don’t actually have to bring them. Head into your deck builder and you’ll learn that you can actually customise the starter deck, inserting cards from other decks in place of cards you don’t like. You do have to make sure you’ve got 25 cards minimum though.
• Play patiently: GWENT is a cerebral experience, and rewards those that think ahead, play patiently, and pay close attention to what their opponent is doing. Plan ahead and don’t make your strategy too obvious. Play cards out of order, and try and throw your opponent off your scent. Also, look at what they’re doing. Check out cards that are placed on the board and see how they can synergise with others. See if you can exploit them somehow.
• Don’t be afraid to pass if you feel you can’t win: Unless you’ll literally lose by passing, don’t be afraid to pass. It doesn’t mean you’ll lose the game overall. In fact, if your opponent has just dominated you, chances are they’ll be lacking their best cards in the next round, handing you an advantage. Pass if you really don’t think you can win and save your best cards for the next round when you actually might.

Glen Fox

Head of Editorial

Glen has over a decade's worth of experience in gaming journalism, writing for Pocket Gamer, Pocket Tactics, Nintendo Life, and Gfinity. When he's not badgering everyone about the dangers of passive text, you can probably find him playing Wild Rift.