How to play Brainrot Arena: Card Duel

The goal

Knock down towers to win crowns. Each side has two Princess towers and one King tower.

• A Princess tower is worth 1 crown.
• The King tower is worth 3 crowns and ends the battle on the spot: an instant win.
• When the clock runs out, more crowns wins. Take one Princess tower and lose none, and you win 1-0.

The King tower starts asleep. It wakes up when it gets hit or when one of your Princess towers falls, and from then on it shoots too. Waking the enemy King early by accident gives your opponent a free extra defender.

The arena

The arena has two lanes split by a river, with a bridge in each lane. Each player defends three towers on their own half. Troops and buildings deploy on your half; spells can land anywhere. Taking a Princess tower opens up that lane: from then on you can deploy deeper into it.

Aura (your elixir)

Aura is what cards cost; it works like elixir in other games of the genre. You start a battle with 5 Aura, gain 1 every 2.8 s and top out at 10. In the last minute it flows twice as fast, 1 every 1.4 s.

The in-game coach puts the most important rule in five words: a full bar wastes Aura. Every second you sit at 10 is Aura you will never get back, so spend before you cap, even if it is just a cheap card in the back.

Deck and hand

Your deck is 8 cards. 4 of them are in your hand, and the next card waits beside it. When you play a card, the next one slides into your hand and the card you played goes to the back of the queue, so it comes back after you play four other cards. Cheap cards make that cycle faster, which is how you get back to your best card sooner. A deck full of 6- and 7-Aura cards hits hard but leaves you waiting with nothing to play, so most decks mix a couple of big cards with several cheap ones.

You can save up to 5 decks and switch between them before a battle.

Card types

Every card is one of three types:

• Troops walk and fight. They deploy on your side of the arena.
• Buildings stay where you put them, to defend, lure attackers or spawn more troops. They deploy on your side too.
• Spells land anywhere on the arena, instantly.

Troops and buildings take 1 second to deploy, except La Vaca Saturno Saturnita, who needs 3. Each troop also has a targeting rule. Some hit ground targets only, some hit air and ground, and some go for buildings only and walk straight past your troops. Ground-only troops can't touch flyers, so every deck needs an answer to air.

Cards fill roles. A good deck covers most of them:

• Tank, a big body that soaks tower fire: La Vaca Saturno Saturnita.
• Win condition, the card that actually takes towers: Bombardiro Crocodilo.
• Mini-tank, sturdy and cheap enough to defend and counter-push: Tung Tung Tung Sahur.
• Splash, damage to everything around the target: Ballerina Cappuccina.
• Swarm, many cheap bodies: Trippi Troppi.
• Cycle, a cheap card that keeps your hand moving: Chimpanzini Bananini.
• Spells, a small one for swarms and a big one for everything else: Tric Trac Baraboom and Pizza Bomba.
• Defensive building, to pull attackers off your tower: Pot Hotspot.

Match timing

• 3:00 of regulation. The last 1:00 runs on double Aura.
• Sudden-death overtime if crowns are tied: up to 2:00 more, and the first crown wins. Aura flows three times as fast in its last minute.
• Tiebreak. If nobody scores in overtime, the side whose weakest standing tower has more hitpoints left wins. If those are equal too, the battle is a draw.

The starter deck and how to pilot it

Every new account gets the same eight cards, at an average of 4.1 Aura:

• 4Tung Tung Tung Sahur
• 4Tralalero Tralala
• 7Bombardiro Crocodilo
• 5Ballerina Cappuccina
• 2Trulimero Trulicina
• 3Tric Trac Baraboom
• 4Rhino Toasterino
• 4Pizza Bomba

The plan is simple. Defend first: Tung Tung Tung Sahur or Tralalero Tralala stop ground pushes, Trulimero Trulicina covers the air, and Tric Trac Baraboom deletes swarms. Counter-push with what survives: Tralalero swims the river, so a surviving shark is pressure right away.

Save Bombardiro Crocodilo for when you can support him. At 7 Aura he is your biggest commitment. Drop him at the back when you are ahead on Aura or when double Aura starts, then follow with Ballerina Cappuccina or Tung to clear the defenders under him. Rhino Toasterino is your answer to big tanks, since his cuts heat up on one target, and Pizza Bomba is for clumps of shooters or the last few hundred hitpoints of a tower.

7 beginner tips

1. Defend, then counter-push. Troops that survive a defense are a cheap push your opponent has to answer.
2. Never sit at 10 Aura. A full bar wastes Aura.
3. Save a small spell for swarms. If you spend Tric Trac Baraboom early, Trippi Troppi and Bone Horde get free hits.
4. Use buildings to pull building-hunters. A building in the middle of your side drags them away from your tower and under fire from both.
5. Answer air with anti-air. Ground-only troops just stand under a Bombardiro Crocodilo. Count your anti-air before a battle.
6. Punish big spends in the other lane. When your opponent drops a 7-Aura card, they are broke for a while. Push the opposite lane.
7. Learn each card's twist. Every card does one thing nothing else does. The card list has a one-line note for each.

Progression

Ladder battles win or lose trophies, and trophies move you through 10 arenas. Each new arena unlocks new cards. Practice battles against a bot never cost trophies.

• Win Boxes for ladder wins. Open them right away; there are no unlock timers.
• Card levels up to 15. Upgrades cost copies of the card plus gold.
• King level rises with the battles you play.
• Daily quests, a 7-day login calendar, the Aura Farm trophy road and a daily shop.
• 5 deck slots, a leaderboard, a battle log and emotes.
• Practice mode against a bot, whenever you want to try a deck.

Your account

You start as a guest, no sign-up needed. Link your account to Game Center to get your progress back on a new iPhone. You can delete your account from Settings at any time. Brainrot Arena needs an internet connection: every battle, Practice included, runs online.