There are many things happening in the eXode universe currently. A lot of new information regarding the games different factions has been released in the last days. Today I'm going to highlight some new cards and the mechanics they introduce to the game. 

With Contract and Booster opening right around the corner I really can't wait to get my hands on some of these cards. In case you haven't heard about eXode I'd advise you to first read the articles analyzing their [games manifesto](https://www.publish0x.com/crypto-tcg/ive-read-exodes-game-manifesto-heres-what-i-think-xzorrw?a=5xe7r3Gd7r) or their [first playable Alpha version](https://www.publish0x.com/crypto-tcg/exode-releases-into-alpha-a-first-look-at-some-early-cards-xygrjl?a=5xe7r3Gd7r). You'll find all the basic information about the game there. In short words, eXode is a decision making game powered by the Hive blockchain. It's made up of a fast paced evacuation and more laid back colonization stage. The game is strongly focused on tradable cards that can enhance your playthrough in many ways. So without further ado, let's have a look at some of the new cards released!

## Weapons

The aptly named Judgment Day is a Heavy weapon that can be given to one of your crew or colony members. There are many things to be learned from this card so we'll go over everything in order.

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First off, weapons in eXode use a total of 4 stats - Power, Accuracy, Ammunition and Mags. While the first two where somewhat to be expected one way or the other, the second two are really interesting to me. There's a limit to how often a weapon can be used before it's running out of ammo. So you actually have to make sure that you are able to procure ammunition down the road by either buying it off the market or by producing it in your own colony. This helps to balance out the different designs and makes for some interesting decisions - do I bring a very powerful weapon that runs dry after a few shots or do I go with a more reliable gun that's not dealing tons of damage but can be used for a longer time?

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![50_Rekatron_rsdRifle_900.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmVbtjTabj64X5L1xisjHLBsXW5W8CWA24fZtsef3uo3Yt/50_Rekatron_rsdRifle_900.png)
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All weapons come with the Droppable and Upgradable traits. Any card that is Droppable can be burned in order to send a supply drop directly to a running colony. So you always have to decide whether it's worth doing so or not. A card is only burned if you are using it as a drop though. If you use it as an asset at the start of your evacuation it only goes on cooldown and can be used again in your next run.

Cards with the Upgradable trait can be boosted by burning additional copies of the same card. Everytime you burn a card you get to increase one of the cards key stats by +1. So when you upgrade a weapon you can choose to enhance its Power, Accuracy, Ammunition or Mags by one.

I think both burn mechanics are a clever design. First of all, this will help to limit the available supply of any given card, helping to retain its value. At the same time you get to do something interesting with additional copies. Instead of just having them sit in your collection, you can use them to enhance the card you actually play. This once again opens up some interesting decision making. Do you upgrade one weapon to the limit or do you go with several copies and upgrade them evenly? How many guns do you actually need and what are you going to upgrade first? More power? More ammunition?

Also, both perks work well together. You can always just burn a copy to send it to your colony, but that means you are most likely only going to send the basic version. Because honestly, you probably don't want to burn your enhanced copy you already invested dozens of additional cards to upgrade, do you? So consequently, there's an easy way to supply your colony with additional equipment but if you want the best stuff available, you'd better bring it with you in the evacuation.

## Ammunition

There's a second layer of cards to go along with your weapons: Ammunition. When handing out a gun to one of your troopers you can also choose the ammunition he should use. Every weapon is coming with its own ammo so this step is optional but it can obviously only help to bring specialized ammunition for the mission ahead.

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As you can see, the Autoguided Ammo doesn't have the Upgradable trait but it can still be dropped to colonies. Adding this ammunition to a weapon increases its accuracy by +8 and provides it with two additional mags. The same rules apply regarding Droppable: Assign it at the start of evacuation and it goes on cooldown, drop it to a colony and the copy is burned.


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Ammunition can come with many different effects. Most of them will increase one or several of the weapons key stats but they can also add additional keywords like Incendiary or Stopping Power to it. At first you'll probably only look for the ones with the biggest power boost but as the game gets more refined and offers more options to choose from this is only going to become more and more interesting. The more you know about the challenge ahead the more you need to think about what ammunition is going to be most suited for the job.

## Ships

I've already talked about ship cards in another article but quite a lot has happened on that front as well. Just today another interesting ship card was published by eXode so I want to share some insight on that card as well.


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We already know about the key stats for ships - Crew, Equipment Sets, Cargo and Passengers. What's new are the traits that ship offers. It comes with Synergies: Science (+1) increasing the quality level of all cards with the Scientific perk by +1. We've only seen this effect on The Kumicho so far, so this showcases that the synergy effect is not exclusive to faction leaders. I think it will be very interesting to see how many synergy cards we'll get for the different factions. If there are some options it might be possible to build some highly specialized crews made up of ordinary characters that get a huge boost to their quality level from several synergistic cards.

Another very cool concept this card features is that it requires the Genetician origin to be used. That's pretty interesting, because there is no Genetician origin released so far. This shows that there have to be other ways to gain an origin perk than by just picking the corresponding origin. The obvious combination to go with is Scientific Genetician but assuming we'll see more options down the road, we could also have fun combinations like Criminal Genetician. Being able to mix different origin will allow for some very interesting builds down to road.

## Conclusion

All I can say is that I'm really thrilled about eXode and the more I learn about it the more I get hyped about everything. It'll be a long way to go and implementing everything envisioned by the developer will probably take years. If you prefer to only eat the cake instead of touring the cake factory first it's probably too early to jump onboard but if you enjoy being part of the journey from the very start then now is the perfect time to join the eXode universe.

As I really like eXode and want to help it grow its community I'm doing a little referral incentive program. All you need to play the game is an origin pack which is currently sold at 8$ each. If you join using my [referral link](https://exodegame.com/?ref=5ea4142) you'll get 2 boosters for free from eXode and I'll send an additional booster your way. Each booster contains 5 random cards chosen from more than 200 unique cards in the Alpha collection. They are currently sold at 2$ each. 

As always, thank you all for reading and please let me know what you think about the game in the comments. See you all next time.