Cross the Ages Beginner’s Guide: How to Play the NFT Card-Battler

Cross the Ages is a free-to-play, mobile-first card game that lets users mint their cards as NFTs. If you’re looking for a collectible card game (CCG) with a focus on deck-building and strategy, then this Web3 game is for you.

Forget everything that Hearthstone taught you—this digital card game is unlike any you’ve played before. So here’s a quick guide to help you pick up the game faster and jump right in.

What is Cross the Ages?

Cross the Ages is based in a fantasy world where you enter battle with a deck of cards with the aim of defeating the enemy. You can currently play Cross the Ages online either in normal or ranked mode, with practice and tournament modes “coming soon” as of this writing.

When you first start the game, you’re given a base deck to begin playing with. You’ll slowly unlock new cards as you progress through the game. These cards can later be minted onto the Immutable X blockchain, an Ethereum scaling network.

Every card has a power level, which dictates whether or not it will take control of another card on the battlefield. It’s not a simple calculation, however, as every card also has an element which will increase or decrease its power based on what card it is attacking.

What platforms is it on?

Cross the Ages is primarily meant to be played on a mobile device. Available on both iOS and Android. That said, the fantasy card battler can also be played on Windows and Mac computers or laptops. Cross the Ages is currently on the Immutable X blockchain after migrating from Polygon in 2022.

Do I need NFTs to play?

No, you do not need NFTs to play Cross the Ages. The multiplayer card game’s NFT features are completely optional and do not give players an unfair advantage. You can play Cross the Ages completely free and never interact with the blockchain or use a crypto wallet.

How do I mint cards as NFTs?

First, you’ll want to level your card up using trisel—an in-game currency earned by playing games—in the crafting section of the game. Leveling up your card makes it stronger, thus better to mint as an NFT. You do not need to level it up, but it is a clever move to do so before minting.

Once you want to mint your Cross the Ages card, you must pay $1 using the game’s native token, CTA. When you open a game account, an in-game hot wallet is created for you and the NFT is delivered to this wallet—you can find your seed phrase for this wallet through this link.

You can also use shards to mint NFTs or redeem digital cards. For example, you can trade 20 ruby shards for one exclusive ruby card. These are more rare, and shards are currently only obtained through the Mint Pass or Tokyo Chest.

How do I play Cross the Ages?

Cross the Ages is a very complex collectible card game. We won’t cover every element and strategy in the game, but we’ll get you equipped for your first few games.

As previously mentioned, the power level of a card dictates whether it’ll take control of another card on the battlefield. Each card has an element, and you must use the “heptagram” to see if the card you are placing is more or less powerful against the card you intend to attack.

For example, if you have a nature card, it will have an additional 150 power when attacking an earth card. You can tell this because of the green line connecting the two on the heptagram. However, if it was attacking a fire card, it would have 150 less power as shown by the red line. This is the basic concept that underpins the game.

Next you have affinities and trinities to master. An affinity is shown by the purple line, and this gives cards an additional 100 power if they are next to each other and controlled by the same player. 

A trinity takes this one step further. If you are in control of three cards that are next to each other on the heptagram (i.e. air, nature, and earth), then you will gain an extra 100 power for each card, along with additional points to win the game.

You gain points by controlling cards and having trinities on the board. You win the game by reaching 65 points, having the most points when the board is filled, or when your opponent’s timer runs out.

Each turn, you can discard a card to draw another, play a field card (which boosts a certain element), or play a battle card—this will end your turn.

Cross the Ages equips you with lots of tools to dominate your opponent in online multiplayer. Master deck building, card synergies, and in-depth strategies to begin climbing the ranks.