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style="font-style: italic;">Ari lives alone. What secrets
could she hold?
My journey as a card duelist in
style="font-style: italic;"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/287"
target="_blank">Free Realms began when my avatar,
Ralsu, stumbled across an NPC named Ari the Fish while wandering the
hills west of Sanctuary. Rising to the top of his game took Ralsu all
over the accessible globe and gave me an engrossing story. Card duelist
is a fun job because it combines the fun of collectible cards with the
thrill of competition. The fact that a player can level from one to
twenty in the job entirely by completing quests and without a
subscription makes it one of the most enjoyable in
style="font-style: italic;">Free Realms. Id
like to share the story of the card duelist with other players.
Reference the
target="_blank">Free
Realms map to see where I traveled along the way.
Humble Beginnings
Ari the Fish makes her camp among the hills west of the
Sanctuary warpstone. She sits out by a fire with her freshly caught
fish hanging on a line. Her understated attire shows the rugged life
she leads, and I decided to speak to her to find out why she was living
in the wilderness. Ari identified herself as a former card duelist and
told Ralsu he should seek Sam Potts in Sanctuary to give it a try.
Sam turned out to be an archer hanging out at the main
intersection in Sanctuary. She invited me to take on her training deck,
which took me into the Free
Realms TCG tutorial (see more about that
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67681" target="_blank">here).
This was a match that was impossible to lose as Sam was throwing the
game to teach me how to play. Beating her training deck officially
unlocked the card duelist job.
Now that Ralsu had beaten her training deck, Sam was ready to
test him with her trick deck. The problem was that some of her cards
were scattered about the street. I had an unlimited time to pick up
eight sparkling piles of cards nearby lying on the ground.
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style="font-style: italic;">Sam has been leading the life of
an archer, but she'll duel you for fun.
With her best tricks in hand, Sam was ready to teach Ralsu a
thing or two about card dueling, but it turned out to be mostly
boasting. Sam uses an Order deck (the blue cards), which is decently
balanced with average creatures and strong resources. Meanwhile,
Ralsus starter deck was filled with Nature cards, the green ones.
Nature decks rely on defensive posturing and synergistic bonuses to
outlast an opponent. Since Sam didnt try very hard, the match ended in
a rout. Ralsu reached level two and won himself a shiny new pair of
striped shoes.
One side effect of my second second card duel with Sam was
that she remembered how fun it was to duel. She decided on the spot
that she would postpone her archery training to enter the upcoming
tournament. She asked me to go tell her boss, Quills, that she would be
missing work until further notice. As can be expected, Quills did not
enjoy this news and wanted to figure out how to change Sams mind.
Quills latched onto the idea that if I beat Sams tournament deck, it
would discourage her from entering the tournament and embarrassing
herself.
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style="font-style: italic;">Pixiewood sounds glamorous but
the paparazzi are insance.
The ensuing battle with Sam featured her Order deck in full
force, but she didnt make it very hard. She often played defensively
and used the power of her resource cards to destroy my creatures rather
than battling them with her own. The final score was a little closer,
but still it was lopsided. Rather than be discouraged, though, Sam took
the sound thrashing as an indication that she needed to practice. She
knew she wasnt ready to jump into the tournament yet, but now she was
dedicated to sharpening her skills to become tournament ready. For
beating Sam Potts, Ralsu earned a single-striped shirt.
A woman of her word, Sam was ready to start practicing her
card dueling skills. In the meantime, she had already signed up for the
tournament and asked me to fill in for her. I needed to check the
tournament board near Sam to find that her slated opponent was Jili,
who worked in Jacques Café on the east side of town under the
Pixiewood sign.
Jili used a Chaos deck (red cards), which is geared toward
fast strikes but has poor defense. She played the Michi hero card,
allowing her to ready a Chaos ally every time Michi won a battle. The
key to beating Jili was to hit her early and to attack her creatures
with poor defense as soon as I played a creature of my own.
It took me two tries, but I bested her, a feat she attributed to luck.
Ralsu was not a level three card duelist, and the victory earned him a
pair of Bermuda shorts.
The Cardie Crew
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Poe
thinks you can start a new Cardie Crew.
Jili felt confident my luck would run out against a seasoned
card duelist like Poe Tatters, a blacksmith across the street from Sam
Potts. When I met him, Poe waxed nostalgic about his glory days in the
Cardie Crew (CC) and wanted me to ask around town about the tales of
the CC.
I first spoke to Posey, who hangs out at the tournament board
near Sam Potts. Posey told me the CC was a group of the four best card
duelists ever. Each used one of the four elemental decks, and they
never competed with each other. The rules back then limited duelists to
only one deck, but Sheldon convinced Ari to play a Nature deck like
Maple Sugarleaf. The two competed for top honors. When Ari lost, the CC
disbanded.
I next spoke to
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69633" target="_blank">Buzz,
who cited Sheldon as his favorite member
of the CC. He revealed that Sheldon started using the alias Shifty the
Shuffler once the wedge he drove between Ari and Maple wrecked the CC.
I then went to meet Nirvi, who advised against asking too many
questions. She told me that Ari went whacky and left a trail of
wreckage along the Lavender Coast after leaving the CC.
Finally I spoke with
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69635" target="_blank">Guard
Banee. He told me the CC was made
up of Poe, Ari, Maple and Shifty. His view of things was that Aris ego
had led to the demise of the group.
When I returned to Poe, he explained that he wanted to start a
new CC with me as the first player. Of course, I would need to beat him
in a practice round to prove my skills and earn some cards from him.
Gaining Momentum
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Bry
likes to have an audience.
Poe played with the Machine deck (yellow cards), a balanced
deck with debilitating tricks and power ups such as stuns. He got to go
first in our battle, marking the first time I didnt get to make the
first move. It is advisable to check the creature Poe has played and
avoid combat with any that has a stun power up activated by flipping a
single gem. When you do attack such a creature, be sure to throw in
some tricks to be sure you destroy it. A stunned creature essentially
loses a turn, and it cannot defend against attack, making for quick
scores for your opponent.
Beating Poe brought Ralsu to level four and won him a striped
tee shirt. Having won against Poe proved I was ready for a real
challenge, so he asked me to run about town checking the yellow flower
pots for the cards he had hidden. These were his best cards, and
beating his best deck would prove I was the future leader of the new CC.
Once I had the cards in hand, we jumped into another duel. Poe
got to go first again, and this time he had the hero card of himself.
The bigger problem was his Security Bot card, which would stun an
opposing creature any time a single green jewel flipped. I got around
it by leaving the Security Bots alone until I had really powerful
creatures and tricks to throw at them. Sure, it meant Poe got some free
points on me, but I was kicking his but in the other two slots. Winning
the battle got me some cards and a duelists Nature cap.
Poe was pretty excited by my potential and asked me to go tell
Bry in Lakeshore about the new CC. Bry wanted to teach a whole group of
budding card duelists, so I had to run about Lakeshore recruiting
students. For my efforts, Ralsu got a set of striped sandals.
Once she had a whole class as a captive audience, Bry was
ready to duel with me. She used a Chaos deck with a lot of stuns, and
her Bry hero card would allow her to zap a Chaos ally to destroy one of
my scored cards. The combination of stuns and destroying cards I had
scored kept things tight, but I prevailed, bringing Ralsu to card
duelist level six and earning a hoodie.
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Perci
has the drinks for your party.
My strong play convinced Bry that I had a shot of forming a
new CC, so she asked me to pick up some supplies in order to throw a
celebration party. I obtained cheesy poofs from Glerga in the Robgoblin
camp to the north, and I traveled to Shrouded Glade to fetch Misty
Mountain Fizz from Perci Periweather.
With the refreshments in place, Bry thought the only thing the
party was missing was entertainment. To that end, she challenged me to
another duel with her tournament deck. I had already seen her best
strategies, so I overcame her the second time. Ralsu was now a level
seven card duelist and he had a new pair of small stitched pants.
Serious Business
Bry knew that
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69634" target="_blank">Garrison
Gold up in Snowhill would not like the idea of a new CC
because he feels cards are a frivolous waste of time. She thought it
would be a good idea for me to go challenge him right away and show him
that I was the real deal.
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Capture
Puggles the pic to get Garrison to duel you.
Garrison doesnt play cards for fun, so he wanted me to wager
something of value. He asked me to acquire a pig from farmer Perry.
Luckily, a loose pig had been a bit of a nuisance for Perry lately, and
she offered to let me have the pig if I could catch it and keep it out
of her barn. This turned out to involve running in circles trying to
click on the pig when it was close enough to me to catch it.
Using the pig as collateral (and the promise of crisp bacon)
was enough to lure Garrison into battle. He used an Order deck, got to
go first, and his Garrison Gold hero card prevented his creatures from
being destroyed even if they lost a battle. To make matters worse, his
resource cards could ready a zapped creature. This meant he could
potentially win a battle with a creature (destroying mine) and then
ready that creature and hunt for a second scored card. I did manage to
come out on top and found Ralsu at level eight with a striped polo for
his efforts.
It turned out that Garrison knew the location of Shitfy the
Shuffler and would reveal it to me if I beat his tournament deck.
Before we battled, he asked me to return the pig whose life I had saved
by winning our first duel. He claimed the pigs squeals were
distracting him. Once that was done, the second duel was a go. Garrison
had already shown me his best tactics in our first battle, so the
second wasnt really any harder. Winning raised Ralsu to level nine and
gave him a wild tee shirt.
I had gained access to Shifty, who resided in the
carnival-like Wugachug. Garrison told me that Shifty was hard at work
on an unbeatable deck by creating his own cards. Finding Shifty was
enough to push Ralsu to level ten as a card duelist and got him a Chaos
cap to boot.
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style="font-style: italic;">What the!? Shifty set you up!
Setup by the Shuffler
Shifty agreed to duel with me, but he asked me to help him
find some misplaced cards first. I helped him gather twelve cards in
the area that he claimed had been dropped by Chugawugs (the locals) who
had borrowed them from him first. Once I had them, he sent me to see
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69752" target="_blank">Oggy,
though I did not know what he had to do with anything.
Oggy took one look at the cards I had picked up and accused me
of stealing from Chugawugs. He ordered me to go see the Sasparilla
Brewmaster, a sort of town official. Shifty had set me up!
The brewmaster lectured me on the lack of wisdom in stealing
from the large and powerful Chugawugs, but fortunately he saw the
traces of Shiftys handiwork on the setup. Ralsu achieved level 11 card
duelist and obtained a flannel shirt.
I was out for revenge now. Id beat Shifty in a duel and show
him I deserved his respect. The ninja played a Chaos deck, and his
special card was the Invading Bixie Mage, which was weak but could stun
its opponent with the flip of a single green gem. To complicate
matters, the Invading Bixie Mage went to Shiftys hand rather than the
discard pile when it was destroyed. This meant it kept coming back! I
prevailed in a close battle, bringing Ralsu to level 12 and earning a
pair of board shorts.
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style="font-style: italic;">They make everything bigger in
Wugachug..
Having shamed Shifty, I returned to the brewmaster who told me
that Shifty had been expecting an incoming package of cards that was
lost. He advised me to seek Jammie Swiftsong out in Seaside
to retrieve the cards for myself. This quest got Ralsu to level 13.
Dueling in Seaside
The long journey to Seaside was worth the time it took as soon
as I saw the sandy beaches and clear skies. Seaside was a little
stretch of paradise!
I found the postal worker named Jammie, and she told me of a
box of cards she had found floating in the water. Discovering the cards
got her hooked on dueling, and she wouldnt hand them over unless I
beat her.
Jammie was by far the toughest duelist I had faced yet. Her
Order deck had a variety of cards that made it formidable. Costing only
one coin was the Soaring Eagle, which sported zero attack but four
defense. This made it very hard to destroy with my low cost cards. Her
two-coin Royal Archer could be zapped to destroy any one creature of
mine with a defense of two or less, causing it to be hard for me to
keep weaker creatures on the board.
To make matters worse, she had resources that could be used to
ready a zapped creature. So in one turn, she could zap her Royal Archer
to destroy a weak creature I had blocking her Soaring Eagle. The
Soaring Eagle would have a clear path to hunt and win a card. After
that, using a resource would ready the zapped Royal Archer to allow it
to attack or hunt.
Worst of all was Jammies power ups. One card would stun a foe
when a single ruby flipped. Another would allow her to destroy one
stunned creature when a single ruby flipped. It took me two tries, but
I beat her and made Ralsu level 14 and won some high tops.
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style="font-style: italic;">Get ready for a serious duel
with Jamiie. Her deck is for real!
Jammie explained that
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69748" target="_blank">Monty
Dozen has every dueling card ever made, including some he won
from her. She offered to hook me up with some cool cards if I could
convince him to give back hers.
Monty declared his collection complete and confessed that he
had moved on to a new collection: surf boards. If I would deliver his
yellow board from Delvin back on the beach, hed give me any extra
cards he had. Bringing the board to Monty also earned Ralsu level 15
and a heart t-shirt.
Jammie wanted to go out with one last hurrah and challenged me
to another duel using her cards as prize collateral. Id seen her best
cards the first time around and beat her more easily this time. Ralsu
became level 16 and received a duelists Order cap in addition to some
cool cards.
Settling the Feud
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Ari's
Giant Toad is the most devastating card you will encounter.
A note at the box of cards Jammie had found in the water
identified them as property of Ari the Fish. The note also claimed Ari
was giving up the game. It was time to return to where I had started
and get to the bottom of this dispute between the members of the old CC.
Seeing the cards convinced Ari to duel me once. Her Nature
deck had some powerful tricks, including the Bear Hug which added three
defense but would not allow her to destroy my creature if she won the
battle and the Ice Nova, which added three attack.
Ari also had an insanely powerful creature called Giant Toad.
Normally costing six coins, she could use Giant Toad to chase another
Animal for only four coins. This beast sported attack and defense of
seven, and its power up was crippling; a single yellow gem flipped
would stun all of my creatures and give her free hunting on her turn.
The only chance to win was to avoid the Giant Toad. Whenever
she played an Animal card early, I would destroy it as fast as possible
so that she would need the full six coins to play Giant Toad. When she
did finally play it, I kept the space opposite empty. Even being forced
to defend against Giant Toad could stun all of my creatures. It was
better to let her have free hunts in that space. Beating her brought
Ralsu to level 17 and got him a pair of orange-strapped flip flops.
Ari recognized that either I was very good or she was very
rusty. She agreed to send me to Maple with an apology if I could beat
her tournament deck. The battle was close, but I triumphed, gaining
level 18 and swimmer short sleeve shirt for Ralsu and a long overdue
apology for Maple.
The problem was that Ari wasnt sure where to find Maple. Her
latest intelligence suggested that Maple spent a lot of her time
dueling with Herme the Hermit north of Merry Vale, so I headed off to
find him.
Herme said Maple had asked him to screen her visitors. I could
only win the secret of her location in a duel. Herme didnt put up much
of a fight, though. His Nature deck didnt have much new in it. I beat
him soundly and he told me that Maple was headed to Farnum Farmstead
south of Crossroads. Ralsu hit level 19 and accepted some baggy jeans
for his victory.
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You'll
have to go through Herme to get to Maple.
When I found Maple, she was suspicious of the apology I
brought from Ari. To prove I had really beaten Ari in a duel, Id also
need to defeat Maple. Her Nature contained one thing I had not seen so
far, a Resource called Scatter Shot. This card would allow her to spend
a coin to destroy any creature opposite her hero. Maple relied heavily
on her four coin plants, but I could beat her in other squares. Once I
got my Ernie Hero on the board, the extra card he allowed Nature
creatures to flip in battles helped me prevail over Maples plants.
Ralsu reached level 20 as a card duelist and got a Robgoblin tee.
My play style reminded me of Aris and lent credibility to the
apology I had brought her. She finally came up with an idea to solve
the dispute between her and Ari for good: if I beat the tournament deck
Maple had used to topple Ari, the two could stop arguing over who was
better because Id be champ. I was one win away from ending the quarrel
of the CC.
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Can
you convince Maple to forgive Ari?
Parting Thoughts
I leveled Ralsu from one to twenty as a card duelist without
buying any virtual cards or subscribing to
style="font-style: italic;">Free Realms. Best
of all, I didnt have to grind once. Every battle was a part of the
story, and levels came quickly. The outcome is that card duelist is my
favorite job in Free
Realms. I look forward to continuing the quests and
unraveling more of the story.
I have purchased some of the physical
style="font-style: italic;">Free Realms trading
cards from a local retailer. Players get a Chaos deck in the starter
set and use booster packs to acquire new cards. Each deck comes with a
redeemable code for an in-game reward, usually a temporary power boost
or costume. Booster packs have a chance to contain cards that can be
unlocked in-game, too. I did not use any of those cards in the making
of this guide because I wanted to find out if a free player could level
to the cap.
Finally, I had leveled Ralsu to the cap for fun while working
on my Chef Guide, so I used a new character on my account to go through
the quests again and take notes. I discovered that all characters on
the same account can access all cards already in the accounts
collection. This meant I had access to hero cards won from the quest
lines earlier the second time. Again, I did not use this advantage in
making this guide.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Free Realms Game Page.
