Scrolls Vs Hearthstone

We have both played Scrolls since Alpha, and have been playing Hearthstone for a few months. Many people have asked us how the two games differ, and since this cannot be answered simply, we have provided an honest and fair comparison below.

Gameplay

This is where Hearthstone and Scrolls differ greatly. Hearthstone’s gameplay is quick, ruthless and unforgiving. There is much back and forth between players and games can end in a matter of minutes if things go badly, on average games last about 10-15 minutes. The fast pace of the game adds to the excitement as a game can turn around very quickly and different tactics need to be deployed.

Scrolls on the other hand, feels more like a game of chess. There is tactical movement involved, which requires a lot of thinking (and sometimes a lot of mathematical calculation). Then there are 5 idols to destroy, a game of Scrolls with two well matched players can take on average between 20-30 minutes, with my longest game reaching well over an hour.

Thus we may assume that Hearthstone is geared more towards ‘casual’ gamers, although I hate using that term.  We have read people describing Hearthstone as a more ‘dumbed down’ version of magic. However, we never felt that this was really fair given the complexity of some of the cards in the game (such as breaking out awesome Rogue combos). I would also like to make clear that Hearthstone is not ‘easy’ and even seasoned TCG players will enjoy the different aspects of Hearthstone.

When it comes to Scrolls though, no one has ever called it ‘dumbed down’ and in fact has sometimes steered too far into the ‘too complex’ zone.  It can be difficult to understand how some Scrolls work due to the complicated wording, and newly introduced Scrolls sometimes end up being abused in ways not originally intended (no thanks to certain Youtubers :P). However, credit has to be given to Mojang who work hard to quickly fix any known issues (which leads me to my next point..)

Development

One of the reasons why we became so attached to Scrolls was due to the heavy involvement from the development team at Mojang. They were extremely interactive with the community throughout alpha and now beta. This made players really feel like they were shaping a game for the players and not just to make money. The downside however, is the length of time it took to develop the game. The beta release was pushed back continuously, which was frustrating – especially for the Alpha players who couldn’t wait for some ‘fresh blood’. Once the beta release hit, it was a long time before new cards were released on a regular basis. 

This is perhaps where Hearthstone is strongest. With the artwork pretty much copy/pasted, there wasn’t much work for Blizzard to get on with. Therefore a huge collection of cards were already available to players. However, there is one very big BUT here. Hearthstone feels EXTEMELY ‘pay to win’ (We will elaborate on this later).

Cost

As mentioned previously, while Hearthstone is a free game at the moment – it’s actually very ‘pay to win’. The reason for this, is ultimately down to the fact that there is no trading whatsoever. Cards can be unlocked through packs, which are bought from in game gold, or real money. In game gold can be obtained by winning matches against players (not AI) and completing daily quests (such as win 3 games as a Rogue). Cards can also be ‘disenchanted’ to get dust, which can then be used to craft new cards. Unfortunately, cards are disenchanted at 1/4 of what it takes to make a card on an equal level, which is a very steep cost. It all leads down a terribly ugly and expensive cycle. I have come to a point in Hearthstone where I actually cannot progress any further in ranked due to not having as many legendry’s as other players.

To win in-game gold you need to win games, to win games you need good cards. To get good cards you need packs, for packs you need ….gold ! (see where I’m going with this?). Eventually you will get sick of having your ass kicked by players and succumb to the £1.99 charge for 2 packs. But to your horror, you have unlocked zero cards for that fancy Mage deck you’re building and have a load of Priest cards you don’t know what to do with. This would have been easily resolved with trading, but Blizzard have kindly taken that right away from you.

Scrolls is currently priced at around £12.95 and trading is available. You can earn gold from playing against the AI or others players, completing trials and getting achievements. You can also sell your spare cards for gold to other players. Meaning that new scrolls are never too far out of your reach. While Scrolls does have a pay aspect in the form of shards, these limit you to the scrolls available in your store only – and these change every 3 days. So ‘pay to win’ is definitely not an issue here.

Drafting

Drafting is a core concept within TCGs and a fun game mode, but the drafting style of hearthstone is a bit restrictive. You’re locked into picking your class from a choice of 3, which are randomly generated from the pool of 9.  This can be damning at times if you haven’t practiced with all classes, as you need a good understanding of key cards and strategies for every class so you can plan your draft deck accordingly.

Scrolls on the other hand, lets you build any faction deck you wish, should you choose to, being able to plan ahead by seeing what’s in the next few packs you will open. Once your class is selected in Hearthstone, you will then be given neutral cards to choose from and class specific cards with a set amount of rares/legendry’s/epics thrown in, your opponents will have had the same range of rarity in cards as well. Scrolls picks can be a tad punishing as scrolls that are rare for standard games are often not as useful at all in draft, but commons such as ‘Charge Coil’ suddenly become very powerful within the draft format and the variety in decks decreases as there starts to become a very clear ‘pick on sight’ list.

So whilst hearthstone is restrictive in class, it does ensure everyone is on more of an equal playing field, Scrolls gives your more freedom of choice in what deck you wish to play but unfortunately you can end up on an unfair playing field with some commons being very powerful in this format.

Conclusion

Both Hearthstone and Scrolls have their pros and cons, but at the end of the day it all comes down to which game you enjoy playing more. I like the fast pace of Hearthstone, how easy it is to get into and that the premade decks are actually good. But after reaching a point where we have to keep paying money to get any further, my interest in this game has rapidly decreased.

Thinking about it, both myself and Durr haven’t played Scrolls in at least a few months (probably more), but every time we try to come back to it we feel like it’s not as easy to come back to. It also feels more difficult to make your own deck and there often seems to be a big meta which players have to try and fit into. However, there are thankfully a lot of YouTube videos and helpful players willing to help, which is why I’m now considering brushing off the dust and giving Scrolls another go.

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Rust: The Ultimate Survival Test

 

Rust is a true test of survival skills, not just from cold, hunger and the occasional zombie attack. But also from players in a ruthless, unforgiving world. You wake up in rust with only a pair of jeans (or completely naked if you turn the censor off), a rock, a few bandages and a torch. Your aim, to survive, can only be achieved by harvesting food and materials. Eventually, you can manage to build yourself a shelter and fire to cook with (all the time worrying if someone is going to come along and blow it all to smithereens).
 

You can craft basic weapons from wood and stone which is easy to collect, but more advanced weapons require blueprints. Once studied, you will have the ability to craft the weapon as much as you want – provided you have the materials. The other way to get them, is to kill zombies, raid storage boxes, or steal them from other players. There are players in the game who will seek out new players and kill them just for fun. Unfortunately in the current state of the game there is nothing stopping them from doing this and no negative consequences.

This makes it difficult for single players to establish themselves early on if they are on a high populated server. Your only hope is to attempt to survive with a group of friends, or join another group. Although most groups kill on sight, probably from fear of being attacked. The hardest part of Rust is the beginning stage, even finding your friends is a challenge as the map is huge and filled with dangers. Your best part is to use the ‘suicide’ command until you spwan near to a landmark which you can use as a meet-up point.

Once you have formed a mighty fortress, your aim is to protect it with your life. You can craft sleeping bags which allow you to set a spawn point and you can hide away all your loot in storage boxes. Most players will be inside during the night as it is mostly pitch black, this is arguably the safest time to go outside as there will be fewer players. Although be wary of using any light source which will make you can easy target for night time lurkers. Eventually you will encounter other bases on the server, and it may end up in a full blown out war. The main lesson you need to learn from Rust, is don’t get too attached to anything you own and you will be fine.

 

 

If you die in Rust, you will lose all the items you had on you and it will be free loot for anyone standing near your corpse. And if someone is nice enough to blow a hole in your house with C4 (as I have experienced) you can always prepare for this by giving them the ultimate middle finger – dropping all your best loot on the floor so it despwans and they get nothing.

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