Faeria review for Switch

Faeria mixes collectible card games with a hex board for the ultimate single-player card game. Read our review for more.

Do you like deck-building card games, but hate how toxic the online communities can be? Faeria is the perfect game for people who hate the gambling card packs aspects of these games.

The game costs an upfront price for the base game and players unlock all cards through gameplay. Here’s our review of Faeria on Switch.

  • Genre: Deck-building hex strategy
  • Price: $19.99
  • Developer: Abrakam Entertainment
  • Publisher: Versus Evil

Concept

Faeria is billed as a deck building game with true strategy involved. That’s mostly true, since you can dominate the battlefield by claiming spots of land. The idea is to expand enough to give yourself breathing room and the right combination of lands to summon your most powerful cards.

Faeria review on Switch

The developers periodically release new DLC expansions as a means to support the game. Unlike Hearthstone and Eternal, there are no card packs and boosters to buy. All cards in Faeria are unlocked through gameplay. Switch owners who buy the game within 30 days of reIease will receive $47 worth of DLC for free. More on that later.

Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Gameplay

Faeria combines the tactical positioning of hex-based strategy games with Hearthstone-inspired deck building. There are four unique types of land and one neutral land file. Lands like mountains, lakes, deserts, and forests are needed to summon certain unit types.

Battles are turn-based with four power wells in each corner of the hex grid. This layout encourages rapid expansion and conflict to dominate the power flow. Players earn XP for each enemy they defeat.

Faeria chest unlock cards

New cards are unlocked by defeating enemies and completing daily quests to earn chests. Chests contain five new cards that will never be duplicates. That means there are a finite number of chests you can open in the game.

Faeria Review – Game Modes

Faeria World Bosses

Solo game options include and Adventure story full of missions to complete. World Bosses, puzzles, Dragon’s Lair, and even Oversky are great ways to earn and unlock new cards.

  • Missions – Beginner-friendly way to begin expanding your card collection.
  • Oversky – Co-op campaign to play with a friend or an AI companion. Essentially a 2v1 mode.
  • World Bosses – Challenging deck – building puzzles designed for advanced players with more complete decks.
  • Dragon’s Lair – Daily challenges with random battle conditions. 1 solo and 1 co-op match available per day.
  • Practice – A way to test decks against an AI opponent. These matches grant no experience or daily quest rewards.
  • Casual – Multiplayer queue.
  • Ranked – Multiplayer queue.
  • Pandora – Draft mode where players make a deck of 30 cards, including three Pandora-specific treasures. Costs chests to play, which you can earn from your daily quests.
  • Puzzles – The puzzles in Faeria start off as a great tutorial to introduce some of the game’s mechanics. These puzzles quickly evolve into challenging brainteasers to defeat.

Faeria includes a crafting component on a timer. Every six hours you unlock a crafting charge that can be used. Players can store up to six charges at once. These crafting charges can be used to craft any non-legendary card for the cost of one charge.

Faeria deck building CCG

There is a small but dedicated community for the game’s PVP mode. It takes anywhere from 1-3 minutes to find a match. Pandora Mode has longer match times, typically 3-5 minutes. It’s completely possible to play online with other Faeria players on the game’s official Discord.

Faeria Review – Crossplay & DLC Details

Faeria is crossplay with PC, Xbox, and Switch. The player population may see a boost with the game’s launch on Switch. Switch players who buy the game within the first 30 days after launch will get $47 of DLC for free.

  • Premium Edition DLC
  • Orbs DLC
  • Wells DLC
  • Avatars DLC
  • Cardbacks DLC

After 30 days, these DLC pieces will be sold at full price in the eShop. These free packs offer an XP bonus and many free cosmetics that are otherwise unlockable through gameplay.

Access to expansion packs with cards was not provided for this Faeria review on Switch, so I cannot comment on their balance.

Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Graphics and Audio

The cards and boards that you battle on have that Hearthstone inspired look. The boards are varied enough and fun to look at.

Card art has a painted look to it, similar to other CCGs in the genre. The real treat of playing Faeria is listening to the relaxing soundtrack.

The soundtrack of Faeria is one of my favorite parts of the game. It’s high-fantasy inspired, something you expect to hear while journeying through World of Warcraft.Unfortunately, it’s not available on any streaming service outside of YouTube.

Rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Switch Port

Sometimes during a match, the game will lag slightly before executing an action. The developers are working on a day-one patch to address these early issues.

Crossplay with players on other platforms works well. You’ll see a PC icon or a controller icon to signify which device the player is on. There is no platform difference between Xbox, Switch, and PS4 players.



Conclusion

I like Faeria’s approach to expansion packs, rather than making the game free-to-play. Being able to earn all the base cards from gameplay is refreshing in this genre. Once you buy an expansion pack, you can begin unlocking those cards through gameplay, too.

I really love the combination of controlling a hex board with a deck of units. Faeria features plenty of units that can turn the tide of battle by changing the landscape.

The best single-player deck-building strategy hybrid since Slay the Spire.

Final Rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

TL /DR – Faeria Review for Switch

Most of the content in Faeria is intended to be enjoyed as a singleplayer experience against AI, or with a co-op partner. That’s not to say the multiplayer community for Faeria doesn’t exist, but it’s not the center feature. While playing Faeria for this review on Switch, it feels like Hearthstone and Settlers of Catan had a baby.


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