Hello, Primateria Community!
Our Open Playtest is back with a new build! Last time the focus was the tournament system, and your feedback on brackets, decks and matches shaped what came next. This build adds a new Campaign mode, a smarter AI, new cards, new art and a lot of fixes!
As before, the playtest is open to everyone!
New Campaign Mode
The main feature of this build is the new Campaign, where you build yourself up over a series of matches:
- Pick a starter deck and take your first steps into the Primateria world.
- Play matches to earn gold, then spend it on packs to strengthen your deck.
- Win tournaments to unlock bigger ones, from small brackets up to the largest events.
Tell us how the pacing feels!
New Hard Difficulty
If the AI was too easy for you, there is now a Hard difficulty. It plans ahead, sets up over several moves and pulls off much more complex combos. Let us know if it caught you off guard!
More Opponents
Every deck you face was built by another player, and we imported the players and decks from the last playtest, so the pool is much bigger now and there is a lot more variety in what comes at you, at every difficulty.
New Cards
Five new cards join the set in this build:
- Shadow of Thee
- By Thy Mercy
- Thou Art Slain
- Abiogenesis
- Crystal Creator
This very special card and artwork were inspired by one of our most dedicated players, CristalCreation! Their idea directly gave birth to new card and its effect. This kind of dedication to the game and presence in our community is something we are incredibly happy to see!
New Artwork
This build also brings new artwork for Necromancer, Ozhar, Birth of the Kraken, Painful Exchange, Heart of Varu and Impostor.
We have also sneakily introduce a new feaoture to The Gallery. It now lets you inspect the full art of any card!
Card Changes and Balancing Updates
Several cards were adjusted based on how they played in the last playtest:
Buffed
- The Cultist: now reads “up to”, so you can play a single token even when you only have one space available.
- Sticky Garnets: can now be played from your hand by its own effect (and by other cards), not just from the deck.
- The Compeller: can now activate without needing an extra space in your arena.
Nerfed
- Divine Gauntlet: now discarded after activation, similar to Naran’s Breastplate. As a reusable level 1 it was too oppressive, especially alongside high level cards that are hard to answer. Each copy is now a single use, though some combos still allow reuse if you put the work in.
Adjusted
- Asora, Paragon of Humans: the effect now reads “for each card […], this card attacks once without binding” instead of “for each card […] +1, this card attacks”. The number of attacks is the same (the last one now happens during the battle phase), the wording is just clearer.
Quality of Life and Other Improvements
- Mana preview: hovering the mana button shows the cards inside it, so you don’t need to click.
- Mana shapes: the mana number was replaced with shapes, since newer players were confusing it with the card’s level.
- Legendary filter: new Legendary category filter and icon in the Gallery and the deck editor.
- Tournament scenes: each tournament size (4/8/16/32/64) now has its own 3D scene, sized to fit.
- Randomized arenas: the arena background is now picked at random instead of always being the same one.
- Unfinished decks: the deck editor now lets you save invalid decks, so you can start an idea and finish it later.
- No more interruptions: the AI pauses while you are hovering a card, so you can read it.
- NPC dialogs: various adjustments.
- Many bug fixes.
Visual Improvements to Models
The 3D models got a pass of their own in this build:
- Low poly experimentation: we are trying out a low poly style for the models, aiming for a cleaner, more readable look that sits better next to the card art.
- Color improvements: colors were reworked across the models so they better contrast with other elements.
- Sharper rendering: the rendering was adjusted so models come out sharper, as to follow on the general PS2 style we really love.
This direction is still an experiment, so tell us how the new look feels in-game!
Feedback and Bug Reports
Everything in this build is early and subject to change, and your feedback is what decides what we keep, fix or rework. Campaign is new, so we are especially interested in how the progression treats you.
The best place to reach us is Discord. Join our Discord to report bugs, share your runs or talk strategy with the team.
Final Words
Thanks for testing and reporting. The last playtest gave us plenty to work with, and this build is what came out of it. Start a campaign and let us know how far you get.
You can also follow us on Instagram @yfritgames, find us on Bluesky, or reach out through www.yfrit.com.
Thank you for playing, Yfrit Team