One outstanding feature that hasn’t been talked about enough in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the amount of minigames the game provides to keep the game fresh. And when players look towards minigames, Queen’s Blood pops into mind first.
Queen’s Blood is a card game played on a checker’s board where you must conquer more territory and triumph over your opponent. However, that is easier said than done, especially before you know how to play. This article will serve as a basis for everything you need to know about Queen’s Blood in FFVII Rebirth.
Queen’s Blood – The Basics
Queen’s Blood is played on a 3×5 checkerboard with two players starting on either side. With the cards in hand, you must move towards your opponent’s side by placing troops and capturing territory. As you place down troops in a lane, you receive points accordingly. At the end of the match, whoever wins a lane receives the points they’ve accumulated in that lane.
However, the goal isn’t to just win lanes. The winner is determined by who has the most points. Usually, this will be the person who won 2/3 lanes, but if you play your cards right, you can win the game by winning a single lane. Both players start with a deck of 15 cards with varying attributes.
The unique part about Queen’s Blood is the availability of space to deploy your troops. Players can only set up in the first vertical column closest to them. Each card has a particular grid pattern that will unlock once it is placed on the board. Your following cards can only be played on grid squares you’ve unlocked with existing cards. This makes tactical placement extremely important in Queen’s Blood because only the person who has more power in a particular lane receives points from that lane.
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When Does Queen’s Blood Become Available?
Queen’s Blood is unlocked for players somewhere at the beginning of Chapter 2. As you progress, you’ll unlock stronger cards you can use for deck building and advance up the ranks. Since this is a minigame, it isn’t mandatory to play Queen’s Blood.
However, you’ll need to participate in a tournament in Chapter 5 and some particular matches in Chapter 6 in order to progress in the main quest line. Now let’s move on to how to get better at Queen’s Blood.
Beginner Tips for Queen’s Blood
The way you play Queen’s Blood is totally up to you considering it is a minigame but these few tips will greatly increase your rate of progress so we’d recommend following along. The game is entirely based on the cards you have, so a bigger collection of cards means better decks. That brings us to tip number 1, card acquisition.
Check Every Shop for Cards
Shops are littered all through the map in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and regardless of whether you’re looking to play Queen’s Blood or not, it is always beneficial to buy booster packs from these shops if you find them. You won’t find cards in every shop you check but some general stores as well as some specialised vendors do sell booster packs for Queen’s Blood.
The downside of buying these, especially if you’re not interested in the minigame, will be the lack of currency for other items. But if you ever decide to play it, you’ll be glad you bought these. Once you’re out of the early game, card acquisition is extremely slow, getting one card per win (If there’s a Queen’s Blood quest available).
Starter and Pre-Built Decks
In most games, it is advised to get off the starter deck as soon as you can since they’re very basic and easily countered decks. That isn’t the case in FFVII Rebirth’s Queen’s Blood though as the starter deck provides players with a nice, balanced mix of cards. This might be because, in Chapter 5, players must participate in a Queen’s Blood tournament even if they haven’t played the minigame beforehand.
The point is, there’s no shame in sticking with the starter deck as it can definitely help you a lot. Next comes pre-built decks. Pre-built decks are also a great way to get going, especially if you haven’t gotten hang of the game yet.
If you can’t find the option for pre-built decks, here’s how to find them:
- Go to the “Card Decks” option from the Pause menu.
- Press the triangle button on any deck slot to go to card selection.
- You’ll see a prompt at the bottom of your screen to “Craft Pre-Built Decks” by pressing the PS5’s start button.
- As you progress through the game and grow your card collection, you’ll have access to more pre-built decks.
Positioning Is Key
We already mentioned this above but we really can’t stress this enough, positioning is key in Queen’s Blood. Randomly throwing down powerful cards without a strategy in mind will only get you so far in the game. While there are times when overloading the board with powerful cards can intimidate the opponent, opponents can easily counter these strategies the further you progress.
You should always look at the cards you have in your hand as well as the ones remaining in your deck. Plan accordingly since there are only 15 spaces on the board and your opponent will be gunning for at least half of them. Also, while cards can’t exactly attack enemy cards, you need to be careful of enfeeblement destruction.
Enfeeblement is a debuff where a player can reduce the power of an enemy card on the board. Once the card’s power hits 0, it will automatically be destroyed, opening up a space on the board. This is something you need to be cautious of and why we really focus on having a strategy before placing your cards.
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Replacement Cards Can Win Games
Unlike card games like Marvel Snap and Legends of Runeterra, FFVII’s Queen’s Blood has the concept of replacement cards. These are basically non-specific upgrade cards you can place on top of existing units on the map. Replacement cards are a great way to turn the tide of the game in an instant since you can first place lower power cards to occupy spaces on the board and simply upgrade them into higher power cards later on (Given they don’t get destroyed first).
If you’re wondering what’s the point of destroying an existing card to place another one, it is because lower power cards have better grid unlock positions meaning they’re easier to set up in the early game. If you go for higher power cards initially, your opponent will easily be able to beat you by occupying spaces initially and then upgrading their cards to take you out.
Using replacement cards with buffs and debuffs can really throw your opponent off guard since you’ll not only be raising your own power but also decreasing theirs.
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The Takeaway
Queen’s Blood is a super fun minigame added into FFVII by Square Enix so players don’t get bored of the main storyline. With the option to return at a later time, you can play the game at your own pace and don’t need to worry about losing or hindering your progress.
Just make sure you follow these tips otherwise you might be stuck at Chapters 5 and 6 for a while, trying to clear those battles.