Editing Card

[[Image:Harvester-0.jpg|200px|thumb|A BattleForge card for the [[Card:Harvester|Harvester]] [[Shadow]] unit.]]
''For card listings, see [[:Category:Cards|Card Categories]].''

: '''BattleForge cards '''contain the primary information for a BattleForge [[Creature]], [[Building]], or [[Spell]]. BattleForge cards are virtual and digital, in that there no physical cards are planned for production; the "cards" are stored on EA's BattleForge servers, yet they can be traded and auctioned in-game. With the exception of [[Monument]]s, [[Power Well]]s and [[Wall]]s, everything players can create or cast are defined by the Battle05:58, August 2, 2012 (UTC)05:58, August 2, 2012 (UTC)05:58, August 2, 2012 (UTC)05:58, August 2, 2012 (UTC)Forge cards.

==Obtaining Cards==
{{Video|float=right|[[File:BattleForge Tutorial Video 1|350px]]|BattleForge Tutorial #1: Playing a Card}}
Players begin with a preset selection of cards by purchasing the retail game, downloading the demo, or obtaining the [[Play4Free]] client. Players who obtain the demo randomly receive one of the four [[:Category:Starter Decks|Starter Decks]]. Purchasing or upgrading to the retail game gives the player all four starter decks (the remaining three for those who first play the demo). Play4Free players immediately obtain [[Play4Free#Included Cards|thirty-two selected cards]].

Players who purchase the retail game or obtain the Play4Free client have three options to obtain additional cards: (a) purchasing and opening [[Booster]]s or [[Tome]]s from [[EA Phenomic]] via the [[Marketplace]], (b) purchasing individual cards from other players via the Marketplace's Auction House, or (c) direct trades with fellow BattleForge players online. The first two methods expend [[BattleForge Points]], while the last method allows for the possibility to negotiate mutually beneficial cards-for-cards, card-for-BFP, card-for-gold, or some combination.

Note that players with the demo client are unable to trade cards with other players nor utilize the marketplace. Players who purchase the retail game also receive 3000 BFP, enabling such players to round out their card collections using the methods above. Play4Free players have these options but begin with a balance of zero BFP.

==Card Reading ==
[[Image:Card_description.jpg|thumb|403px|A BattleForge card indicating Name, Power Cost, Orb Cost, Charge, Class, Special Abilities, Damage, Life, Edition, and Rarity]]
Each BattleForge card contains vital information to playing that card as well the card's edition and rarity. The following sections describe the parts of the card.

===Card Name ===
The '''name''' of the card is found at the top-left of the card and is proceeded by the upgrade level, if upgraded.asd

===Power Cost ===
The '''power''' is shown at the top-right and indicates power required to cast the card. Power costs of cards typically range from 20 to 380 for the most powerful creations.

===Orb Requirements ===
The number of orbs and elements required to cast the card and is displayed below the power cost. Orb requirements are met by building [[Orb]]s on [[Monument]]s. Solid-filled orbs indicate that one or more orbs with a specific element are required, while open orbs can be filled by a monolith of any element.

===Card Artwork ===
The artwork is an artist's concept of the card's creation or effect and takes up the majority of the card's area.

===Card Class ===
{{Video|float=right|[[File:BattleForge Tutorial 2|350px]]|BattleForge Tutorial #2: More about Cards}}
At the bottom-left corner of the artwork, the card's type is indicated. Unit cards indicate the unit's race and class, building cards indicate the class of building, and spells indicate the spell's class.

'''Unit Classes''' The '''unit class''' generally indicates the unit's role in combat and its capabilities. The following are typical classes for most units:
*[[:Category:Soldier Class Cards|Soldier]] - Essential melee combatant, balanced damage and life
*[[:Category:Archer Class Cards|Archer]] - Ranged combatant, higher damage, lower life
*[[:Category:Wizard Class Cards|Wizard]] - Spell-casting combatant, lower damage and life but have special attack abilities.
*[[:Category:Supporter Class Cards|Supporter]] - Supportive role, very low damage or cannot attack at all.
*[[:Category:Dominator Class Cards|Dominator]] - Combatant amongst the strongest for its tier, higher damage and life, but higher casting cost
*[[:Category:Destroyer Class Cards|Destroyer]] - Powerful combatant with siege capabilities
*[[:Category:Corruptor Class Cards|Corruptor]] - Special units that may apply debuff or perform crowd control on foes.
*[[:Category:Crusader Class Cards|Crusader]] - Special Units that may apply buffs or support on allies.


'''Building Classes''' The '''building class''' indicates the building's role in the game:
*[[:Category:Tower Class Cards|Tower]] - Building with attack capabilities
*[[:Category:Device Class Cards|Device]] - Offensive support structure, may have attack abilities.
*[[:Category:Shrine Class Cards|Shrine]] - Beneficial support structure, no attack capabilities
*[[:Category:Hut Class Cards|Hut]] - Special support structure , no attack abilities
*[[:Category:Fortress Class Cards|Fortress]] - Building with higher lifepoints, often with attack capability

'''Spell Classes''' There are two spell classes as of the first edition of cards:
*[[:Category:Spell Class Cards|Spell]] - Spells that targets the enemy forces
*[[:Category:Arcane Class Cards|Arcane]] - Spells that targets your own or allied forces

===Card Charges ===
The maximum number of times that a card can be cast within a match before the card gets cooldown. After spending all charges the cooldown has to finish before this card gets one charge again and you can play it once before it is on cooldown again. The cooldown varies from card to card, generally the more Orbs a card needs, the longer it will take until you can use that card again (minimum of about 5 seconds up to a maximum of 3 minutes).

However, with creatures, their recharge time is half of their cost. ( As a example, a Giant Wyrm which costs 300 power, takes 150 seconds to
recharge and a Mutating Frenzy, costing 120 power, takes 60 seconds to recharge )

Additional card charges can be obtained by [[#Charge upgrades|upgrading cards]] with additional copies of the same card.

===Special Abilities ===
''See main article: [[Special Abilities]].''

If a unit has special abilities, they're shown directly below card class. A few units have no special abilities and will have a very short description instead. Special abilities are preceded by different icons to indicate how the ability is activated.

Additional special abilities may be obtained by [[#Card upgrades|upgrading cards]]. A card may have an ability for which there is no displayed text, but this is rare; chances are, if one sees an ability being used by another player that is not seen on unupgraded versions of that card, then it came from an upgrade. Considerably more common is to see old images of cards on the BattleForge wiki, from before the cards were patched, that do not show abilities added in the patch.

===Attack and Damage===
(Only shown for creatures and buildings with a basic attack, such as towers and some fortresses) Indicates the amount of damage inflicted by the basic attack of the creature or building.

====Attack Type====
If the card is a creature, the damage is preceded by an attack icon and size indicator, giving basic information for its primary attack. In many cases, the attack icon is a '''sword''', indicating it is a melee creature, or a '''bow''' for a ranged creature. These icons are followed by a creature size against which the creature gains a 50% damage bonus. The sizes are specified like everyday clothing sizes:
* [[:Category:S Attack Cards|S(mall)]]
* [[:Category:M Attack Cards|M(edium)]]
* [[:Category:L Attack Cards|L(arge)]]
* [[:Category:XL Attack Cards|XL (extra-large)]]

Finally, a creature may have a ''star'' icon instead of the sword/bow and size icon, indicating that it has a [[:Category:* Attack Cards|''special attack'']]. Such creatures receive no sized-based attack damage bonus, though it may have an ability-based bonus, such as [[:Category:Siege Cards|siege]] (bonus versus buildings).

===Life Points===
(Only shown for units and buildings) Shows the maximum amount of life points for the unit or building.

====Creature Size====
If the card is a creature, its life is preceded by the creature's size: S, M, L, or XL (just like everyday clothing sizes, thus small, medium, large, and extra-large, respectively). This may also be referred to as ''Armor Type.''' Creatures whose [[Attack Type]] match the Armor Type of the unit they are attacking, receive a 50% attack damage bonus.

The following are some of the characteristics of units of a given size:
*[[:Category:S Creature Cards|'''S(mall)''']]: Small creatures are almost always created in squadrons of six units. They typically have the least power costs. Affected by all [[:Category:Knockback Cards|knockback]] effects. Walking past enemy units will cause them to slow down.
*[[:Category:M Creature Cards|'''M(edium)''']]: Medium creature are created as individual or four-unit squads. Susceptible to fewer knockback abilities. Walking past enemy units reduces their movement speed.
*[[:Category:L Creature Cards|'''L(arge)''']]: Large creatures are always individual creatures. Walking past small enemy creatures will knock them back, though past other creatures, it will slow down.
*[[:Category:XL Creature Cards|'''X(tra)-L(arge)''']]: Extra-large creatures are always individual creatures. They can walk through small and medium creatures, knocking them back.

===Card Edition and Rarities ===
The final bits of information on a card are its edition and rarity, displayed by an icon in the bottom-right hand corner of the card. The edition is indicated by a set of themed icons for a particular edition of cards. At this time, available edition are [http://battleforge.wikia.com/wiki/Twilight_Edition Twilight], [[:Category:Renegade (2nd) Edition Cards|Renegade]], [[:Category:Lost Souls (3rd) Edition Cards|Lost Souls]] an [[:Category:Amii_(4th)_Edition_Cards|Amii]]. The rarity of the card indicates the relative availability and probability of obtaining the card in booster packs. There are four levels of rarity:
*[[Common]]
:''Availability: 5-in-8 cards (or''' '''30-in-48 cards'')
*[[Uncommon]]
:''Availability: 1-in-4 cards (or 12-in-48 cards)''
*[[Rare]]
:''Availability: 5-in-48 cards''
*[[Ultra-Rare]]
:''Availability: 1-in-48 cards''

===Affinities (not shown on sample image above)===
If a card has an affinity, this means that it comes with a certain ability which does not necessarily match the power color of the card. There are e.g. Frost cards that come with a Fire ability. A card with a Nature affinity is called “gifted”. A card with a Fire affinity is called “infused”. A card with a Frost affinity is called “blessed”. A card with a Shadow affinity is called “tainted”. Basically there are two versions of the same card whos effect will slightly differ, i.e [http://battleforge.wikia.com/wiki/Card:Thunder_Wagon Thunder Wagon]. The affinities affect an ability to differ its effects or two abilities, in case of Thunder Wagon. Affinities do not affect Orb Requirements, only one or two abilities.

==Card Upgrades ==
{{Video|float=right|[[File:BattleForge Tutorial 7|350px]]|BattleForge Tutorial #7: Upgrades}}
''See main article: [[Upgrades]]''

BattleForge cards support an upgrade mechanism which allows players to increase the power of their favorite cards. Upgrades are performed in the Card Upgrades window, which can only be accessed from the Forge UI (upgrades cannot be performed while playing a match). The card upgrades window can be opened from Inventory and right-clicking a card or upgrade card and clicking Upgrade.

Cards can be upgraded two levels, with each level having two types of upgrades, regular '''upgrades '''and '''charge upgrades'''. Regular '''upgrades '''are either won from [[Loot Table|PvE loot]] or claimed using [[PvP Tokens]] via the claim upgrade tab in the card upgrade window. Regular upgrades have one or more of the following effects:
*Increase power of special abilities
*Give a new special ability
*Increase damage
*Increase life

Regular upgrades cards also specify the upgrade level, I, II or III. To upgrade a card to level 1, an upgrade card for the card and level (e.g. Eruption I) and gold are needed. To upgrade a card to level 2, the first two upgrade cards for the card (e.g. Eruption I and Eruption II) and gold are needed. Likewise, to upgrade a card to level 3, all three upgrade cards for the card (e.g. Eruption I, Eruption II and Eruption III) and gold are needed. If you have the necessary upgrades, the upgrade card is shown in the window and the checkbox by the upgrade will light up. Clicking the checkbox will update the preview card below the original as well as show the gold Upgrade Cost at the bottom of the window. Clicking combine will perform the upgrade if you have the requisite amount of gold. Once an upgrade is applied to a card, the card can no longer be traded (according to section 3.19 of the FAQ [http://www.battleforge.com/portal/site/BattleForge/battleforgefaq/]).

Upgraded units are indicated by one, two or three ticks above the unit's healthbar.

=== Charge upgrades ==
'''Charge upgrades '''allow the user to increase the number of charges for a card, thus allowing the player to cast the card more times within a match. Unlike regular upgrades, charge upgrades do not require a special upgrade card and require a duplicate of the card instead. Thus to perform the first charge upgrade, Upgrade I and a duplicate card are required. No additional gold is required, however the duplicate card is consumed.

==See Also ==
*[[Deck|Card Deck]]
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[[Category:Game Mechanics]]