Flames and Fortune Game Review

Flames and Fortune Game Background

Flames and Fortune is a card game styled after a dungeon-crawling role-playing game developed by RavalMatic. Here, you play as the Pyro-Paladin, a knight trying to make his way out of a perilous, monster-infested dungeon. To survive, draw and use the right sequence of spell, shield, and weapon cards to kill monsters.

The game was inspired by Card Crawl.

How to Play Flames and Fortune

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers. On the welcome screen, select Play at the bottom right corner to begin. The game will begin with a tutorial describing how the game works.

To deploy spell, shield, treasure, and potion cards, select them from the deck and drag them to either hand slot. You can also save any of these cards and the potion cards by dragging and dropping them to the backpack slot. To dispose of cards you have on the inventory, drag and drop them into the treasure chest at the bottom right corner of the screen.

To deploy cards on hand, drag them to either the enemy monster card, the Pyro-Paladin, or to either of the hands. Each card, including the Pyro-Paladin, has a number. Spell, shield, and monster card numbers indicate their attack strength or hit points, while the number in coin cards reflect their value.

Basic Gameplay Advice

The game starts by dealing 4 cards. The game will deal new cards only if you’ve used 3 cards.

To attack, drag and drop the spell card onto the enemies. Enemies will lose attack or hit points based on the strength of the spell card. Spell cards are seldom powerful enough to take out monster cards on their own, but they will whittle down their attack strength and make them easier to beat. Be warned that a spell card can only be used against enemies once.

To use the shield, drag the enemy card toward it. The shield’s hit points will cover some of the enemy’s attack, while the Pyro-Paladin will soak up the rest. You can also drag monsters directly to the Pyro-Paladin at the center of the screen, though it will cost him his hit points. Do this sparingly and only if you have potions available to heal you. If the Pyro-Paladin loses all his hit points, you lose the game.

Collectibles refer to cards that are collected when dropped on the hands (or, in the case of coin cards, the backpack). These include potions, which boost the Paladin’s health, and coins, which are added to your inventory. Coin cards must be collected by hand or the backpack to deposit their value in your inventory; if they are dragged into the treasure chest, they lose their value. Potion, shield, and spell cards dropped at the treasure chest, however, will be converted into coins. Collectible cards, once used, will remain on hand until the game generates 3 more cards.

You must clear all 54 cards to escape with the treasure and win the game. If you lose, you get to keep all of the coins you’ve managed to collect until the end.

If you haven’t selected any of the cards, you have the chance to skip the current hand at the cost of the Paladin’s hit points. It starts off costing 5 hit points the first time, then costs 7 the second time and 9 the third. You can also still use a skip if you use a spell card on hand on a monster, provided that the monster does not die. Only do this if you’re certain that there’s no way to use the hand.

Special cards appear at random in the deck and have many helpful uses. Check the table below to learn more about them and when they are unlocked. In-game, you can learn more about the cards by selecting the progress bar on the bottom center of the welcome screen and opening the special card screen. You can also learn about individual cards by selecting and holding them to open their tooltip text. Unlock special cards by buying them on the special card screen.

Achievements are a collection of actions done a specific number of times. Reaching an achievement gives you a cash prize, which can go a long way in helping you unlock the special cards faster. View your achievement progress by selecting the achievements button on the bottom right corner of the welcome screen.

Select Next at the bottom center of the end screen to return to the welcome screen. From there, you can start a new session.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

There are two important things to remember when playing this game:

• Store high-value health potions whenever you can.
• Fight off monsters first before replenishing your health.

Storing items in your backpack allows them to be used at a later time. Potions are some of the best items to store as they become important during monster battles. That being said, the order with which you use the potions is important to consider. If you run out of spells and shields, use your own hit points to soak up the damage as much as you can before using the potions. Try to bring down your hit points to just 1 before refilling your health bar; remember, you can only replenish up to 13 hit points, so any beyond that number is just a waste.

Skipping, while costly, can be your unexpected ally in this game. Although we don’t encourage its use in the early game, there are times when, like in Poker, you should know when to fold them. Ideally, you should only skip in situations where you can’t progress without ending the game, such as when there are too many strong monsters and no way to attack them. You can also use a skip if you end up with 3 or 4 bags of gold and your inventory is otherwise full.

There are points where the game, through sheer mischance, ends with no way for you to win. Rather than restart, we recommend that you play till the bitter end and lose. Win or lose, you keep all the coins you’ve collected.

Miscellaneous Tips

Spell cards are rare, and you cannot get them back once you use them. In most circumstances, it would be wasteful to attack a monster that is weaker than the spell card. Consider matching the spell cards with monsters that match or exceed their attack value to make the most of them. Likewise, spell cards are more useful than shield cards throughout gameplay. If you must choose which one to discard between these two, choose the shield.

Some cards—special cards in particular—require a bit of clever thinking to use them to their fullest. Deflection cards, for instance, work on all the cards. Before using them, use up every non-monster card to ensure that the effect hits a monster. Meanwhile, use the Pyroclast cards on stronger monsters. When using the Ultimate Card, wait until your health points are as low as possible to attack, then replenish your health once you’ve used it.

If you find yourself stuck (i.e. after using two collectibles and still having cards left to draw), consider selling or shedding the cards you have on hand. Prioritize lower-value cards over the higher ones. You’ll need them more.

Remember: This game is not timed. Take your time and analyze each possible move you have before making it.

Educational Aspects

This game teaches players careful strategy, resource management, and understanding the value of trade offs. Players don’t always get the best card choices outright and must find a way to make the most of the hands they’re dealt with. By providing some benefit to losing, the game also shows players that taking an inevitable loss can sometimes have its own rewards.

Player Age Recommendations

This player is suited for older school-aged children, teenagers, and adults. We recommend this game for fans of card shedding games and dungeon-crawling role-playing fantasy games.