Your first duel · quick guide
Start with Practice Bot
Use your starter deck and follow the battlefield tutorial before joining a live Duel.
Read energy and cards
Energy pays a card's cost. Units stay on the field; spells resolve effects; traps react to their conditions. Inspect a card to read its complete effects.
Choose attacker, then target
Select a ready unit, then a highlighted enemy. Guard may restrict targets. Select the enemy Hero for a direct attack and confirm; the server decides the actual result.
Finish your turn
Play and attack in the order you choose, then press End Turn. Reduce the enemy Hero's health to zero. Keep an eye on the turn timer.
Build and review
Deck Builder tells you whether your deck is ready. You can try your own draft cards in a personal Sandbox with no match rewards. New or changed cards still need review before normal play.
Earn and personalize
Play and complete Missions for Credits. Claim Daily rewards, view Achievements, collect Inbox items and equip them in Profile. AP is prestige, not money.
AI and fair play
Free players can analyze and explain cards. VIP unlocks creative assistance and cosmetic benefits. AI suggestions require validation; VIP and currencies never increase combat power.
On a phone, scroll inside the battlefield to reach your hand. Five field slots stay aligned. You can hide the combat log in Settings without removing match records. The battle menu contains language, motion, music, leave and surrender.
If you leave accidentally, reopen Play and use Rejoin while the match is active. Leaving does not pause the opponent or the turn timer.
Open Player Home →Rules and policy content can be versioned by the authorised operator. The deployed business must publish its complete legal identity and official contact details before commercial launch.
1. Scope, operator and authority
Arcane Nexus is operated under the supervision of Relconn. These readable rules accompany the executable ruleset; if the interface and server result differ, the validated server state controls. Active matches keep their pinned version even after a later balance update.
2. Objective and match start
Reduce the opposing hero to zero health in a deterministic turn-based Duel 1v1. An online duel starts only after both players confirm READY. Each player then receives one private Mulligan selection before turn one.
3. Deck construction and entry checks
A legal deck contains exactly 30 cards, at most three copies of a non-Legendary card, at most one copy of each Legendary card and no more than six cards in the 651–800 high-power band. Public Standard Deck Weight is at most 15,000; Ranked Deck Weight is at most 14,500. The server calculates card rarity and checks the active deck again before each match. Deck Readiness explains which cards need attention.
- A player may add their own approved cards and built-in system cards. Another creator's card cannot be added to a playable deck, even if it is publicly visible.
- Disabled or missing cards make a deck unready; your deck record stays in place so you can fix it.
4. Turns, zones and resources
The opening hand is five cards and the hand limit is ten. Energy starts at one, increases by one at the start of each of your turns and caps at ten. You normally draw one card at your turn start. Overdraw goes to the Graveyard; drawing from an empty deck deals increasing Fatigue damage.
- Zones are Deck, Hand, Field, Graveyard and Exile.
- Each side has five Unit slots and three Trap slots.
- Cards require sufficient Energy and a legal target before the server accepts the action.
5. Units, Spells, Traps and special mechanics
Units remain on the Field and may attack when their state allows. Units may have one supported keyword: Barrier blocks the next damage instance, Lifesteal heals the hero by actual combat damage dealt, and Rush may attack a Unit on the turn it enters but not the opposing hero. Spells may Silence, Exile, Transform or Summon Arcane Wisp tokens. Traps may react to an enemy attack or Counter an enemy Spell. Guard units must be cleared before a direct hero strike; attacking the hero requires explicit confirmation.
6. Card creation, rarity, balance and review
Creators may choose original names, lore, eligible artwork, card type, one supported Unit keyword and up to two supported effects. The server calculates Energy cost and rarity from the card's actual gameplay; the player cannot set them to bypass balance. For new Unit designs, HP is at most 12, ATK at most 20, and ATK × HP at most 120. The hard Design Budget limit is 800 and the recommended range is at most 650. Other balance limits also apply; the card editor explains any errors. Previously approved cards keep their approved values until a replacement is approved.
- JavaScript, scripts, executable commands, unknown keys and self-processing logic are forbidden.
- Infinite loops, one-turn kills without a supported counter and attempts to expose private data are prohibited.
- Validator, Balance Check and Admin Review must pass before a version can enter eligible pools.
- GIF, frames and Motion are presentation only and never change authoritative gameplay.
7. Approved versions and your personal Sandbox
A new card or changed version needs review before normal play. If your approved V1 is followed by a pending or rejected V2, V1 remains playable. Once a later version is approved, new matches use that approved version. Matches already underway keep the card details they started with.
You may try your own draft or pending card in a personal Sandbox against the practice bot if it passes the safety rules. Sandbox cannot use another creator's draft, enter Public or Ranked play, or award normal match rewards or progress.
8. Timer, timeout and match endings
Each turn allows 75 seconds and warns at 15 seconds. A timeout ends the current turn. Two consecutive timeouts or three total timeouts by one player surrender that match. Hero defeat, manual surrender and the 100-turn cap are terminal and are finalised exactly once. Intentionally disconnecting to manipulate a result is prohibited.
9. Modes, Ranked and rewards
Practice Bot, Public Standard, Ranked and Private Invite are enabled. Team 2v2 and FFA4 remain Coming Soon and disabled until complete rules and implementation are released. Ranked uses the stricter deck-weight limit; rating or reward corrections may occur when a confirmed exploit, duplicate settlement or administrative error affected the result.
10. Showing or hiding the combat log
In Settings, you may hide the combat log during a match and your match-history page. Turning this option off only hides these views; match events and past results remain stored. Turn it on again to see your history. Hiding the log does not pause or change gameplay.
11. Fair play, UGC conduct and enforcement
Bots, automation, exploits, collusion, packet manipulation, reward farming, impersonation, harassment, illegal content and intellectual-property or privacy violations are prohibited. Reports do not automatically create a strike: evidence is reviewed and Admin decisions are audited. Content may be held or removed and accounts may be restricted or suspended, with an appeal route where appropriate.
Profile covers and rank card frames
The shop may offer profile covers and rank card frames uploaded, reviewed and priced by administrators. After purchase, claim the item in Inbox and select it in your profile. Choose None to hide it without losing ownership. Covers and frames appear on your profile and leaderboard cards; they do not change MMR, rank, matchmaking or combat power. Animated items require active VIP to equip. When VIP expires, equipped items use a still image and remain owned. Reduced-motion settings also show still images.
12. VIP, payments and rule changes
VIP changes presentation, storage and approved cosmetics only; it gives no combat, matchmaking or Ranked advantage. Credits and virtual entitlements have no cash value and cannot be withdrawn. Future rule or balance changes create a new version and do not silently rewrite historical matches. Material changes are published with an effective date through the service.
English is the default service text. If a translation differs in meaning, the English text controls, without reducing mandatory rights under applicable law.