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Progress cards - worth it?

Progress cards have a cost in terms of resources, opportunity, upkeep and reducing the number of cards in your deck>more reshuffles.

Is this cost paid back with interest? Is it worth preping them at all?

My feeling is the answer to this is no.

The only time they are useful is when you know in advance they will be useful. e.g. those that are of use in the dreamworld if you know you will clear dream or if you are retrying a failed dream/old dream.

But when you most need help i.e. facing a new dream with unknown challenges the best tactic for me seems to be just use them for their resource value.

What do you think? Awaken Realms > Be interested in your view on this.

11 comments

11 Comments

Oleg Volobujev

May 05, 2021

Peculiar state of acceleration!

If I have cost on progress card pay one yellow to move 2 times what happeb if I pay with a card which have 2 yellow? I can move 4 times or my second yellow is lost? Then I need to use on this progress effect only 1 yellow card which is bit of bummer….

brohlowd

May 05, 2021

Replying to

Your second one is lost , u can only use it once on a 1 yellow one .

Oleg Volobujev

May 05, 2021

Replying to

thank for answer.. Pretty bad card turn for me…..

Jeremy Erb

Feb 22, 2021

Progress cards have been extremely good in our group. i Play gambler and being able to use stroke of luck is sooooo good. I need to move 5? Well, let me move one, draw and discard, and then I get to randomly move two more now! it helps overcome costs on a regular basis. It gets better as decks get bigger in some ways so you don’t deck yourself too quick. I guess that’s offset by fewer “multi-color” cards in my deck. It also helps to make sure I always have a “gambler” card at the top of my deck for refills, which is awesome.

Minx

Jan 28, 2021

The Reaper progress cards are super valuable. You can one shot most Slumber entities with her as Slumbers have Night terrain and with the enhanced ranged progress card you can find a Night spot in Dreams and also hammer those Entities down. This uses the cards that turn shining gems into charges with each charge equating to 4 wrath. With a max of 4 charges, that is 16 wrath, which can then be doubled to 32! I also use the Specialist which has the nice unflip action and I have Builder, Shotgun, and the movement progress cards on him like Tony mentioned. There are a few more I just acquired and can't wait to try out, but they are definitely worth it more than for their intent.

Wauter

Jan 21, 2021

I don't know about other characters than the Reaper and the Specialist (which my GF plays with), but I can say for the Reaper that her Progress cards are very strong actually. One gives me a steady income of shining gems when I receive wounds (I had to add that my mask allows my max health to be increased by 2) and the other let's me double my red assault actions. Sure it needs to be flipped but my GF's Specialist can unflip it in a manner of seconds.

So far this team up has guided us through many dreams successfully and I'm not willing to part with my Progress cards. Oh, and the one I have that let's me add an extra key when receiving one is kind of nice to

Georgia King

Dec 22, 2020

Sometimes an item card lets you place a progress card for free.

brohlowd

Dec 18, 2020

I think it also depends how u play the game .

If u play as AR says u have to play u reset your deck after every session and i dont think it is .

If u save your game with like i and my misses do (not resetting your deck or gems or ethereal) it sure worth it .

https://www.etherfields-secrets.com/forum/other-rules-and-elements/saving-the-game-feels-wrong

bahzob

Dec 18, 2020

Thanks I'm playing as specialist. So at the start I prepped Progress cards a lot but then found that often I was not getting the benefit of them so all they were doing was costing intent/opportunity and thinning my deck which is always a bad thing in Etherfields especially at the start.

Problem is, as said, many are good but only in specific situations. And you don't know what situations you will face in advance. So even if you have some prepped and ready when you start a dream they may never be used.

So I just gave up on them and don't really feel there have been many times when I missed having them.

The BGG thread is not really very helpful I am afraid. I think one contributor thought you could cash in prepped progress for intent which ofc you cannot.

I was not convinced by the Awaken Realms argument that I can always used green intent to flip progress. I find it's almost always the case that there are better things to spend that on that give immediate payback in terms of progress,

Otherwise it's about the free spirt char.

I'd be interested in a specific example or two where going into a new dream with unknown challenges progress cards made a significant difference.

Tony

Dec 18, 2020

Replying to

I'm also playing the Specialist 😁. I always have at least 4 Progress cards out, so maybe I can talk a bit about some of what I do. I think some of this also depends on how you're building your character and what your group needs. To provide some context, we're only two players (my partner is playing Gambler), and we didn't really build our decks to be balanced. I went for a deck/time manipulation deck with extra movement; although, I haven't mapped out the distribution, I suspect that my deck is heavier in Green and probably weakest in Red.

The Progress cards that I always have out are at least one movement boost, Builder, Assistant, and Mechanical Shotgun. Since my deck is weakest in Red, the Builder and Mechanical Shotgun combo provides a pretty consistent supply. This is helped by the fact that I consistently use the Builder ability and because I built my deck around deck manipulation---I have several cards that let me reshuffle my deck and I have another card that lets me draw up a full hand. This build also gives some flexibility too as Builder can provide Shining Gems instead of charges. You may have noticed that I didn't mention Steam Bomb as one of my consistent cards. That's because, most of the time, when it's in my hand, I use Assistant to place it, and then immediately discard it for the 5 Red :D. That burst Red is so good!

The Specialist's Progress zone strength really comes from the Assistant card. I've probably only paid a card's standard Progress cost around 5 or so times. Assistant makes it very easy for me to change up my Progress zone (or rebuild it). And yup, I've used the Specialist unflip ability occasionally (I have a few cards that help me unflip too :D).

My other main Progress card staple is at least one movement boost. There's a Yellow Progress card with an ability that costs 1 Yellow (excess is lost, as usual) that lets your character move 2 spaces. I've found that super useful, and it combos with Mechanical Shotgun! I always have that Progress card out, but sometimes, I add in another movement one for additional flexibility. I have a Green Progress card that moves me spaces depending on how many cards I discard from my hand. This one combos well with Builder as I'm cycling through my deck faster. I don't always have this card out, but it's saved me a few times when I didn't have any Yellow Intent.

Every thing I described above (having Red and/or Shining Gems in reserve, movement boost) works for any Dream and Slumber and there's some nice synergy in the build.

As needed, I have some situational Progress cards. I always try to place out an Optimization after each Dream. I have a Progress card that helps me deal with Flaws, one that helps me earn Shining Gems during Slumbers, and one that lets me build up resources while in water spaces. Edit: Forgot to talk about the utility of the Assistant!

Tony

Dec 18, 2020

There was a thread on BGG a few weeks ago on this and Awaken Realms commented: Progress cards seem weak

In our experience (40 hours and completed about half the dreams), Progress cards are absolutely worth it.

Which character are you playing as?