Faeria

A Semi-Professional Hearthstone Player’s Review of Faeria: I’ve been a semi-professional hearthstone player for close to 4 years; I was the captain of my e-sports organization’s team for 2 years in a row, and then took on the role of coach for another 2 years right after. During my tenure I’ve won numerous awards and cash prizes, but I’ve fallen out of love with Hearthstone these past few months. [b]So... this is my review of Faeira as a previously paid e-sports athlete for hearthstone.[/b] [b][u]Similarities and Differences in Gameplay[/u][/b]: Hearthstone is the most popular digital card game, odds are you’ve played it at one point if you’re interested in picking up Faeria. The good news is you’ll feel right at home when it comes to the actual cards of Faeria. Each card has a mana cost and an attack + health value and they operate in the exact same way as Hearthstone! Not to mention the keywords also are similar (Taunt = Taunt, Haste = Charge, Combat = “when damaged do x”, Last Words = Deathrattle, etc.) What differs primarily is the actual game board as it’s infinitely more dynamic and adds another layer of gameplay to the typical “minion/spell” card game. In Faeria cards generally have a terrain cost as well as a mana cost. Every turn you and your opponent have the opportunity to place an elemental tile (red, green, blue, yellow, or 2x regular). These tiles are added up on your screen and allow you to place more powerful minions or cast more powerful spells. A 3-mana card with no terrain costs might be a regular 3/2, but a 3-mana card with a 2-blue and 1-green tile requirement might be a 4/6 with taunt. Since Faeria dosen’t have a class system like hearthstone, you’re free to mix-and-match different elemental combos which can generate more flexible and creative decks. [b][u]Monetization[/u][/b]: First let me say that this game is Free-to-play, and no, I’m not just saying that. [b]I have yet to buy a single DLC for this game[/b] and I’m near the top ranks of Faeria within my first month of play. Now, as previously stated, I was paid professionally to play Hearthstone so my skill and learning curve might differ from yours. However, the monetization system in this game is simple to understand: the base game includes the classic Faeria collection AND the Oversky DLC (you used to have to pay for it, now it’s free). What differs from Hearthstone’s DLC is that [b]you cannot earn cards from DLC’s you haven’t purchased[/b]. Unlike Hearthstone which has expansions that are “technically” free for anyone, you must purchase the ability to un-pack those cards in Faeria. This does lead to some imbalancing, as most of the newer cards are generally considered “better”, however, there are plenty of guides online (that I used) for powerful free-to-play decklists. [b][u]Collecting[/u][/b]: Speaking of “un-packing”, yes Faeria also has a pack system when it comes to card collection. However, the system is [b]vastly superior[/b] to hearthstone. You get packs regularly through level up rewards or mission challenges, but the best part is you get a free card (of your choice) every 6 hours. You get 6 charges maximum, and you earn a new charge every 6 hours. With these charges you can pick and craft any card of your choice ([i]minus legendary cards[/i]) [b]completely free[/b]. There are no duplicates whatsoever in Faeria, it is impossible to pack cards you already have all possible copies of. Unlike Hearthstone’s duplicate protection, in Faeria if you earned all common + rare cards, your packs will be entirely full of epics + legendaries! [b][u]Playerbase[/u][/b]: Similarly to Hearthstone, Faeria is available on multiple platforms (PC, Mobile, Console, etc) so the playbase is pretty spread out. So don’t let the steam player-count dissuade you, I’ve never waited more than 2 minutes to find a match even in the more niche gamemodes. The playerbase is also much less toxic compared to hearthstone either on reddit, discord, or those classic post-match friend requests. [b][u]Solo-Content[/u][/b]: Faeria has easily over 70 hours of challenging singleplayer content to complete, all with interesting rewards and achievements. There’s a wide variety of solo-content and most of it is infinitely repeatable: daily Dragon battles, world bosses, puzzles, etc. If you wanted to play this card game completely on your own and still earn a load of rewards, that’s absolutely possible. Their AI requires you to be connected to the internet, so as of now there’s no offline play just FYI. [b][u]Development[/u][/b]: As far as I’m aware the development of Faeria is shut-down. The last balance patch was a year ago and I don’t think there’ll be another one soon. It’s entirely possible the developers come back to this game with a surprise DLC launch, but I don’t think it’s likely. However, for me personally, this is the type of gameplay I like. I left hearthstone due to the constant need to grind for the new expansion every 4 months, it felt like a chore and decks I enjoyed fell out of the meta constantly. With the removal of Hearthstone classic, I needed to find that “consistent” card game itch elsewhere and came to Faeria. [b][u]Final Remarks[/u][/b]: Faeria has provided me with a consistent and challenging experience I was never able to achieve in Hearthstone. It has a similar minion/spell system that I was familiar with, but provided so much more skill expression when it came to deck-building and gameplay with the terrain system. With a pretty incredible collection system it’s easy to craft new cards and play new decks at zero cost to the player. This game goes on sale often and I was able to pick it up for $5 during the summer sale. For the sheer amount of single-player content this game offers it’s 100% worth it even if you never play multiplayer. I’ve been seeing great success with my Zero-DLC decks, but I would consider buying the DLC just to further support the game. I would highly recommend Faeria to any card game enthusiast who wants a simple but dynamic experience that has more creativity and flexibility than any other card game on the market.

This is going to sound crazy but I believe we are experiencing peak Faeria in 2026. The CCG model is gone, thank god, and anyone can explore the game thoroughly in all its fascinating aspects for less than $10. You can always get a ladder, casual or draft game and once you have all the cards your deck-building options are incredibly vast. Getting those cards requires you to play the game a lot, but getting good enough to use those cards well also requires time, so it's an enjoyable and satisfying process! I may actually wipe my cache and reset someday just to go through the fun of building up my collection again :)

I used to play this game a few years back and it was free to play and I loved it so I bought the dlcs. Fast forward to now I went to play it and I would have to pay 20 dollars to buy the base game I already have all the dlcs for. $20 for a dead game is not worth it even though th game is amazing.

unfortunately the last update was on 2021, the game is still alive, the rank ladder is still alive but no update since then

Paid product AND in-game pay-time purchases. I hate developers like these

Sadly server are down now, unplayable offline

I've been sitting on this hidden gem for many years, recently decided to play and oh boy it's perfect. It's not pay to win, just get the DLC expansions and you're ready to go. I don't care about multiplayer so declining player base is not a problem for me. Campaign is nice, puzzle missions are well thought and teach you some tricks. If you're looking for a great card game and you like Magic the Gathering, get this game. It won't ♥♥♥♥ itself like Hearthstone. Having a Linux version is also a plus. I feel like I have a long playtime ahead of me. Update: Multiplayer is still active, it usually doesn't take more than 90 seconds to find an opponent, at least for ranked. Experience may vary depends on your timezone and location though.