Ludography
69/100
Players27 ratings
80/100
Critics2 reviews
Player reviews
73% positive15,066 reviews
Steam Deck
Playable
Runs on
Windows, Mac

Where to get it

Shadowverse cover

2016 · Cygames · Board game · Card game

Shadowverse

"Shadowverse: the next evolution in collectible card games!

Released
17 June 2016
Platforms
AndroidWindowsiOSmacOS
Genres
Board gameCard gameRole-playingStrategyTurn-based strategy
Developers
Cygames
Publishers
—
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Fantasy
Country
Japan
Age ratings
PEGI 12ESRB T
Languages
Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish (Spain)

About

Shadowverse is a digital collectible card game with a free-to-play business model that is developed and published by Cygames. It was released for iOS and Android devices in June 2016. macOS and Windows versions were released in October 2016. The original Shadowverse game ended service on June 30, 2026.

Shadowverse employs an anime art style with some illustrations reused from the developer's previous title, Rage of Bahamut, an earlier digital collectible card game released in 2012. The game has been compared favorably with Hearthstone (2014), a difference being that Cygames sought to minimize the impact of randomness on match outcomes. Another difference is Shadowverse's "Evolve" game mechanic which allows players to grant played cards bonus stats and effects at the cost of an evolution point.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Shadowverse matches are structured between two players taking turns playing cards from their deck. Each player is represented by a Leader with 20 defense and a starting hand of three cards. The player going first has two evolution points, and the player going second has three evolution points, can evolve one turn earlier, and draws an extra card at the player's first turn. g.

Enstatued Seraph or a Victory Card by playing Spartacus). Each player utilizes the Play Point resource to play cards. Both players begin at having zero play point orbs, and gain one play point orb at the beginning of the respective player's turn, up to a limit of 10. Play Point orbs are refilled at the beginning of each player's turn.

Development

New sets are added to Shadowverse at a regular interval of three months. The game launched with an initial set of Basic cards that were automatically added to new accounts or earned through the story mode, and the Standard set (now called Classic) obtained from card packs. Additionally, a number of promotional cards have been released, which were obtainable through varying methods. These cards are cosmetic replacements for existing cards; they do not have a unique gameplay function. Once every three months, one card set will be out of rotation due to the arrival of a new card set.

Starting from the Dawnbreak, Nightedge expansion, Cygames has been releasing additional mini-expansions in between each normal expansion release; these mini-expansions contain a new gold card for all eight classes and a new legendary card for all classes with the exception of Neutral. Once a mini-expansion releases, the cards from that mini-expansion are available to open in the packs of the most recent set that came before them. Just like any other cards from the regular expansions, the mini-expansion cards can also be crafted with vials.

Reception

According to Super Data in its 2017 report, Shadowverse earned over US$100 million in revenue by 2017.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
AndroidOffline17 June 2016Worldwide · Australia 17 June 2016 · Worldwide 30 June 2026
iOSOffline17 June 2016Worldwide · Worldwide 30 June 2026
WindowsOffline1 August 2016Japan · Europe 27 October 2016 · Worldwide 28 October 2016 · Worldwide 30 June 2026
macOSOffline28 October 2016Worldwide · Worldwide 30 June 2026

Editions and related releases

Derivative works
Shadowverse
Expansions
Shadowverse: Wonderland Dreams

Games like this

Collections4 collections

Publishers

  • CygamesGames developed › Mobile/web browser games
  • CygamesGames developed › Console/PC games

Years

Features

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.