Skylanders: Battlecast

Skylanders: Battlecast
Publisher(s):	Activision
Released:	May 24, 2016
Platform(s):	iOS Android Kindle Fire

Skylanders: Battlecast was a cards-to-life mobile game in the Skylanders series made by Beachhead Studios. It was available via the App Store, Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.

On June 30th 2017, it was announced that Battlecast would be shutting down on September 1st 2017.

Game Details

The game offers everything from collectibility to strategic card combat, online PvP and an exciting single-player campaign, appealing to both Skylanders fans and classic card battle enthusiasts. Skylanders Battlecast lets players create a team of their favorite heroes and build the ultimate deck for battle. Fans can master strategic card combinations to become a champion of Skylands.

Summary

Become the ultimate Battlecaster! The ever powerful Kaos has opened a rift into a mysterious world known as the Second Dimension. In this realm, he has dispatched the most infamous villains from Skylands in an attempt to finally destroy the Skylanders. Standard rules and conventional forms of battle do not apply in this dimension, so the Skylanders must use new powers, abilities, and tactics to defeat the villains and ultimately stop Kaos!

With all of its Elemental Realms captured, a new breed of hero is needed to lead the Skylanders and save the Second Dimension from being conquered by Kaos. It’s up to you to become a champion Battlecaster by collecting battle cards, building the ultimate team, and bringing them to life in epic battles never before seen!

List of Skylanders

Skylander		Element
	Countdown
	Crusher
	Eruptor
	Flashwing
	Food Fight
	Hex
	Hot Head Obsidian Hot Head
	Jawbreaker
	Jet-Vac
	Krypt King
	Ninjini
	Pop Fizz
	Prism Break
	Rip Tide
	Roller Brawl
	Smash Hit
	Snap Shot
	Sonic Boom
	Spitfire
	Spyro
	Stealth Elf
	Stormblade
	Tree Rex
	Trigger Happy High Noon Trigger Happy
	Wash Buckler
	Whirlwind

Key Features

Cards to Life

Skylanders: Battlecast is a mobile card battle game that takes physical cards and brings them to life. Players transport their characters into the game using the camera on their mobile device. Once the card is activated, the character can jump right into battle or participate in a minigame.

The Magic behind Cards-to-Life

The game features augmented reality technology available on selected mobile devices. Once a card is scanne, the character jumps from the card into the game and can be seen in real-life via 3D graphics.

Gameplay Variety

The game can be played solo or in player vs. player (PvP) mode. Players can battle the AI in a single plaer campaign or play another Battlecaster head-to-head. Modes include:

• Casual PvP Play: This is where casual plaers test new decks and just play for fun. Battlecast have the ability to test decks here without losing rank points.
• Friends List: Players can add and send direct challenges to friends with this feature, as well as keep their game in tip-top shape by honing skills together.

Card Collectibility

Portal Masters can build and upgrade their card collection through the purchase of Booster and Battle Packs:

• Battle Packs - Two versions will be available that each contains 22 cards, including three specific character cards.
• Booster Pack - The eight cards in the Booster Pack will give players a random selection of Character Cards, Spell Cards, Gear Cards, Relic Cards and a chance to collect rare gold and silver foil variants.

Card Groups

A full card set includes four main categories - character, cards, spell cards, relic card and gear cardsl additionally, there are five layers of collectability: Common, Rare, Epic, Ultimate and Foil versions.

• Character Cards - Select three of the 24 character cards to create your ultimate team to take into battle. Characters are avaialble from previous games in the franchise including Skylanders SuperChargers.
• Spell Cards - Enables Battlecasters to cast powerful spells to attack enemies, heal and more. Spells can be character-specific, element-specific or usable by any character.
• Gear Cards - Provides boost to character's stats or add an effect during the battle. Gear can be character-specific, element-specific or usable by any character.
• Relic Cards - Helps to change battle dynamics by adding a relic to the battleground. Relics can be attacked and character-specific, element-specific or usable by any character.

Decks and Customization

Players choose three Skylanders from their collected cards to build a 30-card deck. The game can either automatically create a deck for plaers, or they can choose to customize their own decks.

Strategic Card Combat

Battlecasters can build a team of three Skylanders - each providing different cards - to battle opponents of eight elementally aligned areas. Enemies are attacked using a variety of powerful cards in turn-based combat gameplay. Multiple layers of strategy make it easy for both casual players and strategically deep for hardcare players.

Favorite Characters and Attacks

The characters in Skylanders: Battlecast will be familiar to fans as they are from the Skylanders universe. Yet, players will enoy exploring the new twists, attacks and power-ups that these beloved characters will br ing to the game. The first cards included in the Skylanders: SuperChargers Starter Packs are fan favorites, Stealth Elf and Spitfire.

Gallery

Spitfire and Stealth Elf battle cards

Back of Battlecast cards

The loading screen of Skylanders: Battlecast

Booster Packs of Skylanders: Battlecast

The Rune circle used for cards and UI elements of the game.

A no WiFi error message, featuring Spyro art. After the game's shutdown, this message appears to anyone that still has the application.

Videos

Official Skylanders Battlecast Trailer

Skylanders Battlecast Gameplay Trailer – Mobile Card Battle Game

Trivia

• The game's Senior Producer is a known Hearthstone (another CCG from Activision) streamer on Twitch, Sancho9000 .
• Though it's only an easter egg, the player can poke the characters in the frontlines, and they'll react in annoyance, taunt, or try to shake you off.
• The Gulper, Luminous and Nightshade are the only Doom Raiders to not appear in this game. Instead, Chill Bill takes Gulper's position.
• Wash Buckler is the only member of the SWAP Force to appear in the game.
• Unlike in the console games, Roller Brawl is sleeveless which is similar to her prototype image.
• To prevent a player looking for a VS match from having no opponent, the game will make use of bots, named after Skylanders(including those not in the games) and a series of numbers. Other ways of telling them apart are in their actions, such as constantly looking through their card hand(unlike the slight lag against a human player), switching to the healthiest character at the expense of frontline effects, and prioritizing Special Abilities before any other card.
• The game has many scrapped villains as seen in full card art, including Threatpack, Mab Lobs and Bad Juju.
  • Other characters would also make their first appearances outside of their original game, such as several Lost Islands companions.
  • Mags is also shown to have a purple vehicle that was never seen before in any other game.
• Because of the cancellation of the game's development, its expansion was never completed and several cards were removed from the game before their full implementation; however, card art for two of the incomplete characters, Fiesta and Smolderdash, can be found in the galleries of the game's former artists.
• This was the shortest living Skylanders spin off game, lasting for only 1 1/4 years.

References

Games
Main series Spyro's Adventure - Giants - Swap Force - Trap Team - SuperChargers (Racing) - Imaginators Spin-offs Universe - Cloud Patrol - Lost Islands Battlegrounds - Battlecast - Ring of Heroes Miscellaneous Skylanders Collection Vault - Skylanders Creator