Dreaming Dimension: Deck Heroes is currently in early access, but it doesn’t stop the game from delivering a full and fleshed out experience. You might have played card games on your phone before, but assuredly, nothing like this. The game is free with in-app purchases, but they aren’t required to enjoy the experience.
Basically how Dreaming Dimension works is your hero moves around a maze of tiles until they uncover an enemy or a bonus area. Bonus areas can be utilized to purchase upgrades for your cards or additional cards, but enemies don’t have to be fought right away.
You will eventually have to defeat them all to give you access to fight the boss and finish the floor, though.
You start the game with only one class of hero, a Gladiator. The Gladiator has the ability to use the color of cards to enhance the effects of additional cards played from the same color. Gladiators also have the ability to inflict fear in enemies when you damage them, which will cause them to drop one of their own cards once the meter is full.
Battles are fought in turns, and you can see a general idea of what your enemy is about to do to you (attack or defend) as an icon above their head before it’s your turn. You have energy gems that you use to play cards, each card having a particular cost that needs to be paid before you’re able to use it.
Shields and attacks are the majority of what combat is all about, with ensuring you have enough shield power to stop their attack and finding ways to take theirs down before you whack them with your weapon being your main focus. Shields disappear each turn, so you have to play your cards and abilities carefully.
Equipping the right cards that work with the rest of the deck is essential to creating a strong fighter, and cards that have zero cost to use can quickly turn the tide of battle. Bosses, while typically having more HP and hitting for more damage, follow the same rules as the other monsters you’ve already been fighting.
Bosses do, however, take longer to fight, so you need to find a way to refill your HP, if you can, before fighting them and use your precious coins to buy the best weapons to bring to the battle.
After earning enough in-game currency, you can unlock and try out another one of the many types of heroes, each one with its own talents that you can utilize against your foes. In-app purchases make this process instant, but it’s much more enjoyable to just play and earn the other heroes naturally.
Speaking of in-app purchases and ads, they are definitely offered everywhere you turn in this game. I have not come across any ads that play automatically during gameplay, which is a major relief.
I can also confirm that you can successfully play the game for many hours without sinking any money into it if you wish, as I personally haven’t spent a dime and have enjoyed it tremendously.
For free, Dreaming Dimension: Deck Heroes can’t be beaten. It’s a fresh new roguelike that is sure to provide you with hours and hours of manic, fun gameplay. It may have borrowed a lot of gameplay from the insanely popular card battler, Slay the Spire, but considering it’s not currently available for Android, I will take what I can get.